Vodafone NZ fined for overbilling customers

Vodafone New Zealand has been fined NZ$350,000 ($330,510) after pleading guilty of billing customers after contracts had ended.

The company was convicted in relation to 14 Fair Trading Act charges for overbilling customers around NZ$285,000 during legal proceedings initiated by New Zealand's Commerce Commission.

The court found that Vodafone had sent invoices to more than 29,000 customers that included charges beyond the agreed date of termination, despite the company's own contract terms stipulating that it would stop charging customers either 30 days after they cancelled their contracts or on an agreed date.

During sentencing, Auckland District Court Judge Thomas described Vodafone's representations as highly careless. "Vodafone breached the trust that all consumers should be entitled to place in suppliers' representations," he said.

Last month, rival operator Spark was fined NZ$675,000 after admitting to have overcharged nearly 72,000 of its own customers in similar circumstances.

"Customers have the right to expect businesses to invoice them accurately and it is vital businesses take care to ensure their billing systems and processes are doing that," Commerce Commission Competition and Consumer General Manager Antonia Horrocks said.

"For a large proportion of the affected invoices in this case, Vodafone relied on staff to manually adjust them but did not take adequate steps to ensure that process was being consistently followed. As a result, tens of thousands of customers were left out of pocket."

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