Vodafone technical error sees customers hit with massive roaming bills

“This is the one thing we didn’t want to happen”

Vodafone customers were hit with large roaming bills in error, causing the operator to apologise.

Customers abroad received texts from the operator saying that they had spent as much as £10,000. Vodafone then blocked them from making any calls or messages, or using mobile data to prevent incurring any additional charges.

We are very sorry a technical issue has impacted some customers' data and voice services whilst roaming.

You may have also received an incorrect charges message. We are working hard to fix this issue as soon as possible. Our customers' will not be incorrectly billed.

— Vodafone UK (@VodafoneUK) October 13, 2019

Customers took to Twitter to voice their complaints and lack of ability to reach the operator. It is not clear precisely how many were affected by the error.

This does not excuse failing to respond to calls to customer service, shutting down my entire service while abroad, and suspending online access to MyVodafone. When will you re-establish my services please’

— John Nicholas (@jnich65) October 14, 2019

@VodafoneUK please can you look at my DM – been in Spain, account cut off – received texts saying big roaming charges despite ‘free roaming’ and can’t even access my account to see the damage as your site is down for maintenance

— Tasha Son (@tashason21) October 14, 2019

Vodafone said: “We are very sorry that some customers could not use their phones yesterday, when roaming abroad. This was due to a technical error, which we have now fixed.

“Some customers are receiving billing messages in error; we are working through these as an urgent priority and are removing any errors from customer accounts. Customers will not be charged and do not need to worry about contacting us as we are proactively checking accounts.”