HTC Desire Vodafone 500mb Fair Usage Policy

4$£&*(£$&*(!

This is the bit that's not clear about it right now. Have a look on the Vodafone forum link itself http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/topic/71647-mobile-internet-over-fup-limit-charges-are-coming/ and read through the info, most of it is posted yesterday by FM's so it will be on the latest pages. One person has suggested they think nothing can be done about it. Another suggests yes they can still cancel. Yet another says small claims court.

I would recommend posting in that linked thread if you haven't got a text as this is something others are asking yet their staff are not responding.

ninjamoose

Regarding cancellation...

How can an SMS message be considered adequate notification of a change in charges, yet to cancel it must be by written letter? It's just ridiculous!

I emailed them regarding the issue and got the following response -

Thank you for your e-mail.

If you think that out of bundle charging will increase your total bill by 10% or more compared to the same usage in the previous month, you may be entitled to cancel your account without penalty.

You will not be able to request to terminate unless you have received one of these text messages from us:

From Vodafone: To let you know you’re nearly at the end of your monthly data allowance of 500MB. If you need to use additional data there will be a charge of £5 incVAT per 500MB , however we won’t start charging until 1 October 2010. To stop these alerts, text STOP to 40506

From Vodafone: To let you know you’re nearly at the end of your monthly data allowance of 1GB. If you need to use additional data there will be a charge of £5 incVAT per 500MB , however we won’t start charging until 1 October 2010. To stop these alerts, text STOP to 40506.

From Vodafone: To let you know you’re nearly at the end of your daily data allowance of 25MB. If you need to use additional data there will be a charge of 50p incVAT per 25MB , however we won’t start charging until 1 October 2010. To stop receiving these alerts, text STOP to 40506.

If after receiving this text you wish to cancel, you will need to send us written notification that you intend to terminate your contract and proof of why you think your bill will be increased by more than 10%. This must be sent to us in writing before the charges are introduced.

Once the letter you have already posted has been received, we'll assess your request and let you know if it's possible to cancel or not.


I replied asking what they would consider to be proof, given that undoubtedly they would have usage figures - or at least you'd hope as it would be on the basis of these that they would be charging us!

For a communications company, Vodafone seem to have a lot of issues communicating...

gjchester

ninjamoose wrote: »

Regarding cancellation...

How can an SMS message be considered adequate notification of a change in charges, yet to cancel it must be by written letter? It's just ridiculous!

Leaving aside the ridiculousness, they may not even need to do that.

If you have a "official" work notice board at work then putting a change to any T&C on that is considered enough in the eyes of the law. They have notifed you it's down to you to check for notifications.

Silly I know, but VM do it by changing the T&C web site and it's down to you to notice any changes, they don't usually tell you to go luck. Should be specified in the contract how they have to nofify you.

Notsram

Yet another change to 'THE ANNOUNCEMENT'...

'For customers who are already on a "YP" price plan, it's possible to move to the matching newer variant released earlier this year, all of which have a 1GB allowance rather than the 500MB one. When we released these newer plans though, we didn't release newer ones for 12 month contracts, only 18 and 24, so if you're on a 12 month commitment at the moment you won't be able to up your allowance to 1GB and pay the same monthly price, you'd have to change to a different plan.'

4$£&*(£$&*(!

Notsram wrote: »

Yet another change to 'THE ANNOUNCEMENT'...

'For customers who are already on a "YP" price plan, it's possible to move to the matching newer variant released earlier this year, all of which have a 1GB allowance rather than the 500MB one. When we released these newer plans though, we didn't release newer ones for 12 month contracts, only 18 and 24, so if you're on a 12 month commitment at the moment you won't be able to up your allowance to 1GB and pay the same monthly price, you'd have to change to a different plan.'

I could say one day they'll stop making changes like this, but I know after all the changes to that particular announcement they won't.

As far as I can see though that change in the announcement still doesn't stop anyone cancelling under 11.2(c) which is the 10% bill increase clause.

Notsram

Yep, far as I can tell, it just clarifies that those on a 12 month contract aren't eligible to cancel. Thought it might be useful to someone though, hence me posting it here.

Y'know, if I was a cynic, then from the amount of utter confusion there's been over all this from all Vodafone staff, the statements and counter statements, etc. etc. etc, not to mention all the negative PR they're getting from this, I'd say that beyond the fact it'll allow them to screw a few more customers for more money, they hadn't thought this through one little bit before implementing it...

4$£&*(£$&*(!

I didn't quite read it that way. I read it that people on 12 month contracts can still cancel under the 10% clause, but many people are being offered to upgrade from 500Mb monthly fair use to 1Gb monthly hard cap with no change in their monthly charge (although allowances may change). People on the 12 month contract cannot do this unless they pay more for their monthly charge, in other words if they upgrade their tariff.

I still think clause 11.2(c) applies no matter what the duration of your contract is.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

bym007 wrote: »

So do you mean that, if Vodafone do not send me a message about these new charges, and subsequently choose to charge me £5, I cannot do anything about it ?

Someone else has posted their take on this over on the Voda forums. They understand it as if you receive the message stating how much you will be charged for going over, if this takes you over your bill by 10% or more then you have the right to terminate.

If you don't receive this text you shouldn't get charged. If you do receive this text and it has passed 1 October you can still cancel but you will only have 14 days from the day you receive that text to get your letter in. Everyone receiving the texts right now has up until 1 October to get their letters in, so technically could wait until the end of September and their letters should be accepted. It's 14 days after 1 October for everyone though.

What's the betting divide and rule will work then, trying to work out who is on these forums creating the most noise about it so they won't get notice of the charge at the same time as everyone else? This thread often falls back 2-3 days when little is happening, Vodafone know some people they have to get rid of early on, other people they will want to leave even if they are going over their allowance to minimise things kicking off online.

Notsram

I'd say this has already kicked off, to an extent. Don't know about anyone else, but I've already posted on my Facebook page about all this, as well as telling family/friends/workmates.

Word of mouth counts for a lot when choosing something like a mobile network. A lot of people in my circle see me as being a bit of a tech expert (I'm not, but that's beside the point!), so I get asked a fair bit which network I'd recommend - and for the past couple of years, I've said Vodafone - but it's a given that I won't be saying that anymore

At the end of the day, people remember bad reports for far longer than they remember good ones. I know that if I was choosing a new network (which, I very much hope I will be in the next couple of weeks!), I'd be unlilkely to chose one that had tried to rip people off, especially in such an underhand and unprofessional way as this.

pavers

Wonder how long they will take to respond to termintion letter I sent off on friday by recorded delivery , probaly drag their heels.