Vodafone writes off 12 months of carry over minutes and data: Can these be reinstated?

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frednz

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#205365 10-Nov-2016 09:49

I am writing this on behalf of a lady who topped up her $19 per month mobile prepay plan just 24 hours late. As a result of this she received a text message that said "Any carry over you had was removed as you renewed after your renewal date".

Vodafone customer service have been contacted but they advise that it is impossible to reinstate the unused minutes and the internet data that would have been carried over if the account had been topped up on time. Because she doesn't make many calls or use internet much, the carry over amounts are quite large.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there any way that Vodafone could reinstate this carry over data for a person who has had a mobile phone account and home broadband with Vodafone for many years without any prior problems?

Thanks for your advice.

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#1667202 10-Nov-2016 09:59

Could you please direct message me with her phone number. No promises but will certainly look into it.

invisibleman18

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#1667222 10-Nov-2016 10:46

Seems a bit strict. Fair enough not being able to use them if you don't renew in time but would have thought there could be some small period where you could at least keep them if you renew rather than losing them forever. Sometimes a person just forgets rather than trying to rip them off and get something for free. My partner uses 2 Degrees carryover and I believe they get some time after the date to renew where it goes on hold before it's all lost. Could be wrong.

MurrayM

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#1667246 10-Nov-2016 11:06

invisibleman18:

Seems a bit strict. Fair enough not being able to use them if you don't renew in time but would have thought there could be some small period where you could at least keep them if you renew rather than losing them forever. Sometimes a person just forgets rather than trying to rip them off and get something for free. My partner uses 2 Degrees carryover and I believe they get some time after the date to renew where it goes on hold before it's all lost. Could be wrong.

Customers on these plans do get reminder txts for several days leading up to the renewal date. I always make sure that I have at least the monthly renewal amount sitting in my account as a balance, that way I don't need to worry about updating the balance at the last moment.

frednz

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#1667259 10-Nov-2016 11:27

MurrayM:

invisibleman18:

Seems a bit strict. Fair enough not being able to use them if you don't renew in time but would have thought there could be some small period where you could at least keep them if you renew rather than losing them forever. Sometimes a person just forgets rather than trying to rip them off and get something for free. My partner uses 2 Degrees carryover and I believe they get some time after the date to renew where it goes on hold before it's all lost. Could be wrong.

Customers on these plans do get reminder txts for several days leading up to the renewal date. I always make sure that I have at least the monthly renewal amount sitting in my account as a balance, that way I don't need to worry about updating the balance at the last moment.

It would have helped if the mobile Vodafone app was working properly. When loaded on several different occasions it says "your latest account info isn't available right now". In addition, the app wouldn't let you sign in. When the lady tried to top up through this app it said "500 internal server error" nginz. So, on her behalf I had to do the top-up through my computer. Perhaps the app needs to be deleted and reloaded or something?

Also, the customer service person in the Philippines said there was no point in asking the manager to reinstate the points as the terms and conditions did not allow this to be done (ouch)!

richms

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#1667283 10-Nov-2016 11:38

They have just done an app update so I am hoping it works better than in the past, No issues with it when I was just looking at balances etc in it, but it still nags about the survey. In the past it would usually not show things as current till I killed it off and re-launched it.

Richard rich.ms

frednz

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#1667340 10-Nov-2016 13:21

richms:

They have just done an app update so I am hoping it works better than in the past, No issues with it when I was just looking at balances etc in it, but it still nags about the survey. In the past it would usually not show things as current till I killed it off and re-launched it.

Hi, thanks for this info, so it seems that there's no point in waiting for the existing "My Vodafone" app that's on the phone to "correct" itself and allow the account to be signed into or topped up. But here's the thing, the app clearly says that, even though "your latest account info isn't available right now" you can still top-up and pay. However, as said previously, when you try and top-up with this app you just get an error message.

So, I would recommend that the app should have told customers that there is a new app that should be downloaded as the app that is currently on the phone is out of date and can't be used. This would have avoided any delay being made in topping-up the account.

Overall, in this case, at least 11 months of calls and internet data weren't used, so Vodafone has happily deleted more than $200 worth of top-ups that had been made. In this case, the customer paid this $200 in good faith in the expectation that Vodafone would allow carry-over data to be used for a 12-month period!

richms

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#1667350 10-Nov-2016 13:40

Mine came up the first time after I killed it for being useless that it was old and I needed to update, so off to the playstore and update it and cant really see any visual difference in it. Just see if there is a new one available or not and update if there is and see if its any better.

Richard rich.ms

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scuwp

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#1667468 10-Nov-2016 15:30

MurrayM:

invisibleman18:

Seems a bit strict. Fair enough not being able to use them if you don't renew in time but would have thought there could be some small period where you could at least keep them if you renew rather than losing them forever. Sometimes a person just forgets rather than trying to rip them off and get something for free. My partner uses 2 Degrees carryover and I believe they get some time after the date to renew where it goes on hold before it's all lost. Could be wrong.

Customers on these plans do get reminder txts for several days leading up to the renewal date. I always make sure that I have at least the monthly renewal amount sitting in my account as a balance, that way I don't need to worry about updating the balance at the last moment.

This^

They have to draw the line somewhere and can't keep giving infinite grace-periods. Where would it end? There has to be a line in the sand. There are options to set up automatic deposits so the account always has enough $$$ for the top up, or a calendar reminder/alert and do it that way, perhaps help your friend set something like that up so it doesn't happen again, or move her to an on-account plan. I do hope your friend gets this reinstated based on a genuine mistake in exceptional circumstances, but "I forgot" I don't think should cut it for special treatment.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

jonb

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#1667473 10-Nov-2016 15:36

2degrees and Skinny are both able to save your rollover data and minutes across gaps between top ups and add ons. Hopefully Vodafone just do this because of their old billing system and not as a business/sales decision.

invisibleman18

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#1667498 10-Nov-2016 16:02

Yeah thought that was the case with 2 Degrees. I don’t think anyone said anything about an “infinite grace period” but keeping it on hold (but not usable)for a day or 2 rather than having to start again from scratch should be possible considering the competition does it, and it doesn’t sound unreasonable to do that. It sounds like rather than forgetting, the person did attempt to top up in time and the app failed which wasn’t necessarily her fault. Also sounds like she may not be that capable with technology and didn’t know what else to do. A good lesson to try and set something up automatically so this doesn’t happen again in any case. Going to look into this myself too now as I don’t usually end up checking my balance until I get the text reminder about the renewal. Have never actually missed doing it in time but an automatic monthly topup sounds a good idea.

Batman

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#1667499 10-Nov-2016 16:05

if every provider offered the exact terms and conditions and price and etc etc it is deemed anticompetitive by the commerce commission.

let vodafone decide what what terms and conditions they impose

richms

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#1667500 10-Nov-2016 16:08

My biggest annoyance is that they text you telling you to top up to make sure that you have enough to renew, even when you have no need to top up because you have $80 on there. Means that its a boy who cried wolf type thing.

Richard rich.ms

frednz

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#1667506 10-Nov-2016 16:18

scuwp:

MurrayM:

invisibleman18:

Seems a bit strict. Fair enough not being able to use them if you don't renew in time but would have thought there could be some small period where you could at least keep them if you renew rather than losing them forever. Sometimes a person just forgets rather than trying to rip them off and get something for free. My partner uses 2 Degrees carryover and I believe they get some time after the date to renew where it goes on hold before it's all lost. Could be wrong.

Customers on these plans do get reminder txts for several days leading up to the renewal date. I always make sure that I have at least the monthly renewal amount sitting in my account as a balance, that way I don't need to worry about updating the balance at the last moment.

This^

They have to draw the line somewhere and can't keep giving infinite grace-periods. Where would it end? There has to be a line in the sand. There are options to set up automatic deposits so the account always has enough $$$ for the top up, or a calendar reminder/alert and do it that way, perhaps help your friend set something like that up so it doesn't happen again, or move her to an on-account plan. I do hope your friend gets this reinstated based on a genuine mistake in exceptional circumstances, but "I forgot" I don't think should cut it for special treatment.

Hi thanks for your post. I agree there have to be "lines in the sand", but because Vodafone's non-working app contributed to the delay, I hope the $220 worth of data will be reinstated on this occasion. Look, if I was running a business and someone had paid me $120 per month for years (including landline and broadband) I wouldn't punish them and risk losing them just because they were 24 hours late in making one payment!

You know, these days, if you say to the customer service department of any major company that you will remove your account if they continue to be very inflexible in the way they deal with you, they almost encourage you to do this while at the same time spending thousands on trying to attract new customers! Look after your existing customers should always be the number 1 priority but I seem to be out of date on this one? However, great to see Mike Hales posted promptly a reply to this thread and this is very good for customer relations.

frednz

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#1667513 10-Nov-2016 16:35

joker97:

if every provider offered the exact terms and conditions and price and etc etc it is deemed anticompetitive by the commerce commission.

let vodafone decide what what terms and conditions they impose

You know, I get the feeling that in some cases it's not that large companies aren't willing to negotiate with customers, but it's more that the computer systems are so inflexible that it's extremely difficult to make "non-standard" adjustments to a customer's account. I've sometimes been told that "the system won't let us do that", which seems like we live in a world of robots where humans have lost control of their systems and relations with "real" people!

richms

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#1667523 10-Nov-2016 16:41

frednz:

You know, I get the feeling that in some cases it's not that large companies aren't willing to negotiate with customers, but it's more that the computer systems are so inflexible that it's extremely difficult to make "non-standard" adjustments to a customer's account. I've sometimes been told that "the system won't let us do that", which seems like we live in a world of robots where humans have lost control of their systems and relations with "real" people!

If the system did just let them do that, then you can bet that they would have to spend a hell of a lot auditing it and hauling people up before HR when they decided to make the "non standard" adjustments on friends etc phones.

Best not to allow the systems to give the low tier staff any access like that at all.

Richard rich.ms

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