Vodafone bill shock

georgia4896

Dear All
I received a combined bill from Vodafone for my mobile phone and mobile broadband in Dec 2010 that was excessively high (for me) at £243.08. I requested an itemised bill for the mobile broadband element as this was particularly high. Typical entries of the bill were:
Sun 1 Nov
Time number more details normal cost you pay
00.13 Internet 2,922.000KB 0.000 0.000
00.16 Internet 2,916.000KB 0.000 0.000
00.18 Internet 2,925.000KB 0.000 0.000

All entries under “you pay” were 0.000 except for:

29 Nov
Time number more details normal cost you pay
00.13 Internet 2,922.000KB 12.766 12.766

Vodafone charged me £127.66 for this and this is only for the mobile broadband part of the bill. Is this correct? Apologies as I know nothing about data charges or MATH other than it is “mental abuse to humans!”.

I did query that according to the bill, it does appear that I was using the internet 24/7, but they told me even though my computer was not connected to the internet or was even switched off, it would still have been accessing the internet somwhow????

Anyway, I refused to pay both at the time as I had just lost my mum and had no strength to fight them.

They are now hounding me and I just need to know if they have got it right.

Can someone please advise. I would be so grateful.

Many thanks xx

grumbler

My understanding is that 2,922.000KB=2.92MB and 12.766=£12.76. This is possible if you exceeded your allowance by £2.92Mb and the cost was £4.369/MB, although this figure doesn't inspire confidence.

If so, why have they charged you £127.66?

ETA: http://www.vodafone.co.uk/shop/pay-monthly/internet-costs/index.htm

If you go over your data allowance, you'll be charged £6.50 (inc VAT) automatically for another 250MB of UK data – and you'll be charged this amount for each 250MB after that.

- so, the above calculations don't make any sense to me. Demand explanation from Vodafone - it's their job to explain you clearly what they want money for.

Many mobile devices do use mobile internet 24/7 and with random settings and unstable connection can consume huge amounts of mobile data.

What was the allowance? What device was the sim used with? A usb-powered dongle can't use internet if the PC is switched off. A MiFi device can use a little. A tablet can use very big amounts even if not used.

If you refused to pay, then most likely they have already trashed your credit history.

Techhead_2

grumbler wrote: »

My understanding is that 2,922.000KB=2.92MB and 12.766=£12.76. This is possible if you exceeded your allowance by £2.92Mb and the cost was £4.369/MB, although this figure doesn't inspire confidence.

If so, why have they charged you £127.66?

ETA: http://www.vodafone.co.uk/shop/pay-monthly/internet-costs/index.htm
- so, the above calculations don't make any sense to me. Demand explanation from Vodafone - it's their job to explain you clearly what they want money for.

Many mobile devices do use mobile internet 24/7 and with random settings and unstable connection can consume huge amounts of mobile data.

What was the allowance? What device was the sim used with? A usb-powered dongle can't use internet if the PC is switched off. A MiFi device can use a little. A tablet can use very big amounts even if not used.

If you refused to pay, then most likely they have already trashed your credit history.

Its unlikely that the current prices were valid back in December 2010, I don't know if there is an archive of old Vodafone tariffs?

Personally, I think its going to be difficult to sort out after such a long period of time.

Silk

Techhead wrote: »

Its unlikely that the current prices were valid back in December 2010, I don't know if there is an archive of old Vodafone tariffs?

Personally, I think its going to be difficult to sort out after such a long period of time.

It was cheaper back then as it was £5 for 500MB for out of bundle and 50p per 10MB for those without a bundle
Roaming in EU was £1 a MB

MataNui

The bill clearly looks wrong. You need to ask for confirmation in writing of the out of bundle data charges as vodafones numbers dont seem to add up. Perhaps the online rep here can help with that bit.

Also you have been lied to and that is important. If your gadget is turned off or mobile data is turned off is DOES NOT use any data so cannot incur any costs. They told you a blatent lie to fob you off and justify charges that are clearly questionable. Please record conversations with these people in future. The fact that they are lying shows they cannot justify the charges as correct and would count against them if you took the claim to the ombudsman or later decided to reclaim the costs in court.

georgia4896

Thanks for all your helpful advice.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t go over my data allowance which was 5GB at the time and I was using a USB dongle. I only ever used it to browse the net. I never downloaded anything, watched movies or anything like that. It was a real pain because the internet was extremely slow, that is, when the dongle actually worked. I remember calling Vodafone constantly because I could not get a connection with it. They could not explain why it would only work sometimes and not others and I ended up having to change the dongle three times.

Just say if I had gone over my allowance on 30th November at 15:40 and they started charging me, shouldn’t all the other entries from that point have charges beside them instead of “you pay 0.000”. It seems odd that there is one random charge of 12.76.

When I asked them to tell me exactly what the charges were for, Vodafone could not be specific. They said they could not tell me what sites I had been on or what I had done to incur the charges only that I had incurred them.

I am going to put in a Subject Access Request as I don’t have a copy of the original contract anymore and will ask for notes on all the phone call I had made to them.

grumbler

georgia4896 wrote: »

....
Just say if I had gone over my allowance on 30th November at 15:40 and they started charging me, shouldn’t all the other entries from that point have charges

Certainly they should.

When I asked them to tell me exactly what the charges were for, Vodafone could not be specific. They said they could not tell me what sites I had been on or what I had done to incur the charges only that I had incurred them.

There are more simple questions that they have to answer in the first place.

I am going to put in a Subject Access Request as I don’t have a copy of the original contract anymore and will ask for notes on all the phone call I had made to them.

Are you sure this will help? This can be £10 wasted.

ste_wilko

So, going on that they charged you £12.77 for 2.85MB (presuming that you were out of your allowance) that works out at £4.47 per 1MB over your allowance?

That's complete tosh! They have massively over charged you for that. You need to go through your bills to find out how much you actually used and then how much they've charged you for going over

grumbler

They charged £127.66, not £12.77

Rusty!

I'm sightly confused why you're only doing something about a four year old bill now?

ste_wilko

grumbler wrote: »

They charged £127.66, not £12.77

I was refering to the £12.77 given in the example for 29th Nov by the OP