Warning!!!!!Vodafone changing billing cycle

wow_deary

I've recently fallen foul of the Vodafone change of billing cycle trick with a nasty bonus issue with it.

I was billed for call charges between 1st July and the 20th August - which totalled 975 minutes. I'm on a pay monthly contract with 900 free minutes per month so if the period had ended at the 31st July as it should of I would have been nowhere near my minutes limit.

I've e-mailed them twice about thsi so far but they just keep coming back with unitellgible rubbish such as "after analysing your issue in this matter" and the sentence that baffled me most "minutes in the price plan are calculated on pre pulse rate and not actual minutes. I.e. you can see charges for the calls made on your bills"

Very cross with Vodafone - all my family are customers, but after this I have to echo the sentiments of previous posters to this forum and say that I doubt I'll be renewing my contract and will be recommending my family and friends don't either.

taylor11_2

Hi

Sorry if this has already been clarified, however, I thought I would add my tuppence worth to maybe help.

You always pay your line rental a month in advance and when you upgrade your billing cycle changes e.g -

You upgrade on the 15th August 2011 - You have paid line rental until the end of August, therefore, Vodafone will charge you line rental from the 1st until the 15th of August. The line rental after that date will show as being refunded in the form of a line rental credit.

As you have upgraded on the 15th, Vodafone will charge you line rental for the remaining month and charge you for your next billing cycle. You are not out of pocket as you would have paid the money anyway.

I know that it can be a bit of a shock when you receive a large bill and it may be difficult to understand, however, your bill will be correct and you will have to pay it. Sometimes, the responses from Vodafone customer services isn't the best, however, being rude and obnoxious isn't going to help - trust me on that one!

Cheers
taylor11

mobilejunkie

OK in theory - though not good to change the basis of billing cycles part way through and often with zero notice and certainly no consultation. The rest is cloud cuckoo land; mine took over six months of hell to sort out when they repeatedly got my bills and payments completely wrong time after time upon changing the cycle. Nothing about Vodafone is reliable and when THEY stuff it up again and again it's hardly surprising their customers get (to put it mildly) angry.

taylor11_2

Hi mobilejunkie

You should have been advised by the salesperson that your billing cycle would change. Its unfortunate that a large sum of money was taken from your account, however, your bill would have told you the amount being debited in plenty time. I too has had a really bad case of "bill shock" when my Vodafone bill after Christmas was £178. (I added a new line and upgraded). I was annoyed at the amount but I knew that I had to pay it.

Cheers
taylor11 :cool:

grumbler

taylor11 wrote: »

You should have been advised by the salesperson that your billing cycle would change.

Firstly, this is the theory. Unfortunately, the practice seems to be usually (always?) different.
Secondly, an advice that "billing cycle will change" is meaningless if no further explanation is given. I don't see how this change must necessarily result in a bigger payment.

Vodafone

Hi wow_deary,

I understand that a change in billing can cause quite a lot of confusion and it seems that you haven't been explained things as clearly as you should.

I will be more than happy to take a look at your bill and check everything is in order. I will then be able to explain things in a bit more detail too.

To do this, can you drop me an email to the address here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject and include a link to this thread.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

grumbler

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

...I will then be able to explain things in a bit more detail too...

It is obvious that this system is vicious.
Amazingly, everybody at Vodafone (including taylor11) are eager to keep explaining the system to the victims instead of escalating the problem to the highest level in order to have it solved, i.e. the system modified/improved and the CS members trained better.

mobilejunkie

taylor11 wrote: »

Hi mobilejunkie

You should have been advised by the salesperson that your billing cycle would change. Its unfortunate that a large sum of money was taken from your account, however, your bill would have told you the amount being debited in plenty time. I too has had a really bad case of "bill shock" when my Vodafone bill after Christmas was £178. (I added a new line and upgraded). I was annoyed at the amount but I knew that I had to pay it.

Cheers
taylor11 :cool:

I wasn't and that was the least of my escalting problems after they messed up my billsover the next six months. It is not a "bad case" but Vodafone's utter incompetence and total disregard for even basic customer service. Like many others what you describe is nothing compared to the events.