Excessive Vodafone Bill - has anybody successfully negotiated a refund

robt_2

CitySlicker wrote: »

I did thank your post, but this is worth a mention too. Vodafone don't care how customers are affected, this is from first hand experience.

Indeed. I might be wrong, but I don't believe I have ever seen a post where someone has come back and said thanks to the Vodafone rep for sorting their problem - I have seen people thank reps from other companies though.

The 'web relations team' is nothing more than a damage limitation department.

They have had posts removed for touting for business too.

dawsonch

Hi,
Regardless of all the other people saying you are irresponsible, i sympathise as this happened to me... with vodafone. This is a lesson learnt by you and your daughter however i still feel that Vodafone gain largely from these mistakes and they do little to help. Whilst online billing is a help, mobile phone companies should be able to put a bar on the phone when you are close to the limit or at least send a text to alert you... vodafone do not offer this service. I have 2 contracts with Vodafone and have been with them for 15 yrs, they have even taken 2 payments out of my account 2 weeks late, put me overdrawn and will not help.... answer - switch to someone else when the contract is up!
Good luck

GemJar_2

lbaxx wrote: »

I am with '3' and so are my children. After the first month one of the children went over their allowance by a small amount (about £5.00 or so), but I was not happy with this.
I called '3' and asked if they could put a stop on their outgoing texts and minutes once their allowances had been reached. They had no problem, did this immediately and we have had no problems ever since - 3 years ago.
It does look like you will have to pay the outstanding amount, but I am sure Vodafone can do what '3' did for me.
Good luck.

What a brilliant idea- im gonna phone three now and ask them to do this on my account- I do worry I'm going to go over my internet allowence by accident thanks

gjchester

GemJar wrote: »

What a brilliant idea- im gonna phone three now and ask them to do this on my account- I do worry I'm going to go over my internet allowence by accident thanks

You should be aware that although Three will set a low or Zero credit limit their T&C specifically state it's not to be used for budgeting and they do not guaranteee it will work in all circumstances.

For example if you went to deepest darkest Kent there are some aresa where the phone will roam on the the French networks in preference to the UK ntworks. In that case you may be charged international rates and you will be liable regardless of your credit limit as they'll arrive 24/48 hours later and Three has no control over the other networks charges.

Obviously any overseas travel will be the same too...

Wintermute

dawsonch wrote: »

Hi,
Regardless of all the other people saying you are irresponsible, i sympathise as this happened to me... with vodafone. This is a lesson learnt by you and your daughter however i still feel that Vodafone gain largely from these mistakes and they do little to help. Whilst online billing is a help, mobile phone companies should be able to put a bar on the phone when you are close to the limit or at least send a text to alert you... vodafone do not offer this service. I have 2 contracts with Vodafone and have been with them for 15 yrs, they have even taken 2 payments out of my account 2 weeks late, put me overdrawn and will not help.... answer - switch to someone else when the contract is up!
Good luck

I don't see why it should be up to the mobile networks to control this for the customer, you have to be 18 to take out a mobile phone contract so you're legally an adult so you should be treated like one. If you want to take out a contract and give the phone to a child then it's your responsibility to limit their usage, not the networks. If you want to only pay a certain amount every month then have your phone stopped then you should be using pay as you go.

You wouldn't trust your 12 year old with a credit card, but so many people will trust them with a contract mobile phone, I wouldn't go as far as calling them irresponsible as they generally have their childs best interests in mind, but it's not exactly a well thought out idea.

While Vodafone might not offer any truly unlimited SMS bundles a lot of other network providers do including Giff Gaff, Tesco and O2, if there's not much time left on your contract it could be worth buying it out and going elsewhere, but I'd go for PAYG!

Vodafone

CitySlicker wrote: »

I did thank your post, but this is worth a mention too. Vodafone don't care how customers are affected, this is from first hand experience.

robt wrote: »

Indeed. I might be wrong, but I don't believe I have ever seen a post where someone has come back and said thanks to the Vodafone rep for sorting their problem - I have seen people thank reps from other companies though.

The 'web relations team' is nothing more than a damage limitation department.

They have had posts removed for touting for business too.

Hi guys,

Although I can understand where you're coming from if you had poor experiences with us I can assure you that we're here to help as many customers as possible.

Following our previous interventions I'm aware that my colleagues and I have helped to resolve numerous cases for customers who've posted on MSE, in addition to the assistance we provide on other forums, and we hope to continue to do this.

Naturally, it's up to the customer to update their thread to confirm that their case has been resolved and we hope to see more of this over the coming months.

dawsonch wrote: »

Hi,
Regardless of all the other people saying you are irresponsible, i sympathise as this happened to me... with vodafone. This is a lesson learnt by you and your daughter however i still feel that Vodafone gain largely from these mistakes and they do little to help. Whilst online billing is a help, mobile phone companies should be able to put a bar on the phone when you are close to the limit or at least send a text to alert you... vodafone do not offer this service. I have 2 contracts with Vodafone and have been with them for 15 yrs, they have even taken 2 payments out of my account 2 weeks late, put me overdrawn and will not help.... answer - switch to someone else when the contract is up!
Good luck

Hi dawsonch,

Just to let you know that I've replied to your concerns in your thread here.

Kind regards to all.

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

4$£&*(£$&*(!

Lee,

You had literally dozens of chances to get things right for me. Over 60 transactions in fact, over email, phone and letters. Vodafone caused me insurmountable problems over the 500Mb charging debacle and even T-Mobile who tried to do something similar ended up back-tracking due to customer pressure. You ignored your customers.

I do feel you left one of your sentences short, and in my opinion it could read:

"Although I can understand where you're coming from if you had poor experiences with us I can assure you that we're here to help as many customers as possible" ...part with as much money as we can make from them and provide as little customer care as we can get away with.

I completely appreciate Lee you're only doing your job, in the nine months I was with Vodafone (and having been a mobile customer for years on all the networks this was my first time with you), there is nothing that would tempt me back to you now because of the way you treated me and thousands of others in the handling of your data changes. It is nice you can be upbeat about the situation, but you are paid to be a good PR front.

I remember 20 years ago when it was only Vodafone and Cellnet. I was on Cellnet at the time as they offered a better deal for me, but I remember the Vodafone adverts. There is one example here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifSIiXgCD1Y. Your network really had a bit of prestige, and One2One had just come along who seemed a bit mickey mouse to some of my friends. How times change, now 'Everything Everywhere' is the largest group, O2 in second, you trail in third place with 3 in fourth out of the big operators. Vodafone may be massive in its turnover but I feel gutted how you have taken to putting customers last at the expense of Vittorio's desires in how he wants the network to perform.

Vodafone-suks

I have been a vodafone customer for the past 17 months on an 18 month contract. The customer support is the worst service bar none. I have had experiences with orange, three, o2 and t-mobile. The people are rude, extremely rude. I went on holiday for 3weeks and whilst there i made 4hours of calls. I was billed £675.38. Never a text to say i had gone over my usual £45. I had to pay becasue they barred me but believe i tried to negotiate. I had simply requested that i pay the bill in 2 payments over 2 months. The idiots at the call centre simply would not allow it. One of them even tried to insult me before cutting the cal. This month i received a bill for £120 apparently iv gone over my monthly usage even though i have not used my phone any more tham i usually do. Perhaps something to do with its my last month and i refused an extension??

robt_2

Overseas billing is not in real time therefore they can't alert you when you go over £45. Why should they anyway? Take some responsibility for your own actions. The £120 this month might be more from your trip abroad that has been sent to Vodafone since your last bill.

grumbler

Vodafone-suks wrote: »

I went on holiday for 3weeks and whilst there i made 4hours of calls. I was billed £675.38. Never a text to say i had gone over my usual £45.

Are you saying that you expected to speak for 4 hours abroad for £45, let alone using inclusive minutes? LOL. So, you just kept talking and waiting for a text? Another LOL.
Also, have you not received a warning text about roaming after crossing the board?

I had to pay becasue they barred me but believe i tried to negotiate. I had simply requested that i pay the bill in 2 payments over 2 months.

Requested? You can ask, beg, but not 'request'.

The idiots at the call centre simply would not allow it. One of them even tried to insult me before cutting the cal.

This doesn't surprise me if you called to 'request'.

This month i received a bill for £120 apparently iv gone over my monthly usage even though i have not used my phone any more tham i usually do. Perhaps something to do with its my last month and i refused an extension??

Is your bill not itemised? If so, is the itemised bill not available online?

Take some responsibility for your actions instead of blaming Vodafone. Their CS is awful, but they don't have to accept all your 'requests'.