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[Wooliesurfer]

My Daughter has been waiting patiently for her phone upgrade early as when we checked it was April 2012,Have just ben told Vodafone have changed their policy with no warning and will now have to wait till September, my daughter is very upset and I will now look at transferring my 3 contacts no another supplier unhappy customer.

[lonesheep]

I too have just found this out.  My HTC Desire S handset keeps switching itself off which isn't very good when I'm on 24x7 call out.  I logged into the site at the start of Feb to see I could upgrade by phone on the 28th Feb.  Great I thought - logged onto the site on the 28th Feb....to be given a date of 7/4/2012.  

I wrote to customer services to see how they would help, their response;

"Reviewing the account, I can see that contract is going to expire on 27/05/2012 and the upgrade due date is 07/04/2012. I would suggest you to wait till you are eligible to upgrade and then upgrade the device."

Therefore I can read into this that Vodaphone would rather I have a faulty handset and inconvenience to me, rather than take any responsibility as to getting the set fixed.  When a company offers a 2 yr contract deal, I would expect the handsets they are offering to work for the 2 years.

With this shoddy services I will be moving over to O2 on the 27th May - or sooner.

Not impressed and would not recommend Vodaphone to anyone.  Pity as the UK support desk are quite helpful...however it takes an age to get through to them...

[Nabs]

Hi Wooliesurfer, 

Your upgrade date is the day on which your contract ends, i.e. 18 or 24 months after you started the contract.

The early upgrade dates are Vodafone's offer to customers who want to recomit before the end of their existing contract and in turn get a new handset. No other UK network offers early upgrades.

For the full Vodafone statement around these changes please see the thread here.

Note the early upgrade date is not written into your contract therefore Vodafon have every right to remove/alter this date.

If the handset you are using is no longer working you may be able to upgrade and add the remainder of your curent contract onto a new one. This could mean a lengthy commitment period and potentially higher monthly costs depending on the handset you were interested in.

LoneSheep,

You handset is cover under warranty for the duration of your 2 year contract. As you have mentioned you have a faulty handset you would be entitled to a free of charge warranty repair of the device. follow the instructions here to arrange this. One thing to note, unless you have insurance on the handset a  loan phone will be available so make sure you have a backup phone arranged that you can use whilst your is away for repair.

[grolschuk]

Lonesheep.

As your handset sounds like it has a mechanical fault in that it keeps switching off (if not the battery) then you should be able to get it repaired under the 2 year warranty.

It should not matter when you contract expires, or when you can upgreade, you have been subsidised on a handset that should last 2 years...
However if the problem is self infliceted or water based then it won't be warranty covered so not a lot can be done there.

[Joemanu]

02 offer an early upgrade service depending on what your monthly costs are. The minimum being the same as Vodafone upgrade.

[Joemanu]

02 offer an early upgrade service depending on what your monthly costs are. The minimum being the same as Vodafone.

[Nabs]

For standard customers O2 will not let you upgrade until your final 30 days of your contract

Those spending more than £60 a month with O2 can upgrade three months early, this would not cover most people.

Vodafone allows all customer to upgrade free of charge 50 days before the end of contract regardless of the type of customer you are, this is a much fairer way of doing it as everybody gets a fair change.

You can upgrade earlier but there are costs involved.

[lonesheep]

The support from vodaphone is the one area of concern I have.

Yes my phone does have a fault (it is not due to me - the phone is kept in A1 condition), yet vodaphone's policy is...

...can YOU do all the work for us, backup your phone and the like and post it to us...oh and be withone a phone for 2 weeks plus while we fix it.  Thanks.

Oh hold on, on reflection, your contract expires in May, so why not keep your faulty phone until April then upgrade with us taking out a new contract, after all we provide fantastic customer support....I know we told you previously on this web site that you could upgrade to a non-fault handset on the 28th Feburary, but we have changed our minds...sorry about that!

Still someone from vodaphone uk is meant to be contacting me today...I don't see it making any difference, only 2 months to go...

[lonesheep]

..call from vodaphone never happened...

...you guys have shocking customer care, calling tomorrow to cancel my contract, will also contact ofcom as you are offering contracts for 12+ months but giving inadequate service when handsets fail after 12 months.  I have a phone which doesn't work correctly and the best which has been offered is send the phone back to us (back up you stuff first) and have no service for 2 weeks...which for me would mean I've paid for a 24 month contact but only received a service for 23 mths as this is the second time this has occured.

Then you'll get a working phone back.

1) How do I backup my information as I have no out of the box sync software as HTC only support windows and I'm on a mac

2) How do I use the mobile service i'm still paying for when no replacement device is offered.

3) How do I work...I'm on 24x7 on call.  Currently I have my phone plugged into the usb on my PC to stop it switching off when I can.

If service providers are to offer a contract in excess of 12 months, the guarantees on the device MUST be extended to cover the contract period.

I know there is EU directive to cover goods up to 24 months...if vodaphone offer 24 mth contracts why don;t they signup to this directive?

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1677034/Two-year-warranty-EU-law.html

vodaphone....thoughts on a postcard please?

[grolschuk]

I think you will find your HTC handset is covered by 24 months... only Apple seems to avoid the 2 year EU warranty.

The warranty, unless covered by any additional insurance or service plan is a 'return to base' one. As is the same with most other standard warranties for laptops, desktops, tvs, etc...
Even an extended same day swap out will require you to look after your own data... you say this is the second time it has happened... what happened to your data the 1st time?

Any mobile operatior's commitment to you is for the airtime bundle, they subsidie a handset (either free or at a reduced cost), but it is not their resonsibility for it, hence the offering of expensive insurance if it was to go wrong or be lost.

If your mobile is business critical, i'd have thought it would be insured, thus not in the dilema you are now at being without something for 2 weeks.

[lonesheep]

Yes.  This is the second time it has happen and the first. time...well I spent a happy afternoon writing down all the numbers and email addresses using a pen and paper...hence the reluctance to do this again.

If I were to take a new contract with Vodaphone they would help me move contact data - I've seen yoda advertising it on the telly. However existing customers are not so fortunate.  I would expect a operator to offer the same service to 24mth customers as 12mth contract customers....if there is an issue a handset will be replaced or a replacement handset lent whist your handset is fixed.

I am employed by a national company and an on-call. i.e. they phone me if I'm required.  I could use a company phone, but don;t like the idea of dragging two phones around with me 24x7 so I use my own personal mobile.

I've now left vodaphone, never to return.  

I've also detered a few people how have selected the same deal I've taken at o2.  And the UK call centres help!

[grolschuk]

I'm not sure Yoda would be able to take data off a broken phone

If it was well enough for him to get to, then it should be well enough to perform a backup onto Kies, and restore onto the new one.

Hope all goes better in O2 land for you