High bill due to volcanic ash crisis

Bookem

Hi, I have just received my latest bill from Vodafone of over £250. The majority of that bill was incurred whilst I was away in the USA and was stranded for an extra 8 days because of the ash crisis.

I am self employed and had to make many calls home for business purposes as well as contacting friends & family, travel agents etc.

I used the Vodafone online webform to explain the situation and to see if they would consider reducing the bill, just for the extra 8 days I was stranded for and got a 1 line reply, basically saying "NO".

I am appalled. Especially considering my bank refunded all ATM charges and bank fees whilst I was away and my travel agent worked till midnight to assist me yet Vodafone are doing nothing to help me.

Anyone have any advice or been in the same situation ?

Andyblizz

Bookem wrote: »

Hi, I have just received my latest bill from Vodafone of over £250. The majority of that bill was incurred whilst I was away in the USA and was stranded for an extra 8 days because of the ash crisis.

I am self employed and had to make many calls home for business purposes as well as contacting friends & family, travel agents etc.

I used the Vodafone online webform to explain the situation and to see if they would consider reducing the bill, just for the extra 8 days I was stranded for and got a 1 line reply, basically saying "NO".

I am appalled. Especially considering my bank refunded all ATM charges and bank fees whilst I was away and my travel agent worked till midnight to assist me yet Vodafone are doing nothing to help me.

Anyone have any advice or been in the same situation ?

You need to speak to your airline. (if a EU airline) As i believe some are reimbursing people for "some" phone calls per day they were stuck away.

Also try your insurance company, as it was an unforeseen cost of your trip..

As in vodafone's eyes you didnt have to use your own mobile phone, as you would have been made aware of the roaming charges when you set up international roaming. As a cheaper option would have been to use a payphone in the USA.

eranou

Bookem wrote: »

Hi, I have just received my latest bill from Vodafone of over £250. The majority of that bill was incurred whilst I was away in the USA and was stranded for an extra 8 days because of the ash crisis.

I am self employed and had to make many calls home for business purposes as well as contacting friends & family, travel agents etc.

I used the Vodafone online webform to explain the situation and to see if they would consider reducing the bill, just for the extra 8 days I was stranded for and got a 1 line reply, basically saying "NO".

I am appalled. Especially considering my bank refunded all ATM charges and bank fees whilst I was away and my travel agent worked till midnight to assist me yet Vodafone are doing nothing to help me.

Anyone have any advice or been in the same situation ?

TBH I dont see why vodafone should refund you.
maybe the odd call to family but using it for buisiness calls etc is a bit much.

Bear in mind that the calls you made werent free for vodafone they had to pay the network you were using.

Didnt the networks also setup a freephone number from abroad to contact airlines etc?

Bookem

As I said previously, I am self employed, so simply had to make telephone calls. If I could have avoided it, I would have done and I am not asking for a full refund, just some help with the charges incurred during my extra 8 days away which I dont think is unreasonable, especially as I have been a customer with Vodafone for over 15 years.

You say that they have no obligation to refund me, yes, thats correct, but my bank had no obligation to refund bank charges, ATM fees did they ? But they went the extra mile to help their customer.

I was not aware of any freephone numbers set up the networks

Already approached my insurance company who said I am not covered. Will try the airline.

OneADay

The volcanic ash has nothing to do with vodafone. At best you can ask for a reduction in cost from vodafone on basis of your own mistake in not taking the right precautions when travelling abroad - i.e. local sim, roaming tariff etc. Being self employed has nothing to do with it either - if anything you should be more aware of what might happen when going abroad with your mobile.

The network has no obligation to do anything like the insurance company. The airline perhaps but hard to prove.

jimbms

As said vodophone did not cause the volcano to erupt. You could have got a US payg or similar, nobody forced you to use your phone it was your choice.

Astec

I don't see why they should refund either. ATM charges is different as you NEED money to survive, don't think the bank had to refund, but good on them.

You chose to use your phone. If you NEEDED it for business, then the business NEEDS to pay it.

zzzLazyDaisy

Did you have access to the internet?

I had to make a lot of calls while I was stranded, but I used skype over wifi at around 2p a minute (I used £15, so I dread to think what my mobile bill would have been!)

I know it doesn't help you this time, but worth bearing in mind for the future.

Annie._2

There is no reason for Vodafone to refund the charges, they are running a business, not a charity.

timberflake

I'm with the majority of other people, Vodafone have no obligation to reduce the charges. Your bank refunded the charges because you had no other option other than to withdraw money to get by, your travel agent was obliged to help you as thats what you pay for. On the other had, you knew in advance that you we're going to get charged a premium for the phonecalls you were making and could have used other methods (PAYG sim for example).

If I were Voda, I'd tell you no too!

DarkConvict

I agree.

Vodafone did not cause the ash cloud
Vodafone services were unaffected by the ash cloud.
You willingfully used a service you were going to be billed for.

As the others have said, you should have used an alternative service that was more cost effective than use your mobile. The difference with bank charges i people needed to be their or have internet access + details to manage their accounts.
You didn't need to use your mobile, you choose to do it.

its easy looking back what you should have done, but Vodafone are under no obligation unless they promised reduced fees before you started to use it. They didn't so you have to cough up for usage. Remember VF get charged by the other carriers so they have a bill to pay on your usage.