Contract

[15yearcustomer]

I never use my data charges totally in my cap (3GB) and I never go over. this bill in two days with no reason or explaination or use by myself, has randomly gone over by 1500 dollars. Vodafone waited until it hit 1400 dollars before they told me and then i was informed that post investigation that they believe its a normal use.

BAsed on my history and customer loyalty 15 years with no break, they wont sort out the issue.

I am sure there must be a collective issue by reading ALL the other complaints about people who have the same issue as me.

I am making a telecommunications ombudsman complaint, but i think it might be worthwhile keeping a collective record of how many people have had this issue happen. this could be a large and very expensive issue that vodafone is ignoring when it is obviously occurring to customers who clearly dont exceed their caps EVER. then a one off 48hour period random blow out, they wont agree based on regular customer usage that its an error. this is crazy. i will seek legal action and go to the media if this isnt addressed in the correct way. PLEASE REPLY IF YOU ALSO have an excessive data charge issue which is UNEXPLAINABLE based on your regular patterns.

[ChristinaToro]

Yes, w do also and have had huge issues trying to sort it out. We too have a 3GB total in our cap and were charged nearly $2000 for huge data used apparently in 3 days alone!!! Like you, we have been long time loyal customers and noone seems to want to believe you when you have not even used the internet, applications, music - nothing! Facebook only thing we use. They can see our bills are always consistent and then this huge amount for 3 days! We also want to make a telecommunications ombudsman complaint but are trying to still sort it out via this community page, after realising we are not the only ones! Something must be wrong. What happened to customer always right? One lady replied to my post and told me she was able to have her charges totally dropped by using this method. Her charges though were only around $800. Lets hope we can get ours sorted. I had no luck over the phone and had troubles understanding whoever I spoke to. The Vodafone store staff also could not believe our bill and said something is wrong. They tried to sort it out for us and had troubles also communicating with the other end. Please let me know how you go. Contacting the TIO will be our next option. We cannot and will not pay this amount. Please keep in touch, Cheers.

[15yearcustomer]

Thanks for the reply, to make matters WORSE, i have now been cut off my calls to vodafone when talking to them about this issue due to the calls dropping out.

SO i call the technical support team, and i wait on  hold, then when i start talking to them about my issues and the calls dropping out, the call drops out! i cant even talk to vodafone about their network and service issues because their network is dropping out my calls.

i am so unhappy about the lack of customer service, about one in five times this has happened, someone has been sensible enough to call me back, the rest of the times i have to call them back, wait on hold again and then the call drops out.

how is this a fulfilled contract of service? the legal requirements are for vodafone to give me a reliable phone service which i pay them for monthly, then in exchange for my money, then they need to give me the contractual requirements of a working phone service. SO at the moment I am paying for CALLS dropping out, NO PXT messages and no customer service. YET they want to make sure I fulfill my end of the contract which is to pay some REALLY ABSURD and unexplained data charges which legally they think i am required to do, yet my argument is that Legally the contract requires them to give me a working phone service. which this is NOT>

So i am going to keep following this up, because this is not acceptable after 15 years of monthly payments to which i am not given any kind of customer loyalty or bonus ever. 

[ChristinaToro]

We have been trying to sort out our issues now for a month. We actually received a text saying our bill had reached $$amount and to call a 1300 number. We thought the whole thing was a scam or hoax and then we found out, yes maam.....this amount is correct! Thats terrible about your service. I think there may be quite a lot of customers, including you and me, who will now need to switch carriers if they cannot sort out our issues and provide the service that we expect and pay for. I was actually told from someone at cutomer service that this amount of data in 3 days totalling nearly $2000 was 'feasible'. I highly doubt that and I would like them to show me how many actually pay that for 3 days of surposed internet usage. Good luck hey and hopefully someone @ Vodafone reading our posts can sort this out for us.

[Gemma]

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15yearcustomer wrote:

I never use my data charges totally in my cap (3GB) and I never go over. this bill in two days with no reason or explaination or use by myself, has randomly gone over by 1500 dollars. Vodafone waited until it hit 1400 dollars before they told me and then i was informed that post investigation that they believe its a normal use.

BAsed on my history and customer loyalty 15 years with no break, they wont sort out the issue.

I am sure there must be a collective issue by reading ALL the other complaints about people who have the same issue as me.

I am making a telecommunications ombudsman complaint, but i think it might be worthwhile keeping a collective record of how many people have had this issue happen. this could be a large and very expensive issue that vodafone is ignoring when it is obviously occurring to customers who clearly dont exceed their caps EVER. then a one off 48hour period random blow out, they wont agree based on regular customer usage that its an error. this is crazy. i will seek legal action and go to the media if this isnt addressed in the correct way. PLEASE REPLY IF YOU ALSO have an excessive data charge issue which is UNEXPLAINABLE based on your regular patterns.

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Hi 15yearcustomer, 

I'm very sorry to hear you have received a much higher than expected invoice. I can certainly help you identify how these charges have occurred. If you haven't noticed any change in the way you use your phone over the last few months, the data charges may be related to the data billing correction which was implemented in July. You can read more about this correction here. The changes which were implemented as you were previously not being billed for data usage for the following: 

• The use of services via the internet that require a personal log-in (e.g Hotmail and Internet banking).
• 
  
• The use of peer-to-peer file sharing websites that allow users to share content amongst a closed community (e.g BitTorrent, Limewire, iMesh).
• 
  
• The use of Voice over IP (VoIP) applications that customers may have previously downloaded from the internet to their phone.

To help me identify how these charges have occurred can you please let me know the current make/model handset you are using as well as the current software (if known). So that you can remain aware of your account balance I would strongly recommend monitoring your account balance via 1512 (free call or blank text from your Vodafone SIM) or MyVodafone to avoid unwanted excess charges. 

Thanks, 
Gemma  

[Gemma]

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ChristinaToro wrote:
We have been trying to sort out our issues now for a month. We actually received a text saying our bill had reached $$amount and to call a 1300 number. We thought the whole thing was a scam or hoax and then we found out, yes maam.....this amount is correct! Thats terrible about your service. I think there may be quite a lot of customers, including you and me, who will now need to switch carriers if they cannot sort out our issues and provide the service that we expect and pay for. I was actually told from someone at cutomer service that this amount of data in 3 days totalling nearly $2000 was 'feasible'. I highly doubt that and I would like them to show me how many actually pay that for 3 days of surposed internet usage. Good luck hey and hopefully someone @ Vodafone reading our posts can sort this out for us.

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Hi ChristinaToro, 

Thanks for your post. I can see that you have been discussing your concerns with Millie via our Facebook page, and that Millie has provided you with a code to email us.

We are currently working through a slight back log in our emails, which means that it may be slightly longer than 24 hours for us to reply to you. Thankyou for your patience.

Thanks 

[15yearcustomer]

Hi Gemma,

thanks for the reply. I dont fall into any of those categories you listed, hotmail, voip or peer-peer. I dont know why in September a change in billing from July would push my usage up over the 3G cap which i never exceed now of all times, if it was going to occur, wouldn't it have occurred in July?

I still believe this is an error in the data charging system or a surge of some sort which has had nothing to do with my normal average usage.

I am interested to hear what the legislation is in Australia regarding the monitoring of billing methods for data. How do they accurately record the number of KB, MB and GIG etc? Is there regular audits to ensure customers like myself and other people listed here with the same issue arent being victims of service errors? How do we, as customers, know vodafone are acccurately recording or monitoring these 'wireless' based meters? Thank you

[15yearcustomer]

Hi Gemma, thanks for your reply earlier, I dont intend to 'bump' or double reply, but I am just hoping to get this problem fixed up asap as its causing a lot of stress and anxiety whilst its not fixed. I keep getting my calls dropped out when I cal 1555 to talk to someone, so I am really hoping the forum will be the best option to discuss these issues.

I have noticed that two other Excess Data charges posts have been sorted out and it gives me faith that vodafone might help me with this problem also, I really hope so, as I have been with your company ever since I got my first mobile 15 odd years ago.

I saw there was a Nick or a Cait who helped out. If you arent available, are other team members able to assist? 

thanks

[new_incredulous]

Hi there, 15yearcustomer, did you get anywhere with this? are you still after replies? I've been loking all over the place for clues and i don't like what i'm seeing: an unbelievable number of customers copping huge unexplained charges with no apparent resolution!

This was my first month on Vodafone and i was keen to monitor my usage to get an idea of how quickly it gets used. There goes that idea. My usage jumped from [none in 7days] to [only 100mb in 7days (including other people tethering to my phone and using my data!!!)] to [>$175 in 2 days - and then another $25 in the next 2 days]. Absolutely ridiculous. 

I have recently found the switch-off-background-data-completely button on my phone which has crippled my 3g until the bill cycle resets... I too want an explanation, but those do not seem forthcoming AT ALL.

Hope you're closer than i am. 

[itsmoe]

This is really weird, as I've been with Vodafone for over three months and I've never had that issue, even when I was with three (I only had 200MB) and it was fine and lasted me all month. Even with my email on Sync and constant browsing and app downloads.

But to go over $1500 in a couple of days, this couldn't be right, not unless you have downloaded the whole internet! Weird!