HTC Desire Vodafone 500mb Fair Usage Policy

TheLibertine

Mister_M wrote: »

update here guys.

Vodafone have today issued me with a letter of deadlock, it took loads of calls through to customer relations on 08704500005 but now they have issued it I really need lots of ammunition to give to Otelo. Now who can help me here? All help appreciated. Thanks in advance.

One idea would be a laborious trawl of the 100page eforum thread, printing out all posts from Vodafone including ones from other threads that people have posted. And also all the webchats etc and personal emails that have been posted...I'm not sure exactly how Otelo look at things but the idea of doing that would be to show Vodafone employees clearly not undestanding their own policy and regularly giving misinformation to customers.

essex_chris

I'm now going to trawl the web for offers on phones and contracts, as i have had confirmed to me by email that what i was told verbally about being able to cancel my contract without penalty was true.

My priorities are keeping my mobile number, sticking to an (at most) 18month contract, and getting good value for money. I'm very happy with my HTC Magic, although it could be better, and having used Android for a few months now i would really like some of the new features, and i would definitely like to get a better camera. So it looks like a new contract with an HTC Desire is on my list.

Seems like the best deal is T-Mobile Web 600, 18months, £30 a month, 5months 1/2 price, £20 for the phone - £485 for the life of the contract. This also has a 3Gb limit on the mobile internet, over which you'll be throttled rather than charged. 600mins / 500texts / 3000mb internet

I would prefer to stay with Vodafone for the network though - that much i must admit. Their best deal on an 18month contract is £35 a month with a free Desire - £630 for the life of the contract. 600mins / 3000texts / 500mb internet.

On mobiles.co.uk the above Vodafone deal gives 7months free - so the total is only £385 for the 18months. The problem with that is that i couldn't port my number to that deal since i'm already on Vodafone!

EDIT - My mistake i'm obviously more tired than i thought. The mobiles.co.uk deal is not 7months free. It's 18months x £35 + £10 handset so actually not as good as the Vodafone.co.uk deal which is 600mins instead of 300.

Since i'm waiting to hear what Vodafone have to say about repeatedly cocking up my current deal to a ridiculous extent despite their apparent best efforts, and the written guarantee that if the changes that they plan on making increase my £17.50 a month bill by more than 10% shows clearly that if i have what they consider excessive use of data and they try to charge me a fiver a month then i will be entitled to leave without penalty - this will cost them money.

My HTC Magic is worth something of course, so i mustn't forget to allow for that. Though i would likely give it to my Father to use as he has been most impressed with it.

The question i find myself wanting to ask Vodafone is this - are they actually interested in keeping me as a customer, and if so what are they prepared to offer me to stop me leaving if they charge me and going over to T-Mobile. I've already been told i will be charged if i go over a limit which apparently hasn't been set in stone yet, and may be much higher than 500mb.

I have no problem with agreeing to a new contract which is limited to 500mb as it is what i will have been sold, which is not the case now.

Mister_M_2

Chris, I was told verbally also, but then a senior manager withdrew the offer which is why I am now in deadlock. I was specifically told by an advisor that I had gone over my 500MB total and this would be my warning and if it happened again I would be charged.I disputed this, and told them this constituted to a change of my T&C's so I should be able to cancel without penalty. This was then confirmed by a manager who told all I had to do was then put this request in writing, however I managed to stumble across the customer relations manger, a lady named Sheelagh and she has really dug her heals in despite me being verbally told by another manager I'm entitled to cancel without penalty.

essex_chris

Just to clarify that this was "will be able to cancel" rather than "can cancel now".

This is since dealing with Tom from the Vodafone eForum, who contacted me after reading my posts on the eForum about being dissatisfied with the service, and since i had an ongoing enquiry with the Directors Office it was easy enough to work out who i was.

I did say you'd be able to cancel under the 10% rule as far as I know, so this still stands.

We had discussed things in detail on the telephone i think on the 21st in the morning, and then at the end of the day i got an email which as promised confirmed some of the things mentioned on the phone, but i replied later as it did not mention the 10% cancellation right.

I'll always give the benefit of the doubt unless i have a serious reason not to, and since Tom was helpful, polite, and full of information on the phone i was going to wait and get confirmation i was not going to jump on the Anti-Tom bandwagon that appears to have risen.

I did, and still do genuinely think he is trying to help. He is as i understand it a senior Vodafone Customer Support staff member, head of the webteam, and certainly spoke to me on the telephone saying that there were things going on which 191 staff, and even the staff in the Vodafone Directors Office were not fully appraised of. I'll touch base with him occasionally until this is all settled, in fact i missed a call from somebody in his team yesterday, but it's the weekend now so i suspect i'll get no further till Monday.

I was prepared to wait for a few months and see how this all pans out, but the promises of service i would get and bill changes that should have been done before my most recent bill - all of which did not happen and i yet again had to take the matter into my own hands to get what i was promised - i requested my PAC code and received it yesterday by text - though i think i will also get a letter at some point as i did in January. I would have waited, and then cancelled without penalty if as we have been told people using over 500mb a month will be charged, which would make my bill increase from £17.50 to at least £22.50 - making me eligible to leave without penalty.

I basically need convincing what would the point of staying with Vodafone be - as if i leave i feel i can get a better deal elsewhere, albeit i do not think the network would be as good, but if i stay my only option apparently is to continue as i am, or if i was to cancel and start a new contract i lose my number or have to have two phones.

bym007

essex_chris wrote: »

Just to clarify that this was "will be able to cancel" rather than "can cancel now".

This is since dealing with Tom from the Vodafone eForum, who contacted me after reading my posts on the eForum about being dissatisfied with the service, and since i had an ongoing enquiry with the Directors Office it was easy enough to work out who i was.



We had discussed things in detail on the telephone i think on the 21st in the morning, and then at the end of the day i got an email which as promised confirmed some of the things mentioned on the phone, but i replied later as it did not mention the 10% cancellation right.

I'll always give the benefit of the doubt unless i have a serious reason not to, and since Tom was helpful, polite, and full of information on the phone i was going to wait and get confirmation i was not going to jump on the Anti-Tom bandwagon that appears to have risen.

I did, and still do genuinely think he is trying to help. He is as i understand it a senior Vodafone Customer Support staff member, head of the webteam, and certainly spoke to me on the telephone saying that there were things going on which 191 staff, and even the staff in the Vodafone Directors Office were not fully appraised of. I'll touch base with him occasionally until this is all settled, in fact i missed a call from somebody in his team yesterday, but it's the weekend now so i suspect i'll get no further till Monday.

I was prepared to wait for a few months and see how this all pans out, but the promises of service i would get and bill changes that should have been done before my most recent bill - all of which did not happen and i yet again had to take the matter into my own hands to get what i was promised - i requested my PAC code and received it yesterday by text - though i think i will also get a letter at some point as i did in January. I would have waited, and then cancelled without penalty if as we have been told people using over 500mb a month will be charged, which would make my bill increase from £17.50 to at least £22.50 - making me eligible to leave without penalty.

I basically need convincing what would the point of staying with Vodafone be - as if i leave i feel i can get a better deal elsewhere, albeit i do not think the network would be as good, but if i stay my only option apparently is to continue as i am, or if i was to cancel and start a new contract i lose my number or have to have two phones.
[/LEFT]

Whatever you decide to do, you do not have to lose your number or carry two mobiles. You can choose out of personal choice, however, if you wish to use your number with a new Vodafone contract, you can transfer your PAC to another network PAYG sim, and then transfer it back to Vodafone. A number transfer usually takes less than a week.

But before you do that, please make sure that the new network (PAC recepient network) allows you to port your number out within a month, as some might restrict immediate port out.

Mister_M_2

Chris, a manager called Ben told me I can cancel now, all I would have to do was put the request in writing either by letter or email which I sebsequently did. He made a note of this on my account, which is still there and gave me his personal identification number and the call reference number, which I noted. I then took out a new o2 contract, who were my previous providers. I left them and my 40% loyalty discount as I was unhappy with the selection of phones they had, oh how I regret that!!

essex_chris

That's interesting to realise that you can transfer out then back in. I had always considered it as an option i just forgot that number transfers are that quick now. I still have the old mindset in that respect!

For me it's really that i gave the benefit of the doubt time and time again, gave Vodafone the opportunity to resolve the issues with my account which were entirely their fault - but any faith i had has been all but totally destroyed. At some point they need to be held accountable. For me the possibility of future changes and T&Cs being broken wasn't enough, but the whole situation is an utter fiasco and after weeks is still incredibly fuzzy on detail and reliable consistent information coming from different areas of Vodafone, with even their own staff saying that one department doesn't know what is going on in another.

N20Y1D

Has anyone got access to the article in todays times?

essex_chris

Yes i signed up online and then read the article.

I think it's best to do the same - somebody can feel free to ask if they can copy and paste it, but i'm sure that The Times would prefer people view it on their site.

Register and then try this link - http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/money/consumeraffairs/article2532018.ece

Here is a snippet

Angry users on website forums at bitterwallet.com and moneysaving expert.co.uk and Vodafone’s website accuse the mobile phone giant of lying and have been urging customers to complain to Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, Consumer Direct and the Advertising Standards Authority. A Facebook group has been set up called “Vodafone UK screws its customers on Data Charges”.
Many of the forum users say that they were sold their mobile phone package on the basis that it offered “unlimited” access to the internet at no extra cost. They have been demanding that Vodafone allow them to cancel their contract without penalty on the basis that they were mis-sold.

Mister_M_2

Ok where do we start?

It all began when the premature text messages were sent out informing users they would now be charged if they went over 500MB, once I saw this I became extremely worried, legitimately I may add for 2 reasons. Firstly I was contacted by Vodafone and offered a contract as I had registered an interest in a phone on their website, once they phoned me I explained my current tariff (including 40% loyalty discount from o2) and asked if they could do anything similar, the sales person offered me a very good package, less minutes than I was getting but I never used them anyway so £25 a month a Free HTC desire with 600 minutes, Unlimited texts and UNLIMITED internet. There was NEVER ANY mention of a FUP, never. Secondly I have always used my phone to browse the net and watch videos, so immediately I realised I would at risk of being affected.

My next port of call was to dial 191 and speak to a rep on the 7th May after being told a few things I asked to speak to a manager and was passed to a LADY called Jess, I asked Jess to put a note on my account to say that any charges would be removed as I had signed up for an unlimited internet deal and was not told of any FUP over the phone and even gave her the exact time and day of the sales call to listen to the conversation. Jess told me not to panic and they would be monitoring my bill but if they were to charge me I would have the choice to cancel my contract as this WOULD be a change of my T&C's. I asked her what my current usage was as my account online was not showing and I’m also on the MMS text service which doesn't show data. Jess told me they couldn’t see it yet and to phone back on my billing date 2 weeks later.

2 weeks later I rang 191 again and spoke to a lady named Katie, I asked Katie what my usage for last month was and she told me it was 770MB and I had exceeded my data limit. Katie then told me that this would serve as a verbal warning and if I go over again I will be charged £5. Shocked I explained again about me not being told of any FUP and I asked her to check the noted as to what Jess had told me on our last conversation. Thankfully Jess had put in there what she said so Katie went and got another Manager, this time Ben, Ben reiterated what Katie told me about the charge and said as Jess told me I would be able to terminate my deal with no penalty he would honour this but I would have to put it in writing. He gave me his personal identification number CF1582 and call reference 442073755 as well as the previous call reference 437308299. He told me to email my request and await my PAC and apologised to me and wrote all of this in my notes and it's still there.

So I immediately wrote the email and re joined my previous provider o2, ruing the day I left them and my loyalty discount behind.

I waited a few days and then received an email in response which I assumed would my PAC codes. However all I received was an apology for the misinformation I was given and told if I was informed correctly I would not have panicked and would have realised I wouldn’t be charged yet. All fair and good but it’s too late now as I’ve already gone back to o2 I told them and will still require my PAC.

Various phone calls and web chats were getting me nowhere even though 2 managers stipulated in my notes I would be able to terminate with charge or conditions. So now I’m left with 2 Vodafone and 2 o2 contracts and mounting bills for both. I was finally passed to customer relations where I was spoken by a senior manager called Sheelagh, the first time I spoke to her she spoke down to me and basically accused me of manipulating data to terminate my deal and refused flat out to honour what I was told prior. For the first time I became angry as her tone was very demeaning and even though it was clear as day I was only acting upon what Vodafone told she would not be budging until she conducted a full investigation and would call me back in 1 week. I agreed as she said she would listen to phone calls which I felt would fully vindicate me.

So to my surprise I received a call on Saturday the 22nd at 16.25 from Vodafone. I spoke to an advisor called Nitin who told me he was requesting my PAC's and they would arrive within 48 hours, result or so I thought.

I waited till Wednesday evening because I allowed for the weekend and still had received no text, email or letter with my PAC's so again I called Customer care. I was spoken to by someone called Hamraz who told me Sheelagh was dealing with it and he or she would call me tomorrow. No one called and this was 1 week after Sheelagh told me she would call me. So I rang again and after being told various untruths again. They issued me with a letter of deadlock and that is where I stand today.

I’ve contacted Otelo and began the complaints procedure but still have to pay 4 times line rental and feel very aggrieved. I would still like this sorted without going all the way so hope the E-Team have some power in this.

As for the rest of you, do you think I have a right to be aggrieved or am I fighting a losing battle?