Vodafone to Change Prices from 11 Oct 2011

nickmack

berjangles wrote: »

Thank you for contacting Vodafone Customer Services.

I'm sorry to learn about the inconvenience caused to you. I know this can be upsetting.

I understand your concern however I have reviewed your account and can confirm you that your price plan will not increase by 10% but will only increase nearby £0.50. If it increases more than that then we will cancel your contract on the immediate bases and you can retain the handset with you.

I trust the above information is helpful to you.

Oh dear...

berjangles

nickmack wrote: »

Oh dear...

I phoned customer services as well today. They are still sticking by the line that this only counts if the price plan goes up by 10%; they will not include the out of bundle calls in this.

nickmack

berjangles wrote: »

I phoned customer services as well today. They are still sticking by the line that this only counts if the price plan goes up by 10%; they will not include the out of bundle calls in this.

So as well as poor written communication, their CS appear to be trying to mislead customers. Their terms as already stated above are:

You may end this agreement by writing to us if...we increase your charges in the UK which have the effect of increasing your total charges (based on your usage in the previous month) by more than 10% and you write to us before the increase applies

This is clearly not just referring to price plan, but total charges. Did they explain how their line conforms to clause 11b?

bbxsa

nickmack wrote: »

So as well as poor written communication, their CS appear to be trying to mislead customers. Their terms as already stated above are:

You may end this agreement by writing to us if...we increase your charges in the UK which have the effect of increasing your total charges (based on your usage in the previous month) by more than 10% and you write to us before the increase applies

This is clearly not just referring to price plan, but total charges. Did they explain how their line conforms to clause 11b?

Another approach would not be to ask...but to simply state that you are invoking clause 11b, explain your 10%+ calculation, request written confirmation of the exact termination date of your contract (30 days from the date they received your letter) and your PAC code. And to send this be email and by registered mail. That is going to be my approach once the current billing month ends for me on Oct 4th (and just before the Oct 11th changes take effect).

Roverduck

I'm confused :think:

I have read that the out of bundle data charge will be £5 for 250mb, but got a text over the weekend saying that I am nearing my 500mb limit and any extra will be charged @ £5 inc vat for 500mb !!! which will I be charged???

As I went over my 500mb last month is was charged £5 for a further 500mb, but If (When) I go over this month I will on get half the amount of data for the same cost? surely this will be an increase of more than 10%

cheers

RD

buscape

Roverduck wrote: »

I'm confused :think:

I have read that the out of bundle data charge will be £5 for 250mb, but got a text over the weekend saying that I am nearing my 500mb limit and any extra will be charged @ £5 inc vat for 500mb !!! which will I be charged???

As I went over my 500mb last month is was charged £5 for a further 500mb, but If (When) I go over this month I will on get half the amount of data for the same cost? surely this will be an increase of more than 10%

cheers

RD

The new charges won't take effect until 11th October from what I've read. With your usage, these charges are likely to have the effect of increasing your total bill by more than 10% (depending what your bill was last month) which will allow you to terminate your contract under clause 11b.

I had a similar problem with Vodafone last year when they decided that unlimited data actually meant 500Mb and that every 500Mb above that would cost me £5. This would have cost me an extra £30 a month under their new terms so I invoked clause 11b and got my contract terminated and got to keep my phone as well.

£5 for 250Mb is pathetic, I'd be off to T-Mobile, at least they don't charge you for going over your limit.

spongerob500

TehJumpingJawa wrote: »

1) Download your .csv bill from the vodafone website. (View bills->Billed usage tab->small 'Download all' icon)
2) Open the downloaded .csv in openoffice (you can get openoffice from here)
3) On the import dialog select comma as the only cell separator.
4) Select a box of cells(hold shift), from A1 across to E1, and then down to the row containing your last call. (the row immediately before 'Total of XX calls'). Right click->copy.
5) Save my template spreadsheet from here, and then open it. (it's the BLUE download button at the bottom, not the green/red one in the centre of the page; the latter is an advert!)
6) Paste what you previously copied from your bill into cell A1 of my template spreadsheet. (right click->paste)
7) Change cell I5 to be your present monthly tariff (including VAT)
8) Change cell G5 to be the number of free minutes included in your tariff.

The spreadsheet will/should do the rest.

Note, it has lots of limitations.
a) It doesn't factor in text messages
b) It only recognises landline, voda & cross-network call types.
c) The spreadsheet recomputes your present call cost according to the tariffs on MY contract; yours may be different. To check, compare cell M2 with your pre-VAT call costs as shown on your Vodafone bill. If they differ, then you can manually enter your current call cost into cell M2 to override my calculations & it'll still give you an accurate % cost change.
d) If you make more than 992 calls, you'll have to extend the spreadsheet!

:edit:

Updated spreadsheet & instructions to fix an omission.

How do I find the pre VAT costs and do text messages need to be added to the spreadsheet, if so how do I do that?

spongerob500

I did the set of instructions you gave above, the change stays at 2.84%. I dont know what I am doing wrong.

TehJumpingJawa

spongerob500 wrote: »

How do I find the pre VAT costs and do text messages need to be added to the spreadsheet, if so how do I do that?

preVAT = postVAT/1.2

Adding text message calculation to that spreadsheet would be more complicated.
I don't even know if the txt msg tariff is changing or not. If not, then you can just include your current txt msg cost into the % increase calculation.

lyndseyplastic

I found this on the vodafone website and it states that we will now be paying £5 for 250mb, rather than 500mb, I usually go over twice the about using 1000mb, so therefore my bill will go up by an extra £10 a month which is was over the 10%.

Hope this helps people I have emailed vodafone will post my response when i recieve it.


"Some of our customers will be receiving an SMS message from us over the coming weeks to advise them of changes to our pricing.

How might it affect you?

The majority of calls that pay monthly customers make outside their bundle of minutes, are to 08 numbers. A wide range of organisations from utility companies and banks to supermarkets and even local councils make use of 0800, 0845 and 0870 for their customer service helplines.

From October 11, Vodafone UK is dropping the price of calling these numbers for pay monthly and pay as you go customers.

Pay monthly and Pay As You Go (1 min minimum call charge)

0800 7p
0845 12p
0870 12p

For pay monthly customers who joined before June 2011 that is a reduction of:
66% on 0800 calls
42% on 0845 and 0870 numbers

For pay monthly customers who joined after June 2011, that is a reduction of:
80% on 0800
65% 0845 and 0870 numbers calls

For Pay As You Go customers that is a reduction of:
72% on 0800
52% on 0845 and 0870 numbers

This is a promotional offer. Early in the New Year the price for these calls will be 14p but that still represents a dramatic saving on all the previous prices.

From October 11, we are also making slight changes to line rental and other out of bundle calls for pay monthly customers on some of our older tariffs, bringing them into line with the great offers made to more recent, new and upgrading customers.

The changes to line rental will affect pay monthly customers who joined before February 2011. For the vast majority of customers, line rental will increase on average by less than 1%. Line rental charges are being rounded to the nearest 50p. For example, if you currently pay £20.42 each month, your monthly line rental will be £20.50 from October 4.

The changes to out of bundle call prices will affect pay monthly customers who joined before June 2011. We have simplified our pricing so that calls outside of your monthly allowance to any UK mobile or landline number (except 0800, 0845, 0870 and premium rate numbers starting with 090) will be charged at a flat rate of 35p per minute.

Out of bundle data usage will be charged at £5 per 250MB.

A full list of the new prices can be found at

Please note: Pay monthly customers who have joined since June 2011 will benefit from the reduction in the cost of 08 calls but will be unaffected by either the changes to line rental or other out of bundle charges as they are already on the latest plans.

If you regularly use more voice minutes or data than is included in your pay monthly price plan, we can help you save money by ensuring that you have a bundle that matches your needs. We also have a range of add-ons that could help you.

For instance, if you regularly exceed your bundle because you make a lot of calls to other Vodafone numbers, you should get our £5/month ‘Unlimited Vodafone UK to Vodafone UK’ package. To add it to your plan, go into a store or give us a ring.

If you regularly breach your data allowance you can add an extra 500MB per month for just £5, without extending your contract. More details can be found here.

The increases to line rental are well below inflation – averaging out at less than 1% – while the majority of out of bundle calls made by customers are to 08 numbers and we have dramatically reduced the cost of these calls. But if you believe that, despite this, the changes could still result in an increase of more than 10% to your total monthly bill, based on your current usage, you may be able to change your contract as per our terms and conditions which can be found here. You should write a letter and send it to us here by 11 October 2011 and we will analyse your previous month’s usage against the new price plan and contact you to discuss your options."