Vodafone starts charging customers for browsing Live!

jrgriffin

Good to see that everyone is slowly picking up on the fact that something that was once free is going to become an expensive habit after 1st June.
Fortunately I believe there is a way out of this mess and after scanning various blogs the following is the best advice I've seen for getting out of your contract.

Firstly ... don't deal with Customer Services via 191 .. it will be a pointless exercise ... you need to read the advice below, write a letter to register your complaint and go from there.

Following Vodafones notification of their new data pricing and vodafone live terms it seems there are grounds for cancellation under their T&Cs without penalty.

The relevant section of their T&Cs are:

a) You may end this Agreement immediately by writing to us if:-

we do not do what we have to do under this Agreement and do not put it right within 7 days of being asked in writing to do so;
all of the Services are permanently no longer available to you;
we increase the monthly (or other periodic line rental charge under clause 7a) and such increase (calculated as a percentage) is more than the increase in the Retail Prices Index Figure ("RPI", also calculated as a percentage) for the period from the month of the last increase (if any) to the month before we send the notice of the change in tariffs and you write to us before the increase takes effect. If we increase the monthly (or other periodic) line rental charge by more than the increase in the RPI we will tell you; or during the Term we increase in the United Kingdom and under clause 7a, call or other usage charges which have the effect of increasing your call or other usage charges by more than 10% or the increase in RPI calculated as in 8a above (which ever is the greater) based upon your previous call or usage pattern;
you write to us before the increase takes effect.

The bold section basically means that as long as you have browsed the web regularly over the past few months (your bill should itemise out your usage) then if this increase will mean your charges for browsing increase by more than 10% based on your prevous usage patterns, you will be entitled to leave your contract without penalty provided you write in before the change comes into effect.

Good luck. I'm waiting to see how Vodafone respond to my letter sent earlier in the week.

SarahNeedle1872

Dom9171 wrote: »

I wrote to Vodafone about this a week ago. Having had no responce today I sent the same letter via email. I had a number of complaints.

1. They have re-debited my account with £30. The £30 was a 'goodwill' payment given to me last month due to them getting the delivery of the phone wrong twice. Having given it me it seems when they think my back is turned they can stick it back on again.

2. The new charges for Vodafonelive.

3. Not calling me back to discuss both the above after saying they would.

4. Not advising me I lost my rollover minutes when I upgraded recently. I was told no such thing in fact I was advised I was on the same deal.

My main concern is the new charges. I am fairly confident they will ultimately have to release me from my current contract if I push hard enough. Will keep you informed

Can I just ask what the address was that u wrote to? I need to write to them reagrding this and other issues, but unless I'm being thick, I can't find their Customer Service address on the site. Thanx

S x

mzqa395

https://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Page_Help_ContactUs&pageID=PCU_0002

Here you are

ianonline

I'm a bit confused

Good news – for the first time, we’re about to bring you everything you love about the Internet, wherever you want it, on your mobile phone.

Not only will you be able to get all your favourites from Vodafone live!, including sports, news, games and music, you’ll also be able to enjoy a fuller Internet experience. Google, eBay, MySpace, YouTube, the BBC – whatever you’re into, and whichever Internet sites you like to use, it’ll all be there in one place, on your phone whenever you need it.

You've always been able to access sites such as Google and eBay etc so how can they claim a "fuller internet experience" and what do they mean by "for the first time"? :think:

I know they're trying to play down the fact that they're starting to charge for browsing Vodafone live! by bringing the pricing in line with what they already charge for browsing other wap sites, but what are they claiming to be offering that they never used to :question: (unless I'm missing something).

No matter what people's views are about the company, surely someone as big as vodafone wouldn't be so brash as to make such blatantly false claims. :wall:

paddyrg

One big problem with mobile internet is that you don't know/can't know before you visit a webpage just how big it will be - some inexpert 'webmasters' have 2Meg images on their sites, but scaled down in the browser so they never even realise.

The only reason I started using mobile web was when Orange ran a 3G intro freebie 50Meg/month for a year, but when they reverted to the outrageous standard prices for data, I left Orange after a loooong, happy relationship to join T-Mobile just for web'n'walk (£7.50/month for all the data you can eat). It means I can plan my monthly bills rather than risk going a kb over my limit and paying in blood. Great connectivity, great service, the whole internet too, not some ringfenced 'buddy sites' corner. Change networks now, it's been so worth it for me!

judosteffer

The spin on this on their webpage is worthy of the finest weasly politicians:

"We want to bring you pricing that works across the whole Mobile Internet. So, because Vodafone live! is part of the Mobile Internet, there will be a charge for browsing Vodafone live! However, you can still visit the Vodafone live! homepage for free."

For this read " we want to make more money so we are gonna charge you to go on vodaphone live"

moneysaver05_2

jrgriffin wrote: »

Good to see that everyone is slowly picking up on the fact that something that was once free is going to become an expensive habit after 1st June.
Fortunately I believe there is a way out of this mess and after scanning various blogs the following is the best advice I've seen for getting out of your contract.

Firstly ... don't deal with Customer Services via 191 .. it will be a pointless exercise ... you need to read the advice below, write a letter to register your complaint and go from there.

Following Vodafones notification of their new data pricing and vodafone live terms it seems there are grounds for cancellation under their T&Cs without penalty.

The relevant section of their T&Cs are:

a) You may end this Agreement immediately by writing to us if:-

we do not do what we have to do under this Agreement and do not put it right within 7 days of being asked in writing to do so;
all of the Services are permanently no longer available to you;
we increase the monthly (or other periodic line rental charge under clause 7a) and such increase (calculated as a percentage) is more than the increase in the Retail Prices Index Figure ("RPI", also calculated as a percentage) for the period from the month of the last increase (if any) to the month before we send the notice of the change in tariffs and you write to us before the increase takes effect. If we increase the monthly (or other periodic) line rental charge by more than the increase in the RPI we will tell you; or during the Term we increase in the United Kingdom and under clause 7a, call or other usage charges which have the effect of increasing your call or other usage charges by more than 10% or the increase in RPI calculated as in 8a above (which ever is the greater) based upon your previous call or usage pattern;
you write to us before the increase takes effect.

The bold section basically means that as long as you have browsed the web regularly over the past few months (your bill should itemise out your usage) then if this increase will mean your charges for browsing increase by more than 10% based on your prevous usage patterns, you will be entitled to leave your contract without penalty provided you write in before the change comes into effect.

Good luck. I'm waiting to see how Vodafone respond to my letter sent earlier in the week.

Hi matey, any chance of having a look at your letter so I have an idea what to write?
abviously delete your personnal details.
cheers

Biggles

Sounds like Vodafone are going away from their old, expensive data pricing to something a bit more modern. I see they have their own inclusive data bundle on the way, as in the US and T-Mobile's Web'n'Walk. That might be interesting.

I never found Vodafone Live useful, so the new packages will save me quite a bit per month and maybe prevent me moving from Vodafone. Maybe....

draig_2

toasterman wrote: »

That is disgusting.
I never seem to get charged for GPRS each month. I possibly have a small allowance of 2-3mb. I'm assuming they're going to honour this after the new price-hike. I certainly don't pay for an extra pack.

no, the sms pack you probably have currently covers you for data charges, this is also coming off. sms packs will only cover sms from that same date, however voda are introducing a seperate data pack...cant remember the details though im afraid.

scaldyflash

From what I have read on their website and on a lot of other sites most people will be a lot worse off because of the fact that Vodafone are 'trying to help the user' I think that when they say they are trying to help us what they actually mean is that they are trying to unload £30 more per month from us. Think about it, why is it that most Vodafone customers don't know about this huge increase in their charges ? It's because Vodafone don't want you to know, that is why they sent an obscure text to you in Feb. or Mar. Don't be fooled.

BEWARE, VODAFONE ARE GOING TO RIP YOU OFF