Leaving The Day Job

Does anyone at Vodafone understand their data pricing?

I’ve been having a back and forth series of email with Vodafone recently trying to get them to tell me precisely what is excluded from their new data pricing. Their publicity says it can’t be used for VOIP or instant messaging but I want it in technical terms so I know exactly what I’m being charged for. For example, if I use an IM client does that fall outside the bundle? How about if I connect to the same IM service via a web interface such as Meebo ?

I’m now banging my head against a wall trying to get a sensible reply out of them. Here’s the story so far:

[ Skip a few emails in which I just get back some marketing stuff about how great their offer is]

Me to vodafone

Thank you for your reply but you are still failing to answer my question. I’m not sure why it’s proving so difficult to get a straight answer from you.

Your website has the following terms and conditions : “The £1 per day charge and monthly data subscription cannot be used for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services such as Skype or Peer-to-Peer services (such as instant messenger services, text messaging clients or file sharing). These services will not count towards the £1 per day charge or monthly bundle, and are charged separately at £2 per MB, with a 5p minimum charge for each data session.”

I want to know exactly what you define as VOIP, peer-to-peer, instant messaging, text messaging and file sharing and how you will be detecting such usage. As previously stated I do not want to be landed with a large bill if I use an application which I subsequently discover falls with your definition of the above services or which is flagged as a false-positive by whatever technical means you will be using to detect the usage of such services.

If the required information is not available to you please escalate this to a manager or other member of Vodafone staff who will have access to the information.

Vodafone to me

Thanks for contacting Vodafone regarding your account with us.

I can confirm that the reason the data subscription cannot be used for services such as VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), instant messaging, texts or file sharing is because these methods are very expensive and unsafe methods to communicate.

VOIP is using the internet to make calls and is not a secure method of communication.

Instant messaging is services such as MMS where you can talk to another person instantly over the internet.

File sharing is downloading items such as video clips from the internet to your phone.

I hope this has helped to answer your questions to your satisfaction.

Me to vodafone

Thank you for your reply.

I was amused to learn that your reason for barring VOIP is because it is unsafe and insecure. Perhaps I can be the best judge of what is safe and secure for myself. As for the chicken and egg assertion that I’m barred from using a cheap data package for VOIP because it is “very expensive”, I’m somewhat at a loss to comment.

Leaving aside the rather dubious definitions of instant messaging and file sharing you gave below, you still have not answered my question as to how you propose to detect the usage of barred services. For example is this going to be based on port numbers? protocol inspection? ip addresses?

Vodafone to me

Thanks for your email to Vodafone about the VOIP services.

I’m sorry to hear that Sarah didn’t answer all of your questions.

I have spoken to our technical department and they have advised me that the only way to detect your usage is through IP Addresses.

In regards to the information that you were given by Sarah I have also double checked this with our technical department and the information provided is correct.

Me to vodafone

Thank you for your response.

If you could now just tell me which IP addresses or ranges are prohibited from being accessed as part of your new data bundle pricing I will have the answer I was initially seeking. I will be able simply to avoid connecting to these IP addresses and be reassured that I will not receive an unexpectedly high bill.

Vodafone to me

Thanks for your email to Vodafone about your IP addresses, I’d be happy to look into this.

I’ve checked with our Technical Department and they’ve advised me that we’re not aware of an IP address that you’d be unable to access. The only thing which may prevent you from accessing a particular site would be content control which is there as a security measure.

Me to vodafone

Looking back over previous emails and this most recent one it appears that Vodafone do not intend to bill VOIP, Instant Messaging etc as separate charges outside the scope of your new data bundle pricing. I have previously been informed that this could only be implemented by monitoring the IP addresses I was accessing and you are now telling me that there are no IP addresses which I would be unable to access as part of the data bundle pricing.

Please can you confirm that the above is correct and that therefore whatever usage I make of data access it will be billed at £1 for upto 15mb/ day or £7.50 for 120mb/month?

Vodafone to me

Thanks for your email to Vodafone about the data usage charges. I’d love to help.

I have checked the details and you can either subscribe for the daily usage pack or the monthly usage pack. If you choose the daily usage pack, you’ll be charged at the rate of £1 for upto 15 mb/day and if you choose the monthly usage pack the charge will be £7.50 for 120 mb/month.

Me to brick wall

*Bangs head*

Similar posts

• None Found