Vodafone fails to honour agreement now impossible to reach

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#2034884 13-Jun-2018 10:53

tehgerbil:

Before we leap down Vodafone's throat - "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"

They're working in a cramped barely 30cm wide 'desk' with (only just) practically enough room for a keyboard and mouse. They're not paid enough, or given enough training to give a hoot if they stuff up every now and again.

Don't blame Vodafone, blame the shareholder culture for demanding more dividends (cheap overseas workers) with minimal cost (no training).

It's all about the money!

Do people want cheap products or amazing customer service? Seems the former.

How does that saying go?

Coil

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#2035894 13-Jun-2018 11:14

nickb800:

tehgerbil:

Before we leap down Vodafone's throat - "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"

They're working in a cramped barely 30cm wide 'desk' with (only just) practically enough room for a keyboard and mouse. They're not paid enough, or given enough training to give a hoot if they stuff up every now and again.

Don't blame Vodafone, blame the shareholder culture for demanding more dividends (cheap overseas workers) with minimal cost (no training).

It's entirely fair to blame Vodafone as an organisation and critique interactions with their staff.

Criticizing the workers are as being useless (for example) would be unfair, as the poor interactions can be a result of the circumstances in which they work (e.g. poor systems, culture, training, pay) rather than the competence of staff.

The competence in question is the Salmat staff who have a luxurious desk and chair to sit on who make good money.
This is who deceived our OP here, Not our friends in Manila. Look how happy these guys look. How can you be angry at innocence.

(Oh also, I heard from people that worked for VF and went over to train staff in their offshore call centers that there were no 30CM desks. It was a nice office with enough space and the people were 'happy')

DJK01

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#2035906 13-Jun-2018 11:31

To recap, I had nothing against the call centre staff, who were helpful and polite.

The trouble is they didn't have all the information. It wasn't passed on. They had no record of the agreement we had made but hadn't been followed up on.

Nobody contacted us about a new modem.

Nobody called us within three days as promised.

VF don't let customers know when contracts expire and there is no renewal confirmation or explanation of terms and conditions. We were asked what if we wanted (hypothetically) to change before the term expires and were told that would cost us $299. But again, nothing in writing, and we weren't told any terms and conditions before agreeing verbally.

The other problem, of course, is trying to get hold of someone who has the right information to help you.

Yes, prices is important, and NZ has traditionally lagged well behind other countries for cost, speed, and choice in telecoms.

But good customer service matters, too.

Dratsab

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#2036193 13-Jun-2018 21:06

MikeAqua: These days I record phone calls like that on my phone - banks, insurance companies, utilities etc.

The message that says

"This call may be recorded ..."

Doesn't specify who may record it, so IMO the organisation has consented.

You don't need to tell anyone anything, just record it. It's perfectly legal here as long as one of the parties is consenting to the call being recorded so, if you consent - record away. I have an app on my phone which records conversations. Those in my contacts list are exceptions.

freitasm

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#2036201 13-Jun-2018 21:21

DJK01:

To recap, I had nothing against the call centre staff, who were helpful and polite.

The trouble is they didn't have all the information. It wasn't passed on. They had no record of the agreement we had made but hadn't been followed up on.

Nobody contacted us about a new modem.

Nobody called us within three days as promised.

While you have nothing against the call centre, I think it's appalling this is still happening. For many years now we hear stories of people calling Vodafone for a service change, nothing happens and upon further inquiries the old "we don't have a record of your request" comes up.

If you want bad, terrible customer service, sure, stick with Vodafone. Don't complain later when you don't receive the promised modem, the account changes didn't happen or worst, accounts ARE changed but only on the side that benefits Vodafone.

Sorry, Vodafone is responsible for this, and for many years.

We are lucky that the company have had many good people working there, trying to clear the disaster caused by their call centre.

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richms

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#2036204 13-Jun-2018 21:24

That is why I tell places that I will not conduct business by phone when they cold call me with offers and stuff. Too many over promise and then do nothing sales reps at places, and they are not legally on the hook for their BS since they are employees.

Email has a nice easy to find log. Call recordings are long boring to listen to and with vodafone will be 90% nasty sounding compressed bad music.

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visentens

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#2036209 13-Jun-2018 21:38

I bet if you post a complaint on their social media (such as facebook) you'll get a response, companies hate bad social media.

EDIT: I must confess I was lazy and didn't read the whole thread, my bad.

freitasm

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#2036212 13-Jun-2018 21:48

visentens:

I bet if you post a complaint on their social media (such as facebook) you'll get a response, companies hate bad social media.

Pretty much all large telcos and ISPs have a presence here - the people are really good at what they do and as efficient, if not more, than FB/Twitter. Some actually do both here and social sites.

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#2036583 14-Jun-2018 15:55

This is an interesting read. I've had nothing but fantastic service from Vodafone this year.

In Feb I was experiencing random internet drop outs which were doing my head in. I gave Vodafone a call and they gave me a pockect wifi (which I picked up from my local Vodafone store first thing the next morning) loaded with 100gb of data, a couple of days later a Chorus tech came round and fixed the problem where the phoneline enters the house.

Then in late March the random dropouts reappeared so it was another call to Vodafone late in the evening and another 100gb was loaded onto my pocket wifi.The next morning at about 9am the Chorus tech showed up, did something down at the gate this time and ran tests on the line for 24hrs. I received 5 txts keeping me updated over the process and a follow up call again. No issues since.

quickymart

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#2037689 14-Jun-2018 18:23

That's great to hear, but as depressing as it sounds for me to say this, looking at some of stories on here (and on their FB page) it seems like you are in the minority getting "good service" from them.

Jaxar

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#2039508 18-Jun-2018 10:52

quickymart:

That's great to hear, but as depressing as it sounds for me to say this, looking at some of stories on here (and on their FB page) it seems like you are in the minority getting "good service" from them.

It is worth remembering that most people won't take the time to write up how there problem was solved by a company in any industry. There was a problem, company X did their job to fix it like they should. Back to my regularly scheduled life. There is nothing wrong with that but it does mean you tend to only see the negative stories.

I myself had one of the best dining experiences of my life last month for my birthday and only mentioned it to a couple of colleagues when they asked how my birthday dinner was. I'll tell you all about the time I had the most disappointing chicken wings in a little place in Aus though.

Please note: I have a professional bias towards Vodafone.

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quickymart

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#2040096 18-Jun-2018 22:25

That's true, but I meant more of people on FB saying "I called your call centre, requested <such and such> six times but it wasn't done. Please help!"

Yet when they look at the notes, no CSR has noted anything, anywhere, making the customer either seem like a liar, or having to have proof that they called. When I worked at TCL doing that sort of thing would get you a warning (or fired, if a repeated occurrence).

mclean

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#2040330 19-Jun-2018 11:01

Customer service at Vodafone is a mixed bag in the extreme. About 4 out of 5 times it's a nightmare of delays, frustration, misunderstandings and errors. Then suddenly you strike someone who is totally professional, efficient, knowledgeable, with impeccable manners, and who simply does exactly what they promise. These people sort out a 2 minute issue in 2 minutes. Getting access to one of these wonderful people seems to be completely random - I just can't figure out the key-press sequence or the time of day or whatever it is.

choccers

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#2040573 19-Jun-2018 15:36

I wish I could find one of those useful VF ppl.

I currently have no dial tone - just static and my download speed is a whopping 0.67 Mbps upload is 0.05Mbps.

Its been almost two weeks now. They did offer me a free wifi connector thingy, but I pointed out that as there was no VF signal at my home and neither of my mobile phones were VF because of this, that killed that idea.

At least the ADSL has stayed up for the past 30 minutes......

ex cat herder

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#2040603 19-Jun-2018 16:08

Direct debit is the root cause of the problem here. Once they have your money finding them can be like trying to find a thief in the night, but if you don't pay the random $10 increase, they'll find you soon enough.

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