Vodafone customers have been wrongly billed for thousands of pounds following a serious technical blunder.
Many of the network's customers who are travelling overseas have reported receiving texts which claimed they've exceeded their data allowance and will face having their service suspended until a full payment is made.
Some customers claim to have been wrongly billed as much as £5,000.
According to Vodafone, the technical glitch which caused the error has now been resolved, and the network says it is working to fix the incorrect billing messages as 'an urgent priority'. Vodafone has confirmed that customers who have been incorrectly billed will not be charged.
Taking to Twitter, several customers expressed their disdain over having been wrongly charged.
"Been charged £5k for c200mb data in Malta last night. I’ve been here a week and used probably 10gig without a problem. Tried calling Vodafone this afternoon and after an hour my network has been cut off! So can’t even contact you. HELP," said one.
Another added: "Old mans bill from @VodafoneUK . Apparently there is a fault with global data roaming ... probably wouldn’t have been as much of a shock to him if they sent out a message telling folk there was a fault. #vodafone my contract is up in 48 days ... think it’s time for a new provider."
Responding to the glitch, a spokesperson for Vodafone said: "We are very sorry that yesterday, some customers could not use data or calling services when roaming abroad. This was due to a technical error, which we have now fixed. Any affected customer should restart their phone to ensure that services are resumed.
"As a result of the issue, some customers are receiving billing messages in error – we are working through these as an urgent priority and removing any errors from customer accounts. Customers will not be charged and do not need to worry about contacting us as we are proactively checking accounts and fixing any issues."
To make a compensation claim, you'll need to head to Vodafone's website where you can kickstart the complaints procedure.
If you've received a large bill which you weren't expecting and want to clarify whether or not it's because of an error, you can contact Vodafone customer services on 0808 040 8408.
