How much do you think Vodafone should compensate me?

Savingforahouse123

Hi I've just bought my first house, moving to quite a rural area.

My previous mobile network provider had awful signal in the area so I did some research on other providers. None of them had good signal but Vodafone was the best out of a bad bunch and had a good deal on a SIM Only contract so I decided to go with them.

They also had one of the best broadband options and price for the area so I decided I'd get a bundle deal (works out cheaper) by going for both broadband and SIM only with Vodafone.

I discovered I can get £90 cashback through ordering their broadband through Topcashback so I did that.

Since then, I've ran into countless problems:

• I called up Vodafone to ask a question regarding my SIM. I then just happened to find out my broadband instillation date had been cancelled. I only found this out by chance by calling about a separate issue. The agent on the phone says engineers regularly cancel slots. I complained saying if I'd BOOKED the slot, surely it'll secure it for me and they can't just cancel. Also even if they did cancel, surely they should notify me. I had booked the day off work for the engineer to come so this stitched me up. The agent told me to reorder since I hadn't been charged yet, and said the only way to find out if it gets cancelled again is to keep calling back each day to check (seems ridiculous use of my time, especially when I have limited time due to working). Bearing in mind, buying your first home is hard enough, let alone when living in a new area, with no internet, no TV, no data as signal is next to none (takes mins to open a webpage & no chance of watching a video).
• I called up several times to check the order hadn't been cancelled and each time I called up they couldn't locate my account. They said my broadband account with Vodafone and my SIM only account weren't linked so it always took them ages to find my account which wasted my time on the phone, bearing in mind I had to sort out various other house things like my mortgage which took hours to get through to Santander since mortgages were skyrocketing and everyone was trying to contact them. I said to each agent, please could you fix the issue with my account so they link but each time they never did so the next agent would struggle.
• Some agents told me conflicting info
• The broadband engineer cancels my instillation slot once again.
• I book broadband a third time. This time it hasn't been cancelled, however it hasn't linked to Topcashback so I'll miss out on £90. However, I'm not wanting to cancel the order and reorder for a 4th time meaning an even later instillation date.
• I eventually spoke to one agent who was very helpful. I felt reassured everything would get sorted. This person was one of the few with great customer service. She promised me a mobile broadband which is a temporary solution until my actual home broadband arrives. The mobile broadband did come however it's even slower than using mobile data/3G or 4G so I never used it. She also somehow gave me a SIM which doesn't allow me to text or call people as she was expecting me to use the mobile broadband to make Wifi calls (I'm not sure if I agreed to this, but either way I couldn't make wifi calls as the mobile broadband was too slow and I'm sometimes out and about not at home). I also often needed to call businesses where you simply can't call using Whatsapp as I'm not calling friends and fam!
• I called & asked to speak to complaints department. The complaints agent seemed great on the surface and promised me the world. He then said he'll pass me to the mobile team and they'll give me a special offer better than what I'd previously been given due to the fact I had put in a complaint. So he put me through to someone who offered me the exact same deal I had previously (before the woman had messed up and given me a SIM which doesnt allow me to make calls or texts). So this was an hour wasted to get the exact same deal I was told previously. I had things to do that evening but after spending an hour and a half on the phone, I was too late to go to what I had planned.
• I'd say I have spent approx 8 or 9 hours speaking to Vodafone in total now so it's not just the time wasted when I have a busy life, but also the stress of the situation, especially considering I have no internet/ability to call/TV/and various issues with my first new house where I couldn't Google the answer nor call a family member (family live near London and I live near the border of Scotland so not exactly round the corner).

Luckily, my kind neighbour has now given me their Wifi details in the interim.

How much compensation do you think I should get? At the very least I think it should be £90 since I'm missing the cashback money I'm owed.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Have they agreed to offer compensation?

If so did they offer an amount or did they ask you what you think is due? 

Penguin_

Even when you go through Cashback sites, it isn't guaranteed that you will get the cash back.

Savingforahouse123

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Have they agreed to offer compensation?

If so did they offer an amount or did they ask you what you think is due? 

Yes they said they'd offer compensation but I don't know how much. How much do you think I should push for?

Savingforahouse123

Penguin_ said:

Even when you go through Cashback sites, it isn't guaranteed that you will get the cash back.

Surely if I meet their criteria, then I'd qualify. If it doesn't go through, they can manually add it, however I don't think it'll work this time if the order confirmation isn't even showing on the topcashback website.

Penguin_

Savingforahouse123 said:

Penguin_ said:

Even when you go through Cashback sites, it isn't guaranteed that you will get the cash back.

Surely if I meet their criteria, then I'd qualify. If it doesn't go through, they can manually add it, however I don't think it'll work this time if the order confirmation isn't even showing on the topcashback website.

Cashback is never 100%, TCB state that on their website.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Savingforahouse123 said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Have they agreed to offer compensation?

If so did they offer an amount or did they ask you what you think is due? 

Yes they said they'd offer compensation but I don't know how much. How much do you think I should push for?

It's a personal thing really OP, if you are happy with £200 credit being applied to your account then ask for that (they will probably give more in credit than in cash).

If they counter with £25 you'll know you are on completely different pages, if they counter with £100 then they may well go to £150 with some negotiation.

They are basically offering you goodwill for inconvenience, losing the cashback was an inconvenience but what Vodafone think about that will probably depend on whether the member of staff knows what cashback is and how much sympathy they have towards that aspect. 

There is probably a limit to how much a particular level of customer service can give you and the art here is finding that amount, the main thing to note is they want to give you as little as possible so their first (counter) offer will probably be less than they can give. 

biscan25

I got the standard Ofcom compensation from Vodafone. Was something like £31 for a missed appointment and service starting a day late. I think it works out about £5 a day beyond that.