HTC Desire Vodafone 500mb Fair Usage Policy

bym007

nickmack wrote: »

In a vain attempt to get clarification on clause 27 of the contract with particular regard to the terms 'excessive' and the 'standard rate' I called VF CS.

The first person I spoke to insisted nothing had changed and customers have always been charged for exceeding 500Mb. When I asked him to point me to the charges and clarify how 'Unlimited with a FUP' was the same as a 500Mb hard limit above which charges would be made, he started talking about being charged for International texts on an 'Unlimited' text plan. This call ended with me being passed to a supervisor and being cut off.

My second call started ok until the CS rep kept interrupting me whilst I was asking questions and referring me to T&Cs. When I told them not to be rude and allow me to complete my question, they told me to send an email. I asked where I could find details of the 'standard rate' pricing structure to define charges for 'excessive' and was told it was in my contract. When I pressed and asked for the clause I was told actually it's not in the contract. After 10 minutes of trying to get some kind of straight answer, I was informed my time was up and there were other people on the line and the call was promptly terminated.

What an absolute shambles of a CS department they have. Reps have seemingly been told to refer customers to irrelevant and non-existent T&Cs, state there are no material changes to the contract and not enter into any further debate. There's no need to constantly interrupt the customer and hang up (twice).

Umm.... I think that they are waiting for their legal team to come up with a "brilliant" idea to sneak the charges while avoiding any customer cancel their contracts. Until, they will find a way, or until their time runs out (2 weeks to 1st Jume = 18th May), we will get kicked left and right ....

DarkConvict

But in order to cancel under clause 11, you need to be giving your notice to leave penalty free asap, otherwise the 30 days notice will have expired.

bym007

DarkConvict wrote: »

But in order to cancel under clause 11, you need to be giving your notice to leave penalty free asap, otherwise the 30 days notice will have expired.

Totally agree with you there, but I suppose what is not crystal clear is where to start counting the 2 weeks notice period from (is it 6th May when Tom broke the duck about charges?)?

Also what exactly will be the objection raised to invoke the clause ?

I am sending a cancellation notice (by registered post ofcourse) as soon as these specifics are clear to me.

djheath

nickmack wrote: »

In a vain attempt to get clarification on clause 27 of the contract with particular regard to the terms 'excessive' and the 'standard rate' I called VF CS.

The first person I spoke to insisted nothing had changed and customers have always been charged for exceeding 500Mb. When I asked him to point me to the charges and clarify how 'Unlimited with a FUP' was the same as a 500Mb hard limit above which charges would be made, he started talking about being charged for International texts on an 'Unlimited' text plan. This call ended with me being passed to a supervisor and being cut off.

My second call started ok until the CS rep kept interrupting me whilst I was asking questions and referring me to T&Cs. When I told them not to be rude and allow me to complete my question, they told me to send an email. I asked where I could find details of the 'standard rate' pricing structure to define charges for 'excessive' and was told it was in my contract. When I pressed and asked for the clause I was told actually it's not in the contract. After 10 minutes of trying to get some kind of straight answer, I was informed my time was up and there were other people on the line and the call was promptly terminated.

What an absolute shambles of a CS department they have. Reps have seemingly been told to refer customers to irrelevant and non-existent T&Cs, state there are no material changes to the contract and not enter into any further debate. There's no need to constantly interrupt the customer and hang up (twice).

That really is shocking! Vodafone really should be able to point you to where the contract is located on their site. I too just cannot find where the t&c's of my contract are either, or the fine print of the fup policy either. Their site is a shambles!

essex_chris

I've made a point of writing a fairly specific enquiry this morning to send back to the director office email that i received an email from yesterday after speaking to Amanda on the telephone.

Hi Amanda, thanks for both your first call and the second follow up to clarify in regards to the correspondence that i would receive. I have read your note, and believe i have read similar posts onthe Vodafone eForum seeking to clarify the position.

There are still a few things that i would like to clarify further if possible.

(link removed for being a new user)

That link goes to what i believe is the most recent update currently, and since it goes into greater detail that the email you sent yesterday i would like if possible to confirm the differences between up till now, and the proposed changes.

As i understand it currently and on all Mobile Internet Bundles i have had on my tariff before there has been what is commonly called a 'soft' limit of 500Mb - subject to a fair use policy. Customers who go over this limit may be contacted and it suggested that they regulate their data use. Repeat offenders understandably going over the soft limit by a signifcant amount would be subject to charging. Talking to 191 staff or reading posts by Vodafone Staff or Moderators on the Vodafone eForum gives a variety of answers as to whether 50% over the limit (750Mb), or double the limit (1000Mb) is enough to warrant contact from Vodafone and cause for being billed. There has been a general consensus that users consistently using gigabytes of mobile internet data were the tiny minority of users who cause problems which affect everyone.

Just to give some comparison from my own point of view i requested my PAC code to move away from Vodafone in January likely to go to T-Mobile on a SIM only deal, or possibly with an Android phone. The FUP on this was up to 3Gb as per (link removed for being a new user) but the clear description of Vodafones policy as being a soft limit was a significant factor in persuading me to stay with Vodafone, and then agree to a new 18month contract.

According to (link removed for being a new user) it seems that any data use over 500Mb will be considered excessive, and then i may need to add a mobile broadband bundle, or pay £5 a month for 500Mb extra data allowance.

Can you confirm that this is the case please? Could you also confirm what the costs of the mobile broadband bundles are?

As i understand it since taking out my new deal in January had i used say 550Mb each month i would possibly be contacted, but that there was no question of being charged as although over the limit this would not be considered abuse or excessive use. When the new changes occur it looks likely that instead of paying £17.50 a month i will be paying upwards of £22.50 for even small amounts of data over 500Mb a month. On a modern Android smartphone this is not excessive.

I would point out that as i mentioned on the phone it was considered that i would be working whilst travelling withing months of agreeing to the new contract, so whilst my use has been well within the 500Mb soft limit as i have been using Wifi, this was not likely to continue. This is a significant factor in the sale of the contract and i would appreciate it if you would clarify for me if possible.

I have read other posts by Vodafone staff on the eForum and there has been mention of some 10% change in price plan due to changes - in my case £22.50 upwards instead of £17.50 is significant.

Thank you for your help thus far and i hope to hear from you soon.

Regards

essex_chris

I would certainly like to confirm the validity of posts on the eForum in regards to answering the questions that have been raised. The email i received yesterday was a quite basic text mentioning 3% of customers, a mistakenly sent text message, and a free service alerting customers - but nothing of any real substance.

So far the response i have had in regards to clearing up problem on my account has been more than satisfactory in terms of resolving issues so i hope this will continue.

gjchester

I still think you'll get nowhere as VF have always said that anything over 500MB may be charged, note whats MAY not will, and so far they have used their discression and not charged for thye excess. It's in the contract you probably only skim read before you signed up, it's not a policy change they are just clarifying the charge position.

However it's interesting that people are encouraging others to use more data just because they can to maybe give them a reason to cancel later. It's not in the spirit of moneysavingexpert and rather a bit two faced to say VF are being underhand when this sort of dishonesty is being encouraged.

I don't suppose anyone has thought that it's this sort of abuse of a "fair use" system that forces companies to put these charges in place and one again the acts of a greedy few ruin it for all.

I know I'll be flamed for this but if you do this and later get charged a penalty cost because you used too much data I'd be the first to say told you so.

essex_chris

In my case it's the either deliberate or uninformed misselling that i have a problem with. I was moving to T-Mobile but my doubts about the service, and Vodafones insistence that 500Mb was a soft limit and for the duration of the contract i would not be at risk of extra charges unless i was abusing the limit. Their definition of abuse was vague, but figures of gigabytes were mentioned as abuse, whereas 50% over or even double the 500Mb were quoted as being ok.

The latest update appears to make it clear that 3 months of say 525Mb would be chargeable - to me and most people this is directly contary to what was sold.

I think it's a little underhand to suggest that people go over their limit intentionally - but this is a response to Vodafones comments in regards to users who already go over being able to cancel, but those who haven't but might who will be charged. That is effectively saying "if you broke the rules and abused the limit you have a get out clause, if you didn't then sorry tough!"

TheLibertine

Hope N20Y1D doesn't mind me reporting this but very interesting...

Its also worth complaining to otelo, i beleive vodafone get charged for every complaint that is investigated... or something like that.


What happens if a customer decides to take the case to you anyway: do I still have to pay Otelo's case fee?You have the fundamental right to try to resolve the customer's complaint for up to two months (eight weeks), before the Ombudsman can become involved. If agreement is not reached by the time your company decides that 'deadlock' has been reached, or after three months, then your customer has the opportunity to come to the Ombudsman. If the Ombudsman accepts the case as a complaint, then, yes, you will be charged for Otelo's investigation of the case.

N20Y1D

gjchester wrote: »

I still think you'll get nowhere as VF have always said that anything over 500MB may be charged, note whats MAY not will, and so far they have used their discression and not charged for thye excess. It's in the contract you probably only skim read before you signed up, it's not a policy change they are just clarifying the charge position.

Hi Simon,

The information you’ve been given here is spot on!

You will not be charged for going over the 500MB fair usage. Should you continue to exceed 500MB on a regular basis then we will contact you and ask you to moderate your usage, however there is no automatic charging in place.

All the best

Jenny
eForum Team

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Hi Delveh,

It was removed from the texts only for customers who were on a Fair Usage or "Unlimited" plan, as there isn't a set amount of data available, so the amount wouldn't really mean anything.

Although we state a Fair Usage Policy amount of 500MB, this is just our guideline for how much the average user is likely to need. If you exceed that, we do not impose any extra charges - only users who are consistantly exceeding this amount on a monthly basis are likely to be contacted and asked to either reduce their usage, or negotiate a plan more suitable to their requirements.

Were everyone to suddenly start exceeding 500MB a month, then we'd simply raise the limit, as it would no longer be a working guideline for abuse of the service. This is reviewed constantly. To date, we have not had a single report of anyone on the eForum exceeding their Fair Usage Limit, so it really is nothing at all to worry about

Jon

eForum Team

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N20Y1D

Heres the link (i didnt want to give them an excuse to delete it :

http://www.otelo.org.uk/pages/49bypubliccommunicationsproviders.php

TheLibertine wrote: »

Hope N20Y1D doesn't mind me reporting this but very interesting...

Its also worth complaining to otelo, i beleive vodafone get charged for every complaint that is investigated... or something like that.


What happens if a customer decides to take the case to you anyway: do I still have to pay Otelo's case fee?You have the fundamental right to try to resolve the customer's complaint for up to two months (eight weeks), before the Ombudsman can become involved. If agreement is not reached by the time your company decides that 'deadlock' has been reached, or after three months, then your customer has the opportunity to come to the Ombudsman. If the Ombudsman accepts the case as a complaint, then, yes, you will be charged for Otelo's investigation of the case.