Fair Go: Woman endures five month battle with Vodafone to cancel account in late husband’s name

Three years ago Deborah Scheib lost her husband Brendon in a work accident, following which she had to change a number of accounts from Brendon’s name into hers.

For some, including the Vodafone account, she had to provide a Death Certificate. Early this year, Deborah decided to drop Sky from her Vodafone package, and was told she had to open a new account.

Somehow, Vodafone got it terribly wrong and started billing Brendon every month, as well as separately billing Deborah. They even sent a letter claiming to have had a phone call from him.

Deborah has been fighting for over five months – through phone calls and emails - to try and get Vodafone to cancel the account and stop this painful reminder, every month, of her loss.

Vodafone accepts that they have they have fallen short on customer care, and apologise for any inconvenience and distress they have caused with what they describe as “clerical and system errors”.

They have assured Deborah she will receive no further communication from them in Brendon’s name.