[EalingBB]

Just wondering whether anyone else has been surprised at Vodafone UK's pricing?

I changed over from Orange early this year to Vodafone. I'd been with Orange for 12 years but wanted a Blackberry Curve and found their technical support lacking. I therefore ended up transfering to Vodafone, even though I knew it would cost twice as much. Orange had offered me an incredibly good loyalty deal to stay with them (about £17 per month all in) but I changed to Vodafone which was going to cost £26 per month for their Small Business 200 on an 18 month contract plus £5 for the BB internet service and £3.50 for insurance, totalling £34.50 plus VAT per month.

A feature I liked about Vodafone's BB 8310 was the Sat Nav which I was informed was included "free" for 12 months. On more than one occassion whilst signing up I had asked the Vodafone rep to confirm this is all I would be paying nothing else, no hidden extras, barring if i went over the 200 minutes talk time per month. To this they always confirmed there are no hidden costs.

How I wish they were so transparent. My latest bill is over £66, nearly twice what I expected, £23 of this being for "data". It transpires that I get 6mb of "free" data over and above which I pay £2 per meg. My surprise is how quickly I reach this 6 meg freshold. I use the BB for business and probably send and received combined 20 emails per day on average, most of which are simple text mails. In addition, however, I have now learnt that every time I use the Sat Nav it downloads data which is taken out of the 6meg allocation and then I am charged.

This is my biggest gripe. Vodafone made a big sales hook of the Sat Nav being "free" for 12 months and for the life of me I cannot see anywhere in their printed promotional literature anything saying that I will be charged for its use. I have now had discussions with Vodafone where they confirm this to be true - the free bit is the application but I will be charged for using it!. This seems to be a gross misrepresentation. How can they claim the Sat Nav to be "free" when I have pay to use it?

Whilst I must admit Vodafone are efficient and I am very pleased with their service, I do feel that I am paying dearly for it and have been blatantly conned with many hidden, undisclosed charges. In this world of "transparent" adverts surely this cannot be right?

Thoughts appreciated.

[coolkarim]

I feel the same, its way too expensive, Im on the same deal with vodafone. bill is always around 65 quid and I make virtually no calls. my emails downloaded are headers only and I only send short text mails.

even worse is data usage abroad. £17 per MB. I turn of data service when I go abroad. but thats when the email is most useful.

when my deal is up, I will switch to T-mobile or O2 for sure. unless they get my bill down to 35 to 40 a month and new BB9000 free. its up to vodafone. they need to compete.

[EalingBB]

Originally Posted by coolkarim

I feel the same, its way too expensive, Im on the same deal with vodafone. bill is always around 65 quid and I make virtually no calls. my emails downloaded are headers only and I only send short text mails.

even worse is data usage abroad. £17 per MB. I turn of data service when I go abroad. but thats when the email is most useful.

when my deal is up, I will switch to T-mobile or O2 for sure. unless they get my bill down to 35 to 40 a month and new BB9000 free. its up to vodafone. they need to compete.

I kind of feel slightly better knowing I'm not the only one to be experiencing this. I've not used the BB abroad yet but £17 per meg is an utter rip off.

I'm not taking this lying down as I feel they have misrepresented their service, particularly the Sat Nav - its the principle. My intent is to write to Vodafone and also contact the Telecomms Ombudsman and see what they say. In addition my wife works for BBC TV and has a friend in the Watchdog programme. I'm going to get her to talk to them to see if they want to take it on as I suspect they must surely have had other complaints.

[MaxDiggity]

Wirelessly posted (8310 Curve)

I'm on Vodafone too (not UK but..yeah) and the prices indeed are ridiculous.
I was told I wouldn't have to pay for the device at all since I was a vodafone-customer allready and they would refund the devices price. Not going to see that money again.

Also I'm paying over 40$ a month and have a 30 MB limit on data which are reached way too quickly as the OP stated.

The service-center is kinda helpful and tolerant regarding switching data-plans and stuff but the overall pricing is just insane.
I'm not saying they're ripping customers off, as I knew what I was getting into (otherwise I wouldnt have made a contract obviously) but I feel something's fishy when I look at my monthly bill.

25$ for the basic package, 10$ for a 30 MB data-plan, 11$ for 2.5MB worth of push-emails and ~5$ for every MB once I exceed the data-limit.

Wouldn't exactly recommend VF to ppl that aren't made of money.

[Foxglove]

Wirelessly posted

To save paying £2 per mb over the 6mb limit I think you can add on a 125mb Vodafone live data bundle for £8 per month.
Orange now gives 250mb in their data allowance, o2 gives 200mb and t mobile a massive 1GB!
Complain, complain & complain again to Vodafone. Let them know they are the worst BB providers in the UK.
They may take notice .

[Foxglove]

Wirelessly posted

Chris,





I don't think you have been mislead over the sat nav as the application was free. As it uses data that data obviously has to be paid for. If you were paying for the sat nav application you would be paying for data usage too.


That said where you may have a case is that it wasn't pointed out to you that it would have been impossible to run this application on a 6mb data allowance plus do emails etc. In other words they should have told you that you would have needed to purchase more data. If your data allowance had been much larger you would have been ok.they were practically inviting you to go over the 6mb weren't they?


You will find that there is lots of free software for Blackberries but this does not include free data use.





I hope this information helps in your dealings with Vodafone.

[EalingBB]

Originally Posted by Foxglove

Wirelessly posted

Chris,

I don't think you have been mislead over the sat nav as the application was free. As it uses data that data obviously has to be paid for. If you were paying for the sat nav application you would be paying for data usage too.

That said where you may have a case is that it wasn't pointed out to you that it would have been impossible to run this application on a 6mb data allowance plus do emails etc. In other words they should have told you that you would have needed to purchase more data. If your data allowance had been much larger you would have been ok.they were practically inviting you to go over the 6mb weren't they?

You will find that there is lots of free software for Blackberries but this does not include free data use.

I hope this information helps in your dealings with Vodafone.

Thanks for your f/b. This is exactly my point, the fact that I would have to pay to use the Sat Nav was never pointed out, and let's face it, having it on the phone without the ability to use it is pretty useless.

Every time I speak to Vodafone the situ changes. I have asked about increasing my mb allowance today but they say that 6mb is the limit for the BB which is ridiculous and, if the case, clearly and obviously exists so that fools like me end up paying a load more money to "employ" the phone for its purpose - ie largely emails, as clearly we're always going to go over the freshold.

Something has to be done as it really is a blatant rip off. If all these extra costs had been pointed out prior to going with Vodafone it would be different because I would have been aware of the facts but they were not pointed out, quite the opposite. If I had been aware I would have stayed with Orange - and the sales person would have known that.

Thinking about it I never actually did sign a contract as it was done over the phone so maybe I'm free to say bye bye!?

[danio1972]

Originally Posted by ChrisBennett

Thanks for your f/b. This is exactly my point, the fact that I would have to pay to use the Sat Nav was never pointed out, and let's face it, having it on the phone without the ability to use it is pretty useless.

Every time I speak to Vodafone the situ changes. I have asked about increasing my mb allowance today but they say that 6mb is the limit for the BB which is ridiculous and, if the case, clearly and obviously exists so that fools like me end up paying a load more money to "employ" the phone for its purpose - ie largely emails, as clearly we're always going to go over the freshold.

Something has to be done as it really is a blatant rip off. If all these extra costs had been pointed out prior to going with Vodafone it would be different because I would have been aware of the facts but they were not pointed out, quite the opposite. If I had been aware I would have stayed with Orange - and the sales person would have known that.

Thinking about it I never actually did sign a contract as it was done over the phone so maybe I'm free to say bye bye!?

Vodafone UK should be able to apply a Data Bundle for you which will help you control the costs.

I'm on Orange and took out my Blackberry whilst they offered 6MB data use, I've therefore added a £7 a month bundle which initially offered 30MB of capacity; I have since swapped to a £7 bundle which offers 250MB. By doing this any data use over 6MB is taken care of.

Vodafone are very expensive, IMHO. A company I recently undertook some work for connected 3 mobiles and paid Vodafone for 1000 minutes shared between them, plus 500 texts again shared and a Data allowance. Their first monthly bill was £600 which came as a little bit of a shock, especially as they were told it was about £90 and that would cover everything. I stepped in and helped, finding that they had been miss-sold, simply because retailers AND Vodafone themselves do not understand the product set they are selling.

After a few discussions with Vodafone we were able to apply more sensible Data Bundles which covered their use, be very careful with what they tell you and ask them to give you official written details of the bundles as they (the staff) don't have a clue, you have to work it out for yourself.

TBH, orange staff are just as bad! Seems to me 'training' is a thing of a bygone era.

[Yellowman]

Wow ... I don't use my GPS on the BB as I have one in the car, but to have it use more than 6MB sounds like a lot. But I guess it depends how much you use it each month.

I know in Canada, I believe the service is $10 a month with Rogers (but I could be wrong) and I'm not sure if it also factors in the data usage with it, or if that is a separate cost. Perhaps someone who is more knowledgable with this service offering can let us know.

Either way, I would be bitter too, if it was coming out of my pocket. I guess that is how Service Providers make money. Sigh ... just like the banks. License to print money. oh yeah ... and insurance companies too. Drives me crazy.

Let us know how your fight goes.

[Foxglove]

Danio

If I read your post correctly you are paying for Blackberry Internet Service, getting 6mb and on top of that you have added a 250mb bundle for £7.

If that is the case you need to upgrade to this,it says it is for business users but it is available to consumers on request I know some people who have upgraded to it;

Orange exchange | issue 10

The unlimited is 250mb (no more 6mb!!) Blackberry with talk is the one you want if adding it to a voice plan.

This would mean one payment instead of paying for BIS and then extra for a 250mb bundle. Check that it doesnt extend the length of your contract first in case you are planning to leave orange in the future.

o2 customer service is not that great either regarding Blackberry devices!

[Foxglove]

Originally Posted by ChrisBennett

Thanks for your f/b. This is exactly my point, the fact that I would have to pay to use the Sat Nav was never pointed out, and let's face it, having it on the phone without the ability to use it is pretty useless.

Every time I speak to Vodafone the situ changes. I have asked about increasing my mb allowance today but they say that 6mb is the limit for the BB which is ridiculous and, if the case, clearly and obviously exists so that fools like me end up paying a load more money to "employ" the phone for its purpose - ie largely emails, as clearly we're always going to go over the freshold.

Something has to be done as it really is a blatant rip off. If all these extra costs had been pointed out prior to going with Vodafone it would be different because I would have been aware of the facts but they were not pointed out, quite the opposite. If I had been aware I would have stayed with Orange - and the sales person would have known that.

Thinking about it I never actually did sign a contract as it was done over the phone so maybe I'm free to say bye bye!?

6mb would be enough for all your emails I would imagine and maybe to run a some small applications. It all depends on how data intensive the applications are. You also have to factor in any internet browsing.

There is a small free applcation called mini moni which counts your data so you can see what you are using, if you are interested here is a link. It counts in bytes but you can change it to Kilobytes which I find easier to translate.

1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes = 1mb.

MiniMoni - Traffic monitor for BlackBerry

[EalingBB]

Originally Posted by Foxglove

6mb would be enough for all your emails I would imagine and maybe to run a some small applications. It all depends on how data intensive the applications are. You also have to factor in any internet browsing.

There is a small free applcation called mini moni which counts your data so you can see what you are using, if you are interested here is a link. It counts in bytes but you can change it to Kilobytes which I find easier to translate.

1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes = 1mb.

MiniMoni - Traffic monitor for BlackBerry

Hi Foxglove

I did pop into a Vodafone shop in London earlier in the week and the chap (who was helpful but could do nothing to actually help) agreed I should not be paying to use the Say Nav as it was sold as "free" and was surprised I was exceeding the 6mb per month limit.

I have to admit I really don't understand where the mbs are being used up. I don't use the sat nav much - maybe two or three times a week perhaps totalling 90mins use in all. I don't use the internet at all. The only other usage is emails of which I probably send or receive combined in all perhaps an average of 20 a day. Most of these emails are simple text mails, only the occasional one has an attachment.


Really don't understand this, it just doesn't seem right. Frustratingly though the people at Vodafone don't really seem to know what they are talking about.

I'll have a look at downloading the traffic monitor you've kindly suggested.

[Foxglove]

Wirelessly posted

Hi Chris,



Was your Vodafone bill itemised? My bill for example tells me that each day I have used x amount of data on blackberry.net which is surfing via the BB browser, emails, pin Messaging & running applications etc and occasional small amounts of o2 wap use.





Have a look at yours and see what it shows and if your bill is not itemised request one.

[EalingBB]

Originally Posted by Foxglove

Wirelessly posted

Hi Chris,



Was your Vodafone bill itemised? My bill for example tells me that each day I have used x amount of data on blackberry.net which is surfing via the BB browser, emails, pin Messaging & running applications etc and occasional small amounts of o2 wap use.





Have a look at yours and see what it shows and if your bill is not itemised request one.

It is intemised in that there are numerous entries per day on the bill but not specific to what they are - all it says is "BLACKBERRY", there's no way of telling whether its email (most likely), sat nav or other. There are a small number of really weighty items, the biggest of which is 2.6meg but I can't identify what this was - looking at my diary doesn't help. Its these big items that are eating up the data. My last months bill came to 17meg of use.

I am in touch with Vodafone via their eforum and at the moment they sound helpful. They are looking into it and will revert back. I'm hoping they can do something because to stay on just 6meg will be intollerable.

There are some very new tariffs and I am hoping one of these will suit, but what I want is a fixed rate tariff where I know what I am going to pay each month and don't have to start regulating to keep costs down.

Unlimited Internet Access on Vodafone’s New Monthly Price Plans - Vodafone

[Foxglove]

Those new tariffs look soooo much better! It doesnt specifically mention Blackberry data though but hopefully it will include that. Find out.

If you get 'unlimited' (with a 500mb cap)that will be excellent as that will more than enough for everything you need. I use approx 60mb per month from a 200mb allowance.

The problem with vodafone is that they tend to favour their vodafone live internet package. Any add on you get may mean that you have to use the vodafone live link or vodafone browser.

I have my fingers crossed for you as Vodafone customers really should be getting similar amounts of BB data as the the other UK networks and not a miserable 6mb. Keep at them

[Foxglove]

I must explain here, using the Blackberry Browser uses the blackberry .net gateway to the internet.

Using the Vodafone browser/link will most likely use vodafone's wap gateway to the internet.

O2 used to charge extra for using o2 wap, even if you were within the 200mb allowance as this was for blackberry.net only. From February 2008 02 has included o2 wap use as part of the 200mb allowance.

O2 however does have another gateway called mobile web and we will be charged extra if we use that. I don't use it as the only time it is used is if you download the Opera Mini Browser and use the mobile web settings to run it.


EDIT: I couldn't resist, I popped over to vodafone's e forum to have a look around, I think I found your question about the 6mb and their response was 'vodafone has excellent compression technology which means 6mb is enough' - I am sorry but that is pushing it! 6mb is very restrictve if you want to do a lot more than just email.
They are also pushing this new 500mb tariff but what I would like to see is someone asking the question "why can the 6mb allowance not be raised instead of having to BUY another data package, then point out that the other networks give MUCH more without having to buy extra data' You won't get answeres unless you ask the right questions and it also makes other vodafone customeres aware of other network deals which should make vodafone think again if they do not want to loose all thier Blackberry customers.
I was tempted to join the forum and say what I thought but I am not a vodafone customer and never will be (unless they change their tariff to beat the competition) so I will leave it up to Vodafone customers to fight that battle for themselves but I will assist them where I can here in this forum or elsewhere.

Good luck & please let us know how it all turns out for you.

[EalingBB]

Hi Foxglove

I was just writing the below message -

To be honest I am not holding too much hope. Although they do seemingly have these new tariffs I have a feeling that they either won't apply to BB for some reason or there will be other hidden costs. All I do know is that if they are not prepared to increase my 6mb allowance somehow I will certainly look at trying to terminate my contract with them and exit stage right. At the moment I am getting no feeling of being a valued customer which is a shame - I just hope something happens in the next few days to change that.


- when I had a call from Mike off the eForum. He basically says for £5 per month I can now have the 500mb per month allowance! I've asked him to confirm that nothing changes in how the email system functions or anything else and he says no, its exactly the same, I just get about 83 times more data! I'm keeping my fingers crossed, therefore, that all is now resolved and at 500mb per month I can email and sat nav away to my hearts content.

I have to say that Mike's attitude was hugely helpful and, if all is as good as it seems, I thoroughly recommend Vodafone's eForum to get things resolved.

Cheers. Chris

[Foxglove]

Yes, They did come across on the forum as being extremely polite and repeatedly said that they valued their customers and I do think their intentions are good. They also answered questions regarding other problems quite well. I suppose we have to remember that they are just the workers and it is not them who set the policies.

I am really pleased that you got the result that you have although I would have preferred to have seen the 6mb allowance raised. What matters though is that all your data use should be covered.

Well Done

[EalingBB]

Thanks for you input and support, Foxglove, much appreciated.

I do agree that I'd have preferred them to have simply raised the lowly 6mb allowance to perhaps 30mb or so. But that said an extra £5 per month is wearable and certainly better than being stung by unknown monthly data usage costs on the bill.

I did tell Mike that when I phoned Customer Services during the week they were neither helpful nor knowlegeable and he says he thinks I was speaking to the consumer people rather than business. Apparently they have a separate section of advisers for business users who are a bit more, shall we say, clued up.