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Unable to Top-up via website (again)

Mac_Fife
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

This frustrating. I often find the My Vodafone website to be flaky, especially when it comes to trying to buy a data pack for my  mobile WiFi.  Today has been no exception :smileymad:

I knew my data was close to running out this morning so I logged in to the website to buy another data pack. Selected the number, selected the 5GB/£20 pack, went to payment section selected my stored card and then all I get is a red box with a message to the effect of "We're trying hard to fix this". Tried it a couple more times with the same result (desktop PC, Internet Explorer), tried again via Chrome on my tablet - this time it was slightly different as it seemed to go to bank authorisation window, but then just returned to the Vodafone site and did nothing. I've just tried again from a different PC using both IE and FireFox with the same result as the first time.

What's really annoying is that I've no idea if payment is being taken from my card each time, but I do know that my data has now run out and seem to be unable to do anything about it.

Even more bizarrely, when I check in my account it shows two 5GB data packs as "installed" but both with a start date of 7 Sept 2016!

This is beyond a joke - the actual mobile WiFi service is decent but the website is hopelessly bad.

8 REPLIES 8

Mac_Fife
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

I don't have online banking on that card.  The decline suggestion seems unlikely as the error message appears far too quickly for a lookup on the card to have taken place at all (that card has successfully topped up previously, maybe a month or so ago).  I find it very difficult to find anything useful in My Account, just what is shown here.  I'll try another card, but I'm not hopeful...Capture.PNG

 

 

Capture2.PNG

 

 

Nope, using a different card doesn't help, although this time it did go to the authorisation window but I got an "Unable to complete" message after being returned, which does look more like a decline, although there are no reasons I can see (I do have online banking for that card!)

Further update (I wish this would let me edit the last reply instead of needing to tag on) - I just used the original card to top-up a 'phone on another network and that went through no problem, so I really do feel this is a Vodafone issue. 

Annie_N
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

It may well be that Vodafone has some "ancient history" stored which causes it to reject a perfectly good card. I have a similar issue with Homebase, which seems to have blacklisted two of my payment cards. Their website reported that my card has been declined, but when I contacted the card issuer they were emphatic that no attempt had been made to process a payment. I made the mistake of using an alternative card when the first one had been declined, but again Homebase reported that it had been declined, and again the issuer had no record of any attempt to process a payment. 

Both card issuers explained to me that this usually arose because an initial attempt failed at the merchant's end, then a second attempt was flagged as suspicious, and was blocked by the merchant without any reference to the card issuer - that is apparently quite normal. They both assured me that it would clear within a week provided I didn't use that merchant again in the meantime - but it never cleared, so I've never bought anything online from Homebase, although my husband manages to do so. This is a bit of a pain for one-off purchases, but must be considerably more frustrating for regular top-ups.

Have you tried the PAYG MBB top-up line 03333 044775? That will almost certainly use a different payment system, so it might be a workaround for you.

Last time I had to 'phone to get an issue like this fixed (took the money but didn't activate the pack) it took three calls before they got it right.  I think I'll try to get into the nearest Vodafone store over the weekend and try to publically embarass them into making the top-up work!  Either that or get them to unlock the device so I can go to a network that can actually run a decent website.

I've had this Mobile WiFi device for about 18 months and I think it's been close to 50:50 each time whether topping up would work or not (quite often the website has been down), and even when it does it's never very clear that it has - I'm always wondering "Is that it? Did that work? Shouldn't I have got some kind of confirmation?". 

Tash
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)

@Mac_Fife Please let us know how you get on in store.

Should you need any further assistance with topping up, the number provided by @Annie_N will help :smileyhappy:

Well, in-store sorted it out pretty quickly, though I had to queue for a bit.

 

The girl immediately spotted the two odd "hangover" packs from September '16 and decided to delete everything off my account before putting the order for the new pack through.  All working fine for now, but the real test will be when I next need to buy another pack!  The assistant claimed not to have heard of many problems with the website and thought most people came into the store to buy data packs rather than online, which sounded rather bizarre to me.

 

@Natasha - I'm a moderator on several forums myself, so I know how important it is for the community to have the OP return and post the outcome of an issue :smileywink:

Tash
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)

That's great to hear @Mac_Fife and thanks for the update!

If there's anything else we can help with in the future, please don't hesitate to pop back to our Community :smileyhappy: