Vodafone has been hit with a £4.6 million fine by Ofcom for "serious and sustained breaches of consumer protection rules".  The fines come from two earlier investigations into Vodafone, which has 20 million mobile customers in the UK.

Ofcom said Vodafone had misinformed pay-as-you-go customers, charging them for top-up credits but "providing nothing in return". Ofcom found that 10,452 pay-as-you-go customers lost out when Vodafone failed to credit their accounts after they paid to top-up their mobile phone credit. The affected customers jointly lost £150,000 over a 17-month period.

A move to a new billing system is thought to have caused the IT issues. However, Vodafone "failed to act quickly enough to identify or address these problems" and only started to look into the issue after Ofcom intervened.
A second investigation found Vodafone had broken the rules on handling customer complaints. Vodafone's customer service agents were not given "sufficiently clear guidance" on what constituted a customer complaint.

Poor processes meant some complaints were not handled "in a fair, timely manner". Vodafone also failed to make sure customers were told, in writing, of their right to take an unresolved complaint to a third-party resolution scheme after eight weeks.
Vodafone has offered its "profound apologies" for the failures said it was now "determined to put everything right".

In a statement, Vodafone said it had "fully refunded or re-credited" 10,422 pay-as-you-go customers out of the 10,452 affected, it unable to track down the remaining 30 who had been affected. The company also said it had invested in better customer service and training.

A spokesperson at Vodafone said: "Everyone who works for us is expected to do their utmost to meet our customers' needs.

"It is clear from Ofcom's findings that we did not do that often enough or well enough on a number of occasions. We offer our profound apologies to anyone affected by these errors."

Ofcom consumer group director, Lindsey Fussell said: "Vodafone's failings were serious and unacceptable, and these fines send a clear warning to all telecoms companies.
"Phone services are a vital part of people's lives, and we expect all customers to be treated fairly and in good faith."