Help £200 phone bill!!

macman

You 'don't get statements'? I think you do, online if not by post. If not, how exactly have you been checking your bills up to now?
Since you knew that there was no cap in place, how is it 'irresponsible' of Vodafone if you run hugely over your monthly limit?

pickoftheday

Hi vickydon

You said in your original post that you asked for a cap to be put on your usage of £75.

Do you remember if they confirmed with you that they had put the cap on or not?

I had a pay monthly account with Three UK and at the beginning of the contract I asked for a cap of £20 a month to be put on the account.

The a few months later, I received a bill of £80 and this was down to data charges.

When I called up to speak to them I told them that I asked for a cap to be put on the account and why wasn't it applied.

They eventually admitted to me that the cap hadn't been applied due to an error and I got most of the money back off them - eventually.

Might be worth investigating because if they told you a cap had been applied then it is up to them to ensure you don't overspend.

grumbler

pickoftheday wrote: »

Hi vickydon...You said in your original post that you asked for a cap to be put on your usage of £75.

Do you remember if they confirmed with you that they had put the cap on or not?...

vickydon wrote: »

...they said they don't do that anymore.

gjchester

pickoftheday wrote: »

Do you remember if they confirmed with you that they had put the cap on or not?

I had a pay monthly account with Three UK and at the beginning of the contract I asked for a cap of £20 a month to be put on the account.

You must have been lucky and got a good service adviser.

Vodafone and Three have *NEVER* offered a guaranteed cap facility on bills.

Vodafone have never offered one at all

Three allows you to set a Zero credit allowance however they are very clear in their T&C that this is NOT guaranteed, and it should not be used as a budgetting measure (something like overseas use is never reported in real time so a cap can never work in contracts) and should you end up running up a bill then you are liable.

robbies_gal

why should u have sympathy im sorry for your job loss but if you cant even look at a call log on your phone to see how long u been on it sorry not anyone elses problem

tdighton

wow even if you dont go oer your bill is around £35- £40 a month thats a lot! im on vodafone get 1500 mins unlimited texts and internet and i pay £31 a month and its a samsung galaxy ace thats hell of a lot that yur paying for sim only contract and you can keep eye on your bill by calling 191 selecting option 1 then 1 again and they txt you with what yu have left and how much you have gone over.. its your responsibiltty to be able to pay it and that you would of had that in t&c when you signed for the contract only thing i can suggest is you ask family and friends if they could help

tdighton

also vodafone do not put a cap on your usage an never have as its not guarenteed

pickoftheday

gjchester wrote: »

You must have been lucky and got a good service adviser.

Vodafone and Three have *NEVER* offered a guaranteed cap facility on bills.

Vodafone have never offered one at all

Three allows you to set a Zero credit allowance however they are very clear in their T&C that this is NOT guaranteed, and it should not be used as a budgetting measure (something like overseas use is never reported in real time so a cap can never work in contracts) and should you end up running up a bill then you are liable.

I have had a long term with contract with Three which I have had for well over six years now and that has always been capped.

It is quite effective as it blocks any out of contract texts, such as text alerts on facebook, of which I was unaware of the cost.

It wasn't something that was offered to me, it was something that I requested, so I don't think they actually advertise that they are able to apply a cap - like Tesco do, (this makes them more money, obviously) and it isn't something they will normally offer.

I have a second rolling monthly contract, which I started later than the other 2 year contract that I have and it was this that they failed to cap.

If you ask for a cap at the beginning of your contract they will do it for you, but they always make it clear that if you ask for it to be removed mid-contract then it can not be reapplied.

I currently pay £34 a month on one contract which is capped at £34.

I also have another £20 a month rolling contract which is capped at £25.

mattyprice4004

vickydon wrote: »

Thanks to those who have made constructive comments/suggestions . I live in a shared house - my mobile bill has always been £35-40 for the past 4 years and I don't get statements... I will definitely be keeping an eye in future!!
The phone is worth about £40 and if I sold it I wouldn't have a phone and I don't think prospective employers would hire someone without a phone number.
The point is that I can't afford to pay it and going into debt with exorbitant rates of interest is just a downhill spiral i'm trying to avoid. Interesting that people on here are so unsympathetic if someone makes a mistake.. I hope they never find out the meaning of empathy the hard way!

....so instead of admitting it's your fault and not that of Vodafone, you'd rather snap back at people telling you this?

This is life, you need to accept responsibility for your actions.`

Vodafone

vickydon wrote: »

Hi,

I have just received a phone bill for £200 and can't afford it. I was made redundant last month so didn't realize how much more i was using my phone because I don't have a work phone. I have 600 minutes on my phone bill so literally never needed to check before because I have never been even close to my max!

Vodafone have taken the £200 from the account and now I am overdrawn and incurring daily charges. When I rang customer service they said they couldn't do anything apart from spread the £200 over the month. If I need longer than that they will cut me off but I will still be liable to pay the final 6 months of my contract.

I cannot believe it. I have been a customer of Vodafone for over 4 years!! I have never ever been a problem customer and this was literally one error that I would never have made if I'd realized I was going over my inclusive minutes. When i bought the phone I asked for a £75 cap on it but when I talked to someone they said they don't do that anymore. It is so irresponsible that they allow you to rack up these monstrous bills and don't even give you a warning that you are going over your limit. They have to do this when you are abroad so why do they have to act any less responsibly here?? i really thought that as I'd been a good customer all this time that they would have been more sympathetic. Any ideas with what I should do?

Hi vickydon,

I can appreciate that you find yourself in a difficult situation here and am happy to review matters further for you.

To enable me to do this could you email me with your details via the link in our profile here?

All you need to do is copy and paste the link into your web browser and it will take you to the Contact us form on our website.

To ensure that it reaches me could you also quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line and once our automated reply arrives update the thread with your email reference number and I'll get back to you as soon as possible?

Thanks,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK