HTC Desire Vodafone 500mb Fair Usage Policy

KevinM2k_2

Ive just had a chat with Karen from Web Relations, and she has totally cleared up my questions but they are very sneaky.

For the next few months they are monitoring usage, and will send a text message to let you know when you have passed your 500mb allowance.

After a few months they will contact you, try to move you over to a 1GB capped tariff, if you refuse they will inform you, that you will be charged in the next 14 days.

At this point you need to write a letter in and tell them you want to cancel due to the new charges on your account and that it will put your bill up by 10%, this will allow you to terminate without any ETF and keep the phone.

This is the sneaky bit... the usage they look at is the previous month ONLY, and they look at the overall bill not just your web usage.

So for example, if you in one month ring a lot of 0845 and 0870 numbers, making your bill go from like £35 to say £39, in the next month if you make no calls to any of the 0870 numbers but get charged £5 for your internet usage. Your bill would be £40, this would be compared to your previous bill of £39, and as you can see would NOT be a 10% increase in your bill.

Therefore, from now on for a couple of months DO NOT ring any non free numbers from your mobile.

Hope that makes some sense, i'm clear on what is happening now anyways.

Yolina

Don't use your phone either if you're going abroad during the next few months...

Edit: and also no sending any picture messages

330d

KevinM2k wrote: »

Ive just had a chat with Karen from Web Relations, and she has totally cleared up my questions but they are very sneaky.

For the next few months they are monitoring usage, and will send a text message to let you know when you have passed your 500mb allowance.

After a few months they will contact you, try to move you over to a 1GB capped tariff, if you refuse they will inform you, that you will be charged in the next 14 days.

At this point you need to write a letter in and tell them you want to cancel due to the new charges on your account and that it will put your bill up by 10%, this will allow you to terminate without any ETF and keep the phone.

This is the sneaky bit... the usage they look at is the previous month ONLY, and they look at the overall bill not just your web usage.

So for example, if you in one month ring a lot of 0845 and 0870 numbers, making your bill go from like £35 to say £39, in the next month if you make no calls to any of the 0870 numbers but get charged £5 for your internet usage. Your bill would be £40, this would be compared to your previous bill of £39, and as you can see would NOT be a 10% increase in your bill.

Therefore, from now on for a couple of months DO NOT ring any non free numbers from your mobile.

Hope that makes some sense, i'm clear on what is happening now anyways.

Thank you very much. :T

This is what im going to do, go over the 500mb limit, wait for them to charge me, send letter to cancel contract.

But i cant see vodafone giving in this easily.

bym007

imr4n wrote: »

Thank you very much. :T

This is what im going to do, go over the 500mb limit, wait for them to charge me, send letter to cancel contract.

But i cant see vodafone giving in this easily.

Its sad to see that customers have to change their mobile usage to stay in or go out of the contract!

essex_chris

swilliam wrote: »

Load each page, use print screen and then paste to Photoshop or similar. That will keep a full record of Vodamoans inept shenanigans.

Cheers for the suggestion, but i can save each page out and keep it that way, was hoping that someone more familiar with the particular Vodafone forum software to know of a trick to do it.

Have tried fiddling with the URL and numbers within when doing a print version but no success. If i find anything i'll post back.

It's silly that this whole thing has come up because Vodafone want to deal with users who do use excessive amounts in relation to how the packages are described & sold. It's been quite some time since i think anybody can seriously use the 'unlimited' defence, but Vodafone have really chosen a silly way of going about it.

They are giving people who have always used gigabytes a month or more a get out clause, and punishing all other customers. They aren't being very open and upfront about the changes. I suspect that if they let every customer know on their next bill that this is happening then they would be faced with many more than 3% of customers going over the 500mb allowance, and then when billed using the 10% rule to get out of a contract penalty free.

They are not tackling the problem head on, are simply aggravating otherwise happy & loyal customers, and are trying to pull of a trick of Houdiniesque proportions.

I know that in the several years i have been a customer i have paid thousands of pounds to them, introduced dozens of mobile broadband customers, many more dozens of mobile customers, and plenty of blackberry customers. I'd have continued to do so as despite some cockups here and there since 2003 they have overall done a stirling job.

Not anymore

330d

Just to add further, vodafone say that they will monitor the usage for a few months if you go over.

Lets say, this months that i go well over (2-3gb) by streaming world cup, will they act any quicker about charging you or still be a few months?

brett_2

Used my phone for a few updates and looked at facebook and bbc web site a few times and im on 15mb. What is the point of a smart phone if im going to worry about my data all the time.

may as well have a nokia 3210

vixmony

Damn i seem to have lost my initial contract i signed in store any idea how i can get a print out?.

ZootHornRollo

your bill would need to be over £50 before a £5 charge was less than 10%

330d

ZootHornRollo wrote: »

your bill would need to be over £50 before a £5 charge was less than 10%

Not really,

KevinM2k wrote: »

This is the sneaky bit... the usage they look at is the previous month ONLY, and they look at the overall bill not just your web usage.

So for example, if you in one month ring a lot of 0845 and 0870 numbers, making your bill go from like £35 to say £39, in the next month if you make no calls to any of the 0870 numbers but get charged £5 for your internet usage. Your bill would be £40, this would be compared to your previous bill of £39, and as you can see would NOT be a 10% increase in your bill.