Phone service termination

[Greg666]

Dear colleagues / Vodafone,

I took a 24 months contract 16 months ago in a Vodaphone shop in Germany for mobile phone line. Now my company is transferring me to China in May.

About 1.5 months ago I went to the same shop and asked how we can terminate my contract. They asked me to contact the customer service, which I did. I sent a recommended letter and a fax to inform them that I am leaving the country. I also attached an official letter from my company to prove my mobility to China.

I had no answer from Vodafone. I called many times and was told that my contract ends at the end of the 24 months.

Is this normal ? Why pay for a service that I can't receive for 8 months. To be is seems not reasonable, not honest. Being transferred by your company seems reasonably a good reason to stop a contract.

I spoke with various agents at the customer service (for most quite rude unfortunately) and they told me that going to prison or losing your job is not a valid reason for Vodafone to stop a contact, but death is. I wonder if this was some kind of joke, I hope.

Nevetheless, an extra month could be reasonable, but 8 months? I can't help but honk that this is very dishonest and close to illegal.

Is there anyone who can help to terminate this contact or give advice ? Thanks!

I also wrote another fax to Vodafone to inform them that I will leave germany at the end of this month, and that I won't have an address or a bank account here anymore. I asked them so send me any remaining bill by email, along with their bank details so I can proceed to a payment before leaving, or once in China when I get a bank account. I received an email from them now asking me to post this on the forum (I wonder why but here I am).

Having lived in Canada, France, South Korea and Poland, I never saw such stiffness from an operator to terminate a contract. I don't have any bad intentions but it seems not reasonable to pay 8 months for a service not received.

Any advice is welcome.

Best regards,
Greg

[reneromann]

What kind of phone line do you have?

If you have a landline contract (e.g. using Cable or DSL services), you may prematurely terminate it according to the telecommunication law. This premature termination will end the contract at the day that you leave Germany (or at the day that you send the information to Vodafone - the later of both counts) - but you have to pay for additional 3 months.

If you have a mobile phone contract, you are not allowed to prematurely terminate the contract as you can still use your phone within China (even if you have to pay roaming fees). The earliest time you can end the contract is the end of the 24-month-period. Please note that your letter of termination has to receive Vodafone at least 3 months before the end of the agreed 24-month-period.

[Greg666]

Hello,

Thank you for your answer. I have both contracts.

For the landline contract - I did receive the information to pay 3 additional months after the end of the service. Could someone explain me why as a customer I pay 3 months for no service? Having lived in various countries, those practices don't seem very honest to me. My bad for not checking before, I would not have subscribed with Vodafone if I knew about those practices.

For the mobile phone contract, it is outrageous to pay 8 additional months even if transferred to work to another country. Who would be stupid enough to pay 3 Euros per minute call on roaming in China for 8 months, is this even a serious proposal ? Is there any more helpful solution that Vodafone can propose ? Again, not allowing a premature termination of contract for such reason is not reasonable or honest - I think Vodafone does not care at all about the situation of their customers, only about ripping off as much money as possible it seems like.

Looking at the reviews of Vodafone on trustpilot and other review sites leaves me wondering why I didn't check first before subscribing. It will be a great lesson learned, I'm to blame to not check reviews first, to realize too late how not understanding and not fair such company can be. I will be sure to share with all colleagues and all review sites about the way Vodafone treats clients who have situations in their life where they need to stop a contract. Just look at your neighbors in France with Free mobile, Bouygues, Orange... All of them propose amazing plans with no contracts. 24 months contracts should be banned.


https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/5ad64dd26d33bc0abcb7a77e

Thank you again for your answer, confirming what I thought of the understanding of Vodafone 😃

[reneromann]

For the landline contract:

According to the telecommunication law (TKG), the customer has to pay additional 3 months after end of the service if moving to a destination where the contract cannot be served any more.

This law has been installed in that way because before you usually had to pay for the whole rest of the contract - so the 3 months period is more like a trade-off between the customer moving (and in so far causing the premature end) and the provider that usually has costs to deal with (installing and operating the line, reduced hardware prices).

This is nothing special to Vodafone, but all landline providers will act according to this law (and require the customer to pay these 3 months).

For the mobile contract:

As I said - there is no right to prematurely end a mobile phone contract. You have to pay until the end...

In general: It is the sole risk of the customer that if he is moving (abroad or within Germany) inside the contractual period. If you cannot foresee what will happen within the contractual period, don't make such contracts. You would have been free to use a Pre-Paid card -that only has short-term subscriptions and no contractual period at all - instead of a 24-month post paid tariff - but if you choose the post paid tariff with the 24-month-term, then it's your own risk that you have to pay until the end even if you have to leave Germany.

And sorry, that is no rip-off - it's simply the laws in Germany that are applied to your contract here - "pacta sunt servanda" / "agreements must be kept" - and this applies to both sides. Vodafone is able to provide you with the mobile service as agreed for the whole contractual period (even if roaming in China is very expensive), so you have to pay for that service that you agreed for for the whole contractual period.

By the way: There are providers in Germany that also have post-paid plans with short-term periods - but you usually won't get any device for a reduced price. Only long term subscribers will get devices for a reduced price as this one-time price support is achieved by having the customer to pay the device month by month with a device support fee (e.g. 5..15 euros per month).

The other thing: 24 months is the longest contractual term that is allowed by law.

[reneromann]

By the way: This is a customer-to-customer board - and I'm neither employed nor in any way related to Vodafone - I'm also a "simple" customer...

[Greg666]

Thank you for your answer.

For the landline, I'm glad to see that laws protect the customer and at least there is a trade-off which leads to 3 months instead of the whole rest of the contract. Without this law the provider would of course charge the client up to the end of the contract. 😃

For the mobile, it seems like there is no such law to protect the customer against those practices, so the operator fully enjoys his right to charge full price until the end - sitting hard on "agreements must be kept ", regardless of the situation. What a Shame. Of course it's a choice not to go pre-paid, as a customer you trust that your operator will have solutions if your situation changes - or not... ! =). Lessons learned.

All in all, great reasons not to come back to Germany with such practices. 😃 Thank you Vodafone for giving such a good example and image compared to other countries. Way to go ! Let's hope for other companies to come in the future, lower the prices and create a real competition on the market, leading to softening those practices 😃 This is exactly what happened in France 5 years ago. This system is toxic as is it, with old school annoying rules and stiffness, with 2 years contracts - but of course the company wins and the customer loses.

I will be glad not to deal with Vodafone ever again. Good luck for the future

Best regards,

[Greg666]

Sure thing - thanks for your time.

But still, it is a rip-off 😃