How bad can Vodafone customer service really get?

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speakerguru

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Topic # 31146 6-Mar-2009 12:57

Today I have experienced the worst case yet of woeful Vodafone service. I arrived home to find my daughter in tears with total frustration in trying to deal with New Zealand's worst company.

My daughter moved houses last weekend to a different area of Nelson, she has been trying for over a week now to cancel her previous phone line and Internet connection with Vodafone. Despite sending numerous email and getting stupid auto responses claiming email was not monitored and making numerous phone calls she has got nowhere.

Today she finally got through to an ignorant woman who had no interest in trying to help. In the end this employee of Vodafone terminated the call by hanging up on my daughter (the CUSTOMER).

I trust the best and only way to handle this now is refuse to pay any account that happens to turn up.

How on earth can a company retain so many customers when they treat people like this? We are in a global resession where kiwis are bleating about losing their jobs, I suggest these ignorant employees at Vodafone should be the first to go.

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Reply # 199613 6-Mar-2009 13:57

How long is a piece of string?

I understand your frustration, but perhaps you could go into some detail on what your daughter is actually trying to achieve, the steps that have been taken so far, and the responses she has been met with?

Try to be factual, you've got your frustrations off your chest in your first post so lets just stick to the facts now and see what can be done. There are a few Vodafone people around the forums here so you never know, they might be able to help you get to a resolution.

dan

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Reply # 199617 6-Mar-2009 14:18

also annoyed, been trying since Tuesday afternoon to get them to cancel my 1GB No Term Plan on my VMC Card / SIM, 777 cant do it, has to go through another team, which they cant get through to, so they have to message them to call me.

same response every day, someone will call you tommorow, noone does. next billing cycle starts on Sunday, whats the bet i will be charged for another month before someone bothers to call me back.

farcus

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Reply # 199621 6-Mar-2009 14:37

you could always make a complaint - but good luck with finding out how to do that.
Accordign to Vodafones website to make a complaint go to on their website

contact us > make a complaint

However, there is no link to make a complaint on the contact us page so their help fiels are either out of date or they have removed the link due to too many complaints.

speakerguru

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Reply # 199622 6-Mar-2009 14:43

I thought I was clear on what I wrote about Vodafone. My daughter has been trying for over a week to cancel a Vodafone line and number in a house she no longer lives in.

It is almost an impossibilty to contact anyone within that slack company and the only person she has spoken with their to date was rude and hung up on her.

She has just moved house, undergone a miscarriage all within a week and has to put up with these idiots at Vodafone. Well I just got her to cancel her autopayments so it won't be long before someone inside that ivory tower will get notified. You can bet the accountants are on to it!

It also appears we are not the only people to be experiencing this unacceptable and dreadful lack of service. I see another post here already from another CUSTOMER of Vodafone.

When will these hopeless idiots ever understand that a customer is their life blood? They are dam lucky to have jobs and as far as I am concerned they do not derserve to be employed.

VFNZPaulBrislen

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Reply # 199641 6-Mar-2009 16:22

@speakerguru, if you get your daughter to send me her details (either PM through here or email to paul dot brislen at vodafone dot com) I'll escalate it to the top of the pile ASAP.

Cheers

Paul

Paul Brislen
Head of Corporate Communications
Vodafone

http://forum.vodafone.co.nz

Satch

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Reply # 199642 6-Mar-2009 16:33

speakerguru: I thought I was clear on what I wrote about Vodafone.

I thought you were clear enough too...

I emailed a question to Vodafone regarding phone upgrades via their website on 23/10/2008. Got a response from them on 3/11/2008 which read:

Thank you for your email.

I have forwarded your query onto the correct department to action your request. They will contact you directly. I cannot give you a definite timeframe, but appreciate your patience, and will request that you receive a response as soon as possible.

As of yet I still haven't had any further contact from VF, so I gave up...

teletek

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Reply # 199715 7-Mar-2009 05:57

SteveH,

How bad can Vodafone customer service really get?

As bad as you're experiencing.

Read the comments at this thread and you'll see they are not singling you out. They just treat all their customers with contempt.

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=40&TopicId=29940

They seem incapable or sorting out their support out so I suggest you do the only thing that you have left and that is to vote with your wallet appropriately.

You wont be alone.

stevenz

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Reply # 199726 7-Mar-2009 10:32

Over the past year I've sent them probably 4 or 5 emails via the "contact us" page on the website asking fairly straightforward questions, never had a response from any of them.

That said, the big guy in the Lambton Quay Vodafone store is actually pretty helpful, although they do seem to have too many departments which aren't able to talk to each other judging by his being unable to access the same information from different places.

speakerguru

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Reply # 199743 7-Mar-2009 12:32

I appreciate the other comments here and the offer from Paul to TRY and get the case on top of the obvious heap.

As it happened it appears my Daughter's husband was able to finally contact a live human at Vodafone on Friday evening and MAYBE the issue is now dealt with. We will see however Vodafone will not be receiving any further payments as the auto has been cancelled.

I have spent my life in Sales and have never experienced such a difficult and ignorant company to deal with. Last year my wife and I travelled to Europe and we unable to use text on my 021 mobile. Despite sending numerous emaisl to Vodafone in NZ and asking questions on their website I did not receive one response. On arriving back in New Zealand I checked to find they had changed something that enabled text overseas but had not notified anyone.

I have my own website specializing in teaching people how to make major sales, ie: sales that take more than one interview with a customer. I intending writing a full article and publishing just how astounding it can be dealing with idiots like Vodafone.

Anyone interested can read it in a day or so at http://www.makingmajorsales.com

Their only interest is signing people up, there is no such thing as after sales service and they have no idea, nor do they care one bit about what a customer is.

The sooner we get some real competition the better.

alasta

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Reply # 199761 7-Mar-2009 13:45

Even if you think the matter is resolved, make sure that you send them a formal request signed by the account holder by post and fax to advise them of the specific service that you want terminated and the date when the termination is/was to take effect. Clearly state that you do will not accept liability for any amounts billed in relation to services provided beyond that date. Keep a copy of this letter.

If you receive any further bills do not pay them as this indicates that you accept that they are true and correct. If the company attempts to send your account to a collection agency then you can produce your written correspondence as evidence that you are not liable for the charges.

Understandably this is probably the last thing that your daughter wants to have to worry about at the moment, but I encourage you to support her in putting up a fight as companies need to learn that they can't treat customers like this and get away with it. Good luck.

richms

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Reply # 200192 9-Mar-2009 17:13

Sending to another department is all I have managed to get back from their support system.

The thing is, if I am in the home phone and broadband section of the site, and click into the support things and send something to them, it should be pretty clear that I want home phone and broadband, even after navigating their aweful signup for an account to submit things.

Vodafone clearly do not want customers if they cant treat them with some decency and actually work to solve their issues rather then fob off with excuses and buckpassing and saying that the systems are down.

Richard rich.ms

Behodar

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Reply # 200224 9-Mar-2009 19:29

stevenz: Over the past year I've sent them probably 4 or 5 emails via the "contact us" page on the website asking fairly straightforward questions, never had a response from any of them.

I've sent a few and they've replied to all, but with an average wait time of 3 weeks. The other day my dad called them due to an incorrect bill (ie. an error at Vodafone's end) and they charged $1 for the call, then the connection dropped mid-conversation. He called back and got a different person, but they didn't fix the billing error and refused to refund the call cost.

I've switched to Telecom.

simon14

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Reply # 200227 9-Mar-2009 19:38

Vodafone once had excellent customer service, they used to be open 24/7 and you never had to wait on hold to speak to a human being, what's best is back in the day you were always speaking to a New Zealander.

My mum was having a good old bitc* about Vodafone today - her boss’s account was unpaid so she was trying to call up to request the bill be sent out to the address on the account. She waited on hold for 20 minutes and eventually gave up. She called the next few days with the same outcome and never got through. On Friday she called again and finally got through to a lovely Egyptian man who she found very difficult to understand. After she gave the account details over, her call got d/c.

This afternoon her boss’s phones got cut off...... hahahha

Vodafone, SHAME ON YOU :)

simon14

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Reply # 200229 9-Mar-2009 19:49

Behodar:
stevenz: Over the past year I've sent them probably 4 or 5 emails via the "contact us" page on the website asking fairly straightforward questions, never had a response from any of them.

I've sent a few and they've replied to all, but with an average wait time of 3 weeks. The other day my dad called them due to an incorrect bill (ie. an error at Vodafone's end) and they charged $1 for the call, then the connection dropped mid-conversation. He called back and got a different person, but they didn't fix the billing error and refused to refund the call cost.

I've switched to Telecom.

Their email help is useless.

[Incident: 081126-000706] - this incident number was opened on 1st December. I've sent 4 follow up emails with no reply. Issue never got resolved. Don't have the time or patients to follow this up anymore.

cokemaster

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Reply # 200242 9-Mar-2009 21:28

[Incident: 081126-000706]

That looks like a Right Now case number, in which case the email was sent on the 26th of November 2008.

I suggest you look at the TDR website - it might help you.

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