Vodafone sees dead people… as a source of income
The prestigious British journalist and environmental activist George Monbiot, recent winner of the George Orwell Award, found himself in a particularly unpleasant situation following the death of his mother a few months ago: when he tried to cancel her contract with Vodafone, the company began making all sorts of difficulties, demanding to speak to his elderly father, and demanding information such as the exact date on which the contract had been signed, which he obviously could not remember.
After the company refused to cancel the contract, George cancelled his mother’s direct debit, only to find that Vodafone then put the matter in the hands of a particularly aggressive debt collection agency, which began calling his father all the time. Needless to say, when George tried to talk to Vodafone he would have to wait for some 45 minutes or more listening to muzak.
In response, he decided to discuss the matter in some detail in a thread on his Twitter account, where he has almost half-a-million followers. Several thousand people retweeted and liked is comments, with many, many similar stories emerging of people who had experienced similar situations after relatives and partners had died.
