I too got the long awaited text today at lunchtime! Haven't received a letter or email either? I just hope they aren't planning on charging me an early termination fee as there was no mention of it in the text...

Going to wait for the letter or ring and confirm before I go committing to another contract!

Thanks to everyone for their help with this and for the OP for the helpful info in the first place ::-) I too will be a very happy bunny when I confirm I'm no longer stuck with vodafone and there's no fee for leaving.

Cheers

I'm out too and now on a £10 o2 PAYG sim with much stronger 3G signal!!

Got the text after dinner then a phone call later on saying I could go on 30/09 and keep the handset, port my number but maybe charged if I use data after 01/10 and within the 30 day period or get a new phone and contract on 1.5 gig.

Took option one and ran!! Good riddence to Vodacon.

I got the PAC code yesterday, and then a phone call in the afternoon from Andrew at CS. Same options as everyone else.

However, I've noticed all the networks now have ridiculous data limits - O2 are 500MB, Orange the same, T-Mobile and Three (god forbid) 1GB.

The only one left with a decent amount I can see is GiffGaff who use O2 as a carrier. They say they offer unlimited data that is truely unlimited for personal use, but I have no idea how they're doing this. It's just a shame O2 have stopped their Blackberry SIM only deal, where the data was subsidised by Blackberry but you didn't actually need a Blackberry phone to use it. However I know nothing about GiffGaff other than the fact it's been featured on MoneySavingExpert a few times. They're offering unlimited data, even for PAYG, until December 1st, but offering it after that for the "Goodie Bags" (essentially fixed payments each month). You could get 300 mins, unlimited texts and (apparently) truely unlimited data for £15pm.

I have to say at this point I'm tempted to go with the third option I was given, which is a SIM-only deal for 12 months with Vodafone with my existing minutes, texts, and 1.5GB data allowance for half my current line rental, and keeping the phone, which works out a couple of quid more than GiffGaff but I get double the minutes.

Any advice? What's everyone else doing? All I really care about is a decent data allowance, or not being charged for it.

Hi there

Seems a lot of people here just want to leave Vodafone, understandable!

However, if like me you don't feel you want to leave due to coverage, having a lot on your plate, I'd advise doing what I did this morning.

I phoned 191 and got through to someone to do with 'your price plan'

I asked to be put through to the leaving team, at which point he flagged up that my contract is until March 2012 (24 months)

I then explained how I was very unhappy about the recent change to a 500mb hard cap, the lack of communication, and how I have a N900, which surprisingly the guy understood to be a phone that can make full use of the net...

I just went straight in an requested my net be raised from 500mb to 1gb aty the same price, as a goodwill gesture because I had been with Vodafone for a long time and I didn't want the risk of a charge every month for going a few mb over.

After being put on hold he came back and sorted it for me. Will come up as +£5 on my account for the extra 500mb, but he's put on a £5 discount to cancel it out.

Just another option for people what they definitely won't be doing automatically. I guess if you don't ask you don't get.

I am going for giffgaff for £15 a month, then i'm not in a 12 month contract so I can get a new phone when ever I want!

Vodafone offered me my current deal (600mins, unlimited text, and 1.5gb internet) for £20 instead of £35 a month, as long as I signed up for another 12 months.

This might be a good deal, but I can see myself wanting a new phoen within the next 12 months, and i'm happy having truely unlimited internet with giffgaff!

just incase this helps any body

this is the letter i sent by recorded delivery on the 13th day after reciving my text saying i will be charged, it has all the data usage i used in there

Address

Phone number



Customer Relations

Vodafone Group Plc

Vodafone House

The Connection

Newbury

Berkshire

RG14 2FN



19th September 2010


By Recorded Delivery Post


Dear Sirs,

RE: Termination of Pay Monthly Mobile Contract –Mobile No. Account No. .

An announcement posted by a Vodafone administrator on the Vodafone eForums on 24 August 2010 states that Vodafone intends to introduce mandatory Out Of Bundle charging for Pay Monthly customers from 1 October 2010 - the announcement can be found at http://bit.ly/bf9TDs. Under §15.d of the pay monthly airtime agreement, I recognise this announcement as official notice of these charges.




The net result is that my agreement with Vodafone will no longer be subject to a Fair Usage Policy, as stated in §27 of the Vodafone Your Plan Price Plan Terms, and I believe I will be at a Significant Disadvantage as a result, as outlined in §11.b of the pay monthly airtime agreement.

I therefore wish to cancel my contract without charge, which is my right as outlined in §11.b of my pay monthly airtime agreement. The announcement requires “proof of why [you] think your bill will be increased by more than 10%”, which I provide below:

• My monthly data allowance is 500MB.

• According to my last bill dated 07/09/10, my data usage was 607.590 MB. My usage was therefore 107.590MB over my allowance.

• The Out of Bundle charges mean I would be charged an additional £5 for this amount of data.

• The total of my last bill, before VAT, was £25.54

• The Out of Bundle charges mean my new total bill due would be £30.54

• Therefore, my bill would increase by 19.5% as a result of the Out of Bundle charges





• According to my previous bill dated 06/08/10, my data usage was 2.23GB. My usage was therefore 1.73GB over my allowance.

• The Out of Bundle charges mean I would be charged an additional £20 for this amount of data.

• The total of my previous bill, before VAT, was £28.28

• The Out of Bundle charges mean my new total bill due would be £48.28

• Therefore, my bill would increase by 70.7% as a result of the Out of Bundle charges





• According to my previous bill dated 07/07/10, my data usage was 1.611GB. My usage was therefore 1.111GB over my allowance.

• The Out of Bundle charges mean I would be charged an additional £15 for this amount of data.

• The total of my previous bill, before VAT, was £25.52

• The Out of Bundle charges mean my new total bill due would be £40.52

• Therefore, my bill would increase by 58.7% as a result of the Out of Bundle charges





§11.b of the pay monthly airtime agreement states I may end my agreement if such changes cause Significant Disadvantage. Furthermore, these automatic charges offend §(i)-(l) inclusive of Schedule 2 and §5 of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. In particular, Schedule 2 (1)”(l) …allowing a seller of goods or supplier of services to increase their price without in both cases giving the consumer the corresponding right to cancel the contract if the final price is too high in relation to the price agreed when the contract was concluded.”



I reject as unfair your attempt to artificially limit the right to cancel to some scenarios and not others in the face of the clear legislation and regulatory guidance and Ofcom General Condition 9. Any attempt to claim a penalty and in particular a cancellation charge will be resisted.




Yours sincerely,

i also sent it as and atachement to the 3 email addresses listed in the post cant find them at the moment to copy and paste im being a bit lasy in the email i wrote

----- Original message -----
> Im forwarding a copy of the letter of cancellation which i have sent by
> recorded delivery by post. I will be cancelling my direct debit after
> this months bill and will be expecting my PUK code no later than two
> days after cancellation, i will then clear the rest of my unbilled
> usage.
>
> Yours faithfully

ohh found the addresses for ya
guy.laurence@vodafone.com
vodafonedirectorsoffice@gb.vodafone.co.uk
vittorio.colao@vodafone.com

i recived 1 reply only during the week from the vittorio email address
----- Original message -----
>
> Dear
>
> Your e-mail below has been passed to the correct department for handling
> complaints. Someone will be in contact with you shortly.
>
> Thank you for taking the time to write to Vodafone and we are sorry to
> hear of your issues.
>
> Regards
>
>
> Geraldine McTaggart
> PA to Vittorio Colao

there was no other contact i never rang them or complained just sent of the above i hope this helps your quest good luck

Ps ive had my contract since march 2010

I have to be honest, with regard to Three/ 3/ Hutchinson... whatever... I have had two contracts with them, one for 11 years and one for 7 years!! I can honestly say as far as customer service goes they have always been spot on and I haven't got a bad word to say about them!

I work in a rural area and most people have signal problems, on Three I never had an issue, on Vodamoan the signal is all over the place, that's if I have a signal at all!

Three only have a 3G network and so they use other carriers (not sure who) to allow their customers to roam to 2G, which for me has resulted in a pretty good service for the last several years. I'd happily reccomend them.

Also their choice of phones has improved a lot recently.

Out of interest has ANYONE who has RECEIVED the PAC code had a confirmation letter or email confiming their account will terminate with no early termination fee?

Funny. I am already with Tmobile having left Vodafone 3 weeks ago and I just received my PAC code from Vodafone by text!

ROFL. How ******ed are they!!!

Of course, that is true of most customers of every operator -- most people have few dealings with CC and report it as fine. For example, I would report the same for Orange and for Vodafone (although the Orange web self-care is universally recognised as crap!).

None of the operators seem to be very much better or worse than any of the others.

Again, it depends where you are. In my rural area, vodafone is the only consistently good signal, orange and t-mobile (and hence 3) are very marginal, O2 is non-existent.

Ofcom reports suggest that coverage is similar between the big 4 operators.

So, for me, the difference is in the tariff packages. I recently switched from Orange to Voda, partly because of coverage at home but mainly because Voda are by far the cheapest for international data roaming (still a rip-off but much better than the others -- I do a lot of travelling). I took a SIM-only 30-day contract tariff so I can easily switch if something better comes along.

It would be very useful if those who are switching to GiffGaff would report back on their experience (and also, of course, let us all know if/when GiffGaff decide to impose limits as well).

Graham