Re: Vodafone PAYG GPRS charges?

In article news:<ps7qh25k1t10dg08eplbbvq1g4d7iiogtr@4ax.com>, Peter wrote:
> Half an hour on the phone today, got through to a woman in tech
> support who said both contract and PAYG rates are £2.35/MB.
>
> Then I asked her to confirm roaming rates but the line got
> disconnected.

GPRS roaming is quite expensive, and the thing that hikes up the cost the
most, IME, is that there is often a minimum charge per connection. I seem
to be charged a 2 Euro minimum for GPRS in Europe (on Voda) which is
several times the cost of carriage of the actual data for a typical
connection.

Most annoying when you lose the signal half-way through a mail collection!

Cheers,
Daniel.

Hi,

I work for Vodafone and I hope I'll be able to clarify the data
charges.

In the UK on pay monthly price plans it costs £2.35 per megabyte
including VAT. On Pay As You Talk it is £7.50 per megabyte. These
charges apply when you look at sites other than Vodafone Live, which is
free to browse.

The costs of using data abroad will depend on your price plan. The
website www.abroad.vodafone.co.uk is a good guide to this, (and it
mentions the billing increments) although there's no mention of the
prices for data only tariffs. If in any doubt you can always e mail
Vodafone via the web form at www.vodafone.co.uk/contactus.



Daniel James wrote:
> In article news:<ps7qh25k1t10dg08eplbbvq1g4d7iiogtr@4ax.com>, Peter wrote:
> > Half an hour on the phone today, got through to a woman in tech
> > support who said both contract and PAYG rates are £2.35/MB.
> >
> > Then I asked her to confirm roaming rates but the line got
> > disconnected.
>
> GPRS roaming is quite expensive, and the thing that hikes up the cost the
> most, IME, is that there is often a minimum charge per connection. I seem
> to be charged a 2 Euro minimum for GPRS in Europe (on Voda) which is
> several times the cost of carriage of the actual data for a typical
> connection.
>
> Most annoying when you lose the signal half-way through a mail collection!
>
> Cheers,
> Daniel.

In article news:<1159950811.558778.6040@m7g2000cwm.googlegrou ps.com>,
MinervaUK wrote:
> I work for Vodafone and I hope I'll be able to clarify the data
> charges.

I doubt it ... but thank you for trying!

> In the UK on pay monthly price plans it costs £2.35 per megabyte
> including VAT. On Pay As You Talk it is £7.50 per megabyte.

I'm on an ancient Vodafone Business tariff on which I *thought* I was being
charged £2.35 (aka £2.00+VAT) but I actually seem to be charged about £6.00
(NOT £7.50, with or without the VAT). I really must ring up and make a fuss
as the only reason I stuck to that tariff was that I thought I was getting
fairly cheap GPRS without having to sign up for tons of voice minutes I'd
never have used.

> The costs of using data abroad will depend on your price plan.

Naturally, doesn't everything?

> The website www.abroad.vodafone.co.uk is a good guide to this, (and
> it mentions the billing increments) although there's no mention of the
> prices for data only tariffs.

The Vodafone website is, in general, not an easy one to navigate. I have
often found useful information there and then not been able to find my way
back to it later. I don't recall seeing roaming charges listed there, and I
certainly didn't see any explicit mention of a per-connection minimum
charge for GPRS when I checked before my last trip overseas. All this stuff
*could* be made so much more accessible and comprehensible if there was any
will to do so.

A per-connection charge on GPRS seems especially hard as GPRS is a
technology that's supposed to support always-on connections. If you wander
out of coverage you lose the connection and when you wander back in it
costs another €2. Given the propensity of all mobile handsets to disconnect
and reconnect at the drop of a hat in areas of weak coverage that could be
very expensive indeed.

Cheers,
Daniel.

Hi Daniel,

Sorry for the late reply. Upon speaking to Vodafone's technical
department they've told me that an exact charge amount per connection
would depend soley on the overseas network (potentially third party?)
you're roaming on at the time. Due to the number of foreign networks,
Vodafone do not carry specific figures of this amount.

As we're talking (to an extent) about account specific information it
may be best to try the option of contacting Vodafone email customer
services. You may have noticed the short-code FIT135 mentioned on other
threads. If you leave this in your email (www.vodafone.co.uk, 'contact
us') the code simply directs your query to an advisor who would be able
to look into this for you.


Daniel James wrote:
> In article news:<1159950811.558778.6040@m7g2000cwm.googlegrou ps.com>,
> MinervaUK wrote:
> > I work for Vodafone and I hope I'll be able to clarify the data
> > charges.
>
> I doubt it ... but thank you for trying!
>
> > In the UK on pay monthly price plans it costs £2.35 per megabyte
> > including VAT. On Pay As You Talk it is £7.50 per megabyte.
>
> I'm on an ancient Vodafone Business tariff on which I *thought* I was being
> charged £2.35 (aka £2.00+VAT) but I actually seem to be charged about£6.00
> (NOT £7.50, with or without the VAT). I really must ring up and make a fuss
> as the only reason I stuck to that tariff was that I thought I was getting
> fairly cheap GPRS without having to sign up for tons of voice minutes I'd
> never have used.
>
> > The costs of using data abroad will depend on your price plan.
>
> Naturally, doesn't everything?
>
> > The website www.abroad.vodafone.co.uk is a good guide to this, (and
> > it mentions the billing increments) although there's no mention of the
> > prices for data only tariffs.
>
> The Vodafone website is, in general, not an easy one to navigate. I have
> often found useful information there and then not been able to find my way
> back to it later. I don't recall seeing roaming charges listed there, andI
> certainly didn't see any explicit mention of a per-connection minimum
> charge for GPRS when I checked before my last trip overseas. All this stuff
> *could* be made so much more accessible and comprehensible if there was any
> will to do so.
>
> A per-connection charge on GPRS seems especially hard as GPRS is a
> technology that's supposed to support always-on connections. If you wander
> out of coverage you lose the connection and when you wander back in it
> costs another €2. Given the propensity of all mobile handsets to disconnect
> and reconnect at the drop of a hat in areas of weak coverage that could be
> very expensive indeed.
>
> Cheers,
> Daniel.