Huawei free tablet for loyal customer.

[Johnny-G]

I received a phone call the other evening. As a loyal customer, the operator offered a free Huawei 8" tablet, normally costing just over £100 at the discounted price of £10. At that price, why wouldn't I buy a second one for my wife? Yes, what a great idea. I assumed these things had been in stock for a year or two and Vodafone wanted rid. It all seemed a bit 'too good to be true' but he knew all my details and didn't ask for any card details. I made sure to ask "is that it? only £10, nothing more to pay?" - He gave me a very quick precis of the deal - Huawei 8" tablet, normally costing (£100+) for only £10 up front, which would be delivered free the next day.

As it happened, my wife had to go out so contacted dpd to rearrange delivery.

Meanwhile, I have just received a couple of emails from Vodafone, welcoming me to the new plans.

NEW PLANS?

##~##?!?!?! £12 per month with a £2 discount and 5 gig of data AND it's a 24month contract.
But WHY would I want to pay an extra tenner a month when the guy can clearly see the internet usage on 'my' current plan - I have 4.7gig left of 5gig with 1 week left to run ( I'm the account holder etc, it's my wife's phone). My own phone plan gives me unlimited data with my S9.
Nowhere do I remember this guy saying it was £10 per month

Nowhere do I remember being told it was a 24 month contract.

A quick look around google tells me this isn't the first time someone has done this.
So now, I'm supposed to take time off to await delivery of a parcel I don't want, THEN I'm expected to traipse into town & drop these unwanted items into the vodafone shop.

I've told dpd not to bother trying to deliver as I will not be accepting delivery.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi @Johnny-G

Yours is not the first post I've seen concerning these types of cold call deals. 

Yes it did sound too good to be true unfortunately as I'm sure no company is going to supply a tablet just for £10. 

The agents really have to be crystal clear that this very heavily discounted tablet is attached to a contract. 

This is something the Vodafone Social Media Teams here I'm sure will give feedback onto the relevant departments. 

So yes now unfortunately your faced with the delivery and I would certainly agree to take it back to a Vodafone Highstreet Store. Don't refuse it at your doorstep. 

And then you have 30 days as a cooling off period to cancel the set up contract. 

All that because the phone call wasn't clear enough. 

As a rule of thumb I never accept deals etc via a cold call. I prefer to listen to what's being offered and then say I'll get back to them and then do some research. 

There'll always be deals if the one on the table expires !

I wish you all the best with this situation. 

[hrym]

I totally agree with @BandOfBrothers.   Cancel this under the cooling-off terms.   I haven't seen this one arise for a while, but it used to be quite prevalent and the story is always sufficiently similar for it to be entirely credible that the fact that it was a new connection and an ongoing charge wasn't mentioned.

The forum team may pick this up and I'd urge you to speak to them if they do.   If this can be traced back to an indentifiable individual, they need to be spoken to.

[Johnny-G]

Spoken to? ##~## kicked more like. I've just looked at the bill they will hit me with on december 25 - justy shy of £67. Now this may not be a lot to many out there but when you're trying to watch what you spend, it's a lot - And before anyone starts, the wife heard the conversation & we both agreed that the additional £20 for a pair of samll tablets was OK, especially given the fact that I specifically asked if there would be any more to pay.

I'm also told that my bill won't be adjusted until Vodafone have the tablets back in their posession & in the same condition they left - yet they refuse to contact dpd to have the tablets delivered back to them (even though they are currently sat in a depot). Vodafone wants me to accept delivery then traipse into town to take the parcel into the shop - Since I work 8.30 - 5, there is no chance.
Also wanted to add, there's a few of these scenarios over on the money saving expert website, I contacted them and they said I didn't have to accept delivery seeing as this was a mis-sold item, I shouldn't be inconvenienced by their underhand sales tactics.

[Alex]

@Johnny-G I'm sorry to hear about your experience with these additional tablets and the charge being more than expected. If you've refused delivery then they'll make their way back to us and when they do, they should be removed from your account. As I'm sure you can understand, we'd need to wait for this to happen as we couldn't remove something which we don't have back yet. 

If you'd like us to take a look into the status of the return and your additional charges, please get in touch using the link in my private message.