Using Vodafone International add-on to call from a 'Inclusive Roaming' country

[Ramsay111]

I am in France at the minute, which is covered by Vodafone's 'Inclusive Roaming' on the latest Red tariffs.

I also pay £5 per month for 'Vodafone International', which gives 5 pence per minute calls to the USA (and other countries) from the UK.

I used to have a tariff with 'Euro Traveller', which specifically allows the use of 'Vodafone International' in the Eurozone ("You can use your extra UK data, Vodafone International and extra international minutes and texts with EuroTraveller, but you won’t be able to use any other extras.").

I regularly get overcharged by Vodafone and am currently hundreds of pounds in credit with them. Apparently, I can't have this money transferred back to me, but that it another issue.

When I changed to a tarriff with 'Inclusive Roaming' I specifically asked if Vodafone International could be used in the 'inclusive roaming' zone and the answer was 'Yes'. I have the conversation recorded where I am told, in no uncertain terms, that I will get the same rate when calling the USA from France as I would get if I was calling the USA from the UK. 

Now that I am in France, I made a few calls to the USA and noticed that I was being charged £2 per minute (£50 so far). 

I called Vodafone and they said that the charges were correct per their Ts & Cs (I'm not going to dispute that) and, initially, stated that they would not refund the call charges.

I played the Vodafone representative the recording (quoted above) three times and was repeatedly told that, in their opinion, the representative on the recoring WAS NOT telling me that calls from within Europe to a Vodafone would be 5 pence per minute.

The problem escalated to the 'back office', who listened to the recording and have agreed to refund the £50 of excess charges. However, going forward, I will continue to pay £2 per minute and, according to Vodafone, there is nothing they are willing to do to change that. 

Can anyone advise me what, if anything, I can do about this? I have clearly been misadvised. I need to make calls to the USA from France, from my mobile number, regularly. I cannot afford to pay £2 per minute!

Many thanks in advance.

[jeffkinn]

The first thing to ask for your protection is if you advised the CS operative that you were recording the call. To do so and then use that recording with someone else is an offence against telecommunications legislation.

Secondly, and far more importantly, the international calling tariff is a domestic tariff only designed to ease the cost of calling overseas from the UK. It won't work when you are roaming and Vodafone are not going to introduce what would be a new tariff just for you, no matter what a CS person incorrectly advised you.

In my opinion you should take the refund and find some other way of calling the USA from France.