Pay monthly services

[EK]

I am a pay monthly customer and put in an upgrade for my phone to the Samsung Galaxy SII on 24th May. At the time, the Voda website reported this phone as in stock so I was expecting delivery within a day or two. A couple of days later I got an email telling me that the phone is "out of stock" and guideline times are 2-4 weeks.

I have yet to hear anything further and am very frustrated, as one of the reasons I stayed with Vodafone was that you had the phone available earlier than some of your competitors. If I had known that there would be this long delay, I would have gone with another company instead.

Can someone please get in touch with me to say when the phone is now going to be in stock and when I can expect receipt - as if it is more than a day or two more I want to cancel my contract instead.

Very frustrated - hope you can help.

Regards

EK

[biffo1963]

Did you order online or via 191 ?  If online then you are taking pot luck on the availability of any particular handset at any particular time.  Also, did you take out a new contract on a different tariff or did you elect to upgrade your handset by extending your existing contract ?    If you've extended your existing contract (and you've received the email confirming the extension) then you're already into your extension and you may have difficulty cancelling.   OK,  if your Galaxy S II doesn't appear for a couple of months then you'd have grounds for arguing breach of contract - but not after just over a week !   The moral of this is - if availability of the handset is a deal-breaker, go to a bricks-and-mortar store where you don't have to hand over £££ until they produce the goods

But regardless of all that, I'm sure the eforum guys will be along to assist you shortly !  

john

[EK]

Thanks John. Ordered online, took out new 18 month contract which seems to have taken immediate effect even without the phone arriving - although it said somewhere in the small print I can cancel up to 7 days after the phone arrives, so hopefully that option is still there.

More than anything I want from one of the Voda guys on here a definitive date for availability of the phone to upgrade customers like me - and to me in particular, then I can decide what to do. Let's see what they have to say.

EK

[EK]

As if by magic, I got a notification a couple of hours after my original post saying that the phone has now been despatched - thank you.

I still think that it would have been better to be honest and make clear when I bought the phone that it was out of stock.

Anyway, hopefully all will be well and it will arrive tomorrow.

Regards

EK

[Trev]

Hi EK

Welcome to the Vodafone eForum family. It’s always nice to see new faces around.

I’m also glad to see your new handset has now been dispatched to you.

Just thought I’d explain the email you received to you, that advised the 2-4 week delay in handset delivery. This is a general stock email, which gives the worse case scenario, in order to fully manage the customer’s expectations of when the device will be received.

In most cases the delay can be just a day or so, as in your own case. In cases where a device is placed in limited stock, due to a higher demand than it can be supplied, such as the Galaxy S2, the pre order system we operate is the fairest way we can allocate these devices. It ensures our customers get the devices in the order they were ordered, not by luckily ringing on a day the device is in stock. I agree it’s not ideal, but it’s the fairest option we have available in these circumstances.

Let me know if you’ve any further questions.

Regards

Trev

eForum Team

[EK]

Hi Trev

Thanks for your message. It took one and a half weeks, rather than a day or two - so not great, but at least it's now there. I agree people should receive phones in the order they placed orders, but that doesn't change the need to be clear on the website that the phone is out of stock if it is, rather than saying it's in stock.

Anyway, issue closed for me now, thanks.

EK

[ryan1991]

Hi there,

I have experienced the same problem, I ordered my upgrade for the Samsung Galaxy S2 on the 28th May in store but was told because I was upgrading early (my contract is not due to end till august) that it had to be done as an online order which was done for me in store and I was told the handset would be delivered to my house within 2 days.

However after 3 days I received an e-mail saying that the handset was out of stock and I could be waiting 2 - 4 weeks which seems to be normal after reading other topics on this forum. Now my only annoyance with this is the fact that my local store has the handset in stock, now I know the online orders come from a separate warehouse which is obviously the one that is out of stock but I just couldn't understand how a company that's meant to be as large and sophisticated as Vodafone could not allow me to collect a handset from in store and simply not send one to my address.

I have now spoken to two different Vodafone employees over the phone who had told me I should have been able to just do the upgrade in store and they could not understand why the guy in in store would not do this for me and I was told on Friday 3rd June that my online upgrade order had been cancelled and I should go in store to try to upgrade again the following day and the man on the phone actually 'guaranteed' me that this would be possible and that I would be able to get a handset in store but of course this was not the case and I was told there was nothing they could do and my order hadn't actually been cancelled which has been confirmed by a phone call I made to your Online Fullfillment Number today. So I am now having to wait until tomorrow to ring them again and confirm my upgrade is cancelled so I can order an upgrade all over AGAIN. All this just as I see people who received the 2 - 4 week e-mail saying they have now had there phone arrive.

Quite frankly I am appalled at the customer service department at Vodafone and their complete lack of communication and there constant giving of incorrect, misleading or useless information. I would like someone on here to be able to tell me what the situation with my order is and are there handsets in stock at the moment whether that be for online order, telephone order or to be collect in store (if that's even possible as from what I've been told I don't really know to be honest)???

[ryan1991]

I have just spoken to a member of the Online Fullfillment team again who have just told me the online order has been successfully cancelled and that I can upgrade again over the phone. So he transfers me to the upgrades department just for the automated message to tell me I am not eligible for an upgrade until 2013 so quite clearly the previous upgrade order has not been cancelled! After this automated message it says 'If you still wish to speak to an advisor press 0' which I did, just for the call to be cut off which is the exact same thing that happened when I tried this morning.

Seriously not happy about the way this has been dealt with I would appreciate it if someone from Vodafone could reply to me here with you some HELPFUL information.

*Edit* And now make that THREE Vodafone employees who have told me it should have just been possible to upgrade in store without the need for an online order :/

[bertyb]

If they cancel your order and reset your commitment, I don't think it would have updated in time to regard you as telesales upgradeable.

You can upgrade online from 190 days, retail stores from 90 days till the end of your deal, and 70 days telesales.

I would call 191 and check if your contract period has been reset

[ryan1991]

Its ok I am pleased to say that after more phone calls to numerous different departments I finally got through to a woman who was actually helpful and am now waiting for the delivery of my Galaxy s2 today!

Not one to just carry on moaning but still think the way these issues are handled are awful and Vodafones Customer Service is a complete waste of time.

[Martin50]

Similarly I'm waiting for a Galaxy 551 which is apparently out of stock at the warehouse.  Trouble is that this is both an upgrade and a replacement for a phone that's been lost.  So if it's going to be another 24 or 48 hours before it arrives, fair enough.  If it's going to be longer than that, then much as I like this phone, I'd want to go back and choose another phone instead.  Unfortunately the very helpful and well-meaning people at Vodafone's call centres can't give me any indication of how long the wait is going to be.

[Martin50]

Nearly 36 hours on and no word from Vodafone.  With regret, it looks as though I'm going to have to try the Vodafone call centre in the morning and resort to saying 'send me a phone - any phone that's in stock'

[Lee]

Hi Martin50,

I'm really sorry but we don't appear to have been alerted to your initial post.

I'm afraid we don't have any information as to when new stock is arriving and therefore we're unable to help you.

If you purchased the handset online then your best bet is to contact the V-Store directly for further assistance.

More information on how to contact the Online Team can be found at the below link:

Online Team Contact Details

Cheers,

Lee

eForum Team

[Martin50]

Thanks Lee - I ordered over the phone but eventually walked into a Vodafone shop and managed to get the phone, thanks partly to heroic efforts by the staff in the shop.  I've even got the Samsung phone which I wanted, which is encouraging