Customer takes Vodafone to court... What do you think?

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Customer takes Vodafone to court... What do you think?

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Laurence

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#417200 14-Dec-2010 19:02

I don't realy aggree that he should get off the charges but i think vodafone needs to do something about explaining the charges better.
When i went to europe for a month i went into a vodafone store and asked them point blank what i would pay per min and per sms to roam. After getting my answer i went on my trip and used my phone as i liked keeping track (rounding up to the nearest min) the amount of usage i had.
Upon returning i expected a $300ish bill. I received a $650 bill.
It turns out that the sales person i talked to didn't tell me (maybe they ditn't know) that i would pay the local call rate as well as my roaming rate. After asking them several times what i would pay they had only told me the vodafone roaming rate and assured me that was it. The sales person had since left the store and basicly vodefone said tough cookies.
After finding this out i spent quite awhile on the website to find where it said that the local rates would be charged as well. It was there i just didn't see it when i first checked before leaving and relied on the sales person in the store to be correct.
Woops.

quickymart

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#417233 14-Dec-2010 20:05

Not surprised he lost. As an aside, I think I used to work with his sister, many years ago.

sbiddle

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#417254 14-Dec-2010 20:56

Laurence: It turns out that the sales person i talked to didn't tell me (maybe they ditn't know) that i would pay the local call rate as well as my roaming rate. After asking them several times what i would pay they had only told me the vodafone roaming rate and assured me that was it. The sales person had since left the store and basicly vodefone said tough cookies.
After finding this out i spent quite awhile on the website to find where it said that the local rates would be charged as well. It was there i just didn't see it when i first checked before leaving and relied on the sales person in the store to be correct.
Woops.

It depends what roaming plan you are on - if it's traveller you pay your local rate and then your normal rate on top. If it's standard roaming you just pay the roaming rate. I'd take a stab and say the store person was confused which plan you were on.

If you make lots of calls within a country Traveller makes no sense as you'll typically be paying 2-3x the price you would be on the standard plan. If you make lots of calls back to NZ Traveller makes sense as calls to NZ are cheaper.. but..

In both cases inbound roam forward calls (ie people in NZ ringing your NZ number) only costs $1 per minute to answer. This makes Traveller a waste of time as you'll still be paying anywhere in the vicinity of high $2ish to high $5ish to make a call either win the country or back to NZ.

If you're roaming make sure you know what plan you're on. If you're on Traveller you could be paying significaltly more for calls than you need to be.

matisyahu

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#417369 14-Dec-2010 23:58

scheduler: It looks like the judge agreed with most of what has been said on the forum but requestted further information on if getting a text saying you are using your Data Bundle could be confusing? Link http://vilain.net/blog/2010/12/94-vilain-v-vodafone-ruling.html.

One thing I disagree with is Visa statements updating immediately. My experience is they don't as it can rely on when interbank processing is done. SAomebody may correct me on this.

Laurie

It depends on banks - I know with some banks it will come up immediately as 'pending' but others just take the cash out but it takes a few days for it to come up on the transaction summery online.

I read the link and I have even less sympathy (if at all humanly possible) for the guy - at the end of the day it was his responsibility to find out the cost of roaming and it was his responsibility to keep a check on the traffic used. All the information is available on the Vodafone website quite clearly and simply - I really don't know how Vodafone could make it easier for customers apart from maybe sending out annoying messages each day telling customers to check the roaming rates before going overseas.

Truly, this is the reason why there is such bloat and regulation - 99% of people do the right thing and research before going a head with legislation written for the noisy 1% who seem to want their diaper changed when they've messed themselves.

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

oxnsox

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#418117 16-Dec-2010 14:31

With regard to the VISA card analogy, I'm guessing the reference was to transactions that occur when you are traveling, since the phone charges occurred during travel.

I've found that often overseas credit card transactions do-not appear on the same day they were made (maybe this has now changed), and recall their was some debate about whether banks were delaying the transactions to gain an exchange rate advantage. Or maybe it's a combination of factors including clearing times thru various banking systems/institutions.

But reading the OP's summary of where he went wrong a couple of things stuck out for me.
Firstly the disputes process does not get overseen by a Judge (which he constantly refers to). And he also seems to think that had he brought his claim under a different clause he may have prevailed. Then goes on to suggest the 'Judge' was mislead and that he (the OP) was disappointed by the limited abilities of the disputes tribunal.

Pedantic comments you may think, but you're dealing with the law here. And the law is pedantry paradise.... But then it appears the Vilain did about as must background research on the disputes tribunal and processes as he did on his roaming charges, or actually reading his bill.

freitasm

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#418121 16-Dec-2010 14:35

oxnsox: [he] did about as must background research on the disputes tribunal and processes as he did on his roaming charges, or actually reading his bill.

This.

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