RPI Price Increase - April 2017

[Nabs]

Hi all,

I received this wonderful text message yesterday informing me that Vodafone will be increasing my price from 12th April.

"Hello. Just to let you know, from 12 April we'll be increasing your monthly plan by 3.2% - which is in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) published in March 2017. This means that a monthly plan costing £37.00 will go up by £1.18 a month. This change reflects your terms and conditions - please go to www.vodafone.co.uk/rpi if you'd like to find out more."

I don't mind a price increase, I agreed to that as part of the T+C's, however, I don't agree with the amount that has been quoted.
I took out a 12 month SIM only plan in November of last year and the advisor quoted the following:

"The price plan you have chosen gives you Unlimited Minutes, Unlimited Texts and 20GB. The standard monthly cost for this is £22.20, which will show on your My Vodafone account online. "

The advisor was indeed correct, the figure of £22.20 is indeed what shows on my account, and is what I've been paying for the last 4 months.
With this in mind, the 3.2% increase to my account should be around £0.71, a bit of a difference from the £1.18 that the SMS message states. In fact, an increase of £1.18 would be just over 5% which, please correct me if I'm wrong, would leave me free to exit my contract under section 11b of the T+C's.

Vodafone, how do I proceed with this?

[jeffkinn]

I had exactly the same message for exactly the same plan.

Do we assume that the £1.18 will be discounted by the same 40% as the original value of £37?

[hrym]

It always beats me why anyone wanting to increase what they charge you uses RPI (which includes housing costs), rather than CPI, which doesn't.  What housing costs do companies have?  If it's a benefit to you, of course, it's the other way round because people don't have housing costs, do they?

[jeffkinn]

Rent

Business Rates

Heat & Light

Property insurance

Office Cleaning

Maintenance

to name but a few

[hrym]

True, but they're not (afaik) the elements that are excluded from CPI.

[Nabs]

Any suggestion or opinions of what I should do?

[hrym]

Wait for the next bill and see what you're charged?   If you have a discounted tarriff and the discount shows as a separate item, I'd assume in the first instance that the increase would show on both elements and come out at the correct net figure.

If not (re-reading your initial post, I see that the price you were quoted is what appears on your account), then is £37 just an example?   In that case, it's simply badly worded.

[DroneOn]

I'm on the same plan and received the same message, and it's perfectly clear to me. If I was on the plan at its non-discounted price of £37, I'd be paying an additional £1.18. As I'm not, I won't be. I'll be paying an additional 3.2% of £22.20.

[d123]

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@DroneOn wrote:

I'm on the same plan and received the same message, and it's perfectly clear to me. If I was on the plan at its non-discounted price of £37, I'd be paying an additional £1.18. As I'm not, I won't be. I'll be paying an additional 3.2% of £22.20.

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Did you see the link in the first post.

if you click through it says:

What if I have a discount?
RPI is applied to your monthly fee, before the discount is applied.

[DroneOn]

Yes. So 3.2% is added to the non-discounted price of £37. Then the 40% discount comes off. Which works out exactly the same as adding 3.2% to £22.20.