Vodafone Review

Overall Rating

Vodafone's shop is local and there is a no fuss push for contract phones. there were lots of free phones of different brands. I was able to upgrade to Sony Ericsson P910i smartphone from a Nokia 3100. On an unsigned contract/agreement. The company promise to set up the phone and charge it and guarantee you leave the shop with a working phone.

There are no authorised signatures on the agreement and the terms and conditions are so faint they are illegible without a magnifying glass. I was not given any advise or options of a tarriff. The terms and conditions are not accurate or honoured by the company, who claim its an old form. My phone was not set up I was sent home to do it all myself including insertion of their simcard which is the companies property and subject to recall on demand. Charges for voicemail, text, mms and video are phenomenal. Staff are unco-operative and I recieved no response to emailed compaints. I did get a request to return my sim card via email.
I am charged for two accounts with the same number. (Do not use Vodafone uk network)

Vodafone mobile phones are locked into vodaphone network and log onto wap, internet, gprs automatically by remote self dialing online if the unit is switched on and you cannot reject this. If you're writing a text it deletes your text and goes to voicemail inbox automatically and cuts off a voice call to go onto voice mail and voicemail is 35p per minute while other networks are free.

On numerous occasions I discovered my phone was online to voicemail without my authorisation and do not know how long it had been connected, it remains connected until you press end call.

I have instructed vodafone to disable my voicemail, gprs, vodafonelive, email, wap and internet and this has not been implemented so I have know advised them I am suspending their services. No response. The potential for these services is great if you wish to use them but I dont want my phone dially them up automatically.

Billing

My tariff gives me 100 free minutes but there is know way to know if it is a free call or a paid call. You have to pay for itemised phone bills. I recieved itemised charged bills without requesting them. I noticed numerous repeated number calls to unrecognised numbers were listed, international call charges when I had not mad any and charged for calls via wap, email etc that I have not made.

The last straw was when I noted my bills jumped from £21 per month to £196.00 per month.

It is not possible to change your phone calling habits so drastically and even company executives who use their phones continuosly don't have bills like that and I don't use it that much, I sent 200 texts in over a year. I have found since I challeged these bills and the legality of their agreement that Vodafone have become unco-operated and indifferent. I am now in a position after 2 months with a new phone that I may have to hand it back, get it unlocked on the market, and changes networks or go through the hassle of legal action.

I am sure that many are happy with vodafone and maybe I have been unlucky, but this review is based on the facts not on opinion

Members' Comments onmaatkarauk's Review

• kerrismith on 8th Dec 2004

  I actually work for Vodafone and what you have said is not all true!
  First of all you don't pay extra for itemised billing, it just appears that way on your bill, it's actually included in the cost of your tariff.
  And if you had recieved a bill for £190 then you clearly have been changed for your usage!

• Heroes101 on 16th Feb 2005

  I must agree with the first reply, your review is not based on fact.
  
  1) If your phone is connecting to GPRS at random then it's a fault, even so GPRS is charged at a browsing fee, you pay for what you view not the time connected, so if you connect in error but stay on the same page, it's one fee (little under a penny!)
  2) If it 'dials' up to WAP, as some phones do, this is because the settings have been set that way or a handset fault.
  3) Voicemail retrieval is 15p a min OUTSIDE of your free talk time on a 100 minutes tariff!
  
  If you have issues vodafone customer service will help, or go into a store and speak face to face! They will help!

• StewJue on 11th May 2005

  Very wrongly calulated bills later on 2 mobile numbers,& faulty handsets including refurbished handsets with (previous owners)dialed numbers and sent texts on them,completely the wrong phone altogether on one occasion and no working mobile for a month due to staff incompetence at Vodafone.( years happy service with Vodafone with two mobiles connected through Singlepoint,go over to 3G and less than 6 months they have completely destroyed all my faith in them as a network.97pence a min to ring another Voda,75pence a min to ring a UK landline and 200 incl.mins.,yeah right,WHERE!!!!!
  DON'T TOUCH Vodafone with a barge pole as they seem to be experiencing a lot of problems of late and the customer service staff will just hang up on you IF you ever get to speak to one or they will promise to do something for you and won't."The Best Network And Getting Better"their literarue says,hmmmmmm.