In our local paper last week Single mum Alison Turner is taking one of the country's biggest banks to court for allegedly harassing her about her overdraft.In what is expected to be a ground-breaking case, Ms... Hope link works Enjoy

Hi, I'd appreciate advice from others who have had similar experiences with Vodafone, and am also hoping Lee the Vodafone Rep may be able to intervene and/or offer advice. I opened a Vodafone account in June 2011. My calls and text usage was always well below the plan I was paying for. In August 2012 I received a sales call out of the blue offering me a new phone. I was under the impression I was agreeing to an upgrade, and agreed to increase my DD by £10 per month for a Smart phone to replace my Blackberry. They sent me the new phone and it transpired I had been sold a whole new contract for a second phone, line rental, the lot, which I did not need. When I queried it and asked why I had been approached when clearly I didn't need a second phone, I was told it was a special offer which I could use for a member of the family. I had a young relative just starting college so I offered the new phone to him. It seemed worth it for £10 per month. However, he ran up the bill well over the monthly limit and he didn't reimburse me with the money. I came to an agreement with Vodafone to pay the bill of £120 in instalments. I went on holiday for a week and whilst still abroad my own phone was disconnected. The bill on my own phone was fully paid up to date but my phone was disconnected because the payment on the second phone was late. And so began a catalogue of bullying and punitive behaviour by Vodafone who flatly refused to see reason or to negotiate a reasonable agreement. I had no written contract and had never been told that the two contracts were linked, ie, that if one was unpaid they would disconnect the other. On my own phone the only service I was getting was incoming texts and incoming calls but I was still receiving bills for the entire package, ie, line rental, minutes, texts and data usage. I protested this because I was not getting the services they were charging me for. Again the (previously unwritten) contract was quoted which Vodafone interpreted in their favour, but to me clearly stated that I should be paying for the package of services received. As I wasn't receiving the package of services then I refused to pay the full amount. I offered to pay a reduced amount for the service I was receiving, ie, incoming calls and texts but this was refused. After this "stand-off" for a couple of months I offered to repay in full the debt on the second phone but would not pay for the services not received on the first phone. The services on the first phone were then disconnected entirely, not at my request, Vodafone took the decision themselves, then they sent me the bill for the remainder of the contract which was another 6 months. They were trying to extort (for extortion is what it is) over £600 out of me for a debt of £120. I wrote to the MD and the CEO, neither of whom responded. I eventually reached someone in the Directors office who refused to reach an agreement to settle this issue and restore my account. This all happened in January-March 2013 and 2 years later I am still suffering losses because Vodafone posted a default notice on my credit record. I am unable to obtain a mortgage so have to continue paying rent. I have been unable to re-mortgage my buy-to-let property, thereby paying more interest than I need to. I cannot obtain a credit card; I am having to pay more for a car leasing agreement because of the credit record. It just goes on and on. To me this is a total abuse of power on Vodafone's part. Instead of trying to reach an agreement with me they have literally punished me for not giving in to their unreasonable demands. In my view they breached my contract with them. I have spoken to the Credit Reference Agency, Credit Call, who've advised me to write to the Ombudsman, which I'm in the process of doing. However, even if I were to pay the amount Vodafone are attempting to extort from me, it would be noted as "settled" on my Credit record and would still affect my credit rating for 6 years. Furthermore, I'm told by Credit Call that Vodafone will be fined £400 for every complaint that goes to the Ombudsman so I really don't understand why they can't just take a commercial decision and reach an agreement to settle with me, in return for removing the default notice altogether. It's a ridiculous situation, totally out of proportion to the "offence". Six years is a longer sentence than someone would receive for assaulting someone! I'm just waiting for the letter of deadlock so I can write to the Ombudsman but if there's anything else I could be doing, please advise. Many thanks Denfar