Fucking Vodafone
For the last three years or so I'd been on something described as 'unlimited' internet.

I finally got myself a decent smartphone and downloaded a bunch of apps and the version upgrade to Android. Cue text message, email and letter from Vodafone - "you've gone over 500mb of data, we're charging you an extra £5."

Several annoyed phone calls to Vodafone later it turns out that:

By 'unlimited' they mean you are allowed 500mb/month.

Only being allowed 500mb is definitely NOT a 'limit' it is a 'fair usage policy'.

Using 587mb once in three and a half years counts as 'unfair usage' even though it was used setting up a phone they had given me.

The 'fair usage policy' has been superseeded and they now automatically charge for going over the 'unlimit'.

Based on a sample size of about a dozen Vodafone operators, 100% of Vodafone workers are too stupid to explain why being limited to 500mb counts as 'unlimited'.

Vodafone have a 1gb internet package. This is also 'unlimited', it just happens to be twice as 'unlimited' as the 500mb package, which doesn't have any limits.

Vodafone would rather lose a customer who had been with them for ten years and would probably have stayed with them for ten more rather than credit £5 to that person's account.


So now I'm on GiffGaff. Ten pounds a month (without contract) and I get 500 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited internet. They didn't make a squeak last month when I apparently used well over 3gb of data and, according to my online account, somehow managed to use a data connection on 32 days in January.
( Afinkawan Yes I can hear you Clem Fandango, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 16:37, 11 replies)

Did Tittish Belicom not have any good packages?

(Set your faces to Stunned Bigly, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 16:39, closed)

It's iffy,
but the logic is that it's unlimited in that you *can* use as much as you like, but 'fair' in the they don't encourage you to do it.

In other words, it's not unlimited free Internet, it's just unlimited Internet.

Much the same as you can get unlimited beer in a pub . . . so long as you pay for it.
(username failed moderation, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 16:47, closed)

Incorrect.
I can assure you that if you drink enough your beer supply will tend to become limited.
( Slippery Mick ‏, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 16:52, closed)

Unless it's Budweiser.

(username failed moderation, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 16:55, closed)

Much like beer,
your internet access is limited by your ability to pay, and your supplier's ability/willingness to supply you (landlords are likely to stop serving you, once you are steaming).
Advertising "unlimited" data, for £x per month, should be treated as fraud, but the ASA (or whichever regulatory body this concerns) don't seem to give a shit.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 19:47, closed)

I agree with you
the way they describe it is dodgy, but all it means is that at no point will they actually cut off your internet access.

Haven't looked, but I'd guess the 'fair use' policy which they all seem to refer to when they call it unlimited, tells you you'll get charged.

The whole business is a bit murky. Connection speeds seem to be subject to the same nebulous rules. Mine is supposed to be 20mbps, I have never seen anything over 10, ever.
(username failed moderation, Wed 29 Feb 2012, 9:07, closed)

18 months ago the policy changed
If you could prove the new 'fair use policy' would cause you to pay more than 10% in a month, you could cancel under the terms and conditions. 1 month of downloading 3gb and hey presto out of a contract with a 6 month old phone.

Just in case that one comes up in future again.
( Moonraker isn't the droid you were looking for, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 20:41, closed)

10% of what?

(username failed moderation, Wed 29 Feb 2012, 9:08, closed)

This may be the same as what UFM said....
It is 'unlimited' in that when you hit your 500Mb it doesn't stop dead; it allows you to continue to download. Really it 'doesn't limit' you rather than gives you 'unlimited' internet access.

This is of course Marketing bullshit, and they know full well that anyone who doesn't work in the Vodafone Marketing Dept will take the word 'unlimited' to have its normally accepted meaning. But on the grounds that they could afford a better lawyer than you, I wouldn't try contesting it.

And it doesn't surprise me at all that none of the poorly trained godforsaken minimum wage teenagers in the Vodafone call centre could explain it. They have lost all dignity and hope. We need to set them free.......
(Colonel Blink is now officially a pretentious prick, Tue 28 Feb 2012, 21:41, closed)

GiffGaff are overrated
Unlimited Internet? Yes, but no tethering.

So I can use 5Gb/month on my iPad, but not 1Gb on my Mac. Idiots.
(Guy Debord cette mauvaise réputation..., Wed 29 Feb 2012, 0:20, closed)

I'm on 3
with the 15 quid sim. PAYG, all you can eat data, 300 mins and 3000 texts. All been pretty bloody good so far, even able to use the phone as a wireless hotspot without paying tethering charges
(Bommer remembered to log in, Wed 29 Feb 2012, 1:23, closed)