Vodafone complaints

Stedwardo

Thanks EssexClaire - they did send me a bill, I just never thought they'd see it through. So I've been a bit naive on that front.

Still - there's always my statutory rights for returning faulty goods under the Sale of Goods Act to fall back on.

What a complete waste of time though!

EssexClaire

Stedwardo wrote: »

What a complete waste of time though!

Waste of time, energy and emotional strain! I know exactly what you mean, I've been fighting my issue since October and it's culminated in me breaking down in tears over the phone which was incredibly embarrassing!

But fingers crossed in 5 working days this will all have been dealt with and then I've only got 13 months left to cope with them!

Stedwardo

Update - no answer from Vodafone yet. Their self-imposed time limit of reply within 48 hours has less than 24 hours to run.
My one year-old son (yes, the one Vodafone has effectively stolen food from the mouth of) has a temperature today so the Ofcom letter will have to wait until tomorrow.
Failing which legal action will follow. You would have thought that Vodafone would be keen to avoid the expense, and also deny allegations of fraudulent conduct. They are clearly not bothered either way.

ohdannyboy

I am very supprised and angered by the pure lack of customer survice vodafone have given me.

Heres the story so far:

I am due an upgrade with vodafone, didnt have any reason to want to change network so looked at the deals they had to offer.
I currently have a iphone 3gs and was looking to upgrade to the 4s.
I have been a customer for approximately seven years and was expecting they would honour this customer loyalty with good deals and offers, however this was not the case.

The offers which they had to offer me as a potentially continuing customer looking to buy into another contract with them of upto 24 months were identical to those being offered to new customers! As well as this the price plans and contract are a lot more expensive than their competitors.

I was supprised at the situaton that vodafone dont ooffer any incentive to stay with them and discussed with my friend and decided to send an email with my thoughts on the matter. So i sent an email to vodafone customer care. The reply i recieved was far from useful. They asked for my details to 'help with my query', account number, payment method (not pament details, just wether it was by direct debit). Anyway i replied with the details requested and recieved a very bizzare reply: 'this is to confirm that we've recieved your cancellation request' the email went on about how i pay the early termination fee and that i must not cancel my direct debit.

I never requested to cancel my account and my original email of complaint seems to have been completely ignored, I dont understand how vodafone have got it so wrong taht a simple complaint was turned into a contract cancellation(not by me).
I cannot believe the lack of customer service vodafone is providing. I thought vodafone would want to keep there customers and cannot believe the lack of respect and loyalty they are showing towards me as a current customer.

I also enquired instore and was told point blank to look at my account online for upgrade options and details of how the student discount works.

Sorry if the post seems a bit long winded and i would love to get peoples thoughts on the matter as i am going to send them a very nice letter! (not to customer services this time)

cheers and thanks for reading, Dan.

xukc

Here we go again, deja vu!
2.5 years after I started my first contract with Vodafone I decided it's time to upgrade to a new phone. And can you believe my luck , I received a brand new faulty handset again! (see my posts back in 2009 if you wish )
I upgraded on 13.12 and again it took a while to actually establish it was faulty. Our signal is quite patchy where we live so you get used to losing signal in the middle of a conversation. But when I had numerous complaints that people can't hear me at all or like I'm talking underwater, it got obvious there was something wrong with the handset. With Christmas holidays plans ahead, the earliest opportunity to make a complaint was on 04.01, which I did while being abroad. Needless to explain about the lengthy useless conversation with the customer service, you've all been there! 'Oh but we need the IMEI number, which you can get from the handset' , end the call, get the number, call back, get through to a different person, repeat the same things again .....ggrrrhhh Only to be told that they couldn't authorise an exchange whilst I was abroad and I should call again when back in the country!
Since then numerous phone calls, repeat the same details over and over again including the b****y IMEI number, which they should have recorded on their system. Finally booked an exchange but the phone was out of stock. Called them back again today to finalise it and to my horror (again!) it got clear they were offering me a refurbished phone. Two years from now on a business contract with a refurbished phone, I am less than impressed.
Now back in 2009 it was 28 day period when you report a faulty handset and you get a new one and back then I was a few days outside that period due to bad customer service advice. I have a feeling that this has now changed as I never heard 28 days mentioned in my conversations. But I didn't not hear 'refurbished' either until today that I found out I was being offered a refurbished phone.
I still have a copy of the email from the CEO's office in 2009 when I complained about the exact same situation, I'll just hit 'Reply'and see what happens. I don't have much hope though, it seems to me that the more expensive phones and services they sell these days, the more inadequate and useless their customer service and the more disrespect for their customers. I'll keep you posted!
And Vodafone, please do something about handling your customers calls!!! The most annoying thing has got to be the inability to pick up a case where you've left it. I'm not even sure whether they even make any proper logs when you phone them, otherwise why should you have to repeat the same things again and again and again! I made about 10 calls to them and I never got the same advice twice! I've also received voicemails from them saying 'We are ready to sort this out for you, please call back' and when you do, it's like they haven't got a clue why you are phoning and you start reporting the case from the beginning! Like I haven't got anything else to do but spend my time on the phone to their customer service!
Sorry for the rant and thanks for listening!

Stedwardo

Good news. I've now had a response from Vodafone and they are going to refund the £492.53 they owe me. Why it was quite such a convoluted process I have no idea. I suppose I should be grateful, but it's my money and they should never have taken it in the first place. So my gratitude is lim-i-ted...

Some lessons I have learnt:
1. NEVER go for a dual contract where the physical phone and the phone services are provided by different companies. It gives them endless scope for batting the issue backwards and forwards and blaming the other company. I have now signed up with Orange for EVERYTHING. Even changing my broadband. It will cost me about £10 pcm more but is worth every penny. If something goes wrong, there's only one port of call.
2. The 191 customer helpline is useless, as it puts you through to a call centre in India manned with people who read from a script so are not aware of the issues and do not have the authority to sort them out. This website is the only way I have managed to get some kind of satisfaction.
3. When you cancel a contract, make sure you cancel the DD as well.
4. Record EVERYTHING - bills, conversations, receipts. Build up your ammunition for the worst case scenario.

essexclaire, xukc and ohdannyboy - good luck with your issues. Keep plugging away and do not take no for an answer.

All this just to get my money back for a contract on a faulty phone which I cancelled within 7 days (well within distance-selling regs and sale of goods act deadlines). And they are still going to take 10-14 days to pay. In my book it should take 2 hours tops by internet transfer.

All good fun. Hopefully my last post here, will see if the money arrives.

xukc

Stedwardo wrote: »

.
4. Record EVERYTHING - bills, conversations, receipts. Build up your ammunition for the worst case scenario.

I should have learned my lesson from before but when you get a nice polite person on the phone who confidently tells you it's all been sorted out, you drop your guard.
Ten calls like this later and I'm kicking myself why I never wrote names, date and time every time they messed me about!

Good news Stedwardo, hope this is the end of your troubles.

ohdannyboy

good to hear it steadwardo.

ive seen a vodafone representitive post on this thread, how often do they read peoples posts? do they generally reply and help.

I was on the phone to vodafone today to complain and question the my 'request to cancel my contract' which i never made and got no where.

dont really know what to do about my complaint. looks like i should just move to a competitors network as vodafone dont seem to want continuing customers custom!

cheers

baldelectrician

Stedwardo wrote: »

I have now signed up with Orange for EVERYTHING. Even changing my broadband.

Orange 150 customer helpline is useless, as it puts you through to a call centre in India manned with people who read from a script so are not aware of the issues and do not have the authority to sort them out. This website is the only way I have managed to get some kind of satisfaction.
Oh dear- Orange are sacking lots of people in the UK and transferring jobs overseas.

Orange were one of the best until 4 years ago. Now they are amongst the worst (Which Survey), and my opinion

I am now with Tesco mobile (who do capped contracts- handy for having teenagers), and their customer service is actually a service (not an aspiraitional term like VF / Orange)
And Tesco have UK only call centres- they also use O2's network, so the coverage is good

Vodafone

Hi Stewardo,

I am really pleased that this has been resolved for you and once again, I would like to apologise for any inconvenience or frustration caused.

Hi xukc,

I am sorry to hear you have had a number of issues trying to resolve this. If you could email via the address here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject, I will be happy to help with this.

You will also need to include a link to your post, and a contact number that I can reach you on.

Hi ohdannyboy,

I check this thread as often as I possibly can and am able to help with all types of queries.

If you email me via the above steps, I will be happy to help you further.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK