Please help, Vodafone Extortion!?

Guys_Dad

JoeS132 wrote: »

Any advice you guys might have on dealing with this situation would be much appreciated.

The first thing I would suggest is that you read the standard terms of your contract ! Vodafone are up front about a minimum call charge of 1 minute for every call connected. You will find this with other networks as well - not all of them, but before you move elsewhere, check it out.

Secondly, use "My Vodafone Account" to see the breakdown of your bill. It works a treat. If you don't opt for paper bills, then this is the way you can check what you have used and what you have been billed for.

The fact that you got a reduction is an absolute bonus, I suspect. You are slating Vodafone without either having read up to what you signed up for or even bothering to check your bill on line. Your posts are to the effect that "I don't know what I have used, couldn't be bothered (or didn't bother to find out) to look on my on-line bill to check, but it's definitely Vodafone's extortion.

Had you bothered to do that first and then found out they were at fault, then fair enough. But instead the CS guys have caved in, given you a massive rebate and you are still beefing.

Unbelievable.

Oh - and I don't work for Vodafone and have had my problems with them in the past - but I believe in some personal responsibility.

JoeS132

Guys Dad - I don't want to get into an online argument, I just came here to try to get some constructive advice. I certainly won't bother going down the road of speculating as to what your agenda maybe, as you have pre-empted; but your reply seems to be unfair and misrepresenting my problem.

To address your criticism -
I did check my bill online. The online bill doesn’t have a total minutes figure anywhere, and it was only on the second call that I got that figure from a representative.
They took the equivalent of 50p/min - the £50 rebate is due to recalculation of the cost of the "calls". They are unable to provide any explanation as to why/how they came to the £114, but they eventually admitted it was wrong. It took a couple of hours and 3 calls to get that rebate even though it was incorrectly charged and taken.
I spent no more time in total on the phone this month than any other and I have never even come close to exceeding my 600 minutes. It was a big surprise to me that I could have racked up a £114 bill as opposed to my £15. As it happens, my suspicion was right. As to the charges for calls which last the amount of time it takes me to hang up once it's diverted - I do understand it's in the terms, but I do think an objection to excessive charges on this basis is justifiable. I also think, as with credit cards, if there is a drastic anomaly on an account, the service provider has a duty to alert the customer.
And then there’s the complaint about the slippery customer service representatives and the difficulty in getting straight answers.

I do have a big beef over this and it is not because I don’t accept responsibility for my business. It's because this has been stressful, time wasting (not for the first time with VF), potentially expensive (theft if I'd not pushed for recalculation), and because I expect more from a company whom I entrust with access to my bank account.

Guys_Dad

OK - you read your bill on line. But the online system highlights every call and against each it tells you what that call cost, so I can't see why you didn't identify the problem before calling them. You don't need a total minutes used to see where that charges are.

You could easily see from the bill which were the expensive calls or the ones being charged.

The details are in chronological sequence, so you could see any chargeable calls that arose during the period that you still had minutes left in your bundle and equally could see where your bundle ended as all calls from then on would be chargeable.

This would also highlight any data or text charges

Your "problem" would easily be seen from that simple exercise, but from your initial post, it seems that you didn't do that and labelled Vodafone as extortionists. If any calls were incorrectly calculated, they should stand out like a sore thumb.

Unless you have evidence to the contrary from the online bill, it seems to me that you went over your bundle and have been charged for the use at Vodafone's rates. But the bill will also show if the rate per minute is higher than the correct amount.

My agenda is a simple one. You say you came on for advice with the belief you were ripped off by Vodafone the extortionists. I suggested that you didn't check their minimum call charges before contacting them and that you didn't read your online bill properly before either calling their CS or coming on here.

Do I think that having a minimum connect time of 1 minute per call is fair? Hell, no - particularly as 95% of people have voice mail set.

Do I think that 29p or whatever per minute for out of bundle costs is reasonable? Same answer. But I read the contract before going with them, understood it and bought the bundle I needed - and then some for contingency.

But, I have a little app on my phone called "My Vodafone" which tells me how many minutes/texts/data I have left and I use it. That stops me having any unexpected bills.

Now, if you go back over your bill and can see where you have been wrongly charged and Vodafone have made errors - such as charged at the wrong rate or charged for calls you did not make -, then come back on here and let the forum know - the same might have happened to other members and it would be of help. And in that case, some forum member or the Vodafone Rep might offer some other advice.

But if it is just that you used up your minutes and Voda correctly applied the contract terms you signed up to, then what makes them extortionists? In that event, you need to take responsibility for your own actions - or even inactions.

In the absence of any information to the contrary, at present it looks like it's 100% down to you and you were very, very fortunate that a CS guy chickened out and made a refund and, instead of blaming Vodafone, you should actually be thanking them.

Mickyk

Sounds like you ran up a bill by going over your allowance, freaked out, blamed everyone and anything you could, rather than look at the issue, if you cant see on your account for your usage, didnt download the my vodafone app to track it, or even think to call 44555 at any point.

I find it ludicrous they credited anything, and yet you still slate the company

JoeS132

Vodafone shouldn't have returned the money that they overcharged? Or they don't have to explain how they come to their figures? (rhetorical questions)

The same points that Guys Dad chose to ignore in order to misrepresent my issue - as addressed in my previous post - are being ignored in the last two unhelpful replies. I’m assuming this thread has lost its usefulness and the trolls have moved in…

Thanks to all those who have helped.

latecomer

But it still doesn't make sense - if the calls are billed at £0.29 per minute and there are 166 over your allowance then it should only cost £57 including VAT. If you were billed £114 and they refunded £57 and then £29 then you've only been charged £29 for the extra minutes which isn't a bad result. I'm not sure where the balance of £79 comes from.

As others have said I would install an app which allows you to monitor your usage and then when your contract is up vote with your feet and move to a network which bills per second.

JoeS132

latecomer - I agree, it doesn't make sense and the whole thing is disconcerting... most of the number involved seem to have been picked out of the air. And the issue still remains as to how hard it was to get an answer as to 1) total minutes used and 2) the calculation of £114. If I hadn’t have percevered I can’t imagine that it would have ever been refunded as the first 2 people I spoke to were quite sure it was correct, despite my questioning 166x£0.29. The bill now stands at £35.

I will definitely check out that ap. As I say, having never used more than about 250 minutes, it's never been an issue but from now on I will keep tabs on it anyway; and I'll be sure to try to hang up before calls are diverted!

latecomer

I would have another look at your account online as there must be a way to see an fully itemised bill on there. On Orange I can view all calls, texts etc and filter by cost, type, billing category etc - vodafone must have something similar

Vodafone

Hi JoeS132,

I am sorry to hear that there has been so much confusion around your bill and that it hasn't been clearly explained to you.

So that I can help you further, can you email me via the address here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject.

I will then give you a call to explain it in more detail.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Guys_Dad

latecomer wrote: »

I would have another look at your account online as there must be a way to see an fully itemised bill on there. On Orange I can view all calls, texts etc and filter by cost, type, billing category etc - vodafone must have something similar

They do and that's why I made the points that I did. Every call is listed and itemised. It is individual calls that make up the minutes used and amounts charged and you don't need to know the total minutes used to see if the "per minute" billing rate was incorrect. You will need to see when the bundle ran out, and, again, as the bill is chronological, you can see when every call starts being charged.

It's a pity that you can't get the bill in spreadsheet form, as I used to get for my company, as you can easily calculate a running total of minutes used. It's even easy to put in a little formula to round up to the nearest minute above or even only for those less than 1 minute, so I am with OP in admitting it's a bit of a bind checking when your bundle minutes have been spent without a spreadsheet.

However, it doesn't take a genius to look at line items that have been charged and see if they have been calculated correctly. For erroneous charges to be made, then either the wrong rate has been used - e.g. an 01 or 02 call charged at more than the current out of bundle cost. Or calls that appear on the bill that were not made by OP.

Now OP sounds quite able to have teased out his comment "I agree, it doesn't make sense and the whole thing is disconcerting... most of the number involved seem to have been picked out of the air." Was that the rate or incorrect numbers charged? If it is incorrect "per minute" billing, then he almost certainly will not have been the only one affected.

OP has not provided any specific example of how Vodafone have overcharged. He writes "They took the equivalent of 50p/min". . If there is one call on the bill that is charged incorrectly at that amount or higher (and isn't any premium or overseas call) then I hold my hands up and urge OP to make a formal complaint as high as he can. But he is a bit woolly about just what itemised calls have been overcharged at that high rate.