BlackBerry

[ojk6]

Three months into my contract I've noticed 'BB' dropped off the end of my package description, and customer services told me "there will be no BlackBerry Services active on your account from 27th". So what is going to stop working on 27th, and what am I now going to be charged for? Potentially a bit miffed as I wasn't told something would expire after three months.

[jeffkinn]

Without the Blackberry Internet Service on your account you will lose all connection to the internet - no emails, no BBM no browser - nothing.

Probably not what you were hoping to hear.

If you have a Blackberry you need BIS to be able to use it properly.

[ojk6]

Thanks for the reply, despite it not being what I wanted to hear. They should really have made this clear when I signed up. How much is it going to cost me to get it back? (I'm Pay Monthly)

[jeffkinn]

Call Customer Servicves on 191 but I think it will about £5 per month

[ojk6]

I would be enormously grateful if someone from Vodafone could advise. The woman on 191 told me I wouldn't notice any change with the loss of Blackberry Services and there would be no extra charge, so that I could safely ignore the oddity on the bill. But then it took me a while to get a straight answer from her, so it is perhaps a bit dubious.

[pau1j]

Hi ojk6.

If you bought a Pay Monthly Blackberry through Vodafone it should always be sold with a Blackberry plan - one that includes BIS.  Without BIS a BB can call/text and that's about it (aside from wifi internet) so they're not available without BIS unless the account wasn't provisioned correctly in the first place.

Vodafone tariffs are, generally, more complicated than eye surgery but 

Could the 3 months just be related to the Data Test Drive offering?

[ojk6]

Well according to the guy in the shop, I was sold a contract without Blackberry Internet, despite assurances to the contrary. Why on earth Vodafone should think I only need Blackberry internet for 3 months, I can't imagine. And on the website it just said "included", nothing about three months. So now I'm faced with an extra £5 a month, or a useless phone. The guy in the shop just found it funny, saying it's "in the contract where the blindman can see". Perhaps I should just cancel my DD until someone from Vodafone thinks I am worthy of being spoken to without being mocked.

[jeffkinn]

My advice is do NOT cancel your DD as this will only bounce back and bite you in the wrong place. Vodafone will chase you for the money and if not paid it will reflect on your credit history and rating. Your bank will also charge you for bounced DDs.

This is an account specific query and the forum team will be along soon to deal with the query. They are very good but work on a first come first served basis so be a little patient.

[pau1j]

---

pau1j wrote:

Vodafone tariffs are, generally, more complicated than eye surgery but ...

---

I didn't finish the sentence!

... if you take a look at http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-price-plans/all-plans?initialFilters=flt_24monthplans you will see that BIS doesn't usually add any cost to a plan.  For a given price, there is a BIS & a non-BIS tariff with (as far as I can see) the same minutes/texts/data limits.

Customer Services (or one of the mod's who should pick up on this soon) should be able to tell you exactly which of the tariffs you're on and, if necessary, transfer you to a BIS tariff.

Cancelling DD & not paying the bills is a bad idea - even threatening this makes people look petulent because, in legal terms, two wrongs don't make a right and Vodafone would be within their rights to chase the debt.

A better tack with CS & the guy in the shop is to show you've been sold something that was not fit for purpose - i.e. a BB with no BIS access.

Best of luck.

[ojk6]

Yes obviously I'm not going to stop paying. It's just frustrating as I am confident that I picked the BB inclusive tarrif and so far customer services have been useless.

[JD]

Hi ojk6

I can understand your frustration but I'm sure we'll be able to get to the bottom of this for you. I think pau1j has probably hit the nail on the head, as I also think it the three month offer that expired will be Data Test Drive rather than BIS.

So we can get this fixed asap, I've just sent you a private message (PM). If you follow the instructions in that, we'll be in touch.

You can find your PM inbox here. If you can't access this link, please ensure that the box next to "Turn on private messages" is ticked on this page, and let us know if you need any further assistance.

Speak to you soon.

J

[ojk6]

So, I am happy to say somebody called me, for which I am grateful, and the only solution they could offer was to upgrade my account to a £5 more expensive tarrif, which included BB services. They put me under quite a lot of pressure to make a decision on the spot. (Clever tactic Vodafone.) All this despite the fact that I explicitly bought a Blackberry tarrif when I signed up, and that it didn't mention anything on the website about a three-month deal. You can safely say I'm not at all impressed, and in fact consider what's happened to have been totally immoral. I shall never shop with Vodafone again, and will be cancelling my contracts as soon as possible.

[Ben_H]

Hi ojk6,

Thanks for posting again. My team are currently responding to emails from 7th. Can you confirm for me that you popped the requested 'WRT135' in as the subject header? It could be another department you've reached or if you've emailed in prior to speaking to us here that your request is with a few different departments. If you did successfully put 'WRT135' as the subject, a member of my team will still be in touch to investigate this for you once we reach your details in our queue.

Cheers, Ben 

[ojk6]

Thanks - I look forward to hearing from you (in fact I had assumed it was one of your team who called), although the woman who called me was adament my only option was the upgrade to which I agreed, so I'm not sure if your team will be able to help much. 

[ojk6]

I know you've not yet reached my email in the queue, but I thought I'd add (in case it's relevant) that I've just received a text saying "Welcome to your free data test drive, for the next three months" &c, despite the fact the test drive expires on 27th!

[ojk6]

I'm afraid it looks like the only solution to this is going to be a report to the Ombudsman for mis-selling.

I will give the Web Team until Wednesday to reply to my email, and if there's no reply I'll assume that there's going to be no satisfactory resolution.

I gave customer services two options: (1) Restore me to £15.50 contract, with BIS included for the duration, as I purchased (and which was confirmed by an email from customer services, which I have a copy of); (2) Keep me on £20.50, but upgrade my phone to one that would have been included in the package for free had I been put on that contract from the begining, thus making me whole. I've had about five emails from Customer Services, none of which have addressed the problem, most of which have just been unintelligible nonsense. Let me quote a few, I desist from giving the names of the Customer Service Assistances:

From before Customer Services Rang and Forced me to swap contract:

"I have reviewed your account and have found that your price plan already includes the Blackberry internet services. I request you to register it with the Blackberry services."

From Yesterday (a single line, just repeating what I've told him): 

I have reviewed your account and can inform you that your price plan has been changed on 10th July, 2012.

From This Morning (absolute claptrap about me 'being willing'):

I have checked your account and would like to inform you that as you are willing to have 100 minutes, 500 text, 250 MB of data allowances and BlackBerry Services for £20.50. Instead of this we are providing you 300 minutes, unlimited text, 500 MB of data allowances, Wi-Fi services and BlackBerry services for £17.08 excluding VAT. If you calculate it including VAT it would cost you £20.50 (Approximately).

[Dave]

Hi ojk6,

I wanted to pick this straight up again for you but I still cannot locate an email from the address you have registered on the eForum.

Given that you've had responses by email, can you confirm the ID number in the subject line of these responses so that we can search by this and see whether this is just a glitch at this end or an alternate address.

As soon as we find the details we need we can get to the account and see just what's going on.

Dave