HTC Desire Vodafone 500mb Fair Usage Policy

bym007

With recession in order, I believe Vodafone are more to blame for this mess by tipping the customers over....

Why mess with (somewhat) happily paying customers?

gjchester

bym007 wrote: »

With recession in order, I believe Vodafone are more to blame for this mess by tipping the customers over....

Why mess with (somewhat) happily paying customers?

Personaly I think it's the EU getting involved thats a the root of it. The more controls and cost fixing they put on mobiles the more we get issues.

Setting the limit on EU roaming costs per minute came in and then shortly after 12 month contracts ceased to be commonly available. Now I know that this was something that potentially could cost a fortune to the user but really was mainly business travellers who put it on expenses and didn't care. When I went away on holiday I took the phone as an emergency measure. If I made a call it was an emergency and I knew I'd have to pay.

Then the EU put a cap on Data roaming and now restrictions on data use come in. Co-inceidence? Possibly, possibly not.


Vodafone (and all the mobile co's) are businesses and need to make a profit. When the EU sets a limit on one segment of the business they change the costs elsewhere.

essex_chris

These things are obviously linked because it all comes down to the bottom line - money.

I have taken my phone away with me when going abroad, i checked on call costs before going, and i have a reasonable idea of the costs when i take out the contract.

Should Vodafone suddenly decide that they will charge me say 50p per minute outside of any deal that charges me ~75p before taking calls out of my inclusive minutes then understandably i am going to be unhappy.

It shouldn't make any difference if i haven't been out of the UK before so i'm not really sure of the validity of the 10% issue.

I think that these changes for existing customers are significant and represent a mistake on Vodafones part. For anybody who was told that the 500mb limit was a soft limit it is a cockup and has been badly handled. For myself and anyone like me who specifically queried or researched the data allowance, 500mb limit and details of the fair use policy and who it affected this debacle boils down to downright lies and misselling of contracts.

I still hope (but barely) that Vodafone will see the error of their ways.

Vodafone should;

1.) ...only apply this 500mb hard limit to new contracts agreed on or after June 1st.

2.) ...continue to apply a 500Mb soft limit to existing customers, and in my opinion any new ones between now and June 1st unless the sales advice categorically states the full details and makes the customer aware, whether they ask or not.

3.) ...decide upon a sensible hard limit in line with realistic use of Mobile Internet with smartphones. 1Gb might not be seen as enough to many but would be a sensible compromise. use above 1Gb should be contacted and presented with sensibly priced options (£5 per 500Mb is actually quite reasonable IMHO).

4.) Enforce any new limit after making clear to customers both prospective through advertising/website, and existing customers by text/email/post that say two successive months of use over the hard limit would be chargeable at published rates.

This would represent a fair system which would be roughly in line with how policies have been sold for some time, allow for cost implications to the customer who uses data siginificantly above the average amount, and should remove the ability of a difficult customer to simply abuse the service by using gigabytes of data for 2-3months and then curtail their use for 1month to bring themselves back out of any charging zone.

I have my suspicions that Vodafone are using the classic tactic of scaremongering about very tough rules and enforcement of them, only to relax them a little and the vast majority of people breathe a sigh of relief, whilst still being charged more than they used to be.

I hope to be proved wrong.

When a company mistakenly advertises something and people try desperately to use the letter of the law to force that company to sell an item it's not fair on the seller and the customer should be ashamed.

When a company repeatedly advertises something and advises prospective customers to stay with them or to join, only to try to not provide what was promised it is not fair on the customer and the seller should be ashamed.

Both sides at times try to hide behind terms and conditions, confusing statements which do not specifically deal with the problem, or use the benfit of the doubt for nefarious purposes.

Vodafone bosses should be ashamed of this whole debacle

KevinM2k_2

When did vodafone turn off the live chat to the customer representatives.

Do we have any further knowledge of whats going on? Has anyone cancelled there contract?

kev

N20Y1D

Woby_Tide wrote: »

Reading the Voda forums it more comes down to "How can I cancel the contract and keep my £300+ handset for nothing?"

Or "How can we get away with intoducing charges. changing our T&Cs and generaly taking our customers for every penny?"


People couldnt try and cancel if vodafone didnt make these changes to already existing contracts.


I wonder how people like you would react if there was a loophole that allowed you to escape from your mortgage without a penalty.


These companies make these changes for one reason only. PROFIT!

KevinM2k_2

Has there been any news N20? Can't believe some people are just going to accept it... theyre the kinda customers voda would like! Roll over and take anything voda tell them.

N20Y1D

Just found this on the Vodafone e-forum from June last year:

You need to consider that for every customer who owns a Magic and uses the internet, there are 10 that own basic phones and only use it for calls and texts. The FUP isn't just based on smart phone users; it’s based on usage across the entire Vodafone network.

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/topic/29065-concerns-over-extremely-low-data-fup-with-magic/page__view__findpost__p__194226

In my personal view, and that of Offcom's, the word "Unlimited" in this context is not being mis-used.

There is no limit to how much data you can use on the Mobile Internet packs - if you use more than 500MB it does not stop working, and you do not get charged. It is truly unlimited as per the dictionary definition.

The common factor in all these discussions, (and I have to admit to being very weary of having to re-iterate the point to lots of different customers, but that's by no means your fault) seems to be down to fear. Fear that because there's some small print in your contract that mentions 500MB, that if you step over this margin by even a tiny amount, that men in black appear at your door demanding an extortionate amount of money or stick a cork in your internet pipe. I know I'm exaggerating for effect here, but it really is the case that our Fair Usage Policy is not in place to try and catch people out. Far from it!

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.

It's highly unlikely that we're going to crack down on people just for watching YouTube - something which your phone was actually designed to be able to do without much effort. You really don't have anything to worry about, and I just wish more people were able to relax and enjoy their unlimited internet without panic about how much they've used that month. It's a fantastic high-value service that we're offering, but it just seems too many people think this is too good to be true

Jon

eForum Team

danielz000

Hillarious... Catch from the eForum Buddy!

They really are a bunch of mother f***ers!

Anyway... My cancellation letter and final cheque was delivered and signed for on Saturday, I'll let you know, if or when I hear any more!

KevinM2k_2

Im going to wait until wednesday before I send my letter. As I should have then received the text confirming whats going on.

They think i'm going to pay any cancellation fee or return the phone they can think again.

DarkConvict

It's highly unlikely (but very profitable) that we're going to crack down on people just for watching YouTube

Hmmm Profits...