Vodafone denies discount offers misleading

Vodafone has been accused of offering some broadband customers discounts and later charging them full price, but the firm says customers are warned Telecom network changes may impact on its offers.

Vodafone offers $10-a-month discounts for broadband customers at specific addresses in what it calls the "Red Zone".

Potential customers can check on the company's website to see if they are in the discounted zone, but some people in the zone are being charged the full price anyway.

Marc Bowden, living in Auckland's North Shore, is one such customer.

He moved to Birkenhead at the end of March and for the first month he received the discounted price.

But Mr Bowden's next two invoices charged him the full amount.

When he complained, a customer service representative at first came back that it had been "confirmed" Mr Bowden was not actually in the "Red Zone", despite Vodafone's website continuing to tell him he was.

A week later, after another complaint, another representative reversed the claim, this time "confirming" Mr Bowden was in the "Red Zone" - but explained that some areas were being "cabinetised" so he would not get the discount.

"Surely, they are misleading customers," Mr Bowden told nzherald.co.nz.

Vodafone spokesman Paul Brislen said Vodafone's discounts were offered to customers connected directly through its "Red network", which had been built on top of parts of Telecom's network.

But ongoing changes to Telecom's network had meant some Vodafone customers were cut off from Vodafone's network, Mr Brislen said.

These customers, even if they are listed as being in the "Red zone" on the company's website, do not get a discount.

Mr Brislen said these customers should have all been warned when they signed up to the service, and the company was looking into why Mr Bowden had not been alerted.

Telecom was building roadside cabinets that cut out Vodafone's network loops originating from Telecom exchanges, Mr Brislen said.

"If a customer's line is served by the cabinet we can't put them on the red network equipment, which is in the exchange," Mr Brislen said.

Telecom spokesman Mark Watts said Vodafone's issue was "entirely" its own and had nothing to do with Telecom's upgrades, which had "not shut down a single exchange".