HTC Desire Vodafone 500mb Fair Usage Policy

martpendle

spill! howd u do it? im currently ramping up data usage after talking to VF, 'cos they say its the onyl way they will review my account!

4$£&*(£$&*(!

First make sure you comply with their announcement. I was consistently over 500Mb since May (although I have only once exceeded 1Gb). That means month on month, they can see you will be subject to the new charge based on your historic use.

Second make sure the new charges increase your use by at least 10% based on your current charges, this is the crucial point that gives you the right to terminate under clause 11.2.

Third your cancellation letter must be sent by post to the address given on the announcement over on the Vodafone forums and I strongly recommend it is posted using the Royal Mail tracked service (some have gone Special Delivery to guarantee an arrival time but this is not essential, and a standard tracked letter only cost me £1.15 as opposed to the £5 Special Delivery equivalent - this arrived the very next day and is as fast as first class post).

Fourth, until the charges are applied to your bill you will only be permitted to cancel if you have received a text stating you may be charged £5 from 1 October. If you don't get this text, you don't have the right to cancel YET. You have to be charged (or told you will be charged) which is your notification of the change, as soon as this happens you then have the right to cancel. Clause 11.2(c) only applies if you are almost certainly going to be more than 10% worse off (and Vodafone have used my history to see on my previous use I will be subject to this new fee), but if you don't have the history for them to look at and make a decision, you have to wait for them to say you will be charged or if they send you a bill. In other words, keep using the internet however you normally do until you are notified of a charge.

Fifth point is to keep consistently using 500Mb+ data. If, for instance, this month you use 400Mb and next month you use 600Mb when the charges come into play, the 10% rule may only be applied on the basis of your previous use. I am not saying this is certain, but Vodafone MAY say in October you used 200Mb more than September in my example, therefore expect to be charged. Yet use similar amounts over 500Mb and they are in no position to argue this point.

My sixth point is to keep a record of everything and to also be a complete pain to them. I reached this point after no fewer than 65 emails, emailing their global CEO's office, emailing their UK Director's office, cc'ing Web Relations, posting frequently on their forum about it, and highlighting precise points when things go wrong. Yesterday I was told during a phone call I would have to take my phone into a Vodafone store to show them the texts I had got proving I could cancel, and the £5 charge for out-of-bundle data had been in place for 'forever'. A recording of this call was sent to the CEO and Director's office. If you do record calls, make it clear at the start of the call (for instance after you have confirmed your security information, tell them you need to keep a record of this call, then anything after you have advised their staff is being recorded can be submitted to a third party such as a solicitor). Even if you don't tell a member of staff their call is being recorded, it can still be used for your personal use and for Vodafone's personal use between the two of you, but current telecoms provisions will not allow such recording to be submitted to a third party, however if you are in this position I would seek legal advice before doing anything with a recorded call.

Keep being a total pain though, just like they have been a total pain to us. Don't give up either.

martpendle

thanks for all your advice, im in a stange one at the moment, im going to shoot up to way over 10% more by the end of the moneth as i go back to Uni and will be commuteing alot more and watching iplayer programs and listening to radio more, so at the moment I am well under the 500mb but soon will be well over it! i am currently using the net alot more so my next bill will show i went over, and hey if they chnaged it, and it isnt what i signe dup for, surely i should be able to get out scott free? there's only one way to find out - let the nagging begin

(thanks for the advice on being a pain in the !!! sometimes i forget that they dont actually want to help me at all!)

4$£&*(£$&*(!

On that score I am not entirely certain, I am not a legal eagle, but I do know they will be comparing your previous month's use with the month you are charged, but let's look at the get-out clause 11.2(c).

"We increase your Charges in the UK which have the effect of increasing your total call and usage charges (based upon your usage in the previous month) by more than 10% and you write to us before the increase takes effect"

There is a possibility in there if you use way under 500Mb right now, but you use over 500Mb when the charges come into play, Vodafone will say there has been a change in your behaviour and based upon your usage during the previous month it is your fault you have been charged as your past behaviour showed you was using less data. You could well argue for months before you had been using more data and the month before you was charged was a low 'blip', but their clause only makes remit to compare your current month with the past month (I believe these are billing not calendar months we are talking about too).

They could use their discretion in that case, but would you trust them using their discretion if you read the previous 75 pages on this topic?

Word to the wise, if you normally use more than 500Mb data but this month you haven't, I would make a bit more use of your phone to err on the side of caution.

martpendle

yeah i really cannot and will never trust vodafone ever again, i would like to think that beacuse the terms of the contract have changed that i can get out beacuse its not my fault and not what i agreed to

In reality though i think the best i can hope for is a discount on my tarrif!

yay for vodafone!

4$£&*(£$&*(!

It has been asked on the Vodafone forums which email addresses I have used throughout. I did not want to publish them on the Vodafone forums, but here they are for you:

All ending (at) vodafone.com

guy.laurence
vittorio.colao
vodafonedirectorsoffice

There is also webrelations@gb.vodafone.co.uk and ccare.webmails@help.vodafone.co.uk

martpendle

wow thats amazing, thank you for posting the addresses!

Notsram

CitySlicker wrote: »

It has been asked on the Vodafone forums which email addresses I have used throughout. I did not want to publish them on the Vodafone forums, but here they are for you:

All ending (at) vodafone.com

guy.laurence
vittorio.colao
vodafonedirectorsoffice

There is also [EMAIL="webrelations@gb.vodafone.co.uk"]webrelations@gb.vodafone.co.uk[/EMAIL] and [EMAIL="ccare.webmails@help.vodafone.co.uk"]ccare.webmails@help.vodafone.co.uk[/EMAIL]

Congratulations Cityslicker! Hopefully many of us will have similar good news too. I've just received a text from vodafone saying they're reviewing my situation and will give me an answer in the next 24 hours, so fingers crossed I'll be joining you and leaving Vodafone very soon as my case fits all the necessary criteria.

I'd agree that being a pain in the bum is the way forward here. I've not sent as many emails as you, but I must have sent over 30 and simply asked my questions yet again when they fobbed me off with a totally irrelevant reply.

Notsram

I'm shocked... not only did Vodafone do as they promised, and answer my question within 24 hours, but their answer was actually relevant to the question!

But (and there always seems to be a but with Vodafone!), the answer wasn't quite what I was hoping for.

This is what they sent me this morning:-

"Thank you for your recent email requesting the cancellation of your account due to our out of bundle charges for data.
We have assessed your last bill and confirm the charges would not increase your overall bill by more than 10%; you are not eligible to cancel your account without penalty due to this reason.
If you still wish to cancel your account, you’ll need to pay the early cancellation charge, which has been mentioned on our earlier email."


And this is the reply I sent back:-


Message body"Thank you for your email, but I'm afraid I don't understand how you've arrived at this decision.


As stated in my letter of August 25th, my internet usage for the previous 3 months has been as follows:-


Up to 17/08/2010 - 1001 MB
Up to 15/07/2010 - 875 MB
Up to 16/06/2010 - 1200 MB


These figures are taken from my Vodafone bill on your website. Therefore, according to the text message I received from Vodafone on August 23rd, which states that as of October 1st, I will be charged £5 for every 500 MB (or part therof) which I use over my allowance of 500MB, the increase to my monthly bill would be, respectively £10, £5 and £10.


My Vodafone contract is for £25.63 + VAT (£30.00 inclusive of VAT), and therefore these charges will clearly increase my bill by more than 10%


Could you therefore please explain to me why I am not eligible to cancel?


I await your reply."


Message body




No reply to this yet, but I think I'm going to have to ring them.

Can anyone recommend a good (and free) voice recorder that I can use on my phone? I might actually get a straight answer if I tell them I'm recording the call

4$£&*(£$&*(!

How odd, I take it you didn't switch to the 1Gb capped plan? Could be a Director's office job.

I use Recaller on the N900, if you do record a call make sure you say you are recording at the start of the call in order to use it legally in any future defence if you end up in a battle.