iPhone 4 and 4S

[ohanbury]

Apologies for posting in such utter frustration but I'm running out of options with what passes for Vodafone's customer service.

I left O2 due to some very underhand manipulation of my account. I decided to join Vodafone. 

I ordered an iPhone 4S which was on back order. Eventually, some 2 and a bit weeks later it arrived at the Heathrow T5 store. No problems. I activated it and then some 2-3 days later I was told my bill was ready. Impressively the bill began a day before I'd even collected the phone. I emailed (first mistake) the customer service people and was fobbed off with a borderline gibberish response written by someone who took no care over their language, syntax or grammar.

As a week passed and we bounced e-mails at one another with all the people at Vodafone refusing to actually read my query/complaint I ported in my old O2 number. And then I stopped being able to view my unbilled usage (this is vital to me as I travel a lot and not keeping tabs on expenditure abroad is financial lunacy). So more e-mails were exchanged - with no resolution. In fact, with no understanding or acknowledgement of my problem.

I had my online account deleted and I reset it. No joy. I've been called, randomly, Paul. I've been invited to contact the Data Protection manager to resolve this (with the extra privelige of paying £10 to do so). Why on earth I would need to contact a DP specialist to resolve a customer service issue is beyond me but the insult of payment is enough to rile me.

I've been with Vodafone for just over 2 weeks. I've sent over 20 emails and not had one single email that has actually answered the questions I've posed. I've had no acknowledgement of my plight and, as a consequence, am left with one option only.

I'm cancelling my direct debit and the phone can go back to the shop at T5. I never thought I'd pine for O2 but at least they tried, even though they failed. Vodafone's customer service is the technological equivalent of a failed state. 

Bye vodafone.

Atrocious

[AnnS]

The reason you are unable to view your unbilled usage is due to your first bill being on a pro rata basis up to the date of your first billing period. Your second bill will be on a normal month to month basis for your billing period and you will not have any problem viewing your usage and unbilled calls. 

You have now set up your online account and there is no point deleting and setting up the account again during your pro rata period.

As soon as the Christmas break is over, Customer Services will be able to let you know your billing period and the date each month when your allowance rolls over.

I attach a link to a previous thread which will help explain pro rata and how your first bill is calculated.

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/New-Vodafone-Customers/First-Bill/td-p/862629

If you have cancelled your direct debit, do reinstate it, there is no advantage to you of cancelling your direct debit.

[ohanbury]

Ann,

Thank you, however, that is at odds with what I have been told repeatedly by Vodafone themselves who do not appear to know their fundament from their elbow. They have deleted my account twice now and I have reinstated it - still to have unbilled usage for a phone number that I no longer have.

As to your assertion that there is no point in cancelling one's direct debit, I'd disagree. I no longer wish to be with such an obfuscating and obscurantist company and I find witholding payment due to non-provision of even a basic level of support tends to sharpen the minds of all concerned.

[Dave]

Hi ohanbury,

I'm sorry to see that you've been having issues.

The answer actually falls into both camps. The online billing is registered to the number, not the account, and therefore porting your number would mean the old registration would not work. As mentioned by AnnS, however, until you are into the regular billing cycle, the opening period of the agreement is "pro-rata", meaning that you're getting a proportionate fraction of the allowance for a proportionate price depending on the fraction of a full month involved, and therefore no data would show until the allowances refresh.

You'll see on the first bill that the line rental will be for more than a month - we try to minimise this by putting you onto the first available billing cycle when you take out the deal. This will show as something like "January 1st to February 15th", and all bills after would run for one month from the next day - in this example the 16th to the 15th each month. This regular monthly block is the billing cycle, and your allowances refresh at the start of it. Anything before this on the first bill is the pro-rata period.

If, within three days of the start of this first full monthly cycle you don't see your unbilled usage starting to show, please let us know and we can take a look. This will allow time for data to be recorded and the system to refresh to show this. If you're unsure when this starts, just quote the dates listed on the bill for the line rental and we can let you know and then investigate if needed.

As AnnS mentions, we would advise against cancelling of emails just to avoid any record of non-payment. We'll be happy to help address any issues as quickly as we can, so please don't hesitate to contact us if the online billing still fails after this point.

Dave

[ohanbury]

Sorry Dave,

That's an antiquated systems reply. Not a reason. Moreover I'll tell you one thing - you're the first person in over 40 (yes, 40) emails to customer services who's bothered to actually address the question at hand, or at least one of them. I fear there will be no easy resolution to any problems with Vodafone based on the stress and frustration I've been caused already in less than 14 days hence I've cancelled my direct debit (not my emails) as I've zero confidence in the problem solving abilities of where/whoever it is that manages the first line contact. If they (well, any one of the 40 or so individuals who've replied - might it be an idea to keep one customer to one advisor for some semblance of continuity or does cost simply not allow for that?) ask me again for my phone number, account number etc etc I will scream. It shouldn't be for me to have chase around like a headless chicken to obtain a simple answer.

Your reply, whilst welcome, doesn't address why I should be expected to pay for a day before my phone was even in my hand. This has been addressed elsewhere, albeit condescendingly. I perfectly well understand the principle of pro-rating in the middle of a payment cycle. 

As for the registration of the account to a number - it's been deleted and re-registered 3 times now on the advice of your whizzkids at the contact centre. Everytime they delete my account I re-register and, what do you know, the billing section still refers, in all sections, to my old number.

It's just beyond poor and I can only imagine how hard you must have to work on here because the guys replying to the emails are clueless. And if you think that's just vitriol, I've got 40 inane or irrelevant replies already stored in my inbox which, as evidence, I'd love to share with anyone who fancies a laugh or wants to see what's caused me to look like I've alopecia from tearing my hair out at the inanities of them.

In short, you've gone from being my preferred choice from O2 to being a company I have no faith in anymore. As I travel a lot for a living, accurate monitoring of expenditure when roaming and knowing I can get swift and satisfactory resolution to any issues that may arise is hugely important to me. You have provided no evidence of your company's ability to do the same hence, as mentioned, I am stopping my direct debit and am prepared to argue my case for termination in any arena necessary.

I'm sorry this has to be aired on a public forum but given your company's profound unwillingness to address (let alone sometimes even acknowledge) my issues, this is the last path open to me.

[Dave]

Hi ohanbury,

I do appreciate the situation that you are in, and I would like to see this resolved, so I'm going to pop you an email to get your details. Any replies to this divert directly to our teams' mailbox - just leave the code in the subject line -  so whilst it may not be me who gets the email it will be one of us who would respond directly, and we can see what you have listed here in your post so we'll have those details to hand. We are a small team who work closely together so if a different advisor ever has t take over, we have the information close to hand to ensure some form of continuity for you.

We do need to ask for a certain amount of information for legal reasons - we need to verify security before we can discuss the account for your protection. If you would prefer to give these by phone then we can check them when calling you to address these concerns.

Again, I am sorry that you have had these issues in the short time you've been with us, but please rest assured that we will do everything we can to rectify things and help rebuild some trust. Just reply back to the email and we'll be happy to help.

Dave

[ohanbury]

Dave,

Thank you, reply sent. I appreciate it.

[alanjenney]

I too joined Vodafone very recently and have had little or no response to the e-mails and online customer service requests that I have sent.  During the port of my number from Orange to Vodafone PAYT then Pay Monthly, I have been been shocked at how bad things are.  At least the network reception where I live is better than with Orange, but I feel exasperated by your first-line support, either through the web, e-mail or telephone.

The "My Account" service is terrible:

Fails to respond at times - HTTP errors due to the server closing the connection.

Various panes and boxes with "service unavailable" or "loading..." indefinitely displayed.

Missing data from various fields.  Spurious error messages peeking out from behind the login screen.

Sometimes the original Vodafone number is shown, sometimes my PAC'ed number.

Despite trying to get content restrictions lifted through the site it fails.  I called 191 to get it removed, but 48 hours later, it still says "unable to get settings".

AND I appear to have been charged for a premium text sent to me BY VODAFONE when I inserted the SIM. 

My PAYT balance has not been creditted to my PAYM account as I was promised.

I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments expressed by my fellow customer (ohanbury): how can I have the confidence that any of the services I could sign up to will be correctly managed or charged, given my experience in the first two weeks?

[Wayne]

Hi alanjenney and welcome to the eForum

With regards to your credit coming across and the charge for the premium rate text message, I’ll send you an email over shortly so that we can have a look at this for you. All you need to do is hit reply and fill in all of the information it asks for.

As for your problems with the website, I have never had any of the problems you have listed which makes me think this may be a browser issue. Can you tell me what browser you are using? Have you tried any others? (Google Chrome/Firefox etc)

Thanks

Wayne