Vodafone denies iPhone cap plan confusion

iPhone3G.jpgVodafone has denied that any customers
have been sold an iPhone and told they can use general cap credits
for data — a stance which contradicts comments heard from many
iPhone buyers and Lifehacker readers. Why won’t Vodafone acknowledge
the confusion over its plans, and what will it do for customers who
have signed up on the basis of a contract which it seems Vodafone
doesn’t want to honour? See after the jump for the full story.

As we’ve noted in earlier posts,
Vodafone’s terms and conditions appear to allow the possibility
of using the monthly iPhone call cap fee to pay for data as well as
voice and SMS, thereby making it possible to browse more freely
without incurring excess data charges. Several people have signed up
for such plans after being told by Vodafone store staff that this was
possible. Lifehacker reader Michael reported a
typical experience in this regard:

I was pleasantly surprised to be told
that it was 12 cents per MB AND that any excess data charge is offset
as part of the monthly Cap credit. I was initially sceptical, and
asked the sales person why this vital piece of information hadn’t
been communicated more clearly by the Vodafone Marketing team and was
told that it was probably because everything had been so rushed and
that everything was in a shambles. On the basis of what was
communicated to me about the excess data pricing, I signed-up to the
$69 iPhone plan on the spot. I’m certainly not going to be happy if
this isn’t the case…

Vodafone’s official stance is that this
approach isn’t possible
,
and that any data used outside of the stated allowance for each plan
will be charged at excess rates of 12 cents per megabyte. Following
Vodafone’s statement to this effect, we asked Vodafone head of
corporate communications Greg Spears what it would do for customers
who had been sold the service in this way, and received a rather
starling reply:

I’m not aware of any customers that
have ‘been told by sales associates that they can charge data against
their cap dollars’. As I’ve pointed out previously, this is simply
not the case – but if you’d like to provide more exact details of
where this information came from – i.e which stores, we would be
happy to follow up to ensure that the correct information is being
communicated to customers.

Spears also flatly denied that any
element of the company’s terms and conditions suggested such a deal
was possible. We’ve sent him the relevant paragraphs and links to jog his
memory; we’ll let you know when and if he responds. In the meantime,
we’ll note that anyone who did sign up for a plan like this and wants
to pull out would probably be entitled to pull out  under contract cooling off
legislation,  though details vary from state to state. If you try this, share your experiences in the comments.


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