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

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freitasm

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#73373 13-Dec-2010 10:25

According to http://vilain.net/blog/2010/12/93-vilain-v-vodafone.html he's taking Vodafone New Zealand to the courts...

While I agree mobile data roaming charges are still daylight robbery, I can't really agree with all the reasoning in that post. Saying that he was using the mobile data because it seemed cheap on the first invoice?

Or "As I was later to discover, here is a real picture of the charges I had racked up, by what I thought was conservative use of my phone (mostly doing map lookups, and use of navigate while driving a hire car)"

Seriously. Using mobile data for Google Maps (or something similar) while driving overseas? One could easily solve this buy either a) buying a good $100 software (TomTom, Sygic, Alk and many others) or b) buy a GPS in-car navigation device. Both cases would save at least a couple thousand dollars on that roaming bill.

Now if someone knows this is an expensive exercise before it starts, why do it?

"Sure, sure, it's not like this is anything new or special, people have known about this for a long time. "highway robbery" writes one well-known industry commentator, showing that the mark-up is of the order of 100,000%. Yes, one-hundred, thousand percent. "Legal Theft", brands another. There are frequently stories in the papers, such as:

- 3News (article offline, I have only the synopsis) - Nicole Skews owes $6k after a month of using her phone overseas - $6000 Vodafone bill - what's up with that?
- Liz Price charged $3,500 for two hours of use
- Stories abound in this iPhone users forum

So, it's not like I'm not aware of all of this. Far from it, I was acutely aware, and did everything I could to try to avoid it - apart from doing the sensible thing, which was closing my Vodafone account and switching to a pre-pay provider so this can't happen."

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#416412 13-Dec-2010 10:37

so he was aware of the charges before he used it?

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freitasm

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#416414 13-Dec-2010 10:40

It seems he was aware things can get expensive quite fast - by reading the first paragraphs. He got a false sense of security when reading the invoices and not realising these were not listing all the charges incurred.

His point is that the company did not make any effort to let the customer know that charges are different in each country, and how much was used so he could manage it better.

There are some good points there. But I'd not side with him on that.

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#416417 13-Dec-2010 10:49

Be interesting to see how well the "Waaaaahhhhhhhhh! It's not faaiirrrrrrr" defence holds up in court.

Don't get me wrong, I think roaming charges are an extreme ripoff, but I don't see anything in his blog post that could be considered an actual defence. But I'm not a lawyer.

Edit: Sorry, I see he's basing it on not having read the Terms and Conditions.

Audiophiles are such twits! They buy such pointless stuff: Gold plated cables, $2000 power cords. Idiots.

OOOHHHH HYPERFIBRE!

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#416423 13-Dec-2010 10:56

Little sympathy from me - fool and their money are soon parted.

I'm careful when going overseas. I go to the trouble of buying local sims in order to minimise data charges.

Theres been plenty of publicity around data charges when roaming.

dannywii

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#416425 13-Dec-2010 11:02

1-All smartphones have many internet usage at background it very hard to control usage, but he should get an APN switch or something when roaming, don't know if there is one on iphone, I'm android user.

2-Why would anyone still use vodafone these days and complain it's too expensive, there are many cases like this before. IMO using vodafone because you bought an iphone is not a good excuse.

3-Vodafone use to allow customer to set up limit credit on their account, and they removed it few years ago, so they can ripoff more customer. I think limit credit is good there were much less dispute like this before.

Don't think he will success anyway :p

Vodafone "your bill works everywhere in the world"

NzBeagle

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#416427 13-Dec-2010 11:13

+1 for local sims, I have an active AU sim which I lend to friends heading over and they're always amazed at how much cheaper it is. I just ask them to top it up when they leave so it's ready for myself or the next person. Travelling there regularly was expensive using roaming, having a second sim is not really a hassle.

Agreed that this is a big rip off, but I don't think getting ripped off and then complaining about it is going to change anything. People are aware of this problem, see wide publicity, and should take responsibility for their own usage. If they've used it, they should pay for it.

Using Google maps overseas? And not expecting charges? Ever wondered why it takes some time to load if not in 3G? Maybe because its bandwith intensive!

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johnr

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#416428 13-Dec-2010 11:14

dannywii: 1-All smartphones have many internet usage at background it very hard to control usage, but he should get an APN switch or something when roaming, don't know if there is one on iphone, I'm android user.

2-Why would anyone still use vodafone these days and complain it's too expensive, there are many cases like this before. IMO using vodafone because you bought an iphone is not a good excuse.

3-Vodafone use to allow customer to set up limit credit on their account, and they removed it few years ago, so they can ripoff more customer. I think limit credit is good there were much less dispute like this before.

Don't think he will success anyway :p?

Vodafone "your bill works everywhere in the world"?
?

1) Iphone has the option to disable data roaming this is turned on by default when you enable data roaming it pops up with a warning

2) You lost me

3) Credit limits have been back in place for a long time if a customer wants one. Credit limits were removed when we moved to SAM wave 2B cause of bug and no other reason like you have advised above this is just made up nonsense

John

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#416431 13-Dec-2010 11:24

maybe its just the fact that i work in a phone store, but i dont side with the customer entirely on this one either

being able to see how much you have used would be sensible and its hard to judge without it, i normally just tell people to not use mobile data at all because of this. unless they are prepared to pay through the nose for it its just too risky

but if the customer was aware of the costs being high but made no attempt to find out exactly how much , then just went ahead and used it anyway. Its kind of like going to a hotel.. you know the mini bar is expensive and you wouldnt eat from there if the prices were missing and you wouldnt go ahead and eat the nuts just because you found out the water was only $2

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kingjj

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#416468 13-Dec-2010 12:15

The customer incurred the charges. The customer should have read and fully understood the T&C's before signing the contract, or should not have signed. The customer should have checked with Vodafone before they left to inquire whether his data addon would be valid for overseas networks, Vodafone branded ones included. The customer should have spent five minutes before they left on Vodafone's website reading up on international roaming.

The customer is just trying to spend $30 and half a day in an attempt to save $1700 that they legitimately and openly admit to using. I hope Vodafone successfully defend this case and the customer finally admits liability and pays for the consequences.

johnr

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#416470 13-Dec-2010 12:17

Customer would of got a roaming welcome message when they turned on the phone as well

sbiddle

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#416472 13-Dec-2010 12:27

johnr: Customer would of got a roaming welcome message when they turned on the phone as well

They actually didn'treceive these in some countries which they list in their blog.

I know for a fact I've never received messages while roaming in a large number of countries.

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mikerussellnz

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#416477 13-Dec-2010 12:38

The bill will never be up to date, Nor will the online Vodafone site. Sometimes the overseas providers can take a few days or more before they pass on the billing records. There is not a lot Vodafone NZ can do about that as it is up to the overseas carrier to pass roaming usage records across quickly (which they don't always do).

I agree the roaming charges are insane but if you know the price, then it is up to you whether you use it or use a local sim.

oxnsox

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#416495 13-Dec-2010 13:12

The Guy seems to admit the liability, not only by saying he knew it was expensive (because he had done some research and/or read some forums on the issue) but also by saying he wasn't fully aware and familiar with the T&C.

Soo is his issue being unaware of the T&C or the delay in the billing process?

Delays in the billing process didn't stop him using the data.... Or is that his point, that had he seen an accurate ongoing bill then he wouldn't have kept using the services??

If the guy had traveled before he would have known to watch for bill shock, and manage the data roaming. Or would have bought local sims en-route as many travelers do.

But hey if he wants to fight the dragon good on him for giving it a go.

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#416517 13-Dec-2010 13:45

After reading his blog I think he has a reasonable chance of getting his bill reduced - but I doubt it would be to the extent he's asking for. Will be interesting to hear the outcome this afternoon.

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#416522 13-Dec-2010 13:48

pfft, don't believe it will stick! When I went overseas, sure I used my BlackBerry while on transit in Singapore but once I landed at destination, I quickly switched to a prepaid SIM and loaded my Vodafone SIM on a dumb phone just to make sure I know the calls I may have missed.

Like others, no sympathy ..

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