Frustrating Experience when switching from Spark to VF

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kiwiandy

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Topic # 166141 4-Mar-2015 07:32

I have had my home phone, broadband and mobile phone business with Spark for the last 7-8 years, mainly because I live in a rural area and VF mobile coverage where i live is patchy, and SPark were the only ones in the game for BB when I signed up.

About a week ago after using my 40GB limit on spark for the 5th month in a row I started looking at BB prices, and saw that VF offered a pretty comparable price for unlimited BB, phone and with SKY TV as well. And there was an additional $10 discount if I had a on account mobile as well. All up was around the same price I was paying for only 40GB through spark. If I bought one of the VF Femto cells then I would solve the coverage problem, for a small additional investment!

So I started the signup process online, entered all the data and got to the summary page at the end and noticed they were going to charge me a $100 connection fee, which hadn't been highlighted prior...

so I called the VF customer service help line... I should have taken this as a warning and realised what I can expect... after a 40 minute wait ( Why cant VF at least have a callback system like Spark so you dont have to wait so long?).. I spoke with a CS rep who took all my details, and confirmed there would be no connection fee, and that I would be entitled to a free modem as well.. great!

Then the confirmation email arrived and the price was $10 higher than it showed on the website,.. so after another 30 minutes on hold listening to the same music... I gave up and sent an email querying the prices.

Next step was to change over the mobile, which cannot be done at the same time as the fixed line stuff for some reason so I decided to go into a shop and pick up the sim card at the same time,.. all went smoothly and a very pleasant VF guy got me all sorted, and kept in touch to confirm when the number would port over... However... iMessage wasnt working.. so call 777 and after 40 minutes on hold waiting spoke with someone who passed me on to another tech expert who suggested to try a few things, which meant I couldnt stay connected on the line with them so they would call me back in a few minutes.... anyway the suggested changes didnt work... and after 30 minutes waiting didnt hear from them so went to sleep. Next day called them back,.. and yes another 20 - 30 minute wait...they said it was a problem porting my number over and would be fixed by the end of the next day... guess what it wasnt.. but this time it was only a 15 minute wait...

Then.. back to the BB issues.. I checked online and see that they have invoiced me for the "Free Modem".. so called them again.... this is just not acceptable, I should be charging them for my time that they are wasting.

They really need to do something about their customer support contact mechanism, and they need to make less mistakes!.. I would prefer to have stayed with Spark and for $10 extra a month could have covered my BB requirements and saved on the stress and wasted time.

PS I should also mention that all the VF people I spoke with were pleasant, and helpful.... no reflection on them personally I believe it is the system!

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BDFL - Memuneh
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Reply # 1250684 4-Mar-2015 07:54

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You're not the first one to complain about Vodafone help desk being a shambles. It's been this way for almost a year now. People just don't notice the warning signals until they join.

And, no, it's not being mean to Vodafone. They know it's not working, they have proposed changes - changes that include laying off staff instead of actually doing things to improve quality and give better service. These have been discussed in the media and here on Geekzone.

It's appalling at what it's become.

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kiwikiwi

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Reply # 1250688 4-Mar-2015 08:10

freitasm: You're not the first one to complain about Vodafone help desk being a shambles. It's been this way for almost a year now. People just don't notice the warning signals until they join.

And, no, it's not being mean to Vodafone. They know it's not working, they have proposed changes - changes that include laying off staff instead of actually doing things to improve quality and give better service. These have been discussed in the media and here on Geekzone.

It's appalling at what it's become.

Can also add more experience. I've had my seriously fair share of just bad customer service from Vodafone. People have really noticed in the last 2 years now, what's worse is that they just laid off a good portion of their telephone reps, which makes calling them now at any time next to impossible with out having to wait a long time.

When I was with then I had nothing but DNS issues and traffic routing that just simply didn't work(also called and go no solution but coming on here on GZ got the issue sorted but I was going to leave anyway) and it's a real shame it's getting worse.

Real honest talk here guys, Vodafone isn't working with their reps nor are they working for their customer base. Sure there is a portion that have had no issues but it's really showing now how bad it's getting. Probably won't be the last either.

You can also follow me on twitter here @kiwifortw I do twitch streams every now and then at twitch.tv/kiwiforthewin :)

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overloaded

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Reply # 1250698 4-Mar-2015 08:37

Vodafone are now in the process of moving even more contact centre functions overseas. This is despite the promise from the CEO when they bought TelstraClear that these would be brought back.

Their contact centre KPI's are based around getting people off the call as quickly as possible by providing promises which arent actioned, misinformation or just transferring a call to another internal department. There is no ownership, accountability or resolution.

I have just switched from Vodafone to Spark - a completely seamless transfer (and with a $125 new customer joining credit). Likely the best telco decision I have ever made.

Just getting Vodafone to stop billing me for the services I transferred however has now required several contacts - GRRR

More people need to vote with their feet !

dylanp

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Reply # 1250747 4-Mar-2015 09:12

kiwiandy: ...iMessage wasnt working.. the suggested changes didnt work... Next day called them back... they said it was a problem porting my number over and would be fixed by the end of the next day... guess what it wasnt.. but this time it was only a 15 minute wait...

Hi KiwiAndy

Sorry to hear that wasn't the best experience, some discounts weren't added and there was some confusion over iMessage.

If you haven't sorted iMessage already, I understand you'll need to unregister iMessage and register again. I expect this will be because iMessage is trying to find your number on Spark still instead of Vodafone. There's some good step by step instructions here
http://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-change-imessage-phone-number-on-iphone/

Cheers

Dylan

mattbush

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Reply # 1250893 4-Mar-2015 11:31

I can't quite understand why people dont have a quick look at geekzone before changing ISP's.....the answers are very obvious.

Horseychick

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Reply # 1250932 4-Mar-2015 12:09

I've had a similar issue last week when moving house and trying to take my VF Bband, home phone and Sky TV with me.

I finally resolved my problem after much frustration by posting on the VF FB page (a bit of a rant). Lo and behold I got a call within the hour which helped to solve my problem.

I'm guessing the VF people manning the Social Media sites are still in NZ and can therefore do something to help.

BTW, I've worked at VF a few years ago and they had 2 totally separate systems for mobile vs broadband. They now have a 3rd system due to buying TelstraClear hence why some things cannot be done at the same time.

langers1972

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Reply # 1250939 4-Mar-2015 12:14

The only reason that I'm still with them is that there's nothing to compete with the triple deal of phone, TV and Broadband (I'm on cable in Kapiti). I long for a MySky box and stable fast internet but the value of the bundle is too good to give up. I pay $136/month and no one else can get close..........or can they?

NonprayingMantis

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Reply # 1250954 4-Mar-2015 12:37

langers1972: The only reason that I'm still with them is that there's nothing to compete with the triple deal of phone, TV and Broadband (I'm on cable in Kapiti). I long for a MySky box and stable fast internet but the value of the bundle is too good to give up. I pay $136/month and no one else can get close..........or can they?

Have you actually looked around?

It really depends on what you actually want, how much you really value certain elements of the bundles, how much data you use.
(and also what is available at your address)

How much do you care about having a landline? Really. Have a good think - don't just assume it's better to have a landline than just using your mobile.

How much do you care about Sky instead of getting Netflix, Lightbox etc? Again, have a good think. Look on your Mysky planner and see how much stuff you record that isn't already free-to-air (this may surprise you - for most people it's 80%+ FTA content). Consider whether you would be better off with just a Freeview PVR and Lightbox/Netflix

What other broadband technologies are available at your place? UFB? VDSL? If you can get either of those then you have a very credible alternative to Cable broadband.

I have naked unlimited VDSL with Bigpipe, and pay for Netflix and Lightbox. I hate a landline and would consider having one an annoyance. I don't do much calling, but if I did I would grab an unlimited voice plan for $50 on mobile instead of using a landline.

Total monthly spend = $89 + $15 + $10 = $114 and I consider this to be significantly better than anything Vodafone offer.

The speed of VDSL (45Mbps for me) is, in a practical sense, no disadvantage compared to cable's top speed since I can stream anything I like in full HD and downloads still race along.

Lightbox+Netflix+Freeview is streets ahead of Sky for content, and, as an added bonus I've never been made to wait on hold for any issues.

Salami

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Reply # 1251100 4-Mar-2015 15:40

freitasm: You're not the first one to complain about Vodafone help desk being a shambles. It's been this way for almost a year now. People just don't notice the warning signals until they join.

And, no, it's not being mean to Vodafone. They know it's not working, they have proposed changes - changes that include laying off staff instead of actually doing things to improve quality and give better service. These have been discussed in the media and here on Geekzone.

It's appalling at what it's become.

Last time I visited their head office the employees were sad, tired looking . They don't have the smile that they are wanting to work there.
Their not only not improving their services but they are also making their staff unhappy.

kiwiandy

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Reply # 1251105 4-Mar-2015 15:44

VodafoneDylan:
kiwiandy: ...iMessage wasnt working.. the suggested changes didnt work... Next day called them back... they said it was a problem porting my number over and would be fixed by the end of the next day... guess what it wasnt.. but this time it was only a 15 minute wait...

Hi KiwiAndy

Sorry to hear that wasn't the best experience, some discounts weren't added and there was some confusion over iMessage.

If you haven't sorted iMessage already, I understand you'll need to unregister iMessage and register again. I expect this will be because iMessage is trying to find your number on Spark still instead of Vodafone. There's some good step by step instructions here
http://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-change-imessage-phone-number-on-iphone/

Cheers

Dylan

Dylan
thanks for your reply, but it did get sorted after 3 days, and some fiddling around.

mattbush

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Reply # 1251125 4-Mar-2015 16:21

Salami:
freitasm: You're not the first one to complain about Vodafone help desk being a shambles. It's been this way for almost a year now. People just don't notice the warning signals until they join.

And, no, it's not being mean to Vodafone. They know it's not working, they have proposed changes - changes that include laying off staff instead of actually doing things to improve quality and give better service. These have been discussed in the media and here on Geekzone.

It's appalling at what it's become.

Last time I visited their head office the employees were sad, tired looking . They don't have the smile that they are wanting to work there.
Their not only not improving their services but they are also making their staff unhappy.

They make me sad as well...

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freitasm

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Reply # 1251175 4-Mar-2015 16:57

One person supports this post

The jury is instructed to ignore the previous post as it is completely irrelevant to this discussion.

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quickymart

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Reply # 1251279 4-Mar-2015 18:58

kiwiandy:
VodafoneDylan:
kiwiandy: ...iMessage wasnt working.. the suggested changes didnt work... Next day called them back... they said it was a problem porting my number over and would be fixed by the end of the next day... guess what it wasnt.. but this time it was only a 15 minute wait...

Hi KiwiAndy

Sorry to hear that wasn't the best experience, some discounts weren't added and there was some confusion over iMessage.

If you haven't sorted iMessage already, I understand you'll need to unregister iMessage and register again. I expect this will be because iMessage is trying to find your number on Spark still instead of Vodafone. There's some good step by step instructions here
http://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-change-imessage-phone-number-on-iphone/

Cheers

Dylan

Dylan
thanks for your reply, but it did get sorted after 3 days, and some fiddling around.

Glad it got sorted but 3 days (IMO) isn't exactly a great turnaround.

kiwiandy

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Reply # 1279440 9-Apr-2015 08:38

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And so it goes on....
Received my first monthly bill, and its nothing like the deal I signed up for with lots of extra charges and fees, which almost doubles the amount I was expecting.... so I call to try and get the bill clarified,.. guess what.. 40 minutes later I am tired of listening to the same crappy music... why did i ever change over from spark?.. their call back service saved a lot of wasted waiting time.

johnr

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Reply # 1279475 9-Apr-2015 09:09

kiwiandy: And so it goes on....
Received my first monthly bill, and its nothing like the deal I signed up for with lots of extra charges and fees, which almost doubles the amount I was expecting.... so I call to try and get the bill clarified,.. guess what.. 40 minutes later I am tired of listening to the same crappy music... why did i ever change over from spark?.. their call back service saved a lot of wasted waiting time.

First invoice are you sure it's not got part month charges on it?

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