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Further Rip Off Roaming

realthing
3: Seeker
3: Seeker

Having been told after complaining that I was no longer on the roam further charges, I've just got my bill for February to find that I've been charged 3 x £6 (=£18 for those who work in Vodafone customer care) for sending 25 texts while on a 3-day trip to South Africa. If I were a pay as you go cusotmer I'd have paid 8p per text (i.e. £2) for the same.So I'm now £16 worse off as a result of Vodafone's rip-off further roaming charges. (And I'm not able to copy this on

 

Effectively, I am paying a £6 a day tax for going abroad. Not sure even the local tourist tax gets close the that in most countries. Good business for Vodafone? No, because I will be finding another provider.

 

Anyone else experienced this rip-off scenario?

 

 

 

 

 

30 REPLIES 30

SimonWilding
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

I'm not sure how/why you were told you were no longer on Roam Further as they are not optional and are applicable to all pay monthly customers. I guess VF could waive the charges after the bill is created but I'm sure you can't excude yourself from the service.

I also fell foul of these charges, and have now decided to but a cheap PAYG phone to use when I need to call or text when in an RF destination, which also saves the taking my smartphone to the pool/beach or out and about, with all the risk that entails.

Samsung A52S 5G - SM-A528B/DS

Android Version - 12 One UI version 4.1

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Baseband- A528BXXUiCVC4
Nova Launcher. Chrome browser.

My phone history (back to 1997!):

Huawei P30, P20, VF Smart V8, Note 4, S4, S2, Tocco Ultra, F490, P300, E250, RAZR v3, Timeport 250, A300, Star-Tac 

 

Thanks Simon - I was definitely told by one of Vodafone's staff last year that I had been - through some route or other - removed from the plan. But I fear you are right, so the only option appears to be to find a mobile phone operator that doesn't seek to rip its customers off through inconsistent information (yesterday, one 'story' from a Vodafone staff member was that the roaming charge was only paid if I had the data connection activated but that I could send texts on a pay as you go basis!), ridiculous pricing plans and clear inability to listen to its customers.

chistery
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

Vodafone staff don't understand what they are talking about, that much is clear. They've skim read the briefing notes and let loose on customers, with no apparent oversight to correct them when thery are wrong, probably because the staff listening to the calls don't understand either, and as they aren't Vodafone UK users, they don't have real world knowledge.

 

Further Roaming can be a benefit, and allows for incoming calls for free. It's probably helped reduce those press stories where someone gets charged a fortune for facebooking from a beach as they are stupid and publicily hungry, but Vodafone don't appear to be listening to their customer base who want to be able to opt out as well.

 

So Vodafone get none of my business when roaming further, EE get that.

jeffkinn
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

@realthingwrote:

Thanks Simon - I was definitely told by one of Vodafone's staff last year that I had been - through some route or other - removed from the plan. But I fear you are right, so the only option appears to be to find a mobile phone operator that doesn't seek to rip its customers off through inconsistent information (yesterday, one 'story' from a Vodafone staff member was that the roaming charge was only paid if I had the data connection activated but that I could send texts on a pay as you go basis!), ridiculous pricing plans and clear inability to listen to its customers.


It's an absolute disgrace that you should be given such terrible and inaccurate information. There is no opt out as you have now discovered and the comment about sending texts on a PAYG would be comedy gold if it weren't so misleading and wrong.

 

It's £6 a day whether you send one text or spend all day on the phone. Personally I like to be able to use my phone as normal overseas but it is a poor business decision by Vodafone not to let customers opt out.

Jeffkinn_Sig.png

DaneB
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)

I'm disappointed to hear you've had a suprise bill this month due to those charges @realthing.

When you turned your phone on after you'd landed in South Africa you should've received a text from us stating that you're in a Roam-further destinations and the prices would've been explained that way. Did you receive said text?

If not, please let me know as we'd like to look into your account to investigate.

Thanks for your message DaneB.

When I landed at Joburg I did indeed get such a text despite having been told I was no longer on the roaming plan.

What was I supposed to do at that point? Buy a new mobile phone at the airport? Set up another contract with (ho, ho) Vodacom? Use a payphone?

I had no choice but to continue and send some texts to family to let them know that I had arrived safely, relying (stupidly, I agree) on the commitment I had recieved from Vodafone that I was no longer on the roaming plan and it would therefore be sorted.

When my bill for the period arrived, I immediately contacted Vodafone to resolve it but without success. Was treated to an inconsistent set of messages (see my comment about data connection), operator inability to understand its own charging system (one person suggested that 25 texts for £18 represented a saving) and failure to resolve my problem.

As Vodafone has already given me misleading information about my status, wouldn't take any action to sort things out in either the short or the long term, I decided to use the forum to alert others to the nature of the organisation with which they are dealing.

Meanwhile, Saturday is mobile phone operator shopping day. Maybe time to get a brand new phone too and give my money to another company.

 

TJ
Community Manager (Retired)
Community Manager (Retired)

@realthing I'm really sorry to hear about the experience you've had and can only apologise that you've been misadvised.

Our Global Roaming is something that comes as standard on all of our plans and can't be removed as advised by @jeffkinn. Our Roam-further is used to give our customers peace of mind when travelling, as they don't need to worry about the costs of international calls, texts and data.

We'll be happy to take a look into your account for you - so we can do this I've sent you a private message with details on how to get in touch.

 

The private message only invites me to get in touch, which I've already done and was a waste of time. In addition, it's already been made clear that I have no option but to pay the charges when overseas so that's clearly not satisfactory moving forward.

 

So, slightly delayed by the snow, it's time to go and find a new mobile phone operator. Once I've done that, I'll be in touch with Vodafone to terminate my contract unless the company can come up with something more constructive.

donnyguy
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

Can I ask, what are you looking for as a resolution here?

From a Vodafone point of view, the Roam Further charges are correct and apply in South Africa. They also confirmed this on arrival in their welcome text.

Or is this more about the fact that you were given incorrect information saying this service had been removed from your account. If you were told this via live chat and you have the transcript then send that across to Vodafone and they can look into it for you.

But moving forward, then next time you go to South Africa (or any other Roam Further destination) then the charges will apply.