Horrendous Vodafone Customer service

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23 posts

Geek

#2474894 1-May-2020 16:34

As you can see from the post above, Vodafone's customer support is beyond superb. Their account notes are full of roses and glitters.

The Award for Best Customer Service should definitely be Vodafone's.

I'm at a loss for words.

MadEngineer

4291 posts

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#2474948 1-May-2020 19:13

My sympathy and reading stopped at "your Indians".

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

networkn

Networkn
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#2474951 1-May-2020 19:21

MadEngineer:
My sympathy and reading stopped at "your Indians".

So much this.

snnet

1410 posts

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#2474960 1-May-2020 19:33

Should never assume any provider has cancelled the billing of your service. You are still obliged to notify them and ensure the service is cancelled - should have done this when you were switched over to Spark. Often there are also cancellation notice periods, so you might have to pay the bill. Of course, if someone is feeling nice from Vodafone you might get what you want.

RunningMan

8956 posts

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#2474965 1-May-2020 19:54

pipja:
K: Have you raised request from cancellation from your side regarding service cancellation?
Me: no, I would assume that when Chorus switch over service from Vodafone to Spark

That's the problem right there. Don't assume that the LSP knows exactly what you want.

snnet

1410 posts

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#2474966 1-May-2020 19:57

RunningMan:

pipja:
K: Have you raised request from cancellation from your side regarding service cancellation?
Me: no, I would assume that when Chorus switch over service from Vodafone to Spark

That's the problem right there. Don't assume that the LSP knows exactly what you want.

Exactly, there are complex requests so an ISP won't be willing to do too much that isn't automated without you, the bill payer, contacting them first

See this guide: http://pages.bigpipe.co.nz/how-to-switch-isps-without-ruining-everything/

RunningMan

8956 posts

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#2474971 1-May-2020 20:06

pipja: Their account notes are full of roses and glitters.

The account notes may well be inaccurate or just plain wrong, and having dealt with similar situations know exactly how frustrating that can be. However accusing someone who is communicating with you in English of not understanding English, combined with using a condescending tone is unlikely to get the result you're looking for. Even if it feels like you've gone through it 10 times already, it's better just to stick to the facts and clearly state what your expectation for resolution is.

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pipja

23 posts

Geek

#2475005 1-May-2020 20:50

MadEngineer:

My sympathy and reading stopped at "your Indians".

Yeah I guess after so many long phone calls of utter frustrations I lost my composure. That was uncalled for.

RunningMan:

The account notes may well be inaccurate or just plain wrong, and having dealt with similar situations know exactly how frustrating that can be. However accusing someone who is communicating with you in English of not understanding English, combined with using a condescending tone is unlikely to get the result you're looking for. Even if it feels like you've gone through it 10 times already, it's better just to stick to the facts and clearly state what your expectation for resolution is.

To think of the fact that I have moved address, they have hooked me up at my current address and provided service at the current address for almost a year, yet their files still contain the old address and not get updated is baffling to me. A lot of these account notes are utterly wrong because they did not keep their records up-to-date and accurate, or simply having too many disjointed systems that did not get updated properly. Not trying to make excuses here, but the last 7 or 8 months after I moved, having to deal with their overseas call centers, non-stop repeating of the same message, month-in, month-out and nothing gets done. I couldn't contain the frustration today. Lesson learned I guess.

SteveC

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#2475034 1-May-2020 22:48

I agree that it's unfortunate and uncalled for to loose composure to that extent, however the fact remains that the CSR had still not worked out that the service was being cancelled. While there were faults on both sides, in the end, the customer service still counts as 'horrendous'.
Was following up a query for my sister - I see in this year's Consumer Mobile & internet provider satisfaction survey Spark have moved well up. 2degrees were near the top once, now lower than Spark. Vodafone have last place almost to themselves (Trust Power are about equal, but only about 20% of respondent numbers). Spark used to compete for last place.
For the curious, my sister asked and I suggested she was best to stay with Vodafone. A few years ago they stopped charging her for landline with 'free' national calling, she has a grandparented plan that's about $10 per month less than the published rate (= $30 or so 'saving'). On top of that, the product works fine for her. Our product has been excellent too. It's just such a shame that @JasonParis has not yet been able to find a solution for customer service.

RunningMan

8956 posts

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#2475069 2-May-2020 08:01

SteveC: the fact remains that the CSR had still not worked out that the service was being cancelled.

In this particular case though, the CSR was dealing with conflicting information, stayed neutral and tried to resolve the obviously conflicting information in front of them. They have a customer saying that a product should have been cancelled without having actually requesting it on one hand and case notes that say a new service was ordered on the other. That's two very different stories and all they are doing is asking reasonable questions of the customer to try and establish which is accurate.

Ultimately there is no way it is reasonable to expect a CSR to magically work out you want something cancelled if they haven't been told. I'm not saying that the customer in this case hasn't had a long and frustrating ride, nor that they hadn't requested cancellation in a previous call (although from the comments in the chat it appears they assumed Vodafone would cancel and didn't actually tell them). There's huge numbers of people reporting negative experiences with Vodafone customer service at the moment, but this particular example seems to show a CSR who is actually trying to resolve a conflicting issue while being berated by a frustrated customer. There's clearly been a mixup with the ordering of a new service at some stage, I got confused trying to work out what had been ordered when.

Despite the frustration from the customer point of view, Vodafone say they have got new call centre staff working and are trying to sort out the problems and that's how this chat reads to me. A CSR that's actually trying to sort out the 2 very different stories. Customer asked whether they should pay the bill or go to the TDR. In this particular case, if they haven't actually told Vodafone they want to cancel, and if their contract says they have to give a certain amount of notice (which they've only just given), who will the TDR back?

It would be nice if Vodafone came to the party with a resolution for this customer, but while Vodafone have clearly been at fault in a number of case reported here, I'm not sure this is one of them.

pipja

23 posts

Geek

#2475350 2-May-2020 13:55

RunningMan:

It would be nice if Vodafone came to the party with a resolution for this customer, but while Vodafone have clearly been at fault in a number of case reported here, I'm not sure this is one of them.

While I do agree that I should give them notice of cancellation right after switching to Spark (early days of lvl 4 lockdown), the fact that they said I have a new contract with them until 2021 is inconceivable... on My Vodafone it says the contract is already expired and there is no new contract in place. Whom should I trust? My Vodafone or a CSR quoting conflicting (and outright inaccurate) account notes (and god knows what other conflicting systems)?

RunningMan

8956 posts

Uber Geek

#2475354 2-May-2020 14:13

It's reasonable to trust My Vodafone if it tells you the contract period has ended, and that corresponds with what you agreed to. The new contract period would seem to stem from the confusion over whether a new service was ever ordered. Perhaps @JasonParis could put you on to the right person to get this resolved. Unfortunately I think you might have to wear the charges from not cancelling the old service when you moved providers.

SteveC

448 posts

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#2475355 2-May-2020 14:14

I have made progress today! After 70-odd lines of chat over about 90 minutes (I was doing other things while waiting for the CSR to get back to me each time), short answer is that to create a 'CustomerZone' password (which has nothing to do with a 'My Vodafone' password) you need to ask the CSR to do it for you.
She eventually created the necessary password, and it worked the same way my one worked for me about 15 years ago when TelstraClear (or was it Saturn?) created the site. Was a good interface back then, but the rest of the world has moved on. Interestingly, I think a Java error message I got at one point actually had Sun Microsystems branding! Them were the days!
Something else to note about Vodafone Live Chat - it doesn't seem to be sending out emails of the chat transcripts. CSR thought it should, and I think I can remember getting them in the distant past, but can't find any evidence to support that. There is a 'print' function that generates a nice PDF.

So, my sister uses about 40 gigs of data each month, and likes making long phone calls to wired phones. I'll have a chat with the Customer Retention Team on Monday (if the call back works), In the meantime, it looks to me like https://www.skinny.co.nz/jump/home.html + 2 Degrees "$12 Add-on Unlimited* Calls to NZ landlines" would seem like the answer for $22 per month.

Thoughts? :-)

bandicoutts

17 posts

Geek

Trusted

#2475400 2-May-2020 16:37

SteveC: I have made progress today! After 70-odd lines of chat over about 90 minutes (I was doing other things while waiting for the CSR to get back to me each time), short answer is that to create a 'CustomerZone' password (which has nothing to do with a 'My Vodafone' password) you need to ask the CSR to do it for you.
She eventually created the necessary password, and it worked the same way my one worked for me about 15 years ago when TelstraClear (or was it Saturn?) created the site. Was a good interface back then, but the rest of the world has moved on. Interestingly, I think a Java error message I got at one point actually had Sun Microsystems branding! Them were the days!
Something else to note about Vodafone Live Chat - it doesn't seem to be sending out emails of the chat transcripts. CSR thought it should, and I think I can remember getting them in the distant past, but can't find any evidence to support that. There is a 'print' function that generates a nice PDF.

So, my sister uses about 40 gigs of data each month, and likes making long phone calls to wired phones. I'll have a chat with the Customer Retention Team on Monday (if the call back works), In the meantime, it looks to me like https://www.skinny.co.nz/jump/home.html + 2 Degrees "$12 Add-on Unlimited* Calls to NZ landlines" would seem like the answer for $22 per month.

Thoughts? :-)

With Jump, most pick up points for the modem/router are closed until Level 2, and you'll also need to make sure your sister is eligible. Jump partners can give you a better idea if you're eligible but they have some info on the Jump page here:

https://www.skinny.co.nz/jump/about/

SteveC

448 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#2475492 2-May-2020 17:40

bandicoutts: With Jump, most pick up points for the modem/router are closed until Level 2, and you'll also need to make sure your sister is eligible. Jump partners can give you a better idea if you're eligible but they have some info on the Jump page here:

https://www.skinny.co.nz/jump/about/

a:) A family member got one in Opunake about three weeks ago. Other family are on a farm 6km away, but not allowed to visit, and she has been without Internet for several years. I guess it pays to ask.
b) After posting my last entry, I did some more research. Seems that Spark (and subsequently Skinny) don't offer Wireless Broadband at all in Christchurch where my sister lives.
Yes - @bandicoutts, does pay to check!
Returning to the theme of this thread, I tried to see if Vodafone Wireless (aka https://www.vodafone.co.nz/goldnet) is available in Christchurch. Only advice on the website is the phone them, so I went to Live Chat. They won't tell me without going through a 3rd degree. Will check when the Customer Retention Team ring on Monday!

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