Text and Web freebee

[woodstockthree]

Hi - can someone answer my question below? The staff on Facebook keep trying to refer me to live chat and I have "experienced" that before. I don't need anyone to refer to my account - it has been corrected, compensated and a fault raised (allegedly). But I think the person I spoke to has given me incorrect information and so I am trying to get clarification. Copied and pasted post shown below:

Hello. I have a question. I have the text and Web freebee with 500mb data and so many texts as long as I top up at least £10 within that 30 days. I have had occasions where the bundle has not rolled over although I have complied by topping up the required amount and each time I have phoned and got the bundle reactivated and a promise that it will be investigated and it won't happen again.

It has happened again this month and I have had to wait up after a 12 hour night shift to wait for you to open at 0800 to phone and sort it out. The gentleman I spoke to has refunded the credit I wouldn't have used if it had been in place as well as extra data and texts - thanks for this. He has also raised it as a fault to find out why it keeps happening and apparently it won't happen again - we will see.

However he said that I have to top up when I get the text that the bundle is about to expire and that credit added during the month does not count. I do not feel this is correct as I know some months I have topped up £10 during the month and it has rolled over, also some months I have topped up £10 for two or more weeks and this has resulted in the additional texts for topping up an increased amount. In fact when the last bundle expired, I actually did what he said, ie i got the text saying the bundle would expire, I topped up the day before it expired, but it didn't roll over. A subsequent top up of £10 I made the following week did not reactivate it either. It was only during my night shift at about 0300 today that I checked my balance and realised the total was lower than it should be and that there were no data/texts remaining.

It is not always convenient for me to top up on a specific day due to my shifts and as I said, this has never been the case before, and credit added during the month has counted towards ensuring the bundle rolls over as it should do.

Please don't suggest a contract - I had one with you many years ago and it was a nightmare and reading the posts here, things have not improved. However I would be grateful if someone could clarify the conditions regarding when to top up and by how much as I don't think I have been given the correct advice. I have used this bundle for many years and have always been able to top up when I need to and have the bundle roll over as planned (except for a few occasions every so often where it appears to fail and I have to ring you).

I look forward to your reply. Thanks.

[Becca_P]

@woodstockthree

We're sorry to hear about the issues you've been having.

I can confirm that we've received your email and a member of the team will be in touch to help soon.

[woodstockthree]

Thanks @becca_p

Someone did try and call today but I am at work (12 hour shifts for an emergency service) and so can only have the phone on for very short periods are break times.  This is why I tried to sort it out on my days off and posted a message here last week but noone from Vodafone got back to me.   If there are issues with Yahoo email addresses not getting the reference numbers then this should have been raised a lot earlier than it was.   The most helpful person so far has been Annie_n - who doesn't even work for you! - and she said it was a problem.  So much time has been wasted because I have been posting on here and emailing the address Amanda gave me and asking for help via both routes and foolishly thinking that someone was looking at it - and it was only when Annie_n said to try another address that I got the reference number.  So what has happened to all my other requests for help - emails, posts on here, a pm I sent to Amanda by accident  (i thought I was on the email page), calls to south Africa each time it doesn't renew.  All ignored.   People keep saying it is being escalated and I have now heard this so many times it must now be with God, who must have better things to worry about.    It is no wonder that you are featured in today's Daily Mail as the worst performing for customer service.   I am sick of phoning every month - sometimes having to phone again when the wrong freebee has been applied.  

[woodstockthree]

Wow they have excelled themselves now.  In response to the email with the holy grail that is the reference number, they phoned me yesterday but I was at work and emailed me to say I couldn't be contacted.  I said why this was and that I was at work today and not available.  They phoned me this morning and caught me on break, and I said it wasn't convenient to talk and to ring tonight. I have now had an email confirming my balance- which I have never asked for!!!!!!! I've sent an email back asking for someone senior to contact me because these muppets plainly do not read what the problem is before replying.  

[Tash]

@woodstockthree I can see the team have since responded to your email.

If you have any further queries, please reply back to the latest email and we'll be in touch to help.

[woodstockthree]

Yes they have replied but are not resolving the situation - just keep telling me to top up on the day it expires, which is not always convenient due to my shifts and disability  (meaning I can't just jump in the car and go to the shop).  Anyway I shouldn't have to because the terms and conditions say I can top up at any time in the month for the allowance to renew.  All I keep getting are emails from the social media team not a department who can actually FIX the problem.   I have my doubts they are actually reading the emails because they make no effort to reply to them.  You would hold me to the T&C's so I am doing the same.  The daily mail printed an interview with your chief executive who said people can email him with their issues... so I have.   But I must say tesco mobile is looking ever more attractive.   

[Annie_N]

"just keep telling me to top up on the day it expires"

Oh what nonsense! Of course, Vodafone would be quite entitled to change the Ts&Cs if they wished to do so, but that particular change would be to our disadvantage, so they would be obliged to inform us of the change.

For anyone wanting them, the Ts&Cs can be viewed via http://www.vodafone.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/index.htm using the route illustrated below. There doesn't appear to be a direct link available.

[woodstockthree]

They've just phoned me, this time they even managed to follow a simple request to call at a time I requested lol.  He said again. I need to top up on the day it expires, so I quoted the terms and conditions again.  He then did the condescending sing song voice and said I wasn't listening.  I know what I heard him say.  Then he said that as long as the balance is at least £10 on the day it expires, it will renew.  This is a new one on me - it's not in the T&C's as far as I can see - and the balance is always more than  £10 anyway and has failed to renew on many many occasions (even if I topped up the £10 or even more) so I have my doubts.  I'm getting to the point where even if it does renew, it's gone on too long and too stressful and noone at Vodafone seems interested in retaining me as a customer, sick of being fobbed off.  I have been emailing the chief executive as he printed his address in the Daily Mail but he hasn't got back to me yet - hopefully it is just due to sheer volume of requests he is getting and not anything else.  

[Annie_N]

@woodstockthree

"as long as the balance is at least £10 on the day it expires, it will renew"

No, it's not in the Ts&Cs! Nor in the Ts&Cs of any of the more recent Freebies, all of which rely upon a top-up, either during the current one, or afterwards. However, it does (almost) describe the situation with the Big Value Bundle, which will renew provided your balance is at least the value of the one just expiring - you have to have at least £15 for the £15 BVB to renew, it won't give you the £10 one instead.

BTW, if you are thinking of jumping ship, do make sure that your alternative network has reasonable coverage in the areas you are likely to be in. Around here, the Vodafone signal isn't too great (2G when the wind is in the right direction), but the rivals seem to be marginally worse. Well worth trying a SIM with a different number for a month before deciding to get your PAC.

[woodstockthree]

I didn't think it was right lol... so another fob off then.  My mom is on the network I am going with and she is coming over this week and I'm going to have a look at hers and see what her coverage is like here.  But I am hearing good things about their network coverage, even on the coast.   It's just a shame it has come to this - I was quite happy on the product I have and as long as it just kept ticking over then that was fine with me.  

[Annie_N]

@woodstockthree

Interesting development on my T&WF.

Brief history: I had a T&WF during March, topped up during it, and its replacement kicked in on 1 April, expiring 30 April. I topped up on 5 April, in accordance with my usual pattern, and promptly got an SMS that my T&WF had activated and would expire on 4 May, but nothing changed on the account details I could see.

I received no warning SMS, but my T&WF expired at the end of 30 April, on schedule, and no new T&WF kicked in to replace it. I decided to wait and see what might happen about the phantom Freebie - and I have just been rewarded with an SMS warning me that my T&WF would expire on 4 May, so top up if I hadn't already done so!

I've used some of my Rewards Points to "buy" 7 days of data to tide me over, so I can't be sure whether the phantom T&WF would enable me to use mobile data without charge, but I am going to wait until 5 May before topping up, just in case there's an automatic renewal.

I'm not seriously expecting a renewal, as my top-up triggered the phantom Freebie, but my guess is that, once that has expired, my next top-up will trigger the next Freebie. Can't be sure until I know what happens on 5 May, but it does look as though they have somehow ##~## up the programming for renewal of the T&WF. So the advice of the various agents may actually correspond with the present reality - wait until your old Freebie has expired before topping up, unless you're prepared to risk the system getting its knickers in a twist. Not that that is much of an excuse, as both the programming and the advice should conform to the Ts&Cs.

I think, BTW, that this state of affairs can't apply to the current range of Freebies, as there isn't any "noise" on the Forum about the current crop of Freebies failing to renew. A pity, though, that the agents don't appear to understand how Freebies should work, as they are a significant alternative to the Big Value Bundles.

I show below that the system did check at the end of 30 April whether I was eligible for a renewal, but clearly decided that the answer was NO!