Vodafone complaints

travel_freak

Hi again Lee,

I've just filled in the form your requested resending my email. Having looked at your link now it is exactly the same link I used to send an email to before but regrettably have received absolutely no reply from that route so I do hope there will be a reply this time from someone.....

travel_freak

Another update .... to add insult to injury, still not heard anything from Vodafone and today they have sent me an incorrect bill charging me twice for two accounts when I have one and that one account is inoperable! What marvellous customer service.

marq

Well in the meanwhile, I had called VF on 5555 (the 'free' Passport helpline) to remove Passport at the end of the summer promotion. At that point I got talking to Nour, someone who I thought could help me, so I got my tariff put right, and was promised a credit for the time when I was on the wrong tariff. We also discussed the earlier problems, which apparently hadn't been completed despite having been passed up to a manager, so Nour promised to chase this up for me and get the £203.73 cancellation charge actually refunded to my account. This he did successfully.

However, a few days later I was stunned to discover that the call had been recorded not as a call to 5555 but as a chargeable call (from France) to 121 (voicemail), for which I was to be charged £5.92+vat. Not only this, but I now discover that I was thoroughly confused (or possibly misled - but the promotion pages are no longer available for me to check) about the Vodafone Passport summer promotion, which apparently did not include texts to local mobiles in the country. Now I really do regret ever joining Vodafone.

Anyway, true to his word, Lee has now called me and had a look at my account - confirming some of the refunds had been made, the accounts have been updated and now register that my original payment was refunded by my bank, but also that Nour had not managed to credit me for the time I was on the wrong tariff. So apparently I'm getting that refunded, and Lee has also arranged a refund for the call to 5555 from France wrongly billed as a call to 121. Another goodwill gesture thrown in should even cover the roaming charges for receiving Lee's calls (I'm in Germany now), and with that it should all be put right. I'd love to believe that it's now all sorted, but as sincere as Lee is, there've just been too many mess ups so far for me to believe it before I see it.

We shall see.

(Oh and the quidco transaction is still pending.)

Vodafone

travel_freak wrote: »

Another update .... to add insult to injury, still not heard anything from Vodafone and today they have sent me an incorrect bill charging me twice for two accounts when I have one and that one account is inoperable! What marvellous customer service.

Hi travel_freak,

As we're upto date with our emails I'm concerned as to where yours had gone.

Would you mind sending me a PM with the email address from which you emailed us and I'll try to locate your details from there and come back to you?

marq wrote: »

Well in the meanwhile, I had called VF on 5555 (the 'free' Passport helpline) to remove Passport at the end of the summer promotion. At that point I got talking to Nour, someone who I thought could help me, so I got my tariff put right, and was promised a credit for the time when I was on the wrong tariff. We also discussed the earlier problems, which apparently hadn't been completed despite having been passed up to a manager, so Nour promised to chase this up for me and get the £203.73 cancellation charge actually refunded to my account. This he did successfully.

However, a few days later I was stunned to discover that the call had been recorded not as a call to 5555 but as a chargeable call (from France) to 121 (voicemail), for which I was to be charged £5.92+vat. Not only this, but I now discover that I was thoroughly confused (or possibly misled - but the promotion pages are no longer available for me to check) about the Vodafone Passport summer promotion, which apparently did not include texts to local mobiles in the country. Now I really do regret ever joining Vodafone.

Anyway, true to his word, Lee has now called me and had a look at my account - confirming some of the refunds had been made, the accounts have been updated and now register that my original payment was refunded by my bank, but also that Nour had not managed to credit me for the time I was on the wrong tariff. So apparently I'm getting that refunded, and Lee has also arranged a refund for the call to 5555 from France wrongly billed as a call to 121. Another goodwill gesture thrown in should even cover the roaming charges for receiving Lee's calls (I'm in Germany now), and with that it should all be put right. I'd love to believe that it's now all sorted, but as sincere as Lee is, there've just been too many mess ups so far for me to believe it before I see it.

We shall see.

(Oh and the quidco transaction is still pending.)

Hi marq,

Thanks for updating the thread following our conversation yesterday evening.

When checking your account again next month I'll also check to see if you've incurred a charge for the call.

Based on your experience so far I can understand your reservations in believing that things are now resolved but you rest assured that they are and I'll be sure to contact you again next month as promised.

On the Quidco side of things it might be worth sending the Quidco representative on here a PM to see if they can help you further with this.

All the best,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

easy

Am I the only person who finds it odd a member of VF staff comes on here to resolve problems for customers?

I mean, Triffic that he's doing something, but why can't they properly do Customer service thru their own customer service channels?

I hope MSE is getting some funds for the service they are letting VF use to keep customers happy (or at least less unhappy)

grenville1

I also find it bizarre. I have had no response to emails sent via the webform, and I have today sent an email to the DirectorComplaintOffice email address - but have had no reply from there either.

I upgraded with a verbal agreement when a good deal was offered while I was planning to leave Vodafone, but when I requested confirmation in writing and subsequently received a semi-literate email from customer services, the "agreement" was for a more expensive price than I had accepted. Unfortunately this was longer than 7/14 days after the date of the agreement - although in my mind this is irrelevant as there is no binding contract, because I have not reached agreement with Vodafone. However I am unable to elicit a sensible answer from customer services by phone, and my emails remain unanswered. Customer services have refused to provide a transcript that would support their position. I am extremely unhappy with the situation as I would never have agreed to extend my contract if I had known (a) the price I was to be charged, and (b) the fact that I was dealing with an organisation that is happy to defraud me.

Could anyone advise what remedies I have? Ideally I would unwind the whole contract rather than revert to the correct price, because of the deception, the cost and the time it is taking to sort it out.

Thanks,

G

baldelectrician

Essentially it is up to them to prove you wrong

Use a SAR (Subject Access Request) and pay a £10 fee to Vodafone to require them to supply you with all the information on your file, including the relevant call recordings.

They have a legal obligation to provide you with such information within the required timescale

In a nutshell they have to be able to prove you agreed to what they say you did, not the other way round.
You could sue them in the small claims court for the balance of the contract plus costs

grenville1

Thanks very much for the advice. I will do just that.
Regards
G

marq

easy wrote: »

Am I the only person who finds it odd a member of VF staff comes on here to resolve problems for customers?

I mean, Triffic that he's doing something, but why can't they properly do Customer service thru their own customer service channels?

I hope MSE is getting some funds for the service they are letting VF use to keep customers happy (or at least less unhappy)

"The squeaky wheel gets the oil"... we are squeaking loudest of all as we are complaining in a public forum and not doing VF's reputation any good. Note that Lee's position is "Web relations" - it's about improving VF's standing within the web community. It doesn't surprise me at all that the company would put some of their most efficient and effective staff (especially if they don't have that many such people) onto sorting out our problems so that we stop making such a public fuss.

Of course, it would make rather more sense to ensure that as few customers as possible ever have to make such a complaint, so that Lee and his colleagues weren't even needed here, but since the problems seem to be deeply rooted both in VF's systems and its staffing structures and culture, changing that is going to take much more effort (and motivation) from the very top, so I rather fear that it won't happen any time soon.

In the meantime, web relations is a quick fix, and I daresay that Lee and colleagues dispair of their company as much as its customers do.

Vodafone

easy wrote: »

Am I the only person who finds it odd a member of VF staff comes on here to resolve problems for customers?

I mean, Triffic that he's doing something, but why can't they properly do Customer service thru their own customer service channels?

I hope MSE is getting some funds for the service they are letting VF use to keep customers happy (or at least less unhappy)

Hi easy,

In an ideal world customers would never encounter problems with any company who provide them with a service.

However, as we'll all aware the reality is far different and while I we are certainly committed to providing great service to our customers sometimes things go wrong for a whole host of reasons.

In these cases the customer will sometimes feel that they have no other way of getting things sorted than to seek advice on sites such as MSE and while it's not ideal the Web Relations Team will try to spot these as quickly as possible and intervene wherever possible.

grenville1 wrote: »

I also find it bizarre. I have had no response to emails sent via the webform, and I have today sent an email to the DirectorComplaintOffice email address - but have had no reply from there either.

I upgraded with a verbal agreement when a good deal was offered while I was planning to leave Vodafone, but when I requested confirmation in writing and subsequently received a semi-literate email from customer services, the "agreement" was for a more expensive price than I had accepted. Unfortunately this was longer than 7/14 days after the date of the agreement - although in my mind this is irrelevant as there is no binding contract, because I have not reached agreement with Vodafone. However I am unable to elicit a sensible answer from customer services by phone, and my emails remain unanswered. Customer services have refused to provide a transcript that would support their position. I am extremely unhappy with the situation as I would never have agreed to extend my contract if I had known (a) the price I was to be charged, and (b) the fact that I was dealing with an organisation that is happy to defraud me.

Could anyone advise what remedies I have? Ideally I would unwind the whole contract rather than revert to the correct price, because of the deception, the cost and the time it is taking to sort it out.

Thanks,

G

Hi grenville1,

As we're upto date with our emails I'm wondering what's happened to yours if you've followed the steps I've posted to other MSE members.

As oppose to asking you to send another email would you mind sending me a PM with the email address from which you emailed us and I'll try to locate your details that way and come back to you.

Many thanks,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK