Vodafone to Change Prices from 11 Oct 2011

Warrick

Steve:

That sounds like a fair complaint. You need to just wait and see what they say when they get back to you; there's no point getting all geared up for a fight if the come straight back and cancel your contract!

If you have any problems, then come back and we'll look at it again.

satchef1

Steve, you PM'd me to ask how I got on. Truth be told, I gave up. HTC released the tethering update for my phone so I cancelled my mobile broadband, sold my MiFi and purchased the £15 for 2GB data bundle. My average monthly bill will now be less than it was before the changes (I had a £26/month phone contract, plus £5-10 some months for extra data, plus £15 mobile broadband) so it's really not worth the hassle to keep pursuing them over it. I'm just going to run down the remaining 11 month of my contract, then go SIM only (I don't trust the networks enough to take out a long-term commitment any more, been stung more than once).

steve__

Well they haven't called me back despite telling me they would.

Warrick

I don't know if I'm the only one still chasing this, but Vodafone challenged the Ombudsman's decision in December, and sent it back for review.

That review has now been done, and once again the Ombudsman has found in my favour.

I'll keep you updated with any progress.

dank_2

I gave up in the end. Too much hassle and I managed to get Vodafone to credit my account for more than the total sum of the increase for the duration of my contract anyway.

Keep up the fight though!

Warrick

It just annoys me that they think they're too big to be challenged.

At the end of the day, if it was me breaching their contract and then refusing to do anything to remedy the situation, I'd be fighting a CCJ by now.

Unfortunately for me, their overseas charges and packages are so much better than any other network, I can't afford to leave them for anyone else.

Even so, I'm going to fight them to the end. Just to prove a point.

musical_norwich

Warrick,

You're a man after my own heart. I took both Vodafone to task, and T-Mobile to court, and won, but it is bloody hard work and took about a year in the case of T-Mobile.

To make it worthwhile, you really should publish your case and documents online, for others to find. I'm willing to help you if necessary. PM if you like.

The FOI was totally rejected, and, as I am not using Vodafone at the moment and I am really busy, I didn't try to rewrite and resubmit. But I am still sure that this is a complete stitch up and illegal.

But once again, congratulations, and you should post your victory online. Don't cash the cheque until you've scanned it or taken a photo!

Warrick wrote: »

I don't know if I'm the only one still chasing this, but Vodafone challenged the Ombudsman's decision in December, and sent it back for review.

That review has now been done, and once again the Ombudsman has found in my favour.

I'll keep you updated with any progress.

Warrick

So... This is where I stand now.

Vodafone challenged all the Ombudsman decisions in my favour, delaying the process considerably.

I've now had the final decision from the Ombudsman, binding on Vodafone, that they must cancel my contract without penalty, issue a written apology for their 'shortfall in customer service', and issue a compensatory financial gesture.

To refresh people's memories, my complaint against VF basically came down to this: My September bill would have been more than 10% higher if the new prices had been applied. Vodafone wanted to use my August bill for comparison as I hardly had an usage on my bill that month.

My decision now, is whether to accept the Ombudsman's decision and call it a day, or take VF to court.

If they'd accepted the Ombudsman's first decision, I would have considered the matter closed. As they have dragged it out for over 7 months, however, I'm tempted to drag them to court to make a point.

Or is that being petty?

Any thoughts?

buscape

Take them to court.

If you win, it will set a precedent and make it more difficult for the other networks to do the same thing, which can only be good thing.

I personally don't think its petty at all, it's a point of principle. If everyone else affected by these price changes had done the same thing they probably wouldn't have introduced them.

pepper33

I am on a 2 year contract, which ends in January, just got a message saying my line rental will go up from 1st November 2012. So glad I made up my mind to leave them already. How come my wages are not going up, I am losing money and asking to pay more for a bad service and not value for money.