Vodafone to Change Prices from 11 Oct 2011

TehJumpingJawa

Interesting!

I've just had a phone call in response to my email (through the web form @ http://campaigns.vodafone.co.uk/guylaurence/ ).

I can confirm a few things (all completely at odds to what the CS agent I spoke to yesterday said!):

1) On my contract minimum call charges are increasing from 15p (flat rate) upto 1 min@call tariff (so 35p for landline/voda).
2) In-contract minutes will still be counted by the second, and so will not be effected by the 1 minute minimum charge.
3) The bill they use for calculating your % increase is based upon the date at which they send you the text message notifying you of the increase. (no doubt they purposefully send you the notification when it's most convenient to them; i.e. when the 'previous month' bill will register as less than a 10% increase)

However, it appears in my case they have used the incorrect bill !

The notification txt was sent to me on the 13th Sept.
To calculate the % increase they used my July bill (issued Jul 27th) rather than my August bill (issued Aug 25th).
The importance being that my July bill gives a ~2% increase, my August bill gives a ~34% increase!

:edit:

Incidentally, if the Vodafone CEO office are reading this thread (which would not surprise me).
Let me take this opportunity to say your staff are much better at customer communication than any of your Customer Care departments I've spoken to!
The Customer Care operatives i've spoken to have all been confrontational & ill informed, whereas the bloke I spoke to from the CEO office seemed generally helpful & well informed - and did not automatically assume the customer was wrong/stupid.

bbxsa

TehJumpingJawa wrote: »

3) The bill they use for calculating your % increase is based upon the date at which they send you the text message notifying you of the increase. (no doubt they purposefully send you the notification when it's most convenient to them; i.e. when the 'previous month' bill will register as less than a 10% increase)

Thanks for the info. However, based on the terms and conditions I would disagree with the bill they use. The options would include:
(1) the bill in the month before the billing month in which the text mesaage was received
(2) the bill in the billing month in which the text message was received
(3) the bill in the month prior to the date in which you inform Vodafone of your exercising 11b
(4) the bill in the month prior to the billing month in which the changes take effect.

I would argue that the language of the T&Cs would lead me to believe the relevant bill for calculations should be number 4 above. Is there anything in the T&Cs which would lead you to argue otherwise?

ruggedtoast

Oh look, vodafone changing contracts mid term again. This would be less annoying were our not for the internet and android branding fiasco.

A lot of people waiting out their contracts don't have a lot of goodwill left.

bbxsa

Follow up to my previous message. 11(b) states:

"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"

I read this as the "previous month" based on the date at which "the increase applies". Is there anything in the T&Cs which could lead to an alternative interpretation?

bbxsa

Alternatively, could you use the clause:
"we change this agreement to your significant disadvantage including changing or withdrawing services (we will tell you if this is the case) and you write to us within one month of us telling you about the change"

One could argue a call price increase of nearly 94% (18p to 35p for 0844 numbers) is a "change" of "services" which presents a "significant disadvantage", especially if such charges are a large percentage of the recent bill.

bbxsa

TehJumpingJawa wrote: »

(no doubt they purposefully send you the notification when it's most convenient to them; i.e. when the 'previous month' bill will register as less than a 10% increase)

I think this is absolutely unreasonable that Vodafone can pick and choose the month they notify the customer and therefore the month in which they pick the bill. I have been out of the country a fair amount this summer so my recent bills do not reflect normal usage.

berjangles

I've just received a call from Vodafone also saying that they are using the bill before they sent the text, not before the price increase.

I said that I did not agree, and Clause 11(b) does not say that.
He said that the T&C's are "not overly clear", but that is the bill they will use.

I said that it was not the bill I was going to use and that I am invoking Clause 11(b) and terminating the contract.

He is checking with a supervisor and calling me back.

bbxsa

berjangles wrote: »

I said that it was not the bill I was going to use and that I am invoking Clause 11(b) and terminating the contract.

Absolutely! Why do they get to choose the bill but you can't?!?

Please let us know what they say.

berjangles

berjangles wrote: »

I've just received a call from Vodafone also saying that they are using the bill before they sent the text, not before the price increase.

I said that I did not agree, and Clause 11(b) does not say that.
He said that the T&C's are "not overly clear", but that is the bill they will use.

I said that it was not the bill I was going to use and that I am invoking Clause 11(b) and terminating the contract.

He is checking with a supervisor and calling me back.

Really don't get it.
The T&C's say: "(iii)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"

From their current stance, they want to go back 2 bills before the price increase takes place.
I read it that the increase is in Oct, and the previous month to that is Sep.......clear enough?

ruggedtoast

This is exactly what happened when Vodafone moved the goalposts around over the 500mb FUP outrage.

In the end, after an utter fiasco, they decided that the previous three consecutive bills had to go over, so that on the fourth when the pricing changed, the extra charge would see you paying 10% more.

They completely pulled this out of their a$$es as far as I can tell and denied anyone who didnt fall within these criteria any recourse. But what can you do, here's you with your grievance over your £30 a month contract versus; one of the largest corporations in the world.

Just remember it when renewal time comes around.