Vodafone has been slapped with a massive £4.6 million fine by Britain’s telecom watchdog Ofcom after it was found to be in breach of consumer protection rules.
The large fine marks the end of two major investigations by the watchdog which found that Vodafone was mishandling customer complaints while also failing to credit the accounts of over 10,000 pay-as-you-go customers who had topped up their accounts.
These breaches reportedly took place between January 2014 and November 2015 and then December 2013 and April 2015, respectively.
Ofcom consumer group director Lindsey Fussell said: “Vodafone’s failings were serious and unacceptable, and these fines send a clear warning to all telecoms companies.”
The fine must be paid to Ofcom within 20 working days, and the money will be passed to the Treasury.
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.”
The company said it has fully refunded or recredited more than 10,422 customers an average of £14.35 each, and has made a £100,000 donation to “a number of UK charities” in lieu of being able to track down the remaining affected customers.