A businessman who was wrongly issued with a £15,000 phone bill by Vodafone only managed to get it cancelled by staging a three-hour sit-in at the firm 's headquarters . Edward Martin was sent the enormous invoice after the mobile phone company put him on a new tariff , but after eight hours on the phone he was unable to get them to admit their mistake . Eventually , he was forced to go and camp outside the multinational firm 's headquarters - and they were so desperate to make him go away that they caved in and cancelled the bill . Victory : Edward Martin managed to get a £15,000 phone bill cancelled by protesting at Vodafone 's head office . Mr Martin , 52 , who runs a clothing business in Tiverton , Devon , said that his troubles started when he was put on a new package and told his bill would be recalculated . Vodafone then sent him a series of inflated bills adding up to £14,949.41 - without explaining why he suddenly had to pay more . ' I have been a Vodafone customer for 21 years with no trouble , ' he said . 'But in December they called me to say they had made a mistake and they would recalculate my bill . 'But they never called me back and never let me know in writing what my new tariff was . All they want is for me to pay up but I 'm not going to because they have made a mistake , not me . ' I have n't used any more text or data than I did before I went into the Exeter store to get a new deal . I really do n't understand what has changed . ' Proactive : Mr Martin had been unable to resolve the situation by phoning customer services . He repeatedly tried to phone the company to discuss the error , but was unable to rectify the situation . ' I must have spent eight hours on the phone to them being transferred to India , then Johannesburg , then onto Egypt and back to South Africa , ' Mr Martin said . 'On one occasion I waited 27 minutes to speak with someone who told me they would call me back but they never did . That 's just basic disregard for their customers . ' The businessman finally decided to take drastic action , and yesterday he drove two hours from his home to the firm 's head office in Newbury , Berkshire . Staff there initially said it would take three days to resolve the problem - but when Mr Martin refused to leave the premises , they dealt with his issue immediately . HQ : Vodafone 's global headquarters are situated in Newbury , Berkshire , two hours from Mr Martin 's home . He said : 'All seven car parks were full so I parked at the very front of the building , ignoring protestations from the security guys , and marched into reception . ' I was directed to the retail shop in the foyer - the shop staff were apparently highly trained in `` problem resolution '' . 'The techie guy I spoke to made calls to various teams and one hour later appeared to tell me it would be sorted on Friday . ' I said this was unacceptable and I feared they were just giving me the run-around like they 've been doing for the past four months . ' I thought nothing would be resolved by Friday so I told him I would wait there until then . He told me I could not do that so I sat firmly on a chair and told him to call security . 'He disappeared to the office and one hour later the headquarters store assistant manager appeared and told me that the whole bill would be cleared immediately . 'About 15 minutes later I was on my way with a letter confirming that my overcharge had been cleared and a copy of my correct contract . 'They have apologised and have launched an investigation , but they could have done a lot of damage to other people and businesses . ' A Vodafone spokesman said that an 'internal communication error ' was to blame for Mr Martin 's enormous bill , and confirmed it has now been wiped clean .
Businessman Edward Martin was sent the enormous bill by Vodafone after he switched to a different tariff . He spent eight hours on the phone but was unable to get it cancelled . So he drove to firm 's headquarters in Newbury and stayed for three hours . They finally backed down after he refused to leave the premises .