Vodaphone complaint help please

bipper

Hi everyone,

We recently sent this to Vodaphone:

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I wish to make a complaint about the repeated poor level or service I have received from your telephony staff. On Wednesday 24th July I was under the impression my iPhone 5 had been stolen from my workplace, so I contacted your call centre to report this. The advisor I spoke with applied some settings and advised the phone would be completely useless and confirmed a new sim card would been sent out (which I later found out I have been charged £2.50 for without being informed of this).

I called back the same day to see if the findmyiphone app would work and was advised it would. After mentioning this to my partner we decided this was not logical as I had previously been advised the phone was blocked and completely useless, so why would this app then work? I called yet again to clarify that the phone would be useless and the advisor again confirmed it would be.

On Thursday 25th July to my delight my phone was handed in at work so I again called your call centre to report this. At this time I was able to access the phone in my usual manner and all the apps, music, contacts, diary details etc were still on the phone, the only thing that appeared to have been blocked was the phone being able to receive a signal. The advisor reinitiated the phone and then asked me to the hold in the Home and Lock button 'to help', however this did the exact opposite and the phone was returned to factory settings. I purchase all my music directly from iTunes on my phone and as a result of this 32 albums have now been deleted, which I do not have the back up files for.

Could you please answer the following for me:

1 - Is it normal practice (or do you consider it to at least be polite) to tell a customer when they will be charged for a new sim card and do you now actually expect me to pay for this?
2 - Why on two occasions was I advised my phone would be completely useless, yet on another occasion advised the findmyiphone app (which requires 3G/WiFi, which seemed to be the only thing blocked on the phone) would work fine?
3 - Why was I told to put the phone back to factory setting (I was unaware at the time what my actions would result in as I have never done this before) without any warning of the consequences of these actions?
4 - Can you offer any advice on why I am now having to pay for 32 albums worth of music for the second time as a result of the useless instructions of your staff?

I appreciate people can make mistakes, however, incorrect and inappropriate information provided on the multiple occasions mentioned above is too much of a coincidence and identifies gaps in knowledge and communication. I do not feel I should have to experience financial detriment as a result of the actions of your staff.

I look forward to your prompt reply.

Regards

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They called today to apologise and went through the usual speal about staff being dealt with internally etc, then offered £25.00 as a goodwill gesture.

Considering the total time we spent speaking to them I find this a bit insulting as they were more bothered about making an offer than a sincere apology. We do have some of the music backed up on iCloud but not all of it (some of which are albums I no longer own that were saved on an old laptop I no longer own). I declined the offer and they advised a final response would be sent and that I could take this to the Ombudsman.

We won't be asking for 'mega-bucks' or anything like that but if anyone could give some guidance on what the Ombudsman may ask for (or anything else which could be useful).

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

grumbler

bipper wrote: »

1 - Is it normal practice (or do you consider it to at least be polite) to tell a customer when they will be charged for a new sim card and do you now actually expect me to pay for this?

Would you have rejected the replacement sim if you were informed about miserable £2.50 charge?

2 - Why on two occasions was I advised my phone would be completely useless, yet on another occasion advised the findmyiphone app (which requires 3G/WiFi, which seemed to be the only thing blocked on the phone) would work fine?

Indeed the phone gets useless for any functions that require mobile signal connection like calls, texts and mobile internet. It's unreasonable to expect from mobile network to block all functionality. Neither is it reasonable to expect from a telephone CS to know everything about all apps available.

3 - Why was I told to put the phone back to factory setting (I was unaware at the time what my actions would result in as I have never done this before) without any warning of the consequences of these actions?
4 - Can you offer any advice on why I am now having to pay for 32 albums worth of music for the second time as a result of the useless instructions of your staff?

I am no expert in this, but I believe that you can restore all your albums, contacts and apps for free from your iTunes account.

bipper

grumbler wrote: »

Would you have rejected the replacement sim if you were informed about miserable £2.50 charge?

Indeed the phone gets useless for any functions that require mobile signal connection like calls, texts and mobile internet. It's unreasonable to expect from mobile network to block all functionality.

Neither is it reasonable to expect from a telephone CS to know everything about all apps available.

I am no expert in this, but I believe that you can get restore all your albums, contacts and apps for free from your iTunes account.

The questions were not directed at you, as I stated this was a letter to Vodaphone.

1 - If someone is going to charge you for something, would you expect them to tell you first, at least out of decency? (as a side note the sim has not arrived and this was over a week ago but the charge has been added to the bill)

2 - I didn't expect or ask for a block on the entire phone, I was advised this would happen.

3 - I hardly expected them to know 'everything about all apps available' did I? You would hope someone who works frontline for major telecommunications company would know something about how location apps work though?

4 - We have tried and they are not all there, as stated.

My post was asking for advice when dealing with the Ombudsman, not for someone to rip into the letter, although you answers were more direct and honest than the customer relations advisor from the company.

Thanks I guess.

grumbler

bipper wrote: »

The questions were not directed at you, as I stated this was a letter to Vodaphone.

What's the point in posting it in an open forum then if you have sent it already?

1 - If someone is going to charge you for something, would you expect them to tell you first, at least out of decency?

I would, but I wouldn't complain about £2.50.

2 - I didn't expect or ask for a block on the entire phone, I was advised this would happen.

It was just some misunderstanding then. A blocked phone can't work as a mobile phone anymore, but can work as a tablet.

3 - I hardly expected them to know 'everything about all apps available' did I? You would hope someone who works frontline for major telecommunications company would know something about how location apps work though?

I wouldn't, at least from the frontline CS, not from a tech department.

My post was asking for advice when dealing with the Ombudsman, not for someone to rip into the letter, although you answers were more direct and honest than the customer relations advisor from the company.

Well, what do you want? Compensation?

It makes no sense to complain about £2.50. Incompetent and helpless outsourced Vodafone CS is a common knowledge for everyone, including the ombudsman.

bipper

You know what, I'll leave it.

Unlike you I don't have hours to waste arguing on a forum.

wapow

He is not arguing. He has made valid points. You're the one that apparently lost your phone, not your network.

However, whether its £2.50 or £0.20, I would like to be informed about all charges. Now that fella above might have £2.50 spare to give out every waking minute of his life, but I don't.

At the end of the day, I want to know what Im paying for. You wouldn't go in the shop and shop guy says oh here take this its yours eat it its nice and then say right I want money for it because you took it off me? No. We have a right to know about our charges.

Secondly, if you work in a job, you are trained to understand the use of terminology.

The call centre are responsible for the words they use. So if the advisor said it will be completely useless, that would mean all functionality of the phone would be disabled to a manner which is unusable.

This includes access to the phone and the sim card. Therefore no apps would or should have worked.

Whether they are frontline staff or not, they should know better than to say things like that. You can get pulled in a disciplinary if they hear the call recording.

I can give you another example about going in to a shop, but im sure you can think of one all by yourself.

If all you're worried about is your iTunes, these can be recovered from your iTunes account. This is not much of a complaint.

wapow

It would seem the advisor only applied a call bar on the phone. I would have thought that you would have selected the lost and stolen option atleast, or they should have put you through, as this is a 24hr service.

They would then block the IMEI and everything else. If the phone was from them too then they should be able to make it into a brick AFAIK (Maybe not - Not sure)

If your old sim card works, then ideally the call centre are to blame for messing this up. otherwise they wouldn't have sent a new sim out!

Naf

bipper wrote: »

4 - Can you offer any advice on why I am now having to pay for 32 albums worth of music for the second time as a result of the useless instructions of your staff?

You're not; any music downloaded directly from the iTunes Store can be redownloaded completely free of charge. Using iTunes on your PC/Mac there is an option to download all previously purchased content which will include music & apps. However, if you have changed your Apple ID then you will not be able to do this. Any other music that you got from CDs must have gone through iTunes to get onto your iPhone in the first place, so put it back on that way. If you've deleted it, just re-rip from the CDs.

However, for music where this is the case:

bipper wrote: »

(some of which are albums I no longer own that were saved on an old laptop I no longer own)

Then you have no legal right to continue listening to these tracks unless you purchase them; so you can't expect any legal redress.

All in all, you're not out of pocket; just inconvenienced.
£25 is pretty typical; perhaps the time it'll take to do it all is worth more; but is the time it'll take you to get more worth the amount extra you'll get? I doubt it - should have taken it.