Urgent Help Required: Vodafone Stop The Clock

Wings_of_Ambition

Hello all,

Urgently need some advice, and was hoping this might be a good place to start.

My brother is on a Vodafone Anytime 500 contract, with Stop The Clock as an extra. His usual monthly bill is about £40, however the one that arrived today was in excess of £500.

For those who are not familiar with STC, it is a deal where during evenings and weekends, you only pay for the first three minutes of the first hour of every call to mobiles and UK landlines. If the call continues over an hour, you pay from minute 61 onwards, in addition to the first three minutes. The cost can be either deducted from your minutes or charged at standard rates.

My brother recently has a new gf, so we expected an increase, but it appears that Vodafone have done the following.

As my brother slowly worked through his 500 anytime minutes, the three minutes for each 1 hour call were deducted from the 500mins available. Calls during the day and non-eligible calls were also deducted from his allocation. However, when the 500 minutes were used, Vodafone then stopped the 'Stop The Clock' function. This meant that every call was charged at the standard rate for the whole call.

I have read and reread the Pay Monthly Price Plans T&C's but cant see anything that says that once the monthly allocation of minutes have expired, that the STC function will cease to operate.

Are Vodafone breaking their T&C's by charging the full rate for the calls after the monthly allocation had been used, and can we do anything about it?

Your help and advice greatly appreciated.

WoA

Wings_of_Ambition

Although a seperate issue, another problem experienced was earlier in the month, when my brother tried to send several single text messages. His friends then replied to tell him to stop sending the same thing, as they had received multiple messages. My brother contacted Vodafone, who said there was nothing they could do as the details wouldnt appear on their systems for 72 hours.

Having just downloaded an itemised bill, it appears that each of these texts have been processed as up to 30 texts in one message, and charged accordingly.

Does this 'question' the integrity of their system, and could this be used in any complaint/action?

GPark

I have just had my vodafone bill, and they have charged me for text messages that should have been included in my allowance. They charged me for some text messages sent to my sisters phone and not for others sent to the same number on the same day, dispite the fact that I had plenty of messages left in my allowance for the month.

When I rang to complain, I was told that they had had a problem with text messages last month, and I would be refunded on my next bill. So maybe your brother should ring and complain also?

Wings_of_Ambition

Any suggestions regarding the STC issue?

faza20

Hi wings for ambition

I work for Vodafone and may be able to help.

STC does not stop once you have finished your free minutes. You will be charged standard rate for the 1st 3minutes, then the next 57mins will be foc. Once you have gone passed 57 mins, you are again charged standard rate for the remainder of the call (eg - a call of 1hr and 10 mins, you would be charged for 13 mins in total).

If your brother does not think this has happened, if he goes to https://www.vodafone.co.uk, then contact us, he can send us an email. If he includes FIT135 in the body of the text, it will be picked up by a team who monitor the public forums, and will be happy to help.

drawle

Vodafone are in the wrong there because even though your son is on contract weather or not vodafone stopped it the customers who already have it should be able to use it untill the contract is terminated