I thought I'd share my very odd experience that I recently had with Vodafone so hopefully they can get things fixed and running better again. Also curious to see if anyone else has had similar experiences with VF.

Here's where the story starts...
A few weeks ago a Vodafone salesman appeared on my doorstep asking if I "was aware that there was fibre available in my neighbourhood". I replied "well actually there isn't, the coverage ends 5 houses that way". He then asked if I was a Vodafone fixed line customer (thought this was odd, surely he would know this already?). To which I replied yes, he then got our his phone and asked for my address so he could check on his phone if I was infact correct (again, pretty odd surely he knows which addresses he's going to, he just walked past the mailbox). To his surprise it said that coverage wasn't in fact at my address and that there was no planned upgrades for it anytime soon.

He then claimed that he could take down my contact information and see if he can get a manual installation scheduled through chorus and have fibre installed anyway as I was so close to existing functional fibre coverage. I knew that this was highly unlikely to be possible as I've asked in the past however I figured there's no harm in agreeing.

After taking down my phone number, name and address he was on his way.

Three weeks later I hadn't heard, so I thought to humour myself I'd email VF and see if they had a follow up on this event. The response two days later was exactly as I expected. That chorus can't and don't overrule their existing coverage and plans and that I'd simply have to wait. However they concluded the email in saying; "However it looks like you can get VDSL services for now until fibre gets to your door.". Again, I knew this was incorrect, however to humour myself I said that I'd be interested in getting VDSL if possible.

A few hours later the CSR said they had put a call back request in for me to speak to someone about getting VDSL.

Three days later I check my phone to see 2 missed calls from a private number. No messages left or any way for me to know who it is or how to contact them back. Luckily I managed to catch the third call. It was a CSR from VF getting back to me on my VDSL request. He started off saying how he's aware I'd like to get VDSL, he then asks if I'm a customer already, and then follows asking for my address. Before I start giving my address he cuts me off and realises that he's already got my address he then checks the address for VDSL, realises I can't get it (there we go) mentions to me and the conversation awkwardly ends just as it started.

All in all, quite a weird experience from Vodafone. The first guy didn't know the availability of the product he was selling, nor who he was selling to. The second person via email was unable to run a quick check and instead had to schedule an awkward call back. And the third person on the phone didn't leave any messages and called from a Private Number.

Seems to be a lot of miscommunication going on at Vodafone, which leads me into my following question; has anyone had similar experiences with VF?

Other than this, I have no issue with them and will continue to use them as my ADSL provider into the foreseeable future.

[Apologies for the possibly soapy box thread - just thought this odd experience was worth the share and laugh]

-A.