Do you accept crap customer service or walk?

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#1092004 19-Jul-2014 14:19

Long wait times affect all customers, regardless of which queue they're in because some of the departments overflow. Incidentally, wait times are up because the weather has been rubbish and there are numerous faults on the copper network because of it. Totally not Chorus at all...

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MikeB4

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#1092011 19-Jul-2014 14:30

we all will have to get used to increasing numbers of faults and issues related to adverse weather events. Climate change is beginning to bite and it's only the beginning it will get worse. It is pointless trying to apportion blame as we are ALL to blame.

mattwnz

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#1092015 19-Jul-2014 14:50

NonprayingMantis:
Demeter:
nickrout:
Demeter:
graemeh:
I don't agree with your other assertions though, companies need to stop blaming subcontractors for problems. The company employs the subcontractor. End of story.

Blaming a contractor and simply stating a simple fact about current network status are not the same thing, despite what you believe. If there is an outage because of a fault on the Chorus network, how is Vodafone responsible for this? You're saying it's fair that we should be given a bad service rating for something we don't control and cannot expedite no matter what we do. If we owned the network, we would have responsibility. But we don't.

I appreciate what you are saying, but Vodafone contract Chorus to provide a service level. If Vodafone don't contract with Chorus for an acceptable service level, or don't insist on Chorus keeping up decent standards, then yeah I blame Vodafone who I have the contract with.

It is never acceptable for someone I contract with to subcontract to someone else and thereby think they can simply divorce themselves from responsibility because of their subcontracting decisions.

Between you and greameh, you've misinterpreted the point of the discussion, which is about allowing Facebook ratings and how valid they are. You have in the process just reiterated why I think they're silly.

not really.

Have a look at the last 10 posts on VF wall that might be construed as 'feedback' rather than product enquiries (as at time of posting)

1)
"I am sure the battery on my mobile will die by the time someone picks up the phone at Vodafone New Zealand 50 minutes so far and counting. Main reason why I hate calling this place. I need to report my phone line is not working"

2)
"How about you allow sky to return to dealing with sky accounts. Waiting on hold for over an hour simply to book a box office movie really is not acceptable. In the end I gave up. Not a good look Vodafone. Especially when sky is so efficient, and usually deal with matters within minutes of calling. Step your game up."

3)
"Just read the notes for the T-box update happening on Monday, WOW what a big dump on your customers heads your taking with it. Your going to improve 3 small things that hardly anyone cares about instead of fixing how SLOW the t-box response time is or a fix for not having to reset your t-box every 5 mins (exaggerated, but it damn well feels like it). Instead we're getting a tv remote battery level notification, a couple of new icons for recording conflicts and a padding buffer that has a minimum of 5 mins now, seriously?!!?!?! Your technical team needs their heads read if they are not paying attention to the THOUSANDS of customers who complain about the slow response time on the t-box."

4)
"aaarggghh i just spent an agonising 15 min on the phone to someone who could not tell me straight what was gong on with my bill all i want is a total of the amount what happened to the automated teller you could call instead of this hoopla"

5)
"Hi Vodafone,
Still haven't had a decent period without internet outages. Ridiculous that a small company like Snap beats you hands down at your own game.
Wish I had never switched–it has been a big disappointment! Will be ringing on Monday to close my account with Vodafone."

6)
"Well after over 6 hours on hold in the past Vodafone NZ hasn't done what they were supposed to do so back on the phone. Spent 45 minutes on hold then the guy that answered said he wasn't familiar with Fixed Line and Broadband and he would pass me on to a colleague back on hold and a further half an hour on hold so far. Think they might run out of NZ songs soon!"

7)
"I have posted twice in the past two weeks and I am fed up with the negativity directed to Voda. I lost my landline for 13 days post the lightning strike in Pukekohe and yes I was hugely frustrated but I cannot fault the service I received from Voda. I did take it higher up the ladder and it resulted in my ability to discuss this with more senior staff, the frustration from front line only having access to a "report" provided by CHORUS as to what was happening. Twice they said the cable fault was repaired but Voda was able to say - not for our client! They obviously checked my line. What we need to do as ISP customers of any ISP provider is demand to know why it is CHORUS that are not getting to our faults. They have the contract to carry out the repairs, connections etc. While they are concentrating on Fibre roll out (with a 5% ) uptake, know that they are intending to phase out copper wiring. Thank you dickhead National Government! Where does that leave those of us that have no intention of taking it up? Incidentally, I find people on this site calling the technicians "monkeys" beyond offensive. My Chorus guy who I have known for about 3 years (and grinned from ear to ear when HE turned up at 5.15pm, not someone else from Chorus) is from Zimbabwe and he is technically brilliant. I had a burnt out relay switch! The question is - who is at fault here? Your ISP is dependant on Chorus getting to your property and they can't control that. I do agree with the delayed call time (frustrating) but if you call through 777 it is not costing you so put your phone on speakerphone and get on with your life - seriously. If you are not being heard, Google Vodafone and look up the CEO and send him an email (he won't thank me for that) but seriously if you don't abuse front line, you are courteous and pleasant in your email about the frustration you are experiencing - then you will be heard. Just don't abuse the system because you have been without phone or internet for 24 hours. In that case get a life and remind yourself that you are not the only person in the world having problems. Huge thank you to those within Voda who sorted this for me. Cheers"

8)
"Your customer service astounds me. I am trying to upgrade my broadband package and so far I've been on hold for 47min!!!!"

9)
"42 minutes and counting on hold...Tiki Taane playing for 3rd time i think............anyone there??"

10)
"Can someone from Vodafone PLEASE contact me regarding our phone and internet. We havent had either in over a week and Im sick of using our credit to ring from our mobiles to find out what the hell is going on. NOT GOOD considering after 7 years you finally locked us into a 12 month contract. Seriously regretting that now!!!!!!!!!"

of those ten, all but 1 are negative, and almost every single negative one refers to call waiting times, nothing to do with Chorus
The only positive one was actually about Chorus (number 7)

so really, if you had facebook reviews enabled then based on that you would have probably 1 x gpod review and 9 x bad reviews, and of the bad reviews maybe 1 or 2 would actually be about Chorus issues rather than poor service, but the other 7-8 would be directly about VF

So yes, I totally understand why you don't want facebook reviews enabled

Why don't you just email them. I detest calling call centres, due to the points you raised, and the wasted time involved, and the frustration of dealing with multiple people where you have to re explain everything again and again, Where with email it takes 5 minutes and as long as you provide enough detail, it should be auctioned pretty quickly.

NonprayingMantis

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#1092024 19-Jul-2014 15:13

Demeter: Long wait times affect all customers, regardless of which queue they're in because some of the departments overflow. Incidentally, wait times are up because the weather has been rubbish and there are numerous faults on the copper network because of it. Totally not Chorus at all...

Seems like better planning on vodafones part would help, hiring enough staff to cover off events like this.

Incidentally a quick scan of Slingshots, Telecoms, and Bigpipes Facebook page shows very few complaints about call waiting times, so claiming it affects 'everybody' really means it affects companies who don't plan for bad weather.

NonprayingMantis

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#1092026 19-Jul-2014 15:16

mattwnz:
NonprayingMantis:
Demeter:
nickrout:
Demeter:
graemeh:
I don't agree with your other assertions though, companies need to stop blaming subcontractors for problems. The company employs the subcontractor. End of story.

Blaming a contractor and simply stating a simple fact about current network status are not the same thing, despite what you believe. If there is an outage because of a fault on the Chorus network, how is Vodafone responsible for this? You're saying it's fair that we should be given a bad service rating for something we don't control and cannot expedite no matter what we do. If we owned the network, we would have responsibility. But we don't.

I appreciate what you are saying, but Vodafone contract Chorus to provide a service level. If Vodafone don't contract with Chorus for an acceptable service level, or don't insist on Chorus keeping up decent standards, then yeah I blame Vodafone who I have the contract with.

It is never acceptable for someone I contract with to subcontract to someone else and thereby think they can simply divorce themselves from responsibility because of their subcontracting decisions.

Between you and greameh, you've misinterpreted the point of the discussion, which is about allowing Facebook ratings and how valid they are. You have in the process just reiterated why I think they're silly.

not really.

Have a look at the last 10 posts on VF wall that might be construed as 'feedback' rather than product enquiries (as at time of posting)

1)
"I am sure the battery on my mobile will die by the time someone picks up the phone at Vodafone New Zealand 50 minutes so far and counting. Main reason why I hate calling this place. I need to report my phone line is not working"

2)
"How about you allow sky to return to dealing with sky accounts. Waiting on hold for over an hour simply to book a box office movie really is not acceptable. In the end I gave up. Not a good look Vodafone. Especially when sky is so efficient, and usually deal with matters within minutes of calling. Step your game up."

3)
"Just read the notes for the T-box update happening on Monday, WOW what a big dump on your customers heads your taking with it. Your going to improve 3 small things that hardly anyone cares about instead of fixing how SLOW the t-box response time is or a fix for not having to reset your t-box every 5 mins (exaggerated, but it damn well feels like it). Instead we're getting a tv remote battery level notification, a couple of new icons for recording conflicts and a padding buffer that has a minimum of 5 mins now, seriously?!!?!?! Your technical team needs their heads read if they are not paying attention to the THOUSANDS of customers who complain about the slow response time on the t-box."

4)
"aaarggghh i just spent an agonising 15 min on the phone to someone who could not tell me straight what was gong on with my bill all i want is a total of the amount what happened to the automated teller you could call instead of this hoopla"

5)
"Hi Vodafone,
Still haven't had a decent period without internet outages. Ridiculous that a small company like Snap beats you hands down at your own game.
Wish I had never switched–it has been a big disappointment! Will be ringing on Monday to close my account with Vodafone."

6)
"Well after over 6 hours on hold in the past Vodafone NZ hasn't done what they were supposed to do so back on the phone. Spent 45 minutes on hold then the guy that answered said he wasn't familiar with Fixed Line and Broadband and he would pass me on to a colleague back on hold and a further half an hour on hold so far. Think they might run out of NZ songs soon!"

7)
"I have posted twice in the past two weeks and I am fed up with the negativity directed to Voda. I lost my landline for 13 days post the lightning strike in Pukekohe and yes I was hugely frustrated but I cannot fault the service I received from Voda. I did take it higher up the ladder and it resulted in my ability to discuss this with more senior staff, the frustration from front line only having access to a "report" provided by CHORUS as to what was happening. Twice they said the cable fault was repaired but Voda was able to say - not for our client! They obviously checked my line. What we need to do as ISP customers of any ISP provider is demand to know why it is CHORUS that are not getting to our faults. They have the contract to carry out the repairs, connections etc. While they are concentrating on Fibre roll out (with a 5% ) uptake, know that they are intending to phase out copper wiring. Thank you dickhead National Government! Where does that leave those of us that have no intention of taking it up? Incidentally, I find people on this site calling the technicians "monkeys" beyond offensive. My Chorus guy who I have known for about 3 years (and grinned from ear to ear when HE turned up at 5.15pm, not someone else from Chorus) is from Zimbabwe and he is technically brilliant. I had a burnt out relay switch! The question is - who is at fault here? Your ISP is dependant on Chorus getting to your property and they can't control that. I do agree with the delayed call time (frustrating) but if you call through 777 it is not costing you so put your phone on speakerphone and get on with your life - seriously. If you are not being heard, Google Vodafone and look up the CEO and send him an email (he won't thank me for that) but seriously if you don't abuse front line, you are courteous and pleasant in your email about the frustration you are experiencing - then you will be heard. Just don't abuse the system because you have been without phone or internet for 24 hours. In that case get a life and remind yourself that you are not the only person in the world having problems. Huge thank you to those within Voda who sorted this for me. Cheers"

8)
"Your customer service astounds me. I am trying to upgrade my broadband package and so far I've been on hold for 47min!!!!"

9)
"42 minutes and counting on hold...Tiki Taane playing for 3rd time i think............anyone there??"

10)
"Can someone from Vodafone PLEASE contact me regarding our phone and internet. We havent had either in over a week and Im sick of using our credit to ring from our mobiles to find out what the hell is going on. NOT GOOD considering after 7 years you finally locked us into a 12 month contract. Seriously regretting that now!!!!!!!!!"

of those ten, all but 1 are negative, and almost every single negative one refers to call waiting times, nothing to do with Chorus
The only positive one was actually about Chorus (number 7)

so really, if you had facebook reviews enabled then based on that you would have probably 1 x gpod review and 9 x bad reviews, and of the bad reviews maybe 1 or 2 would actually be about Chorus issues rather than poor service, but the other 7-8 would be directly about VF

So yes, I totally understand why you don't want facebook reviews enabled

Why don't you just email them. I detest calling call centres, due to the points you raised, and the wasted time involved, and the frustration of dealing with multiple people where you have to re explain everything again and again, Where with email it takes 5 minutes and as long as you provide enough detail, it should be auctioned pretty quickly.

I'm not a vf customer.
Point is, claiming 'we don't allow people to review our business because they blame us for chorus mistakes' seems to be not borne out by the actual results. Virtually nobody is complaining about chorus related issues, like not being able to get ufb or having rural broadband speeds.

MikeB4

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#1092029 19-Jul-2014 15:27

NonprayingMantis:
Demeter: Long wait times affect all customers, regardless of which queue they're in because some of the departments overflow. Incidentally, wait times are up because the weather has been rubbish and there are numerous faults on the copper network because of it. Totally not Chorus at all...

Seems like better planning on vodafones part would help, hiring enough staff to cover off events like this.

Incidentally a quick scan of Slingshots, Telecoms, and Bigpipes Facebook page shows very few complaints about call waiting times, so claiming it affects 'everybody' really means it affects companies who don't plan for bad weather.

Staff numbers are best assessed on averages. Wages bills are a significant cost, if the staffing levels are based on the peaks then the price consumers pay would have rise to meet this cost.

NonprayingMantis

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#1092030 19-Jul-2014 15:31

KiwiNZ:
NonprayingMantis:
Demeter: Long wait times affect all customers, regardless of which queue they're in because some of the departments overflow. Incidentally, wait times are up because the weather has been rubbish and there are numerous faults on the copper network because of it. Totally not Chorus at all...

Seems like better planning on vodafones part would help, hiring enough staff to cover off events like this.

Incidentally a quick scan of Slingshots, Telecoms, and Bigpipes Facebook page shows very few complaints about call waiting times, so claiming it affects 'everybody' really means it affects companies who don't plan for bad weather.

Staff numbers are best assessed on averages. Wages bills are a significant cost, if the staffing levels are based on the peaks then the price consumers pay would have rise to meet this cost.

in other words, 'you get what you pay for'

i.e. go for cheaper price at Vodafone, but be prepared for terrible service.

seems fair.

MikeB4

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#1092032 19-Jul-2014 15:39

NonprayingMantis:
KiwiNZ:
NonprayingMantis:
Demeter: Long wait times affect all customers, regardless of which queue they're in because some of the departments overflow. Incidentally, wait times are up because the weather has been rubbish and there are numerous faults on the copper network because of it. Totally not Chorus at all...

Seems like better planning on vodafones part would help, hiring enough staff to cover off events like this.

Incidentally a quick scan of Slingshots, Telecoms, and Bigpipes Facebook page shows very few complaints about call waiting times, so claiming it affects 'everybody' really means it affects companies who don't plan for bad weather.

Staff numbers are best assessed on averages. Wages bills are a significant cost, if the staffing levels are based on the peaks then the price consumers pay would have rise to meet this cost.

in other words, 'you get what you pay for'

i.e. go for cheaper price at Vodafone, but be prepared for terrible service.

seems fair.

So you are prepared to pay more ?

VF's customer base would be higher than those you have listed so issues and reporting here for those companies would be less.

NonprayingMantis

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#1092033 19-Jul-2014 15:43

KiwiNZ:
NonprayingMantis:
KiwiNZ:
NonprayingMantis:
Demeter: Long wait times affect all customers, regardless of which queue they're in because some of the departments overflow. Incidentally, wait times are up because the weather has been rubbish and there are numerous faults on the copper network because of it. Totally not Chorus at all...

Seems like better planning on vodafones part would help, hiring enough staff to cover off events like this.

Incidentally a quick scan of Slingshots, Telecoms, and Bigpipes Facebook page shows very few complaints about call waiting times, so claiming it affects 'everybody' really means it affects companies who don't plan for bad weather.

Staff numbers are best assessed on averages. Wages bills are a significant cost, if the staffing levels are based on the peaks then the price consumers pay would have rise to meet this cost.

in other words, 'you get what you pay for'

i.e. go for cheaper price at Vodafone, but be prepared for terrible service.

seems fair.

So you are prepared to pay more ?

for good service, yes

VF's customer base would be higher than those you have listed so issues and reporting here for those companies would be less.

Vodafone's customer base higher than Telecom????

MikeB4

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#1092035 19-Jul-2014 15:45

On mobile definitely and overall more than likely, telecom was not the only other Telco mentioned

NonprayingMantis

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#1092041 19-Jul-2014 15:59

KiwiNZ: On mobile definitely and overall more than likely, telecom was not the only other Telco mentioned

since the 'explanation' for why service was so terrible right now was weather related events - and several of the comments on the page were about landlines/broadband being down - then I would expect Telecom's page to be full of complaints about waiting times. They have far more fixed line customers than VF.
Whilst there is a couple, it is far from the volume that vodafone has, despite Telecom having far more fixed line customers.

Furthermore, if anything it is harder for smaller telcos to prepare for weather related events.
The smaller you are, the harder it is to cope with sudden changes in the 'average'. So if anything I would expect bigpipe, orcon, slingshot, snap, etc etc to have far more complaints about waiting times.

already checked slingshot and bigpipe - no complaints on bigpipe about waiting time (obvbiously, there is no call centre, but also no complaints about taking too long to reply to email), one or two on slingshot, but far from prevalent
Orcon show one or two, but again, not loads and loads
Snap - no complaints about waiting times

Seems like VF is the only one affected by this weather event. amazing isn't it how everybody else managed to escape virtually unscathed!

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#1092043 19-Jul-2014 16:05

NonprayingMantis:
KiwiNZ: On mobile definitely and overall more than likely, telecom was not the only other Telco mentioned

since the 'explanation' for why service was so terrible right now was weather related events - and several of the comments on the page were about landlines/broadband being down - then I would expect Telecom's page to be full of complaints about waiting times. They have far more fixed line customers than VF.
Whilst there is a couple, it is far from the volume that vodafone has, despite Telecom having far more fixed line customers.

Furthermore, if anything it is harder for smaller telcos to prepare for weather related events.
The smaller you are, the harder it is to cope with sudden changes in the 'average'. So if anything I would expect bigpipe, orcon, slingshot, snap, etc etc to have far more complaints about waiting times.

already checked slingshot and bigpipe - no complaints on bigpipe about waiting time (obvbiously, there is no call centre, but also no complaints about taking too long to reply to email), one or two on slingshot, but far from prevalent
Orcon show one or two, but again, not loads and loads
Snap - no complaints about waiting times

Seems like VF is the only one affected by this weather event. amazing isn't it how everybody else managed to escape virtually unscathed!

Posts here is a very inaccurate measure, one would have to see the metrics from the Telco's contact centres to make correct assessments. That is something I am not bothered about, I finished worrying about those sort of figures a while back.

matisyahu

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#1092271 20-Jul-2014 03:40

Demeter: Long wait times affect all customers, regardless of which queue they're in because some of the departments overflow. Incidentally, wait times are up because the weather has been rubbish and there are numerous faults on the copper network because of it. Totally not Chorus at all...

Ok, lets take that on face value - you can't control Chorus as you don't control the network, fair enough. Then how does one explain the weeks of issues with the cable network? every time I look through the Vodafone sub forum here I'm thanking my lucky stars I've gone to Telecom because god knows the wait time was horrible under TelstraClear and then was made even worse when Vodafone bought out TelstraClear (never mind the fact that it has ben 2 years and they still haven't standardised their system on a single platform that covers ADSL/VDSL, Cable, telephone and mobile). The simple fact of the matter is that when you're generating a nice profit that Vodafone NZ does then 'pleading of poverty' rings pretty damn hollow. Most NZ'ders are willing to cut a small upstart some slack but come on - take responsibility for the mess and build another call centre - heck, build one in NZ where the wages are cheaper at the costs are lower - Dunedin would be a good starter if costs are a concern.

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sir1963

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#1092383 20-Jul-2014 10:59

mattwnz:
andrewNZ: For me it depends on the situation. Usually I just walk, but if I think someone needs to know, I'll complain.

Once I've had to complain, there is no chance they'll get me to buy. If the response to the complaint is good, I might return in the future.

You have to remember that they are only human, and there is good and bad staff in most companies. But I think they will want to know which staff members are letting them down so they can be retrained.

Too often sales staff are on minimum wage + commission.
The staff have a pretty good idea what products likes and brands will give then the highest commission. You will generally find sales staff then pushing you towards certain brands touting how much better they are than the one you were actually wanting.

I have had sales staff interested until they see I have a workplace card that gives me a cost +10% price and they will fob me off to one of the newer staff as there is no real commission for them from my purchase.

Hammerer

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#1093503 22-Jul-2014 09:41

Agree. Plus you got the thread fully back on topic.

I walk.

Service in sales can be very different to the service in support. I've found that it is more important to be able to get a problem resolved to my satisfaction than it is to get a good deal. Unresolved problems just soak up too much time and energy. So I "walk" from organisations that don't resolve issues. I've did that once two years ago and I've noticed the improvement in my life.

I've just dropped DSE because every second online order and every fourth store purchase has had problems. The last time I complained when they only delivered one unit of an item when I'd paid for more. Phone, contact form, email have got me no useful response and no response at all for weeks. So I've walked.

I guess that's the main complaint about Vodafone being made above. I'm a customer and I agree that not a lot seems to happen to reduce the phone queues, TV box issues, etc. When I need to phone them I deliberately use an uncommitted half day because I know that I will have to wait and I want to reduce the likelihood of interruptions that would mean I have to drop the call. But at least they deal with the problems when I get through. If they didn't then I would walk too.

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