Advice on Vodafone Contract

iritchie

I did check and found that I paid an initial line rental amount prior to October/November, which was then pushed to an increased amount after this, plus there were several tarriff changes which were pushed through under the radar.
I also found some info about another series of price rises in July 2012 (Did not affect basic line rental). Again, I wasn't notified.

Guys_Dad

iritchie wrote: »

I did check and found that I paid an initial line rental amount prior to October/November, which was then pushed to an increased amount after this, plus there were several tarriff changes which were pushed through under the radar.
I also found some info about another series of price rises in July 2012 (Did not affect basic line rental). Again, I wasn't notified.

So are you saying that you had an original contract that in August 2011 was £x. Then your upgrade contract was £x+a bit more and then that was further increased in October/November?

Remember that if you upgraded in September, the new contract rate wouldn't kick in till your October billing.

What were the additional tariff changes that came in under the radar since your upgrade? Certainly passport is one this year. As far as not being notified, that does surprise me as everyone else on here seems to have known about changes in the summer and the new increase coming in now.

iritchie

Basically, I was on a continuation of my original tarriff.
There was no change other than the fact I took an extra data bolt-on, which I did not need with my previous handset.
I was called up and specifically offered "The same contract you're currently on, with a new handset", which I took on that basis.

It seems that I still had a couple of months to run on my previous contract, so they have actually added the remaining months to the 2 year contract required on my current handset.
I don't really know how they've worked it (whether they've allowed my previous contract to conclude before starting the next one, or if they just added more months onto the new contract) but in any case, they put through the increase in what would be month 2 or month 23, so either way it does not make sense.

And on your second point, EXACTLY!
Everyone else seems to be aware, and those that were kicked off about it immediately, to see whether someone was actually able to make changes to a "fixed" contract, much the same as I have in this instance.
I can assure you that if I had been notified about it last time around, my reaction would have been much the same as when I got a text message through this time...

I don't know if the oversight was because of the overlapping contracts across the period where the raises were pushed through, but whatever happened, I was definitely not notificed, that much I can guarantee.

The additional changes which have come in since my original contract are as follows;

Line rental increase of 2.3%
Secondary line rental increase of 2.2%
Increase in non-bundled landline calls from 15p per minute to 35p per minute (a 233% increase!)
Increase in unbundled data charges from £5.00 per 500MB to £5.00 per 250MB (a 100% increase)
Increase in Premium rate calls by 18%
Increase in Directory Enquiries calls by 20%
Removal of Vodafone Passport

These are the ones I have been able to establish, but I would not be surprised if there are more.
Some of them have come from 2 separate increases in the same contract period....

iritchie

*Got carried away with my maths there and the non-bundled landline calls is a 133% raise (233% of the original cost)

Vodafone

Hi iritchie,

When we announce any price increases, we notify all of our customers by text 30 days in advance. Although you may not have record of the message saved, I can assure you that it was sent.

I’m afraid as this was over 12 months ago, you would be well out of the notice period as you can only cancel if you write to us before the increase applies and if it increases by more than the retail price index.

See section 7b of our Terms and Conditions: ‘We may change or withdraw services at any time and we may change or introduce new terms to this agreement at any time. If we do, we’ll give you at least 30 days’ notice of these changes. If these changes are to your significant disadvantage, you may have a right to end this agreement under clause 11b and we’ll tell you if you do.’

And 11b: ‘We tell you that there will be an increase in the line-rental charge (unless we increase line rental because of a rise in VAT) by more than the increase in the retail price index (worked out as a percentage) since the last line-rental increase and you write to us before the increase applies;
We increase your charges in the UK which has the effect of increasing your total charges (based on your usage in any of the previous three months) by more than 10% and you write to us before the increase applies’

As the increase was less than 10%, even if you had contacted us at the time you would not have been eligible to cancel your contract.

If you wish to discuss this directly with me, you can contact me via the link shown here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject. Please also include a link to your post and a contact number.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Guys_Dad

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

Hi iritchie,

When we announce any price increases, we notify all of our customers by text 30 days in advance. Although you may not have record of the message saved, I can assure you that it was sent.

I’m afraid as this was over 12 months ago, you would be well out of the notice period as you can only cancel if you write to us before the increase applies and if it increases by more than the retail price index.

See section 7b of our Terms and Conditions: ‘We may change or withdraw services at any time and we may change or introduce new terms to this agreement at any time. If we do, we’ll give you at least 30 days’ notice of these changes. If these changes are to your significant disadvantage, you may have a right to end this agreement under clause 11b and we’ll tell you if you do.’

And 11b: ‘We tell you that there will be an increase in the line-rental charge (unless we increase line rental because of a rise in VAT) by more than the increase in the retail price index (worked out as a percentage) since the last line-rental increase and you write to us before the increase applies;
We increase your charges in the UK which has the effect of increasing your total charges (based on your usage in any of the previous three months) by more than 10% and you write to us before the increase applies’

As the increase was less than 10%, even if you had contacted us at the time you would not have been eligible to cancel your contract.

If you wish to discuss this directly with me, you can contact me via the link shown here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject. Please also include a link to your post and a contact number.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Do you want to correct that statement in red above as anything over RPI would trigger the right to cancel. Suspect you didn't write what you meant to there.

iritchie

@Vodafone Company Representative


Thanks for your response.
However, I have 4 problems with the above.
Firstly, you may provide assurances that a text was sent, but it is impossible to gurantee that your system is 100% failproof, and that at least one or two customers (if not more) were not notified.
I can assure you that the reason I have no record of a text message is because I never received one.

Within 5mins of receiving the text message notifying that I was going to be subject to a price increase last month, I was on the phone to customer services to enquire about this price increase and raise my concerns.
Now had I received any prior notification to the previous increases, my reaction would have been exactly the same, so I think it's fair to say that I have received no notification to date.
Whether you had a system in place which was meant to notify me or not, is irrelevant. The fact is that you are contracted to provide notification of any changes and you simply did not provide this to me.

Therefore, secondly, it is impossible to raise a concern within "30 days of being notified" if I have NOT been notified...
I STILL have not been notified, despite being in contact with customer services for over a month now and specifically asking for details on several occasions.
I raised concerns immediately upon finding out via a 3rd party site that you had pushed through earlier price rises, which upon checking my bill, I have been subject to.

Thirdly, you cannot claim that my bill is not affected by at least 10% without investigating my actual usage, so a blanket statement such as the above, is completely inaccurate and misleading, because a line rental increase is not the only change I have been subject to here. There have been several other tarriff changes which can (and in some examples do) affect my bill.


Finally, given I was never provided with an updated set of terms and conditions and it was never communicated to me that my contract was subject to change - it was simply discussed as a "fixed tarriff", I would therefore have no expectation of any changes to take place during my contracted period.
If you fail to notify me of this term in whatever smallprint you want to put it into, then I am fairly confident that I cannot be subjected to the term.

Had it just been the case that I was caught out by some smallprint because I had never read it, then fine. I would still be annoyed, but I would be prepared to accept it and move on.
However, I have been delivered a lot of mis-information by Vodafone, and even worse, no information whatsoever on several key points and crucial changes which you feel it is fair to subject your customers to (regardless of whether it is advertised).

My issue has never been about the amount in question. If we're talking line rental alone, then the remainder of my contract will cost me an additional £7.20. I have already been overcharged by £5.04.
This means that for the sake of just £12.24 *each (On your assumption that the other tarriff changes do not affect me whatsoever..) Vodafone are happy enough to risk their integrity and goodwill of their entire customerbase.

I was previously a very happy Vodafone customer, and prior to this issue had never had the misfortune to have to contact the customer services department (No offence meant in your direction, as I appreciate you taking the time out to respond to individual comments on an external forum, however the general responses I have received have been scripted, they have included several varying accounts of why the current raises are being pushed through, and they have completely ignored almost the entire content of each email).
So for the sake of £12.24, a 10-year relationship with Vodafone has been tarnished beyond repair (I will not be returning whether I can terminate this contract or not).
For the sake of £12.24, you have utilised some small print in your contract to serve your own greed.

Had it been necessary to account for inflation, then safeguards should have been built into the original agreement, to ensure that they were covered across the contract duration, NOT by issuing a self-serving price rise mid-contract.

What would the "rising costs" be as a matter of interest? Has Vodafone opted to start paying the correct amount of UK tax for the huge profits you are "earning"? Didn't thinkso.

Thanks for your response anyway....

iritchie

FYI Heidi, I followed the link to the contact form as per the above, but unfortunately it does not allow attachments, meaning I cannot send a transcript of my correspondence to date, and I can't even begin trying to summarise my frustrations within the allowable character limit...

Mickyk

You did not have a price increase in 2011, you changed your contract back before that.

Yes you said you were keeping the "same contract" but you would have been migrated to a Y7 plan whereas your previous plan would have been Y6 /5 or CTR3.

It would not have changed your terms, but would have put you on a plan that already incorporated the change.

iritchie

Mickyk, you're right, this is highly likely to be the explanation, but to be fair, the consumer has no idea what a Y7, 6, 5 or CTR 3 plan is.

When I was contacted by Vodafone in regards to my renewal, I was specifically told "You can keep your existing tarriff and can choose a new handset".

Now, "keeping my existing tarriff" is exactly that.
If it incorporated a small price rise and several pricing changes, then the terms of the contract DID change, meaning I have been misled.

The fact that my previous contract (which I WAS held to) ran into and beyond the period where the price increases were introduced, means that indeed I SHOULD have been notified, because despite "renewing" my contract, on top of the 24 months I was being tied into with the renewal, I also had the 3 months remaining on my existing contract added as well.

So either my existing contract was immediately terminated and the new contract immediately took it's place, in which case, fine, I have no problem , other than the fact that Vodafone were not open and honest about introducing any small price rise. It also would mean that I should not be tied into a 27 month contract, since the "new" contract was a 24 month contract.
OR, my previous contract was allowed to run its course, meaning the changes were introduced during THIS contracted period and I was not notified. Subsequently, the "new contract" commenced and the changes rolled onto the new agreement.

My problem once again, is with honesty, openness and communication, which in either of the above scenarios, I am obliged with very little of.