Additional data charges – DON’T PAY! (if you didn’t get notification)

[mktbishop]

Vodafone Mobile Broadband Additional data charges – DON’T PAY! (if you didn’t get notification)

Dear All,

Twice Vodafone have added additional data charges to my bill.  Once for approx. £125, once for approx. £84.

(I have a 10GB Mobile Wi-Fi monthly contract with Vodafone).

Both times I received NO notification from Vodafone.

Both times Vodafone later fully cancelled the additional charges after I complained, and said I would take my complaint further to the Ombudsmen.

IT IS IN VODAFONE’S OWN TERMS AND CONDITIONS THAT THEY MUST NOTIFY YOU “WHEN YOU APPROACH AND REACH THE END OF YOUR DATA ALLOWANCE”. (Full quote and link later in message)

On both occasions I telephoned Vodafone customer services and explained I had received no notification.  They refused to refund the charges. They even advised me I should have monitored usage more carefully, or that I missed the notification.  NOT TRUE!

You will need to make a complaint – follow the link on Vodafone’s website

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/vodafone-uk/complaints/

(A copy of my email complaint is below – you can fill in your own details and use this pro-forma to save time)

You will then be contacted by a “specialist” to resolve your complaint.

On both occasions they offered me a £20 reduction, then a 50% reduction.  Again they advised me I should have monitored usage more carefully, or that I missed the notification.  INCORRECT!

It was only when I REFUSED both of these offers, and clearly stated that I would take my complaint to the Ombudsmen that the additional data charges were SCRAPPED ENTIRELY.

Ombudsmen details found at this link: https://www.vodafone.co.uk/vodafone-uk/complaints/

STICK TO YOUR GUNS.  It is in Vodafone’s own terms and conditions that they should notify you when you are approaching the end of your data allowance.  If they fail to do this then they have not met THEIR OWN terms and conditions and you NEED NOT PAY.

A copy of my complaint:

Dear Vodafone,

I am writing to complain re the additional charges of £**:** on my mobile broadband account for billing date **/**/2017.

The following are quotes from the Vodafone website, under “Data usage notifications in the UK and when travelling”:

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/consumer/mobile/calling-and-travelling-abroad/intern...

1. Data usage notifications, and how to manage your data spend in the UK and when travelling - Pay monthly, Pay as you go and business customers.

You’ll receive notifications when you use data (both in the UK and abroad) to let you know when you approach and reach the end of your data allowance. If you’re abroad, the notifications usually arrive just before midnight in the UK.

If you’re using a phone, we’ll send you notifications by text. If you’re using a tablet, Mobile Wi-Fi device or a computer with a data dongle, you’ll get a flash pop-up on the dashboard.

Please note that you can't opt in or out of these notifications, as they are designed to keep you updated on your data usage and spend.

I can confirm that I DID NOT receive any such notification from Vodafone that I was approaching the end of my data allowance, neither by text message nor flash pop-up on the dashboard.

If I had received notification that I was approaching the end of my data allowance I WOULD NOT have continued to use Vodafone mobile data.  My usual monthly bill is approximately £16.  I cannot afford to run up additional charges on this account.

Given that I received NO NOTIFICATION via “flash pop-up on the dashboard” Vodafone has failed to meet the terms and conditions of our contract.  Therefore I ask that the additional charges be removed from the bill of **Billing date**.

If you are unable to resolve my complaint, and cancel 100% of the additional charges, then I can confirm that I will take my complaint further and contact the Ombudsman re this breach of your terms and conditions.

Yours sincerely,

**Your name**

**Your Tel No **

[munkai]

Josh,

I'm not sure, he mentioned from the Complaints Department and when after 55mins on the phone going in circles, i asked for someone more senior or a supervisor, he said that this is the highest up it will go...

There was a significant language barrier as when i asked for confirmation around whether the Deadlock Letter would arrive in the post or by email, i simply got a "thank you".

I will wait for 1-2wks and then see what the outcome is.

Thanks,

J

[Josh]

@munkai It's concerning that you say this as typically it would be our Customer Relations teams that would Deadlock a customer, this can be done internally by a Complaints team manager though. We can certainly check your account and confirm that a Deadlock request has been made just to be sure? Please send us your full name and mobile number via DM to either:

- Facebook Vodafone UK

- Twitter @VodafoneUK

If you're unable to send your details through Social Media, we'll be able to help you via Live Chat too.

[Cheeseybees]

Thanks for this.

I woke up on Wednesday morning at 5:12 AM with a text saying that I was spending more than usual and that I owed them £106.52.  

This was apparently because I had the Wifi off and the phone decided to download 16GB of data that morning.

I immediately called them (after trying the My Vodafone app; not working, and equally the Vodafone website; again not working, though both touted as available 24/7) to add a data package to stop the outrageous charges increasing any further.

I went for a swim, came back to find that the charges had jumped up to £159.05, though none of the new data that I bought had been touched.  I called up the customer services again who said I had to pay them £47 to use my phone for the next few days.

After this, at 10am that morning I received a text from them saying that i'd spent 19.50 worth of additional data this month

At 10:03 I received my text message saying that I had reached my data cap. 

Then at 10:09 I finally received the message informing me that I had 1.9 GB of data left on my plan.  Near 5 hours after I had already been in contact with Vodafone and strongarmed into paying them £50.

The bill stands at £173.50 now. Apparently all due to the phone being left off Wifi for one night.

No apps are allowed to update without Wifi unless permission is given, none of which was.

Before being pointed to your forum post by a friend I was browbeaten into thinking i'd offer them say £70 for the bill,  Less than half of what they wanted, but over 3 times as much as they usually charge for this data
Customer Service at all times were supercilious, offering insincere apologies and saccharinely patronising responses to me, whilst consistently using language framing everything as my responsibility and my data etc.

Now that I have seen your post, I will be following your advice, and sticking to my guns.

Quite frankly I am disgusted with this from vodafone.  It's appalling that they're trying to force me to pay what amounts to 7 months of my bill, when they didn't inform me I was approaching 2GB of my data cap till 5 hours after I had contacted them about this issue.

[TJ]

Hey @Cheeseybees, we're sorry we let you down; our Customer Promise means looking into this as quickly as we can. 

So one of our team can take a closer look into these charges for you, please get in touch via Facebook at Vodafone UK, or contact us on Twitter using the handle @VodafoneUK. 

Make sure to pop your username and link to this thread in your message too, this will save you having to explain again and we can help you quicker. 

[Cherij1]

It appears that Vodafone have done absolutely nothing to prevent this recurring problem and cause of much distress to their customers.  I have two phones attached to my account, as many do, one of which my son uses.  Last month we were charged excessive data costs and this month £200 additional costs.  All he received was 1 text to say he had 2gb of data left.  No message to say he had run out and no message to say that the costs were adding up.  How can this be right and how can it be justifiable as it is a breach of their terms surely. 

I spent an hour on the phone this morning with Vodafone without resolution.  

I shall be taking my complaint higher and to the ombudsman if necessary.  

I shall also be taking both of my personal accounts and our business account elsewhere if necessary.  

I'm horrified that they believe they can justify this appalling failure of the process and demand such extortionate bill payments from their so called valued customers.  Had my son received a text to say he had run out of data he would have bought a bulk amount for considerably less than £200.  Our WiFi was recently changed and doesn't cover his room.  He had assumed that he was on WiFi but clearly not and without notifications the £6.50 cost just kept occurring until his data reset.  

Shame on you Vodafone!!  

[TJ]

Hey @Cherij1 - we'll be more than happy to take a look into these data charges for you. Find out how to get in touch here.

Please also provide a link to this thread, along with your username; this will save time and we’ll be able to help you quicker.

[Cherij1]

Hi TJ 

Thanks for the message, I've already had a 1 hour phone call and messaged direct via messanger/Facebook and been advised that a 20% reduction is a final offer although your terms and conditions have been breached and no notification that the data had run out was received.  

I shall therefore be pursuing via CEDR/CISAS. 

[TJ]

Thanks for getting back to us @Cherij1 - if you've already been in touch and that's our final offer and you're still not happy, you can escalate this via our ADR process. Firstly you can speak to our Customer Relations department or Directors Office team. After that, you're correct; this can be passed to CISAS. 

Have the team mentioned that any notifications have been sent, or noted on the system? This would be the only reason that I could think of that we'd offer the 20% off. 

[Sxmxnthx]

Dear Vodafone,

I am contacting you to ask about the additional charges of about £162 on my broadband account for billing date 05/02/2020.

This morning I had continuous massages from Vodafone at 4:30am so I woke up and they were all saying saying that I spent higher than usual this month. So I went to check my Vodafone app and decided to change my Vodafone spend manager to a limit of £10. Then about 5 minutes later another message came through saying that my spend this month was now much higher even though I only went to check on the Vodafone app, and then the confirmation of the £10 limit came as well.  And again about 3 minutes after another message was sent saying that I won’t be able to make calls, texts or use any data. So I decided to turn off my data completely.

What I don’t understand is that I’ve been with Vodafone for about 8 months and never exceeded my data limit as I pay for 60GB of data which is a ton of it. It’s very strange to me that I managed to consume it all in about 2 weeks as I still have 17 days left to my next bill.

However what really disappointed me is that If I had received notification that I was approaching the end of my data allowance I WOULD NOT have continued to use Vodafone mobile data.  And what’s even more strange is that all of these extra £6.50 for extra data came all of a sudden in the middle of the night. As I checked they were all billed on the 19th of this month which is today.

Only this morning at about 8:24am  I received the notifications from Vodafone that my data ran out and I could buy additional data if I wanted. Alternatively I could of continued to use it at cost of £6.50 for each 250MB.  And again about 10 minutes after saying I’ve now spent £13 on additional data this month. So what have I been billed about £162 last night if only now Vodafone is telling me I’m £13 over my normal bill? Again after 10 more minutes same message came up saying I now spent £19.50 on additional data. All of there while connected on WiFi.

I’m very disappointed and very confused on Vodafone way of dealing with data charges. If you anyone could give me an explanation.

Given that I received NO NOTIFICATION unlit late morning. Vodafone has failed to meet the terms and conditions of our contract.  Therefore I ask that the additional charges be removed from the bill.

Yours sincerely

Samantha

[Tash]

@Sxmxnthx We can take a look into the recent charges and the data usage for you. As we'll need to access your account securely to resolve this, please send our team a message on Facebook or Twitter. Please include your Community username and a link to your post - this means you won't need to repeat your query  We'll then be able to get to the bottom of this for you.