Vodafone complaints

notavinit

I have read some of the issues vodaphone have on here and I would like to add mine with the hope someone give me some advice or help regarding the position a giant like vodaphone has put a customer, me, in.
Ive recently become single and have a daughter living with me so money is tight and taking care of my credit rating is important, life being what it is these days.
I think from what I have read, this must be one of the worst cases of customer service you can get…

I have been with Vodaphone for over a year when I was dragged into a situation I was trying very hard to avoid with hours of calls to vodaphone.

Back in May 09, my phone was cut off??
I contacted vodaphone to enquire why. I was informed that the contract had been cancelled, as I was deceased, they are waiting for the relevant documentation?
On asking who claimed this, I was told it was my ex-partner…
I explained the situation and the person was very helpful re-setting the account and taking all my details again including bank details to re-instate the direct debit.

I then used the phone without any problems through out the year until November, 7 months later, where I asked for an upgrade and add a phone for my daughter.
This was done without any problems and even offered several other packages.
I also asked about keeping check on my monthly bill. I was informed, I could receive a text telling me my bill for that month at any time.

So, from then on I kept checking my bill and every month it reached apx £70-£80 then dropped back to apx £25 each month which I thought od but not a problem.
On checking my bill in Jan/Feb 2010, I received a text saying my bill is £175!!
I rang Vodaphone immediately and was told it was a fault and my bill was £75.

Then apx March/April 2010, my phone was cut off again as was my daughters

I rang Vodaphone and was told I hadn’t paid my bill of £300! And I had not replied to their mail???

I have never received mail from vodaphone other for a request for proof of my death between May and November 09 which I ignored as a clerical error.

From the point of contacting Vodaphone and being told of my bill, this is some of the events from then until now

You’ve not paid your bill of £300
We will investigate the situation and contact you, Phone on, No call back
Cut off
I phoned Vodaphone and they was unaware there was a problem?
They will look into it and call me back.. Phone back on, No call back
I rang them and told, not their problem, I will have to pay!!
Cut off
Rang Vodaphone, told we will investigate the situation and contact you? No call back!
Rang Vodaphone, to enquire and told, I don’t have an account with them??
Rang Vodaphone and told, I cant see a problem?? On explanation I was told, they will look into it and call me back..
No call back
Rang Vodaphone, told, your bill is £700+ not £300 as told. Pay or you will be cut off, I further explained the situation and told, we will investigate the situation and contact you? No call back!
Cut off!
Rang Vodaphone, Explained to the assistant again! as he was unaware of the situation, considering the notes that should have been attached to the file.
I had no reason to suspect I wasn’t actually paying the bill as I had checked they have my details and the direct debit was set up and my text billing from £70-£80 pm back to apx £25 each month..
On checking my quarterly statement I couldn’t find any payments to Vodaphone. I then checked with my Building society and was told it has never been called for??
Now June 2010
Now knowing this I contacted Vodaphone again and explained the farce and came to an agreement with the assistant that we would meet half way of £700, I would pay £350 as a gesture of good will on both parts.
I was told to contact the collection team in the next few days and arrange payments over the next 6 months at the same time paying my monthly bill.
I was then told I have to pay the full £700+ and the assistant hasn’t got the authority to make that arrangement…
The debt collection team assistant informed me, we would investigate the situation and contact you? No call back! Cut off again!!

Again I rang Vodaphone, explained the whole farce to another assistant in collections and told, yep! We would investigate the situation and contact you? No call back! Cut off again!!

I heard nothing from vodaphone until august 2010 through a debt collection agency demanding payment in full for £1200+
I contacted them and was told to explain the situation and they would forward it on.
September 2010 I received a call from the debt collectors with an answer Vodaphone. I was told, the issues I have stated, will no longer be took into account and I must pay the amount in full or my credit rating will be affected. When I asked for further explanation, the debt collectors told me, Vodaphone has told them, and they are not to contact them again!!

I have done everything I could to explain and keep from getting in debt with Vodaphone; even shops have no contact details if you enquire through them. I have been on the phone to them for over 5 hours and discussed the situation with over 12 assistants explaining the issue from in most cases, the start, and yes, I have used their email service and guess what? NO REPLY!!

At the end off the day we are talking about a phone, not a life support machine that they like you to think..

Vodaphone make it impossible to contact them direct, you are put through to answering agencies that have little if any contact to Vodaphone.

Any help regarding what I see as bullying and black mail, sale of services not received would be a great help. I can use Oftel but that only draws it out and is an option from here….

Notavinit!

ruggedtoast

amber-23 wrote: »

I am so stressed with Vodafone! I had loads of problems and nobody was even attempting to help me so yesterday I posted this in the vodafone forum in the hope it would get me a response.....


Has anyone else had a problem with their trackerball and had it sent for repair with Vodafone? My friend who is on Orange had a new phone delivered to her house the next day after going into the orange shop to say her trackball wasn't working, I think Vodafones customer serive is the worst I have ever experienced.

I went into the shop in Cardiff over bank holiday weekend as I was away from home and the man who worked there was so friendly and offered to send it for repair and get it returned back to Reading (where I live) and offered me a blackberry loan phone while it was being fixed. As I didn't have access to my computer to back up my blackberry contacts etc I decided I would wait until I got back to Reading.

I took my phone into my local vodafone store on 31st August, was served by the rudest man I had ever met, he told me he was leaving to work for 02 as Vodafone were 'rubbish' and told me I was 'stupid' for getting into a 24 month contract with vodafone. Anyway he set my phone off for repair and gave me a samsung touch screen loan phone, said my phone would be back within 2 weeks but said it usually takes around 7-10 days.

I last heard from vodafone when I got a text to say the phone had arrived at the repair centre on 2/9 and that my estimated collection date was 14/9.

Over the weekend I started experiencing problems with the loan phone vodafone had gave me, it kept freezing and I kept having to take the battery out to re-start the phone. So yesterday I went back to the vodafone shop to speak to them about this and to ask if my blackberry would be back on Tuesday. I was greeting by a man at the door and explained all this to him, only to be told 'I can't replace the loan phone, we have none available, your just going to have to deal with it or buy yourself a cheap 20 pounds pay and go one to use' I pay 7 pounds a month for my insurance so why would I go and BUY myself a basic phone??? And then when I asked if my blackberry would be back on Tuesday he replied ' I don't know I am nothing to do with the repair centre'. I could not believe his attitude!!! Of course he is to do with the repair centre!! it is the same company, a little communication wouldn't go as miss!!

When I got home, I looked up how to complain to vodafone, I filled in a form on their website, the form only allowed you 700 characters which wasn't nearly enough!! I got an automatic response saying they would contact me within 24 hours......that is looking unlikely!!!!

Anyway today I go back into Vodafone and insist they tell me what is going on with my blackberry, it turns out there is a system they can look it up on after all, and guess what??? My blackberry is still at the repair centre and NOBODY has even looked at it yet!!!!! I tell him this is unacceptable and he says 'well there are loads of other phones to fix and it is YOUR fault it is broken, you obviously got some dirt in it' I couldn't even believe what I was hearing! Everyone knows this is a common problem with the blackberry and that is why the newer versions do not have the trackerball!! When I mentioned about the loan phone I have playing up he said to me 'I can give you a basic one at least it would work then'. I pay for a blackberry! I do not want some basic phone that I cannot even go online on!! I asked if I could have a blackberry loan phone and he said 'no we don't have them really' and when I mentioned I got offered one in cardiff he gave me a look like he didn't believe me!!! I asked if my blackberry would be back this week and he replied 'no, late next week at the earliest' no apology!!!

I am a bit confused as to what I pay my insurance for??? This is ridiculous! My monthly bill is not cheap and I do not deserve to be treated like this!! And I think the first man I spoke to in the vodafone shop was right in saying I was stupid getting a 24 month contract with vodafone! I have a year left in this contract and it can not end quick enough! I am tempted to ask vodafone what is the minimum I can lower my line rental down to and if it is quite low to just pay it and then take out a contract with a more customer orientated network provider!!! Has anyone else experienced these problems with vodafone????

The post was more of less deleted from the forum instantly and I recieved this email:

IT999

Good evening amber86,

We’ve noticed your thread on the Vodafone eForum.

The eForum is a public forum designed to provide technical help and as such doesn’t require any account details to register. Therefore it isn’t the best place to get specific account issues resolved. So we can help you in the fastest and best way possible we have removed your thread from the eForum and contacted you via email. So your issue can be looked into by our Customer Relations team in a secure and private environment please resubmit your below query on our Contact Us page here and include ‘FIT999’ in the subject line (this will divert the email to the appropriate team). Our Customer Relations team are dedicated to giving excellent service and will do everything possible to resolve your issue and restore your faith in Vodafone with aim of a 24 hour turnaround time. Please include the below requested details and they will be in touch:

• Full Name
• The second and fourth digit of your security code
• Mobile number
• Address including post code
• Date of Birth

If you think we will need any further information to help you please also include this.

Now that your current issue is going to be resolved very soon, don’t forget to visit us at the eForum. We have a great community providing all kinds of technical help and support. Don’t forget to check out the eForum terms and conditions page for guidance on how to get the most out of it.

I was a bit annoyed as I had already stated that I had emailed customer care! But I just copied and pasted my forum post to customer care again as I couldn't be bothered to re-type the whole thing to them! What a surprise, it has been over 24 hours and once again I have not received a response!

Today I finally recieved a reply to the first complaint I made to vodafone via the 'contact us' form and this is what it said:

i Amber,
I'm sorry to learn that the loan phone provide to you was faulty as well.
My sincere apologies on behalf of the man at the store. We will consider this behaviour from the man at the store and take your inputs as a feed back to better our services.
At Vodafone we do not believe in poor customer service and we are surprised to know that you were not attended with appropriately at one of our Vodafone Store's.

Amber, as your phone is already sent for repair. I suggest you please visit any other Vodafone retail store. To locate your nearest Vodafone retail store please
click here. You can replace the loan phone that's not functional at the store.
I'm sorry, as I'm unable to provide you with the exact return date of your phone from repair.
Trust this helps.

Ummmm, no it does not help!! Some of it doesn't even make sense, what does we will consider this behaviour of the man in the store mean? If your going to reply to me vodafone at least learn how to string a proper sentance together and use the correct terms.

Today I posted a 3 page letter to vodafone. This is ridiculous. They do not care about their customers or the service they provide! I understand their policy is to repair the phone but to give me a expected return date of 2 weeks and then to tell me the phone has not even been looked at when I am fully insured is ridiculous!!! I have never experienced such bad customer service in my life!

Sometimes less is more. I used to work in customer services and I have to say unless you keep it brief and to the point you aren't helping them to help you.

Its difficult when you want to get it off your chest, but the person reading your complaint likely has a 100 of them to get through in a short amount of time. (I imagine with Vodafone it may well be a lot more). If you've written loads they'll probably just skim through it and miss the details.

Its best to summarise what happened, and what you want them to about it in the first paragraph, and then separate the details into paragraphs or bullet points.

The email you got back was from their service centre in India, who I suspect perform the same service for all Vodafones English speaking territories.

If they understand what you asked, they can make minor amendments to your account, and give you information about vodafone services, although this can be misleading, especially if they didnt properly read or understand your complaint, and they dont seem to have access to the same database as the UK side.

howburn

Below is a copy of an email I have sent to Vodafone, I am also posting it here in the hope the Vodafone rep may see it.

Thanks


LGISO800 KU990i BEJKU990



Hi, I have sent a number of emails regarding the poor service of Vodafone over the last few months, copies of those sent and received are all below.

My current issue is the repair service for the above phone, we were told after it had been away for 2 weeks it was unrepairable due to it being rusty inside because it had been wet, and had it been used in the shower? I can confirm it has not. And as a result I had to purchase a new one.

After I had responded to say I felt I should not have to pay for the new one £20 has been credited to my account. However I am not really satisfied with this outcome. I also had my doubts as to whether the handset had been looked at, and as a result I have had a look inside after removing the covers.

It is unlikely to be rusty as the circuit boards use copper, solder and I think gold for the terminals, all metals that will tarnish to some extent but will not go rusty and are excellent electrical conductors. There is no evidence of any tarnish or discoloration on any part of the circuit board or terminals, there does not appear to be any ingress of water or any other foreign matter. I would be interested to see the engineers report and photographs of what was found. I have re-assembled the phone and it is in the same state as when returned from repair.

I believe that there is a component or software failure within the phone due to it being a poor/inadequate design that has not lasted 12 months of average use; this is further confirmed to me after doing a small amount of research on the internet to see others are having problems with this handset.

The reason the phone was originally sent for repair, the symptoms were outlined on the Vodafone web form, were that the handset was getting hot to touch, it would turn off when answering a received call and also when a recipient caller answered their phone. When it turned off or crashed it would lose the date and time settings and caller history. It would often loose connection mid call. A longer running fault was the touch screen would not respond, and the handset needed to be turned off and back on again to rectify this.

I appreciate the gesture of £20 credit, but it does not really solve the problem, and it certainly is not adequate for the 2 weeks I had to do without the phone, I have lost some business as a result. Especially when I take into account the poor service earlier on this year due to problems with mast’s in the area.

I request that you replace my phone of one of an equivalent standard that is capable of the features that it is designed to do, it is important for me that it can continue to sync with my PC as it is used for business, the replacement one is not compatible with the LG Smart Suite.

As can be seen below, after one of your team suggested I purchased a sure signal to try and improve the situation, it has been particularly frustrating that after this further purchase we are still experiencing so many problems.

I would like to point out that this handset is the primary one used on this account, there is another one that is used less frequently and there may also potentially be two more, if we to take advantage of the telephone offer we keep receiving from Vodafone sales team.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope we can reach a satisfactory outcome for both sides.

stolt

well my problem of vodaphon charging me more on monhtly tariff has raised its head again its that time of the month again.... its now £30.00 rather than £20.00 what was agreed!!! lots of fun for me again over the next few days, wont waste time on customer services going straight to the top again.

Vodafone

Hi Kodu,

I can understand your frustration in this situation. I would like to help you.

If you e-mail me here placing WRT135 in the subject line and I’ll be happy to look in to this for you.

I’m sure I can help to get this sorted.




Hi amber-23.

I can understand your disappointment and that you need to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

Please e-mail me here placing WRT135 in the subject line. Also can you include a link to this page please. This will ensure it comes through to my team directly, and I’ll be in touch as soon as possible to help you get this resolved.

Thanks.




Hi notavinit,

We would need to access your account to look in to this further for you.

Can you please e-mail me here placing WRT135 in the subject line and also include a link to this page. If you have your account number can you include this along with the mobile number please?

We would be happy to investigate further and get back to you as soon as we can.

Thanks.



Hi howburn,

I’m concerned to see what you write and would like to help.

If you e-mail me here placing WRT135 in the subject line and I’ll get back to you.

I look forward to hearing from you.



Hi Stolt,

I would be happy to look in to this for you.

Please e-mail me here placing WRT135 in the subject line and I’ll get in touch as soon as I can.

I’m sure I can help.

Thanks.


Regards,

Kath
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

stolt

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Kodu,

I can understand your frustration in this situation. I would like to help you.


Hi Stolt,

I would be happy to look in to this for you.

Please e-mail me here placing WRT135 in the subject line and I’ll get in touch as soon as I can.

I’m sure I can help.

Thanks.


Regards,

Kath
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

hello kath i will try to email you but i asked for my pac code today, even though ive been with you for 2+ years i cant stand it anymore and cant wait to get away, i just want to leave, if someone said pay your bill upto to the end of the october i'd snap there hand off. I'm off to orange.......


i'm still having so many problems with vodaphone cusotmer services, totally ignoring my questions and instead just the usual stuff to me and i then have to reply...

weemster

Firstly I have been a customer of vodafone for 20 years and always had great service in that time and the very same number.

I decided to upgrade to the new iphone 4 which looked out of this world as did some of the features. I thought this would be the ideal phone for me with my up and coming business trips to Australia as I was very keen to keep in touch with my business when not in the Uk. It is my intention to open another business in Australia and I have always found their passport tarif very competitive and convenient when travelling abroad.

Sadly the whole thing has been a terrible experience and the phone was in no way fit for purpose with frequently dropped calls and lack of signal. The thing that has made it so much worse is the disgrace that is their [EMAIL="ccare.webmails@help.vodafone.co.uk"]ccare.webmails@help.vodafone.co.uk[/EMAIL] email
which is a complete waste of time where responses were just a series of lies and very poor, slow communication.

Vodafone as a company really need to gets its act together. Hiding behind slow turn around emails, poor communications, questionable language skills, not getting back to people is not the way to conduct a business. They even had the cheek to ask me for the missing amount on my contract should I cancel which had only just started (was circa £700) and when I point blank refused they returned with a lower cost like it was some sort of auction and when I refused to pay that they disabled my phone without any prior warning - thats isn't the mark of a resonsible organisation talking to a very long standing customer.

The best bit was another series of emails (from someone who quite clearly had some idea of my previous communications saying the coverage was fine in my area and had I reconsidered their initial offer (also I might like to try removing the battery on my iphone to rectify any problems - idiot! they already have cut me off ???). Another email arrived from them the next day saying that coverage was in fact down and they had no idea when it would be up again.

I intend to request a full refund and compensation for this absolute disgrace in which I lost a contract worth many thousands of pounds. I run a business and you do not treat people in this way. I have kept all the correspondence and it makes great reading (indeed laughable if it wasn't peoples money we were talking about). I cancelled my bank standing order after they blocked my iphone and I will get compensation for my lost contract and the iphone cost - Ok I lost my long standing number but unlike vodafone, I have a good relationship with my customers and am now with a another provider which doesn't try and blackmail in a bid to get me to pay for such a disgusting service.

billyboy2468

got a call from girl called louise and offered me a 2nd phone for my son for £12.50 ,htc wildfire free,300 mins,unlimited texts,asked for unlimited internet on top she said would put me up to £15 on 18 mnth contract.asked LOUISE to email details as proof,still waiting.got text from her with details and said she would call bach at 6.30 next day.still waiting.told son about the deal and was all set for new phone,still got 2 months of orange contract to go for him so think we will just see out contact and get new contract with orange,as i dont think theyll mess us about like VODAFONE has,so once again thanks LOUISE for messing us about and waisting my time.kept text as proof by the way!

stolt

horray, finaly someone at vodaphone have agreed to let me go, asked if there was anything they could do to make me stay... no way i want to go... and they have agreed. finally i'm free i cant believe it.. what a relief.

teleaddict

Has anybody else had problems with their suresignal (access gateway) dropping out & not providing a signal. Mine stopped about 4 days ago. I phoned vodafone today to be told its a "global outage" and all suresignals have stopped working. Is this the case or am I being fobbed off??????????????