Recently I decided that Vodafone had a range of offerings that would allow me to achieve what I wanted. The apprehension was, in the past I've had issues where Vodafone staff gave wrong advice. In one case the Vodafone reseller contact had to retrain staff in the store so they could deliver the service they had available. As they say, once bitten twice shy.
In summary what I was doing and did was two set up two mobiles with 12 month SIM only plans. I also wanted to port our landline number to one of the mobiles thereby keeping our landline number, but getting rid of the physical landline. Now calls to the old landline number would go to the mobile. Yes this can be done.
The benefits are obvious. Instead of getting 6-7Mbps on the fixed line with ADSL2+ I'd now get 30-60 Mbps or more. Keep the landline number and able to use the broadband allowance of 70GB which is shared between the two mobiles anywhere there is a good Vodafone connection. All for less than I was previously paying.
Issues I had.
1. Calling the customer service number to confirm I could port the landline number and the first response is Vodafone didn't do it. I advised the customer contact person they could and asked them to look up the service on the Vodafone site and they came back confirming the service was available. I'd done a lot of online checking and I expected the customer contact person wouldn't know about the service. Porting can take around 15 days.
2. Not trusting the customer contact call centre off I went to the local Vodafone store to check all the details. Left and came back on another day once I was sure I knew everything I could. Set up the two mobiles and ported the landline. These would all port and I was told I didn't need to do anything more such as cancelling services. That was done when numbers were ported. I selected a $35 a month plan which had 30 GB of data as I was advised I could upgrade a plan at no cost, but couldn't downgrade. The other plan was $40 with $5 discount and 40 GB of data. Porting the two mobiles happened very quickly. One whilst in the store and one by the time I got home. That's great but a concern because if I was a fraudster the real user would have received no notification. I never received notification from TPG the mobile numbers were being ported.
3. I signed up on the 8th of November and the plan reset on the 10th. I was told this is what Vodafone did and effectively you got two days free. I was billed $10 extra for 1 GB of data. Had to call Vodafone for this to be corrected.
4. The porting of the landline took a little longer than the 15 days. Calls were now going to the mobile if the landline number was called. I decided to test the landline. I could still call out so the landline was not automatically disconnected as advised by Vodafone staff. Had to call Vodafone to confirm they didn't cancel the line. Had to call TPG, then message TPG to cancel service. TPG kept all unused amounts from mobile services including charging for 30 days notice on the landline/ADSL2+ service. Unfortunately I couldn't provide advance notification to cancel the landline/ADSL2+ to minimise this cost as I couldn't be sure the landline port would work. Just so others are aware this probably means $60-$70 of services you've already paid for but won't use.
Overall at this stage everything was now working. The next stage was to increase the $35 plan to have more data if required.
The plans I was discussing with the Vodafone staff are shown in the the following image from WayBackWhen. The prices didn't come up on the WayBackWhen site but were $35, $40 (includes the $5 discount and $60.
As it turned out I had to use more data than expected in the month upgrading computers, so felt upgrading the $35 plan would give more elbow room. I saw Vodafone now offered 10 GB more on the $40 plan and 20 GB more if I upgraded the $35 plan to the $40 plan. That made me think I could upgrade for $5 a month in total and get an additional 30 GB of data.
With the $40 plan since it was the same plan I had, but just with extra data this wasn't considered an upgrade. I accept I was wrong in my assumption. No problem. That's just 10 GB.
With the $35 plan I could upgrade to the $40 plan and get the extra 20 GB of data. I was advised there was no cost to upgrade by two staff members. There was three days to the end of the current period. I asked what happens with upgrading. When you upgrade you lose any remaining and the plan upgrades immediately. I decided to wait until the last day of the month for the plan which was the 9th of December. (NOTE: According to the Vodafone terms and conditions upgrading plans start from the beginning of the next billing cycle and not immediately. This differs from what the staff member said.)
On the last day of the current (the 9th of December) I went into the Vodafone store to upgrade. I didn't trust the call centre and don't trust the app as I get inconsistent information. Two Vodafone staff had told me I could upgrade the $35 plan at no cost.
I asked the staff member at Vodafone and they said you're locked into the 12 month contract and can't upgrade. I let her know what the other staff members had said but she again said I couldn't upgrade. I then showed her the Vodafone app which said I was eligible to upgrade. She then conferred with her manager. She came back and said you can upgrade but have to pay out the exit fee for the plan which is 50% of the remaining 11 months.
The real problem here is the information you get from all the sources available from Vodafone is not consistent or complete. You never know if the staff you talk to know what they're doing or not. The Vodafone app which knows the plan you're on shows you can upgrade but does not mention exit fees. You just don't know who is right and who isn't.
At this point I've largely given up because the time involved has been excessive and more time with Vodafone feels like a waste of time and energy. If this is too hard for me, and I live in the world of providing advice and guidance to others on technology, then I don't know how others with less knowledge don't get burnt. Two staff at the one store say one thing whilst two staff say another. Online and app information also say different things.
It is my nature to persist and get answers to these issues as that is often what I do for a living. Even though it does take a lot of time, it does mean I can provide better advice and guidance to others that I help.
Also I should say I'm often looking at new services people can take advantage of and that means often staff in the companies aren't informed and this creates problems.
With Vodafone I think it's best to keep things simple. Try to understand the contracts and the commitment you are entering into. Assume if you sign up for 12 months you can't change anything. Assume the worst. It may be staff don't know, or it can be miscommunication. We often assume things in a conversation based on our perspective or knowledge and don't quite hear things in the way another person has said it, or the other person was simply wrong. The bottom line is, only the contract matters. That is what you've committed to. It's a sad fact of life that we get told things that aren't true but if they're not written down in the contract, you'll only get grief and agro trying to get satisfaction with what you've been told.
Would I refer others to Vodafone. I'd be very reluctant. With all the time I put into making sure I get everything right, and it is considerable, and still come unstuck, I'd suggest others be very cautious.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.
Update: 17 December 2018
After taking some time going through the Vodafone site I decided to revisit the Vodafone store to ask the original staff member to confirm what I'd learn even if it wasn't what I originally understood he'd advised me.
The problem in hindsight is I went into the store discussing the current advertised plans. They were the only plans I knew about and thus I assumed the staff member was talking about the same plans including bonuses such as data and discounts.
Whilst I was told I could upgrade the $35 plan at no cost, I wasn't told that when you upgrade you lose all the data bonus and discount. That is the $35 plan with $30GB of data could be upgraded to the $45 plan with no $5 discount and no 25GB of bonus data. Less data for $10 more.
Vodafone have plan upgrades as one facility and switching plans as another. When you switch you lose benefits of the plan. If you upgrades you generally need to pay out the old plan if under contract.
In addition, if I read the online information correctly, you can upgrade at no cost from the 12 Month SIM only to the 12 Month SIM only Plus plans. That is you can go from the $35/$45 to the $60/$80 plans at no cost, but I suspect you'd lose any bonus data on the $60/$80 plans.
Overall a very confusing situation for consumers.
I've decided now to leave the plans as they are. Whether I continue to use Vodafone when the contracts expire is hard to say. During the 12 months if I need additional data, Coles and Woolworths often have new prepaid plans that can be purchased for a considerable discount. For example today I purchase a SIM kit for $9 which will provide 35GB and can be activated up to the 4th of February. If I activate the SIM at the right time (halfway through my Vodafone billing cycle) I can use this to supplement the data covering two billing periods giving me more data if needed, at a lower cost, than picking a higher priced plan from Vodafone. Not as convenient, works around this issue if needed.
In summary what I was doing and did was two set up two mobiles with 12 month SIM only plans. I also wanted to port our landline number to one of the mobiles thereby keeping our landline number, but getting rid of the physical landline. Now calls to the old landline number would go to the mobile. Yes this can be done.
The benefits are obvious. Instead of getting 6-7Mbps on the fixed line with ADSL2+ I'd now get 30-60 Mbps or more. Keep the landline number and able to use the broadband allowance of 70GB which is shared between the two mobiles anywhere there is a good Vodafone connection. All for less than I was previously paying.
Issues I had.
1. Calling the customer service number to confirm I could port the landline number and the first response is Vodafone didn't do it. I advised the customer contact person they could and asked them to look up the service on the Vodafone site and they came back confirming the service was available. I'd done a lot of online checking and I expected the customer contact person wouldn't know about the service. Porting can take around 15 days.
2. Not trusting the customer contact call centre off I went to the local Vodafone store to check all the details. Left and came back on another day once I was sure I knew everything I could. Set up the two mobiles and ported the landline. These would all port and I was told I didn't need to do anything more such as cancelling services. That was done when numbers were ported. I selected a $35 a month plan which had 30 GB of data as I was advised I could upgrade a plan at no cost, but couldn't downgrade. The other plan was $40 with $5 discount and 40 GB of data. Porting the two mobiles happened very quickly. One whilst in the store and one by the time I got home. That's great but a concern because if I was a fraudster the real user would have received no notification. I never received notification from TPG the mobile numbers were being ported.
3. I signed up on the 8th of November and the plan reset on the 10th. I was told this is what Vodafone did and effectively you got two days free. I was billed $10 extra for 1 GB of data. Had to call Vodafone for this to be corrected.
4. The porting of the landline took a little longer than the 15 days. Calls were now going to the mobile if the landline number was called. I decided to test the landline. I could still call out so the landline was not automatically disconnected as advised by Vodafone staff. Had to call Vodafone to confirm they didn't cancel the line. Had to call TPG, then message TPG to cancel service. TPG kept all unused amounts from mobile services including charging for 30 days notice on the landline/ADSL2+ service. Unfortunately I couldn't provide advance notification to cancel the landline/ADSL2+ to minimise this cost as I couldn't be sure the landline port would work. Just so others are aware this probably means $60-$70 of services you've already paid for but won't use.
Overall at this stage everything was now working. The next stage was to increase the $35 plan to have more data if required.
The plans I was discussing with the Vodafone staff are shown in the the following image from WayBackWhen. The prices didn't come up on the WayBackWhen site but were $35, $40 (includes the $5 discount and $60.
As it turned out I had to use more data than expected in the month upgrading computers, so felt upgrading the $35 plan would give more elbow room. I saw Vodafone now offered 10 GB more on the $40 plan and 20 GB more if I upgraded the $35 plan to the $40 plan. That made me think I could upgrade for $5 a month in total and get an additional 30 GB of data.
With the $40 plan since it was the same plan I had, but just with extra data this wasn't considered an upgrade. I accept I was wrong in my assumption. No problem. That's just 10 GB.
With the $35 plan I could upgrade to the $40 plan and get the extra 20 GB of data. I was advised there was no cost to upgrade by two staff members. There was three days to the end of the current period. I asked what happens with upgrading. When you upgrade you lose any remaining and the plan upgrades immediately. I decided to wait until the last day of the month for the plan which was the 9th of December. (NOTE: According to the Vodafone terms and conditions upgrading plans start from the beginning of the next billing cycle and not immediately. This differs from what the staff member said.)
On the last day of the current (the 9th of December) I went into the Vodafone store to upgrade. I didn't trust the call centre and don't trust the app as I get inconsistent information. Two Vodafone staff had told me I could upgrade the $35 plan at no cost.
I asked the staff member at Vodafone and they said you're locked into the 12 month contract and can't upgrade. I let her know what the other staff members had said but she again said I couldn't upgrade. I then showed her the Vodafone app which said I was eligible to upgrade. She then conferred with her manager. She came back and said you can upgrade but have to pay out the exit fee for the plan which is 50% of the remaining 11 months.
The real problem here is the information you get from all the sources available from Vodafone is not consistent or complete. You never know if the staff you talk to know what they're doing or not. The Vodafone app which knows the plan you're on shows you can upgrade but does not mention exit fees. You just don't know who is right and who isn't.
At this point I've largely given up because the time involved has been excessive and more time with Vodafone feels like a waste of time and energy. If this is too hard for me, and I live in the world of providing advice and guidance to others on technology, then I don't know how others with less knowledge don't get burnt. Two staff at the one store say one thing whilst two staff say another. Online and app information also say different things.
It is my nature to persist and get answers to these issues as that is often what I do for a living. Even though it does take a lot of time, it does mean I can provide better advice and guidance to others that I help.
Also I should say I'm often looking at new services people can take advantage of and that means often staff in the companies aren't informed and this creates problems.
With Vodafone I think it's best to keep things simple. Try to understand the contracts and the commitment you are entering into. Assume if you sign up for 12 months you can't change anything. Assume the worst. It may be staff don't know, or it can be miscommunication. We often assume things in a conversation based on our perspective or knowledge and don't quite hear things in the way another person has said it, or the other person was simply wrong. The bottom line is, only the contract matters. That is what you've committed to. It's a sad fact of life that we get told things that aren't true but if they're not written down in the contract, you'll only get grief and agro trying to get satisfaction with what you've been told.
Would I refer others to Vodafone. I'd be very reluctant. With all the time I put into making sure I get everything right, and it is considerable, and still come unstuck, I'd suggest others be very cautious.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.
Update: 17 December 2018
After taking some time going through the Vodafone site I decided to revisit the Vodafone store to ask the original staff member to confirm what I'd learn even if it wasn't what I originally understood he'd advised me.
The problem in hindsight is I went into the store discussing the current advertised plans. They were the only plans I knew about and thus I assumed the staff member was talking about the same plans including bonuses such as data and discounts.
Whilst I was told I could upgrade the $35 plan at no cost, I wasn't told that when you upgrade you lose all the data bonus and discount. That is the $35 plan with $30GB of data could be upgraded to the $45 plan with no $5 discount and no 25GB of bonus data. Less data for $10 more.
Vodafone have plan upgrades as one facility and switching plans as another. When you switch you lose benefits of the plan. If you upgrades you generally need to pay out the old plan if under contract.
In addition, if I read the online information correctly, you can upgrade at no cost from the 12 Month SIM only to the 12 Month SIM only Plus plans. That is you can go from the $35/$45 to the $60/$80 plans at no cost, but I suspect you'd lose any bonus data on the $60/$80 plans.
Overall a very confusing situation for consumers.
I've decided now to leave the plans as they are. Whether I continue to use Vodafone when the contracts expire is hard to say. During the 12 months if I need additional data, Coles and Woolworths often have new prepaid plans that can be purchased for a considerable discount. For example today I purchase a SIM kit for $9 which will provide 35GB and can be activated up to the 4th of February. If I activate the SIM at the right time (halfway through my Vodafone billing cycle) I can use this to supplement the data covering two billing periods giving me more data if needed, at a lower cost, than picking a higher priced plan from Vodafone. Not as convenient, works around this issue if needed.
