Slack Vodafone business practises

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#1056917 30-May-2014 23:04

I offered to help but you did not take this up

loceff13

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#1056921 30-May-2014 23:40

TheAdmin:
This is more of an informational journey that perhaps any company could use as a training example for new staff on how to keep customers happy, perhaps added to sales training materials.

and also how some customers are just not willing to be helped further..

TheAdmin

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#1056922 31-May-2014 00:06

I wouldnt say writing ones experiences from real life in some little forum that poped up under google as not willing to be helped further, I wasnt asking for help from here but simple writing my experiences.
Having spoken to over 8 people at Vodafone (when I couldnt get ahold of the account manager directly), 3 sales people, 2 random people from 777, forwarding me to another sales person in some shop who couldnt help because we were a business plus a few more after getting forwarded between departments and pretty much being told by every single one that thats the process and no i couldnt get a replacement sent as it had to goto Samsung.
Either all of these people are lying to customers and another could be sent (even mentioned the fact that it was a DOA phone and was mentioned online that it should be directly replace straight away and could they courier one now) or not one single person seems to know what todo and just pass the buck.
So having someone pop up on a forum saying I can fix your problem straight away defeats the whole purpose of having an account manager in the first place, if I get better service from a random online forum what does that say to the 90% of customers who have to deal with Vodafone over a telephone and actually deal with people.
Perhaps Vodafone can teach their 777 service to tell people if they want proper service that it would be better to login into this geekzone site and receive what they need quicker as directly dealing face to face or over a phone might not get you what you need?

(All above said with a happy sarcastic tune with a clinking of beer glasses between drunken computer guys at the bar and not anger by the way, as its easy for people to get a little defensive when not know how something is being said in someones head)

Jaxson

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#1056924 31-May-2014 00:09

TheAdmin:
Within 4 days the touchscreen went crazy and the phone became unusable.

....

We all know root doesnt cause physical hardware fault

This reads a bit open ended. Rooting a phone and potentially uploading a non supported firmware could lead to instability of the touchscreen.
Just because an issue is with a physical component, doesn't mean the software is not to blame for the malfunction.

Not saying what you did or didn't do, but just pointing that out that physical faults tend to be things like pieces falling off, physical push buttons not working, charging sockets flexing around and becoming loose etc.

zocster

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#1056935 31-May-2014 06:50

We get a handful of these rants on our forums too, if you're offered help by a Vodafone person (and this person is known to have done miracles), and not taking it up, this is nothing but trolling ...

RunningMan

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#1056943 31-May-2014 08:22

TheAdmin: Yes I got the private messages but dont see the point of having another vodafone person try and solve the problem as thats what your account managers are paid todo in the first place as far as I know.

In which case this thread looks more and more like a soapbox instead of a request for help.

Might pay to re-read the FUG.

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mattbush

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#1056950 31-May-2014 09:02

Geekzone seems to be becoming the place of first call for issues with VF services. I know I have taken advantage in the past. When a company like VF try to be all things to all people they begin to fail, especially in their support practices. They are continually changing services, adding new services without double and triple checking what their websites say or if their support services can handle it all. Many times their websites seem to be updated at the last minute and is erroneous in its information or indeed impossible to locate the info one requires due to it being very cumbersome.

But watching these VF threads the last few weeks it is becoming clear something is a little wrong with the VF business. Maybe having a few skilled and loyal employees dedicated to these complaints on Geekzone is actually having a negative effect on the perception of the Company....who knows. Something needs to change with VF or its all going to turn out wrong.

Geektastic

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#1056958 31-May-2014 09:49

TheAdmin: Well.. received a new Galaxy S5 from Vodafone last week, couriered to the office after waiting for 2 weeks.
Within 4 days the touchscreen went crazy and the phone became unusable.
Phone the account manager to get a new phone sent ASAP, of course he says oh its a Samsung, we have to send those to Samsung to be evaluated, can YOU please courier the phone back to us.
(Whats the bet Samsung want to check for the Knox Void root crap? Anyone know if that will hold up with NZ consumer laws for faulty products under warranty? We all know root doesnt cause physical hardware faults)

Great, so a brand new phone that is currently stocked in shops (a shop said that they could just swap it out instantly if we got it from them) we now have an account being paid for with no phone, and no idea when we will receive a replacement because of Samsung.

Honestly Vodafone has the most shoddy business support, they should instantly shove a new S5 on a Sub60 courier straight to the customer with a prepaid courier pack for the faulty phone return.
For a customer who has over 60+ accounts and thousands $ per month of costs to Vodafone this is completely unacceptable service.

We are also implementing a new VOIP phone system for the offices, I phoned up Vodafone a couple of months ago to get one of their sales agents to contact regarding VOIP services, oh course i never received a return call.
So definitely wont be using Vodafone for VOIP services either (thats going to cost them a lot of profit)

Anyone sick of large companies just totally dropping the ball with customers? I know I am..

My rant for the day, Thank you :)

Not specifically Vodafone, who I have found generally good to date.

However the state of customer service in NZ in general is not what it ought to be IMV. I also find it odd that so few businesses use it as a tool for standing out: it is unusual for businesses here to trumpet that they offer MORE benefit that the law requires them to, whereas somewhere like the USA they use it as a competitive advantage tool.

johnr

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#1056964 31-May-2014 10:23

mattbush: Geekzone seems to be becoming the place of first call for issues with VF services. I know I have taken advantage in the past. When a company like VF try to be all things to all people they begin to fail, especially in their support practices. They are continually changing services, adding new services without double and triple checking what their websites say or if their support services can handle it all. Many times their websites seem to be updated at the last minute and is erroneous in its information or indeed impossible to locate the info one requires due to it being very cumbersome.

But watching these VF threads the last few weeks it is becoming clear something is a little wrong with the VF business. Maybe having a few skilled and loyal employees dedicated to these complaints on Geekzone is actually having a negative effect on the perception of the Company....who knows. Something needs to change with VF or its all going to turn out wrong.

We have just taken on a bunch of new staff and when new to the job some basic things seem quite complex, I remember 14+ years ago even looking at our old CRM platform (Cobra) thinking holy batman how am I going to remember all these steps and where / what to check and it's far more complex these days we more options,

The person calling does not know how long the staff member has been working here and sometimes things do go wrong and basic things are missed, This is why we have staff from all parts of the business that spend time on Geekzone and the Vodafone NZ community to offer help and get things sorted,

When I first started helping out here on Geekzone 10+ years ago social media / forums were was a whole new world and I put my job / neck on the line a number of times and had to do some explaining before my butt was kicked down the road looking for a new job, I did what was best for Vodafone / Customer and still would today. Geekzone users know if they have issues I will help or point them in the right direction

John

mattbush

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#1056990 31-May-2014 10:59

John

Most will applaud you for the service you have provided (including at times your blunt responses :P), but we have been hearing for a long time that VF is working on its customer service issues....etcetcetc....

I recently called the helpline to inquire about a plan change and must have pushed the wrong button as I got an instant response, only to be told this was for new customers. She transferred my call to an existing customer person and I gave up after waiting 40 minutes on hold.

I am not saying VF is worse than others, I am just saying it has all gotten very wrong. VF needs to consolidate its offerings and its damn website to make it simpler for existing and new customers to understand what the offering is and at the same time provide its CSR personnel the tools to answer effectively. An example of this is the new uncapped plan. This created more questions than answers....even the most knowledgeable of Geekzone users had many questions after the launch, and many still don't believe the answers they were provided with.

Private households now pay a reasonable sum of money each month for their communication services and do deserve a better service than whats being offered at the moment.

I don't have the answers, but from my business background, isn't it time to take stock of where things are now and where they should be and plan accordingly?

dejadeadnz

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#1057004 31-May-2014 11:24

zocster: We get a handful of these rants on our forums too, if you're offered help by a Vodafone person (and this person is known to have done miracles), and not taking it up, this is nothing but trolling ...

I personally find these posts very frustrating. This is a discussion board and some of us would like to be informed about different people's perspectives on a company. I can understand why the OP is frustrated and tired of repeating his story to different VF staff members. Whether he wishes to accept is his prerogative. Maybe you wish to suggest that he should take up the offer of help but to simply assert that someone is trolling after he has presumably gone through a pretty frustrating experience and is fed up is a bit rich.

The mob mentality of some people in constantly reinforcing this "Accept help or you're soapboxing" theme is a bit tiresome. This is a discussion forum about VF - not just some kind of unofficial support forum.

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#1057049 31-May-2014 13:08

mattbush: I recently called the helpline to inquire about a plan change and must have pushed the wrong button as I got an instant response, only to be told this was for new customers. She transferred my call to an existing customer person and I gave up after waiting 40 minutes on hold.

Working in mobile customer service queue over last 3 nights, I haven't seen it go above about 5 min wait, most of my calls answered with no wait due to idle time. Fixed line & BB queue didn't look more than about 10mins. There is often the auto-callback option offered when wait times are high, also can email instead of calling if non-urgent.

Business does know about wait time, we have teams dedicated to measuring, managing, planning, improving them. Things have been done, new staff, new auto-callback options, more self-service tools online, internal goal setting etc. Funny thing is I hardly ever see a post saying "hey I didn't have a call wait time at all today, awesome service!", it's only the negative, so can give a potentially skewed view in forums/facebook etc compared to what the average is.

If my post helped you, consider my referrals (: Sharesies $5 referral code, Skinny 4GB buddy code, Contact Energy $100 promo code

mattbush

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#1057062 31-May-2014 13:18

KieranReid:
mattbush: I recently called the helpline to inquire about a plan change and must have pushed the wrong button as I got an instant response, only to be told this was for new customers. She transferred my call to an existing customer person and I gave up after waiting 40 minutes on hold.

Working in mobile customer service queue over last 3 nights, I haven't seen it go above about 5 min wait, most of my calls calls answered with no wait due to idle time. Fixed line & BB queue didn't look more than about 10mins. There is often the auto-callback option offered when wait times are high, also can email instead of calling if non-urgent. Business does know about wait time, we have teams dedicated to measuring, managing, planning, improving them. Things have been done, new staff, new auto-callback options, more self-service tools online, internal goal setting etc. Funny thing is I hardly ever see a post saying "hey I didn't have a call wait time at all today, awesome service!", it's only the negative, so can give a potentially skewed view in forums/facebook etc compared to what I experience on an average day at the call centre.

I don't expect VF staff to get so defensive in these forums....it is not a good look.

I made the calls over a week ago..twice...second was to check that I hadn't been disconnected or transferred to a wrong number. Haven't followed it up any further as I have decided NOT to go the unlimited route. My question was simple and am not sure why the first operator couldn't answer my question.

RunningMan

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#1057069 31-May-2014 13:42

dejadeadnz:
zocster: We get a handful of these rants on our forums too, if you're offered help by a Vodafone person (and this person is known to have done miracles), and not taking it up, this is nothing but trolling ...

I personally find these posts very frustrating. This is a discussion board and some of us would like to be informed about different people's perspectives on a company. I can understand why the OP is frustrated and tired of repeating his story to different VF staff members. Whether he wishes to accept is his prerogative. Maybe you wish to suggest that he should take up the offer of help but to simply assert that someone is trolling after he has presumably gone through a pretty frustrating experience and is fed up is a bit rich.

The mob mentality of some people in constantly reinforcing this "Accept help or you're soapboxing" theme is a bit tiresome. This is a discussion forum about VF - not just some kind of unofficial support forum.

Admittedly this is getting a bit OT, however, Geekzone is predominantly a technical forum, and the Usage Guidelines that everyone agrees to reflects this. This is a good place to post with issues you need some help with, but topics that are simply venting frustration are discouraged.

dejadeadnz

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#1057089 31-May-2014 14:42

But again, it's simply disingenuous to keep asserting that the OP is simply "venting" from your perspective. As an example, my old man is a business person and he would find this thread valuable in terms of the apparent lack of support provided by VF to a presumably small business owner (he reads these forums). Reading through the FUG, I personally wouldn't consider any of the OP's posts abusive. Unless you are an admin/moderator, as a matter of courtesy it seems best to either report what posts concern you to the admin/moderators or just leave moderating the forums to them, instead of this mob tactic of essentially asking people to either do the thing you desire or leave a thread.

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