Finally from Vodafone - an admission, an apology and a month's rental free!

Unity

For anyone else who has been affected by the 'system error' preventing the use of Vodafone's abolished roaming charges whilst abroad, keep complaining and don't be put off by the standardised replies.

I moved from Orange PAYG earlier this year to a monthly contract including phone from Vodafone. I'd read about the abolition of roaming charges and specifically checked that this facility would be available to me whilst on holiday in Greece. I was very pleased with their UK service as I could at least make calls from inside my home - never possible with Orange due to the lack of signal :rolleyes:.

I checked on the web-site and texted the word 'passport' to enable the free roaming and got a reply stating I didn't need to do this as it was already included in my contract. Great, I thought - they're really on the ball!

On arrival at Rhodes airport I received a 'Welcome to Vodafone GREECE' text again confirming that roaming charges had been abolished, which was great as I had purposely saved my inclusive minutes to keep in touch with friends and family whilst away.

Everything looked great until I tried to call home (using the correct international dialling code) when the ringing tone was quickly replaced by a sound similar to what BT uses for an unrecognised number. Thankfully I could still send texts - so I contacted DD1 who got in touch with Vodafone. Obviously because of data protection, they wouldn't speak to her about my account, however, nor would they contact me, even though I could get incoming calls. They refused to even communicate by text and would only give DD1 a number to phone customer services from abroad - about as much use to me as a humped back flat fish :rolleyes:.

I kept trying at odd times to make calls and eventually managed to make three - one of which was to Vodafone. They couldn't take my call, but I did get a nice text apologising for this and asking me to call them back :j:rotfl:. Unfortunately my phone had reverted to the unobtainable tone again so no luck there either.

On returning home I checked my account to find I had been billed £2.15 for calls - presumably the three I had managed to make, but who knows?. I contacted them by e-mail and got the standard reply - that I should have contacted them to say I was going abroad, but that they would refund my £2.15 !!!:mad:

I replied pointing out that they obviously hadn't read my e-mail, attached a copy and stated it was in my contract that I had free roaming so they were in breach of this. I explained that I was very disappointed at the lack of help in sorting the problem and that obviously I had lost my inclusive minutes as they'd prevented me from dialling out.

I have today received an e-mail from them, admitting that a system error was responsible for all international calls being barred from my phone, they've apologised and offered me a month's free rental in recompense.

I know it's a bit like the old Public Information Film on burst water pipes, which ended with the words: "What a shame you let it happen in the first place" but at least I've got a result.

Vodafone

Hi Unity,

Just thought I'd pop on to acknowledge that I've just across your post and while it's disappointing to read about your experience I'm pleased to see that this has been fully resolved for you.

All the best.

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK