Vodafone Passport scam - power to WHO, exactly?

Guys_Dad

Abbafan1972 wrote: »

I saw how long the post was and couldn't be bothered to read it!

Actually, I usually hate long posts and have remarked on this many times.

However, in this case, the OP's post was mainly email exchanges and I am not sure just what could have been cut out that would not have lost the main thrust and expose the incompetence of Vodafone in this case.

It also may help any other Voda customer who has had a similar experience or even get some to check their bills as clearly Voda have a major system problem here.

I should add that I am a very satisfied Voda customer myself, yet can easily accept that they may have poor, untrained CS staff and badly programmed IT systems.

NFH

Guys_Dad wrote: »

It also may help any other Voda customer who has had a similar experience or even get some to check their bills as clearly Voda have a major system problem here.

How can anyone check their bills when Vodafone doesn't give any itemisation at all for prepaid customers? This is a disgrace. I use Vodafone only for data roaming at £2/day or £5/day when local SIM cards are not an option (e.g. roaming on OnAir or AeroMobile), but I can't understand how Vodafone customers put up with this lack of itemisation and inability to check that Vodafone are charging the correct amount.

System

Very few providers do give itemised bills for PAYG.

Isn't there anything in Article 21 of the Consumer Rights Directive?

NFH

!!!!!! wrote: »

Very few providers do give itemised bills for PAYG.

I have lots of prepaid SIM cards from various countries and nearly all provide full itemisation. One even itemises incoming calls and texts, despite them being free. If usage isn't itemised, how can you check that the balance deductions are correct?

!!!!!! wrote: »

Isn't there anything in Article 21 of the Consumer Rights Directive?

No, that doesn't regulate telecommunications providers but non-telecoms businesses which operate customer service telephone numbers costing more than the basic rate. Nothing to do this this topic.

Guys_Dad

NFH wrote: »

How can anyone check their bills when Vodafone doesn't give any itemisation at all for prepaid customers?

They do for contract and sim-only customers and, although the monthly scheme is called Eurotraveller, the same problem may very well have arisen on that scheme.

railrider

A couple of the latest emails.

Me,_Sept_4 wrote:

Please may I, once again, request for further compensation for the following reasons:

1) *as the result of your mistake*, I was left with no credit to make or receive any calls whilst in a foreign country. Please understand the distress this has caused, with the feeling of being made contactless away from home.

2) the unacceptable amount of time it has taken your team to resolve my issue. It has taken *10 days* for my credit to be returned to my balance when it should really have taken a maximum of 2 days, whilst all this time, I've been left contactless in a foreign country. I'm disappointed in how there seemed to be no continuity between messages (refer to the subject of tariff and how one member can quote it, yet another does not seem to have the ability to simply refer to this, thus wasting further time and leaving me stranded for longer).

3) the insulting and repeated insisting attitude of "we're right, so we'll just leave it at that". This is very poor customer service.

This is the worst experience I gave had to deal with Vodafone Customer Services, and I have been with Vodafone for 12 years.
I have lost faith in the company after this poor show.
I hope your consideration of compensation can be the first step in restoring my faith.

As my previous request for £30 additional credit was ignored (this was calculated through how many calls I WOULD have made at that point in time, had Vodafone not cleaned out my balance), may I suggest a *minimum* of £60 compensational credit for the above reasons plus the number of days I've been unable to make and receive calls since making that request.

I hope you will do the right thing.

Vodafone,_Sept_5_ wrote:

Hello xx,
I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to you. I understand your concern about issue with the credit on your account. I have the details and can see that we have already credited your account with £15.20 in August. This is the maximum credit we can offer you and am sorry to inform you that we will not be able to credit any further.
I appreciate your patience in the matter.

Kind regards,






Ruchi Gandhi
Vodafone Customer Services

Well, that confirms what I thought was their attitude towards their customers.

Lessons to be learnt:

Don't roam on Vodafone UK, regardless of any competitive offers they appear to be offering you, unless you don't find it inconveniencing to load up with about £50 credit and repeatedly check on your balance before and after each and every call and KNOW how much you should have been debited.

Don't expect Vodafone customer services to understand your query until about you've emailed them many times. Don't expect them to answer in less than 24 hours. Do expect to have to spare your holiday time sending emails repeating yourself. If you have a bad experience with one representative, don't expect the next to be any more clued up.

Don't expect to accept immediate responsibility for their mistakes. If you do have to enquire, make sure you have (free) access to the net, unless you'd like to spend a fortune calling CS.

Don't expect any compensation from Vodafone for their mistakes, even if it totally screws you over whilst you're abroad.

Vodafone

Hi railrider,

I can certainly understand your frustration here as it seems to be ongoing for some time without resolution.

So that I can take a look at the usage from the handset and the specific times the phone was used for this call, can you get in touch with me via the info here including WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject.

If you include a contact number and a link to your post, I will get in touch to discuss it further.

Hopefully I can restore some of your lost faith.

Kind regards,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Guys_Dad

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

Hi railrider,

I can certainly understand your frustration here as it seems to be ongoing for some time without resolution.

So that I can take a look at the usage from the handset and the specific times the phone was used for this call, can you get in touch with me via the info here including WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject.

If you include a contact number and a link to your post, I will get in touch to discuss it further.

Hopefully I can restore some of your lost faith.

Kind regards,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Heidi, You do realise that OP has had their call charges sorted out?

The point now in contention is the compensation that was offered for the hassle caused originally and then by the sheer incompetence and wrong info from the CS team.

I hope that both the compensation and the poor service/training of the CS team are the issues you will look into.

railrider

Having contacted Heidi this morning by email:

Me,_Sept_6 wrote:

Hi, Heidi,

<link removed>

Whilst the issue has been resolved, it wasn't, necessarily, to my satisfaction.

As you can see in the thread, I asked for compensation for the reasons stated, which I do not believe to be unreasonable, given what I had to be put through.

Please can you look into whether an appropriate amount of compensation can be given, even if it's just in the form of phone credit.

Thanks,
xx

I got a call back this afternoon with an offer of compensation as a goodwill gesture.
Although lower than expected, I'm happy to take this.
I was more impressed with the stark contrast of efficiency, which I would have expected from the start.

Although she couldn't answer why the previous CS was so bad for me, she did offer me a direct contact method to her, should I have any future queries. (This is the same method as commonly seen elsewhere on MSE).
Thumbs up to Heidi!

I would also personally suggest directing any issues to this forum (or using the direct method) rather than via Vodafone's own Contact Us pages as I expect you will be dealt with better. If you choose just to contact Vodafone through their own pages, you may completely bypass Heidi and her Web Relations Team and end up in frustration for 10 days or even more!

Thanks, once again, to Heidi (Vodafone customer representative).

Vodafone

Hi railrider,

Thank you so much for posting this great feedback.

It was a pleasure speaking to you and I am pleased I was able to help resolve the issue.

If anyone wishes to contact me for help, you are more than welcome.

Thanks again,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK