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Solution

Unjustified Data Charges [RESOLVED]

firaez
3: Seeker
3: Seeker

I sent this to the Nick Jeffery at nick.jeffery at vodafone.com and yet to receive a reply.

 

Hi Nick

First of all, thank you for taking time to read this.

I recently purchased a 4G 50GB dongle for £30 initial charge and £30 per month.

After a few days I was on a call with the customer care service asking them how I could switch on data cap on my dongle. I followed the instruction as per the call and switched it on my iOS app. ( as it appeared to be at that time )

Then after a couple of weeks, internet stopped working and I thought it had to do with data cap coming into play.
Little did I know that the data cap feature did not reach your servers and I was now charged £215.
I called up customer care and they said data cap was not on. On the same call, the representative confirmed that he too was not able to turn it on. The customer care representative then reached out to a tech team to find an alternative mechanism on their system to switch it on.

So in a nutshell I went overdue by 7 GB approximately.

Now the worrying bit.

Here is some analysis of your charges in increasing order for the dongle.

Dongle plan 50GB for £30 - £0.6/GB - Base
Top up 15GB for £20 - £1.3/GB - twice base
Top up 2GB for £10 - £5/GB - 8 times increase
Top up 1GB for £6.50 - £6.5/GB - 10 times increase

And now the standard draconian fare
250MB for £6.50 - £26/GB - 43 times the base price

43 times increase in price is just ridiculous ! Is there any justification for this increase ?

I paid this standard completely uncalled for amount just to get my device back due to a bug on the app and lack of any notification on my mobile. I am victim of
1 - A faulty app which did not turn on data cap on multiple occasions. Even the support personnel confirmed that he couldn’t switch it on using his portal and had to reach out to another team to switch it on.
2 - Absolute lack of notification on my mobile phone regarding my usage.
3 - 4 hours of my time lost explaining to customer care to reconsider the bill and provide some compensation as the mistake was on their side. I have so far been promised a £10 wave off which is 5% of bill.

What makes me sad is that part of your business model is based off baiting on customers to get into that rediculous standard fare trap. To achieve this, you have
1 - Kept data flowing without blocking it. You know that filthy profit is going to come out of that minuscule “terms and conditions” block which needs a magnifying glass to read.
2- Turned off data cap as a default. No vodafone customer would want that OFF ever ! Customer have to figure out themselves how to get this turned on.
3 - Have an app work which does not work and finally blame the customer that he went overdue and is now forced into paying standard fare.

 

I feel bullied into paying my bill for mistakes not of my own and prices which are not advertised as they should have been.

Thanks,
Saiz

 

Like this if you have been a victim of Vodafone crafty faulty data charges, malfunctioning data caps resulting in huge bills or just upset with how they plan to make profit. 

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[Update 17-12-2017]

My email did reach vodafone executive office, and I was called on my mobile number. I explain my grievances and the vodafone represenatative assured that I would be refunded £150 pounds on top of 10 pounds goodwill gesture. My bill initially did not reflect what I as assured over the phone, but another three calls and finally got refunded of  160 pounds. I paid 171.33 pounds and my total bill was 331.33.

8 REPLIES 8

pipcoo
4: Newbie

This is an ongoing problem,you will find several other posts about it on this forum, VF don`t seem to want to do anything about it or even admit there is a problem. Please keep us updated on if you get a reply to your email.

Tash
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)

So we can take a closer look into your data usage for you @firaez, I've sent you a private message with details to contact our team directly.

We'll then be in touch to help resolve this.

resolved and replied in the main message.

Tash
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)

Thanks for letting us know @firaez, if we can help with anything in the future you know where to find us :Smiling:

I took a contract out 2016 first 3 month bill was OK suddenly when I went away for holidays turned of mobile data I had allowance 6gb and vodaphone allowed it to exceed when return from my holiday I had bill 175£ which I complained  and was investigated and the reduce my bill for my monthly tarrif saying there was and error a month latter it same thing happen 275£ I call them up again same issue investigation on going until irwcived the 3 rd bill for 400£ I called up again nothing was done about it I was told I had to pay the bill even though I didn't exceed from my side. Data bullying tactics now they forward my account to a debt collector charging me 844£ for what they should never have allowed if I went over my data limit they should blocked my account rather then disconnected completely even after that I was billed again disgraceful 

Please can any one can help feel cheated 

jeffkinn
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Vodafone doesn’t allow you exceed your data in that sense. That’s how the system works and has always worked. We get a data allowance and not a data limit. Having said that it is possible to activate a data cap yourself to avoid bill shock. 

 

Where did you go on holiday and how much extra data did you use? Or are you saying you didn’t exceed your allowance?

Jeffkinn_Sig.png

i went to philpinnes my data was off as I was aware of the charges and I had friends which the samthing happen and the bill was out of hand and as vodaphone excepted there might been hacked and they will remove the bill which has exceeded then when I came back 3 weeks latter the bill got high again then again vodaphone said will investigate was waiting nothing happen then a month latter they send a bill for 435£ that really annoyed me after that I made complaint nothing not even a half way meet so that was end of it I was but they told me I won't exceed my data when it reaches it limit the phone will disconnected until clear bill so end of that I tried numerous time calling talking non one bother 

Josh
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)

@Elizabeth63 We don't want you feeling left aside with this concern of your regarding the data usage and charges 😞

Please send us your details following the steps in this private message and we'll gladly look into what's happened and explore all options to help you out.