So after 16 years of Vodafone for all our handsets, airtime and at times broadband it is time to say goodbye.
A number of things have been happening with Vodafone over the last few years which have caused me to believe it's no longer worth the premium.
- Call centre agents appear to have transformed from generally chilled peeps mostly based in the UK to overseas employees who very much like to stick to the script. This is fine for placing an order or dealing with a basic change but falls short when unexplained things happen on the account.
- Prices have continued to rise at an alarming rate.
- For some reason over the last few years I no longer have 1 Vodafone account on my credit file for everything but one for each handset and another for each call package. Seems a bit mad when it's all one account number.
- About a year ago Vodafone filed a default on my credit file, I had all my bills paid up to date and never missed a payment, after escalating the issue Vodafone also concluded that there was no issue and it was a mistake and submitted a correction, this was all fine except for the fact it was during my mortgage renewal which obviously caused some undue stress regarding the situation.
- Even cancelling has been messy, it took over an hour on the phone to get 3 PAC codes and get my 30 days notice submitted, my final bill seems to have a lot of additional charges (despite being out of contract) and since my cancellation notice has been put in all discounts on my airtime plans have been removed inflating my final bill.
I've decided enough is enough and we are moving to Vodafone's budget brand TalkMobile. I know it is likely to be a weaker product but at 45% saving for a Unlimited Data SIM Only and without the long contract terms its very appealing and Samsung offering Interest Free Credit directly for buying handsets at a cheaper price than from Vodafone it is a no brainer.
Vodafone - Samsung S24 Ultra + Unlimited Data, SMS and Minutes = £1876 over 24 months (excluding April 2025 price rise)
TalkMobile Unlimited Data, SMS and Minutes + Samsung S24 Ultra (direct from Samsung on IFC) = £1,380 over 24 months (excluding April 2025 price rise)
Across our 3 handsets and airtime plans that is a saving of £1,488 over a 2 year period.
TalkMobile SIM cards arrived today and appear to be performing very comparably to the Vodafone SIMs previously used. For now thanks for all the fish. I may be back when / if customer service improves and you are not billing over the odds for handsets and airtime plans.
