Vodafone has pledged that it won’t increase any of its contract customers’ monthly fees for the duration of their service agreement.
Communications watchdog Ofcom has recently implemented guidelines that forbid mobile operators from introducing mid-contract price rises, however this only affects deals signed after 23 January 2014.
Vodafone says all of its pay monthly customers will benefit from the pledge and that it came to the decision after it surveyed a number of its customers who, funnily enough, were against price increases.
Vodafone still has the power to change prices outside the contract, such as calls to premium rate numbers or out-of-allowance calls, texts and mobile data, but the operator said it wanted to be more transparent.
“Technically, the Ofcom guidelines allow operators to increase their prices every year in line with inflation if they’re clear about it upfront, but we don’t think that’s in keeping with the spirit of the regulations and neither do the majority of consumers we asked,” says Vodafone’s Mark Howe.
The move has been welcomed by consumer groups and telephone experts who have been calling for the end to such charges for some time as many consumers have been unaware such price increases were allowed and that they were entering a fixed contract.
“It’s a welcome move and clearly a result of Ofcom’s announcement which came into force in January that enabled customers to walk away from mid-contract prices hikes,” says Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at uSwitch. “Hopefully this step will make other providers follow suit, but for now, Vodafone and Three are leading the way.”
“This is great news for Vodafone customers and the 60,000 people who joined our campaign against mid contract price increases,” adds Richard Lloyd, executive director at Which? “The pressure is now on EE and O2 who we feel are acting against the spirit of Ofcom’s new rules by increasing prices on supposedly fixed contracts.
“We hope people choose operators who are playing fair and offering fixed prices that really are fixed for the duration of the contract.”
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Lets translate that - Vodafone has been caught being dishonest using practices that would even make Arthur Daley wince. Since the law now says we can' do this any more we are going to tell you this is a new feature.
Cindy Rose you need to resign or at least change your job title to Consumer exploitation director!