Plea to Vodafone NZ: fix your website! PLEASE...

Forums › One NZ (including Farmside) › Plea to Vodafone NZ: fix your website! PLEASE...

binarysolo

13 posts

Geek

#46936 10-Nov-2009 09:49

This is a desperate plea to Vodafone to please sort your website out. If you want to provide an option to pay online then make sure it works - please!

Today was the last straw, as not only could I not pay online, I couldn't by phone or Customer Service either. I'm sure there is some sort of freak accident or outage causing this today, but this seems to be the case every time I try to pay online.

Why should a customer who wants to pay their account on time have to log on 3 to 4 times a month just to find a day when the website actually works and can take my payment.

The problems have started from day one of my account 17 months ago, and despite multiple pleas and calls to Customer Service (who from my experience have made things up multiple times when they don't know the answer just to try end the call as quickly as possible.. one time I had to direct the guy to the Vodafone website so he could read up on it while I was on the phone to him.. but that's another story).

The constant problems have quickly and constantly eroded my opinion of Vodafone being 'tech savvy' and at the leading edge of communications technology. Your website is slow, cumbersome, error-prone, links take you places expectedly and is generally difficult to use.

When my contract expires in 7 months time I will be closing my account (thank you number portability).

Ps. In case my message was lost in the ramble - please fix your website, and especially the online payment function on your website. Fix it or remove the option.

nzpat

167 posts

Master Geek

#271544 10-Nov-2009 09:59

ZollyMonsta

3009 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 379

ID Verified

Trusted

#271546 10-Nov-2009 10:00

Hear Hear! I wholeheartedly agree...

ajobbins

5053 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1279

Trusted

#271547 10-Nov-2009 10:03

In Vodafone's own forums, there are 14 threads, created by Vodafone, about Customer Service System Issues - And that is only in the last 30 days. That an outage for their CSRs roughly every 2nd day.

Twitter: ajobbins

tripp

3848 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1220

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#271551 10-Nov-2009 10:07

Yep also have problems paying on line etc, end up ringing the CS 2/3 times these days, and then they say "oh you can set it up to auto pay on the due date for next time" and every time i tell them no i will try it over the internet first that way i pick what day you get the money

corksta

2405 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 382

Trusted

Subscriber

#271552 10-Nov-2009 10:08

+1. No matter how many times they spruce it up, move things around, add things to it, it has constantly remained a jumbled mess with broken links or links that take you somewhere completely unrelated. It never consistently works and pops up with random error messages. It's painful to use and always difficult to find things, and this has always been my experience with it.

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2526
Inactive user

#271571 10-Nov-2009 10:41

Vodafone know about the issues new MYA is coming its in project / build stage now. Will be out next year

John

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

davidlegend

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#271850 10-Nov-2009 21:49

Hi binarysolo and all,

As JohnR says - we're working on it.

I know this is a lame response - but I can promise you that the part of the solution that I'm working on, an improved user interface, is going really well. We've spent the last few months conducting a design process that was largely guided by user interviews and user testing. The result is, we're pretty sure we're making a giant leap with the result.

However, the other big change we'll be making is ensuring we have the ability to continuously improve these sections of the website once they are delivered. It's incredibly frustrating knowing there's stuff there that's rubbish, but the way it's built means it's a seriously expensive mission to fix it. We're going to make sure we can iterate and improve the site as we learn more about what you all need from it, so we don't get stuck with these headaches.

We're going to be posting more details about the improvements on our blog, so keep an eye on http://blogs.vodafone.co.nz/online - and I'll make sure I post on Geekzone whenever we announce something worth knowing.

Along with the work to improve system stability, and fixes to some accounts where data was corrupted, we're sure that the Vodafone website is going to become a darn sight more useful early next year.

In the meantime - do let us know if there's stuff that's winding you up. It's possible there's a short term fix that might help.

Thanks for the feedback.

--
David
Vodafone design and usability geek
(and cycling nut)

nzpat

167 posts

Master Geek

#271861 10-Nov-2009 21:58

Backend working > fancy smancy front end

jmosen

551 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 134

Lifetime subscriber

#272587 13-Nov-2009 05:58

David, good news about the website. I trust you are taking steps to ensure it is fully accessible, it's much harder to retrofit this if you get it wrong during the design phase.

As a screen reader user I'm happy to test/advise.

Jonathan

davidlegend

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#272738 13-Nov-2009 13:54

Hi Jonathan,

Yes - absolutely.

Vodafone has a policy of WCAG II AA compliance, and aims for AAA compliance - but as you'll know better than most, we do fall short of this on occasion.

I've just been up to chat with the development team and it does look like, whilst not totally dropping the ball, it's an area we could have covered better in the design, so we're busy making sure we're hitting the mark - mainly around full non-javascript access.

I'd be grateful for any other feedback you have around using our site with a screen reader - I'll PM you about an idea for some help we could do with.

Many thanks.
--
David
Vodafone design and usability geek
(and cycling nut)