[getti]

Long story short, i moved from a 12 month contract to a 30 day one again because the upgrade phone i paid for (Storm) was a pile of **** (enter any 4 letter swear word it all shows im not impressed)

Anyhoo because i stopped the upgrade which i had paid £323 to get and it was showing on my bill i stopped the direct debit whilst it was being sorted.

1 month on and it was still showing on my bill as owing and with a friend working at Voda CS looking into it for me, about 3 team leaders looking into it and a good 20 phone calls to 191 lasting between 10mins and 2hrs it was still not being sorted.

I was told the other day Vodafone are putting the money in my account so when it shows i can call and pay them back. Today i get told they already paid the money back to me on the 19th and I OWE THEM £323 now.

So i check online with my bank and checking back 2 months there is NOTHING there from Vodafone going back in.

I have to say my 4 months of being with Vodafone have been most unpleasant with a network i can think of... i would even say i would rather be on 3 with the Indian call centre than with Vodafone at the moment from my experience.

I overlooked the fact they are still in the stone age charging 36p a MMS and 60p a Video message, i overlooked the fact they offer a 500mb internet as unlimited when both 3 and T-Mobile offer 1GB (yes 500mb might be enough for a lot of people but why not match the others to at least be as good).

I overlooked the higher than average prices for everything and the stupidly large hold times when calling 191 and was hoping they offered a better than average service but to be honest its well below par.

This is my longest post in a while so you can see i am far from happy. I feel sorry for whoever is on the end of this call i am on hold with now as i am fed up with their excuses and fob offs.

[Ben]

So did you ever pay them the £323? Every upgrade I've ever had from Vodafone, the charge has been applied to a future bill - I've never paid 'there and then' for something.

You should never cancel a DD on a credit agreement, it's a one-way ticket to ballsing up your credit history (more). If you're due a refund then you'll get one.

[getti]

the charge was added to my bill but then should have been taken off once they had the phone back and changed my plan.

the plan was changed but the charge was kept on there. Reason i stopped the debit was on xmas eve they were going to take the WHOLE lot out even though £323 of it was due to have come off weeks ago and they had not

[miffed]

I can smypathise mate , the most frustrating thing with Vodafone (IMO) was the "Groundhog day" effect , of having to explain the entire story to each CS Rep (invariably a giggling welshman) who would agree that the problem needed sorting ,.... and then tell you he had sorted the problem .... only t find a week later nothing had changed , so you phone up again and there is no record of your complaint and you have to go through it all again !
Took me the best part of 6 months to rectify a simply billing error IIRC

[maxspank]

If you haven't paid the £323 why do you expect it to be paid back into your bank account?

[Ben]

I sometimes get the feeling that getti is the one customer the networks want to churn ;)

[gorilla]

This reminds me of the time I went on a voda 30 day contract, then when I wanted my PAC to get a phone for free on another network, they tried to persuade me to stay by not offering the same deal as new customers got, but a crap deal! Then it took them about 3 weeks (and a number of calls and emails) to give me the PAC.
I never had that trouble with 3. :p

IMO every CS department are the same, under staffed, under resourced and under motivated.:(

[getti]

If you haven't paid the £323 why do you expect it to be paid back into your bank account?

Voda said to apply the credit they needed to pay me the money into my bank and i call them back once its in to pay them.

As it happens this issue has been sorted FINALLY and the balance cleared

[getti]

And here we go again. I called 191 to get my PAC code and as i was on hold so long i posted on their EForum about the experience. Within 2 minutes it was taken off so i posted again and yet again it came off.

Here is what i posted:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Calling Vodafone to ask for the PAC on my Sim Only line as i dont need it any more. Tried 4 times yesterday and was on hold for an hour so i gave up.

This morning i have been on hold for 1hr 55mins and STILL GOING!.

What the hell is going on with the call centre?. 2+ hours to speak to someone is not even funny. See this is another reason why i am leaving because when you need to speak to someone on the phone about something you are on hold for a stupid amount of time.

I called 3 to cancel 4 weeks ago and although the person on the phone was not letting me get a word in and making up reasons for me to stay they picked up the phone within 2 minutes.

I called T-Mobile to check something on my account this morning and within 15 seconds it was answered. This call is now about to his 2 HOURS!.

Reasons i am leaving are:

1) Only 500mb internet allowance and with phones like the E75/N97/G1/Magic or Windows Mobile you NEED more!.
2) STUPIDLY LONG WAITING TIMES!
3) Expensive handsets when wanting to upgrade
4) STUPIDLY LONG WAITING TIMES!
5) I had a problem with being charged for an item i sent back and it took ME over 30 phone calls, time, stress and effort in to get this back and my line was even cut off for a short time because of a VODAFONE mistake.
6) When i wanted to convert from a 12month to a1 month deal after my contract was up i spoke to people on the phone who tried making out i would be on a sim only deal but then they added i will be on a 12month sim only plan i CANT move to a normal sim only plan for 30 days. i called back and after having 3 team leaders look at the details they finally managed to put me on a 30 day contract sim only.

Sorry of this is a rant but i am now past the 2 HOUR mark on hold and i have a conference call to make in 50mins for work. If no one from Vodafone has answered i will HAVE to come off the call meaning I have wasted nearly 3 hours of my time waiting for someone at Vodafone to bother picking up the phone.

EForum team are good but the 191 customer service team are a disgrace for making people wait this long. :angry: :angry:

[Ben]

Well, at least your post will be safe here. Makes you wonder why Vodafone bother having a forum at all.

[Hands0n]

Anyone who had read my ramblings will know that I have a very low tolerance of poor quality Customer Services. What Getti has been through is not good at all, and it is a bit shameful merely deleting the customer's forum complaint where he is very obviously frustrated to hell and back.

My own personal experience of Vodafone is that their quality and effectiveness takes some beating. It is by no means perfect, and it is outclassed by at least one other UK mobile network operator which organised a big dance-up in Liverpool St station recently :D But I have to say that in every single instance of dealing with Vodafone to either take on new services, scale others back and cancel yet others I have not the opportunity to fault them.

So what the hell is going on here? How come I get a good service but Getti and Miffed seem to get treated like something stuck to the underside of a shoe?

[getti]

well an update. I called back and got through after 30mins but as told i am on a sim only deal for 2 more months i would have to pay £42.50 to get out now. When i said but im on a 30 day sim only they said im on sim only but still have 2 months left of a 12 month contract?. Anyway i did not pay and left it

However I JUST had a call from 1 of the EForum team who explained that the EForum was more for technical help and they remove the complaints to deal with the customer direct.

They have passed on my comments to the right channel and hope it will improve service in the future and apologized for any issues i have had with Vodafone service they are sad to see me go but appreciate my reasons.

Lucky i know someone at CS and they put a note on there a few months back saying i dont want calls to stay if i leave so they accepted that and said my pac would be sorted in 1-2 days and they are going to email it to me so i dont have to call up.

Although im still shocked and annoyed at the 191 Vodafone Experience I have calmed down now i have spoken to someone and the fact they took the time out to call me and at least apologize for the problems and it has been noted. I am impressed with the EForum team. Now if only there was something like that with T-Mobile.... oh wait.... there will be :)

[getti]

After giving Vodafone yet ANOTHER chance (why i dont know) they fail me yet again. I was looking at taking 2 sim only lines for family on the £10 a month deal... good value i thought,

So called 191 who said i should be fine to take out more connections, my account is fine. I go in store where i know the team and i ask them to check as the person on the phone was very quick at saying it will be fine.

he calls up the credit team who say i need to pay 1 more bill.

So i go back to work and pay the bill and ask about another line to be told i need to pay 1 more bill i was told wrong last time, December and January's payments were late so i explained the reason was (about the original post) they owed me a credit of around £325 and took me 2 months of calling to get them to do anything about it.

This does not matter the payment was still late so pretty much end of story. I post how annoyed i was at yet again wrong information being given and the EForum team email me to check my account so they can look into it for me.

I get a reply from them saying they checked with credit and wont be accepted until i make another payment due to December and Jan... FFS how is it my fault Vodafone take 2 months to do a simple job.

So this was my reply to them today:


HI James.

Thanks for getting back to me. The issue I have though is that December and Januarys payments were late down to a problem Vodafone’s end.

A handset I returned (BB Storm) the 1st week of December and I was charged £325 for took 2 months to be credited off by bill even though I did not have the handset.

If you look at the notes you will see the charge was taken off but then somehow got added back on a few days later so my account was credited near on £630 in total to correct it.

I had to cancel the direct debit because it took me over 30 phone calls and 3 team leaders to get this sorted, every time I called I was told it should not have happened they will look into it but nothing happened. I was not going to pay £325 for a phone I did not even have just before Christmas when all it needed was for someone to remove the charge. I had provided the tracking number and had confirmation from the warehouse the phone was back but still nothing was happening.

If I just did not make the payments then I would understand but under the circumstances where it was not my fault the payments were not on time it was down to Vodafone taking 2 months of me having to call and follow through on nearly a daily basis to fix then this could be looked into in more detail.

The notes are there on the account to show why the payments were late. I even went into my local store and spoke to someone in there who looked at an additional line for me and called up as it was a ‘Referral’ and he was advised I had to make 1 more payment which was my last bill so I called up and paid it over the phone to allow the additional line to be taken, only to be told I need to pay 1 more again. I have been told ‘1 more’ on many different times even after paying 1 more.

From a customers point of view, someone who spends upwards of £35 every month and wants to take out 2 more sim only contracts at £10 a month for family but is being blocked because of something not even my fault is very poor I have to say.

I have found that although the Eforum team are more than willing to help and look into things for you, the people I have spoken too on 191 have been the total opposite and after times of nearly 2 hours on hold to be told wrong information time after time I cannot argue about it anymore as with the times on hold, the times I have had to call to chase up the refund credit on the Storm I have spent far too long on the phone to sort things out when also paying £35+ a month.

I have emailed off the form to give my 30 days notice on the account, could you please check if this has been applied because the contract should end on around the 20th April (30 days after I sent the request).

I am sorry if this email comes across as ‘being off’ with you, this is far from what I would want but I have had enough with the amount of wrong information I have been given over the phone and would just like to close the account in 30 days.

I wont need the PAC number as I will be setting up a new account with a new number anyway.

Many thanks for taking the time to get back to me on this matter, its a shame though im having to leave. I would appreciate it if this email can be passed on as feedback to whomever is in charge of customer service if that was possible so they can see how the Eforum try to save people that 191 have caused problems for,

Also for my own records would it be possible to have sent to me the notes I have on my account as im sure there are quite a few, I would like these for my own paperwork so I can keep track of things like times etc....

Many thanks
Dan Carter


Time for me to forget all about Vodafone and their pi$$ poor service. T-Mobile have accepted me for 5 lines anyway and 150 are about 10000000000000000000000000000000 times better than vodafone customer service so its vodafone's loss.

They are loosing a £35 a month customer who was going to spend an additional £20 a month, plus who has lots of contacts in the mobile market and trust me they will see what i have said about vodafone and will think again.

[miffed]

Doesn't surprise me at all TBH - I signed up for a £16 pm tarriff which was supposed to be discounted to £8 pm , and was actually billed £60 pm !!

This went on month after month , CS were less than useless and it took around 6 months to correct IIRC

Absolutly the worst CS of any UK provider IMO (And that includes 3 !)

[Ben]

You boys, you bring it upon yourselves! :p

That said, I'm very happy on O2 with my iPhone these days.

[getti]

I have yet to have a reply from my email. I called 191 (im asking for trouble here really) to say a few days ago i emailed to put in my notice to cancel has this happened yet.... i get told not yet they see the original email i sent and have sent a reply asking for more info which i have filled in and sent back the same day so they will get to it within a few days.

Bloody hell nearly a week for a 30 day notice to go through... here is a tip if anyone from Vodafone is listening SPEAK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS!,

From a business view why would you get someone to write to you to cancel a contract when you can get them to call in, get people who are actually trained to ask why you want to cancel and maybe... just maybe you might be able to keep hold of customers instead of loosing them.

Only reason i can think of is to drag the process out so its so long and complicated you end up staying. Seriously you call 191, wait over 2hrs on hold at times with the same old hold music and if you speak to someone and they offer you something you dont want you cant just get them to put in the notice for you, oh no, you have to end the call and email in to get the process started, then reply with more info a few days later.

If you want to stay then sure they can arrange that over the phone but if you want to leave they make it as hard as possible.

[miffed]

From a business view why would you get someone to write to you to cancel a contract when you can get them to call in,

First rule of retention in any business ! Don't make it simple to walk away .. most of our gym memberships are 'contract' based , and we operate a policy that gym memberships may only be cancelled by letter to our collection company (who the customer has the contract with ) - Quite often someone who comes in and asks to cancel will never "get around' to writing the letter and posting it (people are laxy these days) - Net result is we continue to get their money !

[Ben]

I've never understood making it difficult to cancel things. If someone wants to leave, all you do by making it harder is create resentment and a negative image of your brand. The best thing any organisation can do is pack off a customer happy.

Dealing with cancellations is time consuming and thankless. Have a retention policy by all means, but I think cancellations should always be kept as simple as possible.

[miffed]

It's not a case of making it difficult , its more about not making it so simple that a customer can walk away in just a few words , yes I agree maybe this is pushing luck a little in terms of company reputation , but I think most people are happy (and almost expect) to jump through ONE hoop to cancel , it is only when they are asked to repeatedly jump through a number of hoops in vane that it becomes a problem IMO

[getti]

still no email from vodafone :mad:

[solo12002]

Now Im confused, not hard I know.

But if you work for T-Mobile and T-Mobile is so wonderful a network etc, why did you sign up to vodafone in the first place, why would you want to take out another two sims with them and why didnt you just go for sim only deal with T-Mobile or are they not so good after all?

[getti]

signal at home.

i live in a big dip (torquay is made up of many hills) and only 3 and Vodafone get full signal here.

T-Mobile, O2 and Orange are good outside but indoors it would be 3 or Vodafone.

Parents are on Voda PAYG spending about £20 a month on topups so would have made sense as they get signal here too.

If T-Mobile had better signal at home i would never look at any other networks its just a shame where i live

[solo12002]

Getti

Have you tried ASDA mobile they piggy back onto vodafone network, calls are 8p text are 4, not much on offer on the network ie internet on handset, but if its basic calls etc?

[getti]

would be my main phone so i need to get the best of everything if possible,

Voda offer the best coverage here
Voda family is also good plus Passport as im going to Finland in May

T-Mobile is better for Customer Service and price
T-Mobile is better for internet allowance

[Hands0n]

I've never been able to fault Vodafone customer services, they've always been good and effective. The tariffs and charges are never the cheapest in the land, but there is a quality about their product that eludes others.

That said, there is always room for improvement.

[getti]

i think the reputation of the brand is why i have stuck around. Being such a large company with a lot of backing and in the days i could not get a contract in my eyes Vodafone were always a 'premium' brand

[Ben]

Indeed, their brand serves them well. It's going to make the transition to dumb pipe even more difficult to bare :)

[miffed]

but there is a quality about their product that eludes others.



Can you elaborate ?

[Hands0n]

Can you elaborate ?

:) Of course I can :D

I find from personal experience that their network coverage is much more ubiquitous and available across the UK. Their foreign travel support (i.e. Passport) was good in its day, although EU legislation is eroding the value of that proposition, they did lead where others didn't or couldn't follow. Vodafone Family is a superb product where it is exploited. Their CS, again for me, has been bang on - achieving everything I've ever needed them to. I also like that they will unlock FOC any contract handset while it is in contract, regardless of how long for (and even afterwards - I had my SE W900i unlocked FOC after more than 2 years sitting in its box having been replaced by a N95 previously. Even data, my biggest grip with Vodafone, is on a par with their £15/3GB product to match the competition. Their other legacy mobile data offerings are pathetic, it must be said. One can only hope that they level out their mobile data product line and become more competitive.

I fully accept that these are my own personal experiences of Vodafone and that you and Getti have had atrocious experience to counter mine. I cannot possibly imagine why there would be such a stark contrast between the experiences. It should not be down to luck, clearly Vodafone are doing something quite wrong. But it eludes me what it could be.

[miffed]

Yeah , I suppose there are some points there .

A bit like Three , people knock them , but the store in Canterbury is in just the right place for me to skulk about in while the wife is in Clinton cards / Ann Summers .

[getti]

The problems I had can be described easily. The 3G coverage is really good, Passport is really good, the handsets are good, also unlocked now and the shops look good.

Their problem from my view is 191 i.e Customer Service or the lack of. I had to wait 2 months for a £325 on an upgrade i was charged for on my bill. Any other network would credit it over the phone end of, but this took over 20 phone calls by me, over 3 team leaders and 2 months for a simple credit which they acknowledged was their mistake so why the long timescale?

Because of the time it took i had to cancel my direct debit as i did not want to pay a near £400 phone bill just before christmas when it had already taken 2 weeks of calls to try and get it sorted so this then had an impact on not only my credit with Vodafone but my credit full stop as it was a late payment.

When I do get through to someone they end up having to transfer me around or make something up without looking like the lady who when i got through and said T-Mobile will give me 5 lines, what can i have on Voda, without her even looking said I can have 5 but when i speak to someone else i have to pay another bill.

To sum it up its a lack of internal communications between employees and company about policies and how to do simple things. Over on their EForum there are lots of people who have asked the same question if you are out of your 12/18/24 month contract can you change to Sim Only and most of the time they get told NO you have to cancel and take as a new contract but that in fact is not true you can do a price plan change to a Sim Only.

If you get someone who wants to transfer you they normally say its a sim only upgrade and then add in its for 12 months with a discount and no phone no not a true 30 day sim only contract your locked in for 12 months still but it counts as an upgrade for them where as a price plan change does not.

And another thing with Vodafone and this is only for some people is the 500mb data allowance. WTF is up with that?. Now i know 500mb is enough for most people but they so not allow the high data users anything more even for a cost.

Why not make 500mb £5 still and then say 3GB for £12.50 as a monthly add-on?. Would mean customers who want basic internet can have the 500mb pack and those who want to use as a modem at times, and use heavy data applications (i am in this group) can have more and pay more?.

But my main reason for leaving is just poor CS and lack of communications from a mobile phone company with such a big reputation.

I have finally got my email stating my contract will end on the 21st April thankfully.

[getti]

Well what can i say, im still with Vodafone and now have 2 lines with them LOL!!.

The new small business data packare was too good to miss and im now looking at upgrading my sim only to get the HTC Magic on launch :confused::confused::confused:

[miffed]

:confused: indeed !

Still , nice to see you've found your new 3 ! I or one am looking forward to the angry posts :D

[Hands0n]

Well what can i say, im still with Vodafone and now have 2 lines

There is a distinct Groundhog Day whiff about this :p

Personally, I can't see any problem with Vodafone aside from some of their tariffs not being particularly competitive. But they have a very strong 3G network across the country. So I would be prepared to pay the little extra just to be able to use 3G without the apprehension that I constantly face with using O2.