Letter re late direct debit

[patb63]

I received a letter this morning advising me that the recent payment to my account took longer than normal to reach them because the reference number quoted was incorrect. I pay by direct debit (and have for years), so they must have got something wrong, not me. It took 3 hours using online chat to get confirmation that it wasn't a scam and that my account was OK, but no explanation as to the cause. It does suggest in the letter that the simplest way to ensure the bill is paid on time is to use direct debit!!!

[goslow]

Scan through the 'Managing Your Account - Cable' forum and you will see that VM seems to have messed up with quite a few direct debit collections recently. There are quite a few topics on the subject.

[Tudor]

Totally VMs fault. Reference numbers on a Direct Debit are only entered/changed by the originator, that’s VM, neither you non your bank has any control over this reference number. The transaction for a Direct Debit originates from VM, the only control over it is if you have insufficient funds or you cancel it. So how VM can claim it took too long for them to get it is totally wrong. 

[Alby41]

Now that is concerning 🙄