Vodafone talk about clear pricing and being a responsible business. It says on its website:
We’re committed to clear and straightforward pricing and marketing – so that customers always know what they’ll pay
But Vodafone in the UK is doing exactly opposite to what they claim clear and straightforward.
Vodafone UK is again increasing their prices on fixed contract after millions of people had signed up to what they thought was a fixed price for a specified period.
In September 2011 Vodafone announced it would be rounding up the price of its ‘fixed’ contracts to the nearest 50p to simply the bills. -> BUT the point is Vodafone’s ‘simplify bill ‘ means only rounding the prices up and not down? -> Well this doesn’t seems to be straightforward ???
Now again in Oct 2012, Vodafone increased monthly bills by up to 2.4%. that means £36 a month will typically become £36.80. -Now Vodafone wants to un simplyfy the bills -Now again doesn’t seems clear and straightforward.
Well A quick calculation suggests this price increase could put an extra £67m a year.
Now bill increase may be around 2.4%, but it is matter of principle and it seems that Vodafone has none.
Well this time Vodafone is saying the price increase because of rising costs. ->
(a)First -> Vodafone pre tax profits were £9.5bn this year.
(b) Second -> what if customer wants to pay bill a bit less? That is not possible according to Vodafone as they would penalise the customer? Well this is again not straightforward.
If company increases price on “fixed” mobile contracts and gave customers choice to opt out without penalty, well in that case it is ok but that is not the case.
When you go to the Vodafone retail store the signs say pay monthly, the contract tells you how much you will pay and then Vodafone suddenly increasing the price under the name of fine prints is quite unjustified and millions of customer are unhappy about this.