Vodafone Downgrading

ravikarsan

I upgraded from a Blackberry contract to the new iphone 4 contract in July last year with Vodafone to a £25 a month contract. However the £25 a month did not give me enough minutes so i decided to contact Vodafone to move onto a higher call plan.
When i spoke to the advisor i specifically asked him whether i would be able to downgrade after 9 months to a lower call plan because previously in my contract on the Blackberry I had the ability to downgrade my price plan by £5 after 9 months. I was told by the advisor that I would be able to downgrade. I contacted them today to discuss my account and to ask how long i have before i can downgrade and have been told i cannot downgrade until the full 24 month contract is up.

I was not sent a copy of a new contract when i upgraded so did not recieve any sort of paperwork outlining this at that time. I also was not told by the advisor who upgraded me and was actually told my another advisor that i could downgrade after 9 months.

Is there anything I can do? I have told them to go back and listen to the call i made and hear what the advisor said but they are unwilling to listen and have told me I had a cooling off period when i recieved my phone, but i didnt recieve any documents with the phone outlining the T&C's so how was i meant to know that the T&C's are different.

I have had problems with them before and contacted OFCOM, Should I go through that again?

Any help would be appreciated

Thank you.

Jon_01

I have a feel mid contract downgrading is a goodwill guested on the part of the network and not in the contract.
When you agreed to the contract it was for £x for Y months, and technically that's what you should expect to pay.
They may let you drop at some point but it's down to them if they want to amend the contract, they don't have to. So I think you're stuck, sorry. . .

Annie._2

If you agreed an iphone tariff and found the allowance was insufficient for your needs and increased the tariff, you would be able to downgrade back to the original plan but would be unable to go lower and pay less.

The new price plans are all YPL and you would have automatically been put onto one of the newer price plans when you upgraded. In return for your commitment, you would have received a heavily discounted phone and more minutes and texts for your money.

The YPL terms and conditions are on the website and do not mention being able to lower your tariff, only being able to increase your tariff.

tazdevil01985

Ann_S wrote: »

If you agreed an iphone tariff and found the allowance was insufficient for your needs and increased the tariff, you would be able to downgrade back to the original plan but would be unable to go lower and pay less.

The new price plans are all YPL and you would have automatically been put onto one of the newer price plans when you upgraded. In return for your commitment, you would have received a heavily discounted phone and more minutes and texts for your money.

The YPL terms and conditions are on the website and do not mention being able to lower your tariff, only being able to increase your tariff.

You cant downgrade a YPL ! I think Voda Rep has advised this on another post

Annie._2

tazdevil01985 wrote: »

You cant downgrade a YPL ! I think Voda Rep has advised this on another post

You cannot downgrade a YPL Plan but that was not what I said and if you read what I have written again, '' found the allowance was insufficient for your needs and increased the tariff, you would be able to downgrade back to the original plan but would be unable to go lower and pay less.''

Vodafone

Hi ravikarsan

Thank you for your question about being able to downgrade your tariff.

Ann S is quite correct in her response to your question. iPhone price plans are what we call ‘Your Plan’ tariffs. These price plans cannot be downgraded at any point during your agreement, however they can be upgraded. If you upgrade the tariff during your agreement, you can downgrade your tariff back to the original, however you cannot downgrade further.

For example, if you started on a Your Plan tariff of £25, and upgraded to a £30 tariff 2 months into your agreement, you could drop back down to the £25 tariff later in the agreement. However, you could not drop any lower.

If you were on a £25 tariff with your BlackBerry, and then changed to a £30 Your Plan tariff when you upgraded to the iPhone, you would be required to stay on a £30 tariff or higher for the remainder of your agreement.

If you would like us to check which tariff you started on, or you would like clarification on the T’s & C’s of Your Plan tariffs, please do not hesitate to contact us via e-mail on the 'Contact Us' section of the Vodafone website, using WRT135 as the subject.


Kind Regards

Simon
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

tbourner

I wasn't able to downgrade mine either even though the idiots in P4U said I would be able to after the magic 9 months. Mine's just a normal 24 month contract for a Satio, which has broken twice so I'm now using my really old phone on a really expensive contract!
I'll be cancelling after the 24 months (August I think) after many years with Vodafone, and going sim only with someone else, then I'll just have to save up to buy a new phone.

Vodafone

Hi tbourner,

I'm sorry to hear about the situation you're in and that you're thinking of moving on.

As has been mentioned above, we do now operate a "no downgrade" policy on all current price plans. If you have been provided incorrect information regarding this by Phones4U at the time you upgraded, I would recommend contacting their customer services team directly.

If the Satio has been broken, though, it may be worth checking your warranty with Phones4U to see if you can still send this for an in-warranty repair. You may also still be within the manufacturer's warranty, so I'd check that as well. At the very least, this would help to ensure you had your more advanced handset to use going forward.

If you do want us to confirm the contract end date for you, just use the form here to contact us - ensure you put WRT135 in the subject line and a copy of your post or a link to this thread in the body so we can see the details of the query straight away.

Kind regards,

DaveN
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK