Vodafone fined £4.6m over failing to top up credit on pay-as-you go customers
Ofcom hit the phone giant with the multi-million pound fine - the biggest ever handed to a telecoms provider
VODAFONE has been fined £4.6 million for breaking customer rules - the biggest ever fine given to a telecoms firm.
The regulator, Ofcom, said that Vodafone had misled pay-as-you-go customers, charging them for top-up credit but not providing a service.
It also found that Vodafone had broken rules on handling customer complaints.
Vodafone said that it "deeply" regretted its mistakes and apologised to customers.
The industry watchdog launched two probes into the network over eighteen months and raised concerns about the way customer's disputes were handled.
One found that it failed to credit pay-as-you-go customers when they topped up - this affected just over 10,000 customers.
It paid back the vast majority of customers, who collectively lost £150,000 over a 17-month period, Ofcom said.
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A second investigation found that the firm had broken rules about how it deals with complaints.
This included its customer service staff having "insufficient and ambiguous" to deal with complaints and that the firm did not properly follow rules on how problems should be dealt with.
All of the £4.6 million fine goes to the Treasury and the company also made a £100,000 donation to a number of UK charities.
Earlier this year Vodafone was caught up in an alleged scam that saw customers out of pocket for hundreds of pounds after hours-long foreign calls mysteriously appeared on their bills.
The Sun Online spoke to a number of customers who were forced to pay up to ten times more than their usual bill amount for calls they insist they never made.
WHEN DID THE PROBLEMS HAPPEN?
Vodafone broke a number of rules to do with the way it topped up credit for pay-as-you-go customers and dealt with complaints. The problems with pay-as-you-go customers happened between December 2013 and April 2015. The complaints handing issues date back to January 2014 to November last year. Ofcom then investigated the problems earlier this year.
The scam was part of an industry wide problem that Ofcom and other providers are working on to stop.
Lindsey Fussell, consumer group director at Ofcom, said: “Vodafone’s failings were serious and unacceptable, and these fines send a clear warning to all telecoms companies.
“Phone services are a vital part of people’s lives, and we expect all customers to be treated fairly and in good faith. We will not hesitate to investigate and fine those who break the rules.”
A spokesman for Vodafone said: "We deeply regret these system and process failures. We are completely focused on serving our customers: everyone who works for us is expected to do their utmost to meet our customers' needs, day after day, and act quickly and efficiently if something goes wrong.
"It is clear from Ofcom's findings that we did not do that often enough or well enough on a number of occasions. We offer our profound apologies to anyone affected by these errors."
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