Vodafone water damage scam - so angry?!

kev225

I had a similar issue with my OH's phone, she's with Vodafone and having bounced the phone back and forth with the repair centre for the same fault on the 6th time they decided it had 'water damage' and would cost £100.

I rang up and spoke to an Asian call centre woman (Nancy being a very Asian name) and due to the frequency of it being in for repair they send a replacement free of cost.

I would ring them up, kick up a stink, request proof of this 'water damage', etc.

I came to the conclusion that Vodafone, like most networks, are scum.

JethroUK

JJ_Egan wrote: »

I take my phone out of my pocket and at times its noticeably warm .
Now my little bit of schooling that's left tells me if its colder outside the phone will cool outside whilst still warm inside leading to possible condensation .

jje

As mentioned - phones HAVE to deal with trivia like that by law - it's defined as fit for purpose

lajabor

Thought i'd share my water damage story with Vodafone as well.

Absolute nightmare. I sent my phone (Nexus S) back as the power button was not responding. Got sent a new phone to replace that one. Everything was fine.

2 weeks later, was issued with a £100 invoice.

No notification beforehand or anything. Merely, it was water damaged therefore, we will charge you £100.

I spoke to several customer service advisors, with varying luck. First they said, they will get the repair dept to call me back within 3 days to discuss this.

No call back of course.

I call back today and they apologised for this. Was transferred to 5 other departments (appears they are not very familiar with which dept deal with this problem even though it is an obvious 'scam' of theirs). Eventually i get back to the first department i spoke to! (customer services, option 2 on 191 call). the gentleman i spoke to was very pleasant and couldnt stop apologising for the chaos i've been through. He automatically refunded me my £100 due to the stress ive been through trying to speak to someone.

Whilst I'm happy with getting my £100 back, I'm still not happy with the reasoning behind it. I was refunded the £100 due to their rubbish customer service, not because they admitted fault at charging me £100.

Once I see the £100 in my bank account, i will commence a formal complaint. let's see where that goes.

Cuncha

I've had the exact same issue with Three.

The problem, i'm certain wasn't liquid damage, but they said it was to the USB port. It'd cost £35 to fix. So I agreed, just to get this over with and repaired. I called them up a week later wondering where my phone was, and they said the USB changing didnt fix it and "they assume" liquid damage is now on the PCB, and they cannot fix it. Samsung Galaxy 3 - £500 to replace (i know i should have had insurance etc etc).

So now, ive asked for it back, and am taking it to Samsung to get another opinion.

Three have been an absolute nightmare to deal with, and I wouldn't recommend them to my own worst enemy. Dreadful Mumbai call centres who do very little to assist you. And I didnt get a loan phone while they repaired it. 21 days without a phone and counting....but im sure they'll try and charge me for a full month on my bill.

They ignored me when I said the phone is under 6 months old and they have to prove it was my fault. Went round in circles for an hour on the phone. Gave up.

Vodafone

Hi lajabor,

I am sorry to hear that you have been unhappy with the service you have received and with the charge for the repair.

If you would like to discuss this further, you can contact me via the link here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject. Please could you also include a link to your post and a contact number.

I can then chase this up directly with the repair centre and provide any confirmation you need on the damage to the handset.

Kind regards,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

bitemebankers

taylor11 wrote: »

Why do people always suspect that large organisations have avendetta against customers

It's not a "vendetta", it's simply a well-known, well-documented scam to get out of paying for repairs.

Furthermore, Vodafone has recent form when it comes to dishonesty, with it's multi-billion pound tax evasion.