About two months ago I decided to put my partner on a red share plan, sharing data with my mobile.  I've tried on multiple occasions to do this, and consistently failed.  Is there something that I'm missing, or something that I can do differently, that will end up with a better result?  Or am I now at a point where it would be easier just to port to Spark, who could probably set a sharing plan up from scratch without too much effort?

Background here: in October I decided I wanted a Red Share plan for my partner, as I could then get both of us unlimited calls for about what we were paying on our separate plans.  Since then the journey has just been incredibly complicated:

1. Call to ask how to do this. Transferred a couple of times, but result was OK - that I need to change to a Red+ plan (which they did for me), then in a few days I could call back to move my partner

2. A week later, still not on a Red+ plan. Call back, transferred a couple of times, there was a problem with the plan setup, it hadn't come through. It'll be a couple of days, then I can call back and do Red sharer. Also transferred to another group to set up a credit card auto payment - as the first group couldn't do that.

3. Plan change comes through. Call for Red sharer. Again transferred a few times, then assured that would be done, and that my partner's billing would now be on my same plan.

4. Bill comes for partner's account. She hasn't moved to Red share, so she didn't have unlimited calls. I have a bill for $120 for her.

5. Call to see if I can get this sorted. Goes to initial call centre (Philippines), they transfer to onshore, who transfer to someone who can do billing. Tell my story, they start to help, call cut off. No call back.

6. Call again. Goes to Philippines, I give a slightly different story, this time they can do it without transferring me. Put me on hold, then after a while call cut off. No call back.

7. Call again. Goes to Philippines. This time the lady asks me my PIN number - the previous couple of interactions didn't (interesting difference). She can handle the call. But it will be some work, she put me on hold for a while to chase it out. Transferred after that to another lady, who was very helpful, she can see the notes, but no it hasn't been done. This final one has order number OS682770070.

8. Finally, we can get the charges reversed, she has made notes on my account and my partner's account. But my partner needs to call in to do that.  I need to organise for that to happen

9.  The order that was placed was processed urgently.  And incorrectly.  The result was that my phone was changed to be a sharer, rather than my partners.  Since I wasn’t sharing with anyone, the result was that I lost all data connection on my phone.  

10.  I called and this was resolved after a day, and again a request was put in to move my partner to the red sharer plan.

11.  After a period of a couple of weeks, this still didn’t appear to have come through.  I called again, and was told that they’d been confused by the previous order, which showed as complete, when in fact it had been incorrectly completed then reversed.  They needed put another request in to migrate.  I also asked to have the fees on my partner’s account reversed.  I was told a team leader would call me back.  Waited for this call back - by end of day this call back hadn’t occurred.

12.  After another couple of weeks, again no action.  Now the 11th of December.  I called and it appears that the change hadn’t been placed because the team leader needed to call me.  Which hadn’t happened.  This time the person I spoke to placed the order (and gave me an order number), and also said they’d talk to their team leader about reversing the fees.  

13.  I was informed the fees would be reversed, which meant we weren’t out of pocket from the inability to change plans.

14.  Monday 14th: my partner’s phone stops working.  I call to understand what’s happened, it seems that the change to move her onto a red sharer plan has failed, but wasn’t noticed to be failed, so her old plan was disconnected.  This can’t be fixed by me, they need to talk to her to arrange the disconnections team to fix it.

15.  They talk to my partner, and tell her she’ll have to visit a Vodafone shop.

16.  She visits the Vodafone shop, who tell her there’s nothing they can do, it has to be done by the online shop, and will take 24-48 hours

17.  I call to understand what’s happening, and the answer is that the Vodafone shop never was able to do anything, we just need to wait for the failed red share to be loaded, which will definitely happen today (Tuesday) or tomorrow (Wednesday).

18.  Late Wednesday phone still not working.  I call to understand what’s going on.  It appears that my phone number is marked as transferred, and my partner's as inactive.  It sounds like, rather than my partner moving to be sharing my plan, I’ve been moved to her plan.  The guy I speak to sounds good, but he has no idea why my phone is working at all – he thinks it probably shouldn’t be.  He needs the SIM card numbers from both phones to diagnose – so I need to txt him once my partner is in the same location as me (approximately 8:30 tonight), and he’ll then call us to diagnose.  

19.  8:40 I text with the details, at 10pm still waiting for a call back.  The guy said he finished shift at 10pm, so I am figuring this won’t be resolved tonight.

20.  Call at 6:30am to see if I can get it fixed, told the relevant group are closed until 8am, I need to call back then.

21.  Called at 8am, the number he's given me is for new sales, and they can't help.  They have transferred me to online shop, the guy there reckoned he needed to talk to sales, and put me on hold.  But then I turned up at sales with a new person (so he wasn't talking to them for me).  The lady in sales said she can't deal with it, she's put me through to another team.  Fingers crossed.