Vodafone credit

Caesar_Bojangle

I went into a shop to buy €10 vodafone credit for my little sister, but the bastards in the newsagents charged me €10.40. Its not that i'm a scrooge, but surely this cannot be legal charging a further 40 cent for each transaction? Is this a common procedure, or have vodafone suddenly started to stack 40cent more on to the price of credit, which is not included in the amount of credit you actually receive?

squaredog

Think it's like a handling fee so the retailer's can make a profit from selling the top ups. It was introduced a while ago, sometime last year. I usually top up using my bank account, there's no extra charge on that.

Turner

Certain shops dont charge extra (statoil/xtravision). The fee is added on by the greedy shop owners because vodafone reduced their % cut.

They still receive a better % cut on lottery tickets than go cards but we all know shop owners, just trying to make ends meat/living on the bread line. pffft

carrotcake

i bought a $20 card here in the us the other day and i was charged an extra $1.55 in taxes :mad:

Michael Collins

Originally posted by squaredog
I usually top up using my bank account, there's no extra charge on that.

Yeh I do the same. Even though it is only 40c I'd never pay it which is weird since I'm not usually that scabby. But it just seems like such a cheap ploy. It's like your giving €10.40 and they give you €10 back, hmm makes sense....

Bank / ATM top up is the way to go. Or any place that still sells the old skool top-up cards. Colleges usually still use that system.

JTMan

If you really care then you can find places that will give you even more than €10 credit .

You get €12 of credit for €10 for 02 if you use AIB phone and
Internet banking. Usit, Tesco and others regurally have similar offers.

oneweb

Don't forget that some banks charge a transaction fee for topping up at an ATM/online/over the phone. So unless they give some extra credit over the €10/20/etc credit (like 10% eg), it's still like handing over €10.30 to get €10 back. 'Official top-up merchants' are listed on Vodafone/O2's website. These are the ones who have agreed to seel the topup cards at face value.

Caesar_Bojangle

did o2 or vodafone not run a campaign some months back, warning consumers not to pay more than the credit is actually worth?

Turner

Originally posted by Caesar_Bojangle
did o2 or vodafone not run a campaign some months back, warning consumers not to pay more than the credit is actually worth?

Yes, well Vodafone did anyway. They had a list of places on the webby that sold the credit for the proper amount. Cant find it at the mo though.

jesus_thats_gre

As chief said, this is greedy shop owners adding on a surcharge to keep profit margins what they were.

Originally Vodafone used to pay the shop owner a certain percentage, i think it was 9%. Earlier this year, Vodafone reduced this percentage to something like 5%. So to keep their profits the same, shops added a small bit extra.

byte

AFAIK, shops with a "PostPoint" setup don't charge extra for credit.

Smithers

What about a name and Shame ,
Stanleys in the Square today charged me an additional 30Cent for €10 o2 credit .............

Caesar_Bojangle

My brother bought €30 o2 credit today, and he was charged €31 by the shop. I can see this becoming quite ridiculous in the future. I wouldn't mind but the shop i bought the vodafone credit in the last day, and the shop where my brother bought the 02 credit today are two of the most overpriced, rip off bastard merchants in ireland. Take for example, €1.90 for a 500ml bottle of coke in one and €1.95 in the other.

Webmonkey

The shops are trying to cover their "Dial up" costs. This is not right. The dealers are not ment to make any profit from top ups. All it is , is a way of "Attracting" customers into the shop. There is no profit what so ever involved but abviously some shops arn't going by these rules. :mad:

./Webmonkey

okonski

Originally posted by Webmonkey
The dealers are not ment to make any profit from top ups.

That'll come as a surprise to many. Why were they given a margin at all? Why should they waste time keeping their shops open and staffed simply to sell you a top-up for free, in the hope you might buy something else that they can make a profit on?

The system started uing scratch-off vouchers, and a dealer margin was allowed for, as the electronic terminals take over, there are more in the way to take a cut, the terminal operators, call charges etc, the the retail model for top-ups has changed, but to say retailers are not meant to make a profit makes your posting laughable.

hussey

the consumer association of ireland recommended the extra charge for vodafone, shops didn't suddenly all charge for letting you top-up .. the ones not chargeing the 15c or whatever are the ones not following C.A.I. guidelines (which is perfectly legal)

for vodafone, there was a surcharge on 10+15 topup's .. not on 20euro

webmonkey the shops are not trying to cover-up,
look at it this way, if you buy a mars bar for 40c and sell for 50c (assuming 10c is standard profit margin)

now suddenly you have to buy a mars bar for 45c it follows logically you sell for 55c

I am sure there are some unscrupulous shop owners that charge over the odds

su_dios

i had to post here..i work in a shop, and yes its a bitch havin to pay it whenever i go to buy it in other shops, but it's not the shop owners fault. vodafone originally introduced the increase in their top-ups to cover the costs of their take-over advertising etc. and i had to laugh when it was said that shops were not to make a profit on them. the transaction takes longer than anything else in the shop so why not make a profit? and to say that people buy other things is not true..i'd say thats 50-50. of course o2 just joined the bandwagon and got greedy. thing that gets me is having to explain it to everyone...mostly foreigners. this should be done by the network when they're purchasing their sim, as they are their customers. they have the right to know!

in my shop the charges are as following

087
€10.40,€15.40, €20.00 and so on

086
€5.00, €10.40,€15.40,€20.40 and so on..

this seems to be standard, although i've seen places that charge 5.15, then 10.40, then 20.80 etc...which is a rip-off...and the loss is the same the whole way through...so an extra 40c is not justifiable


the terminal costs also went up as far as i know, but we buy credit from the terminal company alphyra. not from 02 or vodfone direct

sci0x

eh? I have nver been charged xtra for Credit then what i asked for. If i ask for €10 credit i am charged €10. Where the hell are ye living where all the shops are stingy bastards! Charging an extra 40c for €10 credit. Crazy, crazy I tell you.

seamus

Originally posted by su_dios
i had to laugh when it was said that shops were not to make a profit on them. the transaction takes longer than anything else in the shop so why not make a profit

Retailers still get a cut of the credit in every transaction, otherwise no-one would sell it. The 40c is just extra on top of this.
The mobile operators originally made the deal look sweet with the % cut they were giving retailers, so plenty of them took it up. In true business style, the cut was then reduced. Retailers still make a nice piece of it though. Loading it is just greedy.

Besides, it's the most annoying way to top up.

this should be done by the network when they're purchasing their sim, as they are their customers. they have the right to know!

The right to know what? That some retailers will rip them off? the onus is on the retailer to tell someone that they're adding a surcharge on the top-ups they're selling.

jesus_thats_gre

As I said before, Vodafone reduced the percentage they offer to retailers for selling top up cards. Retailers, obviously, were not happy with this and added the difference to the price of the top up to the customer. Vodafone, as any other provider of a product, have a right to change this, as does the the retailer. But any flack is definetly the responsibility of the retailer. Especially that some retailers sell them at the proper price.

Cork

I was never charged extra for top-ups. But If I was, I would refuse to pay. It is up to consumers to take a stand aganist rip off practices.

Cause a fuss in the shop & expose the rip off.

Smithers

i get all my credit for o2 now from pigsback.com

get piggs points for topping up which in turn can be cashed in 4 credit

jesus_thats_gre

Just get it through an ATM, so much easier!

su_dios

I think it's only done in major cities or towns, which is strange. dont get me wrong i think the idea is completely wrong, but it's not gonna burn a whole in my pocket.

as was said, if you're making 10c profit on a product, and the price of which the retailer buys the product increases, well naturally the selling price would increase.

i was saying that 02 or vodafone should explain the current situation. even telling them they can get their credit cheaper at their stores. its just hard trying to explain to people with little english that there's a charge on it.

i know the % was decreased, but i thought it was cut completely?or if not completely, then almost fully. 40c profit seems to be right on a €10 phone card? i doubt it would be too much more! im not sure the details there. this also seems to be the standard...40c? although some places charge 80c on €20.

expose them?.....there are very few places in dublin where you dont have to pay extra!!...and you DONT have to pay it if you dont want to

mikeg

did you know? the retailer doesent even have to pay for the roll's of paper because they are supplied free of charge, by the company who supplies the terminal.

Paulw

Buyer beware. Don't pay the extra charge. Shop around. There are still plenty of shops that charge face value for the topup.

But ... how much do shops get from the Lottery for selling lottery tickets? It's a lower fee than the topup comission.

10.60 for flipping €10 vodafone in my local shop. And it was a vending machine too! The exact same vending machine in another shop sells 10 for 10.
Some shops are taking the piss.

ChipZilla

Stop your bitching and moaning people. You can top up at an ATM, phone banking, internet banking, text top up, by credit card, or you can even do that 'Credit Me!' thing on 02 to get someone else to top you up. None of which carry a surcharge...

So what's the problem? Ask the shopkeeper before you buy if there's a surcharge. If there is tell him to shove it.

oscarBravo

Can I politely point out that there is a Mobiles forum, which would be more appropriate for this type of thread?

Thanks.

theciscokid

i never even buy credit, i always send those free ring me sms's to mates, really gets on their tits

jbkenn

Why don't we have a telephone museum in this country?

We do, its called Eircom, and, if you drive around the country, you can still see some of their ancient telephone equipment in operation, on a pole near you.

snappieT

I will never again topup using an ATM. Out of the 3 times I topped up; The topup didn't go on twice, and the other time it took 4 hours!

I'd rather pay 20c than risk losing the entire topup.

The worst thing is that vodafone 'don't keep tabs of where, when or the value of your last topup' - just your current balance!

I use the internet now... always reliable

BigMoose

The worst thing is that vodafone 'don't keep tabs of where, when or the value of your last topup' - just your current balance!

That is total rubbish. The system shows all topups - value, date and method. It states ATM if ATM but not the location of the ATM.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.