# Vodafone increased internet & telephone price without notifying!



## laura_goldy (Aug 28, 2013)

Hi
I have a 1-year contract with Vodafone for internet & telephone at a fixed price. I am into 6 months of the contract, all of sudden today I found that they increased the price to €25 ( that's a 33% increase). There is no message notification or a call from them. I am already paying them a big amount. 
I called the customer service, not only they are unhelpful also rude & unprofessional.
Is anyone of you facing the same problem?
I thought to consult the consumer forum..
Any suggestions/recommendations?
Thx all,


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## Jenny Jitterbug (Aug 26, 2020)

laura_goldy said:


> Hi
> I have a 1-year contract with Vodafone for internet & telephone at a fixed price. I am into 6 months of the contract, all of sudden today I found that they increased the price to €25 ( that's a 33% increase). There is no message notification or a call from them. I am already paying them a big amount.
> I called the customer service, not only they are unhelpful also rude & unprofessional.
> Is anyone of you facing the same problem?
> ...


You are in Spain not the UK. You’ll get used to it in time. You could file a Libro de reclamaciones.


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## Andaluz (Oct 6, 2020)

Both big operators pretty much do as they please and have their supposed '_customer services' _designed in such a way that it makes it easier for them to be able to keep you at arms length.

I've been abe to go local (small municipal level) to a relatively new provider that is cheaper and has a local office that will answer and respond in a proper manner. It's also cheaper.


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## Randy&Kathy (Feb 11, 2019)

I read this with a certain degree of humor and bemuzement. I have not posted in here for some time as much has been on hold for our planned move, which is supposed to be in six months, due to the pandemic. I have been looking at the service provided and realize that it is structured much differently than we are accustomed to in the United States. Even in view of the service differences, 25€ sounds like deal compared to what we have to pay for basic service in the United States, our service with Vodafone's US counterpart is just under five times your rate taking in the conversion rate from US dollars to euros.

With the approach of our planned move I have many lines of inquiry which I will start making over the next few weeks. I have appreciated all the comments, advice and suggestions from this group.


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## lard_ascending (Sep 16, 2020)

laura_goldy said:


> Hi
> I have a 1-year contract with Vodafone for internet & telephone at a fixed price. I am into 6 months of the contract, all of sudden today I found that they increased the price to €25 ( that's a 33% increase). There is no message notification or a call from them. I am already paying them a big amount.
> I called the customer service, not only they are unhelpful also rude & unprofessional.
> Is anyone of you facing the same problem?
> ...


Vodafone's strategy to increase revenue is to increase your download speed at home and your data allowance on mobiles at a higher price, although you don't need it or didn't ask for it. They then say that they no longer offer the previous packages. Only real option is to go elsewhere.


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## laura_goldy (Aug 28, 2013)

lard_ascending said:


> Vodafone's strategy to increase revenue is to increase your download speed at home and your data allowance on mobiles at a higher price, although you don't need it or didn't ask for it. They then say that they no longer offer the previous packages. Only real option is to go elsewhere.


It seems you are right. They increased internet speed which I have not requested for/ which indeed I don't need it. 
I told them, I want to move to another company, for that they threatened me with a fee of €150, for the contract break.
How legit is this that they change the agreed contract, whenever they want?


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## laura_goldy (Aug 28, 2013)

I've checked Vodafone reviews. It is rated very poorly on Trustpilot, especially recent reviews from customers. YThere are 100´s of customers affected by these new changes.

There must be a greedy executive in Vodafone who has thought of stealing money with a legal/illegal loop poles. Such a shame, people have been hit very hard by a corona pandemic and these companies are not ashamed to do such acts.


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## xgarb (May 6, 2011)

Normally the contracts say that the consumer can't change the terms or break the contract but the supplier can break the terms and at this point (because they have broken the contract) you are free to leave. This is how they can put the prices up half way through. The contract is broken, you can leave.


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

xgarb said:


> Normally the contracts say that the consumer can't change the terms or break the contract but the supplier can break the terms and at this point (because they have broken the contract) you are free to leave. This is how they can put the prices up half way through. The contract is broken, you can leave.


This may be true (although most contracts do allow the provider to put you on "equivalent" plans to the one originally signed up to, but without any express committment to honour the original price), but you have to make sure that you are leaving on a common understanding and in writing.

Also, more commonly, the operator is entited to add services (what we woud call unsolicited services in the UK) and charge you for them as long as they notify you one month in advance and you don't object.

We had this issue with Telefonica who had put the price up several times, but when we called to complian they pointed out that the "additional services" had been communicated to us through the internet user portal (which we never used or signed into) and that according to the contract this was the contractual communication mechanism. So, as we had not actively opted out of the additional services, we had tacitly agreed to them and had to pay for them (despite not knowing what they were or even that we had them....)

In any case, normally you can terminate the contract at any time (they have 15 days to act upon your cancellation instruction, but make sure you do it exactly as specified in the contract), the problem is that they might penalise you if you signed up to a minimum term (permanencia) and also you are unlikely to find a better service elsewhere and the process will just repeat itself with the new supplier.

Just stopping payments will normally end up with you on a list of debtors which can affect your credit rating.

We decided that we were't happy about the way the additional services had been added and charged (even though we had unknowingly signed a contract which gave them that right) and we asked to end the contract. It is worth reminding them when you do this that any penalty for early termination by law has to be proportionally applied, so for example if you signed up for 2 years with a 200€ penalty, if you cancel after one year, the penalty is 100€. But as they are desperate to keep customers they will normally call you back to negotiate. We just told them that unless the price went down to the original amount, we would leave, and low and behold, by cancelling a few "unknown extras" we were back to the original price.

Every so often it happens again and we call them, act stupid and say that we missed the notification and is there anything we can do?... usually they negotiate, sometimes they dig in their heels and say no, but at that point we spin some story about having been made redundant or similar hardship woes and that we will have to cancel the contract as we can't afford it at that price.... we are still paying the same now as 4 years ago, despite 3 or 4 "increases" and negotiations / threats to cancel.

In Spain this way of dealing with the issue is much more practical and productive than official complaints and legal actions, even if it in not our initial cultural way of doing things.

If you really must escalate the issue formally, or don't want to "negotiate the Spanish way" there is an official government service to telecoms consumers:






Oficina de Atención al Usuario de Telecomunicaciones - Página principal de la Oficina de Atención al Usuario de Telecomunicaciones


La Oficina tiene como función informar y atender al usuario de telecomunicaciones, tramitar y proponer la resolución de las reclamaciones entre operadores y usuarios de telecomunicaciones.




usuariosteleco.mineco.gob.es


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## laura_goldy (Aug 28, 2013)

Overandout said:


> This may be true (although most contracts do allow the provider to put you on "equivalent" plans to the one originally signed up to, but without any express committment to honour the original price), but you have to make sure that you are leaving on a common understanding and in writing.
> 
> Also, more commonly, the operator is entited to add services (what we woud call unsolicited services in the UK) and charge you for them as long as they notify you one month in advance and you don't object.
> 
> ...


Thank you very much for your suggestions. That´s very nice of you. 
I will try to follow what you said. Hope it will work.


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