Payments issues and Fair Use suspension

[Crowbius]

I have two big problems here - one is ongoing, the other I suspect will happen again.

1) My first problem is that my account was recently suspended due to an unpaid bill - I would usually accept this and move on, however, this is not my fault. I attempted on 3 occasions to pay the bill of £129.21 online. On each occasion I went to the website, got all the way past the bank security verification popup and received a "returning to merchant site" - at which point I was logged out of the website. The first 2 times I ended up with 2 "pending transactions" of  £129.21 (£258.42) which was unavailable to me for 5 days - neither of these reached or were even acknowledged by Vodafone. The 3rd time it did it again and is now still in my pending transactions. I have now managed to pay my bill via phone which proved extremely difficult... which leads me to the next problem....

2) I am currently working in Norway  (employed by a company in England). I was in Norway from middle of May to 1st of July. I then spent a few days in England and then 3 weeks in Ireland as that is where my girlfriend lives. As of 23rd July I am back in Norway (until 29th September). I have had my services blocked for breaking the "Fair Use policy" - I have spoken to countless advisors on the online chat who not one of whom helped in any way - it took at least 6 different agents just for me to find out about this policy breach - and that person didn't really help which is pathetic for such a "reputable" company. I will continue to talk to different agents until this is sorted and if all else fails I will take it to the ombudsmen or the courts. I upgraded my phone contract on April 15th, I have the transcript still and there is zero mention of a fair use policy during this conversation (this is the conversation where I digitally "signed" or agreed to the contract and received all information regarding it). I also mentioned in the conversation that I would be spending 16 weeks in Norway from then until October and still it wasn't mentioned - Apparently I should have also received a text 2 weeks before being cut off but I didn't receive one. I was however told that I could use my home allowance at no extra charge while in Norway (I asked about Norway specifically).

To recap, I was suspended due to an unpaid bill that was unpaid due to faults on the Vodafone website. The "contract" that I "signed/agreed" to did not mention a fair use policy which has now been breached.

I have come on here to see if anybody has had any similar experiences, if anybody can offer ant insights or if somebody from Vodafone can help better than the online chat agents can.

Thank you for your time,

Sean.

[BandOfBrothers]

I can well understand how being cut off was inconvenient @Crowbius

Usually when a Contract is set up one of the initial stipulations is to have a Direct Debit set up which is the cleanest avenue to pay the bill.

I'm assuming at some point this was cancelled in favour of paying manually ?

Paying manually I understand is a personal choice but as you've found out these manual options can rarely have their glitches. Ultimately bill payment is the Contract holders responsibility. 

Perhaps consider setting up a Direct Debit to stop this occurring again. 

Every Network as far as I'm aware has some form of fair usage policy to stop their services being abused by people / companies but it's very rare to hear that a Consumer has had this applied to them.

Your usage must have been extreme in some way !

Are you able to say what this particular usage was ?

Every Network has T&C's which a person accepts when joining up and is the responsibility of the Contract Holder to go through these to ensure they are happy with them before committing. Vodafone T&C's  refers to the Link > Acceptable Usage Policy <

A person has a 30 day Network Satisfaction Guarantee in which they can cancel if it's not for them and gives them time to monitor their usage , tariff allowances and go through T&C's etc.

If an agent was required to go through all of the T&C's  I'd suspect a person would be literally hours upgrading or taking out a new upgrade. 

I personally think the Communications Omsbudsman would advise as above but of course if you wish to ask Vodafone for a Deadlock Letter if a mutual reasonable resolution cannot be reached then that's certainly your prerogative. 

I hope this is sorted out amicably. 

[Crowbius]

Hi Bandofbrothers,

Thank you for the response.

In regards to the direct debit - I had a large bill that I was unable to pay on the specified date so I requested a promise-to-pay agreement, however, the first attempt was before the due date so was told to wait until that date or after and then try again - the agent also told me to delete the direct debit to avoid the bill being taken from my bank before a P.T.P. could be set up.

I understand it is my responsibility to pay, which is why I attempted multiple times. It is, however, up to the recipient to give me the ability to pay - I attempted 3 times to pay online through the Vodafone website, which failed due to the website, not me. I was also unable to phone any numbers due to the fair usage suspension. (For some reason when I restart my phone I get 10-20 seconds of resumed usage until it cuts out - if I start a call within this time is seems to allow me to continue the call until I'm finished which is how i eventually managed to pay).

In regards to the fair usage - this is the terms and conditions the agent gave to me;

--- Kelly:

You have chosen (Samsung Galaxy S7 edge 32GB)Black with an upfront cost of £10.00(100% waiver)
·          Your new SIM card will not be activated when you receive it, you can activate through your My Vodafone account online or by calling 03333 040191. Mobile calls to this number are at standard rate.
·          The price plan you have chosen gives you Unlimited Minutes, Unlimited texts and 16GB of data. The standard monthly cost for this is £52.00 (non-discounted cost), which will show on your My Vodafone account online.
·          With your discount of 20%, you will pay £41.60 each month. The discount runs for 24 months
·          Your plan also includes Vodafone Global Roaming, which lets you use your minutes, texts and data in 40 countries with no additional cost, as well as 60 more countries for £5 per day. For more roaming info, please check out Vodafone.co.uk/travellingabroad.

Kelly:

Your bundle is 4G-ready, which means you can take advantage of the speeds it can deliver dependent on coverage and network demand. You can check your estimated mobile data network coverage and speed at Vodafone.co.uk
·         Your plan also includes a 3-month free trial of Vodafone Secure Net, which helps to protect you from malware and phishing attacks online, and will result in an increased data usage, depending on your browsing practices.
·          After the free period finishes, a monthly cost of £1 will be added to your account and you can opt out of the service at any point and we’ll send you a text before the free period ends to remind you how you can remove it. More information can be found in your Service Terms and conditions
·          Your contract is eligible for Vodafone Flexi-Upgrades. Once you’ve had your device and plan for six months, you can upgrade to one of the latest, models. To check your Flexi-Upgrade date and the Flexi Upgrade Fee check the My Vodafone mobile app or login to My Vodafone on Vodafone.co.uk
·          Delivery will be made between 8am and 6pm in the next 1 to 4 working days and someone will need to sign for this The delivery cost is £4.94, which will be added to your next invoice and our delivery agent will send you a text message on the day, to help reduce that delivery time window for you.
·          This agreement is for a minimum period of 24 months plus the remaining number of days from your existing contract.
·          Each April, your bundle price will increase by an amount equal to the RPI rate published in March of that year. We will publish this rate on our website. Full details are available in the Vodafone Airtime terms and conditions.
·          Occasionally, we have to put up our charges outside of your monthly bundle or change our services during your contract. We’ll tell you before we do this and you can read more about this in our Airtime Terms and Conditions online.
·          You have the right to change your mind and return your contract during the next 30 days. You can do this by calling us on 191. If you do cancel your contract, you must return the handset to us using the pre-paid envelope or DPD label that we will send out. Charges may be applied up to the value of the mobile equipment for any items returned in a damaged condition. You can find more information on Vodafone.co.uk/returns
You’re buying from Vodafone Limited of The Connection, Newbury. You can cancel at any time by giving 30-days’ notice to Vodafone. However, if you cancel before the minimum period, you will still need to pay the remaining contract monthly costs.---

It does not directly mention anything about a fair usage policy and when I click on the traveling abroad link I cannot find it either. One other thing I have realised is that the agent also told me this;

---Kelly:

Also you are getting Home Free roaming.

Kelly:

As you will be able to use the services in 100 countries without any extra charges and you will not get this facility with any other network.---

I'm guessing this "100 countries without any extra charges" was a blatant lie? 

In regards to my usage - my allowance gives me Unl. Calls, Unl. Texts and 16gb of data each month - I very rarely text anybody (maybe 10 a month), I don't make lots of phone calls (maybe 1-2 hours of calling each month) and I use my 16gb of data for Google maps, video calls and other general things - which all of is used currently. 

I read a lot of stories about people being lied to during the initial contract agreement and can't help but feel like this is an ongoing thing..

What I don't understand, is why has my whole service been suspended rather than charging me for extra roaming abroad?

Thank you again.

[AnnS]

Hi @Crowbius

Global roaming is only designed for short periods of travel, not for when you are working in an overseas destination on a regular basis for an extended period of time and this is explained in detail on the Global Roaming T & c's. However, you were in the time limit and this will be something the forum Team will be able to look into.

When you are working overseas, you really should be using a Norwegian SIM for your periods away from the UK.

[Crowbius]

Hi AnnS,

Thank you for the response.

When i set up the initial contract and spoke to the agent on the online chat we haggled for a while - I told her how long I would be in Norway and she told me that I would be able to use my allowance there without a problem - this is after me telling her how long I would be out here for. 

She also told me this;

"Kelly:

As you will be able to use the services in 100 countries without any extra charges and you will not get this facility with any other network."

I'm pretty sure I have not actually received this offer and this was just a lie to secure a deal - but this is in my transcript and therefore part of the contract?

If I had known I would have these troubles here I would have left Vodafone in April and bought a Norwegian sim for out here - but I was not informed. I travel a lot, I live in England but my girlfriend lives in Ireland and we like to travel for at least 5 days each month. She is also originally from Brazil and I knew I would be visiting her family there for at least 1 month - I accepted the deal because of the free roaming  (in 100 countries) - this is literally the ONLY reason. I discussed with the agent that I had found a much better offer on a third party website with a different network for a lot less money each month and nearly double the data allowance and the free roaming was her "ace".

I will continue to try and speak with different agents for a while and then I will definitely take this up with at least the ombudsmen.

Thank you again for your time.

[John]

@Crowbius I can see that our Community Champions have provided you the relevant information.
If you'd like to discuss this in more detail, I've sent you a private message with details on how you can get in touch.