Horrendous Vodafone Customer service

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147 posts

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One NZ

#2286104 30-Jul-2019 22:09

kornflake: @jasonparis you may wish to watch (if not already) the recent fairgo episode, sums up the Vodafone customer service experience of late, well, a while to be fair.

Hi Kornflake. Yes - just got across this. I called Deborah (customer) today and personally apologised and we are ensuring that this is sorted once and for all. The team also got in contact with Fair Go and I’m fronting up with them.

The whole situation is terrible and just not good enough. Our service hasn’t been great for a number of years and we are now on a mission to sort this quick smart. We’ll have an update in a few weeks.

Jason

Jason Paris

JasonParis

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#2286107 30-Jul-2019 22:11

Stu1:
pristle:
DjShadow:

Ping @JasonParis , think you should be aware of this one

Jason appears to be MIA. School Holidays??

I hope he's back soon I am at Wits end , taken well over a month to get wireless broadband set up, so far sent 4 phones, 2 Sim cards, three weeks to finally get a modem, added mums service to my account instead of hers, disconnection notice on my own fibre as last agent couldn't work out she lives in a different address so decided to move me from fibre to wireless broadband. My mum can finally use Internet I can ring her she can't ring out, she can't ring landlines but can ring cell phones . I have rung everyday for last 2 weeks spoken to numerous agents in India and the Philippines, last call will be today otherwise will break contract

Yes - sorry, I’ve been away for a few weeks with the family and just back in the office. Sorry for the delayed response. Happy to help and get this sorted. Best is if you can please email me at jason.paris@vodafone.com with the details and I can get right onto it. Apologies again.

JP

Jason Paris

dejadeadnz

2394 posts

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#2286117 30-Jul-2019 22:48

The problem, to be brutally blunt, is that VF is acting a bit like the Jetstar of IT. Being routinely nasty and unpleasant for customers and when pushed hard enough, will front up and right the obviously ugly cases that are all over the show. Yes, I fully acknowledge that Jason hasn't worked at VF for long but it has some serious cultural issues that indicate a fundamentally "sick" company. The pattern is obvious -- people are promised things, then lied to, and just get fobbed off. No one takes accountability. To top it all off, you also aggressively push marketing campaigns that push right to the edge of the law and, in many cases, way beyond, as evidenced by VF being the most heavily fined corporate in the history of NZ under the Fair Trading Act. You need to get rid of a lot of your senior staff responsible for this culture and the objectionable decisions.

JasonParis

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One NZ

#2286120 30-Jul-2019 23:11

dejadeadnz:
The problem, to be brutally blunt, is that VF is acting a bit like the Jetstar of IT. Being routinely nasty and unpleasant for customers and when pushed hard enough, will front up and right the obviously ugly cases that are all over the show. Yes, I fully acknowledge that Jason hasn't worked at VF for long but it has some serious cultural issues that indicate a fundamentally "sick" company. The pattern is obvious -- people are promised things, then lied to, and just get fobbed off. No one takes accountability. To top it all off, you also aggressively push marketing campaigns that push right to the edge of the law and, in many cases, way beyond, as evidenced by VF being the most heavily fined corporate in the history of NZ under the Fair Trading Act. You need to get rid of a lot of your senior staff responsible for this culture and the objectionable decisions.

Tell me what you really think.....

Many fair observations in here and on my list to fix. I wouldn’t agree that our people are nasty or unpleasant or lie. The majority are brilliant - but it is fair to say that culturally we have a bit of work to do, some of our decision making hasn’t been great and when we say we will do something for a customer, we need to own it and ensure it happens.

It’s going to take some time but I can promise you that by Christmas we will be a much improved company from both a tech and service perspective.

If you are up for it, I’d love to chat some more and run a couple of the ideas I’m working on by you and get some feedback. Maybe we can chat on email or DM.

JP

Jason Paris

dejadeadnz

2394 posts

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#2286123 30-Jul-2019 23:17

Full-on props for at least fronting (and again no one can expect instantaneous change but at least you have acknowledged the underlying cause). I will send you a DM tomorrow.

SteveC

448 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#2286161 31-Jul-2019 07:39

dejadeadnz:
Full-on props for at least fronting (and again no one can expect instantaneous change but at least you have acknowledged the underlying cause). I will send you a DM tomorrow.

Perhaps you and @JasonParis could consider the merits of enticing a reasonable quantity of Geekzone members to two or three meetings where issues and potential solutions could be discussed? A tech organization that seems to have used them strategy well it InternetNZ. Both organisations are in a space where customers have pretty clear ideas of what they want, but little understanding of the backend processes necessary to make things happen.

In support of what Jason says, I've had two students over the years who got technical roles at Vodafone, and both spoke very well of the internal workings of the company. Recent one started in retail part time and applied for technical work as opportunities came up. On graduation, was full-time level two, and his manager is asking me if I have any other graduates looking for work! #polytechnicpower

JasonParis

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#2286188 31-Jul-2019 08:28

SteveC:
dejadeadnz:

Full-on props for at least fronting (and again no one can expect instantaneous change but at least you have acknowledged the underlying cause). I will send you a DM tomorrow.

Perhaps you and @JasonParis could consider the merits of enticing a reasonable quantity of Geekzone members to two or three meetings where issues and potential solutions could be discussed? A tech organization that seems to have used them strategy well it InternetNZ. Both organisations are in a space where customers have pretty clear ideas of what they want, but little understanding of the backend processes necessary to make things happen.

In support of what Jason says, I've had two students over the years who got technical roles at Vodafone, and both spoke very well of the internal workings of the company. Recent one started in retail part time and applied for technical work as opportunities came up. On graduation, was full-time level two, and his manager is asking me if I have any other graduates looking for work! #polytechnicpower

That's a really nice thought. We will talk to Mauricio about that. Thanks for the idea. JP

Jason Paris

Quic Broadband

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johny99

495 posts

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#2286221 31-Jul-2019 09:09

JasonParis:
kornflake: @jasonparis you may wish to watch (if not already) the recent fairgo episode, sums up the Vodafone customer service experience of late, well, a while to be fair.

Hi Kornflake. Yes - just got across this. I called Deborah (customer) today and personally apologised and we are ensuring that this is sorted once and for all. The team also got in contact with Fair Go and I’m fronting up with them.

The whole situation is terrible and just not good enough. Our service hasn’t been great for a number of years and we are now on a mission to sort this quick smart. We’ll have an update in a few weeks.

Jason

Well done @jasonparis , to your credit, a few years back when you took the GM role at Spark you pledged to greatly improve the customer service experience, I generally believe you were driven to do this, it did improve but not to the level you had wanted. Despite your efforts I think the problem was in the middle, with senior and middle management, not buying into your policy, as they were more sales focused. After awhile those on the front line became feed up and as long as they hit their sales target, customer experience came second.

I do truly hope your ride at Vodafone will be different, I understand that sales are important, but at what cost to customer satisfaction?

JasonParis

147 posts

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One NZ

#2286499 31-Jul-2019 14:50

johny99:

JasonParis:
kornflake: @jasonparis you may wish to watch (if not already) the recent fairgo episode, sums up the Vodafone customer service experience of late, well, a while to be fair.

Hi Kornflake. Yes - just got across this. I called Deborah (customer) today and personally apologised and we are ensuring that this is sorted once and for all. The team also got in contact with Fair Go and I’m fronting up with them.

The whole situation is terrible and just not good enough. Our service hasn’t been great for a number of years and we are now on a mission to sort this quick smart. We’ll have an update in a few weeks.

Jason

Well done @jasonparis , to your credit, a few years back when you took the GM role at Spark you pledged to greatly improve the customer service experience, I generally believe you were driven to do this, it did improve but not to the level you had wanted. Despite your efforts I think the problem was in the middle, with senior and middle management, not buying into your policy, as they were more sales focused. After awhile those on the front line became feed up and as long as they hit their sales target, customer experience came second.

I do truly hope your ride at Vodafone will be different, I understand that sales are important, but at what cost to customer satisfaction?

The best way to grow our business is through our existing customer base. Instead of focussing on new customers, we need to be obsessed with looking after our existing customers so that they buy more from us, stay with us for longer and recommend us to others. That's an approach much more powerful than advertising......but it takes a while to turn the ship around Johny! Thanks for the feedback too - much appreciated.

Jason Paris

Quinny

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#2287566 2-Aug-2019 10:54

Well, mine has been a mega saga but maybe just maybe got sorted.

On May 2nd got a great offer from Retentions to move all from my old Type C ex Telstra (real Fibre for 6 years on an old account) to my Mobile Type A. Like a really good offer. Made them email the offer to me and said yes. THIS IS VITAL to anyone stuck. Get it in writing.

June - nada, Call end of the month it's still at provisioning.

July - Modem arrives - call back. Tell me to plug it in. Do and can see it all propagating in Vodafone app for the Type A account. Yay. Call as no intro tv box. It turns up week later. Double-check all the items in offer loaded. Apps wont work, call back, fixes next day.

Bam late July get a bill on the Type C account. Sigh, call again.

Get bill on the Type A. Billed for Modem and for fibre paid on Type C. Yep, call again. Call centre in God Knows Where does not even know what a Type A or Type C account is. Cannot see the Type C bill. Cannot sort anything. Cannot understand English. After ages in circles that the bill is wrong and he refuses to accept that ask to be called back. Wait 5 days - Nothing.

August. 2 months, really. Yes apparently really. Call yesterday using online Ninja as nothing happened over the last call and I had got a please pay $152 by 3rd text when actually I'm like $150 in credit once they sort their **** and I am now seriously pissy.

Ninja was obviously still call centre, can only do mobile, please wait while transfer you to broadband in 1 minute. 15 minutes later of getting the 1 minute message still nothing. Wrote out all the above calls and emails including account numbers and people spoke with. Finally at no transfer took the option to be called back. Told 24 to 48 hours.

20 minutes later phone rings. Wow. Payments team. Helpful. Send me to Billing Specialist. Wow, another great person. Can I stay on line and send her the emails. Sure. Get one from her, reply with the May 2nd details (GET IT IN WRITING ALWAYS WINS). She does some magic and suddenly in the app I am in credit, have an email saying will get more from closure of the Type C, errors are fixed (modem refunded and missing retention discount added).

Now hopefully the bill when turns up is actually correct lolz.

pristle

158 posts

Master Geek

Subscriber

#2291033 6-Aug-2019 16:15

One must give credit where it's due.

I have a client in the Katikati area who lost their landline unexpectedly last month. A laboured call to the helpdesk revealed "that because they were now on fibre" their copper landline was disconnected. At this point they had not been advised when fibre, which had been ordered late May, would be provisioned. Thankfully the ADSL wasn't interrupted.

Following a panicked call to me, I made an extremely frustrating call to the helpdesk. Who weren't remotely up to the title. I then reluctantly reached out to Jason as he's suggested. His team were on the ball in his absence. They maintained good, positive communication with the client in the intervening weeks whilst awaiting the fibre install. Which I understand was completed last week sometime.

However actually having a landline back in place didn't happen until yesterday. Why? No fault on Vodafone's part, but rather the workmanship of the installers. The client had no idea an ONT had been installed behind a cabinet. Unlike many of the Auckland installs that I've attended, the Civtec (Waikato/BoP) installers left no trail of where they'd been. Colour me impressed.

As Jason has mentioned elsewhere, Vodafone are very cognizant of customer service problems and are proactively trying to address them.

I think my tuppence worth would be, bring the helpdesk teams back to Godzone. I'd like to think that the flow on effect of retaining existing paying happy customers, would offset any higher cost of a local support desk.

pipja

23 posts

Geek

#2306311 26-Aug-2019 17:21

Let me tell you guys of my experience with Vodafone.

So I have been a Vodafone mobile and internet customer for a good while. In March this year, after my initial internet contract expired, I opted for a speed upgrade and a fixed IP address. On the upgrade summary, they said they will be shipping me a new Vodafone router.

During that time, I have been using a Synology router as the internet router without problem. Then bam, one day my internet stopped working and I tried frantically to call VF, turned out they carried out the upgrade without telling me, and the static IP address didn't work with my Synology router. So the VF technicians turned off static IP so I could have normal internet while we wait for the Vodafone router, which at the time has not been sent. Eventually I received the new Vodafone router, plugged it in, rang VF technicians to turn my static IP back on. That's where the next saga start.

For the next 5 bills, I kept getting double billed for the static IP address, which VF is not capable of removing it from my bill, here's proof:

Vodafone's epic billing failure

Every month, I would be on the phone with their billing team for 2 hours trying to sort this out. Every month they will credit me back the overcharge and promise it wouldn't happen again.

And every month the same lines appear in my bill.

I have never wished for a contract to end as badly as this one.

I will be changing ISP next March for sure.

gregmcc

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#2306372 26-Aug-2019 18:10

pipja:

Let me tell you guys of my experience with Vodafone.

So I have been a Vodafone mobile and internet customer for a good while. In March this year, after my initial internet contract expired, I opted for a speed upgrade and a fixed IP address. On the upgrade summary, they said they will be shipping me a new Vodafone router.

During that time, I have been using a Synology router as the internet router without problem. Then bam, one day my internet stopped working and I tried frantically to call VF, turned out they carried out the upgrade without telling me, and the static IP address didn't work with my Synology router. So the VF technicians turned off static IP so I could have normal internet while we wait for the Vodafone router, which at the time has not been sent. Eventually I received the new Vodafone router, plugged it in, rang VF technicians to turn my static IP back on. That's where the next saga start.

For the next 5 bills, I kept getting double billed for the static IP address, which VF is not capable of removing it from my bill, here's proof:

Every month, I would be on the phone with their billing team for 2 hours trying to sort this out. Every month they will credit me back the overcharge and promise it wouldn't happen again.

And every month the same lines appear in my bill.

I have never wished for a contract to end as badly as this one.

I will be changing ISP next March for sure.

Why don't you just tell VF to fix it, if they don't you will consider them in breech of contract (unable to supply an accurate bill). You should then be able to switch to another provide without any termination fees

pipja

23 posts

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#2306376 26-Aug-2019 18:17

gregmcc:

Why don't you just tell VF to fix it, if they don't you will consider them in breech of contract (unable to supply an accurate bill). You should then be able to switch to another provide without any termination fees

Where do I go for this breech of contract? Take it to small-claims tribunal or something?

Very interested, cuz I'm beyond fed up with VF.

quickymart

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#2306391 26-Aug-2019 18:36

@JasonParis

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