Vodafone professionalism - or lack thereof

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

ageorge

626 posts

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#280030 23-Nov-2020 11:01

Greetings thought I'd share a user experience.

Went to Vodafone website to check out prices and the menu system is really bad; not intuitive at all eg go to https://www.vodafone.co.nz/broadband/ there is no place to get a quote for your location till you figure out to click the 'Bring your existing modem, or use one of ours' box then at the bottom of that page is almost hidden [Buy Broadband]

Due to those vagaries, Sunday morning around 9:15am opened a chat session with VF. Asked for a new vdsl connection monthly quote, and was told it would be around $85/month mark for 12 month term.

I advised I brought my own modem. The price was then reduced to $69/month no fixed term which sounded great to me.

Then I advised it was a new house and asked what VF connection fees from Chorus would be. Was advised it was free. I reminded the chap it was a new connection and that Chorus would have connection fees, would he please double check and advise the connection fees.

Several minutes later I got this 'since you are bringing your own modem, you have to place the connection order with Chorus yourself'

I said that this was incorrect, that the ISP always liased with Chorus, its not up to customer. Would he please email me a quote for install fees and confirm the no contract VDSL amount, and email me a transcript of the chat session; my email was provided.

You can guess that VF have not followed up on those requests.

Hope others get better experience than this.

Al.

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#2608968 23-Nov-2020 11:05

Maybe you were chatting to a bot that was just practicing it's machine learning. If humans got Vodafone in this customer service predicament I will hate to see what AI/ML creates.

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timmmay

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#2608972 23-Nov-2020 11:19

Probably best use a more professional ISP for this.

Linux

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#2608974 23-Nov-2020 11:20

Does the house have copper in place or not?

ageorge

626 posts

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#2608983 23-Nov-2020 11:37

Linux:

Does the house have copper in place or not?

Being a new build, its got the ETP but probably needs to be hooked up to the street box (naked vdsl) can get quite expensive.

Linux

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#2609010 23-Nov-2020 12:31

You were chatting to a bot now best to call them and go over what is required and hope the hardware has a spare port for your connection

ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2609013 23-Nov-2020 12:35

Linux:

You were chatting to a bot now best to call them and go over what is required and hope the hardware has a spare port for your connection

I definitely was not chatting to a bot; a bot would have been more professional.

Linux

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#2609016 23-Nov-2020 12:37

Well then call them anyway!

Tradepub

Free professional, reference and technical white papers (affiliate link).

ageorge

626 posts

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#2609086 23-Nov-2020 13:36

Linux: Well then call them anyway!

This has been the weirdest and most dishonorable conversation I have ever had with any ISP operator.

12:45 called VF spoke to Ravi who said that they could offer no fixed term, unlimited, vdsl $68.99/month with connection fees of about $250 being waived.

I asked Ravi to assure me that the connection fee was waived and he did so.

I agreed on the spot to sign up, and we went through about 15 minutes of drivers license, delivery address and other account specific questions which Ravi was very polite and I was impressed.

At the end of this I reminded him that I would need to see the connection disclaimer in the contract, and thanked him for his great service.

Then the trouble started. I received his contract email (still on phone with him).

The contract stated no fixed term, but a discount of $20/month applied for a year. When I asked him about the discount, and if, though unlikely I terminated the agreement, would I have to repay the $20/month discount for the months I had been connected. He started to dance around and acted like I was a fool to ask such a question.

To clarify, I said Ravi all I need to know is if I close my account in 1 or 2 months will I have to replay the $20/month. He hesitated, then told me he will cancel the agreement and I should book online.

Then I said well I still am unclear as to the $20/month, but if you are going to provide it without any connection fees, I will continue thanks.

But I said, I cant see any disclaimer of connection fees in this agreement which is what you promised?

He said that clearly, we cant continue this agreement because you dont understand it properly; which I replied saying I understand that there is a discount but you must provide a confirmation about connection and at that stage he started getting very agitated and clearly we were getting nowhere.

A total waste of time, but it compounds the problem I had the day previous. This is a company IMHO that has total lack of professionalism, or integrity in that they will lie to a prospect to get them to sign up to a contract that differs from what the customer had clearly specified.

Fortunately, picked up on these things but someone not so street wise could easily be fooled by this gentleman Ravi, or for that case, any of Vodafones operators as there is another thread here where their support staff behaved terribly as well.

Take care!

quickymart

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#2609126 23-Nov-2020 14:32

So who are you getting your connection through now?

ageorge

626 posts

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#2609158 23-Nov-2020 15:17

Well probably none, I dont want to spend $250 on the connection its more economic to stay on Skinny 4g.

Ive asked Voyager and Econofibre but they say its likely the new connection fee will apply.

Thanks,

Al.

Linux

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#2609163 23-Nov-2020 15:24

ageorge:

Well probably none, I dont want to spend $250 on the connection its more economic to stay on Skinny 4g.

Ive asked Voyager and Econofibre but they say its likely the new connection fee will apply.

Thanks,

Al.

I am sure Chorus charge the fee and this is passed onto the customer, $250 is cheap! Mind you I am not surprised at all with your repsonse!

ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2609167 23-Nov-2020 15:32

Linux:

Mind you I am not surprised at all with your repsonse!

Ive been with Vodafone about 15 years ago, and they severely mucked up some billing which ended up with TDR. Their lack of professionalism seems to remain consistent over the years.

Anyway, I just spoke to Chorus, and they confirm I can put an order through and the ISP can confirm any fees prior to the job going ahead, so will give that a shot with an honest ISP.

gregmcc

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#2609278 23-Nov-2020 16:38

I played the "Please email me quote etc" with VF but got nothing, it seems that they wont commit to anything in writing.

My advice, walk away, I did about 18 months ago, the best move ever as I was sick of the non existent customer service.

ageorge

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2609283 23-Nov-2020 16:47

Well I went back to Voyager, and got an excellent dialogue with a Canadian 'Pete' who confirmed the order would be tentative to chorus quote, and my approval.

Voyager is a little more expensive, but they are no contract and have an excellent reputation.

Here is reviews for Vodafone - I have never seen worse!

michaelmurfy

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#2609290 23-Nov-2020 17:10

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. You’ve complained many times over the years about Vodafone so I can’t fathom why you would attempt to go with them again especially trying to go with the cheapest option. If internet is important and you care about service then stick with a provider who offers these things. It isn’t worth the couple of dollars saved per month for the time spent complaining.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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