Charged per Minute or Second?

Cofnchtr

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Hi,

Almost at the end of my current contract and phoned Vodafone about upgrades etc. I use an iPhone at the mo but am not on an iPhone contract. My tariff is 300 minutes, unlimited text and unlimited internet for £30/month.

Seems any new contract I enter into, my tariff will change from being charged per second to per minute on calls. So in future if I make a 2 minute 14 second call, I'll use 3 minutes of my inclusive allowance. Currently I'd use 2 minutes 14 seconds of my allowance.

Have all networks changed to this charging rate? Has anyone fought and won to keep a per second charge?

I then asked about 'tethering' and was told this would come out of my internet allowance (500mb/month included in any new tariff) but they advised that I take out a tethering pack as tethering uses more data than just browsing on the iPhone.

A new contract with less internet than my current allowance would subsequently cost me £36/month on a 24 month deal.

Anyone got better deals? I'd prefer to stay with Vodafone as they seem to have the best coverage about here and further north (central Scotland and above) but for the right deal I would consider changing provider.

Cheers,

Cofnchtr.
 
Are you taking a new phone as well? If you're happy with iPhone, simply go for a SIM only deal. You'll get 600 mins for £10 on a 12-month contract, add £5 for Internet. If you have a Twitter account, send a tweet to @VodafoneUKDeals for best offers. They usually offer better deals, & are official Vodafone.
 

Cofnchtr

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Hi,

I probably will get a new handset - iphone is 3GS and actually an upgrade the other half got (she didn't want a new handset at the time) so I'll get new handset, she can have the 3GS.

Although I have enjoyed using the iphone I don't need to have the iphone 4 (or 5) so open to all decent alternatives.

Cheers,

Cofnchtr.
 
A

Anonymous

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Hi

I was in the exact same situation as you even down to givingbother half my 3GS. I'm with orange and wasn't happy with their offers sobivsaid ivwould just cancel my contract as I had seen better deals elsewhere.it wasn't a lie, I had.

Ended up getting the new samsung galaxy 2 with 1200 mins,unlimited texts and 750mb data for £30 per month.its a 24 month contract but that doesn't bother me at that price.
 

Lee H

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Cofnchtr said:
So in future if I make a 2 minute 14 second call, I'll use 3 minutes of my inclusive allowance. Currently I'd use 2 minutes 14 seconds of my allowance.

Hi. I think you've been given duff information. The first minute is rounded up and after that it's per second. So you're 2 minute 14 second call will still use 2 minutes and 14 seconds of your allowance. With the tethering, you're right it does come out of your data allowance and that's fine for occassional tethering. After your initial data allowance it's £5 per 250MB, so if you're going to tether regularly, then the £5 for 500MB bundle is better value. You also get a chunky allowance with BT Openzone to use, which you could also tether with.
 

Cofnchtr

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Hi,

I was told the above example by a Vodafone CS agent - this was last week when I asked why I couldn't tether an iPad to the iPhone. She wanted me to switch to an iPhone contract which included tethering but emphasised the call charging would change from per second to per minute. I have just had a lengthy conversation with one of the 'live chat' reps @ Vodafone who have confirmed that voice calls on new contracts will be charged per minute and NOT per second. To enable tethering I would have to switch to an iPhone contract for the remaining 2 months of my current contract and my calls will be charged per minute. I didn't get any satisfactory answer as to why Vodafone have disabled the tethering feature which she stated is 'inbuilt by the manufacturer'...

If tethering allows use on a private wi-fi network I.E. the one I have set up within my house I shouldn't have to ask Vodafone to 'unlock' the feature on the iPhone?

My ISP is BT so I have unlimited internet access through BT Openzone when on the move despite (or as well as) Vodafone offering 1GB of access.

Cheers,

Cofnchtr.
 

Lee H

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Hi Cofnchtr,

I can 100% PROMISE you that isn't correct. Absolutely, definitively, guarantee it's not correct. The first minute is rounded up, so a 30 second call would use 1 minute. After the first minute, it's per second.

Tethering on your home wi-fi is open, you just need to activate the personal hotpsot feature on the iPhone, but isn't your iPad able to hook up to the wi-fi anyway?

Tethering isn't disabled by Vodafone. On the older tariffs, you would be charged a seperate amount for tethering, on the new ones, you're not, it just comes out of your allowance.

Hope this helps.
 

Cofnchtr

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Hi,

Was in town for another reason and popped into the Vodafone store and they confirmed new tariffs are charged per minute and not per second. Stated most providers were heading that way.

There is a section within the Voda FAQ where it says Pay&Go charges are as you state - 1 minute minimum charge then per second after that.

I can use wi-fi in the house for the iPad but having an iPhone I wanted the service enabled but FOC.

Cheers,

Cofnchtr.
 

Lee H

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The reason I can guarantee it is that I designed and built those tariffs - although I can see there are some training issues to pick up!
 

Cofnchtr

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Hi,

Can you build a new one? Free phone and unlimited internet for those who have been with Vodafone for more years than they can remember with no need to phone CS to threaten to leave before a decent tariff is offered...lol.

I'm only going on what I was told - once by a CS agent on the phone, once within a live chat session online and then within the Vodafone store in Stirling. I had a copy of the conversation emailed to me for my reference if you want I can send it on?

If you have a smartphone you can scan my avatar and it should take you to my facebook page - make yourself known to me and I'll copy it to you.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,

Cofnchtr.
 
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Anonymous

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Well, Lee, I hope your conscience is clear and you sleep well at night. I have been royally ripped off by Vodafone through this – can’t think of a better word – scam.

I used to be on a sim-only £15 per month contract, 600 mins and unlimited texts, annual contract renewal would have been coming in October. I decided I needed emails and web, so I got a Blackberry and a 300 mins, and unlimited text, various download limits etc. all for £20 p/m on a two year contract.

I discussed this with the salesman. He could see from my bills that I had only used an average of 170 mins a month up to now, so since that is less than half 300 mins, I thought I would be fine on the lower limit.

However, nobody told me about the tariff change whereby the first minute is always charged at 60 seconds. I tend to make a lot of short calls, so I was in for a shock.

Two weeks after I got my new contract I got a bill for over £100, about £54 of it call charges. I was astonished. I downloaded my itemised bill and found I had been using the phone no more than usual. (The bill also included insurance and extra international minutes and extra download capacity that I had not asked for, but that got taken off by the shop with no problem).

After going to the Vodafone shop, they showed me what had happened. Basically, although I had used the phone no more than before, I got up to about 380 minutes in less than two weeks, and the charges were for all the calls over the 300. If you take the roughly 170 minutes a month (even though this was only a fortnight), with the short calls under a minute I make and work them out under the new tariff, they would come to something in the region of about 500 minutes a month. So, essentially, I am going to have to make a lot fewer calls if I am not going to end up paying through the nose. I have been robbed in broad daylight.

This is some of the most outrageous, deceptive and devious business practices I have ever come across in my life. I am going to complain and do battle with Vodafone but I don’t expect much luck. They will hold me to the 24 month contract and I will have to watch my minutes all the time. I am absolutely furious. I would never have switched to the new contract if I had known about the tariff change. Lee, I hope you are proud.

What can possibly be fair -- a question I am sure you are not going to answer -- about moving from charging for exactly what you use to a minimum of 60 seconds? How can you possibly justify that?
 

Paul.

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You can get the same tarif but with 600 minutes for £5.50 per month more? Or could you not use your unlimited texts instead of the 20 second phone calls? Also, voice mail is 35p per minute (per call basically), so watch out for those, they add up quickly!
 

Lee H

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ReubenR said:
Well, Lee, I hope your conscience is clear and you sleep well at night.

I have been robbed in broad daylight.

This is some of the most outrageous, deceptive and devious business practices I have ever come across in my life.

Lee, I hope you are proud.

Regardless of how you feel, personal attacks aren't warranted. I responded to the OP in good faith. In future, it would appear best if I kept my counsel on mobile topics rather than try to help others.
 

Paul.

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I used to be really angry at BT when I was about 20, had my first ever internet connection. I got stung for about £80 (they used to give you the free unlimited internet through the naff bt browser, but I didnt realise it set the default browser up to a different dial up tarrif). I was very angry at BT, and swore blind that I had been robbed. At the end of the day though, I was very dissapointed at myself as I did not read the T's and C's. Always mistrust everyone, and read the T's and C's!

Lee, its great that you tried to help, but its risky buisness attaching yourself to a company on the internet. Not worth the reprisals!
 

Lee H

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Paul Hobbs said:
Lee, its great that you tried to help, but its risky buisness attaching yourself to a company on the internet. Not worth the reprisals!

That's the truth! I do normally stay out of such discussions, but in this case the OP had been mis-advised. I don't get involved in any best network or best tariff conversations as there's a risk I could show (or appear to show) bias.

RuenenR, I am genuinely sorry you feel so badly about it.
 
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Anonymous

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Well, Lee, I apologise. I went off the deep end a bit. I will refrain from any personal remarks, but can you – or any others who know -- please simply explain why the change to charging any call less than 60 seconds for a whole minute was made, and how they could justify it?

If there was a debate about this somewhere or if it was covered in the media, I’d be interested to read up on it.

Thanks, Paul, for your advice. Point was that beforehand, I didn't need to worry about how much I used the phone. Now I have to watch it, call up for the balance, remember to use texts instead of calls, etc. etc. etc. which is a royal pain.

Yes, pardon my maths failure. I had 350 in my head instead of 300 for some reason.

As for not reading the T&Cs, the point is that they changed without me being informed and had I known the impact, I would have gone for another kind of contract.

Thanks to all.
 

Cofnchtr

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Hi,

ReubenR - slightly off the deep end. There is a Vodafone forum you can access from the Vodafone site where you can talk to Vodafone CS agents - they will (presumably) be more than happy to answer any contract queries. Lee is here on a personal basis and offered his advice when he didn't have to - your rant was aimed at the wrong person on the wrong forum.

Lee - your answer and follow up emails were more than helpful and I again thank you for taking the time to answer my initial query.

Cheers,

Cofnchtr.
 
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Anonymous

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It is no wonder Lee has fallen silent. I have spoken to CS now, found out a little more and done some sums on my itemised bill and am frankly disgusted by the stunt that Vodafone is pulling on charging a full minute for any call of less than one minute.

I called CS and they were very helpful and got my bill reduced down to what the monthly tariff I signed up for instead of the very high bill I had received. It turns out that what I said in my first post about why I had been charged so much was incorrect. What actually happened was that someone in the billing department had miscalculated what I should pay in the period before the first full calendar month applied on the new contract, so I just been refunded about £70 all told. Result.

Much placated and grateful, I then asked the CS all about the charge-for-a-full-minute-for-calls-of-less-than-a-minute rates, and he said that when they brought in new tariffs earlier this year, there were a lot of complaints. Back then, which I didn't know because my older contract was not affected, V tried to charge the seconds over any whole minute as a whole minute, e.g. a 5 min 10 sec call would be charged as 6 mins (as Confchtr incorrectly believed the current situation to be in the original first post). Apparently, the complaints caused V to withdraw that tariff and retreat to the current position, of charging all calls of less than a minute as a whole minute.

This is pretty clever and pretty sneaky, IMO. I have just looked at my last itemised bill and of about 100 calls in a month about half were less than a minute long. (Obviously, how badly hit you will be depends on how many short calls you make -- naturally, if you never make a call of less than one minute you won't be affected).

I had 50 calls of less than a minute and each one averaged about 17 seconds. That means that for me -- and a lot of other people too, I expect -- I pay for each less-than-one-minute call for 43 seconds I didn't use.

Let's look at it the other way. I used 838 seconds in these 50 short calls, or a total of 14 minutes out of my monthly allowance. Under the new tariff, I would have used 50 minutes from my allowance, i.e. 36 more minutes off the allowance for absolutely no extra time on the phone.

If this isn't a royal rip-off, can someone come up with a better description?

Footnote: Although the new charges for calls of less than a minute came in several months ago, no current contracts were affected, only new ones from then onwards. However, from 1 October, according to the guy in my local Vodafone shop, all contracts will go to the new charging method.
 

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