Vodafone charging me for inclusive texts for 2 years!

W.B.

Today i went in to the vodafone store to take a look at a few phones and one of the assistants kindly told me that my inclusive texts (im on i believe £25/m 200mins and 250 inclusive texts a month) has never been used. Essentially this means that for the last 2 years ive been charged for every text ive made!

After speaking to customer services (who lets face it are useless) the woman offered me £40 worth of credit on the account which i eventually argued up to £70. Unfortunately i dont have all my bills from the last 2 years but i figure that its been costing me an extra £5 a month or £120 but without counting every text for the last 2 years i wouldnt know for sure.

They are refusing to give me a refund in cash which i believe i should get as they debited that money originally from my account and insist on adding the measily £70 as credit only.

My question is where should i go from here to get my money back? Did vodafone break my contract as they didnt give me my promised texts so i cancel it and move to another phone provider?

If anyone else is on vodafone i suggest you make sure you arent being billed for this also!

Thanks,
Warren

mountainofdebt

I would imagine that the first step is to find out exactly what contract you are on - no point in creating a fuss if it turns out you are mistaken.

Then I would get copies of my bills and see exactly what I have been charged for - if you are right and vodafone are wrong then I would imagine your case is a lot stronger with proof than just guesses.

As far as I can see from my bill every inclusive text is free so I'm guessing its your contract that is at fault here not vodafone.

btw I have always found vodafone cs very helpful - I guess its how you approach them helps.

W.B.

mountainofdebt wrote: »

I would imagine that the first step is to find out exactly what contract you are on - no point in creating a fuss if it turns out you are mistaken.

Then I would get copies of my bills and see exactly what I have been charged for - if you are right and vodafone are wrong then I would imagine your case is a lot stronger with proof than just guesses.

As far as I can see from my bill every inclusive text is free so I'm guessing its your contract that is at fault here not vodafone.

btw I have always found vodafone cs very helpful - I guess its how you approach them helps.

Hi, im definately not mistaken - the customer services agreed that my inclusive texts were never subtracted from my final bills even though i did have 250 free texts/month to use.

I dont have all my phone bills from the last 2 years (does anyone file that far back?) but from the bills i do have it seems to average out at £5 a month extra and vodafone wants to charge me to send out full copies of all my bills so i can work out the exact amount ive been charged extra!

-Warren

DVardysShadow

W.B. wrote: »

I dont have all my phone bills from the last 2 years (does anyone file that far back?) but from the bills i do have it seems to average out at £5 a month extra and vodafone wants to charge me to send out full copies of all my bills so i can work out the exact amount ive been charged extra!

-Warren

Then pay to get the bills under protest and when you prove that they diddled you, charge them back the amount they diddled you plus the cost of proving it.

ETA: You should file back for 6 years, for just this kind of situation. Plus to defend yourself against utility companies chasing you for things they suddenly 'remember'

tripled

I would guess you can request all the billing data under the data protection act - it will cost a tenner though (although you might get Voda to refund it).

reehsetin

not sure what vodas online system is like, but o2 and orange you can view your previous bills online

pinkshoes

Do you not have ebilling with Vodafone?!? How on earth did you not notice?

Also, I pay £15/month with Vodafone for 300 mins and unlimited texts, so you ought to be bartering hard on your contract!

missymugwump

This happened to my son

Vodafone charged him for his texts instead of the set £5 text bundle add on he was meant to have

Luckily I always check his bills with him so we caught it on the first month,
were trying to train him young (18):money:

Vodafone sorted it with one phone call

In fairness to Vodafone you have a duty to read your bills either paper or online

mzg

I have just switched to Vodafone after years with Tmobile. I am on a 900 minute, unlimited texts contract. After five days I checked my usage to find I'd been billed for five MMS, when I never send picture messages.

After a long time on the phone to customer service, they tell me that any text longer than 160 characters is charged as a picture message. I was rudely told this is clearly in the terms and conditions. On checking the website where they sell this contract there is no mention, it states unlimited, not unlimited short texts. No mention in the shop and no mention on my contract of being charged.

I was pointed to a link in the small print, but it states .. "10. A standard text message is 160 characters long. You can send longer ones on some handsets. A longer text is divided into the number of standard texts required to convey the message. Each text will be charged at the standard rate for your price plan. We do not guarantee delivery of any text or MMS message you send."

I read that as longer texts will be sent as a series of texts up to 160 characters, not that they will be sent as MMS and charged extra for.

Any ideas? Never had a problem with Tmobile, and none of my friends have come across being charged either.

Hintza

Write shorter texts and send more than on if you have to. Simples..

mzg

Hintza, hello Whilst I take your point about writing shorter texts, the fact is nowhere does it state in the T&C that Vodafone will bill me for longers texts, the only reference vodafone can give me is where it says longer texts will be split into shorter texts and sent. I've never come across this before, neither have my friends. Vodafone told me all mobile companies do it, but that is definitely not the case.

Just as well I checked, otherwise I'd have had a whopping bill at the end of the month, but as it stands, I can still take my phone back and revert to Tmobile, fortunately I have a couple of weeks left with Tmobile so it isn't a problem.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.