Vodafone complaints

weemster

choccymoose wrote: »

I purchased a N97mini just before Christmas last year on Vodafone. It has been nothing but trouble, it has got to the stage now where I am having to reboot the phone 5 to 6 times a day which is a joke. It freezes, drops application, touch screen becomes non-reactive when trying to answer a call, or trying to make a call, touch screen does not work for applications, phone gets very hot when connected to internet I could go on, but you only have to google the phone to see the issues with them. I got this phone on a 24 mth contract so i'm stuck with it. I don;t see why I should have to pay out for a faulty product. I have asked for advice on the vodafone e-forum where countless others have requested the same thing, but are being fobbed off with having phones taken in and allegedly repaired only for problem to come back, I was asked on the 27th of September what software was i using as that was probably the issue and replied straight back, obviously didn't like my answer (the latest vodafone approved software) as not heard from anyone since grrrrrrrr. Think i'm going to have to but a cheap pay as you go and use that as I need a reliable phone and this one certainly isn't but surely the phone i have with my contract should be fit for purpose which it clearly isn't!!

You have my sympathy, I had my iphone for one month and complained many times and refused to pay for such a diabolical service although I still did. It just goes to show the complete incompetence of the company as they cut me off (after 20 years) without warning so I cancelled my direct debit - I was furious but as it transpires they did me a favour. I am now entering legal discussions to recupe my costs so dont give up.

julieh12

Hi, so glad I found this thread. Can anyone tell me to whom I send a letter of complaint to regarding the service I have received from vodafone ??
I have been a customer of VF since 1999, firstly pay as you go and then PMonthly since 2003/4.
I upgraded my phone over the phone on from a sony ericsson to a blackberry pearl on 24 august and received on 28 august, my tariff was £35 for calls text and browsing. I asked the guy what the internet charges for Turkey was and he said it will be a bit more expensive that Europe, okay. I wasn’t quiet getting used to the BBerry and didn’t have time to change it within 7 days as I was going abroad to turkey on 2 Sep, I did actually think about going back to my old faithful as it was a but technical to say the least.
So, I am in turkey and I have logged in and out of the internet a couple of times, but never more than 10 minutes a day, too much to do to think about browsing and just wanted to check facebook for my friends wedding pics and check emails. I get a text on 5 Sept at 23.05 uk time, 01.05 Turkey time - To let you know its nearly midnight in the uk. If you do need to carry on using data after midnight, you'll be charged a new daily rate of £3 per 1MB. I get sent the same message on 11 Sept sent at 23.49 UK time. I get another text on 11 Sept n sent at 14.41 saying - just to let you know, you've used over 3MB of data which has cost you £3 per mb so far. Once you use more than 5MB the charge changes to £15 inc vat for the next 15MB. I get this again on 13 Sept 22.25 and 21.25. I also get the first message again on 14 Sept sent at 23.15. I then get a message on 15 Sept at 10.02 saying - we've noticed some high spend on your handset. Please contact Vodafone on FREEphone 08700779779 or +441635692070 before 5.00pm today to avoid loss of service. (Some of the messages came the next morning or afternoon ??. ) This I did and asked what the problem was. A very cheeky young lady by the name of Bethany told me I had used over £600 of data and that I had to pay it NOW or I was getting cut off. I was quiet shocked at this and asked why but she just kept saying its £600 and you have to pay it NOW or you are getting cut off. I told her that if this was the case, then September’s bill would not be due until the end of Oct so why am I being cut off. I also said, how do I know I have used £600, she could be anyone and I would need proof of this before any payment and just cant give £600 over the phone to a stranger. I was in Turkey, half way through my holiday and there was no way I had that kind of money available. I had saved all year for my holiday and it cost less than my alleged phone bill. So, I hung up and rung back to speak to someone else who was a little more understanding than Bethany and she had said she couldn’t see where this £600 was. So, she put me through to billing or credit control, where the gentleman told me it was data usage and that it was not confirmed at this point. He advised to enjoy the rest of my holiday and ring back when I got home, I asked that should it be the case that I had used £600, would it be possible to pay it up as this would cause me extreme financial hardship and I would struggle to live for the following months. He said that would be okay and not to worry. So, I went and tried to enjoy the other 6 days of my holiday, until…..
I get another text on 16 September saying To ensure you have continued use of your phone, please can the account holder contact Vodafone +4416356922070, so not only was I in £600 of debt, I was going to get in further debt by them sending me the premium number and not including the free number - NICE TOUCH. So I ring with the free number and get a lady from credit control, another really helpful understanding person, NOT. I proceeded to tell her my situation, I was nice and told the truth, but all she was interested in was telling me that along with Augusts bill, where I had also rung up at £130 that that would make me in debt of £900 to Vodafone. I must say they are excellent at putting your mind at ease. I could not understand how this was. So I was panicking and trying to find out HOW this was, she told me it was data, and started bleetling on about megabytes and ££££ss, I told her I wasn’t aware what a megabyte was or how it was measured, she said it tells you on your phone how much you are using - “where“??, I explained it was a new phone and that I knew nothing about megabytes, she said - your getting cut off. I asked about a payment plan, she said yes you can have one but your still be cut off and be charged your contract of £35 per month. I asked to be sent both August and Septembers itemised bills and she said that be an extra £3.00, oh what the hell, why not. I have not received any documentation from Vodaphone, so still have no breakdown of my bill. I told her that I would be cancelling my direct debit until it was sorted out. I had tried to make a payment plan suitable to my needs, I was not saying I would not pay it, I wanted proof, but it wasn’t good enough.
I get home and I try a Vodafone shop and explain my situation, he tried ringing credit control to ask if I can set up a payment plan and get my line back on. Flat “NO”. So, I ring them again, this time it genuinely is a nice gentleman, I asked him what a megabyte was, he explains that it is pictures, videos, etc and that data is measured from these, right that could explain as I did look at wedding photos on Facebook, but £900s worth, I think not. I asked him to tell me when I was using data and dates etc, he told me on one occasion I was on the net for 7 hours - ok, so I go on holiday and sit on the net all day, I think not. The he told me I was on for 30 hours, now that is just ridiculous, the phone wouldn’t be charged for that long for a start and who on earth goes on holiday to look at the net. He asks what type of phone it is, I tell him a new blackberry. He asks did you log out of the net, em I pressed the red button like I did on my sony ericcsson. He asks did you go into the settings and log out, em no. So it seems I had to go into the settings to log out every time I was on the internet. I told him I had no idea I had to do this and that this was a genuine mistake and would I be able to plead my ignorance. He was a technician and couldn’t help.
Having tried on several occasions to set up a payment plan but each time I am told you owe this you owe that and no-one is listening. I have now cancelled my direct debit and have a pay as you go number.
I feel the service from Vodafone is deplorable and I was a customer for 11 years, if you count up how much money they have had from me it would probably hit about £8,000.
　
I will be sending this post to the MD in the hope that he will investigate the awful customer service skills of some of his staff and would like to hope that I could come to some sort of agreement with them. If not, I will obviously have to take this further.

chaos10_2

i sent the following email to guy Laurence but i'm not sure if i'm sending it to the right person anymore...

Beware... Long post!!

Dear Mr Laurence,

I feel i should write to you to let you know of the poor customer service your staff are providing from abroad. Below is a letter i would like you to read and to see some of the problems you have inside your company and although i congratulate everything vodafone have done to help me in the past, just recently i am past the point of no return and am about to leave VodaFone for a competitor.

I am writing to inform you of my complaint with Vodafone UK and the problems I have had in the 18 odd months of my 24 month contract. In August of 2009 i recieved a Brand new Nokia N97 and instantly fell for the sleek design and the slide out Full qwerty keyboard. About 3 months into the contract i had a problem with the phone and in hindsight calling vodafone was probably a silly idea because when i told them i had an issue they had no idea who i was, or how i was even calling them of one of there phones as my contract was not even set up properly. For Three months i had that phone and i hadn't even had a bill, and please believe me when i say that the young lady i spoke to on the phone was the best thing since sliced bread when she told me that vodafone would cover the cost of there mess up and i would only have to pay for the premium calls i had made and any service charges i had incurred. So for the first 6 months of my contract i had only paid for 3 months worth of bills and i was happy untill one day my handset packed up completely.

When i called vodafone again they said "No sorry, nothing we can do as you didnt take out the insurance", yet when i said to them about the years manufacturers warranty i was hung up on. So after calling back and getting to a department who understood the english language, I ended up selling the nokia handset back to vodafone for £171 and 2 other old hansets for around £20 each and then shelling out £270 odd on an iphone 3gs 16gb model after the handset's bought back by vodafone was credited back to my account.

Untill 6 weeks ago i was having no trouble with the phone, but my signal loss has been getting more and more, And for longer and longer periods. I called vodafone on wednesday the 13 of october 2010 and the woman on the phone was as helpful as an empty kettle on a BBQ. I asked for my vodafone contract to be terminated as i was having some serious problems hanging onto signal around where i live and where i work. she told me that Vodafone does not cover 100% of the uk only 97% of it and although there was nothing she could do i would just have to deal with it. I told her i was not happy with this and she just kept saying sorry for my troubles but nothing could be done. In the end she did help a little by offering me the Vodafone SureSignal device but seeing as my bill is at a constant over £70 a month i was a little unhappy at shelling out another £50 to Vodafone to make sure i got the service i was already paying for in the highest way. To be fair to her she did put £50 back onto my account so i would not have to pay for it so i would be out of pocket. I had a web exclusive deal of 1200 minutes p.m. and unlimited texts with free calls to land lines. But i could normally get reception about 40% of the time and on telling the lady this i was told i would have to go to my local vodafone store to cancel my contract and to barter with the manager of the shop about my termination fee of around £300. The following day i arrived at the vodafone store in Milton Keynes and spoke to a young man who told me " I'm sorry, We dont deal with terminations in here, you will have to speak to customer services". By this time i was fuming and on my way home, so i called vodafone CS again and spoke to a guy who could barely speak any english at all, he told me i was wrong about something although, I honestly couldnt tell you what he was talking about. He put me through to the Technical department and they told me that there was a service error on one of the areas around where i live and that it had been out of action since the 10th of october and for my troubles he would credit my account with £20 (shut up and go away money but it didnt work). Seeing that was only last week and i have had problems for the last 6-7 weeks i didnt believe a word of it and i told him i thought i was being fobbed off with excuses.

I then told him i would like to cancell my contract with immediate effect and i would not be willing to pay any following charges as i could not get the reception and was therefore being sold something that was not fit for purpose. He said i would have to send an email to the complaints department to get it sorted and so i asked him to drop my contract by £5 a month so i could start the move to another network provider. I have just got online to send this email and have found out he has dropped it by £10 a month, so now i am really struggling to wonder where else Vodafone have fumbled with my account, i seem to remember an £80 charge no one could explain around 7 months ago...

I did send the email to the complaints department and this below is a copy of the email reply.


Hi Gary, I can see that the 2G network in your area is good I'll suggest you to change your settings from 3G to 2G.

However, as you are facing problem, please follow the hard reset steps given below:

i. Switch off the phone
ii. Remove the battery
iii. Remove the SIM card
iv. Wipe the SIM card with cotton
v. After 2 minutes insert the SIM card in the phone
vi. Insert the battery
vii. Switch on the phone

If you still face difficulties in making and receiving calls please do the manual roam by following the steps.

à Enter your phone 'Menu'
à Scroll to 'Settings'
à Enter 'Settings'
à Scroll to 'Phone Settings'
à Enter 'Phone Settings'
à Scroll to 'Network/Operator Settings'
à Select Manual
à Select 'Vodafone'

If you cancel your contract before the contract completes, there will be an Early Termination Fee (ETF) to be paid. ETF is the total of monthly rental charges X the number of months remaining on your contract. The amount depends on how early you cancel your contract. As of today, the ETF is £242.28. To avoid ETF, please cancel the account once your contract period completes.
Please confirm via an email once you’ve paid the ETF and I’ll schedule your contract cancellation as per 30 days notice.
I trust the above infromation helps.

Kind regards,








Reena Wilson
Vodafone Customer Services

Now then, Upon reading this even you will know that the IPhone works on the whole for 3g coverage and you cannot take out the battery, and when i chose to go to the phone setting menu and selct Vodaphone as my network provider i have had no signal since.

I'm Really annoyed now and i really am at the end of my tether and i'm at a complete loss as to what to do next as i now can't even ring Vodafone from my handset as i cant make calls.

Please help and find me a solution to my problems as i work through my phone and You are now costing me Money!

Yours

Gary M

julieh12

julieh12 wrote: »

Hi, so glad I found this thread. Can anyone tell me to whom I send a letter of complaint to regarding the service I have received from vodafone ??
I have been a customer of VF since 1999, firstly pay as you go and then PMonthly since 2003/4.
I upgraded my phone over the phone on from a sony ericsson to a blackberry pearl on 24 august and received on 28 august, my tariff was £35 for calls text and browsing. I asked the guy what the internet charges for Turkey was and he said it will be a bit more expensive that Europe, okay. I wasn’t quiet getting used to the BBerry and didn’t have time to change it within 7 days as I was going abroad to turkey on 2 Sep, I did actually think about going back to my old faithful as it was a but technical to say the least.
So, I am in turkey and I have logged in and out of the internet a couple of times, but never more than 10 minutes a day, too much to do to think about browsing and just wanted to check facebook for my friends wedding pics and check emails. I get a text on 5 Sept at 23.05 uk time, 01.05 Turkey time - To let you know its nearly midnight in the uk. If you do need to carry on using data after midnight, you'll be charged a new daily rate of £3 per 1MB. I get sent the same message on 11 Sept sent at 23.49 UK time. I get another text on 11 Sept n sent at 14.41 saying - just to let you know, you've used over 3MB of data which has cost you £3 per mb so far. Once you use more than 5MB the charge changes to £15 inc vat for the next 15MB.I get this again on 13 Sept 22.25 and 21.25. I also get the first message again on 14 Sept sent at 23.15. I then get a message on 15 Sept at 10.02 saying - we've noticed some high spend on your handset. Please contact Vodafone on FREEphone 08700779779 or +441635692070 before 5.00pm today to avoid loss of service. (Some of the messages came the next morning or afternoon ??. ) This I did and asked what the problem was. A very cheeky young lady by the name of Bethany told me I had used over £600 of data and that I had to pay it NOW or I was getting cut off. I was quiet shocked at this and asked why but she just kept saying its £600 and you have to pay it NOW or you are getting cut off. I told her that if this was the case, then September’s bill would not be due until the end of Oct so why am I being cut off. I also said, how do I know I have used £600, she could be anyone and I would need proof of this before any payment and just cant give £600 over the phone to a stranger. I was in Turkey, half way through my holiday and there was no way I had that kind of money available. I had saved all year for my holiday and it cost less than my alleged phone bill. So, I hung up and rung back to speak to someone else who was a little more understanding than Bethany and she had said she couldn’t see where this £600 was. So, she put me through to billing or credit control, where the gentleman told me it was data usage and that it was not confirmed at this point. He advised to enjoy the rest of my holiday and ring back when I got home, I asked that should it be the case that I had used £600, would it be possible to pay it up as this would cause me extreme financial hardship and I would struggle to live for the following months. He said that would be okay and not to worry. So, I went and tried to enjoy the other 6 days of my holiday, until…..
I get another text on 16 September saying To ensure you have continued use of your phone, please can the account holder contact Vodafone +4416356922070, so not only was I in £600 of debt, I was going to get in further debt by them sending me the premium number and not including the free number - NICE TOUCH. So I ring with the free number and get a lady from credit control, another really helpful understanding person, NOT. I proceeded to tell her my situation, I was nice and told the truth, but all she was interested in was telling me that along with Augusts bill, where I had also rung up at £130 that that would make me in debt of £900 to Vodafone. I must say they are excellent at putting your mind at ease. I could not understand how this was. So I was panicking and trying to find out HOW this was, she told me it was data, and started bleetling on about megabytes and ££££ss, I told her I wasn’t aware what a megabyte was or how it was measured, she said it tells you on your phone how much you are using - “where“??, I explained it was a new phone and that I knew nothing about megabytes, she said - your getting cut off. I asked about a payment plan, she said yes you can have one but your still be cut off and be charged your contract of £35 per month. I asked to be sent both August and Septembers itemised bills and she said that be an extra £3.00, oh what the hell, why not. I have not received any documentation from Vodaphone, so still have no breakdown of my bill. I told her that I would be cancelling my direct debit until it was sorted out. I had tried to make a payment plan suitable to my needs, I was not saying I would not pay it, I wanted proof, but it wasn’t good enough.
I get home and I try a Vodafone shop and explain my situation, he tried ringing credit control to ask if I can set up a payment plan and get my line back on. Flat “NO”. So, I ring them again, this time it genuinely is a nice gentleman, I asked him what a megabyte was, he explains that it is pictures, videos, etc and that data is measured from these, right that could explain as I did look at wedding photos on Facebook, but £900s worth, I think not. I asked him to tell me when I was using data and dates etc, he told me on one occasion I was on the net for 7 hours - ok, so I go on holiday and sit on the net all day, I think not. The he told me I was on for 30 hours, now that is just ridiculous, the phone wouldn’t be charged for that long for a start and who on earth goes on holiday to look at the net. He asks what type of phone it is, I tell him a new blackberry. He asks did you log out of the net, em I pressed the red button like I did on my sony ericcsson. He asks did you go into the settings and log out, em no. So it seems I had to go into the settings to log out every time I was on the internet. I told him I had no idea I had to do this and that this was a genuine mistake and would I be able to plead my ignorance. He was a technician and couldn’t help.
Having tried on several occasions to set up a payment plan but each time I am told you owe this you owe that and no-one is listening. I have now cancelled my direct debit and have a pay as you go number.
I feel the service from Vodafone is deplorable and I was a customer for 11 years, if you count up how much money they have had from me it would probably hit about £8,000.
　
I will be sending this post to the MD in the hope that he will investigate the awful customer service skills of some of his staff and would like to hope that I could come to some sort of agreement with them. If not, I will obviously have to take this further.

A lovely lady has just called to say my bill has been reviewed to £100 and my line is back on. THANK YOU:T

joana35

Let me explain the situation. I am a Vodafone client for the last 5 years and 2 months ago, I upgraded my second phone package to £35 p/m and paid £120 in order to receive the new iPhone 4.

Unfortunately, I lost my phone on Tuesday and immediately called Vodafone to bar the SIM card and also requested a IMEI block on the phone. The following day I called my bank to discuss my insurance claim and to my horror, the bank stated they could not cover cost of the iPhone 4 (even though we had paid our insurance) as we had not registered the phone with them.

I then proceeded to contact Vodafone’s customer service department on 4 different occasions to discuss how to resolve this situation and each time I have received 4 different answers.

The answers are as follows.

1. Buy a new iPhone 4. Brilliant!

2. The second response was the same as above, but I then requested to upgrade the account from £35 p/m to £60 p/m for a 24 month period. (even though the new package would give me 3000 min. the maximum amount of minutes I have ever used in a month is 510 min.) I would only take this package as a gesture of goodwill in order to receive the phone.

The operator had a word with her manager and then informed me that they would offer me a special deal whereby I would need to pay £250 and they would then upgrade me to the package and send me the phone.

At this stage, I informed her that I would need to consider the offer and would call back.

3. 1 hour later, I called back to discuss the offer and to my amazement, I was informed by the operator that no offer was made as the offer was recorded and did not show up on their systems. The only solution they could offer me was to sell me a new phone.

4. The following day, I decided to call up the customer service department to find a way to resolve the situation and at first, I was informed that I would have to purchase a new phone. I then requested to speak to a manager to inform them that I had been given an offer the previous day and I requested a recording of conversation to prove that Vodafone had made me the offer. She advised me to send in an email to Vodafone and they would release the recording. (Not only have a had the frustration of losing my phone, but being accused on lying about a offer that was made by Vodafone is totally unacceptable!)

Finally, the manager decided to make me a one off deal whereby I would have to pay £300 immediately and £200 over a period of time and then I would get a new iPhone. Not only would I have to pay double the amount I was offered the previous day, I would need to give her decision straight away.

At the end of the day and after several attempts to find a fair solution to the problem, I requested the amount I would have to pay (exit fee) to cancel both my contracts.

I was in formed that I would need to pay a total of £838 to cancel both my contracts (£630 Iphone 4 & £208 Black Berry). I then asked her if it was possible to pay off the exit fee over agreed monthly payment plan and she advised that that the account would first need to cancelled and then the account would be sent to their recovery department.

Considering that I have never missed nor made one late payment in 5 fives, the mere fact that my account would now be sent to Vodafone’s recovery department, (which would affect my credit rating & incur further charges), I find this unbelievable!

As discussed, I am prepared to upgrade my package to the £60 p/m x 24 months = £1440 and keep my £25 x 12 months = £600 which gives a total £2040, plus the excess call cost on both accounts. I believe this is a fair offer and considering the fact that if I have to pay £500 for a new phone to stay with Vodafone, I would prefer to pay an extra £130 pounds (£630 exit fee) to and move to a new service provider.

As a so called ‘Vodafone valued client’, who has never claimed a new phone in 5 fives due to it being lost or stolen, I hope some one at Vodafone can help me.

Best regards

Joana Monteiro

07899830420
joanamonteiro@hotmail.co.uk

ruggedtoast

Five fives? That is a lot of fives.

Have a bump.

Vodafone

Morning everyone,

Apologies for the delay with us coming back to this thread.

weemster - Your previous emails would've been handled by our colleagues in Customer Services and it's a shame to hear how unhappy you've been with their replies.

If you'd still like us to take a look at things you're welcome to email us as per Kirsty's invitation. Once you've sent it you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Could you update the thread with this so we can make sure it reaches us and we'll get back to you as soon as possible?

choccymoose - I'm sorry to hear about how dissatisfied you are with your N97 but thanks for making us aware of this.

As we'd like to take a closer look at your account to see what we could do to assist further could you email your details across to us via the Contact us form here quoting the code WRT135 in the subject line.

Once you've sent it could you update the thread with your email reference number so we can make certain we get yours and we'll come back to you as soon we can?

chaos10 - It's disappointing to read about your recent experience but we'd certainly like to investigate this further if you're still in need of some help with this.

If you still have it could you let us know the email reference number from your previous contact with us so we can try to trace your details from it. If you don't, could you email us again as per the information I've posted for choccymoose above and then update the thread with your new reference number?

julieh12 - Whilst your experience had been far from ideal thanks for coming back to the thread to confirm that someone has been in touch and that a resolution has been agreed upon.

joana - Firstly, I'm sorry to hear that you've lost your new phone so soon after receiving it and that the level of service you've received in trying to get this resolved has failed to meet with your expectations.

However, rest assured that we'll take a closer look at this and as soon as we have more news we'll get back in touch with you.

Kind regards to all.

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

jacovn

I was contacted on the 7 Sept by a fellow by the name of Richard, telling me because of myself being a loyal customer that Vodafone is offering myself a 3G Dongle with a 100MB free a month. I asked him what the catch is and was told that there is no catch and after asking multiple times after the fact if it will affect my current contract I was assured that it will not.

A week ago a checked my Vodafone bill and the amount was £93 where it is usually around £40 and I knew something was not right. I logged on to my account to find out that I now have a 18 month Data contract and that my cell contract was now charged pro-rata.

The problem is that I had never agree to a 18 month contract or was their ever explained that my current cell contract will now be charged pro-rata. I have now phone everyday for the last 7 days to customer service, just to be told I was not miss sold or that I will be contacted back within 24 hours by the person or his manager that offered myself the 3G dongle to resolve the issue, but 7 days later and no response.

I have every call asked for the transcript of the call to prove that I in fact did not agree to the Data Contract or was explained anything, as I have not signed anything Vodafone should have proof that I did in fact take out a Data contract that I keep being told I have.

I just feel so helpful and just seem to not get anywhere, has anyone had the same happen to them? If so did you get it resolved and how?

Thanks

choccymoose

Vodafone rep, I e-mailed you today as requested but did not appear to get a ref number, my mobile number ends in 409 if that helps?
WRT135 [#4583979]


oppps sorry now have one

choccymoose

aghhh now I can't even get into my phone to turn it on, the touch screen won't work at all, neither will the keyboard this phone is a joke !!!