Vodafone on Fairgo

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Vodafone on Fairgo

surfisup1000

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#272964 27-Jul-2020 20:07

Vodafone on Fairgo tonight. Not pretty, billing elderly women for broadband services they cannot possibly have, over many months, and ignoring her when she tried to tell them they were wrong.

She mentioned that she was often on hold for 45 minutes, and had to constantly re-explain the story.

Felt quite sorry for her. Vodafone really did her over.

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#2529813 27-Jul-2020 20:31

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/fair-go/episodes/s2020-e13

link here. i always find these quite rough being on the inside of a provider... but i hate seeing any customer in these situations regardless.

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linw

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#2529827 27-Jul-2020 21:03

Terrible non-service but how many others have we seen here? How can their system be so badly broken? How hard is it to check a customer's enquiries and do something about it?

BlinkyBill

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#2529828 27-Jul-2020 21:06

It’s millions to fix the legacy of non-investment and corporate takeover. But until customers leave in droves, nothing radical will happen to fix the issues other than at a snails pace.

BlinkyBill

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#2529829 27-Jul-2020 21:13

Pressed enter too fast. The fact the customers AREN’T leaving in droves is indicative of the great technical service provided by Vodafone. And the conclusion of the Fair Go investigation is “escalate”, when the problem was resolved.

This was a pointless post, sensationalised.

surfisup1000

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#2529832 27-Jul-2020 21:22

BlinkyBill:

Pressed enter too fast. The fact the customers AREN’T leaving in droves is indicative of the great technical service provided by Vodafone. And the conclusion of the Fair Go investigation is “escalate”, when the problem was resolved.

This was a pointless post, sensationalised.

I don't get you. Are you blaming the customer?

quickymart

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#2529834 27-Jul-2020 21:25

I wonder if dumping the offshore call centre and returning it here would improve the customer experience? The one in Manila didn't work, and the one in India now isn't really doing much better. But I imagine they have a budget limit for running a call centre and moving it back here would probably blow it out.

Although, I worked at TCL for a number of years, and "cost of running the call centre" was never raised as an issue. Ditto Vodafone who had theirs here, then in Egypt of all places...then back here again, then Manila, and India. Where next?

Linux

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#2529836 27-Jul-2020 21:30

quickymart:

I wonder if dumping the offshore call centre and returning it here would improve the customer experience? The one in Manila didn't work, and the one in India now isn't really doing much better. But I imagine they have a budget limit for running a call centre and moving it back here would probably blow it out.

Do you want to pay another 30 - 50% for your fixed line and mobile bills?

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michaelmurfy

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#2529850 27-Jul-2020 22:40

Linux:

Do you want to pay another 30 - 50% for your fixed line and mobile bills?

There is a point here - Spark and (almost) every other Telco do. And Vodafone are already not the cheapest provider.

2degrees have NZ based staff and yet are cheaper than both Spark and Vodafone...

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BlinkyBill

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#2529892 28-Jul-2020 08:11

surfisup1000:

I don't get you. Are you blaming the customer?

No, it’s Vodafone’s fault for not keeping their systems updated. But there is an escalation path/team, mentioned by Fairgo but not the OP, which resolved the problem. And the fact that most customers don’t have issues most of the time and receive an excellent service means that the service, in general, is pretty good.

So the is a fairly pointless thread full of partial information simply created to sensationalise an already understood systemic problem.

BlinkyBill

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#2529895 28-Jul-2020 08:19

Linux:

quickymart:

I wonder if dumping the offshore call centre and returning it here would improve the customer experience? The one in Manila didn't work, and the one in India now isn't really doing much better. But I imagine they have a budget limit for running a call centre and moving it back here would probably blow it out.

Do you want to pay another 30 - 50% for your fixed line and mobile bills?

both these points are poorly made.

There is an escalation squad, as explained by Fairgo with their recommendation being to use it if getting nowhere through the standard call centre, which already improves the customer experience.

Secondly, how the contact centre expense associated with providing fixed line and mobile services (and why broadband services are excluded from this ‘calculation’) would add 30-50% to the retail cost is ... well, it’s silly.

Rikkitic

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#2529902 28-Jul-2020 08:45

How does the customer reach the escalation team if the customer is an older person who doesn't have the mentality or stamina to make demands and push for better treatment? Is there an institutional procedure for this? If the customer just asks for the escalation team, will that request be granted without question by the call centre?

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dt

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#2529904 28-Jul-2020 08:50

I blame poor first line support training, we are on an enterprise vodafone account at work and even their enterprise support number is horrible, the people just dont know how to think for themselves.. "hmm.. somethings not right here, ive taken the call so i'll sort it out"

I dont think ive ever had a time where I haven't had to escalate to our account manager so he can "talk to the right people" to get whatever I was querying answered or sorted.. its ridiculous to think what he's paid to sort out first line support queries...

I could be completely wrong here but I wouldn't be surprised if Vodafone retains a more aged customer base and aged customers just don't like the "hassle" of switching providers

kotuku4

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#2529905 28-Jul-2020 08:57

Time on hold, re explaining the problem, not getting resolution for months is very bad service.

No way to treat any customer, especially not elderly people.

This is not sensationalism. Shame on Vodafone.

Handsomedan

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#2529906 28-Jul-2020 09:00

Rikkitic:

How does the customer reach the escalation team if the customer is an older person who doesn't have the mentality or stamina to make demands and push for better treatment? Is there an institutional procedure for this? If the customer just asks for the escalation team, will that request be granted without question by the call centre?

This is the issue I have - people who are technically savvy or have a great grasp of how the modern world works, will eventually get to the root cause and find a fix or find someone that will help them.

People who are either uneducated, elderly, unsure of themselves or just generally not inclined to "make a fuss" are not going to know that there's a "squad" they can escalate to.

Not everyone watches Fair Go. I certainly don't. I know very few people my age that do. My parents don't either - and they're 80. They are busy watching stuff on UKTV.

My point is, it's not easy to just escalate. It's not always easy to even query something, when you are being bullied by someone at a provider. Not everyone knows you can change provider relatively easily and port your number.

There needs to be more work done to fix the issues at the root, rather than expecting the paying customers to find a way to defend themselves and deal with this kind of rubbish and the attitudes of people on here frankly stink - blaming the customer for not escalating? Having a crack at others on here for posting on an internet forum that there is an issue that was raised on television? Criticising without providing counter-argument? Should go to Reddit...that's where this kind of behaviour belongs.

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networkn

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#2529907 28-Jul-2020 09:04

dt:

I blame poor first line support training, we are on an enterprise vodafone account at work and even their enterprise support number is horrible, the people just dont know how to think for themselves.. "hmm.. somethings not right here, ive taken the call so i'll sort it out"

I dont think ive ever had a time where I haven't had to escalate to our account manager so he can "talk to the right people" to get whatever I was querying answered or sorted.. its ridiculous to think what he's paid to sort out first line support queries...

I could be completely wrong here but I wouldn't be surprised if Vodafone retains a more aged customer base and aged customers just don't like the "hassle" of switching providers

I think it's more multifactorial. A lot of helpdesks overseas are run in silos, where specific levels have specific access so even the most intelligent hard-working and helpful 1st level tech can simply take the best notes he can and then escalate.

To my mind, there is a problem with the escalation flow inside VF right now. Cases open > x days should be escalated automatically, then again if open more than a specific number of days without resolution.

Cases which have had more than a certain number of interactions and remain open should get kicked to a specialist resolution person etc.

What it comes down to most often, is that the cases don't get to the people who can resolve them.

Should it be required? Possibly not, but this is how you work around it, whilst you figure out what's broken....

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