Hands0n
10th July 2011, 11:27 PM
You may have read previously that I intended to cancel an old Vodafone contract that had come to term and was no longer required (see: http://bit.ly/poDx7W ). And that has now been done.
The contract was the original that I had opened up when returning back to Vodafone quite a few years ago, possibly as many as five, maybe more. Since then I have opened up a number of other contracts for mobile phones and a broadband dongle. Also, over the years I have ceased and added Vodafone services, all of which have appeared within the My Vodafone web pages under a single view of all my business with the firm. From that single view I have been able to see all of the on-line billing, and good it has been. Until now, that is.
Since my Vodafone contract number has ceased I have not been able to access the all-essential billing information in the My Vodafone pages. They are all, very apparently, linked to that contract mobile number, and now that it does not exist the information is no longer accessible to me.
You would imagine that this would be a straightforward and common problem for Vodafone to solve. If so, then you would be thinking along similar lines as myself. But the truth apparent is some distance away from the imaginings of mere mortals. Thus far, Vodafone have not been able to resolve the access problem and I am technically blind to the billing that Vodafone is raising on my account.
Now, I am reasonably certain that Vodafone are in regulatory hot water with this specific aspect. They have a legal obligation to present their billing to me in sufficient time before taking money from my bank account by Direct Debit. But, of course, if I cannot access these on-line bills via My Vodafone then they are failing in that legal obligation of theirs.
Somewhat fortunately, I have been able to get a copy of the bill emailed to me [today] by their web relations team by way of a conversation on Twitter. But the underlying problem is not resolved, the issue persists, I still cannot access bills via My Vodafone.
None of the above is to suggest that Vodafone have not been trying. Their web relations team responded quickly to my plight. They got in touch with the team that should be able to fix this, who in turn asked for screen shots, which I provided. Since then there has been radio silence, a fair indication that whichever team it is that can fix this has not been able to do so.
But that is clearly unacceptable, and places Vodafone at some regulatory risk also.
So what is the problem that make it so difficult to perform a corrective action on their systems? Surely they cannot have imagined that customers would not cease churn services away from them, leaving residual services behind that will continue to require access? That would be a major flaw in their application analysis and design.
I am going to give Vodafone another week to resolve this issue for me, it has already been a couple, and has impacted my billing period. If they cannot then I will have to seriously consider my position with Vodafone as a provider of services.
Clearly, I cannot persist in the use of Vodafone for the remaining three contracts if I cannot see the bills before they levy charges.
The contract was the original that I had opened up when returning back to Vodafone quite a few years ago, possibly as many as five, maybe more. Since then I have opened up a number of other contracts for mobile phones and a broadband dongle. Also, over the years I have ceased and added Vodafone services, all of which have appeared within the My Vodafone web pages under a single view of all my business with the firm. From that single view I have been able to see all of the on-line billing, and good it has been. Until now, that is.
Since my Vodafone contract number has ceased I have not been able to access the all-essential billing information in the My Vodafone pages. They are all, very apparently, linked to that contract mobile number, and now that it does not exist the information is no longer accessible to me.
You would imagine that this would be a straightforward and common problem for Vodafone to solve. If so, then you would be thinking along similar lines as myself. But the truth apparent is some distance away from the imaginings of mere mortals. Thus far, Vodafone have not been able to resolve the access problem and I am technically blind to the billing that Vodafone is raising on my account.
Now, I am reasonably certain that Vodafone are in regulatory hot water with this specific aspect. They have a legal obligation to present their billing to me in sufficient time before taking money from my bank account by Direct Debit. But, of course, if I cannot access these on-line bills via My Vodafone then they are failing in that legal obligation of theirs.
Somewhat fortunately, I have been able to get a copy of the bill emailed to me [today] by their web relations team by way of a conversation on Twitter. But the underlying problem is not resolved, the issue persists, I still cannot access bills via My Vodafone.
None of the above is to suggest that Vodafone have not been trying. Their web relations team responded quickly to my plight. They got in touch with the team that should be able to fix this, who in turn asked for screen shots, which I provided. Since then there has been radio silence, a fair indication that whichever team it is that can fix this has not been able to do so.
But that is clearly unacceptable, and places Vodafone at some regulatory risk also.
So what is the problem that make it so difficult to perform a corrective action on their systems? Surely they cannot have imagined that customers would not cease churn services away from them, leaving residual services behind that will continue to require access? That would be a major flaw in their application analysis and design.
I am going to give Vodafone another week to resolve this issue for me, it has already been a couple, and has impacted my billing period. If they cannot then I will have to seriously consider my position with Vodafone as a provider of services.
Clearly, I cannot persist in the use of Vodafone for the remaining three contracts if I cannot see the bills before they levy charges.