Vodafone Broadband Dongle Huge Bill

brain_chilled

Hello, after a bit of advice and to see if anyone else has bad similar experience.
A few months ago I signed up to a Vodafone broadband dongle with a 1 Gig a month limit for 12 months, £10 a month. 3 months in, my total spend so far is approx £400! I would consider myself a light user, checking emails and facebook. Not streaming video or uploading/downloading any files.

As I am sure you can imagine, I was somewhat shocked when I got the bill through and went down to my local Vodafone store to discuss it. I was told there was nothing they could do in store and to call the customer services number. I did this and was told that there was nothing they could do and I would need to go in store. The customer services advisor was less the helpful when I called and refused to put a supervisor on to me. After a rather long and drawn out conversation, I eventually got to speak to a supervisor.

I explained to him that when I took the contract out in store, I was told there was a usage cap to stop this sort of thing happening, I specifically asked about it and it was one of the main reasons we went with Vodafone. The supervisor told me that this was not possible and it was my word against the store assistants, and insinuated I was lying about it. According to this chap, no providers offer a usage cap, so there is no way that I would have been told this. I am currently waiting to hear back from a manager.

I am going to contact the Money Advice Service and Citizens Advice about this, and have halted the direct debit with my bank until this has been resolved. But does anyone else have a similar experience and advice? I took this out to save money and am now regretting it immensely.

JJ_Egan

Halting your DD may end up with your credit rating trashed .

So what is your typical weekly data usage i presume that you have checked .

brain_chilled

Yeah, going to seek advice before doing it, wrote the initial post in anger.

I forgot to mention, the store assistant told me if I used over the 1 gig allowance, then i would be automatically put onto the next tariff and after that the account would freeze. Basically, the store assistant has lied to me and customer services are refusing to help.

I have found my receipt so they should be able to tell who it was that sold it to me.

In march, I used 10 gig apparently, but really cannot understand how I have done this as I really only use it to check emails and occasionally look at facebook and ebay.

JJ_Egan

10gig is to much for updates .
That sort of usage is movie streaming .

Cycrow

It is possible to use large amounts of data by just browsing. Many websites now tend to have lots of adverts, including video adverts, and these use alot of data.

Mobile broadband tends to use alot than from a mobile. As from a mobile you tend to get cut down mobile version of sites which are alot smaller.

Many people struggling using BT's 10GB limit, so 1GB is really nothing.

i sometimes tether my phone to the pc and can easily use a GB of data in a day without really doing much

brain_chilled

I agree this does seem a lot. If that's what they say I have used though, then I really don't see how I'm going to prove otherwise.
My point of contention is that what I was told in store when I took the contract out, wasn't what I was given and Vodafone are denying their staff would have said this. No extra charges were explained to me in store as I was told the service would stop working. Had I known what the risks of charges were, I would have given more consideration when taking the product out.
If you use an oyster card in London, when you run out of money, the card stops working. you don't get to the end of the month and they say "actually, you owe us £300". before people say, I know this is more of a PAYG example, but what I was sold isn't what I've ended up with

poppasmurf_bewdley

I have had a Vodaphone Dongle for the last three years, to use when I'm in my caravan.

I use it only for browsing the internet, emails, etc. and 3gb last me about eight or nine weeks of normal use. I frequently have capacity spare at the end of the caravanning season.

You must be using that data somewhere. Does anybody else have access to the computer? Kids perhaps?

brain_chilled

No, just me and the wife. Strange, still waiting to hear from the manager...

Vodafone

Hi brain_chilled,

If you're still in need of help with things, 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'll take you to the Contact us form on our website. To make sure it reaches me, quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line.

Once sent, you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Post back with this and I’ll check I've received it.

Kind regards,

Lee

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Vodafone UK

Solarjunkie

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

I have had a Vodaphone Dongle for the last three years, to use when I'm in my caravan.

I use it only for browsing the internet, emails, etc. and 3gb last me about eight or nine weeks of normal use. I frequently have capacity spare at the end of the caravanning season.

Sounds like you may have had a non-expiry Vodafone dongle, like me. If so, you're in for a nasty shock - they have all now "expired" . Lots of angry people on VF forums.

Personally, I can't even find out the number of the dongle as I can't access my account to find out how much money I have lost.

poppasmurf_bewdley

Solarjunkie wrote: »

Sounds like you may have had a non-expiry Vodafone dongle, like me. If so, you're in for a nasty shock - they have all now "expired" . Lots of angry people on VF forums.

Personally, I can't even find out the number of the dongle as I can't access my account to find out how much money I have lost.

Yes, I know. That's why I've now gone over to the Caravan Club wi-fi deal - £25 for a year all in. As far as I'm concerned, I won't trust Vodaphone again for anything. I'm now an ex Vodaphone customer.