Vodafone - dealing with customer complaints

violetc

I had reception problems from November 2011 - June 2012. The service I received from Vodafone was absolutely shocking.

I visited a Vodafone shop in November 2011 and was given a new SIM card but my reception didn't improve. I was then instructed to contact Apple who gave me a new handset. Eventually, customer services advised me to purchase a booster for £50 but I refused to do it as I already pay £40 a month.

On each occasion customer services officers insisted that there were no problems with reception in my area. I complained several more times and eventually decided to contact the Ombudsman. Unfortunately, the Ombudsman did not investigate my complaint at all and simply decided that it was a technical issue and not within their jurisdiction.

I contacted Vodafone again and I was put through to the technical department (for the first time!). The engineer informed me that I didn't need a booster as there were reception problems in my area.

The issue was 'resolved' in June 2012 and I now receive a far better service however I was not offered any compensation for all those months when I could barely use the phone. I asked the engineer to contact customer services on my behalf and let them know he completed the work so that they can get in touch with me and close the complaint. The engineer told me to do it myself.

I am not sure where to take this next. I don't think that providing me with a service should be optional because payment of my bills is not. I received an extremely poor service not only in terms of reception but also in terms of customer service, e.g. I kept getting cut off when making a complaint and so had to repeat it several times. I am not happy with my complaint being ignored and I would like to explore other avenues of addressing this issue, e.g. by using social media, contacting the Watchdog or a similar programme. Please let me know if you have any ideas which are likely to force Vodafone to act and take complaints more seriously. And I don't only mean my complaint. I know of many other dissatisfied customers who have been treated in the same manner.

Finally my advice to all of you have an iPhone and are experiencing reception problems, would be to turn off 3G.

CKhalvashi

violetc wrote: »

I had reception problems from November 2011 - June 2012. The service I received from Vodafone was absolutely shocking.

I visited a Vodafone shop in November 2011 and was given a new SIM card but my reception didn't improve. I was then instructed to contact Apple who gave me a new handset. Eventually, customer services advised me to purchase a booster for £50 but I refused to do it as I already pay £40 a month.

On each occasion customer services officers insisted that there were no problems with reception in my area. I complained several more times and eventually decided to contact the Ombudsman. Unfortunately, the Ombudsman did not investigate my complaint at all and simply decided that it was a technical issue and not within their jurisdiction.

I contacted Vodafone again and I was put through to the technical department (for the first time!). The engineer informed me that I didn't need a booster as there were reception problems in my area.

The issue was 'resolved' in June 2012 and I now receive a far better service however I was not offered any compensation for all those months when I could barely use the phone. I asked the engineer to contact customer services on my behalf and let them know he completed the work so that they can get in touch with me and close the complaint. The engineer told me to do it myself.

I am not sure where to take this next. I don't think that providing me with a service should be optional because payment of my bills is not. I received an extremely poor service not only in terms of reception but also in terms of customer service, e.g. I kept getting cut off when making a complaint and so had to repeat it several times. I am not happy with my complaint being ignored and I would like to explore other avenues of addressing this issue, e.g. by using social media, contacting the Watchdog or a similar programme. Please let me know if you have any ideas which are likely to force Vodafone to act and take complaints more seriously. And I don't only mean my complaint. I know of many other dissatisfied customers who have been treated in the same manner.

Finally my advice to all of you have an iPhone and are experiencing reception problems, would be to turn off 3G.

Where are Voda wrong here?

They've sorted the problem as soon as you've contacted the relevant department.

CK

Bear_Grills

violetc wrote: »

Please let me know if you have any ideas which are likely to force Vodafone to act and take complaints more seriously.

End any correspondence with the words "I know where you live".

Likewise writing a letter in blood is likely to provoke a response if nothing else.

Vodafone

Hi violetc,

I am sorry to hear that you were unhappy with the service you received. I appreciate that this caused some frustration.

So that I can look into this further, can you send me an email via the address here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject.

Kind regards,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Guys_Dad

CKhalvashi wrote: »

Where are Voda wrong here?

They've sorted the problem as soon as you've contacted the relevant department.

CK

Where were Voda wrong here? Well, for a start, wrong diagnoses, firstly offering a new sim, secondly a new handset and thirdly a booster - none of which were the problem.

It's like you going to the doctor with a sore arm, being told it was strain, then muscle problems, then tendinitis and finally, months later, it turns out to have been broken. Would you be satisfied with that?

We all know that masts can go down or other technical issues at the transmitting end. This represents a failure of service and, although technology can and does fail, the diagnosis isn't that difficult, if the CS can be bothered to instigate an investigation.

On another thread, I reported that my cul-de-sac had a BT failure affecting 7 or more houses, yet the CS (in India) demanded that I stay at home from 8 a.m. till 1 p.m. for an engineer to gain entry into my house as the fault lay there!

The frustration of having a fault and a lot of headless chickens running around making lots of dust but no effective solution is unacceptable. And if you read OP's post again, this was going on for 7 months!

If you can't answer your own question after re-reading the OP again, then don't ever complain of bad service yourself.