Vodafone Global Roaming???

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pineapplepip

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#13787 29-May-2007 14:31

Hi - Im travelling to uk this week and am finding the Vodafone website/and helpline useless when trying to answer my roaming questions:
When people are txting me from nz to my uk location, will their txt2000 prepay plan still work? phone helpline said yes, but email help said no!
Do i get charged to receive txts while im away? or just to send them?
Please help.
pip

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#72687 29-May-2007 14:41

Hi Pip,

This page will answer most of your questions:

https://www.vodafone.co.nz/personal/coverage/going-overseas/where-can-i-roam/destinations-and-pricing/united-kingdom.jsp

It took me a while to find it. I have to agree that Voda's web site IS hopeless right now -- very hard to find anything!

I hope you have roaming already set up otherwise you are in for some fun getting that arranged via Voda's Call Centre...

Anyway, the above page should answer all your questions except the TXT2000 thing. Somehow I don't think that International Texts are included in that plan

P.S. You should never pay to receive any TXTs unless you happen to get caught up in one of those scams where you sign up to receive them. For your trip to the UK, I'm sure you won't pay to receive any texts, but the sender will have to pay -- around 30c for International Texts I think???

pineapplepip

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#72690 29-May-2007 14:45

my problem is that link says "surcharge per txt" so does that mean per txt received AND sent???
Also technically regarding the prepay txt2000 thing, the person would be sending it to a nz phone number so is it still classed as an international txt?

grant_k

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#72692 29-May-2007 14:50

I just found this:

"TXT costs less than calls and with Vodafone you can TXT wherever you go and its free to receive TXT on most networks."

On this page: http://www.vodafone.co.nz/personal/coverage/going-overseas/roaming-for-less.jsp

Because the UK page doesn't say anything about costs to receive TXT, it must be free because "MOST NETWORKS" would surely include the UK which is one of the most frequently visited destinations for NZers???

pineapplepip

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#72693 29-May-2007 14:53

cheers, that answers one of my questions at least!!!

bcourtney

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#72694 29-May-2007 14:53

my understanding with the text message side of things is that the person sending you a text is charged the standard 20c as per normal (would be rude to charge them more if they had no idea that you were raoming at the time!).

You are lumped with the surcharges. Works the same way with phone calls I think - they are charged the standard rate they would if you were in NZ and you get charged the extra.

I've never really gone through my statements with a fine toothed comb after having been roaming, but I am pretty sure this is how it works.

grant_k

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#72695 29-May-2007 14:55

Aaahh, I think I can answer the other one now. Just found this:

"From 25th January 2006 sending an international TXT message from New Zealand for Prepay customers will increase from 20c to 30c."

It was on this page: http://www.vodafone.co.nz/personal/plans-services/txt-and-pxt/txt/

So I think that your friends will have to pay 30c per TXT, or if they have SKYPE, there's a cheaper way: 14c per TXT.

pineapplepip

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#72696 29-May-2007 15:02

but what if they are on the txt2000 plan, they shouldnt be charged anything but the monthly fee for txting.
Im still confused why they could be charged for txting internationally, because my number is an NZ number so i dont think that is correct...

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sbiddle

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#72697 29-May-2007 15:02

If you are located overseas (UK in this case) it costs you nothing to receive an SMS. In all my years of roaming across probably 60+ foreign networks I've yet to ever pay for an incoming SMS.

If you are on your Vodafone NZ SIM while roaming and somebody in NZ who has TXT2000 sends you a TXT they will not pay anything for it, it will be deduced from their TXT2000 balance. If you have TXT2000 however it excludes any TXT's sent while roaming, you will pay the usual 20c per TXT as well as the SMS surcharge rate added by the foreign networks. If you are roaming on prepay you pay a fixed price per message on the AutoRoam networks. This means a TXT typically costs around NZ50c - $1.00 in total to send.

grant_k

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#72698 29-May-2007 15:03

Further update -- on this page:

It says:

"You can send TXT messages just as you would in New Zealand. But you must send your message to numbers in the international format (e.g. +6421 to other Vodafone New Zealand mobiles). Most networks will allow you to send and receive TXT messages while you're travelling. And it is free to receive a TXT message!"

But I take Bcourtney's point about the price charged to senders who have no idea that you are overseas.

Something doesn't seem to add up here...

I can't believe that Voda would sting you for a 50c surcharge to receive a TXT in the UK. Certainly, I don't recall being charged anything at all to receive TXTs, but it was 8 years ago, so my memory might not be reliable...

I would say the worst you would be up for is a 10c surcharge, being the difference between the price charged to local senders, and the quoted International TXT rate above.

Voda's web site is contradictory to say the least!

EDIT: Forget all that. Sbiddle has clearly explained the situation above while I was busy typing

pineapplepip

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#72699 29-May-2007 15:04

sbiddle - thanks thats the exact answer i needed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ajobbins

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#72702 29-May-2007 15:12

I recently has a holiday in Fiji. Outgoing texts for me cost $1.05 (Vodafone Fiji) however if I was on PrePay I would have only paid 20c (There is no surcharge on PrePay autoroam to Fiji).

Calling would have also been cheaper on Prepay in most cases. Not cool

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allstarnz

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#72704 29-May-2007 15:18

while on this topic

My mum wanted to reactivate global roaming on her prepay phone. Shen went down to the local Vodafone shop, where she was told by the salesperson that Vodafone were busy redoing their billing system, so she couldn't be put on global roaming until the end of the month.

Was this guy talking out his rear passage or is this the case?

FYI she's going on Thur, so waiting till then isn't an option

freitasm

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#72706 29-May-2007 15:23

There's a long discussion about this. It's called the "Vodafone pit-stop". Vodafone has announced their systems would be affected by changes - obviously they did not do a good job of announcing to everyone though.

Chek my blog for a summary of changes and how this affects customers.