Unlimited internet, umm, no.

lallysmum

A month ago, I signed up with Vodaphone for a phone for my daughter, 900min, unlimited texts and 500mb (?) internet for £30pcm. Even she can't use that much, lol. She got a Blackberry Bold something or other.

I started to check her remaining mins etc on Monday of this week as she had had it for three weeks and I wanted to be sure that she hadn't gone over. (1565 texts in 3 weeks :eek: - I sent 23 last month, lol)

I nearly died when the text received back said £121 in charges and yet she still had 400 mins left.

I signed up for an internet account and £127.09 is showing up as Unbilled Charges for the internet.

I spoke to someone via live chat, who informed me that I am basically an idiot and that I had to have two different internet packages and that mine wasn't the right one. Or something. I really don't understand phones. I thought that Blackberry Mobile Internet, which it says on the bill is the internet access they were talking about. Except it isn't, they say I needed Vodaphone mobile internet or something.

This is the deal I signed up for:

• £35
  per month
• 900
  minutes
• Unlimited
  texts
• 500
  MB
• 24
  months
• Free phone
• Select plan
  
  

Except at the time it was £30 per month.

I have opened my bill today (internet account) and they have charged me £123.64 for mobile internet. I just want to cry.

I just don't know what to do. Am going to try contacting live help in a min, if they are still open. But I'm lost, can anyone help?

Jon_01

Did you get the contract and the phone together?

If they've sold you a BB they should have put it on the right plan (something called BIS, not straight internet, a BB HAS to be on BIS).

If you've bought the BB and just got a sim only contract then their not to know you're using a BB. Depends on how you get the 2 elements ?

lallysmum

Thank you!

Contract and phone together - through Vodaphone's website. Picked up the phone from the local VF shop..

lallysmum

Jon_01 wrote: »

If they've sold you a BB they should have put it on the right plan (something called BIS, not straight internet, a BB HAS to be on BIS).

And I'm really sorry, I have no idea what that means!

It says this on my initial "Welcome to Vodaphone" email

Your Price Plan:

Your Plan comes with 900 minutes

Your monthly line rental inc.VAT:
£30.00 per month

Your Extras:
Unlimited texts (Free)
BlackBerry Mobile Internet & Email Pack (Free)

Contract start date:
You joined Vodafone on 17 September 2010
(24 month contract)

I truly thought that "Blackberry Mobile Internet and Email Pack" was inclusive internet. That's what it says, surely. Nowhere does it say I have to get something else too..

macman

The internet allowance is only 500MB. A teenage girl could probably use that in an evening with a bit of effort...

lallysmum

macman wrote: »

The internet allowance is only 500MB. A teenage girl could probably use that in an evening with a bit of effort...

According to the bill she used made 106.476MB of mobile browsing + data calls, she only really goes on fb. And connects to our home wifi when at home, obviously.

BaritoneUK

Vodafone have a limit of 500Mb on their data packages (you can pay more for 750Mb and 1Gb if you want), but it seems that you have only used just over 106Mb. So you shouldn't be charged more. I am not sure what you mean by "data calls". Have you tried phoning up and complaining. I find live chat systems are not good enough for this.
500Mb data should be ok most of the time, but I know for me it wouldn't be enough- but I use my phone for video, maps, music, internet and email. It doesn't sound like your daughter is going to be using that.

Let us know how you get on.

ruggedtoast

Its meant to be £5 for every further 500mb as well, so a bill of over 100 quid for data seems pretty suspicious.

BaritoneUK

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Its meant to be £5 for every further 500mb as well, so a bill of over 100 quid for data seems pretty suspicious.

Good point. I'd be interested to know what has happened here.

spiro

This is a quote from VFs tariff details for that plan:

Some price plans also include a mobile phone data allowance for use in the UK. To keep it simple, 500MB a month will let you read and reply to approximately 100 emails, view 92 BBC news stories, and browse around 44 mobile web pages every day. And 1000MB will let you read and reply to approximately 200 emails, view 184 BBC news stories, and browse around 88 mobile web pages.
Spend a lot of time online? Don't worry we'll contact you before you reach your limit. And if you do keep going over, we'll help you find a new price plan.

See the bit I have put in bold, did she get a warning text? If not phone and complain.

The issue with buying online and not in the shop is they expect you to know what is suitable for you rather than the shop staff asking questions and advising you.

Techhead_2

I don't think its that she has gone over her limit, rather Blackberries are unusual in that they use several different types of data. There is Blackberry Internet, used by the Blackberry browser, email, messenger and some third party apps which goes through the Blackberry server.
There is also data that goes through the normal internet.
It sounds like your daughter's tariff only includes Blackberry internet and she is using apps or services that use the normal internet.
What I would do is contact Vodafone and explain she wasn't aware what was happening. Ask if there is anything they can do, perhaps move her to a plan which includes 'normal' data as well as Blackberry.