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.

[Annie_N]

It occurred to me to check whether I had the "Text" part of the Freebie running invisibly. I sent a text message to another standard UK mobile number, and my balance promptly fell by 14p, so clearly whatever it is that expires on 4 May is notional rather than hidden.

[woodstockthree]

Wow .... that's a lot of testing and research lol... it looks like you're right.   But I can't rely on being off on the day that the freebee expires to go out and top up on the day just to satisfy them.  The 12 hour shifts I work are very long and I don't go to a shop before, during or after my shifts.  Like I said I don't have a car to just jump into and pop to a shop, due to my visual impairment.  I refuse to set up my debit card for online top ups - shouldn't have to, I am out and about enough times to provide sufficient top ups to meet my side of the T&C's.   If the product doesn't work and they cant fulfill their side of the T&C's then they should pull it and put us into a equal or better product.   I'm not being awkward - I just cannot top up on the day it expires every month due to my disability and my shift work.

 I still have not had a reply from the chief executive yet - I'm not holding my breath but the reporter from the daily mail said to let her know how we get on at the end of her article, which I intend to do.   

[Annie_N]

Something I've found to work well for me is to buy a £10 top-up voucher along with my groceries at my local supermarket, keep it in my purse, then apply it to my account when I feel the time is right. Not all the supermarkets give loyalty points for top-ups, but the one with the blue and red colour scheme :smileywink: does - so I get their points, and I get Rewards Points when I apply the voucher to my account. Also, Vodafone vouchers don't expire, whereas most of the others do, so occasionally I've found a crumpled voucher in my purse, and been able to use it a couple of years on.

That will continue to work reasonably well for me, always assuming my Freebie actually renews when I top up on 5 May, but I can't see that anyone should have to go through hoops that don't suit them because a product has stopped behaving as it ought.

My preferred method of applying the voucher is to dial *#1345* followed by the TopUp voucher number and then # (for example *#1345*123456789123#) then press Call, but there are assorted other options described here.

[woodstockthree]

SLol "the one with the blue and red colour scheme" is where I'm potentially off to.  Loads of retailers (Sainsburys, Boots and others I can't think of at the moment) used to give loyalty points but they all stopped when the recession hit about 5 years or so ago.  I can't get to Mr Blue and Red colour scheme easily ie not for regular weekly shopping but would make a special trip to get the phone.  The only thing is that it would have to be a contract because you can only top up in their stores and it's not close enough to me for that.  I've read so many bad things about vodafone contracts plus my experience with this that I wouldn't have a Vodafone contract again - I had one years ago and they were a nightmare even then 😐, which was why I went onto the text and Web freebee in the first place.  

They told me on the phone you can get the vouchers in the Vodafone store but I haven't seen them on sale at other retailers/supermarkets for years.  Our local sainsburys closed recently and so now it's Asda or nothing for local shopping.  I'll have to ask them if they sell the vouchers.  Like you said it's easier to get it from the supermarket.  Trouble is that I want to run the credit down so I'm not losing money if I go, but need to top up to get the pack renewed until I can make the trip.  I'll have to work out what shifts I'm on and see what the best thing is to do.  A phone shouldn't cause this much hassle!  I did tell them if it doesn't renew I'm off so they should have one last chance to do the right thing.  I can't believe they're sitting behind their desks ignoring everything I've said on the phone, in emails and on here - I'm presuming this is all read by the social media team and I don't regret a single thing I've said about them - it just shows how much they value their customers.   An acknowledgement from the chief executive that I exist would be nice.  

[Annie_N]

At our two local supermarkets, the top-up vouchers are sold via the tills, so you get them as potentially scruffy bits of till-roll, rather than as pre-printed vouchers.

Another location for topping up is PayPoint stores, and they seem to cater for virtually all the mobile networks, although blue-and-red is the obvious omission from the list! 

There are two aspects to choosing a network - one is the CS aspect, while the other is coverage. For the supermarket networks, the latter is determined by the network off which they piggyback, and this table gives you the underlying provider for many of the major "other players".

As I make remarkably little use of my mobile for phone calls, my balance tends to climb with my monthly top-ups, and I usually address this by a couple of months using Extra Data - though they do renew automatically while you have an adequate balance, so you need to be aware of the mechanism for stopping them! I get nowhere near to the 36 texts per month needed to justify the Extra Texts. You may also have some Rewards Points you want to shift, in which case their mini-bundles of minutes can come in handy, but do be aware of the different durations of the bundles. Finally, you can reduce your balance by giving some of it to charity - I've put together an eclectic set of possibles here!

[woodstockthree]

Wow thats a lot of work youve put in there, thanks

Yeah I know tesco is backed by o2, and this is what my mom is on and she doesn't have any issues here and even got 4g in the north east coast of Scotland... I've seen her phone now and coverage isn't an issue here, including 4g.  

I've got loads of rewards points so I was going to have an Amazon voucher and then like you say use the rest for extra credit and so on.   

[Annie_N]

Good(ish) news. I waited for my phantom Freebie to expire last night, then this morning I applied a £10 voucher, and I have a nice new Freebie, due to expire on 3 June. So that is fine. Of course, topping up after I had received the warning of the phantom expiry might have worked, but then again it might have resuted in another phantom Freebie, not expring until 1 June - we'll never know.

I haven't got time at the moment to try for a more fundamental fix to the problem, so I'll just have to run on the basis of waiting for one Freebie to expire before I top up to trigger the next one. Not very satisfactory, but at least that approach seems to work.

[woodstockthree]

Cool at least you've found a workaround.  But I still think we shouldn't have to.  If that works for you (or anyone) then that's great.  But I can't do that - I can't rely on being around on the day.... and if I remember and buy a voucher then great... but if I forget it or don't realise what day it is then I'm stuck for up to 5 days before I can get one and will be paying higher call rates (i don't use the data that often because I have my WiFi at home and free WiFi at work and our local shopping centre).  Still no answer from the chief executive.   I must start work on the update that the Daily Mail reporter asked for....

[woodstockthree]

Hi @annie_n.  I've done it.... requested and got my pac code.  My balance is at a point where I either top up and have a larger amount of there than I was prepared to leave, or make the decision to go now and wind down my remaining credit.   

I did it on the hell which vodafone call live chat.  He asked why I was going- so I explained.   He said there is a new product coming out soon which is similar - but he said that as it is a legacy product they can't withdraw it until everyone stops using it and that is why they are not autorenewing the allowance - so it's not even a fault, they are just making it as hard as possible for people to remain on it.   It all then got very surreal and he said because I hadn't topped up, that was why it wouldn't auto renew.  I have never missed a top up, and I told him this and that they were not honouring their own T&C document and he again said it was my own fault!  He then thanked ME for understanding... when he was the one who didn't understand - I know exactly what should happen and he doesn't.     I gave up at this point, got the code, emailed the chat transcript and gave him the lowest possible mark.  I've spent my points and have 150 free for some free minutes on the last few days before I can get over to sign up to the new contract.   I feel strangely liberated lol.   

[Annie_N]

, @woodstockthree

I don't think the Live Chat explanation hangs together - a couple of other Freebies were totally withdrawn a while back, but the T&WF continued. They could perfectly well announce its discontinuation if they wanted to, and make us choose between the Data and Text Freebies. Deliberately acting in contravention of the Ts&Cs of an ongoing product would just get them into hot water with Ofcom, so I think it more likely that the programming has got corrupted, but no one has looked hard enough to sort it out. 

Going from memory, a PAC lapses after 30 days, but you can request a further one if you haven't used the first one.