Vodofone and termination of contract

Camelina

Went onto a contract with Vodofone last year(been with them payg for many years with no issues)
For months now have been unable to send/receive texts to an overseas location(just one particular country) which is the main use for my phone. The problem is def between Vodofone and the other overseas provider because i can receive sms from other countries and other family members at home can receive sms that those with Vodofone can not( two with Vodofone can't, one with O2 can)
As I am not receiving the service I am paying for i have requested termination of my contract yet they are insisitng that I should pay for ending my contract early.
Service providers in both countries have been contacted and both have had a chance to rectify this and both are saying everything is correct their end.

Am i being unreasonable to expect to be released from my contract without financial penalty?

thatsean

Yes. The contract that you agreed to will state that the service will not be fault free, and you don't know that it's a fault in the control of Vodafone. It might be worth writing to them, and offering the return of the hardware but I doubt you'll have much luck.

Which country is this? Some countries don't get service from multinationals for political reasons.

grumbler

Have you tried using third parties like, say, http://www.fishtext.com/ ?

Camelina

Thanks for your thoughts but what I should add is that the service was fault free for seven plus years whilst i was on payg so there are no issues re what country and the fact that our son(at home here on O2) can receive and send texts to that country too. The odd sms not received can be put down to atmospherics(well we have put it down to that) but nothing has now been received for months so this isn't a minor blip but a major lack of service. No hardware was received/requested-kept same (owned) phone, same number and even same sim card.

Camelina

grumbler wrote: »

Have you tried using third parties like, say, http://www.fishtext.com/ ?

Haven't a clue what that is will take a look now. tia

thatsean

Hmm, ok. If the service worked on payt and doesn't on paym then it does support the fact that the issue is with voda. Payt and pay monthly are on two completely separate platforms, have you spoken to anyone in the uk based technical team at voda regarding this?

thatsean

Although I should add that this doesn't really help you, the service isn't guaranteed, and therefore even in light of this, Vodafone are entitled to charge you for the duration of the contract.

Camelina

It worked on the contract for about 2/3 months and then stopped. I have spoken to them on several occasions and was initially told that I had blocked that particular number on my phone(not true) I was then told that I did not have the number entered in the international format on my phone(again untrue)Subsequently they have on at least two occasions checked all account settings and said they are all correct and suggested we speak to service provider in other country. This too has been done and theirs are apparently OK too. All well and good but it is useless to me. If the account settings are correct and if son with another network can receive these texts then my reasoning is that there must be an issue between the two network providers and that it would be reasonable to expect them to rectify it. I can't see what else I can possibly do.

Just had a look at the terms and conditions and it states that either can end contract if one of events in clause 11 of the pay monthly airtime conditions takes place(eg we fail to provide you with a service for seven days in a row) so I may be able to argue the fact that as my contract is primarily used for overseas sms and that I have not received this service for months......!I guess they will come back with that i could of used it for UK use but their records will be able to clearly show that this is not the case. i can live in hope:)

thatsean

I would write to them then, offer return of the hardware and see if they will let you go. It's rare, but not unheard of. Heidi or one of the forum reps will no doubt see this thread, so they might be able to help.

Although you didn't explicitly answer, I take it from your response that you have spoken to the uk team, and nt the tech guys in India?

chanz4

Do you have an international text bar on vodas end? When I worked for singlepoint years ago their was international call / text bars

spirit

thatsean wrote: »

Payt and pay monthly are on two completely separate platforms, /QUOTE]

Only as far as billing is concerned.

I too think that you have an sms roaming bar on the network (which the customer services staff won't see on their systems)

You will need to speak to the tech team for them to remove it.