Vodafone professionalism - or lack thereof

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Vodafone professionalism - or lack thereof

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626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2609292 23-Nov-2020 17:27

michaelmurfy: It isn’t worth the couple of dollars saved per month for the time spent complaining.

Disagree. If we kept quiet about issues, then others would get sucked in.

Geekzone is a great place for like minded folks to air their experiences with different companies and have a dialog, which can be a great help to others.

I am all for giving a company a fair go, hence my revisit to Vodafone.
Sometimes companies get better, if they were worse to start off with.

Someone gave similar advice to me earlier about Econofibre being cheap and nasty, but Ive good things to say about them.

This thread is about Vodafone, and I would have given them a great report if they had been honest with that deal, but they managed to remind me what they once were like, hasn't improved.

quickymart

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#2609307 23-Nov-2020 18:18

It's one thing to voice issues with a company, but if the company isn't going to change or improve, there's not much point revisiting them.

Slightly off topic but Expert Infotech (a dodgy computer company on the North Shore) had the cheapest prices on something, but in the end screwed me over a few years ago and ended up costing me a fair amount of money - more than I would have saved - even though they were clearly in the wrong.

Do you think I'd go back there again? Not in a million years. Once bitten, twice shy with me.

alasta

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#2609318 23-Nov-2020 18:44

michaelmurfy:

Vodafone are a huge company - they’re not just based here in NZ so the Trustpilot page you’re seeing is for Vodafone globally. People post to those pages when they’ve got a complaint and rarely when they want to say something nice.

But to the point I made ages ago not just to you in the Ecnofibre thread, but to everyone else is only go with the cheapest option for internet if you don’t care about support or the speed or stability of your internet.

Out of interest, who would you recommend for those who are willing and able to pay a modest premium for decent customer support? I am with Vodafone currently but I don't trust them not to screw up a house move, so I was thinking of setting up my new place with 2degrees.

ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2609326 23-Nov-2020 19:04

alasta:

Out of interest, who would you recommend for those who are willing and able to pay a modest premium for decent customer support? I am with Vodafone currently but I don't trust them not to screw up a house move, so I was thinking of setting up my new place with 2degrees.

I found Slingshot quite good, excellent support, but their speed was slightly less than Econofibre (100/20). You only get email support with the latter though, and no support over weekends.

However, in saying that, there has been no need for support over last 4 months.

chevrolux

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#2609402 23-Nov-2020 19:35

My opinion is any Geekzone user shouldn't be with VF. Fullstop.

There are so many threads about VF's lack of ability, it just makes zero sense to continue to support VF. Anyone who does gets what they get and doesn't get to complain at this point. If general consumers followed that same advice, VF would very quickly have to sort their act out - just making new names for "special" support teams won't cut it when customers are leaving in droves.

There are good options for RSPs in NZ pick one....
- Voyager
- 2degrees
- Spark (and its off-brand's)
...and not at all in the order just to be fair.

snnet

1410 posts

Uber Geek

#2609403 23-Nov-2020 19:48

I ran the copper down my parents new 1km driveway to the street for Chorus to connect. Spark charged a $50 connection fee but decided to wipe it as they were lifetime customers and placed on a 12 month contract (which was nothing to them because they wouldn't move anyway)

Edit: Recent new install - they built a new house on a new block of land

antoniosk

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#2609406 23-Nov-2020 20:08

It is disappointing that despite promises and the presence of the CEO on this board, basic good customer service continues to appear to elude Vodafone. Yes systems are complex but one would like to believe that after all this time, even under COVID, provisioning improvements could have been achieved.

every now and then - about once a year - my hfc modem stops working. All that is required to get it going is a soft reset originating from VF side... but because HFC is a mature technology no longer actively developed or loved by VF, even getting that done is a mission. I narrowly avoided an expensive truck roll that was scheduled 5 days away after I sternly told the rep what to do, which to his credit he did. $1000 and a lot of annoyance on my part avoided for VF.

But, as Michael said before, geekzone only sees the cases where customers are frustrated and annoyed. Happy customers don’t complain and don’t praise, because there is no problem needing solving. I imagine my eventual move to fibre will be very simple because it’s an easy install combined with new business for an isp. Simple simple simple.

once upon a time, this board was chock full of complaint about Telecom Xtra, and smaller ISPs not able to provide service because of failures on the Telecom Wholesale side for providing wbs, wba, uba and other such broadbAnd circuits.

It’s good the OP feels they getting better service from Voyager, and if they find an isp willing to suck the cost of installation and not pass it on, so much better for them.

________

Antoniosk

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quickymart

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#2609466 23-Nov-2020 21:10

Try not to be like this guy too:

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=85&topicid=239523#2064727

ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2609939 24-Nov-2020 18:50

Coincidence that VF managed to make the TV1 news tonight for mucking up Playstation orders.

Its hard to believe that back in the day, there was only Telecom and Vodafone as the big players in NZ.

How to kill a business, someone should write a book about it.

quickymart

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#2609955 24-Nov-2020 19:13

I thought that was a few weeks ago?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123393819/unhappy-vodafone-customers-charged-multiple-times-for-ps5-consoles

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123429361/some-vodafone-customers-still-waiting-for-playstation-resolution

I imagine trying to speak to their call centre about it would have been an absolute waste of time too.

ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2609957 24-Nov-2020 19:18

quickymart:

I thought that was a few weeks ago?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123393819/unhappy-vodafone-customers-charged-multiple-times-for-ps5-consoles

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123429361/some-vodafone-customers-still-waiting-for-playstation-resolution

Oh, crikey, that makes it even worse.

The issue tonight was the 'waiting for playstations' where customers had placed orders and they were not aware there was no stock.

The damage control lady said that at all stages customers were aware that the order was a pre-order.

froob

691 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2614235 1-Dec-2020 17:18

chevrolux: My opinion is any Geekzone user shouldn't be with VF. Fullstop.

Thought I would just drop in to say that the post from chevrolux above finally motivated me (as a user of Geekzone) to move from Vodafone.

As others have said, the problem isn't with the services they provide, which have actually been really solid for the 8 or so years we've been with them. The difficulty is, whenever you have to deal with their customer services, it's more often than not an exercise in frustration.

The main problem I've had is, to get a price in line with the market, you need to sign up for a new fixed term every 12 months. Invariably, something will go wrong during that process, requiring time and energy to sort it out.

This latest round, I spent what felt like about half an hour on the online chat receiving (quite difficult) security questions, to be told that they couldn't deal with me online. I then spoke to a sales person on the phone, who spoke so fast I struggled to understand them, and offered me a higher price than the already quite steep price I was paying. Strangely enough, I declined that offer.

After getting a new provider up and running, I asked Vodafone to close my accounts through their online complaints form, since I wasn't able to find any support email address that was still working. That all seemed to go well, and I dropped off my router and Vodafone TV into one of their stores today (as well as picking up a new Gen 2 VTV box). All going well, or so I thought...

Now I've just received an email from them saying they've couriered me a new "Vodafone TV, Modem"...

I'm not sure what part of the process could have triggered them to send me a replacement for the gear that I've literally just returned, when I'm no longer a customer. All that to say, they really need to do some work on their back end customer support. With good customer support processes, they would actually be a really solid ISP.

Guide: Installing Network Cabling in New Zealand Homes

ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2614240 1-Dec-2020 17:35

They could learn a thing or two from their reseller of Vodafone 4g services WirelessNation who have excellent customer support.

quickymart

13785 posts

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#2615121 2-Dec-2020 21:40

"Hey Vodafone, here's your equipment, I'm disconnecting my services from you".

Vodafone: "no worries, we'll send you a replacement modem to replace the one you just dropped off".

froob

691 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2615837 3-Dec-2020 18:21

Fortunately, it wasn't a new Vodafone TV or modem as per their email. It was actually a courier bag for returning a faulty Vodafone TV to them, in order to get a replacement. Phew!

I'm guessing that someone ticked a wrong box, and maybe it was actually meant to be a bag to return the Vodafone TV in?

Today they sent me an email with the subject "Tell us what we could do better". So many things...

Guide: Installing Network Cabling in New Zealand Homes

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