Attention All Payg Vodafone Customers!

smartblaa

Hi all,
Sorry if this seems like a bit of a serious post....but in my eyes it definitely seems to be worthy of its own thread (Mods feel free to move/edit this)

In 2006 (and possibly even earlier) Vodafone had two great promotions which helped them to reduce the number of customers porting out from them to another network.

PROMO1: "Stop the clock"
This basicly meant that a vodafone customer could call any other vodafone customer for up to 60 minutes, and only pay for the first 3.

PROMO2: "100% extra free top-up"
If a customer topped up with a €20 all-in-one voucher, they would also receive €20 on top of that for use on vodafone-vodafone calls and texts for the next 30 days.

As and from the 1st of January 2007 these promotions have been ceased, and there are no PAYG promotions offered by vodafone apart from their heavily advertised IOU service. They have in no way attempted to convey this to their customers except for when you ring them up.

I, for one am voting with my feet and porting away from them as we speak.
Their standard call rates are extortionate and can be viewed here

I learned this from a helpful vodafone CSR yesterday who conceded that they basicly have f**k all offers for their customers.

The other thing that gets to me is that they are still displaying the promos on their website here wtf?? ....salt in the wound :-(

Anyway rant over..phew!
Just thought that if more people knew what they were up to, they might realise we're not all fools!

fade2black

I'm sick of them and am moving away from them as we speak. I'm a bill pay customer and I rarely look at my bills before I pay them but lately have discovered that I have been charged for calls that were supposed to be free. I'm on that 69 bucks tariff and my bills were way too big, even though I'm supposed to have free 087 and 400 minutes to any number.

Anyone wanna advice me where I should go next? Meteor?

smartblaa

fade2black wrote:

I'm sick of them and am moving away from them as we speak. I'm a bill pay customer and I rarely look at my bills before I pay them but lately have discovered that I have been charged for calls that were supposed to be free. I'm on that 69 bucks tariff and my bills were way too big, even though I'm supposed to have free 087 and 400 minutes to any number.

Anyone wanna advice me where I should go next? Meteor?

Probably not the precise answer that you want..there's no one network that is the cheapest. Just like car insurance..it varies according to your circumstances i.e. minutes texts, within network, cross network.

Try www.CallCosts.ie - An independent comparison website operated by COMREG - The national communications regulator. You type in your specifics ie. 400 minutes 200 texts, and it matches you with the cheapest....and it's unbiased.

Hope that helps

Gillo

Umm, can't see any mention of those offers.

As with most promotions they don't last for ever and chances are if you can find a copy of the advertisement's you'll see they the promotion had an expirey date. It's called reading the small print

Sam Vimes

smartblaa wrote:

Probably not the precise answer that you want..there's no one network that is the cheapest. Just like car insurance..it varies according to your circumstances i.e. minutes texts, within network, cross network.

Try www.CallCosts.ie - An independent comparison website operated by COMREG - The national communications regulator. You type in your specifics ie. 400 minutes 200 texts, and it matches you with the cheapest....and it's unbiased.

Hope that helps

that's not great imo. the thing that makes meteor cheap is their met-met offers and callcosts.ie doesn't take account of it

as an extreme example that i've mention on these boards before:

on met talk 300 you can ring and text meteor numbers as much as you like for free so:

9699 minutes to meteor+300 minutes to others+9999 texts to meteor=€50

what callcosts says: €2,431.27

Doodlebug

For what its worth, I was on Vodafone Bill last year. I wouldn't consider myself a *huge* user of mobile calls or txts. My bills were usually 90 to 120 euro (was on middle of the road plan - can't remember what t'was called!). Changed plans twice due to what I considered high costs.

Bottom line: moved to Meteor PAYG (keeping my old 087 number), free txts to other Meteor customers (turns out a lot of the people in my contacts list were already Meteor, though like many, they had kept their 087/086 numbers - I wasn't really aware of this until after I moved). My 'other half' moved at the same time - she normally chooses 5c/min calls to other Meteor customers and finds it much cheaper than her old Vodafone RTG. Maybe we have more friends who have ported over to Meteor, but I do recommend doing it!

Now I spend €20 a month usually, the odd time up to €40, and rarely €60. I'd recommend them unless you are in a rural area. Although coverage is better than it used to be, you can't depend on it outside of towns really (much the same as O2's coverage in my experience).

Thats my tuppence worth anyway! Happy with the move.

Gillo

Doesn't Meteor's offer finish at the start of 2008?

Commander Vimes & Doodlebug, will we have the pleasure of a (similiar to this) rant thread from both of you this time next year?

Sam Vimes

gillo wrote:

Doesn't Meteor's offer finish at the start of 2008?

Commander Vimes & Doodlebug, will we have the pleasure of a (similiar to this) rant thread from both of you this time next year?

nope, free texts for life now:cool:

dumbyearbook

smartblaa wrote:

Probably not the precise answer that you want..there's no one network that is the cheapest. Just like car insurance..it varies according to your circumstances i.e. minutes texts, within network, cross network.

Try www.CallCosts.ie - An independent comparison website operated by COMREG - The national communications regulator. You type in your specifics ie. 400 minutes 200 texts, and it matches you with the cheapest....and it's unbiased.

Hope that helps

Call costs.ie does nt take any offers in account - best way to choose what network is who you call most and if you want good service. O2 customer care is very good i have to say called the other day to set up GPRS and they rang me back to see if everything was Ok, would you see Meteor do that?

1c calls and texts to O2 till feburary too

wba88

I missed stop the clock but that 100% free credit was very good, now all i have is €10 free credit when i top-up by €20 (student offer- i posted in bargain alerts around end of oct/start of nov.) Vodafone really need to pull up their socks otherwise they are going to lose a lot of business!!

Sam Vimes

dumbyearbook wrote:

called the other day to set up GPRS and they rang me back to see if everything was Ok, would you see Meteor do that?

absolutely not. do you think they train their staff or something? crazy

smartblaa

gillo wrote:

Umm, can't see any mention of those offers.

As with most promotions they don't last for ever and chances are if you can find a copy of the advertisement's you'll see they the promotion had an expirey date. It's called reading the small print

I don't think that you looked at my link in my post gillo.
This is directly taken from the vodafone website.

http://www.vodafone.ie/priceplans/moreabout/rtg.jsp

More about Prepay
Register your details for FREE credit
Register your Prepay mobile or your bonus pack details online and we'll give you up to €120 FREE call credit with all Prepay phones this Christmas!

Vodafone IOU
When you're run out of credit and can't Top Up, you can get a €2 Call Credit IOU from Vodafone.

Other Charges
Our international, roaming and texting rates and other service charges

Text Add On
Send text messages from just 5c a text.

Stop the Clock
Prepay calls have never been better value.

Free Calls and Texts
If you signed up to Vodafone Free Calls and Texts here's a reminder of what you get. FREE Vodafone to Vodafone calls and texts to the value of your Top Up, when you Top Up by €20 or more.

Top Up
Find out where and how to Top Up your Prepay Mobile.

FAQ's
Confused? You'll find the answers in our FAQ section.

I think its a bit crap if they are advertising the highlighted offers even though they have ended.

Of course I understand that all good things come to an end, but it is usually the case that the offers are replaced immediately by an equal or better offer.

For example Meteor always extends it's free texts and 5c calls, because they know that customers will walk away otherwise.

ethernet

If it wasn't for the AFT application for my mobi on the text front, I'd be back to Meteor in a shot [begging them to reactivate my old SIM card in the process!]. Calls are expensive but quality of service is excellent.

Limited choice in terms of my 3G services in my area, so Vodafone will do just nicely.

smartblaa

Vodafone have still not acknowledged on their website that the 20-20 offer has been stopped :mad:

maxitwist

can u switch networks without changing phone/ getting it unlocked and paying a fee? did they really pull the 100% extra top up? damn y wont three get webtxt!

smartblaa

maxitwist wrote:

did they really pull the 100% extra top up? damn

Yup they pulled the 100% extra top-up, along with the talk for up to 60 minutes pay for 3 promotions on the 1st of January MaxiTwist. I ported from them about 3 days ago, and now enjoying free met-met texts which Meteor won't stop cuz they keep renewing the promotion.

maxitwist wrote:

can u switch networks without changing phone/ getting it unlocked and paying a fee?

If you have spent more than a specific amount ( usually round €120-140) on credit since getting the phone, they have to unlock your phone for free. Otherwise they are countless shops in Dublin city centre which will unlock your phone for €10-15.(Think there's two on Georges Street)

To change network you need to have a simcard for the desired network with the default number on it(e.g. Get an o2 simcard with the number 0861234567 on it) You can then ring up the desired network(o2 in this case) giving the new 0861234567 details and tell them you'd like to keep your 087xxxxxxx.

They will then "port" the number across, so you can then use your new networks simcard with the 087xxxxxxx number that everyone knows.

Takes max 4-6 hours for porting

spank_inferno

to be more precise you just go to the store of whatever network you wish to port to.

They will ask you to sign an authorisation form, which gives this operator permision to move your number from the old network to the new one.

Your mobile number will be assigned to a new blank sim card issued to you in store after you signed the authorisation form.

There is a small charge for this new sim card... on prepay

A few hours later your on a new network!

Sam Vimes

spank_inferno wrote:

They will ask you to sign an authorisation form, which gives this operator permision to move your number from the old network to the new one.

only o2 asks you to sign a form

spank_inferno wrote:

There is a small charge for this new sim card... on prepay

but you get credit with the sim card

mickoneill30

They've one promo that makes it hard for me to leave. Their €49 for a new phone + €120 credit. I went to my shop on Saturday, got two new (crappy) phones and got the €120 transferred, one to my existing number and the other to my other halfs existing number. That's not bad. €120 of credit for €49. They only trickle it to your phone at €10 a month but that suits me.

thekooman

i did the same the other day, bought a SE k800i (299 euro) and 120 euro credit. would love to move to meteor now since they did this but then theres the 120 euro credit which you get over the 12 months! bugger!

smartblaa

Well if you look at my Poll(Thanks to those who are voting), about 75% of people are NOT impressed by what they have done, quite a few have decided to port (including myself). Glad to see that some people are waking up and smelling the greed!

Linku

Anyone noticed Vodafone seem to have dropped all 'Ready to Go' branding on their site in favour of 'Prepay'? It's like the last bit of Eircell is now gone... I blame '3pay' :P

Most of my friends are still on Vodafone, so I won't be moving unless I organise a mass-exodus... I'd probably move to 3, only I have a Nokia N70, and you can only join 3 by buying a new phone.

smartblaa

Linku wrote:

Anyone noticed Vodafone seem to have dropped all 'Ready to Go' branding on their site in favour of 'Prepay'? It's like the last bit of Eircell is now gone... I blame '3pay' :P

Most of my friends are still on Vodafone, so I won't be moving unless I organise a mass-exodus... I'd probably move to 3, only I have a Nokia N70, and you can only join 3 by buying a new phone.

I had that opinion...but then I realised...the thing holding me to Vodafone(60 minutes 4 price of 3 and free 100% credit) were gone...so hellllo Meteor free texts. Managed to convince my gfriend too so HAPPY DAYZ!!