Vodafone Passport "mistake" costs hundreds ££

cheatthecheatingcheaters

Vodafone customers be warned...

Fans of VF Passport's flat-rate roaming calls (and I am one) got a nasty surprise in October and November's phone bills. Vodafone have now created Passport 1 and Passport 2. The new Passport is really just a cheaper roaming rate, which they describe as some sort of bargain (it's no better than roaming in Europe rates for 02, three etc). What they did was automatically switch all customers on Passport to the new lower rate roaming scheme, which DOES NOT include Passport's fixed rate up-to-60-minute calls.

Apparently they notified customers by mail. I did not receive any such mail. Furthermore, I was working in Australia/New Zealand during October, and in Europe through November, so I would never have had a chance to open the mail! I was making and receiving lengthy calls home whilst working away, safe in the knowledge that I had Passport in place to cap the cost of my calls -NOT! I have now had one very surprising £500 and one £300 phone bill.

Three different call centre operators at Vodafone were totally unwavering in their assertation that I had obviously made a mistake, changed my plan myself, not used the correct network whilst abroad, any excuse they could think of, as they denied my requests for a refund/adjustment of my bill. It was only when I requested immediate termination of my account (there is one month left on it, thank Christ) that I eventually got someone to admit that I had been defrauded, and I got the cost of the calls refunded.

If you have been abroad, thinking that Passport is working, and got home to find a massive roaming bill, CHALLENGE THE BILL. They have defrauded you by changing your plan without notification or request. Do not take no for an answer.

I would be interested to know how many other Vodafone customers have been ripped-off by this sneaky, deliberate scheme to swindle their customers.

carly

I had this problem too. I had actually received a text from Voda informing me of the new system and giving me the option of staying on the old Passport. I texted back confirming that I wished to stay on the old systema nd received confirmation back that I would. When I received a bill for over £200 for roaming in October I was not happy. On ringing Voda I was told that 1. I had changed my tariff ( downright lie)
2. that I had never been on Pasport ( another lie that I could quite easily disprove as my original contract letter from them shows Passport)
3. That I had elected for the new Passport by not replying to their text ( which I can disprove as I have saved the confirming text from them on my phone )

They say that they will recalculate my bill, but nearly 3 weeks have gone by and I am still waiting.
Every time I speak to some one at Voda I get a different story and each one is more ludicrous than the previous one.

Hopefullyuseful1

Vodafone passport has remained the same the change came when the international call charges was reviewed, this is when Vodafone introduced Vodafone World Rates.

When these changes were set to go into place all customers were notified by mail to advise them of the update. I appreciate you were abroad at this time and couldn't check your mail, in situations such as this I always advise customers to provided a forwarding(or temporary) address if they will not have access to their mail.

If you rarely use your handset abroad the Vodafone world rates would save you money, if you have longer (or make more) calls whilst abroad the Vodafone passport option would be more benefical for you.

airhostess

I have had his problem too. I called up last month and all extra charges were refunded instantly, and my direct devit came out for the correct amount.

This month it has happened again, and this time I am told that staff are no longer able to recredit to my bill, my bill must be sent for calculation, I must keep my direct debit and pay over the odds, then wait for money to be refunded once the bill has come back from being recalculated... and it can take up to 5 weeks. Had anyone contacted the Ombudsman or regulatory body about this??

Edited to add: I never received any mail or text about the change whatsoever and was never given the choice to do anything.

cheatthecheatingcheaters

Dear Hopefullyuseful,

I take it you work for Vodafone. Sorry to hear that.

Firstly, my wife (who is a fastidious book-keeper), assures me we never received a letter from Vodafone detailing the changes to Passport.

Secondly, in answer to your suggestion that I provide a forwarding address when overseas:

I am a frequent business traveller, not someone going to the Costa Del Whatever for two weeks and calling my mates to check the footy score. Any quick scim over my phone bill will show that in the period of two months, I was working in Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, The United States, Sweden, Germany, France, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, Czech Republic, Italy, Austria and Russia. Which place to use as a forwarding address, on the off chance that Vodafone choose to make an unannounced change to my service, would be difficult to work out. Once again, it puts the onus on me, the customer, to stay amazingly informed about what Vodafone's head office are thinking and doing.

It surprises me little that I feel insulted again by a Vodafone employee.

Kind regards,

Cheatthecheatingcheaters. xxx:rolleyes:

Hopefullyuseful1 wrote: »

Vodafone passport has remained the same the change came when the international call charges was reviewed, this is when Vodafone introduced Vodafone World Rates.

When these changes were set to go into place all customers were notified by mail to advise them of the update. I appreciate you were abroad at this time and couldn't check your mail, in situations such as this I always advise customers to provided a forwarding(or temporary) address if they will not have access to their mail.

If you rarely use your handset abroad the Vodafone world rates would save you money, if you have longer (or make more) calls whilst abroad the Vodafone passport option would be more benefical for you.

Hopefullyuseful1

cheatthecheatingcheaters wrote: »

Dear Hopefullyuseful,

I take it you work for Vodafone. Sorry to hear that.

Firstly, my wife (who is a fastidious book-keeper), assures me we never received a letter from Vodafone detailing the changes to Passport.

Secondly, in answer to your suggestion that I provide a forwarding address when overseas:

I am a frequent business traveller, not someone going to the Costa Del Whatever for two weeks and calling my mates to check the footy score. Any quick scim over my phone bill will show that in the period of two months, I was working in Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, The United States, Sweden, Germany, France, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, Czech Republic, Italy, Austria and Russia. Which place to use as a forwarding address, on the off chance that Vodafone choose to make an unannounced change to my service, would be difficult to work out. Once again, it puts the onus on me, the customer, to stay amazingly informed about what Vodafone's head office are thinking and doing.

It surprises me little that I feel insulted again by a Vodafone employee.

Kind regards,

Cheatthecheatingcheaters. xxx:rolleyes:

Hi Cheatthecheatingcheaters,

I'm sorry this is still unresolved and you feel you weren't informed about the forthcoming changes to Passport and the newly EU imposed world rates.

We would really like the opportunity to help. We can take a look at your account to see what happened with it and then propose a resolution for you. If you e-mail us using our online contact us for here, we'll help all we can. If you rememeber to use the code 'FIT135' somewhere in the body of your e-mail, that will come to us here in the forum team. Hope we can resolve this with you soon.

Hopefullyuseful
Vodafone UK

mahanchian

Hi All,

I used to be a great fan vodafone for their excellent service and customer service. And I was particularly interested in VF passport.

But I am hit with the same problem and received an over £200 bill. I haven't received any letters and can not remember any text messages instructing me to re-subscribe to passport. I tried to contact VF customer services couple of times but I didn't get anywhere with them.

Apart from terminating my contract (which I will most probably do), is there any other advice on how to challenge this and reclaim the money?

M

mountainchrisriver

Is this the same score for PAYG does anyone know? Not had a text to let me know of the changes??

danuk

myself and wife has vodafone contracts, she received a text asking to resubscribe etc if she wants vodafone passport. I on the other hand have received no texts messages or anything about passport changing............so i reckon its a matter of some people got told others did not!!!!

Alfie_E

Hopefullyuseful1 wrote: »

I'm sorry this is still unresolved and you feel you weren't informed about the forthcoming changes to Passport and the newly EU imposed world rates.

where

world = EU-only, and
rate = cap (not mandatory consumer price increase).

Why, in Cheaper mobile phone calls abroad: introducing the Eurotariff, do the European Commission say the following?

If you have a special roaming package, you will keep it, unless of course, you inform your operator otherwise.

elisebutt65

Well I've had Passport for the last 12 months or so and I haven't been informed of any changes - Probably explains why my last bill was so high!!!



mutter..mutter...goes off to read bill properly!!!!