"You have the right to leave us without paying an Early Termination Fee" Email

[rmaclean3]

So on the 27th of April which is 2 1/2 weeks ago I was sent an email titled "Important Information about your broadband plan" which went on to say *We wanted to let you know that from your May bill onwards, you’ll notice an increase to the monthly cost of your broadband plan. Your monthly cost will go up by 4.5%. This reflects the UK Consumer Price Index (CPI) at 0.6% (as published in January 2021), plus an additional 3.9% to cover the increasing costs of operating our network. For example, if your current plan costs £23, your monthly cost would go up by £1.03. We're continuing to invest more than ever in our network to ensure you have the best connection. Demand on our broadband network is the highest it’s ever been and our key priority remains the same: to keep you connected. Because we’re making this change, and the minimum period for your broadband contract has ended, you have the right to leave us without paying an Early Termination Fee. However, there are options for you to avoid this price change. To find out more about your options, please give us a call on 0808 005 7433. Just to note, next year, the annual CPI price adjustment will be taking effect from your April 2022 bill. Kind regards, The Customer Care Team" I've googled and not seen anything about it. I had a terrible start with Vodafone which culminated in a manic breakdown over chat a after so many let downs and mistakes coupled with personal issues. I requested all my conversation data and fit it alongside the voucher I was due. I started my 2 year long broadband package in October 28th 2020, so this letter was sent exactly 6 months into my 24 month contract. I find this unusual and wondered if anyone else received this? Also what would it entail if I did decide to pay ways? Would I have to return the Apple TV Box that came with it? Have I left it to late to switch? What about hidden charges or any problems I could run into.  Here's the thing. The internet has been rock solid with only 2 downtimes I remember and the speed is consistent, calls are free anytime. Its just the customer service has been so poor in almost trying to be spiteful at the cost of potentially shooting myself in the foot. My Superfast 1 package is going up from £31 to £32ish (the 35mb one. My main annoyance was I stated the broadband was being set up on behalf of my mother who is incapable of using the internet and I have her name and details. Instead they put my name with her details and thus we have been unable to set up a direct debit (even though 3 different chat advisors, on 3 seperate occasions, said they could change the name no bother but never did. So I have 18 months of having to remember to manually input my mums 3 digit code on her bank card to pay the internet, and that's what's daunting me.  What do you do? I've been sent a form but I don't see how it corrects my situation, and I'm worried that if I forget to make a payment it will go on my credit file. Or I was thinking of getting a Vodafone SIM do you thiink they will waive the increase if I do a deal.  Sorry for the ramble,  I'll phone them on the number when I can I'm just so busy and worn out, thought I'd get some opinions before even trying.  Cheers.

[Jayach]

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@rmaclean3 wrote:
Would I have to return the Apple TV Box that came with it? Have I left it to late to switch? What about hidden charges or any problems I could run into. 

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A couple of points.

If you have the Apple TV box and inclusive calls you are presumably on Superfast Extra with Apple TV on us.

The Tv box become yours 14 days after the start of your contract, so no you wouldn't have to return it.

Also the Extra service guaranteed no price rises whilst in contract so you shouldn't have got that letter.

I'm on Superfast 2 Extra with Apple TV on us, (joined May 2020) and have not received such a letter (yet) but it says you are out of contract so there is something wrong.

You will have to contact them to sort out the discrepancies, or possibly raise a complaint Vodafone complaints as it sounds like you should not have received that letter and it is causing you some stress. 

Edit. In fact, definitely go the complaint route and make sure they know about all the other problems as nobody should be caused such stress by a simple broadband service. I feel you should be owed some compensation at least.

[rmaclean3]

Well my May bill shows the 4.5% added on top so they definitely will be charging me the extra cost due the first week of May. Now you mentioned it I was sure I signed up for a fixed package deal too. I will send in a complaint then if that's right. I've got a habit for composing seriously long messages (can you tell?) so I left out many other details about their awful customer service in my last message. The amount of complaints they have recieved this year is head and shoulders above other providers, crowning them as the most complained. . I'm happy to hear I can keep the Apple Box but surely the router will need sent back, which shouldn't be an issue. 

Thing is, it sounds pathetic but I really don't even want to communicate with them anymore. I'm been close to a breakdown several times in the past few months, I'm barely hanging in at work and i'm scared one more incompotent chat rep or issue could to me over the edge. Though the majority of the stress is not Vodafone related. It's just been tough since Christmas 2019, incredibly tough, and in that time Ive not took any bull from a single company, and I've not faltered once in getting what I've deserved, but this I needed opinions on whether it was worth the battle for the little gain. I will try message them later during my lunch break at work. There lots of decent cashback deals etc worthwhile my time off I switch (if the email was indeed correct). 

Is it possible to have a new broadband package set up within 12 days though? I would likely go with Sky as I already haggled them down from £140 a month for TV to £55 for my mum and I could add a SIM Only on top and see if I can get a good deal all around for her as she deserves it. 

One final question, I see many broadband providers don't auto switch from Vodafone. Is this true or have I made that up, and if not then why do they not with Vodafone. Does anyone know if it's a stress because I won't do it if it is. I can't. 

[Cynric]

For what it's worth, I have just left VF. My new ISP handled everything for me and so far it's been painless.

[HappyNomad]

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@rmaclean3 wrote:

I'm happy to hear I can keep the Apple Box but surely the router will need sent back, which shouldn't be an issue. 

They will not want the router back - I am certain that returning it only applies to the cooling off period - as a deterrent to very easily just binning Vodafone off.   The cost of checking and refurbing old routers is likely to be greater than the cost of a brand new router and getting the punter to ‘properly’ dispose of them is commercially better than having it returned for proper disposal.

I had exactly the same letter as you although I actually went out of contract in April.  Long story short, I phoned them - got through within a couple or three rings and within moments, had secured a new contract at £4.00 less per month (the threatened increase coincidentally was £4.03 for me) than the just expired contract - £8.03 less than the upcoming ‘new' price.   I was and continue as a bog standard Superfast 2 customer.

I would suggest you call them, explain that you have been advised that you are, or are about to be, out of contract and unless they can tempt you into staying put, you will be leaving because their annual and out of contract price increases are unacceptable to you. Nothing to lose there but you may just end up with a better (or at worst, the same) deal.  I called them on 0333 304 0191 - whether that goes somewhere different to the 0808 number in the email they sent, I don’t know but if you have inclusive minutes the 0333 is 'free'.

If you are not tempted to stay put then, in terms of a new supplier... your chosen new supplier will (should) do all that is needed to adopt you as a new customer...

• Choose your new supplier and set the ball rolling - broadband comparison sites show the all the deals and make joining a new supplier very easy
• Don’t cancel your direct debit with Vodafone until after the event and you get confirmation that you are all paid up for the odd days in the billing period up to the actual switch from VF to your new supplier.
• As far as I know, the only problem with getting the new supplier to manage the switch entirely is in switching to or from Virgin Media’s cable service and even that may have been sorted now.

Good luck...  Even if you end up paying the Vodafone increase for a month or two while you get switched at your pace, it’ll be an extra tenner give or take and that really isn’t worth getting stressed about.   Theres a long post for you 😁

[Jayach]

I also don't think they will want the router back, even though they really should under the WEEE directive, still we're not in the EU anymore.

If you don't want to have hassle with the muppets on the helpdesk, go the complaint route, you should at least have someone competent to liaise with.

I hope you can find some help for the mental health problems. There is help out there. I was lucky I had come through the worst of my problems before I switched to Vodafone or I think I may have been pushed to the limit.

[gipjon]

The best thing with the complaint route is you only have to deal with one person, The said one person from the escalations department does all the running around and will email or phone you with updates with what has happened so far ETC.  It will be a lot better for you. 

[rmaclean3]

Yeah I will for sure go down that route then as dealing with one person is far preferable than just getting anyone as they could just pretend to fix the issue and move on, and I don't know about anyone else but these interaction are so short you often never remember their name. I mean I went to the extreme and requested all my conversation data so may or may not have that info, probably not a full name or anything but still.

When its just one person you are able to at least built some rapport with them and you don't have to re explain your issue every time. Another stressful company that sell laptops and computers that rhymes with dwell, smell and hell at least do it this way and I got the issue fixed thanks to a Mastaq (remember the name see). I'll do it this way for sure. Thanks for the reply. 

[gipjon]

I will be honest I really can't be bothered to talk to most of the staff. I find it a waste of time talking to someone who does not even know why he is even asking you to do something eg 1

Advisor " can you just change this ".

Me "why do you want me to do that "

Advisor "I don't know that what it says here to do ".

the problem with this is it does not work most of the time because eg 2 

Me " my broadband wifi has stopped working because a dustbin lorry had knocked the telephone pole down outside my house and broken the line. 

advisor " I'm sorry to hear that you're having issues with your wifi, can you log into the router and split the 2g/5g wifi. hopefully, this will sort your problem out. 

Me " can I escalate a complaint to your escalation department please and I don't want to accept £20 if I don't escalate this. 

Advisor "I am just writing this up for you now and someone will phone you in the next 24 hours". 

The day after someone from the escalations department will phone you and will own the complaint. They will try to sort everything out themself.  The advisor will email you with a phone number and a pin code, It also gives you the link to log into your complaints portal and the advisor will give you email updates, which if you reply will go straight back to the escalations advisor 

The best thing about doing it this way after 8 weeks. You can say I still not happy and I want a deadlock letter. Then you can take the complaint to cisas where you can also claim for everything including any costs which you may have incurred including stress etc. All you have to do is fill out a form and upload any proof, this gives Vodafone 2 weeks to make you an offer  you can accept or refuse if you refuse cisas will look at the case and all the files and make a decision 

[rmaclean3]

Whats stressing me is how the internet has my name attached to it, but my mums DOB and bank card. This was Vodafone's mistake I made it clear in my message when ordering it that it wasn't for me. Then months of trying to change it led nowhere. Will switching provider be hampered by this? There is nobody with that name and that DOB alive, or if there is, they certainly do not reside at this address. What I don't want to happen is for this to blow into thing where say a query over fraud or something could come of this in the sense that I could have been using my mum's card to pay for broadband. I'd have to be dumb to put my own name on it so I'm sure someone with half a brain could see where it went wrong (am I overthinking this?) If I think back to briefly reading all the message transcripts I requested, the part where you input the details to set up the direct debit or payment details is redirected off chat to a seperate page so I don't think I could prove fault in that regard. Then would a switch just switch the same info over which would leave us in the same mess. I feel a lot of responsibly to get this right and to get the best deal for her, but if I make this decision and it not only costs us financially but adds to the stress, (eg. requiring her to speak on the phone about specifics about the broadband which would stress her out as she is clueless about any of it, having to provide proof of whatever, needing to battle through a quagmire of crapjust to switch to a package that will inevitably be the same) then I'll feel disgusted with myself to have even got involved in the first place. 

Once I've scoured the internet for packages and decide I want to do it I'll want to ideally go down the complaints line from the sound of it but can I not chat to someone but NOT over a phone? Also since I've left it so late will that mean there will be any downtime for internet/calls? How is it that I can pay for a month or 2 whilst I get things sorted without agreeing to their new terms?

Here's the thing, I don't want to fight for comp, I don't want an apology, I don't want anything whatsoever. I just want a smooth transition out with no bull, no stress, to a package the same price or less without more stress to eat me alive.

All I want is a direct debit in her name, or even mine... god I'd be fine paying for the internet for them so I can forget about this mess, but I can't and I have to come back for 18 consecutive months to manually pay without missing a beat. 

Opinions on Plusnet, anyone vouch for them as s good internet provider. How about Now Broadband? Or should I attempt to go talk to Sky who we have TV with and try get a deal with them as I also need a SIM only card too? I can't see them anywhere on comparisons with anytime calls. Sky are the scum of the earth in my view after the ordeal they put us through, but I need to get over it. They are reluctant to use chat from what I can see.