HTC Desire Vodafone 500mb Fair Usage Policy

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ridethelightning wrote: »

I have put in my complaint to Otelo and it has been accepted, but been informed it may take 8-10 weeks for an outcome as they have a lot of cases at trhe moment. I called 191 to find out my data usage for October (as I havent received a bill yet) and was told it was 938Mb. I asked if I was being charged £5 for the extra usage and the woman says "no, i dont know why that hasnt been added".

Edit: Just checked my bill online and I had used 513Mb of data and WAS charged for it!!

This is interesting. Vodafone initially said they are looking at three months-worth of data leading up to October (i.e. July, August, September use) and seeing if it is over 500Mb. Also as part of their cancellation practice they said customers must have received notifications at least three times before they will allow any cancellation (in other words one text per month). Then they would send an email giving you a warning you will get charged £5, as soon as you got that this is your formal notification and you can write in to cancel.

I have read through some of your previous posts but cannot quite get my understanding of your timeline. Did you write into Vodafone telling them you want to cancel, and when did you do this? What was your data use in September?

As far as I understand, although Vodafone state they are comparing three months of use, the general conditions from Ofcom require network operators to compare the previous one month where you went over your allowance and was not charged; then they look at the month you was charged, if it is similar both months then that gives you the right to cancel.

I also noticed someone said you cannot go to Otelo. That is not correct. Vodafone's situation in their overall decision means you cannot make a complaint that will be accepted if your complaint is about the charging policy overall as it is a 'commercial decision' and it is up to the operator who can do as they please. What you can do though is where an operator has made a decision that affects you personally, you can prove this will leave you worse off by over 10% on your usual usage, this forms the basis for a complaint as it is no longer a 'commercial decision' and Otelo will accept the complaint.

The key condition you are looking at is here: http://www.vodafone.co.uk/vodafone-uk/about-this-site/terms-and-conditions/products-and-services/pay-monthly-terms-and-conditions/index.htm (term 11b paragraph 3). Key questions for you: 1, what was your use in September? 2, when did you write to Vodafone? 3, how did you write to Vodafone?

ridethelightning

CitySlicker wrote: »

I have read through some of your previous posts but cannot quite get my understanding of your timeline. Did you write into Vodafone telling them you want to cancel, and when did you do this? What was your data use in September?



Key questions for you: 1, what was your use in September? 2, when did you write to Vodafone? 3, how did you write to Vodafone?

My use in September was 963Mb, I wrote into vodafone around 20th September (snail mail, recorded) and was told I could not cancel as I had not used more than 500Mb in June, July and August. I had informed them that I was in hospital for these 3 months (I was in a serious motorcycle accident) and had even provided them with proof of this.

I bombarded them with emails, at least one a day (I was housebound as I couldnt walk!) and every reply was useless and never answering any questions. Finally after making a thread on their facebook page I got reasonable replies, but still insisted that as my usage was under 500Mb for those three months I could not cancel. The final email stated "this is vodafones final response" so I took this as a deadlock and contacted Otelo.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

I had my committed contract turned into a 30 day rolling plan due to this fiasco but I have decided to cancel the 30 day plan and go to GiffGaff.

I won't ever take a "contract" again - I will buy handsets outright or on a 0% card and then take airtime with who ever is best at the time.

I feel I got out of Vodafone by the skin of my teeth.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

ridethelightning wrote: »

My use in September was 963Mb, I wrote into vodafone around 20th September (snail mail, recorded) and was told I could not cancel as I had not used more than 500Mb in June, July and August. I had informed them that I was in hospital for these 3 months (I was in a serious motorcycle accident) and had even provided them with proof of this.

I bombarded them with emails, at least one a day (I was housebound as I couldnt walk!) and every reply was useless and never answering any questions. Finally after making a thread on their facebook page I got reasonable replies, but still insisted that as my usage was under 500Mb for those three months I could not cancel. The final email stated "this is vodafones final response" so I took this as a deadlock and contacted Otelo.

I think you have excellent grounds for cancellation in that case. You have notified them your intention to cancel before the charge was imposed, you have also used well over 500Mb for September and even though Vodafone state they are looking at the charges over three previous months, their term I linked to above states use will be compared on the previous months' use. The only caveat I would state is your previous bill must be increased by at least 10% with this new charge on comparison.

Have you emailed the director's office? Always helps to put on the pressure, I was dealing with sarah.green2@ (vodafone.com) as well as the usual Vodafone Directors Office <VodafoneDirectorsOffice@gb.vodafone.co.uk>. Start recording your calls and sending transcripts to the office if you have to speak to them about it.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

I had my committed contract turned into a 30 day rolling plan due to this fiasco but I have decided to cancel the 30 day plan and go to GiffGaff.

I won't ever take a "contract" again - I will buy handsets outright or on a 0% card and then take airtime with who ever is best at the time.

I feel I got out of Vodafone by the skin of my teeth.

I would take out another contract if I wanted a specific phone, but what I would do in future is be very wary of fair use policies and sales talk. I was concerned I would use above 500Mb and I researched my concerns on Vodafone's eforum before taking out the contract. Staff routinely told forum users not to worry about the policy, lots of people use above it, they confirmed no pricing structure was in place to charge people anyway.

I know hard caps are a lot more rigid than FUP's, but at least I know where I am with one of those so that is my lesson learnt I think. The hardest lesson of all though was this is my first time with Vodafone. I had been with Cellnet back in the days, One2One, Orange when they came out - I had cycled the networks apart from Vodafone. The one time they had a handset and price plan that suited me I sign up and it's a disaster story. My lesson is I will never return to Vodafone.

PS - 3 never worked out for me, these were the ones I left Vodafone to go on, their internet is too slow unless I have a 3.5G signal. 3G on its own wouldn't even stream a 24kbps AAC internet radio station. I rarely use my phone for calls or texts so I have gone onto T-Mobile PAYG 'Text Appeal', my calls are expensive at 25p/min, but if I have to text which is more likely than call I get this for 3p/text. Internet, which is my main use every day, I get 6 months 1Gb/month use for £20 working out to be £3.33 per month. That'll do me nicely.

n00b_boy

Hi all,

I was lucky enough to get out of my vodafone contract (thanks again to CitySlicker and others who assisted everyone with this process ) and swapped to an Unlimited O2 contract that was taken out before 24th June 2010 to ensure that I received unlimited data, as the CEO Ronan Dunne said would be the case in this article on the O2 website:

http:// mediacentre.o2.co.uk/Press-Releases/O2-introduces-new-mobile-data-pricing-model-2a3.aspx

(You will need to copy and paste and remove the space as I cannot post links yet.)

Unfortunately O2 seem to be repeating Vodafone's farcical handling of the introduction of data caps...


I refer you to this thread:

http:// forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2880304

(copy and paste again!)

I would greatly appreciate any advice on the matter - it appears that I (and any others who have moved to O2 before 24th June) have an identical fight on our hands!

bym007

Luckily I was able to get out of my cortract with Vodafone in time for a new contract with Orange. Now there is no selling miss-selling "Unlimited Internet", just a numerical figure to tell me how much I can use!

ridethelightning

Vodafone are still refusing to cancel my contract and have already charged me for data usage last month. My new desire HD should be arriving next week which will have a far higher data usage than my (c£@ppy) Nokia N97. I put in a complaint to Otelo a few weeks ago but was told it will take upto 10 weeks for an outcome, in this time I will still be paying my vodafone contract and I dont want to have to turn all the features of my new phone off to save on data usage.
I have already emailed the directors office many times but they are refusing to do anything.

Should I cancel my direct debit and inform vodafone that I will no longer pay for a contract that they have changed to become unsuitable for me?

ZootHornRollo

no, don't cancel DD as apparently you cannot dispute an account that you are failing to pay.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

n00b_boy wrote: »

Hi all,

I was lucky enough to get out of my vodafone contract (thanks again to CitySlicker and others who assisted everyone with this process ) and swapped to an Unlimited O2 contract that was taken out before 24th June 2010 to ensure that I received unlimited data, as the CEO Ronan Dunne said would be the case in this article on the O2 website

You're welcome, I have only just seen this post otherwise I would have replied sooner. As to the O2 situation I am not sure what the case is, Voda have exhausted me enough to not want to look into the case with another provider but I am sure someone else will help out. Have we not got a thread on the forum about this yet, or would you start one? I am sure there are enough people who will be affected by this to get some help with this.