Vodem Billing hell

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billirwin

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#16550 15-Oct-2007 20:57

Hi, my 20 yr old son signed up for a 24 month 3gig vodem contract. Less than a month in to the contract he got a phone call saying he has $1000 worth of excess data charges (which equates to only 2 gig over!). He finds it hard to believe, because he wasn't doing major downloads and the little useage app said he only had used 250 mb.

Whatever, it is unreal how a user can't get an acurate real time measure of useage. So he has no way of disputing vodas claims. The first person he phoned said they were sure it was a mistake, and once the bill came through they'd sort it. It took over 3 weeks before anyone could give him an answer - today they have decided the excess fees will stay.

It is a contract from hell. Every time he phones he gets some useless underling who seems unwilling to help sort out the mess. He just wants to get out of the contract and never see vodafone again, but at present for a total use of 8 gb over two months he's looking at $1000 + $400 disconection fee!! This is just criminal.

Does anyone know how on earth to fine someone at Vodafone with a sense of fairness? From what Zi hear not likely. But any advice on how to deal with the Vodafone would be much appreciated.

Bill

[edit (RC): Vodafone is spelt Vodafone.]

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#91160 15-Oct-2007 21:11

We appreciate that you have got a huge bill, which seems to have scared the living daylights out of you and your son.

However, we still like to call companies by their name. No matter how annoying they may be.

johnr

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#91161 15-Oct-2007 21:22

Hi

Hope the info I provide helps, The figures on the invoice for traffic moved will be correct.

If you want to see the usage put the SIM from the vodem into a mobile phone. SMS the word number to 521 (no cost) if you already known the number for Vodem you don't need to send the word number to 521

Register that mobile number on the Vodafone website and log into MYA this will show each data session time connected and amount of traffic moved up and down.

Something to remember the Vodem does not make its own traffic all it does is move traffic (ip) as requested by the PC its connected to.

The charges for extra traffic is clear on the Vodafone website and also there brochures

John

freitasm

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#91164 15-Oct-2007 21:51

Also remember, if your son is not getting out of the contract for any reason, with an extra $10/month the account there's a 100% increase in allowance.

This means that an extra $10 a month would give a total of 6 GB, and much cheaper than the $1000 excess charge.

Bak to the problem at hand, make sure your son is not using file sharing applications - even if he's not downloading anything, files are still being uploaded to other people - and traffic is counted both ways.

paradoxsm

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#91178 15-Oct-2007 23:09

Pulling simcards in and out of phone and vodem just to check usage sounds like an utter waste of time and proof their systems need updating... Does the vodem not support SMS inside it? if not that's a extremely major limitation in itself.

My orcon DSL account even tells me a summary of my usage when I visit the orcon hompage, Maybe Vodafone could look at something similar, Really handy actually as all in the household can see the details.

Telecom offer "alerts" for when you go over your usage or you can set it up to monitor it at various % levels of your choice.
like 80% usage, 90% usage and 100% usage. and while it's probably 24 hours behind, at least it's there.

You can have it alert up to 3 mobiles and up to 3 email addresses alerted all at once I think, just a thought.

Telecom and orcon obviously thought about the implications before pushing a product which is nice.

mikal

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#91179 15-Oct-2007 23:10

From what I can see it looks like it is on your son to manage his usage. The tools are there and the charges are available to read.
Simply saying you wern't told about them is not enough, unless you are into the habit of signing things you don't read.

However if you felt you were misinformed by the customer services rep when you initially called you need to lay a complaint, it will also give you some ammo to show vf that you thought the usage was in the clear from what the customer services rep when infact it wasn't.

I think your son needs to accept some responsibility here and pay some of the bill maybe negotiate with VF to get some of it waived.

No1Daemon

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#91183 15-Oct-2007 23:29

Hi
You can manage and keep track of your data usage via my vodafone manage my account.
Out of interest it states on the vodem terms and conditions page that "At these speeds, it's easy to overshoot your data limit. But rather than step down to dial-up speed, $10 and we'll reset your counter"
So do you get stepped down to dial up speed and then charged $500 per 1GB for the privelege?

freitasm

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#91202 16-Oct-2007 09:15

paradoxsm: Pulling simcards in and out of phone and vodem just to check usage sounds like an utter waste of time and proof their systems need updating... Does the vodem not support SMS inside it? if not that's a extremely major limitation in itself.

paradoxsm, please read johnr's post again. He suggested to do it just to send the SMS to register for the website. After this you don't need to pull the SIM card anymore, you check all on-line...

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mikal

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#91206 16-Oct-2007 09:20

No1Daemon: Hi
You can manage and keep track of your data usage via my vodafone manage my account.
Out of interest it states on the vodem terms and conditions page that "At these speeds, it's easy to overshoot your data limit. But rather than step down to dial-up speed, $10 and we'll reset your counter"
So do you get stepped down to dial up speed and then charged $500 per 1GB for the privelege?

No...
Once you go over your initial allotment they will automatically allocate you another 100% allotment depending what you are on.
After you go over that its .50cents a mb
Vodafone never slows your speed down.

No1Daemon

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#91209 16-Oct-2007 09:54

mikal: Once you go over your initial allotment they will automatically allocate you another 100% allotment depending what you are on.
After you go over that its .50cents a mb
Vodafone never slows your speed down.

According to their site you only get the new allocation if you have a $10 insurance bundle.

freitasm

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#91211 16-Oct-2007 09:56

That's correct. Back on topic...

chakkaradeep

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#91224 16-Oct-2007 12:40

I just received my two months vodem bill of $139 (inclusive GST) and there weren't any problems with my bill.

Are you sure, your son hasnt downloaded or exceeded the usage ?

I am also in the same 24 year contract + 3 gig plan.

Its worth calling up Vodafone or visiting your nearest store before concluding anything bad

Regards,
Chaks

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exportgoldman

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#91233 16-Oct-2007 14:03

Last time we checked with Vodafone we were told the following

The VMC Software usage meter can and does show hugely different MB used figures from the final bill because the measurements done by the software and the billing system are different, and there is no plans to pull this data down from the billing system from the sofware. Use the Vodafone VMC software billing MB usage at your own risk!

There are no plans to stop the price gorging on overuse fees to something more reasonable and inline with the pre-purchased MB's. To be fair, Xtra do this as well.

There was no way of being notified of reaching your limits, or stopping the traffic after the limit has been reached, giving these cards to corporate employees opens up a huge financial liability for a company.

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chakkaradeep

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#91235 16-Oct-2007 14:09

exportgoldman:
The VMC Software usage meter can and does show hugely different MB used figures from the final bill because the measurements done by the software and the billing system are different, and there is no plans to pull this data down from the billing system from the sofware. Use the Vodafone VMC software billing MB usage at your own risk!

As far as I know the VMC software stores and retrieves last usage from the system and not from the billing system. If you just remove certain things from your system, that is, the VMCLite from your personal folder, and check VMC software, the usage will start again from zero

. I had that once, but now I dont touch anything and leave the application to do its work and you would get good results.

And also you could set the Usage level in the VMCLite and check for the same regularly. If am not wrong, if you cross the usage, the VMLite will not allow you to browse until you change/modify the usage level to higher than previous.

simon14

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#91247 16-Oct-2007 15:59

chakkaradeep: I just received my two months vodem bill of $139 (inclusive GST) and there weren't any problems with my bill.

Are you sure, your son hasnt downloaded or exceeded the usage ?

I am also in the same 24 year contract + 3 gig plan.

Its worth calling up Vodafone or visiting your nearest store before concluding anything bad

Excuse me but are you an idiot?

He said they have contacted Vodafone on several occasions....

Anyway, two sides here... your son should have managed his usage better! But in sayign that, Vodafone shouldn't let customers spend $1000 in excess fees each month... they should of suspended the account when it got to $200 over or called them or something, they should offer a capped plan so this doesnt happen to people!

rscole86

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#91250 16-Oct-2007 16:12

simon14: Excuse me but are you an idiot?

Simon, please do not make personal attacks against other people. I am sure you could have found a politer way to point out that he may have mis-read something.

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