Vodafone "Customer Service"? Yeah. Right!

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Geektastic

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#129149 5-Sep-2013 10:42

Email arrives saying I have used up my 50Gb broadband limit (note - not that I have used 75% of it or something useful - that I have used ALL of it)

Broadband so slow that I cannot even load the VF site much less log on to solve the problem myself

Ring customer services on 777

Hold for 15 minutes

Get cut off without speaking to a human

Ring back

hold for 15 minutes.

Speak to human, get put through to other human

Get told this human can 'only deal with former Telstra customers;' and get told it's my fault for ringing the wrong number despite the fact that I rang 777 and ended up talking to a person who apparently cannot help me and has no ability to operate outside her box

Get very annoyed, tell human I wish to speak to someone immediately who can solve my simple problem please and not waste any more of my day

Get put on hold, again.

After another 5 minutes, speak to someone who solves the problem

Not good, VF. Not good. Especially for $1,500 a year....

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#890174 5-Sep-2013 10:46

Don't take it personally, it seems PMing the VF staff (who, in my experience, have been very helpful and far more competent than those you get on the phone) on here is the only way to get action without a runaround to eleven different morons that can't even transfer you to the right place. It feels like they've outsourced a chunk of their support to some sort of collection of mentally challenged amish. Many ISPs seem to suffer from a similar level of script-reading-monkey-moron helpdesks.

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#890193 5-Sep-2013 11:02

Nothing has been out sourced more has come in house back to Vodafone NZ

John

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#890199 5-Sep-2013 11:10

johnr: Nothing has been out sourced more has come in house back to Vodafone NZ

John

Sorry, I should've worded that better. It feels like it has been harder to get useful answers out of the phone support in recent months than it was, say, a year ago. I have no idea what has or hasn't changed, perhaps it's as simple as a large intake of new CSRs who are taking a while to get up to speed.

Geektastic

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#890200 5-Sep-2013 11:10

I'd suggest getting a US or UK trained customer services consultant to overhaul your processes in that case!

That should have taken 5 minutes to resolve and at no point should I have been told it was my fault for calling the wrong number.

It cost VF about 20 times what it should have to resolve.

BinaryLimited

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#890246 5-Sep-2013 12:09

... seems PMing the VF staff (who, in my experience, have been very helpful and far more competent than those you get on the phone)

This is true, also posting on the vodafone forum seems a lot more useful,quicker and easier to do

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Coil

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#890258 5-Sep-2013 12:28

Geektastic: I'd suggest getting a US or UK trained customer services consultant to overhaul your processes in that case!

That should have taken 5 minutes to resolve and at no point should I have been told it was my fault for calling the wrong number.

It cost VF about 20 times what it should have to resolve.

Hi,

Apologies for your experience with your experience. We have got more fixed line and broadband staff members as of current! Also with the addition of TelstraClear there has been confusion between the 0800 438 448 and 0508 888 800 numbers, (0508 number for all Telstra enquirers for existing customers.)

Thanks.

4th attempt to post this reply :(

Geektastic

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#890295 5-Sep-2013 13:11

BinaryLimited:
... seems PMing the VF staff (who, in my experience, have been very helpful and far more competent than those you get on the phone)

This is true, also posting on the vodafone forum seems a lot more useful,quicker and easier to do

However, I am sure we'd all agree that your two main touchpoints as a customer of VF are when you sign up and when something goes wrong. On those two factors a significant part of their reputation rests.

It's all fine and dandy to have some idiot character trying to be cool on TV and selling us a fast network (as long as we live in Auckland..!) but that is not really the whole of the experience, IMV, just a part of it.

I think VF need to do a whole lot more work on customer service, personally.

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Inphinity

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#890298 5-Sep-2013 13:16

Geektastic:selling us a fast network (as long as we live in Auckland..!)

VF Cable is only in Wellington, Kapiti and Christchurch, not Auckland...

jeffnz

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#890352 5-Sep-2013 14:49

Geektastic:
BinaryLimited:
... seems PMing the VF staff (who, in my experience, have been very helpful and far more competent than those you get on the phone)

This is true, also posting on the vodafone forum seems a lot more useful,quicker and easier to do

However, I am sure we'd all agree that your two main touchpoints as a customer of VF are when you sign up and when something goes wrong. On those two factors a significant part of their reputation rests.

It's all fine and dandy to have some idiot character trying to be cool on TV and selling us a fast network (as long as we live in Auckland..!) but that is not really the whole of the experience, IMV, just a part of it.

I think VF need to do a whole lot more work on customer service, personally.

wow they have upset you, just change suppliers if it upsets you that much

Sorry for lack of sympathy but these type of threads are all to common and never really sort anything other than satisfying Op's need to vent. (not saying this is the case here)

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Demeter

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#890463 5-Sep-2013 17:46

I'm genuinely sorry that you're having issues with our customer service team.

777 is for mobile inquiries ONLY. If you are a residential broadband customer, 0800 438 448 is the right number to ring.

Geektastic

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#890528 5-Sep-2013 19:13

Demeter: I'm genuinely sorry that you're having issues with our customer service team.

777 is for mobile inquiries ONLY. If you are a residential broadband customer, 0800 438 448 is the right number to ring.

However, one of the options on 777 is "If you would like to speak to someone about your home line or broadband press X" so clearly they expect to get such calls.

Geektastic

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#890530 5-Sep-2013 19:15

jeffnz:
Geektastic:
BinaryLimited:
... seems PMing the VF staff (who, in my experience, have been very helpful and far more competent than those you get on the phone)

This is true, also posting on the vodafone forum seems a lot more useful,quicker and easier to do

However, I am sure we'd all agree that your two main touchpoints as a customer of VF are when you sign up and when something goes wrong. On those two factors a significant part of their reputation rests.

It's all fine and dandy to have some idiot character trying to be cool on TV and selling us a fast network (as long as we live in Auckland..!) but that is not really the whole of the experience, IMV, just a part of it.

I think VF need to do a whole lot more work on customer service, personally.

wow they have upset you, just change suppliers if it upsets you that much

Sorry for lack of sympathy but these type of threads are all to common and never really sort anything other than satisfying Op's need to vent. (not saying this is the case here)

Firstly, if no one ever says when things are going wrong, how can we expect them to get better?

Secondly, it is not that simple, is it? If it was so simple you could change from one minute to the next without breaking contracts etc etc then I am sure the providers would be a whole lot more keen to make sure we were all happy campers!

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#890703 6-Sep-2013 07:26

You're right, there's nothing wrong with raising issues - we're always looking to improve so it's good to hear from you.

jeffnz

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#890711 6-Sep-2013 07:52

Geektastic:
jeffnz:
Geektastic:
BinaryLimited:
... seems PMing the VF staff (who, in my experience, have been very helpful and far more competent than those you get on the phone)

This is true, also posting on the vodafone forum seems a lot more useful,quicker and easier to do

However, I am sure we'd all agree that your two main touchpoints as a customer of VF are when you sign up and when something goes wrong. On those two factors a significant part of their reputation rests.

It's all fine and dandy to have some idiot character trying to be cool on TV and selling us a fast network (as long as we live in Auckland..!) but that is not really the whole of the experience, IMV, just a part of it.

I think VF need to do a whole lot more work on customer service, personally.

wow they have upset you, just change suppliers if it upsets you that much

Sorry for lack of sympathy but these type of threads are all to common and never really sort anything other than satisfying Op's need to vent. (not saying this is the case here)

Firstly, if no one ever says when things are going wrong, how can we expect them to get better?

Secondly, it is not that simple, is it? If it was so simple you could change from one minute to the next without breaking contracts etc etc then I am sure the providers would be a whole lot more keen to make sure we were all happy campers!

Its the manner in which we complain nowadays that is the issue but I agree things need to be sorted not accepted.

Well if they don't provide the service as stated in contract I would have though the contract broken or at least the CGA comes into play.

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Geektastic

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#891049 6-Sep-2013 18:26

On the plus side for VF or Chorus or both....

I just ran speed test and my connection speed is now around 12.5 mbps so whoohoo! Someone must have pulled a metaphorical cork out somewhere!

If only I could get the upload part to run a bit faster than 0.96.

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