Vodafone - Where do i stand!

magicninja2010

Hi,

First of all im a student and money is really tight. I was offered a Super deal from vodafone becuase my parents have been with them for many years and i have too. Well i was offered:

ult texts, 250mb internet , 1 hour calls and a free HTC FOR £7.50 a month! BARGIN , i accepted straight away.

Vodafone was fine for the 12 months untill all of a sudden on the 12 month i didnt recieve a bill , nor did i recieve any information from vodafone. For the next 4 months i was on voda they didnt send me a bill so i presumed i was paying that amount. BUT infact i was paying £25!!!! for the bundle above and i was NOT notified of this price increase. I did recieve a text on the 12th month saying that my phone bill would go up by 28p ! 28p not £17.50

So where do i stand on this? Do i send in a complain becuase i was not notified of a price increase which is unjustified by my bundle? I did not accept a huge price increase , nor was i upgraded.

grumbler

First you call them and see what they say. What's "Super deal"? Any chance it's some sort of discount for a year?
The next step depends on what they say. They cannot increase the price without telling you first. If it's as much as £7.50 you have a right to cancel the contract. Read the T&C before calling them and take notes of the phone call for the future.

magicninja2010

grumbler wrote: »

First you call them and see what they say. What's "Super deal"? Any chance it's some sort of discount for a year?
The next step depends on what they say. They cannot increase the price without telling you first. If it's as much as £7.50 you have a right to cancel the contract. Read the T&C before calling them and take notes of the phone call for the future.

Hi ,

I found out 3 weeks ago and cancled straight away. My contract ended and they put the price up without telling me

grumbler

Was it 12 month contract then?

magicninja2010

grumbler wrote: »

Was it 12 month contract then?

It was a 12 month contract deal but approaching the end of the contract i had no letters , therefore i thought it was a 24 month contract. However i only created an online account a few weeks ago and discovered i was paying WAY too much

grumbler

Well, I see that you "presumed" and "thought it was". And you seem to have no idea what the actual contract and "Super deal" were. If it really was a discount for 12 months, I don't see how they are at fault.
And no, they don't have to send any letters when the minimum term (or a mutually agreed discount) ends. Just read the T&C at last and you'll see.

Buzby

You had a discounted deal, at a promotional rate and this ended. So no, they do not need to tell you the promo rate is ending because that is the real rate for the service. The secret is to diarise when the change takes place and give notice in good time - but for many, the lock-in usually keeps you in to pay at lead a few months at the higher rate - so you were lucky!

themightyn

Actually Section 48 of the communications act makes it very clear.

Consumer and Small Business Customers must be made fully aware of the contract you are/were on. If any form of agreement was made (i.e first 12 months at x price to be moved to y price or 12 months discount at x). Then this must be on your original paper work.

Personally if you were not made fully aware of this and this was not on any paper work. Then I would be inclined to reclaim the 'over payments'.

You as a consumer were lead to believe that your contract would be increasing by 28p

Failure to get a successful out come, I would then make it very clear to Vodafone that you will need to take this to the Adjudicator as you feel you were mis-sold this agreement. Whats more. As you were not receiving any correspondence in the form of notifications or bills from Vodafone it left you out of pocket for a substantial amount of time.

After 4 weeks of disputes. If you get nowhere. Ask them for a letter of 'deadlock' for it to be forwarded to the Adjudicator service. This will cost them £350!

Vodafone are usually good from the customer service side of things. So they should refund the over payments if you make a big enough fuss.

Good luck and let us know how you get on!! Remember your a student. Every penny is tight and you should NOT be another silent customer let an unfair set of charges go by. Remember you were informed 1 set of increases at x rate were going to happen. But not at another. Also from reading your comments. It obviously does not look like you were made clear at the beginning this was a temporary discount. Which 12 month temp discount is not the industry standard where 3 or 6 months is.

Good luck!

mobilejunkie

themightyn wrote: »

Vodafone are usually good from the customer service side of things.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Your post is very helpful, but THAT statement DOES make me laugh. You must live on a different planet to me and the scores of extremely UNhappy Vodafone customers on this an other sites.

macman

magicninja2010 wrote: »

It was a 12 month contract deal but approaching the end of the contract i had no letters , therefore i thought it was a 24 month contract. However i only created an online account a few weeks ago and discovered i was paying WAY too much

So what made you think that it had magically turned into a 24 month contract then?
Did you not look at your bank statements for 4 months (despite saying in your first post that 'money is really tight')?
You failed to note the terms of the contract (basically, a promo rate for the 1st 12m).
On what basis do you think that you have a legitimate complaint against Vodafone?

magicninja2010

macman wrote: »

So what made you think that it had magically turned into a 24 month contract then?
Did you not look at your bank statements for 4 months (despite saying in your first post that 'money is really tight')?
You failed to note the terms of the contract (basically, a promo rate for the 1st 12m).
On what basis do you think that you have a legitimate complaint against Vodafone?

1. Didnt contact me
2. said i would have a 28p increase in price

So why should i check my bank account. I dont have online banking and I didnt recieve ANY letters with any billing information when coming up to the 12th month and after so i presumed that the price was the same

You can go "oh its your fault for not checking" but vodafone still failed to tell me that i would have a huge increase in price. And honestly the bundle i got ult texts , 250mb and 1 hour calls is NOT worth £25 , Im on giffgaff now getting ult everything for £12 !