Has anyone else been caught out by Vodafone's 'free' 4G?

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Has anyone else been caught out by Vodafone's 'free' 4G?

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#1013912 27-Mar-2014 15:00

OP: Take this case to comcom, I personally think it is worth pursuing.

scheduler

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#1013915 27-Mar-2014 15:05

To the OP. I am confused. How are you being charged for 4G as you say in your post. This to me implies that you are receiving 4G and being charged the old $10.00 service fee. This is a separate issue to not being able to access 4G because of being on a grandfathered plan. Personally I read the release the same as you and had to have it explained to me what it meant. To me the wording was open to a number of interpretations.

kezzanz

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#1013916 27-Mar-2014 15:09

scheduler: To the OP. I am confused. How are you being charged for 4G as you say in your post. This to me implies that you are receiving 4G and being charged the old $10.00 service fee. This is a separate issue to not being able to access 4G because of being on a grandfathered plan. Personally I read the release the same as you and had to have it explained to me what it meant. To me the wording was open to a number of interpretations.

I am receiving 4G, I am just being charged $10 for the pleasure. Vodafone are saying the $10 service fee still applies unless you are on one of their new plans.

networkn

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#1013919 27-Mar-2014 15:15

Wow I misread it as well, I called up and said to my CSR the day it was announced, it was supposedly free, she enabled it and I have been being charged $10 a month for 4G (Which I only noticed now). I'll be calling to remove it, it's a nice to have, but I'll wait till my plan expires and then whatever I replace it with will have 4G included I presume.

I do think it could have been made clearer myself. I think those customers on contracts SHOULD be included, because it shouldn't' really be that current contracts can be grandfathered.

ajobbins

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#1013925 27-Mar-2014 15:27

The average consumer is not going to know the difference between a 'current' plan, and recent plans that are still common due to term contracts and the concept of 'grandfathering' plans is industry speak you cannot expect the average consumer to know.

To us geeks, especially ones in and around the industry it may seem more obvious, but your average consumer is likely to be deceived by this. A plan that they are 'currently' on is a perfectly reasonable understanding of what a current plan means.

It is very easily interpreted as a 'Oh good, I don't have to change to a different plan to get the free 4G, my CURRENT plan is already included'. Adding to this confusion is that there have been many plans in the marketplace in recent years that are the same or similarly named. You can actually be on a 'grandfathered' plan that is actually called the same thing as a 'current' plan now.

This is one of the several reasons I do not sign up to term contacts. Plans are constantly changing, and the pitiful handset discounts you get these days don't justify the lock in, especially as the value is often eroded over time as "current" offerings improve.

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scheduler

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#1013949 27-Mar-2014 15:44

That's interesting, I hadn't realised that there were plans which had been Grandfathered between the introduction of 4G and it being made free. I had understood from previous discussions that Grandfathered plan s couldn't be provisioned for 4G. but that a plan with the 4G addon couldn't be made free well that surprises me

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#1013952 27-Mar-2014 15:50

jeffnz:

so what do you take it to mean as " current plans" to me, and i may be a minority here, I take it as ones that are available now and if they had meant "all" clients it would have said so but it obvioulsy excluded some which should warn to read again.

See the previous posts. The answer is obvious.

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#1013971 27-Mar-2014 16:36

TimA:
..... You can also have free 4g on our grandfathered plans.....

Tell me how?, very interested in this for 2 on account mobiles

Beccara

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#1013972 27-Mar-2014 16:38

Son of a b$^. I'm on business smart data, Saw the release and got 4g turned on. Being charged $10/mth since for it

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kezzanz

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#1013977 27-Mar-2014 16:47

Yeah I think im going to go to the commerce commission based on the responses in this thread. Enough people clearly were confused by it and have been paying $10 unwittingly.

Yabanize

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#1013995 27-Mar-2014 16:54

Vodafone: why exactly can't you open up the grandfathered plans and as 4g to them? Or just make it enabled regardless of plan like telecom does. Also why do you have prepay smart and prepay 4g. It should just be one

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#1014001 27-Mar-2014 17:03

Yabanize: Vodafone: why exactly can't you open up the grandfathered plans and as 4g to them? Or just make it enabled regardless of plan like telecom does. Also why do you have prepay smart and prepay 4g. It should just be one

Go figure, all it would mean is that the data would be used quicker.

I think they decided that it would be better to uspet the loyal long term customer base rather than reward them!

Personally I would love 4G but for me this would mean changing my plan, there is currently nothing that VF are offering that matches or betters the CURRENT plan I am on.

I would happily agree to a decline in call mins, a decline in TXT's a decline in PXT's, I would even agree to a fixed term contract, but not a decline in data to get 4G, I would even consider paying a little more, but there is nothing

kingjj

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#1014050 27-Mar-2014 18:13

Yabanize: Vodafone: why exactly can't you open up the grandfathered plans and as 4g to them? Or just make it enabled regardless of plan like telecom does. Also why do you have prepay smart and prepay 4g. It should just be one

Probably something to do with all those people still stoically holding on to their old iPhone plans with 3gb data included...

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#1014225 27-Mar-2014 22:37

Ignoring the linguistic semantics, I think it was possible for VF to have expressed themselves more clearly. Which surely should be the aim of all corporate comms?

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#1014226 27-Mar-2014 22:41

The 4G thing is interesting. It seems odd to charge - I do not recall being charged for 3G when 2G was normal...!

Not that it matters - I doubt I am in 4G coverage more than 1% of a year in any case!! My iPhone 5 hates 4G I have noticed: it gets very slow and the touch screen becomes intermittently unresponsive or slow to respond for several hours when I enter a 4G area. I usually end up turning 4G off and the phone goes back to normal.

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