@vodafoneuk Vodafone Complaint

[Spest]

I am posting on behalf of my partner who is at her wits end with this company.

 

She recently travelled to Norway, and was advised to take out the 'EuroTraveller' package. Unfortunately, she was on a cruise ship which it seems is not counted as part of Europe and has been charged around £255 for usage during this time.

 

I believe she was mislead when sold the package. Surely a customer services advisor should have known a cruise ship would be exempt from this package. I have checked myself on your website and there is no mention of cruise ships at all on the EuroTraveller page - only a list of countries within your 'Europe Zone', one of which is Norway. The terms and condition are minimal and again, no mention or link to anything regarding cruise ships.

 

She cannot afford to pay this and was forced to cancel her direct debit before the £255 was taken out. She is aware you are not supposed to do this but felt she had no other choice. She is of course willing to pay her normal contract fees but wishes to dispute these extra charges.

 

This is on top of other problems she has had with Vodafone, the main being supplied with faulty handsets not being replaced that resulted in her having to supply her own at her own expense.

[kelz2125]

It's a bit of a difficult area, as it depends on whether on the ship you are able to pick up the signal from the closest country, which if you are then it would be part of whatever mobile package you have bought to cover your travel to this area. However, once you are far out at sea the cruise ship uses it's own seperate network, which is via satillite. Whenever I have cruised the costs have been detailled in the information you receive when you board, and they are extremely high, around £1 for a text and £3 per minute for calls.

 

However, with regards to problems with faulty phones, i would recommend contacting the Twitter customer services team, as whenever i have had a problem they have been so good at getting it sorted.

 

Hope you get it all in order again!

 

Kel

[locutus]

Follow this advice

Hi CAG members,

We thought it would be nice to introduce ourselves and to assure you all that our presence on CAG is with the very best of intentions.

vodafone UK has recently introduced a dedicated Web Relations Team which is keen to seek out customers who’re having difficulties with their accounts and feel that they have no other place to turn to than CAG and other consumer forums and blogs.

Naturally, it’s not possible for us to help directly with account specific queries on CAG and as such we would encourage those members who feel we can help them to contact us privately at [email protected] quoting ‘WRT135 – CAG Forum’ in the subject line to ensure that it reaches the Web Relations Team.

When emailing us we would also ask that you either provide us with a link to your post or thread – if you’ve posted in another member’s thread please also provide your CAG username so that we can check what your query is.

 

Let Lee look into this. Your partner categorically stated what she wanted this for a cruise?

[Spest]

Follow this advice

 

 

Let Lee look into this. Your partner categorically stated what she wanted this for a cruise?

 

Hi, yes - she was aware that mobile charges can be somewhat complicated when overseas which is why she checked beforehand. She says she definitely mentioned that she would be on a cruise ship. Isn't the EuroTraveller a fairly new package - maybe that caused some confusion for the CS person? I don't know.

Anyhow, I have since again looked at the website - cruise ships are mentioned in the 'Rest of the World' category, but nowhere on the EuroTraveller.

Apparently she nor her companion were given any documentation by the cruise ship regarding charges, moot point though really as she was under the impression she was covered by the EuroTraveller.

 

Thanks for your replies and I will follow the advice linked.

[Bang!]

Cruise ships effectively are treated as a non EU roaming agreement, as its their own network you use, and can be set at silly rates. Its not VF who set this, and they would be unaware of any specific rate charged per ship.

 

The Euro Traveller package would only be of use if you set the phone to make manual connections to the mobile masts you were near, excluding your (or any other) ship. So really only of use if ashore or a max of 18/20 miles from the coast (think tall mast on high cliffs).

 

For next time if you have net access the cheapest call rates would be VOIP.

 

I wish you luck with VF, but as I suspect they will be passing most of the charges to your cruise company, then there is not a lot of room for reducing charges.

[locutus]

When you get your reference number post it here.

 

If your partner phoned and asked for a package that covered calls on the cruise ship, and voda said the EuroTaveller does, this is binding on them... by any chance do you record your calls?

[Spest]

She says she 'can't remember' where she was told about the EuroTraveller but it could have been in the local shop, she is quite gullible and took out her contract from there. She certainly wouldn't have the nous to record any calls, but I've told her to check her emails in case there is anything there.

 

I think the case number is 10134821, got an email from Vodafone citing this number.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Spest,

 

Thanks for making me aware of this and for following the advice provided so far.

 

Having checked our emails I can confirm that I've received yours and will get back to you as soon as I can.

 

For the purpose of anyone else reading this thread further details regarding our roaming rates can be seen here.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations Team

 

Vodafone UK