I am normally quite prudent when traveling overseas to ensure roaming costs are not excessive, and make sure I know which operator has the best rates etc. But since I switched to Vodafone last year, and I was going to Spain, which also has Vodafone, I did not bother to check the rates before I left. Big mistake.
While attending 3GSM, I had to get on a 40 minute call with a US company. Unfortunately, my Rebtel number got very stubborn and did not work, so I had to call direct. Well, the bill came to no less than AUD 257.07. AUD 6.27/minute?!?!??! And this is on roaming with the same global operator.
Now setting up what Vodaone calls “World Traveller” only takes a call to their customer service center, and my rate would have been AUD 1.50/minute. There is no charge to set this up. Now the question becomes – why is this not set up as a default???? It takes a little bit of digging to find out that their default roaming is something called “Vodafone World”. Now why would you want to be on that? Because it is cheaper IF you travel to Thailand, South Africa or UAE. But for ALL OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD, World Traveller is cheaper. So of course, making Vodafone World the default makes all the sense in the world. Bernie Madoff would be proud. I hear he is looking for a job. Hopefully Vodafone is hiring.
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