WARNING: Don't ring the 'freecall 440' number as Vodafone will bill you

Forums › One NZ (including Farmside) › WARNING: Don't ring the 'freecall 440' number as Vodafone will bill you

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#146426 10-Jul-2008 22:16

You could complain to the advertising standards, since the text message is an advertisement,

Commerce commission, since they are charging a different rate to quoted

TDR? Possibly not since they make you wait 6 weeks and other lame pre-requisites to a complaint.

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davide

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#146450 10-Jul-2008 23:13

Woah, woah everyone. As per other posts in the forums, the $1 charging to 777 takes effect from the first of August 2008 so any calls up untill then shouldn't be billed.

And, I know that Vodafone have a lot of bad press at the moment, but can't we possibly just cut them a bit of slack and consider the possibility that they have made a mistake? And call them and give them a chance to rectify said mistake?

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davide

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#146454 10-Jul-2008 23:15

Here is the link saying it is from the first of August

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richms

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#146457 10-Jul-2008 23:20

davide: Woah, woah everyone. As per other posts in the forums, the $1 charging to 777 takes effect from the first of August 2008 so any calls up untill then shouldn't be billed.

And, I know that Vodafone have a lot of bad press at the moment, but can't we possibly just cut them a bit of slack and consider the possibility that they have made a mistake? And call them and give them a chance to rectify said mistake?

I think everyone knows that its the 1st that the changes take effect, and no, we shouldnt give vodafone any slack at all over this.

The text says freecall. Its not free. That is the biggist cockup they can make, they will be pulling in several 10's of thousands from people calling this number, being charged and having NO IDEA AT ALL that they are getting charged for it because they have no way to track spending.

If you cant rely on them to charge for their own numbers correctly, how can you rely on them to charge anything correctly. and now they are going to be chargind you $1 for querying their stuffups.

If you find this excusable then you either work for them or have no concept of consumer rights.

Richard rich.ms

davide

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#146460 10-Jul-2008 23:28

No, I don't work for Vodafone :)

And yes, I do understand the fact that consumers have rights. But the point that I was making, albeit possibly not as clear as it shoul have been, is that we shouldn't jump all over Vodafone straight away, we should at least give them a chance to rectify their stuff up.

Anyway, /me is stepping out of this discussion now :)

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robbypreb

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#146462 10-Jul-2008 23:31

davide: No, I don't work for Vodafone :)

And yes, I do understand the fact that consumers have rights. But the point that I was making, albeit possibly not as clear as it shoul have been, is that we shouldn't jump all over Vodafone straight away, we should at least give them a chance to rectify their stuff up.

Anyway, /me is stepping out of this discussion now :)

You obviously didn't read the post properly. It has nothing to do with the $1 fee for calling the help desk. It is to do with the TXT that says freephone 440 for information, but they then charge you for the call. I am not the only one who was charged this either as per other peoples posts about this problem.

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davide

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#146465 10-Jul-2008 23:36

manhinli:
Vodafone: We're going to charge you $1 to call us...

Customer: [Ah!!! Better call 440 to find out more]

Vodafone: Thanks, we'll take that too.

Either way, we all lose, and they win.

Anyway, as I said, stepping out.

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phillw

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#146468 10-Jul-2008 23:42

Hi all,

I rang the 440 number today and my account appears to be a little low. However I did not know how much money I had before I made the call and I can't seem to find out if I was charged or not. What can I do or what should I do to confirm if they have or haven't taken money from my account?

Considering I recently have just swapped back from Telecom to Vodafone I am really not happy with them.

For the first two months I had a prepay add on they never sent me any reminders about topping up - like they said they would do three days before the expiry of my add on. So in the end I got a $21 charge for a phone call to my best mate - the best they could do in the end after a long hard fight was give me half my money back.

Anyway not happy with them at all recently.

Would appreciate hearing siggestions on what I should do to check if I have had the money taken or what I should do.

Gamefreaks

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#146469 10-Jul-2008 23:44

ahmad: I have ALWAYS thought it stunk that Prepaid customers CANNOT get an itemised bill on request.

It's not that they don't have it.

Why shouldn't we be able to request a list of charges? Even if it was only accessible online?

Wow based on other things I've read you really don't like Vodafone huh?
BTW based on experience itemized billing is NOT available for prepay customers and if it was it would cost VF more money - which no doubt they would pass on to you as a customer. Prepay is the bare basics way of doing things. Want full service? Get a contract, they spend more money and as a result get more perks out of the arrangement.

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#146472 10-Jul-2008 23:45

Call them tomorrow and ask if you were charged, just say because your mate was and had to call to get a credit for it.

Richard rich.ms

robbypreb

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#146477 10-Jul-2008 23:49

phillw: Hi all,

I rang the 440 number today and my account appears to be a little low. However I did not know how much money I had before I made the call and I can't seem to find out if I was charged or not. What can I do or what should I do to confirm if they have or haven't taken money from my account?

Considering I recently have just swapped back from Telecom to Vodafone I am really not happy with them.

For the first two months I had a prepay add on they never sent me any reminders about topping up - like they said they would do three days before the expiry of my add on. So in the end I got a $21 charge for a phone call to my best mate - the best they could do in the end after a long hard fight was give me half my money back.

Anyway not happy with them at all recently.

Would appreciate hearing siggestions on what I should do to check if I have had the money taken or what I should do.

I think they should be able to tell you what calls you have made, maybe you will need to call them tommorrow when their systems updated, as it should be in their computer. From now on I am always going to txt BAL to 777 before an after a call, to make sure they are billing me correctly.

I don't think it would cost any more to have a online call log in your account, I am surprised they don't already have it. I mean ISPs and web hosts provide that sort of information for free in the form of statistics.

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#146480 10-Jul-2008 23:56

Gamefreaks:
Wow based on other things I've read you really don't like Vodafone huh?
BTW based on experience itemized billing is NOT available for prepay customers and if it was it would cost VF more money - which no doubt they would pass on to you as a customer. Prepay is the bare basics way of doing things. Want full service? Get a contract, they spend more money and as a result get more perks out of the arrangement.

While no doubt the ability to get a bill is an unique feature for on account customers, prepaid users are still entitled to ensure that their credit is being used appropriately. Possibly could this be built in to online self services?

It would be a sad day for consumers were not able to dispute mysterious disappearances in their prepaid credit. Billing systems aren't perfect, mistakes do happen - as witnessed recently with the vodafone live billing issue.
I do hope that Vodafone would waive the $1 per call 'service fee' for calls where it has been identified as a Vodafone issue (for instance, customer disputes based on Vodafone taking more money than they should or charging for 'free' services).

I do agree partly with Davide, it is almost certainly a mistake rather than malice. Should it be documented on the forums, certainly. Should calls be logged with them disputing the charges to the freecall number - defintely. Though one notes that it is extremely bad timing though and quite ironic.

PS. DavidE does not work for Vodafone. Don't accuse him (or others) of being vodafone staff just because your views differ from his.

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#146735 11-Jul-2008 13:16

phillw: Hi all,

I rang the 440 number today and my account appears to be a little low. However I did not know how much money I had before I made the call and I can't seem to find out if I was charged or not. What can I do or what should I do to confirm if they have or haven't taken money from my account?

Considering I recently have just swapped back from Telecom to Vodafone I am really not happy with them.

For the first two months I had a prepay add on they never sent me any reminders about topping up - like they said they would do three days before the expiry of my add on. So in the end I got a $21 charge for a phone call to my best mate - the best they could do in the end after a long hard fight was give me half my money back.

Anyway not happy with them at all recently.

Would appreciate hearing siggestions on what I should do to check if I have had the money taken or what I should do.

Hey Phil, did you get it sorted by phoning 777?

JoeBloggs

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#146742 11-Jul-2008 13:22

robbypreb:
Phoned them up, and they have applied a credit back for that incorrect billing. However I was told that 440 wasn't a free phone number, even though it says 'freecall' on the text. This is very misleading. They also didn't have a record of the call, although they said it takes a while to update, which is strange considering the amount was deducted straightaway. It looks as though they could make a lot of money from those people who have phoned that number from the text they received, and don't check their balances before and after a call.
Not impressed with vodafones dodgy billing systems at all.

If only you knew how often these 'mistakes' happen. Anyone ever been subscribed to Sky Mobile TV without your consent? Ever had a few excessive charges for the odd phonecall? Ever wonder why an add-on was billed twice? Most people don't look at their bill thoroughly enough.

Gamefreaks: BTW based on experience itemized billing is NOT available for prepay customers and if it was it would cost VF more money - which no doubt they would pass on to you as a customer. Prepay is the bare basics way of doing things. Want full service? Get a contract, they spend more money and as a result get more perks out of the arrangement.

Care to explain how Vodafone spends more on account customers than prepay? Besides sending the bill every month. At present the billing system is only set up for account customers and it would cost a couple million to set it up for prepay. They just don't see the need, especially since now those pesky prepay 'missing credit' requests will be weeded out with a $1 charge.

drajk

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#146762 11-Jul-2008 14:00

Gamefreaks:
ahmad: I have ALWAYS thought it stunk that Prepaid customers CANNOT get an itemised bill on request.

It's not that they don't have it.

Why shouldn't we be able to request a list of charges? Even if it was only accessible online?

Wow based on other things I've read you really don't like Vodafone huh?
BTW based on experience itemized billing is NOT available for prepay customers and if it was it would cost VF more money - which no doubt they would pass on to you as a customer. Prepay is the bare basics way of doing things. Want full service? Get a contract, they spend more money and as a result get more perks out of the arrangement.

Actually Vodafone Australia do provide online prepay account detail and I'm sure most people remember the billing system downtime last year when VFNZ and VFAU were apparently aligning their billing systems ==> surely it would not be difficult for them to adopt the same information provision levels as VFAU. One would think that with the introduction of charging for customer support calls it would only be fair for Prepay Customers to be able to see where their credit has been used before calling 777. If the billing system is robust and works correctly you would think that VFNZ would have nothing to fear by making the information available as it should reduce the need for unnecessary support calls.

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