Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2012/08/06/vodafone_billing_system_glitch/

Vodafone loses access to punters' records in IT cock-up

Billing system refused to get out of bed this morning

By Anna Leach

Posted in On-Prem, 6th August 2012 12:56 GMT

Vodafone is investigating a glitch with its billing system that left its workers unable to access UK customer accounts today.

Punters contacting Voda to chat about their accounts were told that was impossible because the computers that host their details were down. Voice calls and data on the mobile operator's network carried on as normal.

A Voda customer told The Reg he was still locked out from 8am to at least 11am today: he had been calling in to the company to change his voicemail passcode.

"They said they didn't have access my account, because they didn't have access to anyone's account," he said. According to our bloke, the staffer blamed a failure in internal systems at Vodafone's base in Newark, Nottinghamshire.

By 11.30am Vodafone's spinners claimed that the issue had been largely fixed.

"There was a problem, but it does seem to be largely resolved. It is on the way to being stabilised. We are at a very early stage, and there will be an investigation," a press officer for Vodafone said, adding:

We did have an issue with our internal systems and online which prevented access to some customer accounts for a short while this morning.  We are pleased to report that most of these have been resolved.

She wouldn't go into detail on the nature of the problem, saying only: "It was a technical problem which we were aware of at 8am affecting access to some customers’ bills. At no point was any customer data at risk."

Vodafone said that there was no evidence to suggest that the Newark base was the source of the issues. ®