No Vodamoans from me (Vodafone Tariffs)

Member Name: iamasadlittleboy

Product:	Vodafone Tariffs
Date:	11/08/09 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Good customer services, Reliable

Disadvantages: No 3G in my area, the first month can be costly

I currently have 2 Vodafone deals running concurrently one is a full time 18 month contract and 1 is a SIM only deal. The SIM only was from Phones 4 U when I went to top up they offered me one, I miraculously passed their credit checks and was signed up there, almost 30 mins after going in for a £10 top up. At the time I was told if I kept up the payments for 3 months they'd let me have a full time contract with them and a top up for £15 a month more.

The original SIM only was a £15 a month one with 600 mins anyone any time and unlimited (cough 3000 cough) texts a month. I was told if I wanted to add the unlimited internet bundle (which I did-though I need to add thats a fair usage policy as well) I was to go down and add it in the Vodafone shop, though I'm not sure why the guy told me that. This was an additional £5 a month, so my bills would be £20 a month for free internet, free texts and 10 hours calls per month, not bad. Though the MMS would still be paid for it wasn't like I was going to be sending a load of them out anyway, and I had been topping up £10 a week on PAYG so I was saving myself £20 a month anyway.

After 3 months I'd "missed" one payment (the Direct debit was incorrectly taken, and I was refunded the £8 charge by Barclay's) but they'd got it at the second try just a few days later. I'd walked into the shop and offered to pay it there and then but they assured me it'd be debited a few days later and things would be fine (not sure if it's effected my credit rating but oh well). The three months had ran to about £86 as I'd sent a few pictures about and videos but to be honest it was nothing unexpected.
Your thinking 3 month at £20 should be nearer £60 right? Well yeah, but they take a double payment for the first month so your a month up (same with the contract) so I'd paid for 4 months by this point and only lost signal once for a few days in my house, which is in the middle of no where. I'd happily accepted my house wasn't great for a signal, though having had only 3 days of poor signal I was impressed enough to go ahead and have a contract with them. I wanted a new phone anyway and thought this would be cheaper than buying one outright.

So back to Phones 4 U to upgrade to a proper contract, to get the phone I had gotten my eye on, the C902, I was told my contract would be £40 a week (not the £35 I'd been promised a few months earlier). Slightly bitterly I ended up asking directly with Vodafone in their store, as their staff always seemed helpful and decent, no pretence of doing the customers a favour just honest retail. They said the bloke should never have told me that the price should have been £35 with out putting it in writing, and that he should have never told me I could have gone from a SIM only to contract keeping the same number. If I wanted to cancel the SIM only I'd have to write to Vodafone and tell them I wanted it cancelling. I thought to my self that it'd be advantageous to have 2 have phones, effectively I was getting 10 hours for £20 and another internet browser if I needed it. Pretty much 3p a minute for 10 hours I can use that no problems.

So I was still intent on getting a contract with pretty much the same deal, they said for £30 I could have the C902 and the same minutes/texts/internet I'd been getting anyway as long as I put my pen to paper for 18 months. It did seem quite long but it was £540 for the full duration, and so I was paying £180 for a then £300 phone, it was a no brainer to be honest. So pen to paper it was time to take my new baby for a test drive and every thing was perfect until I saw the first months bill...over £90. I initially thought they were taking the piss there was no way I'd spent £40 on MMS messages that month, then I realised I'd been charged £65 for the first 2 months on the contract and £20 on the SIM only. After realising why it was so high I wasn't that bothered, but seeing £90 was rather worrying. If this was going to be the price every month I was going to complain and see if I could get anything out of them, but thankfully the realisation of the situation was slightly more calming and all was fine.

So your also thinking "why £65 for 2 months, if 1 month is £30?" Well the deal came with accident insurance (something I felt was needed) the first month was free, the rest of the time it was £5 a month. So £85 for the duration of the deal was covering the phone for accidents, something I'm rather prone to be honest. Though I've not had any reason to claim on it yet, it's nice to know it's there.

So currently paying £55 mins for 20 hours of calls, infinite texts, internet and insurance on a rather nice phone. My signal has been perfect on the contract (sadly I can't get the true 3G functions of mobile TV and the such in my house, so I can't talk about that, but I have a laptop to watch things on in bed). Calls connecting and texts sending with out any problems, the only problem seems to be with receiving texts sometimes, where they just won't come through for a while until you send one out often leading to you getting a handful of "not replying" "have I pissed you off?" "are you just being a bastard?" type texts. When you send one explaining the situation the people understand and accept your apology.

So any problems? Well despite the brilliant coverage I get nearly everywhere, there's a village on the way to work that I seem unable to pick up any signal at all in. Other than that (Broughton In Furness) and on a train to Southampton I seemed to have pretty much perfect coverage. I know O2's signal is hit and miss in this house, whilst Orange is usually consistent but this was excellent, a full signal in every room in the building. As previously said there is a lack of 3G functions but perfect GPRS reception as well as normal phone signals it was easy to ignore the lack of 3G.

Currently I've been nothing but impressed, the shock of the large bill aside they have been perfect and I've never had anything to complain about. The price is wonderful, the customer services in store have been nothing short of brilliant and helpful and I think it's almost certain I'll be renewing with Vodafone in about 13 months unless they suddenly change the way they treat me. Though if they do start to change their approach it's likely I'll being going to T Mobile. O2 I've had bad experiences with and wouldn't sign anything with them. Orange on the other hand seem like criminals when I've been in the store watching their sales staff treat customers like idiots, sadly it seems some of their customers are idiots.

Thank you Vodafone for being so exceptional so far, lets hope you don't mess it up now.


A note for those on an Orange Contract. Those that signed a contract before June the 1st this year may have the legal right to cancel it now as Orange are changing their pricing structures in a way that invalidates many of the contracts, you should be receiving a text about it now. If you don't then check money saving expert as they've been the big ones trying to push for this to be more well known.

Summary: Vodafone fill my needs perfectly