Unfair Vodafone Call Charges

sebsational

I recently took out a sim only 12 months contract with vodafone on the £10 and 300 minutes a month tariff. I'm normally a light user and this is more than enough for me. The first few months went by and I was charged the £10 fee per month.

However I recently found I had been charged £37.20 for July and only two months into August and all my minutes had seemingly gone and I was already showing as having additional charges of £12. At this point I pretty much stopped using my mobile until now. But I have just seen my new bill for the month and it is showing as £102! I haven't yet seen the itemised cost for this but am in disbelief over the amount they are trying to charge me. I had expected firstly that I would get some form of warning (like a text) that my minutes had run out. I certainly hadn't realised that I was even over my allowance.

Even if this is somewhat my mistake to charge such an unbelievably extortionate amount for going over your minutes by an hour or two seems completely unfair in the same way that being charged £30 for going overdrawn is. I don't see how these costs can be classed as fair in any way especially when you consider what it costs them to provide this service (they make a profit on 300 minutes for £10). Practically every call has been to my girlfriend and has been charged at 35p a minute. I cannot understand how it could possibly have got to over a £100 and will be looking into this when I see the itemised bill, but regardless of whether it is technically correct I want to fight these obscene charges as I don't believe they can be justified. If £10 buys me 300 minutes charging £105 for the next 300 is just plain wrong. I intend to fight this but if any one who has been through a similar situation or has knowledge of where I stand legally could advise I would be very grateful! I haven't yet spoken to them about it.

I might also add that I purchased the contract through topcashback.co.uk with the promise of £90 cashback. Despite this tracking, 5 or 6 months later it still hasn't been confirmed and it appears they have no intention of paying out. This is the only reason I even took the contract out! There are multiple user feedbacks on the site with the same complaint, it appears they have offered the cashback incentive to get users on their contract with no intention of paying out. Surely this is illegal? It is also worth noting that the cashback offer now excludes the £10 tariff but it didn't for a long time before and after I purchased the deal.

Jon_01

Not what you want to hear, but...

The out of bundle changes would have been noted on the site when you took out the contract and would be covered by your T&C's so complaining won't really get you very far. This is how the networks make their money.
They have no obligation to let you know when you exceed your bundle.

No cashback is guaranteed, its nice if it comes off but some don't. (I waited 2 years before one paid out!). Your network won't be interested as the agreement is between you and the cash back site not you and the network.

Annie._2

If you exceed your minutes, cross network calls are charged at 35p per minute and this information is available on the Vodafone website on the plan details.

300 minutes above your monthly allowance will cost £105.

There are call timers on your handset where you are able to see how many minutes you are using for the month. You are also able to call 44555 and get a free text back with your used and remaining minutes. You can also manage your account through your online account which will give you when your last call was made and your used and remaining minutes.

Its up to you to keep track of your time spent on the phone and there is no reason for Vodafone to refund the charges. You have made the calls and you will now have to pay the bill.

If your allowance is insufficient, give Vodafone a call, they would be able to put you on a increased tariff which would save you money.

Exhortation

You have my sympathy. I recently went to a supermarket to put fuel in my car. I'd only intended putting £20 worth in but I wasn't really paying attention and ended up filling the tank: £55 they wanted from me! Naturally, I'd expected the cashier to inform me when I was approaching my intended spend and I was understandably seriously miffed when they insisted on full payment and wouldn't knock anything off for "good will".

A sobering lesson for us all, methinks.

nickmack

Exhortation wrote: »

You have my sympathy. I recently went to a supermarket to put fuel in my car. I'd only intended putting £20 worth in but I wasn't really paying attention and ended up filling the tank: £55 they wanted from me! Naturally, I'd expected the cashier to inform me when I was approaching my intended spend and I was understandably seriously miffed when they insisted on full payment and wouldn't knock anything off for "good will".

A sobering lesson for us all, methinks.

Not the most relevant analogy I've ever heard, but I do get where you're going with that.

For the OP, you must have used quite a few additional minutes outside of your allowance, in fact nearly 5 hours worth according to Ann S calculations. Did you know you used this much? Are you sure this isn't due to data charges?

Yes, it can be expensive for out of plan calls, but as long as it's clearly stated in your plan, it's perfectly legal. That's why it's so important to get a tariff that fits with your usage and stick to it or change before you start using out of plan minutes.

sebsational

Thanks for the responses. I understand that it is in their terms and conditions but this doesn't make these t & c's fair in the same way that some bank charges despite being listed in the user agreement can be deemed to be unfair and claimed back. Surely this is along those lines? It certainly seems just as exploitative. After all charging £105 for 3 hours of calls which cost them under £10 is dubious practice. I thought there were laws to protect consumers from such exploitation? Regarding the cashback even if Vodafone aren't legally obliged to pay out to me surely they are to the cashback company who they have an agreement with?

4$£&*(£$&*(!

I have to say I think you're wrong here. As you may know I am battling Vodafone on another charging issue right now but that is because the charge is a new charge and wasn't there when I took out my contract.

You knew how many minutes you would be getting inclusive, anything beyond that you know what rates you will have to pay. Sorry, although I can see why you would be angry at getting an unexpected charge, you've used up massive time above your allowance, the published charges were there when you took out this contract, you only have yourself to blame.

Again not the answer you want to hear, and believe me from how Vodafone have treated me I am not defending them on anything, but this one is down to you sorry.

Annie._2

There wont be any Vodafone agreement with the cashback company, it will be between you and topcashback.co.uk. who sold you the contract and Vodafone would only be supplying the airtime on their behalf.

You will have a pay the bill now and keep a close watch on your usage or increase your price plan to include more minutes.

nickmack

sebsational wrote: »

I understand that it is in their terms and conditions but this doesn't make these t & c's fair in the same way that some bank charges despite being listed in the user agreement can be deemed to be unfair and claimed back. Surely this is along those lines?

It certainly seems just as exploitative. After all charging £105 for 3 hours of calls which cost them under £10 is dubious practice.

No, it's not the same, they're providing a service at a pre-agreed price and are allowed to make as much profit as the market will sustain.

I'm interested to know, did you realise the cost of calls outside your plan and were you aware you were using so many minutes?

I thought there were laws to protect consumers from such exploitation? Regarding the cash back even if Vodafone aren't legally obliged to pay out to me surely they are to the cash back company who they have an agreement with?

They will have an agreement, but that's nothing to do with you and there will be certain situations where they can refuse to pay. IMO, the cash back company are more likely to stop business with them than take legal action.

For this reason, cash back is never guaranteed and beyond asking the company to chase it up, there's not much you can do I'm afraid.

Jon_01

There was a thread asking the same thing here a few months back. As long as the costs are advertised and quoted in the T&C's it perfectly legal. It not as if they made you use those extra minutes.

As far as I can remember the cashback sites don't guarantee the payouts. Also Voda are known for being the slowest around (their the ones that took 2 years to pay me). I'd think that the agreement between the site and the merchant doesn't guarantee the fee either. There are a number of reason why cashback isn't paid from cookies not tracking to the collection company going bust (which is what happened with Quidco a few weeks back and lots of people lost their payments).