Question on Christmas phone deals with Vodafone and top-up credit.

S

Sue Ellen

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I usually buy a new phone with Vodafone on their Christmas deals on ready to go each year.

New phone purchased on Friday and no mention made of additional €10 top-up purchase necessary each month to enable me to avail of the €120 free credit. This €10 would be on top of the €129 that I paid for the phone. I went to have a look at the Vodafone site this evening to check out the bonus pack registration and notice that there is a warning added about the necessary purchase. The two assistants that I spoke with also mentioned that the phone will really only cost me €9 because I will get €120 free credit.

Does anyone know when this changed from last year? I will ring them tomorrow but just wondering if anyone else has come across this before?

Thanks.
 
Spoke to Customer Care this morning and they offered €20 free credit to tide me over when I mentioned that I would contact ComReg.

Have read terms and conditions again and notice that they will also wipe the €40 credit that I presently have.

So without any forewarning by staff or ads or literature the initial outlay was €129, €120 will need to be spent to avail of promised €120 credit and they will also wipe €40 credit presently on phone. This will all take place despite the fact that their shop staff verbally confirmed that at end of the day it will only cost me €9 for the phone :mad:
 
Very sneaky of Vodafone, I bought a phone online in July/August and it didn't apply then.
 
Sue Ellen,

I just bought a phone online (for €129 with €120- credit) , and having seen your post , I looked at the Terms and Con.s but can't find the €10- top up . Does this only apply to non-online-purchases ? I will return the phone rather than do a monthly top up .
pjq
 
Last edited by a moderator:
If Vodafone are mis-advertising or mis-selling these packages then they should be reported to the NCA.
 
This is the nearest I got to the top up condition http://www.vodafone.ie/offers/prepay/freecredit/ . It appears to apply only to customers moving from another network , they get €160- credit iso €120- for existing customers but have to top up each month .
But as usual the Vodafone site is messy , regester required by 07/01/07 (not 08 ? ) and as far as I can see if you don't click on the Christmas Offer you would not be aware of this condition as it's not in the terms and conditions that you click before you buy .
pjq
Note ( I skimmed thru the 10 screens of conditions , maybe it's there , but not highlighted)
 
In my experience of previous offers on O2 and Meteor, its usual for an additional top-up purchase to be necessary each month to avail of free credit. Bit of a slip up if the assistants failed to mention it in shop.
 
I bought a Vodafone RTG upgrade last Xmas and no purchase of credit was required to avail of the "free" monthly credit (12 months x €10).
 
Clubman,
Thanks for the help in finding this Condition . Vodafone have buried this so deep in their site that it's no wonder their own staff could not clarify the matter for the OP.
And for the online shopper it's not on their 10 screen long T&Cs that you need to tick but it's buried in a 52 screen long link in the T&Cs.
Even worse , 1st page of Vodafone.ie has a heading "Top 5 Questions" and question no. 1 is "Free call credit: How do I get it? " ,,,,, of course no mention of loosing call credit or monthly top ups when you click for an answer ( again it's buried).
If all online shopping was like this , I'd go back to the shops , just not the Vodafone shop.
pjq
 
I presume an IOU Buddy transfer of credit wouldn't count as a topup to satisfy the condition required for collecting "free" credit?

It's certainly all a bit complicated compared to a year ago when you could just buy the phone and get the "free" credit without any additional conditions.
 
ClubMan said:
I presume an IOU Buddy transfer of credit wouldn't count as a topup to satisfy the condition required for collecting "free" credit?
Click to expand...
Oh - unfortunately not.
IOU Buddy credit does not count as a Top Up.
Click to expand...
So it seems that the "free" credit is actually "matched" credit - i.e. you have to topup by €10 to get the "free" €10 where applicable. Hmmm....
 
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