Me Too.....Being charged with Data switched off....

[draldavies]

Hello, I too have just been charged for NOT answering a scam call from an unknown 020 number at 11:39 today,6/2/21....I never answer these scam calls, I am a retired house bound 68 year old woman, yet I was charged by Vodaphone immediately ( Got the txt this morning telling me I had been given unltd mins and txts, and 50MB of data...... ), despite having all data access disabled on my phone. ....and I had ignored the call..... The ping of the txt arrived a few seconds after the scam call... I have sent a message to the Facebook support link and am waiting for an explanation..........I don't like this at all.

[182319]

Hi Beth I don't have social media can you please help with the same missing credit problem on my mum's phone?.

[182319]

Evie, could I possibly pm my mum's number to you as all her credit has gone and I have no social media?.

[Anonymous]

We wouldn't be able to message your mum directly unfortunately @182319, but if can reach out to us through her own Facebook or Twitter account, we can help her get this sorted.

[182319]

Thanks. We both don't have Facebook or Twitter I I'll give livechat a try.

[OldDouglas]

Just had a further lengthy (90 minute) online chat with Vodafone,
first with an agent then a manager. Seems to be no enagagement
with the fact that there is a widespread problem with PAYG1.
The only significant thing I learned is that the £1 charge is levied when phone
uses 1KB of data. This seems an extraordinarily low threshold. The myvodafone table
showing data usage and charges only records data usage to 2 decimal places,
so anything less than 0.01 MB (10kB) doesnt show.

For the little it is worth here is my take on what is going on. I imagine
that a phone has regular low level interactions ("handshakes"?) with the network,
saying in effect "I am here". These will probably involve exchange of tiny amounts of data...small enough that if they were actually charged for under the old PAYG system they wouldnt be noticed. In the new system they are noticed! Whoever designed the new PAYG algoritm failed to wire in a reasonable threshold for the triggering of the daily charge. When 1KB of data triggers a £1 charge it amounts to a marginal cost of £1000 per MB! 

[ReesDinbych]

From what I understand after a response to my complaint to Vodafone you are quite right.

You posted

"For the little it is worth here is my take on what is going on. I imagine
that a phone has regular low level interactions ("handshakes"?) with the network,
saying in effect "I am here". These will probably involve exchange of tiny amounts of data...small enough that if they were actually charged for under the old PAYG system they wouldnt be noticed. In the new system they are noticed! Whoever designed the new PAYG algoritm failed to wire in a reasonable threshold for the triggering of the daily charge. When 1KB of data triggers a £1 charge it amounts to a marginal cost of £1000 per MB!"

 I am quite sure that this is what is going on. Either this is legitimate and acceptable commercial practice or it is not. Ofcom will have to decide.

[OldGoat]

I wouldn't hold your breath. I had a dispute with Voda several years ago and it dragged on for a couple of years , multiple denails / obfuscations / w.h.y.

In those days you could actually speak to a live British person. I eventually got a resolution in the form of a credit - which of course costs VF nowt....

[Bud]

No further events of wrong charging for NON-use of phone since 12th February!! has the problem been fixed?

[muff13]

That happened to me yesterday exactly after a spam call which I did not answer. I cannot understand how Vodafone cannot sort out this problem as they will lose many customers over it. I did contact customer services via chat and did have my money refunded but it is not good enough. 

[Mark]

Hi @muff13, @draldavies and @182319, I'm sorry to hear you're having these issues with the charges. Let's take a closer look into this for you. Pop us a private message through one of our social channels and we'll be happy to check what's happened and see what we can do to help 😊