Roaming in Turkeyy

[grandabilly]

I'm surprised that the Community is not up in arms about Vodafone's plan to remove Turkey from their list of free roaming destinations.  Especially since the last time they tried it there was an outcry!  Is it down to Covid-19?

[collingtrees1]

Hi - no in the UK, but the last statement was what the guy in business was basing his claim on that the change had been shelved.

[collingtrees1]

After vodafone did the exact same thing this time last year and then eventually shelved the whole change I don't want to take 6 lines somewhere else if I dont have to.

[Mark]

Hi @collingtrees1, sounds like there's been some confusion over these charges. If you're currently stuck i Nturkey due to Coronavirus, We're extending the free roaming period to help avoid you being impacted by this. If you're currently in the UK and travel to Turkey from the 6 May 2020, and don’t have Global Roaming Plus, you can use your UK plan for just £6 per day. Hope this clarifies everything for you.

[grandabilly]

Mark,

I don't think you are getting the point of our complaint here.  Many of us with a connection to Turkey migrated to Vodafone specifically BECAUSE of their policy on free roaming in that country.  We now feel very, very let down.  Now this may not concern Vodaphone......but it very much should!

The way businesses gain new customers, and as importantly, keep those who are loyal customers, is to differentiate themselves from their competitors.  If you persist with this policy Vodafone will simply be the same as all the other networks.

As a longstanding customer of Three, I migrated to Vodafone only because they included Turkey in their Roaming list, so you can imagine my irritation to have this change of policy attempted for the second time.

Unless this proposed change is reversed, you will lose my custom and I suspect that of many others as well.

Not a good business decision to treat customers with such disdain, and Vodafone will regret it.

[Mark]

I can understand your frustration over this @grandabilly. Our Unlimited Max plan will still allow you to use your UK allowances whilst in Turkey. We're the only UK network that offers a plan that includes roaming in Turkey at no extra cost. If you frequently travel to Turkey, this will probably work out cheaper than paying the roaming charges you'd incurr on other UK networks. 

[Seesure]

@ Mark "If you frequently travel to Turkey, this will probably work out cheaper than paying the roaming charges you'd incur on other UK networks."

Not sure where you get this point from.... the cheapest Unlimited Max Vodafone tariff is £30 per month (forget the half price offer for 6 months as it's not likely to benefit anyone wanting to go to Turkey this year)...

My month bill is approx £14 so I'd be paying an additional £16 a month or £192 per year to move to Max Unlimited... 

A quick check on the Virgin website shows that there are usage charges but no silly £6 a day charge... and this would be on a £9 a month for 8Gb of data - with Vodafone I am paying £14 for 5gb.... so I'd save an additional £60 a year so add that to the £192 above I would be paying an additional £252 a year to stay with Vodafone... 

Service Cost

Making a Call	£1.00 per minute
Receiving a Call	Free
Sending an SMS	50p
Sending an MMS	50p
Data	50p per MB

As I only want the option to make and receive the odd call/SMS and I can turn my data off, paying an extra £252 a year seems a bit silly ... especially as that is more than I'd pay for a return flight to Turkey.... 

Anyway as the seniors in Voda don't care about us mere mortals I've gone to another provider who is offering a cost saving on my current monthly charge plus an increase in the amount of data that I currently get with Voda....

[collingtrees1]

After succesfully taking vodafone to the CIDR ombudsman and then removing all 6 lines I had on a business contract I moved to the virtual operator SMARTY, which is based on the Three network bckbone.  Calls and data in Turkey are a fraction of the cost on vodafone, rather than the cost saving suggested here. You are quite right of course the unlimited max deal is a poor substitute for the offer that existed previously, and its rather disingenuous of them to try and maintain otherwise. Likewise the excuse that the operator in Turkey has changed their coverage so they can no longer provide inclusivce calls there begins to seem a little thin when the network used in Turkey is called Vodafone.

The most satifying part for me in the last year was my ombudsman complaint where Vodafone consistantly lied about previous complaints having been made and it was only when forced to produce call transcripts that they eventually came clean. If you can't trust them to be truthful to the ombudsman, then casually lying to you on here will not trouble them much.

[Tash]

 Costs at other networks may differ depending on what someone may be doing abroad. For example, listening to a 4 minute song on Spotify can use 2MB of data or watching a 30 minute programme through Now TV would use 396MB. Add any data usage to calls and texts made during the trip and this can increase any charges other networks have set. 

If you change your mind, we'd love you to stay and we're always here to help should you need anything else in the future.

[grandabilly]

Some companies understand that fairness to loyal customers is paramount.  

Once you lose their trust, you lose them.......and then others!  Great shame!

[SmartyDC]

Great tips on Smarty.

I will be moving both my Sims to them!

Vodafone managed to get £10 extra for NHS Scheme out of me, then put up rates and removed Turkey during these tough times. Disgusting and good riddance to them!