Re: "Customers will not be charged"
Except that they were really slow to react. I was disconnected whilst in Austria about 2 hours after people started talking about it on Twitter. I was booted off the local network entirely. Once I got back to the UK (now more than nine hours after the original issue) I got a text telling me that I had to contact Vodafone to pay my 'overspend' and wouldn't be reconnected. At this point although I was 'on' the network I couldn't even receive text messages - except it seemed from Vodafone. And this carried on, with more and more people being completely disconnected and told it was their fault, for several hours.
So many people were affected that it was impossible to get any response to any attempt to make contact using any channel - phone, email, help app... and that's putting aside for the moment that every single person affected was (a) outside the UK and (b) had their phone bricked by Vodafone. It took 24 hours to get service back and receive an apology. If I'd been a full-on digital nomad I'd have probably missed my flight because of this as well.
My bill still shows as £6750 owing. Vodafone says that I "don't have to worry" and "won't have to pay". Do I have confidence that they won't try to collect £6750? No. But hey, yes, "good on Vodaphone" (sic). Clearly the good guys here. Totally.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
