Poor Vodafone Customer Service (at the end of my tether!)

nineohnineone

Last June, when moving into a new flat, I signed up to Vodafone's rolling thirty day contract for a portable 3G dongle whilst I signed up for broadband. By August, broadband had been installed and I set about trying to extricate myself from the nightmare that is this thirty day rolling contract.

Firstly, I tried calling them - my fianc! had tried calling them twice before but had been told that I needed to call up myself to cancel. Fine. Whilst in town, I call into my local Vodafone store (the one I bought the dongle in) on the off-chance it can be cancelled from there. It can't, which is okay because I've been told to call.

So, I call. The first time, I'm told that customer services can't deal with this problem and that I need to be transferred to the contract department, which the customer service assistant does, after listening to around fifteen minutes of "muzak" I get the automated "Thanks for calling, bye". I assume this is a mistake and spend the rest of the afternoon trying to get through to the right department. I can't (I keep being hung up on by automated lady) so I give up.

A few things happen and Vodafone slips my mind but by October I call again, where I am told by the representative that I can't cancel my contract by phone and instead need to write to the Disconnections Department, the address of which is on the back of my bills. Fine, I say, and a few days later look at the back of my bill. There is no Disconnections address on the back of the bill. After scouring the internet I find that it's pretty impossible to disconnect, but nevertheless the right address is posted on a few forums. I write (this is now early November).

I expect that really to be the end of it, but of course, it is not. I am billed over December and January (I go into the store to try and rectify this but I am told I will definitely need to write) so by February I have written again. I also fill in their auto web form for good measure in the hope that someone will reply. After sending the second letter I am pretty sure I will be disconnected.

I am not. In March, I get billed yet again. I'm not happy. I happen to take to Twitter in my anguish and tweet that Vodafone aren't making me the happiest person in the world. A Vodafone employee (so far the kindest, most helpful Vodafone employee I have come across and a real star) sees my rant and tries to help. Unfortunately, he is in the wrong department and tries to get a colleague to intervene.

His colleague leaves a message on my answerphone and I try to give them a call back on the number they leave. Yet again, I'm through to the wrong department and need to be transferred over to contracts. Fine. This time I am subjected to only five minutes of muzak before the automated lady hung up on me.

By now, hopping mad, so I call up my contact and tell him about the problem. He promises he will get his colleague back in contact with me by this afternoon. She calls me whilst I am driving home, and precedes to tell me I am lying about my extensive contact with Vodafone and that a debt collection agency has now been called in (I didn't pay January or February's bill, purely by chance of not having much money in that account). By the end of this phone call I am tired, and embarrassingly end up in tears - I feel that I have explored every avenue of contact with Vodafone (and they have the cheek to call me a liar) and yet I have got nowhere.

This has been such a long process and I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do?

Thanks in advance/

grumbler

I guess someone from their Web Relations Team will be here sooner or later with their stock "I can appreciate...", "I recognise the dissatisfaction...", "I understand...", "I am sorry to hear..." etc. To be fair, they are probably the only useful department in their ramshackle and worthless CS.

Missing payments was a big mistake because I think now you have a default in your credit file that will be very difficult, if not impossible, to correct.

Earlier someone recommended sending a e-mail to [EMAIL="vittorio.colao@vodafone.com"]vittorio.colao@vodafone.com[/EMAIL]
Usually I don't advocate doing this, but this time I think this will be an adequate action.

Otherwise see How do I complain about poor customer service?, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a prompt reply.

Rusty!

If you sent the letters recorded, then you have proof that they received it. If you didn't, then next time; DO.

nineohnineone

You're right I made a huge mistake missing those payments, I stupidly assumed I wasn't going to be billed and therefore put the money I would usually use to pay in a different account.

Still, I would rather Vodafone had shown some sort of competency in regards to this matter.

Thank you for your answer!

Vodafone

Hi nineohnineone,

I’m very disappointed to see the problems you’ve faced in getting this resolved and I understand the frustration that you will be feeling.

If you’d like to email us via Web Relations Team we’ll be happy to look into this for you and get everything sorted.

(When contacting, please quote the code WRT135 in the subject line. In the main message body, please include a link to this thread and your user name. This will ensure that your message comes directly through to my team).

Kind regards,

Jenny
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

PNPSUKNET

http://help.vodafone.co.uk/system/selfservice.controller?CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=2803&PARTITION_ID=1&CONFIGURATION=1000&CURRENT_CMD=BROWSE_TOPIC&SIDE_LINK_TOPIC_ID=1001&SIDE_LINK_TOPIC_INDEX=null&SIDE_LINK_SUB_TOPIC_INDEX=null