I recently wrote to MR LANGKAMP at VODAFONE to lodge a complaint with regards to the poor service from your Vodafone Customer Services department and your Vodafone repair engineers.
Just recently my HTC Desire developed a fault whereby the on/off button stopped working and only way I could turn my mobile on was to take out the battery and then reinsert it again to power it up, on the 07/09/2012 I took my mobile into the Vodafone store in the White Rose Shopping Centre in Leeds who then sent it off to be repaired, I received a text message on the 14/09/2012 telling me my mobile had been fixed and was waiting to be picked up from the Vodafone store, on picking my mobile up I was told it was not my original mobile but a refurbished one, needless to say this was not exactly what I expected but I took the HTC desire home and thought this was the last of my problem, how wrong I was.
After picking up the mobile on the 14/9/12 it seemed to be okay until I tried to turn it off before going to bed, each time I powered it down it simply powered back up again, in the end the only way to turn it off was to take out the battery. Naturally on the following day 15/9/12 I took the HTC desire back to the Vodafone Store, I spoke to Katherine and explained what had happened, Katherine tried to call Vodafone Customer Services but was passed from dept to dept or simply cut off, we were in the Vodafone store for 1½ hours while the poor girl did her very best to try and sort out my problematic mobile, in the end my mobile was sent off yet again to your incompetent inept repair engineers.
On the 25/09/12 I received another text message alerting me to the fact that I had yet again to go to the Vodafone Store to pick up my mobile, whilst I was in the Vodafone store I turned the mobile on and off a few times to ensure it was working and to save myself the time and trouble of returning to the store, it seemed okay so I took it home everything seemed to be working fine until my husband and my son asked why I wasn’t answering my calls or replying to my text messages, only then did I realise my mobile was not picking up my calls or messages even though it was showing a full signal.
I was shocked and found this to be particularly worrying as my father has had a heart attack and this is my mother’s only means of communicating with me, and yes on the 27/9/2012 yet again I took it back to the Vodafone store to be repaired again by your inadequate clueless worthless repair engineers.
At this point I’m pretty damn angry at the way I have been treated, I have been a Vodafone customer for over 20 years and I cannot believe I have been treated in such a shoddy inconsiderate way, I have 3 monthly contracts with you all of which are under my name, it seems to me that all of those years where I was a loyal customer and the fact that I have brought extra business your way counts for absolutely nothing, all I wanted was to be treated fairly, and you have failed to do that.
I am due an upgrade in December, why oh why could you not use some good old fashioned common sense and upgrade my mobile earlier, you could have easily carried my contract over so I kept paying for my old contract and then swapped to the new one on the upgrade date, but no that would have been too easy, far better to give me a negative customer experience that will leave me questioning if I really should be staying with Vodafone or perhaps going elsewhere, and what better way to show me how committed your are to your customers then have me running back and forth to the Vodafone store.
The customer service I experienced form your Vodafone store in the White Rose Shopping Centre was exemplary, both Katherine and Ben were polite, helpful and went the extra mile, while doing their very best to turn my negative Vodafone experience into a positive one, not an easy task when Vodafone Customer Services cannot be relied upon, people like Ben and Katherine are the backbone of Vodafone, maybe you should employ more people like this then you would not be receiving negative comments on the internet and letters like mine.
Even today my mobile is very slow, and when typing out messages it no longer feels smooth like my original HTC Desire did, and I really cannot be hassled with going back to the store yet again, although this does give me time to reflect on my disastrous recent Vodafone experience, and whether or not I wish to stay with Vodafone or indeed go elsewhere.
As of today I have not been contacted or even received an apology from you, but before I do go let me ask you a question what kind of Customer Service experience do you expect to receive, and how would you have felt if you had received the kind of Customer Service I was subjected to, especially since you had been a loyal customer for over 20 years, I bet you too would have been shocked and angry. BEFORE I GO WHEN EXACTLY DO YOU PLAN TO ANSWER MY LETTER? CUSTOMER SERVICE AT VODAFONE IS ABSOLUTELY DIRE
