Vodafone - lost number post porting, now 5 weeks without phone, no CS response

wgh01

Hi all, we have an on-going issue that is causing us significant stress with Vodafone and if anyone can provide us with either a likely route for resolution and / or compensation, we would greatly appreciate it.

Vodafone has lost my wife's number while porting it over from her previous supplier (initially it worked for 2 weeks, before stopping) and she has been un-contactable on it for 5 weeks. As she is pregnant this is an important line of communication with health professionals (amongst many other people) and vodafone’s unresolved error has been causing her further stress. As she is not well, this is particularly unwelcome.

Furthermore, when we have pursued this query with vodafone customer services representatives they have:

a. Lied, often saying they or their manager will call back that day or soon. This has happened about 5 times with only one returned call.
b. Said the problem will be rectified within 5 days (numerous times, at least 3).
c. Been rude and hung up on her.
d. Refused to give us individual contact details so we can speak with one, informed person and hold them to account.

While problems occur, Vodafone has handled this problem very poorly and still no end is in sight, other than promises it will be soon fixed and they will call us back.

I hope Vodafone do not treat other customers in this disgusting manner.

Any advice on our predicament would be appreciated.
Thanks.

NB, I can see they have already breached their own code of practice which says they will keep customers updated weekly on progress. Plus, they are over halfway to a 2nd breach - taking under 8 weeks to resolve the issue. Why they think 8 weeks without a phone is acceptable is beyond me, though I do note this is the maximum length allowed by the ombudsman so I presume this is just to minimize their own inconvenience.

I can't post links sorry, but info is at:
(google Vodafone code-of-practice)
(google ombudsman OS communications factsheet)

mije1983

I can't really offer any specific advice, but there is a Vodafone rep on here so hopefully he will spot this thread and reply. If not you could be pro-active and search some of the Vodafone threads as he usually comments on most of them, then contact him through his profile.

On a side note, if having a phone is so vital to your wife at the moment, it would be wise to pick up a cheap PAYG phone. They can be had for around £10 in places.

mattyprice4004

'Why they think 8 weeks without a phone is acceptable is beyond me, though I do note this is the maximum length allowed by the ombudsman so I presume this is just to minimize their own inconvenience.'

But you're not without a phone, you just have a phone with a new number...

wgh01

thanks for your replies. Yes, we eventually picked up a new phone (NB, the number vodafore gave us also doesn't work). If we had originally known this problem would have taken so long to solve we would have done so earlier but we were strung along with so much "we will call you back today / tomorrow" or "it will be fixed by the end of the week" mis-information by Vodafone that we acted more slowly. (We have been in touch with them at least twice a week and they have never indicated that it will take longer than 5 days to resolve)

We also had to get our records updated with the hospital so they now have 2 numbers, our current one and the faulty one (which was working when we originally registered).

As you can imagine, a large amount of friends, family and other contacts have the faulty number and we need to guess who needs to contact us and give them the new details.

(NB, as part of this process Vodafone have completely lost the number and we cannot get a PAC code and switch to a more competent provider, or we would have done so).

Fingers crossed the rep gets in touch and has the ability to solve the problem!

Thanks,

Vodafone

Hi wgh01,

It's just a quick post to confirm that I'll get back to you as quickly as possible.

Thanks,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

wgh01

hi all,

thanks for your replies. Lee did get in touch and after 2 weeks the phone was up and running. I am not sure what the problem was but it took a couple of goes to fix it.

Given the stress we went through and the fact their regular customer services treated us so poorly we've decided to switch back to Giffgaff.

Thanks,
gh.