Mislead by Vodafone over 'unlimited' internet

gjchester

Notsram wrote: »

I've sent a mesasge to Ofcom about it too. I know they don't investigate individual cases, but maybe if they do look into this, at least salesmen will have to be a bit more honest (ie not lie ) when selling a product.

But that was my point with the ASA.

The Advertising standards have said it's OK to use the term unlimited in this context.

jb66

unlimited should mean unlimited, or "hard to do"

500MB is easy to go over

Notsram

gjchester wrote: »

But that was my point with the ASA.

The Advertising standards have said it's OK to use the term unlimited in this context.

Maybe so, in the context of a printed or onscreen advert where they can have the usual '* don't read this at your peril' in 4 point text somewhere at the bottom, but over the phone where all you have is the salespersons word? I deal with quite a few clients on the phone at work, and I know that if I made a false promise like that to a customer, I'd be in very hot water with my boss.

Notsram

gjchester wrote: »

Bottom of every page has a footer that says

• Copyright 2010 |
• Privacy policy |
• Terms and conditions |
• Registered office: Vodafone House, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2FN. Registered in England No 1471587.

With a link to the T&C so it's not that hard to find.

Another good point, but how many people log onto a website to check the small print of the terms and conditions before something like this happens to them? Especially when they assume that they've been informed correctly by sales staff

ruggedtoast

gjchester wrote: »

Bottom of every page has a footer that says

• Copyright 2010 |
• Privacy policy |
• Terms and conditions |
• Registered office: Vodafone House, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2FN. Registered in England No 1471587.

With a link to the T&C so it's not that hard to find.

Thanks, about as clear as mud. You should work for them if you think that is an adequate way of informing customers about the terms of their very limited unlimited internet.

I specifically asked three different sales advisers before agreeing to the contracts what their FUP was and was told it was 1 gigabyte with an FUP which would involve a letter being sent to my house before any charges.

Now turns out to be a load of rubbish. They have no such package.

gjchester

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Thanks, about as clear as mud. You should work for them if you think that is an adequate way of informing customers about the terms of their very limited unlimited internet.

My point was you said

"Have you ever tried to get the terms and conditions from Vodafone?"

and they are clearly on the footer of every page, they are not really "hidden" or hard to find. I took me three clicks to get the Pay Monthly terms and conditions from the home page. If people read them before buying a contract or even ask to read them is another matter.

Please don't think this is a personal attack on you, it's not meant to be and I apologise if it comes across that way. It comes down to the fact that a good many people (and you may or may not be one of them) never read the terms and conditions in the rush to get the latest shiny toy. When they hit a limit that has always been in the T&C there they immediately claim this is not right, and it's almost always because they didn't read the T&C before signing.

An example is the almost weekly "how do I get out of my contract without paying any fee's" question, if they read the contract before signing they'd realise it's a 12/18/24 month contract and if they break it they have to pay a termination fee.

ruggedtoast

gjchester wrote: »

My point was you said

"Have you ever tried to get the terms and conditions from Vodafone?"

and they are clearly on the footer of every page, they are not really "hidden" or hard to find. I took me three clicks to get the Pay Monthly terms and conditions from the home page. If people read them before buying a contract or even ask to read them is another matter.

Please don't think this is a personal attack on you, it's not meant to be and I apologise if it comes across that way. It comes down to the fact that a good many people (and you may or may not be one of them) never read the terms and conditions in the rush to get the latest shiny toy. When they hit a limit that has always been in the T&C there they immediately claim this is not right, and it's almost always because they didn't read the T&C before signing.

An example is the almost weekly "how do I get out of my contract without paying any fee's" question, if they read the contract before signing they'd realise it's a 12/18/24 month contract and if they break it they have to pay a termination fee.

Yeah, I probably overreacted a bit.

I'm pretty annoyed about the whole thing. I was well aware of the ambiguity with these data plans and before I signed up, (after thoroughly quizzing and discounting Orange) for the first phone spoke to three separate VF advisers who all crossed their hearts and hoped to die that we would get a gen-U-ine 1gig package with a FUP soft limit.

I quadruple checked this when I added the second phone, and when no documentation at all arrived within the 7 days cooling off period called twice more and was again assured the same.

It was only when, after about 7 emails, my online account became partially functional that I began to suspect that I had been being told more than a few porky pies about my new contract.

Unfortunately VF telephone staff just appear to tell you what you want to hear. The first girl we spoke to about upgrades said it was 1gig with a soft limit so whenever we called to confirm that whoever was on the line just agreed.

We could have said do we get a 100gigabyte monthly allowance and every meg of this I use you pay my favourite charity £10 and put the equvalent amount towards my personal holiday to Vegas; and they'd probably have completely agreed, while they were pressing the "500mb limit" button on my account.

I just dont trust what they say at all.

Incidentally I had a look at the terms and conditions, there is no mention of how the FUP is enforced or at what point, it just tells you to "refer to the link below" for out of bundle charges. The link below is: www.vodafone.co.uk

What an utter pee take.

Notsram

I'd be a bit happier if they actually said anything to me at all. I've now been in correspondence with them for more than 3 weeks over this, and they haven't yet answered, or even attempted to answer, a single one of my questions. The only replies I get either quote the FUP policy (which I'm not querying - I'm not arguing that it exists, just that I wasn't told about it at the time and this would have directly affected my decision), or ask me if I'd like to pay more money and upgrade.

On a side note, got my bill today and no charge for extra internet usage. I've been pretty careful the last 3 weeks, but even so I've used 800MB... Was more than a bit miffed to find out that they've charged me for calling them, though. My own fault for not using the 191 number from my mobile, but still highly annoying. You'd kind of assume that calling your service provider from your mobile would either be free, or at the worst, taken out of your monthly minutes...

Notsram

ruggedtoast wrote: »

when no documentation at all arrived within the 7 days cooling off period

Interesting that you weren't sent a contract either...

Vodafone_Sucks

Hi all,,,,,,,,,
All Is Not Well at VODAFONE..!!!!!!!:mad:
I could really do with your apinion with problems I'm having with VODAFONE:mad:,,,,,I have to say there customer relations are rubbish,,,,,I had a contract phone with vodafone until recently,,,,,To some up what has happened I got paid late after starting work at a different company,,,,Vodafone:mad: over several days kept trying to take the money from my account leading to me having to pay around £250:eek: in bank charges,,,,To stop this in the short term I stopped the direct debit.....Vodafone:mad: without so much as a call to myself in order to find out what was going on took it upon them selves to cancel my contract and ship me out to debt collection agency who now keep calling me on what was to be just my temp pay as you go number and then telling me that they cannot discuss the account with me despite having given them my wife's number on more then one occasion......If all that wasn't bad enough they are trying to charge me £500:eek: for canceling my contract which I neither asked them to do or wanted,,,,It just gets worse from here as I lost money from work through not having my phone on,,,plus my business cards I paid for are now know use as Vodafone:mad: tell me that my number is now in the dead numbers department and can't be re used and at no piont did they inform me of a 90 day payment period......I tried on several occasions to pay the bill of £160 but as the account was my wife's name I had know authorisation despite having set up a pass word on the account... I have now been left hung out to dry now as vodafone:mad: would not let me pay the bill even now I have authorisation on the account and tell me I have to pay the debt collectors £767.86:eek: when all I had was a £160 phone bill.....I am at the end of my tether with this very un customer friendly company who don't deserve the light of day let alone people spending money with them.......

Please can you help me take on VODAFONE:mad: as I am not sure what to do from here........


Help Anyone...!!!!!!!!!!!:money:

Best Wishes,,,,,,,,,,,,VS...