Text and Web freebee

[woodstockthree]

Hi - can someone answer my question below? The staff on Facebook keep trying to refer me to live chat and I have "experienced" that before. I don't need anyone to refer to my account - it has been corrected, compensated and a fault raised (allegedly). But I think the person I spoke to has given me incorrect information and so I am trying to get clarification. Copied and pasted post shown below:

Hello. I have a question. I have the text and Web freebee with 500mb data and so many texts as long as I top up at least £10 within that 30 days. I have had occasions where the bundle has not rolled over although I have complied by topping up the required amount and each time I have phoned and got the bundle reactivated and a promise that it will be investigated and it won't happen again.

It has happened again this month and I have had to wait up after a 12 hour night shift to wait for you to open at 0800 to phone and sort it out. The gentleman I spoke to has refunded the credit I wouldn't have used if it had been in place as well as extra data and texts - thanks for this. He has also raised it as a fault to find out why it keeps happening and apparently it won't happen again - we will see.

However he said that I have to top up when I get the text that the bundle is about to expire and that credit added during the month does not count. I do not feel this is correct as I know some months I have topped up £10 during the month and it has rolled over, also some months I have topped up £10 for two or more weeks and this has resulted in the additional texts for topping up an increased amount. In fact when the last bundle expired, I actually did what he said, ie i got the text saying the bundle would expire, I topped up the day before it expired, but it didn't roll over. A subsequent top up of £10 I made the following week did not reactivate it either. It was only during my night shift at about 0300 today that I checked my balance and realised the total was lower than it should be and that there were no data/texts remaining.

It is not always convenient for me to top up on a specific day due to my shifts and as I said, this has never been the case before, and credit added during the month has counted towards ensuring the bundle rolls over as it should do.

Please don't suggest a contract - I had one with you many years ago and it was a nightmare and reading the posts here, things have not improved. However I would be grateful if someone could clarify the conditions regarding when to top up and by how much as I don't think I have been given the correct advice. I have used this bundle for many years and have always been able to top up when I need to and have the bundle roll over as planned (except for a few occasions every so often where it appears to fail and I have to ring you).

I look forward to your reply. Thanks.

[woodstockthree]

I've now tried again with the email - inadvertently private messaging Amanda in the process... oh well lol.  I sent the email and I got a thank you message but no reference number.  Let's see what happens.  

[Annie_N]

@woodstockthree

An on-screen acknowledgement rather than an incoming email? Do you by any chance have a Yahoo email address? If so, do you have an alternative email address you could give when submitting the email form?

[woodstockthree]

Hi Annie_n

Thanks for your reply.  

Yes it just said thank you - no reference number- and links to the community etc.  It is Yahoo but I've have emails from this site to that address before and now stopped - I wasn't notified that you had posted but the box was ticked to notify me of replies.  I do have another address but the yahoo one is the one linked to this forum profile and the one I log into my vodafone.  I don't know why noone from the tech team is replying to this thread - they can see what is going on.   

[woodstockthree]

Ps it's not going to the junk folder either 😎

[Annie_N]

@woodstockthree

Yes, there's a problem with the email notifications at present - they seem to be quite random, although this afternoon I do seem to be getting a few, including hearing about both your posts, so that at any rate is going right.

I'd suggest that you try submitting the form again, but using your alternative email address. Then, if you get a proper acknowledgement email with a reference number, you can post the reference number here, and the Team will pick it up - otherwise, as you indicate, they won't necessarily make the connection.

The Forum doesn't seem to be running 100% at present and, like you, I'm finding it enormously frustrating!

[woodstockthree]

Success!!!!! I have a reference number - though really the tech team should have helped without it - they haven't contacted me at all.  Why should there be a problem with Yahoo - one of the main web email providers etc etc.   The reference is [#15879646].  I got this by using my Gmail account.  

Let's see how quickly things move now......   

Thanks for your help annie_n

[woodstockthree]

Someone from the social media team just called me.  Not impressed.  He is going to remove the existing freebee, "make some changes to the account" and reactivate it, which can take up to 24 hours - when I said that's not good enough as I'm back at work tomorrow he said it should be 2 hours - this has been going on for months now so let's hope so.   The freebee "should" then renew every month - but he said to ensure it does, I need to top up when I get the text message a few days before.  I quoted the terms and conditions at him and said if I have topped up in the period then I don't need to, and eventually he said he will escalate it.  South Africa said they would escalate it and nothing happened so I'm not holding my breath.   Sick of being talked down to by men who think I don't know what I'm talking about because I'm female.   I hope I'm wrong but my instinct is that this problem has just been kicked down the field to buy another months worth of time.   

[woodstockthree]

And they would be quick enough to hold me to the terms and conditions if I didn't follow them.  This has gone on for months on and off and I'm sick of it now.  

[Annie_N]

Hah! Got a notification of your last post, though not the previous one!

Let's hope that, whatever they do to your account, they manage to fix it. I suspect that there may be some very minor problem hiding in the accounts where the renewal doesn't go smoothly, so as long as they manage to find the correct area to look in, they might find the problem. I'm waiting to see what happens to my T&WF at the end of the month, as my account seems to have developed a similar problem, after running smoothly for several years. Please do post back later to report how it shapes up.

"Sick of being talked down to by men who think I don't know what I'm talking about because I'm female."  I know what you mean, but it's not just men who seem to think along those lines. Earlier today I think I was accused of not knowing how to use a mouse - my immediate reaction was that I'd been using a mouse since before she was born, but I bit it back in case I was wrong. Thanks to Wikipedia, I now know that I was indeed using a mouse that long ago; happy memories of having to undo the bottom of the mouse, and blow dust out of the ball compartment - plenty of scope for dubious jokes.

[woodstockthree]

Lol I know what you mean

... we're now back on the new text and Web for another 30 days and hopefully someone from the tech team will contact me to tell me what's happening.  I'm getting close to the end now and I'm hearing good things about Tesco mobile from my family and the phone isn't locked to Vodafone.