ordering broadband through topcashback

Aidanmc

I order  Vodafone FF broadband and today wanted to cancel the order (within 14 days) the vodafone live chat agent asked why, so i told them i could get better deal on Sky via topcashback.
He proceeded to tell me that if i had any issues with broadband i would have to get in touch with topcashback as they rent the lines of the providers.
Is this true...? i dont think so

transcript

Callum: Ah so this is a third party offer, we cannot do the vouchers or cashback. The issue with third parties is that they do not actually run through the company they state they are on. Top cashback rent the lines via sky or us, therefore if there are any issues with the contract you would be contacting Topcashback not sky which is very difficult to do. The annual price rise that every company have to do comes from the government. The CPI (OR RPI) is the same for every company.

You: i dont think thats the case, topcashback is a comparision site that links to various providers, every contract goes through the providers

You: anyway i joined vodafone via topcashback so makes no difference

Callum: That is unfortunately not the case, topcashback, mobilesdirect, any of these websites where you can compare the offers rent the lines from the providers and put their own prices onto them this is why they can offer them so cheap. The order goes to the provider website to finalise but they are all directly from the third party so for example if you took a third party deal with vodafone we wouldn't be able to look into it if there was any issues

flaneurs_lobster

Utter tosh.

Although quite what the repercussions are (or should be) for a CS agent lying to a potential customer are I'm not sure.

Topcashback may well be interested in this misrepresentation of their business.

It's not obvious which mobile phone supplier Callum is referring to by "mobilesdirect" could be one of several companies with a similar sounding name. 

And the rubbish about the government setting the price rise is just risible.

Perhaps people will take note of how Vodafone undertake the sales end of their operation (the bit they'd be expected to resource well) and consider how any interactions with their support staff might go later if/when there are problems.

There's a reason why they are cheap.

Aidanmc

Thanks for confirming what i already thought was the case.
I cancelled as i can get a much better deal currently with Sky, maybe a lucky escape from Vodafone if they intentionally lie to customers

400ixl

And this is why you don't take what a CS rep says as gospel, especially from the ones who are very script driven and then make up the rest to fill the gap. No surprise Vodafone are one of the ISP with the lowest customer satisfaction. Sky do pretty well in that regard.

The cash back is very much with Topcashback though, but the ISP service contract is direct.

Aidanmc

And to top it all off, i was doing the chat on behalf of an 81year old relative!
So Callum knew this.
I think actually this should be reported somewhere. 

Detail_Merchant

I'm not sure if there's anywhere you can report this which will actually make a difference.
But Trustpilot is a place where you could try sharing your experience for others to read - https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.vodafone.co.uk