Vodafone customers using the mobile network abroad have been stung with roaming bills of up to £5,000 following a blunder.

The telecoms company has since apologised, blaming the issue on a technical error. However, a wave of disgruntled customers took to social media to complain over the issue – with many claiming they were unable to reach the firm or even use their phones.

Customers received message alerts from Vodafone wrongly informing them they had expended their monthly data allowance. Some even noted their bills had risen sharply within 12 hours, with charges surging into the thousands of pounds.

@VodafoneUK Been charged £5k for c200mb data in Malta last night. I’ve been here a week and used probably 10gig without a problem. Tried calling Vodafone this afternoon and after an hour my network has been cut off! So can’t even contact you. HELP pic.twitter.com/eYserfYxmb

— David Maddison (@dmaddison3) October 13, 2019

One Twitter user, named David Maddison, said he had been charged £5,000 while in Malta. As of Sunday 13th, Maddison said he tried to contact the telecoms company but his network had been cut off.

Other users highlighted even greater charges, with one claiming they had been informed of an £8,000 charge during a trip to Cyprus.

UK mobile customers are able to use minutes, texts and data included in their tariff plans during visits to the European Union. Legislation allowing this was introduced in 2017.

In a statement posted online this morning, Vodafone sought to clarify the situation for customers: “We are very sorry that, yesterday, some customers could not use data or calling services when roaming abroad. This was due to a technical error, which we have now fixed.

“Any affected customer should restart their phone to ensure that services are resumed. As a result of the issue, some customers are receiving billing messages in error; we are working through these as an urgent priority and removing any errors from customers accounts.”

Vodafone added: “Customers will not be charged and do not need to worry about contacting us as we are proactively checking accounts and fixing any issues.”

Despite the company’s assurances, however, some customers reacted angrily on Twitter. In response to Vodafone’s statement, one user, John Nicholas, tweeted: “This does not excuse failing to respond to calls to customer service, shutting down my entire service while abroad, and suspending online access to MyVodafone.”

Twitter user David Gordon commented: “Hey Vodafone, why didn’t you identify this issue quicker and use all available communication channels to let affected customers know there was an issue and put our minds at rest?”

Hey Vodafone, why didn’t you identify this issue quicker and use all available communication channels to let affected customers know there was an issue and put our minds at rest? £10k charges & service withdrawal on my honeymoon was very stressful. How will you compensate?????

— David Gordon (@gordod) October 14, 2019

Vodafone said it is “looking at the best way” to compensate customers for the disruption and will contact individuals with information “as soon as possible”.