Vodafone complaints

Bentley_Boys_UK

I'm posting this in desperation in the hope that a Vodafone representative will see it and help resolve something that the rest of the Vodafone organisation has failed to deal with and cost me a vast amount of time and effort.


Please see below a copy of a complaint letter sent on 27th May 2011. I have not had any response to this despite your website processing a response within a set timeframe.

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27th May 2011

Customer Relations Manager
Vodafone Limited
The Connection
Newbury
Berkshire
RG14 2FN

RE: Complaint / Bill Account No. 684xxxxxx

Dear Sir / Madam
I ordered a pay monthly contract phone from you on Saturday 21st May after coming to the end of a contract with O2. The phone (Blackberry Bold) and SIM card arrived on Tuesday 24th May. After setting up the phone it failed to connect to your mobile network. There upon I contacted your customer services department via phone and after 3 attempts of removing the battery and SIM card it finally did connect to the network. This was short lived and phone again would not connect.


I again called customer services on Wednesday 25th May and went through the same process without resolution. At this time the agent advised me that he could no longer help me and that I should take the phone to the nearest Vodafone store for them to resolve the issue. Having spent over 4 hours in 2 days trying to get this resolved I was not prepared to take the phone to the nearest store (15 miles away) and so decided that I would exercise my right to cancel the agreement (within the ‘7 days terms’). After a number of phone calls to customer services I was finally told the phone would be collected on Thursday 26th May by courier from my home address.


I waited all day at home on Thursday but no courier arrived. At 16:45 I called customer services only to be told that nothing had been setup to return the phone. I was told a courier would be arranged for the following day (today 27th May) to collect the phone between the hours of 12:00 and 15:00. So again I have to spend time at home waiting for your courier. I was at home between 10:00 and 16:30 and no courier arrived. As the courier failed to turn up today I will not be contacting customer services again. Vodafone will have to make other arrangements to collect the phone.
Today I have also received an email notifying me of a bill being ready and a letter in the post saying that a direct debit has been setup. I don’t have an online account so have no visibility of what the bill is for. As far as I’m concerned I cancelled my account the day after receiving the phone under the 7 day cancellation terms. The phone / SIM card never worked in the 48 hours I had it and therefore was never used. Customer services could not resolve the problem over the phone, hence the reason for me choosing to cancel the agreement. I have cancelled the direct debit you have set up with my bank.


I have contacted customer services via email to query the reason for the bill and direct debit. I have not received a reply.
My first experience of Vodafone has been a horrendous experience and cost me a lot of time over something that should have been so simple. This has now been compounded by you sending me a bill (which I can’t see).


As a minimum I would like confirmation that my account with Vodafone has been cancelled.


Yours Faithfully

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Things have moved on since I wrote the letter so I’ve added the following below to bring up to date with recent conversations with your ineffective Customer Services.

I had a long conversation with a Vodafone representative at the beginning of June who promised me the following:-

1. That my account had been cancelled under the ‘7 day termination period'
2. That all monies owing has been credited and the account balance was £0.00
3. An email would be sent with instructions on how to return the handset
4. That someone would contact me to arrange for collection of the handset
5. That she would ring me back in 10 days to make sure all had been resolved

None of the above happened.

Today (11th July) I receive a letter showing that my account is still open and that there is a balance owing. I have again contacted Customer Services who spoke to the Online team(?) who claim a courier has been sent 3 times to collect the handset – this IS A COMPLETE LIE. On the days I was promised a courier I stayed in all day, no couriers arrived and no ‘we missed you’ card was put through my letter box.

I am now being told that I have to make arrangements to have the handset returned at my cost!!!!!

In short; I placed an order with Vodafone as a new customer, Vodafone sent me a handset & sim that failed to work, customer services could not help to solve the problem and told me I had to take the handset to a Vodafone branch to get help, I would not accept this and confirmed my wish to cancel the agreement within 48 hours of receiving the phone, I was told a courier would collect the device on a least 4 separate occasions, this did not happen and I wasted days sat at home waiting for courier which on each occasion had not been arranged, I have made at least 18 telephone calls to Vodafone to resolve this matter, I sent a complaint letter which was ignored and FINALLY TODAY I AM TOLD TO RETURN THE HANDSET AT MY OWN COST!

What a shocking experience. Please help me get this resolved.

Mobileroamer

I joined vodafone in the UK almost 2 years ago on a pay monthly basis with no contract and no paper bills (I thought I wad doing my bit for the environment but I was never able to get onto the vodafone billing section online as it didn't seem to understand hat I was pay monthly but NO contract) and then last year at Christmas went into get a mobile data sim for my new iPad-also on a pay monthly basis. The sales guy offered me a sim with free minutes-something I said I didn't need or want. The guy said I didn't need to use it if I didn't want to, and since I thought it was free I just accepted it and left it in a corner of my room and NEVER USED IT!

Well now that I am leaving the country I called up 191 to cancel my mobile and iPad sims and that was when the guy in customer service asked me if I wanted to cancel ALL my mobile sims and I discovered that I have been charged £15a month for a sim I never wanted in the first place and never used...The guy on 191 sounded reasonable enough and said to email customer services as he could only give me a 3 month credit while the web people could apparently sort this out properly. From then on I have only had NOs from vodafone who basically say it is my own fault for not cancelling the sim I had no idea I was being charged for in the first place!

I can't believe a company could act in such a completely underhand way and then claim it is my fault for not noticing on the bills-which I have never been able to see and had actually complained about not being able to access when I went in at Christmas. After this experience there is no way I will sign up with them on my return to Australia, something I had considered doing after finding vodafone relatively easy to deal with for international roaming and so on...

classix

been having my own bad experience with vodafone.

like many others i had been a loyal customer and in february this year after a call from retention department i agreed to an upgrade. would be getting htc wildfire at £25 less £9.99 discount per month for 12 months.

i was happy with the deal and a couple of days i got the renewal contract in email clearly stating everything that had been agreed.

however just over a month later i got another renewal contract saying that the contract was now for 24 months and there was no discount. so i would be expected to pay £25 per month for 2 years.

i was shocked to say the least! i have sent numerous emails to customer services but they keep denying what they initially offered.

eventually they agreed that the discount should be in place. but they wouldnt agree on contract length.

luckily i managed to find the renewal email which i sent a copy to them. when they saw they had to admit what was in it.

however now what they are saying is i have 2 options. either revert back to 12 months but will have to pay full price of £25. or stay 24 months and get the discount. they say i have to choose one of these options as they need to recover their costs for their services and for the phone.

this is ridiculous i'm sure you will agree. even with the proof i sent them they are still trying to change the contract.

i am now in the processing of writing a letter to the customer relations manager with the next step being a complaint to otelo.

i just want the contract ended after 3 months of hassle.

Vodafone

Hi Bentley Boys UK, Mobileroamer and classix,

I can see that each of you have recently had a disappointing experience with Vodafone. I can certainly help resolve these issues. Send me an email to the address here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject and a link to this thread and I will look into these for you personally.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Tigersilly

Just checked my bills online from March - present and it looks like I've been charged for every single text despite my text allowance. I was told that this had been happening for 6 months by a call centre assistant who then passed be onto the billing dept. They queried why I hadn't checked my bills - well I'm only sent them online and I had misplaced by password. I had assumed that I was being charged more for using the internet... WRONG... they charged me for texts despite my text monthly allowance.

I went online and tried to check my bills but I can only see the itemized ones from March onwards... so I can't check if I have been overcharged for longer!

I don't understand what my next move should be to get Vodafone to check my bills for possible overcharging for years. Very angry (and yes I realize I should check my bills, but 1) They are online only which makes access harder and 2) I naively trusted Vodafone, what an idiot).

Bentley_Boys_UK

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Bentley Boys UK, Mobileroamer and classix,

I can see that each of you have recently had a disappointing experience with Vodafone. I can certainly help resolve these issues. Send me an email to the address here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject and a link to this thread and I will look into these for you personally.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Heidi

Thanks for your response. My issue is now (almost) resolved.

I contacted CEO Vodafone UK in the end.

Vodafone

Hi Tigersilly,

I am sorry to hear that you have been billed incorrectly.

So that I can take a look into this further for you, can you send an email to the address shown here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject and a link to this thread.

I will then be able to then go through your previous bills to see when the issue started and help to resolve it.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Vodafone

Hi Bentley Boys UK,

That's great, thanks for letting me know!

If you need any further help, feel free to get in touch with me any time.

Best wishes,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

cs7bad

Vodafone are really terrible

I've been a customer for 6 months and have had nothing but trouble - I really am counting down the days until I can change to be better company

They have accidently cut me off, one department lied and blamed another and now they have taken money from me when they shouldn't (isn't that stealing?). Good job I noticed and called up!

mobilejunkie

Sounds about par for the course.