Mobile Phone Bill Not Payed Since 28.09.2015

[Jackcharlie]

Unknown to me my wife allowed my stepson to get amobile in her name paid for by dd out of his bank account.he stopped paying the bills in 2015 but kept the phone an kept using it as it was never turned(my wife did not know and since he had the same number thought all was well)now out of the blue vodaphone have sent a bill 16 monthslater demanding full payment for the 16month usage i would have thought that after a month our so of no payments the phone would of been turned off or blocked.vodaphone are saying it must of got lost in there system somehow.surely some the blame must lie with them as well as my stepson for allowing the phone to be used for so long with out being payed.please help...

[bednobs]

i don't really get it. Why didn't your stepson get the phone in his own name if he is paying?
is it because he's too young? In any case, as far as i can see from your posting, your wife is responsible for the bills, not vodaphone

[Jackcharlie]

He had bad credit..

[ummmm]

Not really. Vodafone made an error, humans make errors, as did your son when he stopped paying his bill and not mentioning it to his mum.

[bednobs]

and now your wife does too.

[Old_Geezer]

I'm no legal expert but I'm unsurprised he has bad credit if he doesn't pay his mobile bill for 16 months.

I think the company are likely to be within their rights to demand payments but you could point out that it was up to their system to cut it off and since they didn't they share responsibility; in the hope that they might reduce the bill as a admission/gesture. But I think you would be relying on wanting to protect their good name and seem the nice guys.

I doubt if you have any right to being let off. If that doesn't work maybe suggest that as the bill was allowed to build up for 16 months they ought to allow regular payments to pay it off over at least the same length period; and keep your fingers crossed.