Consumer satisfaction survey results: Vodafone down

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#1950264 1-Feb-2018 18:50

mattwnz:

It is the way NZ companies seem to be heading, with contracting out support overseas. It guess it is a sign of a very competitive market, where costs have to be trimmed down as much as possible. But the fact is that people will usually always go for what on paper looks like the best value.

What you're saying is correct, but the fact they continue to hang onto their God-awful outsourced call centre, delivering results like this doesn't make it right, does it?
When I worked there (admittedly as TCL) they also prided themselves on the fact that all their call centres were in NZ - Auckland, Kapiti and Christchurch. The outsourcing came along after I left.

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#1950271 1-Feb-2018 19:01

They may score higher if they allowed on account customers to carry over their unused data.

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#1950275 1-Feb-2018 19:23

quickymart:

mattwnz:

It is the way NZ companies seem to be heading, with contracting out support overseas. It guess it is a sign of a very competitive market, where costs have to be trimmed down as much as possible. But the fact is that people will usually always go for what on paper looks like the best value.

What you're saying is correct, but the fact they continue to hang onto their God-awful outsourced call centre, delivering results like this doesn't make it right, does it?
When I worked there (admittedly as TCL) they also prided themselves on the fact that all their call centres were in NZ - Auckland, Kapiti and Christchurch. The outsourcing came along after I left.

Guessing it is significantly cheaper than using NZ support. But if people aren't happy, they need to vote with their feet, otherwise business think poor service is acceptable. The fact that companies use overseas call centres at all shows that even though many people don't lie them, and may find it difficult to understand the people at the other end of the line due to English not being their first language, it doesn't cause a big loss in customers. Basically these services have become commodities, where price is generally the only difference in terms of the actual product being sold, so the only way to undercut the opposition is to cut costs.

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#1950299 1-Feb-2018 20:19

I spend a lot each month on VF consumer plans and internet connections ($1200ish), and I dread calling the call centres. I find it most helpful to visit the Lampton Quay store - they are normally busy, but when I get served they are normally very helpful and love giving discounts or bonuses!

Porirua was a disappointment when I had to visit them.

Retentions are also helpful, especially because they gave me a direct dial number - the worst thing when using 777, 888 or the 0800 numbers if the *&**** amount of numbers you have to press!!! AAAHHHHH!

I would rate vodafone:

Value: 12/10

Fix issue using 0800: 2/10

Can fix issue on first call using 0800: 2/10

Fix issue using store: 7/10

Can fix issue on first visit to store: 7/10

2G/3G Coverage: 8/10

4G coverage: 6/10

Online portal: 6/10

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#1950304 1-Feb-2018 20:29

jjnz1:

I spend a lot each month on VF consumer plans and internet connections ($1200ish), and I dread calling the call centres. I find it most helpful to visit the Lampton Quay store - they are normally busy, but when I get served they are normally very helpful and love giving discounts or bonuses!

Porirua was a disappointment when I had to visit them.

Retentions are also helpful, especially because they gave me a direct dial number - the worst thing when using 777, 888 or the 0800 numbers if the *&**** amount of numbers you have to press!!! AAAHHHHH!

I would rate vodafone:

Value: 12/10

Fix issue using 0800: 2/10

Can fix issue on first call using 0800: 2/10

Fix issue using store: 7/10

Can fix issue on first visit to store: 7/10

2G/3G Coverage: 8/10

4G coverage: 6/10

Online portal: 6/10

So to get any level of satisfaction to a problem you have to visit their physical store, and not just any one of their stores, but a specific one? Ummmm... what year is this again?

cadman

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#1950305 1-Feb-2018 20:29

jjnz1:

I spend a lot each month on VF consumer plans and internet connections ($1200ish), and I dread calling the call centres. I find it most helpful to visit the Lampton Quay store - they are normally busy, but when I get served they are normally very helpful and love giving discounts or bonuses!

Porirua was a disappointment when I had to visit them.

Retentions are also helpful, especially because they gave me a direct dial number - the worst thing when using 777, 888 or the 0800 numbers if the *&**** amount of numbers you have to press!!! AAAHHHHH!

I would rate vodafone:

Value: 12/10

Fix issue using 0800: 2/10

Can fix issue on first call using 0800: 2/10

Fix issue using store: 7/10

Can fix issue on first visit to store: 7/10

2G/3G Coverage: 8/10

4G coverage: 6/10

Online portal: 6/10

So to get any level of satisfaction to a problem you have to visit their physical store, and not just any one of their stores, but a specific one? Ummmm... what year is this again?

jjnz1

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#1950309 1-Feb-2018 20:34

cadman:

So to get any level of satisfaction to a problem you have to visit their physical store, and not just any one of their stores, but a specific one? Ummmm... what year is this again?

Yep, but if I move to Spark, then I pay at least $300-400 more for the same services I have now, and if I move to 2Degrees I lose coverage and speed.

Plus I depend on the sure-signal devices for two properties with no-little coverage.

So I'm kinda stuck.

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#1950329 1-Feb-2018 20:41

When Russell Stanners joined VF things almost immediately improved. It was rare for VF to say no to any request, they were very flexible, aggressively priced and very aware of customer loyalty.

Things in account management are the worst I've ever known from them.

I am 5 months waiting to re-sign 4 analog lines and an internet connection for my business.

Digital Mobile are at least 3/4 of the problem, they are the worst company in NZ to deal with currently, in my experience. Completely clueless and utterly incompetent in my experience.

VF need to bring everything back internally and manage it. They need to go back to core values. Unfortunately, being overseas owned and NZ being such a small market VF is just a set of numbers in a spreadsheet to some overseas bean counter, who moves numbers around until the profit margin is where the shareholders expect it to be.

Until they need the numbers of customers dropping I do not expect an improvement.

They need to stop acquiring new companies and focus on improving the core values and services of the ones already there, fix the awful ongoing billing problems and get rid of DM.

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#1950335 1-Feb-2018 20:46

Interesting how Consumer said they should stop spending money on flashy advertising, and spend it on improving their service. That was quite accurate, I thought.

As to having to visit a store to get every single problem fixed - I'm a busy person. I don't have time to go and stand in line and wait at a shop (in particular a specific one) to get a problem fixed. What if I don't live anywhere near a shop? And what's the point of having a call centre (outsourced or otherwise) if they can't/won't do what you ask them?

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#1958310 14-Feb-2018 20:32

Just a thought - didn't Vodafone used to have their call centre somewhere like Egypt? What happened to that? From memory, it left there, then came back to NZ, then the Philippines?

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#1958321 14-Feb-2018 21:04

quickymart:
Just a thought - didn't Vodafone used to have their call centre somewhere like Egypt? What happened to that? From memory, it left there, then came back to NZ, then the Philippines?

Yes Egypt then they had the political issues and VodafoneNZ pulled out and brought it all back to NZ

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#1958387 15-Feb-2018 07:27

If only they had kept it in NZ...

littlehead

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#1958463 15-Feb-2018 10:01

I've dealt with Vodafone on both the corporate and residential side, and the corporate side was one of the worst business relationships we have ever had. The list of failings over our contract is far too numerous to list but some of the highlights:

Outright lying about capabilities and compatibility of systems and technologies without doing any checks, resulting in increased costs and system degradation.

Emails/calls going into a black hole, getting no response for months, and then when going to near the top to finally get a response, we were told that our contact had left and we were never notified. Outrageously two other contacts had been assigned to us, never contacted us, and left in that same time.

They kept constantly charging us for services that they promised would be free or nil, then we would have to chase them up for credits, which they would apply months late. We still have credit on accounts at Vodafone 4 years later since leaving them as the money on the account isn't"from" us but their credit, so they won't pay it out. Still keep getting invoices with the same credit amount every month.

And when it was finally time to tender again, they dropped the ball hugely. Promising huge savings, throwing around large numbers of savings and promises to change etc. And then a 5 min check told us what they were offering was the exact same pricing as before. Like exactly, zero difference. When confronted at our meeting, their rep literally had no response. Like just said nothing. Silence. Couldn't come up with a response. Got pretty weird for a bit their, and their partner in the proposal had to take over. We eventually found out that person was two weeks new and was just thrown onto a "difficult" account with zero prep or warning.

All that being said, I am still with them for my personal prepay mobile. Current Flex deal is the cheapest I can find that suits me, plus a few other reasons I stay. But I've never had to contact or deal with Vodafone directly, accounts or support, in like 10 years. Never had an issue that required it. I would never go on-account with them but prepay where things just seem to work automated, sure.

Vodafone is fine if you never have to contact them. Otherwise, best of luck to you.

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#1958539 15-Feb-2018 11:39

littlehead:

They kept constantly charging us for services that they promised would be free or nil, then we would have to chase them up for credits, which they would apply months late. We still have credit on accounts at Vodafone 4 years later since leaving them as the money on the account isn't"from" us but their credit, so they won't pay it out. Still keep getting invoices with the same credit amount every month.

Unbelievable. What kind of screwed up bean-counter logic is that? It's money that was paid that shouldn't have been charged in the first place that has been credited back. So it's YOUR money!

There's a life lesson in that - make sure you never pay any disputed amount (so no direct debit authorities or credit card payments) just in case you can't use up the credit that will result once it's finally sorted.

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#1958728 15-Feb-2018 18:29

Do their business calls go to the Philippines as well? If so, there's your answer.

I would never call them - much better to communicate with them on Facebook.

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