*UPDATE NOT GOING AHEAD**Vodafone offering charge to account bar from 1st August 2008

Cavey

digp wrote: »

what about o2?

I asked O2 about this and the reply said that they have blocked access to reverse billed short codes (and international numbers) from my phone. International numbers are definitely blocked, but no idea about short codes as I am not about to risk money to try it - if I get charged I will just use O2's communication as a stick to beat them with.

However, while this would stop me from using short codes (ie I can't sign up for them), it doesn't stop my phone from receiving unsolicited reverse charged SMS messages or messages from websites etc...

Either way, I class this as a good thing.

MRS_TO_BE_2

From Vodafone E Forum

1st August was an estimate, and it looks like it'll be a bit later in the year before we're ready to offer this. We have to thoroughly test and make sure the bar doesn't have any adverse affect on accounts, and we have to test this on every single combination of price plan and services, so it does take some time!

Thanks for your patience,

***deleted name****

eForum Team



MY REPLY...which eforum team will prob delete as anti Vodafone

Why am I not surprised. Just over a week ago your customer service didn't have a clue about this bar. I think 1st August was just a sweetener. As soon as my contract expires BYEBYE vodafone. .......T MOBILE here I come at least have a bar available that will protect us from the text scammers and fraudsters that vodafone wont. They have had a bar for ages and I will be advising everyone I know to do the same.

I am fed up with Vodafone allowing these frausters open access to my bank account....and no I did no sign up for any services.

Did you know Vodafone resell numbers after 6 months and if yours is a resell and the previous owner had these services your number is often on a list and this is how they get your number.

If Vodafone think you have to sign up to be charged and you they can not just send yuou messages(which is the standard line that all your customer service team take) then Vodafone are naive and stupid. Just have a look at Phonepayplus and moneysavingexpert.com (search text messages)

Rant over...will prob be igorned or deleted but would love to hear a decent explanation

miller

MRS_TO_BE wrote: »

I am fed up with Vodafone allowing these frausters open access to my bank account....and no I did no sign up for any services.

Right. Well Vodafone - listen to this. Your taking the p1ss out of us. If any of us on this forum get scammed, you're paying. Otherwise we will all go to Ofcom. The End !

MRS_TO_BE_2

Further reply

Hi Tania,

I appreciate your anger, but this genuinely wasn't a date we just made up. A service bar could have a massive affect on other services and functions on our network, so we have to be one hundred per cent sure it's not going to have any negative effects before making it available.

As for different departments being aware, we're lucky in the eForum to be privy to information before certain other teams, largely because we were influential in the introduction of this bar.

I do wish to reiterate that there's no open case of unsolicited premium rate message charging on the eForum. The two actual cases we've had have both been fixed. Whilst I appreciate unsolicited messages are a huge concern for you, the chances of this actually happening are rare, and you can always contact us for us to fix the problem when it happens.

We're not allowing anyone open access to your bank account. We allow third party service providers to charge items against your bill which you've requested, and you have 14 days to review your bill and dispute any charges. In the case of unsolicited messages, we always do everything we can to help- nobody has direct access to take money from you; it's ultimately in your control.

As for us reselling numbers, I think you may have misinterpreted information you've seen elsewhere previously. There are a limited number of mobile phone numbers available in the UK (when you consider that all numbers start with 07, and many many 07 prefixes are also taken up by private numbering, mailbox allocations and so on as well) so we have no choice but to re-use old numbers. Say an account cancelled and the number was no longer needed, we'd leave the number in quarantine for at least nine months, to allow any subscription charging services to cease.

If, after this point, the services continue, then again we're here to support and guide all of our customers to a successful resolution.

I hope this has covered all of your points. We have had this discussion on the eForum before, but I appreciate you may not have seen it. I'm leaving your post on here too for others to see, but I must stress that the information I've given here is all that we have, so please don't ask further questions about the release date of the bar, or why we don't currently offer a service like this.

Have a nice evening,


eForum Team

***obviously scam messages dont happen so far as vodafone are concerned so I sent this***

Thank you for your reply

However from my own experience Unsoliciated messages do happen, a quick search of the internet will also bring up many cases.

My point about "access to bank account" was when these messages are charged if you dispute them you are refered to the message company to query and refund. You can't not pay these charges whilst you are disputing them. Therefore the amount of your bill is paid on direct debit. If I cancelled my DD and only paid what I though I owed I'm sure Vodafone would take action. You are forced to pay the charges even if they are unsolicated and then wait and hope to claw them back from the company.

***and received this****

Hi again,

I understand what you're saying. If you do have any problems, come to the eForum- we'll always fix it for you right away

I might even spell everything properly next time too!


eForum Team

MRS_TO_BE_2

miller wrote: »

Right. Well Vodafone - listen to this. Your taking the p1ss out of us. If any of us on this forum get scammed, you're paying. Otherwise we will all go to Ofcom. The End !

agree with what you are saying but Ofcom but give a damn. We are stuck at the mobile networks mercy

Intasun32

MRS_TO_BE wrote: »

From Vodafone E Forum

1st August was an estimate, and it looks like it'll be a bit later in the year before we're ready to offer this. We have to thoroughly test and make sure the bar doesn't have any adverse affect on accounts, and we have to test this on every single combination of price plan and services, so it does take some time!

I posted on the VF eforum that the first promise of a summer option to bar short codes was just a way of 'keeping us sweet'. This was then followed up by an excuse that the whole network will have to be upgraded, which was blown out of the water by several 'techies' with a wider knowledge of telecoms than most of us.

I was advised by VF a while back that they were under contractual obligations with the content providers (aka the scammers) to keep the network traffic running freely, to maximise their market. If we are able to block their product their earnings (and VF's 20%) would be worth less.

You can now understand VF's reluctance to allow us to block short codes when we are talking about £millions of lost earnings in contract values and commision.

MRS_TO_BE_2

I believe there is a lot of truth in what you are saying Intasun32. Just so frustrating and the regulator are a waste of space.

Intasun32

MRS_TO_BE wrote: »

Just so frustrating and the regulator are a waste of space.

There's so much money involved in the premium rate industry, both 'legit' & 'illegal', nobody wants to rock the boat. They are all happy to keep having access to our bank accounts.
At least we have T-Mobile. :T

Ofcom & PP+ do not mind acting against high profile cases which make them look good, like ITV, BBC & Channel 4 (no action was taken against the PRS companies which acted for them), but continue to ignore the like of you, me and the many other victims that fall easy prey to these thieves.

wantmemoney

Vodafone_eForum_Team wrote:

We're not allowing anyone open access to your bank account. We allow third party service providers to charge items against your bill which you've requested, and you have 14 days to review your bill and dispute any charges. In the case of unsolicited messages, we always do everything we can to help- nobody has direct access to take money from you; it's ultimately in your control.

A mixture of weasel words and bull crap.

Revenue share arrangement:

Ofcom allocates each mobile network their own short code numbers.
http://www.short-codes.com/pages/codes_browse.php
The network operators do not just share the revenue with the service providers.In the case of billing for another networks short code there is also sideways revenue share.
A number of years ago BT attempted to refuse to bill for 09 premium numbers that belonged to Opera Telecom. They were forced to back down for legal reasons but refused to explain.
It's possible Vodafone is having a similar problem if they attempt to put a billing bar on other network short codes.

MRS_TO_BE_2

I think everyone needs to badger there mobile network about what action they are taking to bar these shortcodes...T mobile do it

email vodafone [EMAIL="customer.service@vodafone.com"]customer.service@vodafone.com[/EMAIL] or via this webpage
https://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Page_Help_ContactUs&pageID=PCU_0002

Orange form via webpage
http://www1.orange.co.uk/mobilecontactus/

02 form via webpage
http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/srvs/cgi-bin/webcgi.exe?New,KB=Companion,question=ref(user):str(Mobile),t=Contact_us,&cm_mmc=Navigation-_-Footer-_-ContactO2

Virgin form via Webpage
http://www.virginmobile.com/vm/contactUs.do


Every mobile phone user should ask questions of there network about what they are doing to protect us from the text scammers