Vodafone charged £174 for calls

If the monthly data limit on my mobile phone is exceeded Vodafone notifies me by text.

This is not the case with call charges, as I found out when I received an invoice showing I had incurred an additional £174 of telephone charges in one month.

I hadn’t realised I had gone over my monthly limit of 500 minutes for calls.

When I telephoned Vodafone customer services about my excess telephone charges I was informed that, if I downloaded a mobile app, I could review my minutes. ROBERT NYMAN, LONDON

In this instance that would have been a case of closing the stable door after the horse had bolted.

You felt you had fallen into a trap. Vodafone explains that your price plan includes an allowance of 500 voice minutes for a set monthly fee.

After this inclusive allowance is used up standard charges apply. In your case this pricing was relevant to 314 call minutes. Given quite how much this oversight cost you this is clearly something to be aware of.

Vodafone explained that it does not make contact when its customers exceed their voice minutes. It reiterates that it is possible to check usage via a free app or by going online.

For you the disparity over there being alerts for data and not for calls rankles and seems unfair.

As a gesture of goodwill Vodafone has credited 50pc of these “out of bundle” charges, which amounts to £87 and which it has rounded up to £100. It has also issued a credit for a late fee of £4.13 and £3 for premium texts.

It is also discussing with you a move to a price plan that offers unlimited minutes.

You say that, unless it makes a fantastic offer, you will be moving to a Simonly deal when the twoyear contract expires in a few months’ time. Then the phone will be yours.

Vodafone said that these days most of its customers choose a price plan with unlimited voice minutes. internet banking is not used, it lapses. This resurfacing adds to the mystery as to why years later a second letter arrived this time saying “Welcome back to the Halifax Online Service”.

Despite the inconsistency in its response, Halifax is adamant that you do not have an account with it.

The fact that you have no other record of such an account, and this is not so very long ago, I feel adds weight to this assertion.

It has paid £50 as a goodwill gesture in recognition of the inconvenience. The first letter did not arrive and, at my prompting, another has been sent.

You say you now believe there is no bigger sinister issue involved in all this. As you put it, it appears this is simply down to basic incompetence.