Hi, I've been a long standing customer of Vodafone on a monthly contract; roughly 13 years to be exact. The tariff I was on I was happy with - it wasn't expensive, the allowances were not high but I didn't use it much so it worked well for both of us; I rarely went over my allowances. I was checking over my bank statements a couple of months ago and imagine my surprise and shock to notice that they had increased the monthly contract service charge (the amount you pay each month regardless of how much your usage is) by a massive amount - roughly 480% and that this had been going on for quite some time. I contacted them to query this on 191 on 1st August 2013 and got put through to someone in India? (I've got records of all of the names, dates, times, calls and durations as evidence), I was on the phone for over 30 minutes to be told in the end that apparently they had sent me a text message some months ago telling me about the increase - I'd never received this. The reference number of the call was 1094456517 and I had to wait for a callback, the person that called me back reiterated the same. I wanted to take the complaint further and was told I'd have to be called back by an Operations Manager. I called cancellations to get my PAC as I'd have to be mad to stay with Vodafone with the new monthly contract service charge they wanted, and other packages were not competitive either - funnily enough this was the only point in this whole saga that I got to speak to someone from the UK who promptly issued my PAC! When the guys from India called me back I was doing grocery shopping and it wasn't convenient so we arranged another callback which unfortunately wasn't kept. I then emailed through the complaints section of the Vodafone website which promised that the complaint would go to the office of 'Mark Bond, Customer Operations Director' where "a team of dedicated customer relations specialists will look after it at every step of the process until it's resolved". I provided a description of what had happened so far, clearly requesting again that an official complaint be opened and a reference number for this be provided, a refund of the approximate amount or thereabouts that in excess of what I should have been charged on my original monthly contract service charge and a response in writing to my postal address. I then received another call from India basically again reiterating the same old story, again I said I didn't agree with this and wanted to open an official complaint, they need to put their final position in writing so I can go to the Ombudsman, I was on the phone for 16 minutes this time to be told that he needed to review the complaint with his manager and if I still wasn't happy they would then send a letter! I was pretty fed up by this point so I looked up the Direct Debit Guarantee - Vodafone had increased the monthly direct debit without informing me of the fact, so I found I was well within my rights to claim the money back through my bank which is what I then did. They could only claim the full amounts. I then received another email from India again reiterating the same old story, nothing about a letter! I replied to the email but changed the address to customerenquiries@help.vodafone.co.uk as the bottom of the other email said it wasn't an actively monitored mailbox - this was on 18th August 2013, by this time I'd received all of the money back through the Direct Debit Guarantee so I informed them of this and invited them to let me know how much I should have been charged on my original monthly contract service charge before they put the price up without telling me, and I'd pay this and we could consider the matter closed. I had a auto response confirming that my email had been received and would be dealt with within 24 hours - I never received a response to date! Repeat, *no* official complaint reference number, *no* final position or 'deadlock' letter in writing - how can Vodafone get away with this?! I got a bill later on for the last couple of days I was with them before I transferred my number - this was paid later via Direct Debit as I'd left it active - I then cancelled my Direct Debit with them so they couldn't take any more money. They then sent me a bill on 19th September 2013, showing each refund I'd had under the Direct Debit Guarantee as 'Direct Debit payment rejected' and the date of the reversal. I've then had a couple of letters dated 23rd September 2013 stating I had a final bill owed and 30th September 2013 stating that if they haven't received payment within the next 14 days they may register my account as a 'bad debt' with a credit reference agency! Both of these letters are from the 'Head of Credit & Collections' with no email address or proper contact details just an 0845 number and a PO Box. I've just emailed customer services and Guy Laurence (CEO) this evening basically reiterating that I shouldn't owe the majority of what they say I owe, brief description of the issues and the fact they never seem to have opened an official complaint or issued a 'deadlock' letter. What is my next best course of action? Do I actually need to pay them and reclaim the money via small claims? How can they get away with treating a customer of 13 years like this! I feel like they should just completely quash this so-called bill, if not compensate me for my time they are taking up and the stress/inconvenience of it all! Thanks in advance, chaoticj.