Told to leave vodafone and sell my handset by their advisors and that vodafone refuse to help

[samurai3316]

At short notice had to go abroad to complete a job, contacted vodafone who refused to help in any way shape or form. The advisor explained to me, the best I can suggest is that you leave vodafone (after spending my entire adult life on this network), sell your handset to recover your losses and go elsewhere! Tried a second day on live chat, same response, sell your handset go elsewhere. Customer services wont talk to me on the phone unless i pay the £5 foreign country fee per day so an extra £150 taking my bill to almost £200 a month before I even start. So all I can really do now is take what i have to ofcom confirming that vodafone refuse to even listen to me unless i pay them £150 for support? How can this be right. Ive even taken my phone round to the local vodafone store in the country im working and they have said vodafone uk have it set so that you cant use our vodafone sims. They come up as if i had moved to another provider and needed my phone unlocked. Ive even offered to continue paying my own contract in the uk and take the sim card out and put it in a drawer unused for six months at £40 a month and then pay another £30 a month for a simcard in the country im in but vodafone refuse to help me or even their local representative at the store here. Does anybody have any ideas what I can do? I dont want to start a war on social media or start copying and pasting their respnses to sell my phone and go elsewhere just to provoke a response.

mike

[AnnS]

Hi @samurai3316

You don't mention the country you are having to work to complete your job.  If you are being asked to pay £5.00 per day, this would probably be a country covered by World Traveller.

In order to use your phone aborad, you will be roaming on a foreign network. As such you will need to pay the roaming charges for the country or the World Traveller charge of £5.00 per day to use your UK allowance in the country you visiting.

If you are wanting to use a foriegn SIM card, you will need the phone you are using on Vodafone UK unlocked. There is no charge to unlock your phone. Your other alternative is to purchase a cheap unlocked phone, this will enable you to use any SIM.

The only thing Vodafone have in common with any other country, is the parent name.  Other than that, they are a separate entity and a separate company running on a different network.

Depending on how long you are going to be posted abroad, I hope you will be able to get your issues solved.  There is further information on the World Traveller service below.

World Traveller Support

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi

When I'm discussing with a person the options when wanting to use their phone abroad I suggest having the phone unlocked to all networks incase a local sim is needed to be used. As long as a wrong fulfills the criteria then unlocking is free. 

If a person has the roaming bar lifted off their account then roaming is possible. 

Info on roaming and costs in http://www.vodafone.co.uk/explore/costs/travelling-abroad/

If a person is going abroad for a long length of time then one option is to pay the early termination fee to leave the network and one known avenue to raise capital to do so is to sell the phone and use those funds. 

Vodafone networks in other countries are not connected to each other which is why one set of customer services can't help a person who is on another Vodafone Network and typically another countries Vodafone sim card won't work in another Vodafone Networks phone as they are locked unless as I mentioned above you unlock them before leaving the UK. The iPhone is the exception as that can be unlocked while abroad as it does not use an actual unlocking code. 

Unfortunately as other makes of phone unlock using a code you input into them then Vodafone UK cannot guarantee the unlock code will work outside the UK. Typical advice is to send it to someone you know in the UK and they use it on a Payg account for 30 days making calls and sending texts and using data and they unlock it and then send it back to the person. 

[Getafix]

Quick question
I have mortgage with Barclays in UK for my house.
Does it mean if i move to Kenya then Barclays should allow me to stay in a property which is mortgaged with Barclays in Kenya?

You signed up to a contract. You had change of circumstances however that does not allow you to terminate that contract unless you are willing to pay a penalty.

[samurai3316]

Who mentioned trying to get out of my contract? I wanted to keep my contract and contnue paying even though im not using it. That way i keep my number and its all good for when i get home. What i asked was how i could have another sim out her paying another fee to vodafone but uk vodafone will not allow the phone to be used except if i use my uk sim and pay hundreds. They refuse to unlock the phone

[AnnS]

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@samurai3316 wrote:

 What i asked was how i could have another sim out her paying another fee to vodafone but uk vodafone will not allow the phone to be used except if i use my uk sim and pay hundreds. They refuse to unlock the phone

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As mentioned, you are roaming on a foreign network.  As such, you need to pay the roaming charges for the country you are visiting.

Providing you meet the unlocking criteria, there is nothing stopping you from unlocking your phone.  The problem is unless the phone is an iphone where unlocking is done through itunes, there is no guarantee the code will work on a foreign network and you may need to send the phone back to someone you know in the UK to complete the unlocking process.

If you want the phone unlocked, complete the information and submit the form below.

Unlock your phone

Your other alternative is to purchase a cheap phone in the country you in in and use a foreign SIM card.

[jeffkinn]

Vodafone will never refuse to unlock a phone - if you've been told by someone then you've been given the wrong information. Use the link that Ann has given and you will be unlocked.

[Getafix]

And who told you that the phone will not be unlocked?

Few have already responded here on how to unlock and if you care to search the Forum there are lot of posts regarding how to get a phone unlocked.