HTC Desire Vodafone 500mb Fair Usage Policy

N20Y1D

Yolina wrote: »

You just know what they're going to say, don't you... the standard "we haven't changed anything" followed by a threat to trash your credit record if you refuse to pay the ETF, at which point you might want to kindly remind them that they're not legally allowed to default your account if you put the amount in dispute...

They really have got my back up over the whole handling of this thing, the closure of the thread on the eforum immediately prior to the release of the latest statement was the final straw, after all its not like they were even bothering to do anything other than delete posts so where was the harm in letting it run.

Yolina

Their attitude is totally pathetic... and I'm sure they're going to stall for as long as they can, which was one of my reasons for working out a deal with them for the rest of my contract, I'm going on hols in a few months and wouldn't want to have to deal with having to notify them when I'm out of the country. I really shouldn't have left O2... if I'd stayed with them I'd still be on my really good sim-only deal! This was the first time in many years that I didn't buy my handset sim-free and went for a contract instead... never again lol

essex_chris

It's not going to change though until somebody challenges them about not letting people out of contract immediately via the courts, or the ombudsman steps in. Otelo require 8 weeks before they will intervene as far as i can tell.

I'm just going to continue, wait and see when they ask me to change my tariff, i'll refuse, they'll inform me that they will bill me in 14days, then i'll inform them that i want my PAC code and am going to cancel without penalty, and then within a few days from then this merry dance will be over.

bym007

essex_chris wrote: »

It's not going to change though until somebody challenges them about not letting people out of contract immediately via the courts, or the ombudsman steps in. Otelo require 8 weeks before they will intervene as far as i can tell.

I'm just going to continue, wait and see when they ask me to change my tariff, i'll refuse, they'll inform me that they will bill me in 14days, then i'll inform them that i want my PAC code and am going to cancel without penalty, and then within a few days from then this merry dance will be over.

I am in a similar boat, but even after about 600+ MB of usage this month, I have not been notified.

So my course of action is to carry on using the mobile in my normal behaviour, and if and when VF will contact me regarding the new charges, I will request a PAC code + contract termination.

Until then, its usage as normal.

vixmony

I have recieved a few notifications by voda regarding going over what email can i write to in order to recieve the same response others have recieved regarding the cancelation if changes will affect me please?.

essex_chris

Best thing is to try using the contact us form on the website. You will get a reply, ultimately if you are dealing with somebody in the Webteam Tom Rushton is the manager, and i've personally been dealing with Lee.

The current situation is that Vodafone will alert you by text message if you go over your allowance, and if you continue to do so then they wil contact you by telephone to give you options to change to another tariff. You are not obliged to do so, and if you don't then they will inform you that you will be charged for excess use and give you 14 days notice that it will start. You can then write to them to cancel without penalty - assuming that the charge will increase your standard bill by 10%.

That is as i understand it.

Effectively because they are saying that it might not affect everybody, and frankly i'm not sure if that can be trusted. Then your best option is simply to keep using lots of data, making it more likely that you will be contacted.

I'd rather it not be this way, but if this is the means by which Vodafone want to deal with a tiny proportion of customers (their own description) who use enough data and bandwidth to affect other customers then frankly they deserve to lose a bit of money from people who they are planning on charging despite promising before during and after a sale that they would not.

It's been Vodafones own decision to treat all customers in the same way as those it described during sales as the tetherers, the P2P downloaders, the multigigabytes per month mobile internet users.

When changes are made to new customers over time there is a natural transition to the new tariffs by all customers except a relative few. You've probably all been aware of new tariffs that give you more calls, texts etc and are cheaper compared to one you were on before. Switching over is a choice to the customer. In 12months time i would be able to continue paying £35 a month (i have a discount of 50% but it's only for 18months), or if i want a new deal then i might have to accept 1gb a month with a hard limit and publicly known charges for data over that, instead of 500b a month with a soft limit and fair use policy. That's how it was sold, and Vodafone don't want to honour it, they want to pretend like salespeople made a mistake, or we misunderstood.

That's why it's acceptable for them to take a few hits when savvy customers cancel without penalty.

andywicks

KevinM2k wrote: »

essex_chris: Be careful about them telling you can cancel if they charge you for going over.. it really depends on your bill and usage. If say this month, you ring a lot of numbers not included in your allowance having the effect of putting you bill up by say £10. Then next month, you do the same but it only puts your bill up by £5 but then you also get charged £5 for your data. The bill would be the same as the one previous and therefore you wouldn't be able to cancel on the 10% ruling. Just be aware of that. They are quite sneaky on this.

In order to minimise the risk of increasing your monthly bill by calling non-geographic numbers take a look at https://www.saynoto0870.com, or https://www.0800buster.com. Since I have started using these sites my excess charges have decreased to zero!

Andy

andywicks

andywicks wrote: »

Yesterday I received another response from Andrew Woodvine regarding my complaint over this matter:



... and this is what I sent in response:




If I manage to get a response to my email then I believe that will give me clear direction; if they confirm that I will not be charged then I will leave the matter alone; if they confirm that this is a new charge then the matter will be taken up with OTELO.

...although I am not too hopeful of a decisive response to my question!

Andy

Yesterday I received a response to my latest email regarding my complaint:

Paul_Harrison wrote:

Hi Andy

Our position hasn't (and won't) alter; this isn't a decision that was lightly made.

As mentioned previously, before we charge anyone, we will be contacting those who would be affected with options from priceplan changes or cancellation without penalty.

If you would be affected, you would be contacted before any change takes place.

With this in mind, this constant exchange of emails will not be fruitful and if you are affected, the statement on the eForum shows what we intend to do.

OTELO have been consulted and will not take on the issue of our change in billing policy. We work closely with OTELO and confirmed this before announcing we would be looking at data usage over the next few months.

Thanks

Paul

Paul Harrison
Vodafone Customer Relations

Andy

essex_chris

Oh i'm a regular user of saynoto0870, generally speaking my bills include very little in the way of out of bundle charges. Not for long though apparently.

That last response reads a bit smarmy to me. Vodafone have had over a month - they could have established a clear level of data use which they consider to be truly excessive. This would not be purely over 500mb as current statements say, and they could then make it clear those would would be warned and then contacted ahead of any charges.

Only then would some customers who feel aggrieved have much ground to stand on to be able to say "this isn't what you sold me" or "i was sold an unlimited package". Customers would likely struggle to take on Vodafone over claims of genuinely unlimited use. If up till now Vodafone haven't had charges in place or their T&Cs had holes in them then more fool them. This is very unlikely i think.

There is clear evidence to support what people have been saying that Vodafone made numerous promises to existing and prospective customers that contracts sold were only chargeable in some very particular extreme circumstances.

I can't imagine that Vodafone haven't been in communication with Otelo over the last month, but i wonder what Otelo have got to say about it.

N20Y1D

essex_chris wrote: »

There is clear evidence to support what people have been saying that Vodafone made numerous promises to existing and prospective customers that contracts sold were only chargeable in some very particular extreme circumstances.

Indeed:

"At the end of the day, the only reason the Fair Usage Policy exists, is to allow us to take action against a very small minority of users who are blatantly taking the michael when it comes to what they use their data connections for. These are usually people who are using the phone as a modem, hooked up to a computer which is using file-sharing 24/7, or hosting a website, or streaming an internet radio station - all sorts of things for which they should really have forked out the extra for a proper business account or high-volume solution - but who also don't mind ruining the quality of the service for the rest of us by soaking up all our bandwidth."