Does Vodafone care at all??

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ravsingh

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#55309 29-Dec-2009 17:28

My question is this.. Does Vodafone care at all about the incredibly poor service level provided at First Mobile outlets leading to loss of customers?

Before i begin im not saying that every First Mobile outlet is poor in service, im sure they are not, im speaking regarding just a specific one after several visits to it, but have read so many threads of other customers' negative experiences.

My dad broke his phone and being rather uneducated in the latest phones on the market i went with him to sort out a new phone for him. Went into First Mobile and was totally ignored by the staff member there, he was too busy talking about his social life with another staff member and some other person that was loitering around the back of the store.
I went and asked for some basic information about the Nokia N97 and Nokia E71 and Sony Ericsson Satio.
Basically he had no product knowledge on any of them and was unwilling to even make an effort to find out the information on their computer. Again i had to go and ask him for some comparison information of the N97 and Satio, to which he printed off the generic information from the Voda website and handed to me with a "Im sure its nothing you dont already know" remark... Then off he went to tidy up the display phones... Wow... Awesome.

If any of you dont know, those phones are amongst the most expensive in the current voda offerings so you would think a high level of service would be provided to secure such a sale... No.

An easy sale of potentially over $1000 evaporated just like that. Not only that but my dad has been a high revenue customer for voda since 2001, free from his contract for a long time and looking to stick to his current plan.. Really poor.

We walked 10 metres down the mall and were treated like absolute royalty in the Telecom store. The plans, phones.. Everything was explained to us in such a friendly, professional manner that it really was a difference like night and day. The Telecom salesperson even said that "yeah they (First Mobile) are really good for us... Really good". Lol :D

Needless to say my dad will be finished with vodafone and moving his mobile, business, home and internet all to Telecom tomorrow.

I own and operate two high pressure, high customer volume businesses so i know what level of service should be provided. I know voda doesnt have a great deal of control over First Mobile stores but im dead certain there are better ways of provding service to customers than what we experienced.

Apologies for the long rant but I just want Vodafone (if any staff member is reading this) to use this a way to improve the customer service within their organistion in the future.

chiefie

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#285870 29-Dec-2009 17:41

You should perhaps also post on Vodafone's own forum, and if you are on Twitter, you might wanna tweet to @VodafoneNZ and @TelecomNZ to let them know of the situation.

It is said to see that the resellers tend to bring down the bigger brand-name... I do think First Mobile and Digital Mobile both needs to rethink of their staff, as one day, when the damage has reached an astronomical scale, they will realised their license to sell Vodafone brand be in jeopardy, all due to the unenthusiastic unhelpful unskilled un-whatever staff.

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ajw

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#285879 29-Dec-2009 18:17

chiefie: You should perhaps also post on Vodafone's own forum, and if you are on Twitter, you might wanna tweet to @VodafoneNZ and @TelecomNZ to let them know of the situation.

It is said to see that the resellers tend to bring down the bigger brand-name... I do think First Mobile and Digital Mobile both needs to rethink of their staff, as one day, when the damage has reached an astronomical scale, they will realised their license to sell Vodafone brand be in jeopardy, all due to the unenthusiastic unhelpful unskilled un-whatever staff.

Good let them be incompetent. Upset their customers and send them to 2 degrees.

macuser

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#285892 29-Dec-2009 18:55

ajw:
chiefie: You should perhaps also post on Vodafone's own forum, and if you are on Twitter, you might wanna tweet to @VodafoneNZ and @TelecomNZ to let them know of the situation.

It is said to see that the resellers tend to bring down the bigger brand-name... I do think First Mobile and Digital Mobile both needs to rethink of their staff, as one day, when the damage has reached an astronomical scale, they will realised their license to sell Vodafone brand be in jeopardy, all due to the unenthusiastic unhelpful unskilled un-whatever staff.

Good let them be incompetent. Upset their customers and send them to 2 degrees.

How much is 2 Degrees paying you?

nate

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#285979 30-Dec-2009 00:40

chiefie: all due to the unenthusiastic unhelpful unskilled un-whatever staff.

+1

(Before I get flamed, I've been a Vodafone customer for 10 years, and been through a handful of different reps)

I can say that 99% of First Mobile reps are useless. Couldn't organise a pissup in a brewery. The first on-contract phones we got here at 3Bit, we had issues 3 with months later. The rep who organised it didn't return my calls, stopped responding to emails and generally made sure I never dealt with him again. I've had this crap customer service happen to me many times since.

It's the 1% who are the gems. I have a great First Mobile rep now who I deal with for everything, and he's also a good mate now too (he was initially recommended to me by a client of ours). The funny thing is he agrees with me that the vast majority of people in his company are muppets.

ravsingh

51 posts

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#286079 30-Dec-2009 14:52

nate: The funny thing is he agrees with me that the vast majority of people in his company are muppets.

Im not surprised, but its still a pretty sad state when a employee can say that about their own company. I wish we had your type of rep here nate, at least there are a few switched on reps out there.

chiefie: You should perhaps also post on Vodafone's own forum, and if you are on Twitter, you might wanna tweet to @VodafoneNZ and @TelecomNZ to let them know of the situation.

It is said to see that the resellers tend to bring down the bigger brand-name... I do think First Mobile and Digital Mobile both needs to rethink of their staff, as one day, when the damage has reached an astronomical scale, they will realised their license to sell Vodafone brand be in jeopardy, all due to the unenthusiastic unhelpful unskilled un-whatever staff.

I totally agree with you chiefie, this type of attitude/approach to customers only leads to negative consequences for all parties concerned. This is not my only bad experience at this outlet either. I will definitely post this on the voda forum and see what, if any, responses i get.

I emailed a complaint to First Mobile before i posted this topic on GZ and got a automated out of office reply until mid January... sigh

Damager

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#286083 30-Dec-2009 15:22

Thanks for sharing your experiences! My employer who is a large corporate company, took all of us employees to a seminar hosted by Dr Ian Brooks. It helped revisit the way our business looked at providing excellent customer service.

I recommend First Mobile read this article:

http://www.ianbrooks.com/19-steps.pdf

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michaelmurfy

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#286086 30-Dec-2009 15:42

I work in a First Mobile store in Nelson - and I must say I have never heard of anything coming out of our First Mobile stores from customers, ofc some customers might get pissed off with "Vodafone" and take it out on us, of which some sales reps don't like. Personally I like helping customers in any way possible, I read quite a few forums and also research phones on Gsmarena, Engadget Mobile etc so I actually know what i'm talking about when i'm trying to sell a product.

A question I always ask myself is why can't the reps take 20mins of their day reading about stuff they have been asked during the day of which they didn't know the answer to, or better yet instead of telling the customer a straight "I dunno" why don't they take do a quick Google search, show the customer and earn a sale?

Pitty your dad wasn't in Nelson, I would have at-least tried to sell the phone to him :P "The Nokia N97 is def a good deal at the moment, $999 with $800 off, it's great for Email, Internet and seeing it sports Extended Coverage it means you will have high speed internet basically anywhere with Vodafone Coverage. It also has an 5mp camera making it a great imaging device. Are you into music? Well this phone also features 32gb of internal storage making it a great media player. Oh, let's have a look at your contract also to make sure you're on the best plan for your needs..."

But, ofc that line depends on the customer.

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Behodar

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#286090 30-Dec-2009 16:07

Sounds like the same service I've had from FM in Whakatane, whereas the Leading Edge (Telecom) two doors down is practically the opposite. My mum works in the place between them and says that the FM staff are just as bad after hours.

CamH

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#286143 30-Dec-2009 18:47

I've got to agree, first mobile is terrible. Our local first mobile staff sit there and chat to their girlfriends/boyfriends on the phones and just simply don't care. If you try ask them a question they act pissed off and show you basic information on the phone. Ask them any questions and they don't seem to know, or just would rather get back to their phone conversation then help you.

I've encountered 1 first mobile rep that was helpful, but since then, every rep at first mobile stores have been useless.... Mind you, I can't say much better about leading edge. That staff stood there and blatently lied to my uncle to try sell him a phone. Much prefer buying online. A lot easier, and a lot more friendly staff.

Dratsab

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#286154 30-Dec-2009 19:48

I just brought a smart(ish) phone from First mobile in Courtenay Central, Wellington in the last few days. Fortunately I knew what I wanted before I went in and wasn't at all surprised with the "not interested" attitude once the sale was complete.

The shame of it all is that it reflects really badly on Vodafone especially, as with all of the signage displayed, most consumers won't realise it's actually just a Vodafone reseller. Vodafone needs to step up to the plate (I can hear you thinking "Tui ad!") and start demanding minimum standards from reps before too much (more) damage is done.

GBristow

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#286855 4-Jan-2010 13:06

To preface, I work in a Digital Mobile store. I should remind everyone that almost every store you've ever visited is franchised. There are very few stores owned and run by Vodafone directly. Therein lies both and upside and downside. Each store is owned individually. The owner can have in-house policies that they feel will generate the most revenue. I can't speak for First Mobile, but Digital Mobile has strict policies which each store must adhere to - or face losing their license. So my first suggestion, if you've received poor service from a store, would be to contact their head office. Ours is incredibly efficient and very helpful. To be honest, most complaints that we've experienced boil down to issues outside of our control, and must be escalated to Vodafone. It just so happens that we're the collective faces of Vodafone, and we are you first point of call when things go wrong. At our store, we'll do everything we can to help [i]within our control[/i].

As for customer service, let your wallet do the talking. If you've received poor service at one store, visit another. I guarantee you there are stores out there that want your business and will be professional and helpful. One employee's poor service isn't a reflection on all stores, or Vodafone as a whole. It's a reflection on those employees. As it is, Vodafone uses mystery shoppers, brand managers, several forms of internal communication, and a structure for escalation. If an employee or store isn't performing well, Vodafone will find out.

chiefie

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#287003 4-Jan-2010 21:11

Love to have a job as mystery shopper :-D sole primary purpose is to do... SHOPPING!!!

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