Unfair Practice - I bought one off £5 bundle but Vodafone made it renew automatically monthly

[Humphrey1]

Hi, anyone have this unfair business practice and what did you do?

I just bought today a £5 top up on a previously unused SIM and made it abundantly clear I just wanted a one-off top up and not a recurring monthly top up. But Vodafone made it automatically renew every month. There was and is no doubt about what I asked for. 

[Humphrey1]

Maybe the best thing will be to cancel the entire thing and get a SIM from a different provider.  I only want a £5 top up and had a spare unused Vodafone SIM ready as a back-up.

I normally use either Tesco or ID Mobile who have great customer service and never pull stunts like this.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi @Humphrey1

When you look in your myvodafone what Payg Tariff are you on ?

A person can opt out of a Payg Tariff to choose another more suited. 

Perhaps the new tariff > Vodafone pay-as-you-go1.

Info on - Pay-as-you-go-1.

Terms-and-conditions - pay-as-you-go1.

The option to change Networks is of course at your own discretion as long as your phone is open to all networks and the Networks you are interested in supply a good signal and data speeds experience. 

[Humphrey1]

Unfortunately your advice is not helpful. You have sent me links to three different pages including very complicated terms and conditions. 

I am angry about this. My time is being wasted over a £5 top up all because Vodafone's business practice is to rip me off by turning a one off £5 top up into a repeating monthly contract which I clearly did not order.  I don't want to place my business with a company I cannot trust to behave properly. Now how do I cancel this right away please. 

The upshot of this is it looks like Vodafone takes no notice of what you say even if I demand to cancel and look like they will keep on billing me via my credit card every month. The annoyance value is very high for a one off £5 top up which is in effect turned into a monthly contract I did not order.

[Humphrey1]

This is a correction to the title to this posting.  I did not buy a "bundle". I bought a one off £5 top up.  I specifically did not want a "big bundle" and said so to the sales person on the phone when I paid. I did not use an automated system to buy the £5 top up. I bought from a real live Vodafone sales person.

And you want me to wade through three web pages of terms and conditions to learn about Vodafone's tariffs and terms and conditions all for the sake of making a single order by telephone of a £5 top up.

[Humphrey1]

So how do I cancel please? How do I cancel right now so I can be sure I will not keep on getting billed?

How do I cancel so I know I will not be doing business with a company which does business like this?

[Humphrey1]

Cancelling is a lot easier than wading through pages of terms and conditions.

[Humphrey1]

How can I cancel and be sure I will not keep on getting the annoyance value of keeping on getting billed every month. I don't want to do business with Vodafone.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi @Humphrey1

I'm not here to further upset you and as a fellow customer thought the info in those links would have been helpful. 

The links are there to help but if you do not want to go through them its your decision. 

[Annie_N]

@Humphrey1

Either you did a top-up or you bought a bundle, and Vodafone makes it very clear, as per the links offered by @BandOfBrothers, that bundles renew automatically. It's a bit hard to complain about unfair practice if you aren't willing to read the details of what you're signing up to.

If you were mis-sold a bundle rather than a top-up by a store, either they or CS on 191 should be able to put things right for you. Alternatively, if you want to let the present one run, but not renew, you can opt out of automatic renewal by calling 2345 (though working your way through the IVR options requires some time and patience), via 191, or use your online account to do so. Unfortunately you can't opt out via the app.

Edited to add: You seem to say you have set up a recurring charge to your credit card? I'm not sure why you should have done so, but I'd advise cancelling it.