[Everything Goes]

Vodafone have in my opinion never been cheap and offer the poorest service of any network as verified by Ofcom. So to add insult to injury Vodafone have increased the out of bundle charges by a substantial margin especially text messages that increase from an expensive 18p to an eye watering 35p.

Quote:

Standard UK charges
Current Charges-----------------------------------New Charges
Calls to any UK mobile number, standard UK landlines (starting 01, 02 and 03) and voicemail 45p a minute 55p a minute
Channel Islands/Isle of Man landlines starting 01481, 01534 or 01624 45p a minute 55p a minute
UK text message 18p a message 35p a message
UK picture messaging 45p a message 55p a message
UK video messaging 45p a message 55p a message
Roaming picture messaging (excluding Europe Zone 1) 45p a message 55p a message
Roaming video messaging (excluding Europe Zone 1) 45p a message 55p a message
Freefone numbers starting 0500 45p a minute 55p a minute
Calls to Vodafone preferred directory enquiries number (118 881) Access charge of 45p a minute plus a service charge of 80p a minute Access charge of 55p a minute plus a service charge of 80p a minute
Radio-paging services (starting 076) 45p a call 55p a call
Personal numbering services (starting 070) 45p a minute 55p a minute
Call forwarding services (starting 07744 or 07755) 45p a minute 55p a minute
Video calls to Vodafone UK mobile numbers 45p a minute 55p a minute
Video calls to other UK mobile numbers 45p a minute 55p a minute
Calls to service numbers 08, 09 and 118 (access charge) Access charge of 45p a minute plus a service charge Access charge of 55p a minute plus a service charge
Calls to numbers starting 0800 and 0808 FREE FREE
If your Monthly bundle does not include a data allowance you will pay as you use data, for each 100MB used per day. (a day runs from midnight to 11:59pm) £1.50 for each 100MB of data used per day £2.50 for each 100MB of data used per day
International calls to our Europe Zone £1 a minute £1.50 a minute
International calls to the rest of the world £1.50 a minute £2.00 a minute

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php...g-charges.html

[swb1964]

35p is seriously taking the p*ss!

[sibley88]

35p!?
I remember the days when some networks charged 10p, some charged 12p on pay as you go and thought that 12p was a joke.
Assuming its since they can no longer charge insane rates in Europe, they are making up for it by charging insane rates in the UK instead.

Guess anyone near a border and out of inclusive text messages would be better to roam

[Broken Hope]

Surely text messages cost the networks pretty much nothing to actually send?

[lovedoctor1978]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Broken Hope

Surely text messages cost the networks pretty much nothing to actually send?

I would have thought the equipment VF use to send text messages would be the original stuff when SMS was enabled in the mid late 90s so it would have paid for itself a million times over by now.

[blueacid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Broken Hope

Surely text messages cost the networks pretty much nothing to actually send?

Correct, the termination rate is under a penny if I remember correctly

[Everything Goes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Broken Hope

Surely text messages cost the networks pretty much nothing to actually send?

When Vodafone launched text messages they were free as Vodafone didn't think they would catch on.

[Thine Wonk]

Let's hope Jon Morris now spends months constantly repeating how customers locked into contracts have to pay these rates which have shot up. In the last 2 years out of bundle prices have increased dramatically on Vodafone, some numbers went up by 40% in the last year or two.

Seriously though, I think this is EU roaming, basically if regulators enforce price caps in one area, then operators either add the loss of revenue to the total bill either by contract price rises or by per minute rate rises.

Everyone * thinks* it's brilliant that the EU is throwing it's weight around capping prices, but really people who go abroad a lot and use loads of data & calls that cost the network much higher wholesale rates charged by partner networks are being heavily subsidised by ordinary everyday users as a result of the changes. The networks need to make a really big margin on wholesale rates because of the multi-billion costs on spectrum, infrastructure and massive sales and marketing costs, stores all over the country, masts everywhere etc, things DON'T just cost pennies.

It isn't just EU roaming, but many other things like 0800 having to be free, other lost revenue from other places like the more harsh dispute resolution and conciliation charges which are now automatically billed to operators based on complaints and many other reasons.

This is exactly why Three after not touching prices in 2013, 2014, 2015 put in a big bump in pricing and review of plans. They are far from unique in changing pricing significantly, Vodafone has done the same, only on their per minute rates and bit by bit in yearly waves rather than all at once.

[Thine Wonk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Everything Goes

When Vodafone launched text messages they were free as Vodafone didn't think they would catch on.

Apparently it was also because they hadn't yet updated their back end metering and billing systems to be able to charge for them. That needed a significant upgrade as their whole system needed a big project to replace and upgrade.

[Everything Goes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

Apparently it was also because they hadn't yet updated their back end metering and billing systems to be able to charge for them. That needed a significant upgrade as their whole system needed a big project to replace and upgrade.

IT upgrades were blamed for Vodafone's recent surge in complaints ironically.

[moox]

Vodafone did the same thing when the EU lowered the roaming caps. The domestic prices went up by about as much as the EU were lowering theirs.

This has got to be linked to that.

[Thine Wonk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moox

Vodafone did the same thing when the EU lowered the roaming caps. The domestic prices went up by about as much as the EU were lowering theirs.

This has got to be linked to that.

It was at exactly the same time you're right. They know that every quarter analysts will pour over the revenue, APRU, earnings before tax etc, and they know they're losing revenue in another place, so in the exact same month that a change is made in one place something else has to be changed to achieve the margin they need to work to in order to hit their target numbers.

Kathryn in Carmarthen pays more because Bill in Belgium pays less, that's atifical regulation and telling companies what applying artificial charges in one specific area does when you regulate in that way.

[lee18xx]

Doesn't everyone practically get these unlimited free anyway ?

[prking]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lee18xx

Doesn't everyone practically get these unlimited free anyway ?

Exactly. The very few messages that are sent which aren't included in a bundle are hardly going to make Vodafone lots of profit. It's only going to be die hards on legacy tariffs with small SMS allowances, PAYG without a bundle (if there's anyone still doing that on Vodafone) and those odd occasions when a competition vote etc is charged at standard rate.

I would guess most people won't notice.

[moox]

If it "didn't make a real difference" then why would Vodafone do it? Not worth the hassle and potential churn (from those who you have to let out of their contracts) if it's not going to make much money

[jonmorris]

Perhaps a fair few people go on very low tariffs and will be affected. Not all plans have unlimited calls or texts, and only a few minutes over is a nice bit of profit.