Vodafone UK - Porting nightmare - unable receive calls for over a month

james_stevens

I took out my brand new Vodafone contract on 22 November 2014. They ported my number from my old network (3 network) on 2 December.

My problem is that they have not successfully ported my number. Since they ported my number on 2 December, a month ago now, I have been unable to receive calls or texts. I can make outbound calls and texts which displays as my newly ported number but I cannot receive inbound calls or texts. The number is unobtainable. I first reported this problem on 3 December and was promised a resolution within 48 hours. One month later, I have been promised a 48 hour resolution on 7 separate occasions. The 7th 48 hours has now expired and my phone is still not receiving incoming calls or texts.

I have been promised resolutions from their contact centres, including their porting team and technical teams, a sales rep in my local store and by their web chat advisers. I have now been without service for 1 month and there is no sign of any resolution. Each time my 48 hours has expired I call again only to be told their system has been updated to show that the problem has been resolved. This incompetence is truly unacceptable as they only need to dial my number to see that it is still unobtainable and that they have not yet fixed my problem. I simply cannot understand how they would fiddle about a bit, think they have fixed my problem and then not bother to dial my number to test it. Surely that test comes within the first 10 mins of basic technical training. Also, nobody is willing to take ownership of my problem i.e. giving me regular updates despite my constant requests. Equally, their customer service advisers refuse to put me through to the complaints team by telling me that they don’t have a specific complaints team and they all just deal with complaints. So how do I escalate my problem? How do I get someone to take ownership of my problem? If I call again should I believe the 8th promise of a 48 hour resolution?

Back in the real world, I need a phone that can receive calls. I no longer believe that they are working on my problem. So what should I do? Do I cut my loses on keeping my old number and ask that they cancel my entire account, hand my phone back and ask that they give me a full refund of all monies paid?


I would strongly advise EVERYONE with these problems, and I know there are hundreds of us, to do the following. If we all do it someone might take notice:

1) Email the CEO of vodafone: [EMAIL="jeroen.hoencamp@vodafone"]jeroen.hoencamp@vodafone[/EMAIL] .com

2) Report them to the Ombudsman Services Communications, they will investigate your complaint free of charge.
You can find out more on their website at ... google them..... or call them on 0330 440 1614.
Alternatively you can write to:
Ombudsman Services Communications
PO Box 730
Warrington WA4 6HL


3) Report it to Watchdog on their 'send your story to Watchdog' page.

4) Submit a Subject Access Request (SAR) asking them to provide copies of all information they hold on you. That includes account information, contact history, notes made on your account, notes made by their advisers on your contact history and copies of all call recording of phone calls you have made to them.

grumbler

What's the point in wasting £10 on the SAR?!

Also, I think it's worth reporting them to Ofcom. They don't deal with individual cases, but can fine Voda and force them to make some improvements at last.

The best advice is to keep away from Vodafone.

diamonds

Call your old provider and ask them to check the port is all ok on their end, call Ofcom and register a complaint, get a reference number for the complaint and take that to Vodafone




http://campaigns.vodafone.co.uk/jeroenhoencamp/

PaulW922

Exactly the same happened to my Mum - eventually she was told, by the Vodafone shop, to switch networks. So she did, but with their usual efficiency Vodafone didn't cancel the contract for over two months and are now threatening her with debt collectors etc despite the fact that she cancelled within fourteen days and they never provided a working phone anyway.

We are planning on going to the county court for compensation as she also lost her number of some fifteen years in the botched transfer process.

I agree - stay well away from Vodafone

Leon_W

Vodafone are quite simply the worst company I have ever had to deal with. Do not EVER believe anything they tell you because it will be 100% lies.


I wish I had never had the misfortune to join them from Orange and have no problem whatsoever in warning anyone if it saves them from the clutches of Vodafone.

james_stevens

Thanks for your replies. I've reported them to Ofcom and wrote to the CEO. Their Customer Relations team called me today on the back of mt letter to the CEO. Guess what? An 8th promise of a 48 hour resolution. I'm not confident.


Agree with others - please take this as a warning to never have anything to do with Vodafone and NEVER believe a word they tell you.

Vodafone

PaulW922 wrote: »

Exactly the same happened to my Mum - eventually she was told, by the Vodafone shop, to switch networks. So she did, but with their usual efficiency Vodafone didn't cancel the contract for over two months and are now threatening her with debt collectors etc despite the fact that she cancelled within fourteen days and they never provided a working phone anyway.

We are planning on going to the county court for compensation as she also lost her number of some fifteen years in the botched transfer process.

I agree - stay well away from Vodafone

Hi PaulW922,

If your mum still needs help with this, ask her to email me with her details via the link in our profile here.

All she'll need to do is copy and paste the link into her web browser and it'll take her to the Contact us form on our website. To make sure it reaches me, she'll also need to quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line.

Once sent, she'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Post back with this and I’ll check I've received it.

james_stevens wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. I've reported them to Ofcom and wrote to the CEO. Their Customer Relations team called me today on the back of mt letter to the CEO. Guess what? An 8th promise of a 48 hour resolution. I'm not confident.


Agree with others - please take this as a warning to never have anything to do with Vodafone and NEVER believe a word they tell you.

Hi james stevens,

As your case is being handled by our Directors Office, they'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Lee

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Vodafone UK

Pulpdiction

I was going to take out a contract with Voda, but need to port my number, this is making me think twice now.

contactanant

Hi James and Others having Vodafone issues

I have been having same issue as you and for me it is nearly two months now.

Every word you have said totally make sense and exactly same happened to me. I never felt so frustrated and angry as I am with Vodafone UK.

I took a new yearly mobile contract with Vodafone and applied to transfer my old number on 12th Nov 2014. PAC code I gave to Vodafone was used on 13th Nov 2014, My old number was invalidated on 13th Nov but the number was not transferred. I can't receive calls on my old number and transfer is not done yet.

From 25th Nov 2014, problem escalated further and there are no calls/sms to even the temporary vodafone number. I am unreachable to the whole world. I run a small business and I use my personal phone number for my business. My customers/agents are not able to reach me for nearly two months. I am losing business everyday. I can't describe the frustration it is leading to as I have incurred so much losses and lot of potential customers are lost. On one instance, my parents were unable to reach me in case of emergency as the phone just stopped receiving any incoming calls without any warnings on 25th.
Vodafone customer service has not been sincere in dealing with this issue. I have spoken to a lot of customer service representatives from Vodafone in past 8 weeks and found only handful of them looking to help. Rest of them don't seem to be concerned that I do not have mobile service but Vodafone has made sure that bill is sent on time and direct debit is taken from my bank account. Every time I call Vodafone, they come up with a new excuse or they try to blame my phone or previous service provider.

Following are the some of the excuses given to me by customer representatives:
Service will be restored within 48 hours otherwise call back.
Service will be restored by 8PM (by porting team) as they shut down on 8 pm.
My number can't be found in the system so they can't help (strange)
High call volumes so call back (even after 45 mins waiting useless)
After waiting for long in the queue, when I finally got connected to someone, twice they have kept me hold for 30 mins and never returned.
I should switch off my phone for 24 hours.
I should soft reset my phone (without checking the issue in my account)
My PAC code is wrong and I should get another one (even though it was used already by vodafone)
My previous mobile company has not provided all files needed for number transfer.
I should switch off/on my phone every 2 hours to check the status as Vodafone is unable to send service status.
Three customer representative told me that I should sync my Iphone to Itunes, without even checking my accounts that technical issue has not been resolved completely. I said that if phone is the issue why not someone can still leave me voice mail, why my number shows as invalid when someone calls my number but they didn't listen and didn't bother to find the update on the reported issue.
I was twice told by porting team that the backend team coordinator is off and no one else has access on the system to fix my issue. Does your system relies on one person?
No update from backend team but we (vodafone) assure you that they (backend team) are diligently looking in to the issue.
Issue has been escalated already and we can't do anything else, keep waiting and call back later.

Numerous time I have requested that please don't make false promises and tell me if my service will restored at all or not so that I can take a new number. I have also requested that please inform me via email or on my landline about the status of the issue but they say that there is no process of informing customer in such cases. I have to keep calling to find out the status of the issue. Vodafone has not shown any courtesy to contact me via email or landline to keep me informed about the status of the reported issue.

When I tried to make the formal complaint using website, I got a reply that I should call 191 to resolve the issue. Which I have been doing but no results.

I am now clueless what I can do and I am really frustrated and very sad about losing my number.

Anant

Vodafone

Hi Anant,

I'm sorry to see this.

If you still need help, email me via the contact details provided in post seven above.

Kind regards,

Lee

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Vodafone UK

orangutan_2

I've been having problems porting my number over to Vodaphone and similar issues to others here with numerous false promises about when the port will occur or when someone will call me back. Hugely disappointed and inconvenienced by this. Been waiting over a week now and have called them over 9 times already.

What a joke. I will take advice of the others and post on every forum, email consumer action and the rest.