Vodafone complaints

Annie._2

cm2011 wrote: »

I am 18/19 months into a 24 month contract on a iphone 4, and seem to be completely trapped with a phone that is worn out and a tariff that is inappropriate for my needs but that Vodafone refuse to do anything with.

I have contacted Vodafone numerous times - my tariff gives me barely any data but loads of texts and minutes - which I never come close to using, whereas my data always goes over the limit so I incur extra fees.

Vodafone have repeatedly given me the standard response 'computer says no', and will not offer me anything different, saying that as I am on the One plan, I cannot change tariff at all. Actually, that is not strictly true, when I phoned once they managed to offer me a tariff which was even less use to me and would cost more per month! I need to cut my bill and get a tariff that suits my needs!

I have put a complaint in and have got the same response, which has given me no faith in Vodafone and their customer service. At no point when I signed up to Vodafone was I informed that I would not be able to change my tariff, this has always been possible on other networks.

In addition to this, my iphone is completely worn out, it is becoming less responsive and keeps freezing and the battery is running down stupidly quickly - obviously iphones are not designed to last the length of the contract, and it certainly won't last until I am allowed to upgrade (April 2013).

I cannot afford to terminate my contract early because of the charge, but I really cannot go on with a useless tariff and a rapidly breaking down iphone.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to a way forward, as I just don't know where to turn now?:(

You have two separate isssues here. Your airtime contract and your phone.

When you started your 24 month contract, you made an agreement with Vodafone to pay a minimum amount each month during the 24 month commitment, this cannot be changed and you would be unable to pay less on a monthly basis for your airtime contract.

As soon as you are in the last 75 days of your contract, you would be able to upgrade to a new phone and take advantage of the new tariff even if it is lower, but the remaining 75 days get added onto the new contract at the new price.

If you are exceeding your data usage on a regular basis, you automatically get charged £5.00 for each additional 250mb of date. There is a data booster you would be able to add for an additional 1GB of data for a charge of £10.00 per month. The other alternative is to try and use WiFi wherever possible.

Your phone is separate from your airtime contract and is your responsibility and this is something Vodafone are very explicit about in their terms and conditions. If you are having problems with the phone, take the phone into an Apple store for a genius to take a look at the problem.

If you cannot affort to pay off your contract to leave you free to negotiate a new contract with a new phone, your only other alternative will be to purchase a low cost phone to use on your airtime contract which will keep you going until you are at the end of your commitment or eligible for an upgrade.

fatboyonadiet

I got an upgrade last year and had problems with the phone after 6 months, got a replacement but again after 6 months similar problem, has anyone ever managed to get an alternate phone? Or are they likely to just change to the same one again?

Vodafone

Hi cm2011,

I am sorry to hear that you have had some problems with both the handset and the price plan.

Ann S is correct with the advise she has provided here. We are unable to lower your price plan mid contract as you agree to a minimum amount when you agree to the terms. If you need to increase the plan to include more data, I will be happy to discuss the options.

You can contact me personally by following the link here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject.

Please also include a contact number and a link to your post when getting in touch.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

kerryberryboo

Probably best to start at the beginning.

I had problems paying my bill, a reduction in salary and salary being paid late. Vodafone were understanding and helped me to keep my phone connected.
I made a contribution towards my outstanding bill by car payment of £45 on 6 September.
Not long after, my phone was disconnected. I called Vodafone - payment had not been received, I called my bank, yes it has.
I checked online banking - the payment was clearly there.
I called and emailed, and called and emailed. I was advised to go into a store with my bank statement.
I do not receive bank statements, my banking is online only. I also have a very busy life and not much time to spare to go into a store, I explained in my email reply. The next email I received advised me to email a copy of my online statement to customer.care@help.vodafone.co.uk, which I did - twice.
During this time I did not make a further payment to my balance as not only did I not have a service for the majority of it - I also did not trust the payment method which had previously failed.
Eventually after several calls, emails, frustration got the better of me. I caved and paid the full outstanding balance, bar the £45 I had already paid. I took myself into a Vodafone store. I explained the situation, I was told there was nothing they could do without seeing a bank statement, a print out of online statement wouldn't suffice as "I could photoshop whatever I liked and commit fraud" I couldn't use their computer to go online and show my online banking - I could do nothing.

By luck, my partner was there and allowed me to use his phone to log onto my internet banking and show the Vodafone staff at the store my online banking statement, show him the proof of payment. He seen the screen twice, he held the phone, he scrolled, he viewed, he verified my statement. He then called the collections team and advised that he had visual proof of my payment.

The member of staff took my card number, he advised me to call Vodafone in 3 days to confirm they had found my 'missing payment'. Unfortunately I had picked 3 days time to take a short (and supposedly relaxing) break.

Yesterday I received a call to say that there was no note that the store had seen my bill, I find this hard to believe - my presence in store was definitely noted, the member of staff told me "I'm not dealing with you anymore, I have customers who want to buy things". I find it hard to believe he 'forgot' me.

A manager was meant to call me back from Collections yesterday, my phone rang three times, by the time I tried to answer the manager had ended the call.

And finally, my phone is DISCONNECTED AGAIN.

For maybe the third of fourth time since September.

I want advice, answers and an apology.

As far as I can tell, Vodafone are in breach of contract by failing to provide a service when all efforts to prove payment have been made.

BREATHE.

michk1984

I have been having terrible services from your 'managers' at your call centres.

Ok so this is the story.
I was in Turkey dated 22 September 2012 - 29 September 2012.
On the 26th & 27th September was phone was off line - Due to Vodafone cutting my line due to high cost of account.
On the 27th September I called in and had my phone switched on, but before asking for my phone to be switched on I asked how much my account was on. The lady that helped me said it’s on £160.00 (which I thought was ok) so my phone got switched back online.

On the 23rd of October I received an email with my invoice for the previous month. To my surprise my account was £525.57 due! I called the call centre and asked why my account was so high. The lady said that on the 25th September 2012 alone on that day my account was sitting on £330!
I called the call centre and spoken to a gentleman that would call me back within 24 hours. 24 hours went past no call from your staff!
We called again and spoken to a gentle man called JOE (Reference IN00945875984) he agreed with my husband that he saw that the lady confirmed to me that my account was sitting on £160 on the 27th September 2012. And he confirmed that it takes 24 hours for my account to reflect any other extra charges. He said that he would call us back within 48 hours; he would be investigating the telephone calls (listening to the voice recorded) that were taken on the 27th September. Still no call from Joe, on the 30 October we called in again and spoke to another gentleman that said he would call before 8pm, no call by 8:10 we called in and the call centre was closed. Still no call! We called every second day to follow up and we got the same story that someone would call us back.

31 October we called in and spoken to Dwain Patrick and he said that all calls take 72 hours to reflect on the account (which Joe said that it takes 24hours). He refused to put me through to anyone higher than him. He said he will send our details over to a manager called Willdene and he would call us back in 72 hours (which I doubt) because we called so many times and no one has called us back. Reference to that call was: IN00950632759

I'm getting extremely frustrated as no one calls me back and my account needs to get paid by tomorrow and I’ve been trying to sort my account out since the 23rd October. I've spoken to 2 different people and they both telling me different stories.

My point is that when I called in on the 27th September to switch my phone back on the lady confirmed that the reason why they switched my phone off because my account was on £160. But on the 23rd October when I received my invoice I called in and the gentleman confirmed that on the 25th September my account was on already £330.00. Why the difference is which I want answers for!!!?!!! If I knew my account was on £330.00 then I would have not switched my phone back on!
And why hasn’t your well trained managers called me back as promised? Still waiting for Joe to call me back regarding the investigating all the information.

Please look into my account and all the notes that has been left each time i called and also listen to the recordings aswell. You will also see that on one has called me back as promised.

Please I do hope you understand my concern and frustration and sincerely hope and try and help me out with this issue. Please let me know who I can contact to resolve this issue.

BIGDOGUK

Hi I have a problem signal in the ST5 area when I am on a call it cuts out and the signal disappears from my phone and reappears after 5 seconds.

This has been going on for 3 weeks now and only in the ST5 area. I am very unhappy and disappointed with this. I am will be not renewing my contract when it ends in July. Please can you fix this please?

Thank You.

Vodafone

Hi kerryberryboo,

I am sorry to hear about the problems you have faced and for any inconvenience or frustration this has caused.

If you could get in touch with me personally via the link shown here and include WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject, I will look into this in more detail and help get it resolved. Can you also include a link to your post and a contact number.

Hi michk1984,

There can be a delay in us receiving data that has been used abroad. I will certainly be happy to look into this for you though. If you could also get in touch via the details above, I will get in touch.

Hi BIGDOGUK,

If there is a known Fault with the network in your area, we will post it on our Faults Board here and update the thread as soon as we have further info.

If it's not shown there, you can post to the team here to investigate further.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

dcolley99

Vodafone Fail

I just posted this to Vodafone - what a god-awful service. I'd be interested to see if anyone's had a similar experience.

----

I'm a new Vodafone customer having switched from O2, having fallen for the Vodafone Family extra on PAYG.

Unfortunately I'm having a hell of a time. I got my VF SIM card, put it in - no problem. Found out how to buy the Freedom Freebee and used the credit line number to buy it - no problem. Dialled 34444 to find out about the Vodafone Family extra, a voice tells me I need to pay for it out of my credit - no problem. So I go to top up...

'We're sorry, but the maximum top-up limit has been reached.'

What? I've spent £20! So I go online, register, and attempt to top up. Now I get:

"Unfortunately we are unable to process your request because of a temporary problem with our online service"

... and a nice ! mark by my card details. (My card, by the way, is a Visa debit attached to a Co-op bank account).

So I try it with a different card. Same problem.

So I decide to call customer services, 191. Woah - I can't - it's 25p a minute, I have no credit and I can't buy any because the systems are broken. So now I can't speak to anyone to fix this problem as I have no credit, and I can't get credit because I can't speak to anyone. Long, slow golf clap for Vodafone there.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to use the 30-days Freebee bundle I bought (which is the only thing that does seem to work), then I'll switch back to my O2 SIM when it's run out. I'm also going to take this post, verbatim, and paste it on to my extensive social networks - a few thousand people. I'll put it on my blog - 1000 page hits/week. And I'll work to raise awareness of just how bad Vodafone's service is, in the hope I can spare others from the same !!!!poor service.

I cannot believe such a large, multi-national corporation cannot understand that the most basic tenet of business is, 'make it easy for people to give you money' and, likewise, I cannot understand why no-one at Vodafone has actually researched what in IT-land are called 'user stories' or actually tested their systems.

By the way, the eForum forum.vodafone.co.uk doesn't render properly in Chrome. Well done, you guys.

Vodafone

Hi dcolley99,

I'm sorry to hear that you have had problems getting set up on your new PAYG account. It's extremely disappointing that this has now caused you to reconsider joining us.

If there is anything I can do to help, contact me via the link here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject.

The eForum should work fine through Google Chrome. What's happening when you try to load it?

Thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Mushypea

OK so i phoned Vodafone yesterday to downgrade my price plan. i've done it before no problems but.. as soon as i get put through;
" hello, whats your number'
"07*********"
"wow thats a really good number, can i buy it off you?'
"uh sorry?"
"i want your number, can i buy it off you?"
"wha? im sorry whats going on" (me looking at my phone to make sure i've actually dialled the right number
"i could black mail you, block your number'
"im sorry what?! well considering your on speaker phone and there are three people who just heard that, i don't think thats a good idea"
"hahahahaha! just kidding, but i will buy your number if you want to sell it"
"..not today"
"soon?"
"i don't think so, im sorry whats going on?!"
"hahaha don't worry, right what can i do for you?"
"i would like to reduce my price plan please"
"right, whats your full name and full address?"
"(my name and address)"
"that's a beautiful name, so unusual"
"thanks" ( by this point the three other people are cracking up and im a little bemused)
" and your date of birth"
"(i give him that)'
"is this your real voice?"
"huh?!"
"your voice, its quite deep, in a good way!"
"yes, its my real voice. do i sound like a man?"
"hahaha no no, its nice" (no wonder it takes forever to get to speak to vodafone!!)


so then he goes on for a good ten minutes to say that he can do something with my contract, i decide against it, then he goes back to this...;

"what about we share the same number?"
"no im ok thank you"
"i could get us on a good tariff and lots of discount"
"no im going to orange after this, i don't get any signal with vodafone"
"we could get you booster boxes"
"no its ok"
"do you think you will ever sell your number?"
"dno not now, couple of years maybe"
"ahh ill be manager in a couple of years then i can take whatever number i want"
"right"
"i'm going to take five pounds off your next bill"
"thanks, you're a legend"
"can i call you tomorrow"
"i dont' think i'll pick up" (i'm not great at being blunt and everyone else has stopped laughing and telling me to hang up)
"i could call you on vodafones customer call back service"
"no i'm ok thanks, i need to get back to work"
"ok, thanks for calling Vodafone etc."

then i get two text messages saying my content bar has been lifted and i can visit a full range of sites on mobile internet (NEVER expressed a wish to do this?!)

i do get a little bit of customer service cheek, but i think this is way over the top and am now seriously considering seeing if i can cancel my contract asap and move my number somewhere else. I'm a little nervous and weirded out.
Has anyone else had such a bizarre conversation? it's got me a little worried that i'm going to lose my number.

FAO Lee, cheers for helping, my vodafone email reference number #10637807 My contract runs out on the 1st feb.