Official Vodafone Complaints/Query Thread

dazzaofdagenham

So have you been roaming with your Vodafone account ?

Emily1975

I reached my data allowance (500MB) last month. I got a text to say this had happened so immediately switched off my mobile data. I did a live chat the same day to check the status of my account and they said that actually I had gone a few MB over and as a result would incur an automatic £6.50 charge for a further 250MB.

However, when I explained the circumstances and that I had switched off my data, the nice chap said he would get the charge waived as I had only gone fractionally over. On that basis a couple of days later I decided to add 1GB of additional data for £6 to take me to the end of the billing cycle.

When I checked my bill for the month, not only had a I been charged the £6 but the £6.50 as well. I got in touch on live chat again and the (different) chap told me that the original agent had made a mistake and they would get him retrained. However they would not honour what he told me.

I explained that I had only bought the 1GB of data on this basis and would not have done so otherwise (total data used in month only 700MB so it was ultimately unnecessary on top of the 250MB I was charged and not refunded for).

The live chat agent was completely inflexible and all he would say was that the agent made a mistake, would be retrained and that they had acted in line with their normal billing policy. He wouldn't enter into a debate about me incurring additional costs because of being misinformed.

I feel very unfairly treated and have wasted an hour of my time going round in circles on live chat. Can anyone suggest an appropriate way of getting this resolved?

#15034050 (original ref number but I didn't include MSE Forum in my message so reposted and generated a new ref number #15034219)

dazzaofdagenham

If you are out of contract with Vodafone then I would get my PAC number and leave....trust me it's for the best in the long run.

Other than that, i would record all webchats for future reference.

Emily1975

I typically get a transcript sent over, and certainly do have one of the conversation where I was told I would have the £6.50 refunded.

I'm missing one from earlier in the year where I have another dispute. I assume Vodafone store these somewhere (for their own record keeping). Is there somewhere I can access them?

dazzaofdagenham

Emily1975 wrote: »

I typically get a transcript sent over, and certainly do have one of the conversation where I was told I would have the £6.50 refunded.

I'm missing one from earlier in the year where I have another dispute. I assume Vodafone store these somewhere (for their own record keeping). Is there somewhere I can access them?

From my perspective yes the people can access them and refer to them, but once you've had the chat and closed it...you cannot easily get it without sending Vodafone a SAR.

liviboy

It's now been 10 days since I last heard from Vodafone (Tyler in the Social Media team). Despite being assured I would be kept up-to-date with developments (and believe me, my issue is VERY simple - a simple database error at Vodafone that shouldn't be this complicated to fix). I've been told my issue had been sent directly to the person to sort it but alas 10 days on no word and no sign of a fix. EDIT: I believe the hold-up is in the back-end of Vodafone as opposed to the Social Media Team...but I believe the SM team are just as helpless as us customers when it comes to "off-script" issues which they can't actually fix themselves but require to go to the outsourced employees.

Even accounting for New Year, etc. even if we said a week. A week to change a URL on a database is terrible.

But then no doubt the Social Media team have encountered the same nonsense that us customers have to put up with with all of the Indian customer service centres which Vodafone use and where they either don't understand the issue, tell lies that they have fixed the issue or, more usually, just don't bother to read what the customer has actually written in the first place.

I don't have an issue with outsourcing to places like India, but I do have an issue with outsourcing to people who don't actually listen, who don't understand a simple issue (anything off script then forget it!) or those who just lie and you know as well as I do that no matter what complaints are made - it's dealt with over there and there is no punishment at all for the poor service given to customers. If the folk in the UK based call centres (which are operated by Web Help under contract to Vodafone) behaved in the same way then you can bet everything that the company would soon lose their Vodafone contract!

Brightone

Luckily I've avoided the billing issues that so many seem to have suffered, but nevertheless decided to leave as my contract was at an end and I could get a better price elsewhere.

I had a pleasant web chat (and got the transcript) but was told I could either give 30 days notice OR get a PAC code. I couldn't have both. So if I gave notice then got a PAC code and used it, the code submission would overwrite the notice and the 30 days would start again.

In the end I took the PAC code then called separately and gave notice and now have both on a text message. It will be interesting to see whether the notice is overwritten when I use the PAC.

[Deleted User]

Brightone wrote: »

Luckily I've avoided the billing issues that so many seem to have suffered, but nevertheless decided to leave as my contract was at an end and I could get a better price elsewhere.

I had a pleasant web chat (and got the transcript) but was told I could either give 30 days notice OR get a PAC code. I couldn't have both. So if I gave notice then got a PAC code and used it, the code submission would overwrite the notice and the 30 days would start again.

In the end I took the PAC code then called separately and gave notice and now have both on a text message. It will be interesting to see whether the notice is overwritten when I use the PAC.

Unless they've cancelled the PAC of course.

familyguy321

Hi,

I am thinking of joining Vodafone (no choice as it is the only network that gets signal at work!).

The deal I am going for is the 12 month Sim Only @ £22/month for 4GB data, Unlimited mins and 2GB roaming data.

I'm looking at going through cashback sites (Quidco or Topcashback) but can't find this contract on either. Does anyone know if this is available for cashback?

mobilejunkie

You'd probably do better through a dealer, where you would usually get cashback via the cashback sites on a sim only deal as well as lower cost (if you use a cashback contract with the dealer as well). Talkmobile deals are usually a lot cheaper (though another crap company to deal with) and use the Vodafone network.