Have I Been a Complete Moron? (Exc. VAT Pricing)

totallynaive

I recently signed up for a mobile contract via Quidco and Dial-a-Phone. I was chuffed as the price was £36 per month with Orange for 18 months with £144 cashback via redemption and £100 cashback via Quidco. The deal included the fantastic HTC One smartphone with no upfront cost. With cashback factored in, I thought a total cost of £404 over 18 months wasn't bad at all!

However, I get my bill from Orange today and I see that they have charged £43.20. It turns out the cost is £36 + VAT. I remember back in the day we had to be careful when pricing things up, as companies could list things excluding VAT (although often they would state this somewhere on the page in small-print). I was under the impression that over the last ten years or so, companies had to advertise the price including VAT. This certainly made shopping on-line a lot easier as I never had to worry about checking whether the price listed was the price I paid.

I've been back to the site to see if I could see any mention of VAT, and I can't. I checked the page I found the deal on, the "basket" page after selecting the plan, and finally the checkout page. I went on to check the Terms and Conditions on the same site and again searching for "VAT" didn't find any results that related to my issue.

I can't post links as a new user, but if you go to the dial-a-phone website and click on the HTC One you'll see what they are offering. It's the 18 month Panther 36 deal for an effective monthly cost of £28. I think I'm still within the seven working day cooling off period, I'll have to check. Cancelling my contract would be quite a hassle though as I've already transferred my number from O2 and closed that account.

I don't suppose there's a huge amount of point to this post other than to see if this is a common thing even now and that I should have known better, or if this is a bit underhanded. Or both. I certainly feel like an idiot as this mistake means the cost is around 25% more than I had anticipated. Sigh.

greenlightluke

Just checked and there doesn't seem to be anywhere that mentions anything to do with VAT. I also would have thought VAT would be included. I work for O2 and the prices on consumer contracts include VAT, but our business ones don't, I assume that's because some business can claim the VAT back.

Herongull

If the contract was for £36 per month, then that is what you pay.

They can't charge you anything different. End of story.

Insist that they honour the contractual terms.

ZhugeEX

No that sounds normal. Your first bill is slightly higher because it bills you for a pro rata amount.

Usually it's 1 month and 5/6 days. so your first bill would be £36 for the month + a small amount for the 5/6 days.

So £36/30 = £1.20 per day x 5 or 6 = £6.00/£7.20 = £42.00 or £43.20

So perfect sense. Your next bill would be £36 on the dot.

Who told you it was for VAT?

totallynaive

Thanks for the replies, particularly ZhugeEX. It looks like I've been a moron but for different reasons; the invoice does indeed have an additional six days charge on there! Of course six days just so happens to be exactly 20% and the resulting bill became £36 + VAT, hence the unwarranted panic on my part.

I'm relieved I don't have to send this phone back. Aside from the hassle of changing numbers and finding a new contract, the phone is just amazing and I've grown attached to it over the last week!

Thanks again, that's a sigh of relief here and although I think I feel even more of an idiot in this scenario!

ZhugeEX

totallynaive wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, particularly ZhugeEX. It looks like I've been a moron but for different reasons; the invoice does indeed have an additional six days charge on there! Of course six days just so happens to be exactly 20% and the resulting bill became £36 + VAT, hence the unwarranted panic on my part.

I'm relieved I don't have to send this phone back. Aside from the hassle of changing numbers and finding a new contract, the phone is just amazing and I've grown attached to it over the last week!

Thanks again, that's a sigh of relief here and although I think I feel even more of an idiot in this scenario!

no worries.

To be honest networks/sellers need to make it clearer that their first bills always include an extra 5/6 days.

flateric81

well i just got a galaxy s4 through dial-a-phone on orange. should be £36 a month though my first bill (1 month +2 days) comes to £43.74 so it seems they have added the vat on.
Also i love the phone too and have cancelled my previous network.

i will be cancelling the contract through, and if possible complaining to ofcom. thieving *********!!!!!

d123

flateric81 wrote: »

well i just got a galaxy s4 through dial-a-phone on orange. should be £36 a month though my first bill (1 month +2 days) comes to £43.74 so it seems they have added the vat on.
Also i love the phone too and have cancelled my previous network.

i will be cancelling the contract through, and if possible complaining to ofcom. thieving *********!!!!!

It's more likely pro rata charges (and possibly some out of bundle charges). So as not to look stupid, examine the bill properly. Consumer contracts always include vat.

grumbler

Most likely it's a typical problem with £5 monthly discount at Orange. The price before discount is £41.
41*(1+2/30)=43.74