Beware - Use it or lose it

marionquine

I find it hard to believe this is legal.
I have kept my old mobile phone, always fully charged, in the car as a back-up in case of emergencies. According to the Vodaphone website, if you are a PAYG customer, they will unlock your phone for free. However, I found I could not access my a/c on my mobile so I e mailed vodaphone. Incidentally, I must have had at least £10 credit. This is the gist of the reply from them: note unrefundable.
If you do not use your phone for more than 6 months then the number gets disconnected and once the number is disconnected, we are unable to give you the same mobile number and also unable to resume your phone services.

Let me explain that if your number is disconnected, any credit that is left on this number is deleted and is non-refundable.
How do they get away with retaining money that doesn't belong to them?

macman

PAYG phones have always been sold on this basis, you need to make one call or send one text every 6 months to retain the number.
This is not unique to mobiles, lots of credit items expire after a set period, think of book tokens etc .

marionquine

macman wrote: »

PAYG phones have always been sold on this basis, you need to make one call or send one text every 6 months to retain the number.
This is not unique to mobiles, lots of credit items expire after a set period, think of book tokens etc .

I am sure there are a lot of older people who keep a mobile for emegencies and are not aware of this. Vodaphone added insult to injury by saying I would have to purchase a new sim to re activate my phone. This, when many providers are giving away sims + airtime or texts. No thanks; I'd rather recycle it. They could at least notify customers when their a/c is going to be disconnected.They had my number and e mail address. I am not impressed.

Bob_the_Saver

marionquine wrote: »

I am sure there are a lot of older people who keep a mobile for emegencies and are not aware of this. Vodaphone added insult to injury by saying I would have to purchase a new sim to re activate my phone. This, when many providers are giving away sims + airtime or texts. No thanks; I'd rather recycle it. They could at least notify customers when their a/c is going to be disconnected.They had my number and e mail address. I am not impressed.

Look around I'm sure you'll find Free/very cheap Vodafone PAYG sims.

DarkConvict

I never knew this, i have kept an old phone in my drawer just in case, i will check it tomorrow. Shame if it is gone, i can remember the phone number.

BritRael

The same happens with the netphone Skype.

They sent me an e-mail last year to say that as I hadn't used it in a while (can't remember the required period) they were going to wipe my credit. Unfortunately, I'm in the Middle East where it is blocked, so when I got back to the UK a couple of months later, it was done. I contacted them to complain and got it refunded. I now have to remember to make at least a missed call with it when I'm home.

nobby24

marionquine wrote: »

I am sure there are a lot of older people who keep a mobile for emegencies and are not aware of this.

It's always possible to call an emergency number.

marionquine

nobby24 wrote: »

It's always possible to call an emergency number.

Thanks but that wouldn't include a call to our breakdown service:(

marionquine

Bob_the_Saver wrote: »

Look around I'm sure you'll find Free/very cheap Vodafone PAYG sims.

Thanks: googled and found a free Vodafone sim card. Why didn't Vodafone offer me that:-((

robt_2

nobby24 wrote: »

It's always possible to call an emergency number.

Not if the phone is disconnected from the network it is not.

Esqui

marionquine wrote: »

I
How do they get away with retaining money that doesn't belong to them?

In a similar vein to the gift voucher expiry thread..the money does belong to them, you've bought the service to use. It's one of those unfortunate things, although PAYG phone expiry is often hidden far in the small print.

Best thing is to make a call or text once a month to make sure it's in use.