'I have been through the grief and stress,” says Tauranga widow, Wendy Painter. 'Now I am angry.”

Seems the telecommunications multinational Vodafone, may have bought itself a scrap, because even at 81 Wendy has attitude. 'What else can I do?” asks Wendy. Then she steels herself.

'I know exactly what I can do. I will take the urn with Robbie's ashes into their Devonport Road shop, plonk it on the counter and say: ‘see if you can get your $5 out of him now'.” But Wendy has Cherrywood, or is it Devon gentility, and probably wouldn't stoop to that.

'But I am hopping mad.”

That's because Vodafone keeps invoicing her late partner, Ian 'Robbie” McGuiness – a well-known and likeable character of this parish, snooker player and inveterate letters-to-the-editor writer, who died after a stroke exactly a year ago. And despite his widow's best efforts to prove Robbie is deceased, the bills keep coming.

The Weekend Sun fired off some questions to Vodafone HQ in Auckland. 'Thank you for getting in touch,” says the media team. 'We're sorry to hear this. We have clearly fallen short of providing Mrs Painter with good customer experience during a difficult period for her.”

The telecom apologised for any inconvenience and distress. ”That's the third apology I have received but I just want action because the latest account was a threat,” says an upset Wendy.

It's addressed to Mr Ian McGuiness and it points out that as of last month, June 10, 2019 he was one cent in credit. That's right –a dead man is one cent to the good. And he's expected to do something about it.

'Just a heads up,” says Vodafone politely in Robbie's memory. 'Your account is in credit and has been inactive for at least six months.” As Wendy points out, there is a very good reason for that. 'If we don't hear from you, there will be a $5 monthly account administration fee starting from next month.”

'If we don't hear from you…” Such a nonsense, according to Wendy. That's what upsets her. 'I am 81. I am a widow again. And I don't need to be harassed like this. They have been reminded repeatedly.”

She has called Vodafone in Auckland and told them they were sending invoices to a dead man, that there was no account. 'They even apologised, said it shouldn't have happened and won't happen again.”

But it did – five accounts over five months. Wendy visited the Vodafone outlet in Devonport Road several times. 'They said they would fix it. They didn't fix it.”

She itemises approaches to Vodafone. There was the bank notification cancelling a direct debit. The couple's Auckland lawyers contacted Vodafone. There was her call to Vodafone in Auckland, there were calls to the Tauranga Vodafone shop as far back as August 2018 – a month after Robbie passed – there were her visits to the Vodafone shop. And at Vodafone's behest, she even took in a copy of Robbie's death certificate and her passport to open a new account. That was in January.

'And now they intend to charge me for their own ineptness, a $5 administration fee, for an account that doesn't exist.”

Vodafone, for its part, confirms it accepted notification from Mr McGuiness's lawyers advising he had passed away. It then tried to transfer the account to Mrs Painter but there was an error in processing the balance to Mrs Painter's account which meant Robbie's account had not closed and correspondence in Mr McGuiness's name continued.

It wants to reassure Mrs Painter she won't be charged for a service under Mr McGuiness's account that was not being used. Mr McGuiness's account has been closed and she will receive no further communication from Vodafone in his name.

Now she's lost Robbie, she's packing her memories and is off to a retirement village in the Northland fruit bowl that is Kerikeri. 'There's no reason to stay. But this Vodafone matter is something you don't get over easily. I know as soon as I move, Vodafone gets the chop.” No forgiving, no forgetting.