Vodafone problems... not sure where to start.

GhostWarrior

Last Thursday, I was offered a 40% discount by Vodafone to stay with them rather than move to Virgin. I agreed, and was happy to accept the Xperia Z3. It arrived on Friday. All well and good, except I hated the phone - many of the features I've enjoyed for the last seven years are exclusive to Samsung and not stock Android as I had thought.

On Saturday, I contacted the company via Live Chat and received a call from Returns who quickly put an exchange order in place for me - I was told that DPD would drop off a Samsung Galaxy S6 on Tuesday (today) and pick up my Xperia Z3 at the same time.

On Sunday, I realise I haven't received any email confirmation - it usually arrives within a couple of hours so I contacted Live Chat again to make sure that the exchange was in place for Tuesday. I was told not to worry, everything was going as planned.

Today, I still hadn't received a confirmation email or any communication from DPD to let me know what time they would arrive. I used Live Chat again only to be told that the order had never been processed in the first place! I was told to contact Returns again via 191 to put the order back through. When I rang them, the guy on the end of the phone said the order had actually been put through and had no idea as to why it hadn't be carried out. He contacted the appropriate persons, apologised for the mistake, told me the exchange will now take place Thursday/Friday and I would receive a confirmation email soon.

A few hours later - no email. I contacted Live Chat yet again to be told that the order was pending and I'd receive confirmation soon. A few hours more, my girlfriend convinced me to contact them again - she worries about Vodafone due to previous issues. I did, to be told that the phone will actually be with me tomorrow! I found this hard to believe, and took my girlfriend's advice to contact customer services via phone. The woman on the phone checked my account, and contacted DPD. Afterwards, she concluded that the order hasn't been processed at all and advised me to call back tomorrow.

I posted a message on the Vodafone eForum, hoping to find someone who has been in a similar position. I received a reply advising me to go back on Live Chat or call 191 and specifically ask if the phone is in-stock and ready for despatch. I took the advice, used Live Chat and got told that he couldn't help me as the account has a "FRAUD predict" on it and I would have to call 191 to resolve any issues. This was maybe less than two hours after the woman trying to help me out over the phone.

I'm not sure what's going on here but I had fraud issues with Vodafone over a year ago which were resolved quickly by a member of MSE (Vodafone/Lee). During the suspected fraud, my account was locked up completely. However, right after getting off my final Live Chat of the night I attempted to login to the Vodafone account and experienced absolutely no problems.

My main concern now is that they'll draw this out until my 14 day cooling off period ends. I have all the chat transcripts, and date/time of all phone calls. Will this be enough to ensure they honour their promises should this be a drawn out process?

In the meantime, is there any other advice I can follow or numbers I can call for a better customer service? My initial Live Chat was with an "upgrades specialist", all subsequent Live Chats have been with "service advisers". If anyone knows a way to specifically contact an upgrades or returns specialist, I'd appreciate it.

Forgive the wall of text.

cono1717

It is likely that vodafone will drag their heels not on purpose but just because and it will spill over the 14 day period. The fact you notified them within that period however and the fact they agreed to do it means it will need to be done.

You could try popping into a store but likely they will just tell you to use the live chat - is there a fraud department on 191 you can speak to?

GhostWarrior

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping. They have all records of the order the same as me so it shouldn't cause too many problems.

I've been on Live Chat again only to be told that there is no fraud warning on my account. The only fraud warning the adviser could find was one from 2014 - the one asking for extra security questions to be asked of me due to the fraudulent change of my address. Clearly someone hasn't had much training.

Again, you're quite right - I've been told the store can't help me as it was initially an online order. I'll give them a call about 11:30 as that will be over 24 hours since the exchange order was placed. They won't have any excuse for not having details as I was firmly told that was as long as it would take to process. Failing that, I'll open a chat through the upgrade or cancellation portion of the website, explain the situation and hope they don't try to put me back through to the general service advisers lol (still in good spirits at the moment)

cono1717

If you ensure you say you want it logged as a complaint then if the situation hasn't been resolved in 8 weeks you can refer it to an ADR. Vodafone's appointed ADR service is Ombudsman Services (http://ombudsman-services.org)

I currently have an ongoing case with Vodafone in the Ombudsman. It does take time but eventually you can get it sorted.

In the mean time try contacting them on social media (twitter is often good) telling them that you don't want to speak to the live chat.

GhostWarrior

Thanks for the info. I'll make sure to follow your advice particularly lodging it as a complaint.

Currently on hold to them just now. Finally speaking to someone who seems to know what's going on. He's told me there's no order record for the one I placed yesterday morning and that the initial exchange order from Saturday is still pending! He has no idea why. He's speaking to a "superuser" at the moment to try and have it processed immediately.

EDIT: The order won't be processed until Friday (at the latest) as there is some sort of fault that requires it to be put through manually, and I won't receive the phone until Monday/Tuesday as DPD don't do exchanges at the weekend. I've been told that I will receive an email when the exchange has been processed, an email the day before delivery and an email on the day of delivery. He also credited me £30 for the inconvenience caused so far which is a nice gesture.