Last month Vodafone announced a $3/month price increase on all broadband plans for all residential customers, whether they have a ADSL, VDSL or Fibre connection. The increase effected about 400,000 households across New Zealand.
The NZ Herald today revealed that as Vodafone imposed the price increase on customers with fixed term contracts, the customers are allowed to terminate their contract with no penalties. This means that if you are part way through a 12 or 24 month contract with Vodafone, and you have been caught out by the price rise, you can switch to a better broadband deal today
Vodafone customers may only have become aware of the price increase when they received their February broadband bill. Communications from Vodafone about the price increase didn’t specifically mention that customers have the option to terminate their broadband contact without any penalties
Consumer head of research Jessica Wilson says companies should not raise prices on contract customers unless there are exceptional circumstances.
"We've got a major beef with companies increasing prices for customers on fixed-term contracts. When you sign-up for a fixed-term, the price you pay should remain the same during the term of the contract," she said
"The only reasonable exception would be if GST - or other mandatory levies outside of the company's control - went up," she said. "In this case, we don't think Vodafone has clearly explained the reason for the $3 price increase."
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