Shock Vodafone Bill - Kids calls

Feddy

DaveTheMus wrote: »

You are incapable of understanding that using a phone over the allocated usage will cost money? It needs to be spelt out to you?

The problem is the other way around. It was spelt out to this person... in a long boring contract. maybe with lots of drawn out wording which is hard to read when you are busy, have kids to look after or any manner of other matters that are more important in life than sitting down reading deliberately obfuscated legal jargon.

There was also a salesperson, quite possibly lying through their teeth to this person. Probably telling them things which were the opposite of what was in the contract. Maybe out of incompetence, maybe out of greed, maybe out of fear of losing their jobs because they were close to not meeting their sales target for the second time in a row that year, maybe for some other reason.

It's human nature to relate more to a real person than to a paper full of text. Not everyone is like this - maybe you're not but one hell of a lot of people are.

The fact is that this person asked what was the best value deal for their situation and they were told by a representative of that company that the product they accepted was going to meet their needs. It didn't! The company lied.

Sure the details were spelt out in the contract but If everyone read every contract they signed and fully understood them then this forum wouldn't exist!

Companies make billions upon billions by relying on people not understanding what they're signing up for. Very few people would ever take out a payday loan or pay the minimum payment on a credit card for months on end if this were the case.

Martin Lewis founded this forum to help people turn the tables on corporations that were using their money/power to exploit people for profit. People come here for assistance and you have nothing to contribute except to insult the poster. Does that make you feel good? Does that fill the void in the emptiness in your life?

If you don;t have anything worthwhile to contribute then why post at all?

kazwookie

Dump the contract, get pay as you go sims for the kids, and give them a £10 allowance per month, (or what ever £ is right) any more than that it comes out of their pocket money.

mobilejunkie

Contact the WRT team (see Vodafone complaint thread). Whilst this is entirely your own fault in my view they may help. It is highly unlikely anyone else at Vodafone will.

keith1950

I have emailed a complaint and suggested mis selling as I think they are at fault in some way for not being clear the children could rack up thousands in costs, clearly they should have recommended a PAYG sim.

I have heard of people getting call charges refunded when they've worded a polite letter to the phone company when they've been sold a plan that clearly doesn't suit their usage needs.

You usually have more chance of getting somewhere if you appeal to their better nature than starting to talk about miss selling or that it is in some way their fault.

With the right attitude you may be lucky and get a 50% reduction but you have to take some responsibility for this happening and therefore take some of the responsibility for the cost.

You will get plenty of differing advice on here but after all this is a" moneysaving" site ... not a " getting out of my responsibilities " site.

Your best hope is if you follow the advice of mobilejunkie...

Contact the WRT team (see Vodafone complaint thread). Whilst this is entirely your own fault in my view they may help. It is highly unlikely anyone else at Vodafone will.

macman

Cutting up the SIMs isn't going to help, as you are still in contract for the duration of the minimum term. Cancel that DD and your credit record will be trashed. Could you not sell the contract on to another family member maybe?
No provider cuts you off when you go over your call allowance unless you are on a capped contract: the legal reasons for this should be obvious. A couple of minutes research would have told you that only Tesco and 3 offer capped contracts: for what reason did you assume that these were? The contracts are not for kids but for adults, so it' s up to the contract holder as to who uses the phone.

robbies_gal

how was it misselling unless they specifically told u it was a capped contract

ste_wilko

There was a more extreme case involving Vodafone in 2012. Where a man from Loughborough had run up a bill of £90,083 calling premium chat lines.

After looking into it, and realising that they could have alerted him to his spending, they agreed to waive £61,000 leaving him with a responsibility to cover the remaining £29,083

I don't know if he ever tried to fight the last £29,083 because I couldn't find any more info on it.

The point being that you need to be reasonable with them. Accept that there is liability on your part and request that some form of arrangement is made whereby they write off some of the bill, but don't be convinced that you can get away without paying any of it.

As you've said already, you are at fault here. So acknowledge that with them and try and work something from there.

You might also want to discuss with them the cost of buying out the two numbers, as a result of this kind of thing happening, and work out some way of having the contracts disconnected.

I think this will serve as a harsh lesson to you as to why kids shouldn't have mobile phones, or tablets etc. I don't want this to sound like I'm being mean or telling you how to parent, but surely they can live without the internet for a few hours when you're out and about? If not, you need to seriously go through the pro's and con's of giving your kids this sort of technology and also what things YOU can do to keep them safe online

DaveTheMus

Feddy wrote: »

The problem is the other way around. It was spelt out to this person... in a long boring contract. maybe with lots of drawn out wording which is hard to read when you are busy, have kids to look after or any manner of other matters that are more important in life than sitting down reading deliberately obfuscated legal jargon.

Maybe if the contract had some colorful pictures it would cease to be boring...

It's hardly Vodafones fault that some people have the attention span of a goldfish and can only understand the most basic words and phrases.

There was also a salesperson, quite possibly lying through their teeth to this person. Probably telling them things which were the opposite of what was in the contract. Maybe out of incompetence, maybe out of greed, maybe out of fear of losing their jobs because they were close to not meeting their sales target for the second time in a row that year, maybe for some other reason.

That is a substantial amount of maybes.Nowhere did the OP suggest that this was the case. Even if it was the case it was still the OP that used a phone like a babysitter

It's human nature to relate more to a real person than to a paper full of text. Not everyone is like this - maybe you're not but one hell of a lot of people are.
Aww, sweet. When you purchase a product or service you like the 'emotional' experience, very nice. I have my Wife and my family for this. I don't need emotional validation from strangers, I don't need to relate to someone to carry out a business transaction. I'm sorry if you do.

The fact is that this person asked what was the best value deal for their situation and they were told by a representative of that company that the product they accepted was going to meet their needs. It didn't! The company lied.
The product would have met their needs if it were used properly......

I would suggest the OP didn't ask for 'value', she asked for 'as cheap as possible', she alluded to it earlier that her credit rating is poor, meaning she is bad with money and therefore doesn't have much.

Sure the details were spelt out in the contract but If everyone read every contract they signed and fully understood them then this forum wouldn't exist!
It would still exist but the numbers would be reduced. I come to this forum for investment advice and the Discussion Time threads

Companies make billions upon billions by relying on people not understanding what they're signing up for. Very few people would ever take out a payday loan or pay the minimum payment on a credit card for months on end if this were the case.

Stupidity will always exist and people will always take advantage of it.

Martin Lewis founded this forum to help people turn the tables on corporations that were using their money/power to exploit people for profit.

And Martin is now a multi-millionaire, made by selling this forum to a corporation

People come here for assistance and you have nothing to contribute except to insult the poster. Does that make you feel good? Does that fill the void in the emptiness in your life?

The irony is probably lost on you

If you don;t have anything worthwhile to contribute then why post at all?
I'm curious, how did your little rant help the OP?

Ten characters

grumbler

robbies_gal wrote: »

how was it misselling unless they specifically told u it was a capped contract

Talking parents into taking uncapped contracts for u13 children is misselling if they knew that the contracts were for children.

macman

Since Voda don't offer capped contracts, what else could they have offered the OP, other than suggesting PAYG? Voda aren't in the business of recommending competitor's products.
If they specifically stated that it was a capped contract, then I agree, it's clearly mis-selling and the OP should pursue a claim on those grounds. But if the OP can't prove that, what is the basis for their complaint, since they failed to do the most basic research before handing contract phones to children to use as they wished?
Selling an uncapped contract to an adult, even knowing it was for a child, is surely not in itself mis-selling, because ultimately it's up to the adult what they allow the child to do with the phone? There are doubtless many children who will not run up huge bills-but some will. It's the parents alone who can best decide if a contract phone is suitable.
If there is any doubt, use PAYG or a capped contract.