Check The Third Bill If On £10/month For First 3 Months Deal!

[dane-m]

Anyone on an 18 month contract with the first three months at the reduced rate of £10/month (rather than the standard £15/month) would be well advised to check their third bill carefully. I've had to report an error on mine and it's the sort of error that looks to me like it ought be systematic rather than just affect the odd person.

The problem is best explained by considering the hypothetical case of someone who took out a contract on 11th June.

It will be quite some time before the first bill is received. It will include rental for the period 11/06 to 31/07. The whole period should be charged at the reduced rate. In my experience this is indeed what happens.

The second bill will include rental for the period 01/08 to 31/08. Again the whole period should be charged at the reduced rate and again in my experience this is indeed what happens.

The third bill will include rental for the period 01/09 to 30/09. The three months of reduced rate comes to the end in the middle of this period, so the first part of the month (specifically 01/09 to 10/09) should be charged at £10/month while the final part of the month (specifically 11/09 to 30/09) should be charged at £15/month. In practice, assuming that there is no good reason why an error should have affected only me, what actually happens is that £15/month is correctly charged for the final part of the month, but £10/month is incorrectly charged for the WHOLE of the month. Consequently there is double charging (at an effective rate of £25/month) for the final part of the month.

Just how noticeable the above error would be on any given contract will depend very much on which day of the month the contract was started and whether there are any additional usage charges present on the bill. If there are none, then it should be fairly easy to spot the error as the bill's total will be more than £15 and there is no reason why it should be. If there are additional usage charges, then the error is more likely to be obvious on contracts that were started near the beginning of a month (because there will be a greater period of double charging) than on those that were started near the end of a month.

As I say, I can see no reason why this error should have affected only my bill, so I suggest that everyone on this particular deal should check their third bill very carefully.

[RetiredTom]

Hi Dane,

Thanks for the heads up here. I've not heard of this being an issue, so it's possible this is just an isolated case. Thanks all the same though.

If anyone does get the same error (you could always check by registering for a Vodafone Online Billing account) then we'll be able to fix this for you quickly and easily using the usual contact Vodafone methods.

Thanks,

Tom

eForum Team

[dane-m]

The third bill will include rental for the period 01/09 to 30/09. The three months of reduced rate comes to the end in the middle of this period, so the first part of the month (specifically 01/09 to 10/09) should be charged at £10/month while the final part of the month (specifically 11/09 to 30/09) should be charged at £15/month. In practice, assuming that there is no good reason why an error should have affected only me, what actually happens is that £15/month is correctly charged for the final part of the month, but £10/month is incorrectly charged for the WHOLE of the month. Consequently there is double charging (at an effective rate of £25/month) for the final part of the month.

When I reported the problem with my third bill, it rapidly got corrected by having a credit applied to it. Now I find myself in the position of needing to report an error in my fourth bill that's in my favour! When I started writing this post I wondered whether the error in the fourth bill would have corrected the error in the third, but I've now worked out that it wouldn't. I'm left wondering whether the accounting software for the £10/month for the first 3-months deal is even more bug-ridden that it at first appeared. Alternatively it could merely be a consequence of a botched attempt at fixing the error in the third bill. It would certainly seem a good idea to pay close attention to your bills if you are on this deal.

Let's return to the above 'hypothetical' example. These are the pre-VAT items on the third bill:

Mobile BB 3GB 1st 3m 10 18m
1 Sep to 30 Sep
£12.77 Mobile BB 3GB 18m *inc prorating*
11 Sep to 30 Sep
£8.51 Credit Line Rental Mobile BB 3GB 1st 3m 10 18m
1 Sep to 30 Sep
cr£4.26

The first and third items combine in a tortuous way to give the reduced £10/month rate. These are the two items that on a correct bill should have run from 1 Sep to 10 Sep. The second item is the standard £15/month rate, correctly charged from the day after the first three months ended (somewhat confusingly it's for the same amount as the other two items combined, but that's because the 3-month deal, in which the rental is reduced by 1/3rd, happened to end exactly 1/3rd of the way through the month).

The fourth bill contains:

Mobile BB 3GB 18m
1 Oct to 31 Oct
£12.77 Credit Line Rental Mobile BB 3GB 1st 3m 10 18m
12 Sep to 30 Sep
cr£5.39

The first item is correct and is the standard monthly charge. The second item appears to be an almost complete refund of the overcharged item on the third bill. Combining the 3rd and 4th bills the overall effect appears to be:

* Pay £10/month from 1st Sep to 11th Sep
* Pay £15/month from 11th Sep to 31st Oct

i.e. the 11th September is doubled charged (though as a credit was applied to my third bill to 'fix' it, I emerge having paid too little in total). I'm inclined to believe the credit on the fourth bill was a botched attempt to fix the third bill. Dare I be honest and report the error in my favour on the fourth bill, or will I get myself into a never ending sequence of reporting errors caused by mistakes made correcting the previous error?

[Retired-Andrew_]

Hi Dane Maslen,

Many thanks for getting back to us on this one. As this is specific to your account I have sent you an email to your registered address to we can have a good look in to this for you as I am sure you would agree, we need closure on this matter.

I am sure we will get this sorted for you, it's just that we need full access in to your account so we can see where the billing fault is occurring.

Don't worry, we will get to the bottom of this for you.

any thanks

Andrew
eForum Team