Vodafone customer services- are they always this awful?

Vodafone customer services- are they always this awful?

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eltax91

Original Poster:

9,842 posts

205 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
quotequote all
his guys

a bit of a long story but I will try sum it up briefly if I can:-

  • started a phone contract around 18 months ago
  • back in July, applied insurance to the contract (switched banks, no longer had cover)
  • had to go in the shop to "prove" I had an iPhone and that it was undamaged
  • shop confirms to me verbally that insurance now added to contract
  • I receive no more communication from Vodafone
Fast forward to today and I drop my phone, No problem think I, it's insured. I call up to discover that Vodafone has not applied the insurance to my plan. I had not noticed the £10 a month missing since my bill averages between £150 and £250 a month. Been through 5 different customer service people today, each time the case gets complicated they "lose" the call, or promise a call back which never happens.

I have been to an escalation person who also said they would not cover s replacement phone or a repair. They offered me a special early upgrade to an iPhone 6s, for a measly £3 a on the on my contract and ONLY £474 up front! hehe

I am waiting for the next level of escalation which takes TWO DAYS. Meanwhile I can barely see my phone. Can receive calls, but cant make any or send texts.

Where do I stand here? In my eyes it's their mistake and they should rectify it. In their eyes I don't have insurance and although they admit they made the mistake there is, apparently nothing they can do to help me.

So, where does that leave me? Moaning on their twitter has failed, I doubt i'll get a Call back, they've failed to deliver on that promise already.

Anyone here work for them or know how I can get some common sense out of them. I have a contract till June 16 and it's a guaranteed £150+ a month for them, but yet they don't seem to care or want to help a high value customer. frown

CYMR0

3,940 posts

199 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
quotequote all
Get screen replaced by a man in a market for £55, or a secondhand iPhone for £150. (You've saved four month's premiums, or £40, already).

Reduce your contract level with Voda to the minimum possible commitment, then tell them to sling their hook.

Get yourself a GiffGaff unlimited minutes, text and data 4G SIM for £20 a month.

Wait four months and get yourself an unlocked/PAYG iPhone 6s with the monthly savings.

Wait six more months and lease a Peugeot 208 GTi with the monthly savings.

mcflurry

9,079 posts

252 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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6 months insurance premiums, plus the usual excess will probably cover a decent chunk of an apple store fixed price fix smile

boxst

3,699 posts

144 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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mcflurry said:
6 months insurance premiums, plus the usual excess will probably cover a decent chunk of an apple store fixed price fix smile
This. If it is purely a broken screen and an iPhone 6, it costs £87.

eltax91

Original Poster:

9,842 posts

205 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
quotequote all
Thanks chaps

Good suggestion reference insurance. Actually, I do have reason for the insurance in this way, I expense my phone through work, work won't pay for any fixes, loss or damage etc, but they will pay for insurance.

If I pay the £55 to get it fixed then that's from my own pocket.

Work stipulate I use Vodafone and which contract I use. Which they commit to pay for regardless of whether I remain employed with them.

Does anyone think I will get anything out of Vodafone for my troubles?

Digitalize

2,850 posts

134 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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No hope in hell, absolutely awful company, how they were once market leader I have no idea.

Chrisgr31

13,440 posts

254 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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The answer the OP is seeking is yes, their customer service is truly dreadful.

In the middle of October I contacted them online to cancel two of the 5 lines I have with them (1 was for a mifi and the other an old data line). However in the course of the conversation I decided to get an Iphone 5s for my daughter for Christmas instead so that was one line and the other to be converted to a cap line to stop her going over the expenditure limit.

Was advised that the phone was out of stock but would arrive in 5 to 7 days. It didn't, contacted them online to and they said it would be deliver tomorrow. It wasnt. Called them and as per the OP spent a couple of hours on the phone getting passed pillar to post before being cut off. So decided to cancel. Wrote to them to cancel. got a text message back saying to call them. More hours spent on the phone getting passed pillar to post before being cut off.

Finally had enough and went in to a busy store and when a customer adviser come up asked very loudly how one could cancel as their customer service was awful. Was told I had to phone, said very loudly I had already spent 6 hours on the phone and how much time was I expected to spend on the phone? They repeated I needed to call, I repeated very loudly how poor their customer service was. They then realised everyone in the shop had stopped and was listening so had a change of tactic. To ive them their due they investigated what had happened called back and contacted head office to get it cancelled.

Head office called a few days later offered me £25 compensation and agreed to close the lines for the new phone.

My monthly bill was £165 and I still have 3 lines with them, and have been a customer for 20 years. My main phone comes up for renewal in January. I won't be renewing, trully dreadful customer service.

hairyben

8,516 posts

182 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
quotequote all
is there a cellphone provider who isn't dreadful? switched to vodafone because o2 were being useless a while ago, vodafone promptly felt they were charging me too much when I was 8000 miles away and decided they'd without warning cut me off for a few days. which is kind of annoying when it's a biz line.

meanwhile the mrs has the caaaaaaancil ee £10 month pretty much unlimited everything contract free, gets rock solid data when mine can't be bothered and gets inclusive foreign travel usage in most places worth going. Why would anyone have anything else?

jogger1976

1,251 posts

125 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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I had a Vodafone contract a few years ago.
Here's a list of some of the things they did that proves there a bunch of money grabbing, incompetent s!:

  • fked up my direct debit, then didn't apologise, even though I'd specifically told them to have it set up for my pay day. Because, you know, that's when I get fking paid and there's money in my account! ttspunch
  • Charged me for calls I hadn't even made
  • Tried to charge me for extras that I hadn't asked for
  • Their signal was fking awful for most of the time, but they pretty much told me I was making this up
  • Their website is the most incomprehensible, complicated and frustrating piece of st I have ever encountered
  • Call staff were rude, patronising and condescening on the phone

When I told them I didn't want to renew the guy I spoke to kept me on the phone for ages trying to convince me with this deal and that deal. He agreed to cancel, but I then received endless calls asked me to change my mind.

In the end, I had to threaten to escalate it to OFCOM if the calls didn't stop, as it felt like harassment.

Now I've heard our work phones are being transferred to them. fks sake! banghead

Edited by jogger1976 on Wednesday 25th November 22:18

Driver101

14,376 posts

120 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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Their customer service was why I left them. It was impossible to deal with them.

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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£2500 a year for a phone, fk..

grumpy52

5,565 posts

165 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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They are all crap .
Over the years I have been with 3 of the main providers and find next to no difference in customer service .
As for web sites ! Don't try to get any information around the billing point each month .

BGARK

5,493 posts

245 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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Who is the best alternative?

Digitalize

2,850 posts

134 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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I honestly now find Three the best for customer service.

parabolica

6,703 posts

183 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Can't help OP, but just to address the balance of the other posters on the thread, I've been with Vodafone since 1999 and never had a single issue with them or their service.

smileymikey

1,445 posts

225 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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We have three personal and one business phone with O2, I'm sure someone will come along with a horror story but over about six years our experience has been positive. Any technical issues we have had get sorted in a local O2 shop and if not they chase on our behalf instore.

eltax91

Original Poster:

9,842 posts

205 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
quotequote all
The Spruce goose said:
£2500 a year for a phone, fk..
Well, it's £57 a month for the phone, unlimited minutes and texts and 9GB of 4G data.

I travel a lot for work, and phone internationally quite a lot, so i spend minimum £80 a month on calls. Often much more, which runs my bill to £150-£250 a month. I've been with them 17 months and spent over £2k, but yet still i'm not valuable as a customer

Vixpy1

42,620 posts

263 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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You business or personal customer ? I have both and find the business customer service much better

SGirl

7,918 posts

260 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
quotequote all
I have a business account with them, and a second phone on the account attempted to catch fire while it was on charge a couple of months ago. I took it down to their shop, explained what'd happened and they said they'd arrange for it to be repaired for free. Come back in 3 weeks, it'll all be done. Lovely.

Went back three weeks later to be given a decidedly non-repaired phone back. They didn't cover that kind of damage, they said. What, the phone catching fire? That's right - they didn't cover it because it was physically damaged. Huh? So how do they define damage?? Just to be clear - it wasn't dropped, soaked or trodden upon. It caught fire while attached to a charger than they supplied.

So anyway. Why didn't they just phone me and ask if I'd authorise a chargeable repair? That wouldn't have been a problem, the repair was only about £60. Oh, they did phone me, apparently. On the number of the phone that they had in their workshop, and not on the main number registered to the account. Excellent. Very useful. The SIM for the dead phone was sitting on my desk, not inserted in a phone because I didn't have a spare.

So I bought a £50 cheapie from them there and then and told them I was looking forward to the end of all my contracts with them. Which is very soon now. smile The only trouble is, they all seem to be as bad as each other.

clonmult

10,529 posts

208 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Digitalize said:
I honestly now find Three the best for customer service.
I found Three to be far and away the worst of the providers.