I think I can say that I’m a good customer for our dear friends at Vodafone. A have a blackberry account @ 32,50 eur per month, a calling package @ 35 eur per month and on average (don’t ask me how it is possible) my bill is around 170 euros a month.
I’m the kind of user that actually pays his bill, although not very content with the delivered service. People who call me will recognize the awkward silence when I pick up the phone, because Vodafone thinks it is useful to cut me off for the first couple of seconds… forcing me to say something like this: “Hey Boris…. Boris.. Boris .. Boris Boris Boris aah there you are”
Now things get funny. I just received a bill stating that I had consumed for 423.87 euros of value during the October month. You can imagine that I was curious where the actual value kicked in. I couldn’t remember calling my ex girlfriend for hour and hours while on the middle of the ocean needing a satellite connection. I’m 100% sure that I watched ‘Blood Diamond’ from my hand held memory and not streaming (over GPRS :) ). So would it be the olllo service I tested once -well in fact that is owned by KPN and I did receive a hell of a lot txt messages with “I’m sorry we haven’t found any matches in your city, don’t worry, we will continue looking for you!” but that was in November as far as my mind tells me (meaning that I’m getting that on my next bill).
WOW. 299,87 EUROS Vodafone Live data traffic abroad!!! I have been for 2 days at FOWA, but all I did was checking my email (blackberry service pulls in the first 2 kb of every e-mail, that’s 500 mails for 1 MB). I received 85 emails in those 2 to 3 days. And as far as I know I never use Vodafone Live (which moron does?).
How come that I ended up with 299,87 eur of traffic costs? I called the Vodafone helpdesk and here is an overview of the conversation:
Vodafone operator “I can see that you had 10MB traffic in the UK”
“10MB!!!! ?” I asked with a bite of sarcasm
“Yes 10MB”
“Wow, that is like watching a youtube movie of 3 minutes.. or downloading 2 whole songs (at least the radiohead songs we’re for free)”
“Yes”, the kind Vodafone guy said to me
“ok, I understand that this is abnormal use of bandwith, but still 300 euros?”
“Well, 1MB of data is 12,50 eur and on a different carrier its 20 eur per MB, email data is 20 eur per MB anyways”
“WHAT!!! 20 euros for 1 MB of email??? holy shit, why didn’t you worn me?
“oh you weren’t aware of the costs of traffic when you’re abroad?”
“Well, I knew you guys would charge me a factor 1000 of what I would pay in the Netherlands for my internet connection, because screwing customers is what Telco’s are all about, but a factor 1000.000… no that I was not expecting” “and oh, 10MB times 20 eur is still 200 euros, so something is not right…”
“uuhm, I’m not specialized in data plans, you can write a letter to: Vodafone Klantenservice SSV, Postbus 1500, 6201 BM in Maastricht”
“ok, I will”
“Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“no”
“Have a nice day mister de fevre” (thanks for not pronouncing my name right :) ).
I have send exactly this post to Vodafone (in print of course).
I FEEL ROBBED, NO… I AM ROBBED
I’m wondering how Vodafone will make this up to me.
Thanks for ruining my day and my precious time.
On May 8 and 9 the first South European Internet conference will take place in Zagreb. Web.Start
A couple of weeks ago I had a brainwave, I wanted to print my own t-shirts as it is always a hassle to find a good and cheap t-shirts printer around the corner where you can print shirts with the freedom of printing on multiple sides or sleeves without the costs going through the roof. So I invested in a transferpress. Last night I made my first PDL Geek Shirt :) many more to come.
