Direct debits, has the law changed?

Do they have a mandate in place (i.e. tell you once a year, then take it monthly, like council tax)?

In any case, under the DD arrangement, you can claim it straight back from your bank, so is there really a problem?

Do they e-mail you, and the e-mail went astray?

Orange send me a link to my itemized bill every month via SMS and the short-form through the post, O2 send me an email link every month. Vodaphone can't be that different.

martin gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

They aren't. I get an email telling me my bill is available online.

does it also tell you the total cost?

Same here - Orange. Except what they did was send unrequested itemised statements which they charged for, and when we requested that they do not send itemised statements, they stopped sending any at all.

Bog standard dd, don't believe I've ever given them an email address which they could have used to advise me an online bill was available for viewing.

Therefore, according to my quote from the DD Guarantee, and also according to the Ombudsman's interpretation: "If there is a change in the amount to be paid or the payment date, the person receiving the payment (the originator) must notify the customer in advance." Therefore they must notify you if that's the case. The DD Guarantee includes, "... or as otherwise agreed". Have you otherwise agreed, eg. in your terms?

They obviously now have your email address.

Iain

Never agreed to anything different, right up until February paper bills were arriving and therefore there wasn't an issue.

I'm sure a lot of people are quite happy to pay whatever their service provider tells them is due; I'm one of those who nearly got scammed (whilst on Orange I'd point out) for non-existent reverse-charged SMS's at £1.50 a pop so I'm religious about checking my bill and I even pay extra for the "privilege" of an itemised invoice.

Additionally, I need a paper copy to claim cashback from the outfit I bought the phone from.

I've no doubts not printing and sending out x million invoices every month is a money spinner for the telcos but I'm old-fashioned enough to want a hard copy of what they're charging me for.

You should receive a text (SMS) from them each month revealing the total of your bill and the date when the direct debit will be taken.

They do this specifically to comply with their obligations under the Direct Debit Guarantee Scheme.

Hope that helps.

Regards

S.P. (a vodafone customer with a Direct Debit in place)

As I've said directly to the OP, vodafone satisfy this requirement by sending an SMS to the mobile 'phone generating the bill prior to the DD being taken.

I can only assume that in his case, the text wasn't delivered correctly.

He can exercise his right under the DDG scheme but he'll still owe vodafone the money and they hold the ace card that they can stop his 'phone sending or receiving anything until the bill is paid.

In his shoes, I'd ask vodafone to confirm when the text was sent, and what system they have in place for non-delivery of the notification texts. (Since the system could, conceivably, be kept completely within vodafone's control, there can be no excuse for non-delivery of the message.)

Regards

S.P.

T-Mobile started sending me paper bills again when I requested and also sent me any paper bills I hadn't received free of charge.

Do you have a proper (full) URL for that?