Crusader Crossed lines over mobiles
IT’S a happy return to credit for a couple whose simple act of sending back unwanted mobile phones saddled them with alarming debt threats. Carly and Andy Harriss bought two iPhones in August last year from Vodafone.
The contracts, however, arrived afterwards – and the couple thought they differed from what had been agreed verbally – prompting them to pull out of the deal.
As this was within the cooling- off period there was no problem and they duly returned the two handsets by recorded delivery in a package sent by the operator.
Job done, they thought. Only it wasn’t. Because in December the Harrisses received a final payment demand for £ 624.99 for the cost of one of the phones.
“We called Vodafone and explained about the recorded delivery and how both handsets were in the same parcel,” says Andy. “We were relieved in January when they said the amount had been cancelled and the account had a zero balance.” But the problem reared up again two weeks later when they got another demand from a debt collector saying they now owed £ 718.
Once again their fear was dispelled when they were assured the debt collector would be informed they owed nothing. But then the pattern repeated itself and risked spiralling out of control, Andy told Crusader.
“We kept on hearing that our account was clear and confirmation of that would be sent to the debt agency. But then the collector must have posted our alleged non- payment on some register as another shop where we have an account suspended taking any new orders from us.
“It looked like we were starting to be blacklisted, which was awful.”
Getting any company and its debt collector to wipe off a demand can sometimes be one hell of a hill for an innocent customer to climb.
However, after we took their case to Vodafone it quickly established the package with the two handsets had been mistakenly registered as just one return, triggering the early termination fee for the other device.
The company sent the couple a £ 100 goodwill gesture for the problems they’d had and have now sent the confirmation needed for the debt collection agency.
“While the gesture was welcome as it did compensate for all the calls we made, it was removing the mark on our credit record that mattered most,” says Andy.
“We are so relieved to be back to normal and thank Crusader for sticking with our case until every aspect was dealt with.”