Vodafone price increase during 24 month contract

400ixl

Neville_Hillyer said:

400ixl said:

Same applies to broadband, it is a standard term in all retail broadband contracts and has been for a number of years now.

It appears to be a growing trend but it does not apply to all contracts.

See: https://www.google.com/search?q=broadband+fixed+price+contract

It is a pity that this site and some suppliers to not make the situation as clear as they could.

I was referring to Vodafone contracts which is the topic here I thought. There are still providers who do fix the price for the full term without yearly rises, so the choice is out there.

Whether they make it clear enough is subjective. Some people read the high level terms provided where this topic is pretty much always covered if it applies. Some don't even read beyond the headline price.

Just been and looked at the new customer sign up process on Vodafone. After putting in the address details you get to select a plan, and at the bottom of that page in clear text is:

Please note, your monthly bill will increase by £10 a month for Superfast plans and £3 a month for Pro Superfast, Ultrafast and Gigafast plans after your initial 24 month contract.

*Each April, your monthly plan charge will increase by an amount equal to the Consumer Price Index rate published by the Office for National Statistics in January (CPI rate) plus an additional 3.9% on top of the CPI rate. We will apply that CPI rate plus 3.9% adjustment from your April bill. In the event that the CPI rate is negative, this will be ignored but the additional 3.9% will still apply.

Not sure how much clearer could they make it? Its not hidden in any T&C's, its on the main page where you select your product.

How did you select and sign up to your broadband contract, was it through their website?

InnesFord

Hey all,

First time posting here, was quite irritated to see the email come through on this today so I thought I'd check out what others were saying,

I was on with text chat support last night, and it seemed like the option to cancel, with no termination fee, was available.

They used language that was obfuscating what was going on, like blaming the government, which was nonsense as far as I understand the situation. I doubted that they were giving employees a salary increase, which is the only place I saw their main costs coming from.

I pointed to a stipulation in the contract making mention of "material detriment" which is a phrase that got me reading documents from Ofcom after doing a search. That was when I started making real progress and was transferred through to an agent from the cancellations, he was using some unclear language as well but I got him to make the situation clearer.


I found a document on Ofcom's website through google "Guidance on ''material detriment'' under GC9.6 in relation to prise rises"
Section A1.14 gives this exact example of RPI pegged price increases as an example of a change considered to be "material detriment" to consumers.
I can't post links yet but if you want it you can message me.

They transferred me once more to a sales advisor since I was interested in seeing what kind of offer I could get but by then it was quite late and it was taking very long to get through the waiting list. I'll be picking it up with them again today, I think it's quite likely I'll cancel, and if I get the transcripts this time I can post them here.

I'd note that they have an archive of different versions of the Ts & Cs (their domain and just /terms-and-conditions/) it has gaps for the month I subscribed so I just pointed to the previous period that they did show the Ts & Cs for.
I found it by navigating:
Consumer > Home & Phone Broadband > Previous terms and conditions > 

Vodafone Broadband and Home Phone (from 15 December 2020 to 18 March 2021) - I subscribed in July last year.

If any of you are planning on challenging the price increase, I wish you luck, and hopefully, this will be of some help!