Ok, so I use the vodfone CC billing system for my prepay intermittantly,

however chatting to my little sister today lead to me discovering something which has made me most unhappy with vodafone.

She regularly uses her credit card to pay for her on-account vodafone bill,

generally this is fine, however the last time it came due, she tried to pay, but the CC online payments system was having errors,
and then when she rang the Customer help line, they were saying she had to ring the CC online payments section, which was then telling her it wasn't currently available.

so she kept trying, and because she didn't pay her bill on time, Vodafone charged her  a late fee.

She has then been in touch with vodafone several times saying she's happy to pay her bill, but not the late fee because she was trying to pay and it was their system that was stopping her,

so they responded with disconnected her phone until its paid in full.

having spent too much time around businesses, I can understand the twisted logic - yes she could have arranged to pay it at the post office, or she could have done it via internet banking, etc.

but at the same time, where is the customer service?? she kept notes on when she rang.

surely they can afford to refund the late fee,

surely just on the principal that they offer a number of choices for bill payment, and when the chosen method is unavalible for a period, those that have that method as their chosen way to pay their bill should be afforded some flexibility when it is Vodafones problem not the customers that lead to the bill being paid late!

I know there isn't that much that is forum worthy above, but I wondered if anyone else has had a similar problem with vodafone lately - either the problems with CC payment system going down,

or where the've just proven how terrible their customer service is + what was done (if anything) to resolve the situation satisfactorily (I'm not looking for a bash vodafone thread here)