Email to the CEO

[bmb7jiw]

I've just emailed Nick Jefferey, the CEO of Vodafone UK, to tell him about my personal ordering experience of the iPhone 7 Plus. It will be interesting to see if he replies. Here is what I wrote.


Good afternoon
Thank you for taking the time to read this email. My name is James Williams (tel *******), and I am a long standing Vodafone customer and unfortunately I feel really let down by you this week.
I preordered the iPhone 7 Plus last Friday online as soon as preorders opened (order WEB-0000xxxxxxx). At every stage of the order process I was promised delivery on September 16th and your website also said that if you order by midnight on Sunday 11th you would get delivery on the 16th. I have not only not received my phone, but I have also not received one jot of communication from Vodafone about my order or its status, via text or email.
When I have spoken to your staff, either by telephone or by online chat I have not had any concrete information. Your foreign call centres are the worst, it's as if they will tell you anything to get rid of you. If you want a lot of examples of this you should have a look at the Vodafone eforum. I have been told things varying from you will receive your phone today, to 3-4 days to 2 weeks. I have no idea what to actually believe!
I have just spent 90 minutes on the phone going around in circles trying to get some answers. I first spoke to Hannah in your South African call centre who immediately said my phone was going to be delivered today and offered to give me the DPD consignment number- what absolute rubbish, again trying to be fobbed off. She refused to put me through to the the resolutions team to make a complaint, and then told me resolutions refused to take my call, but that through them was the only way to make a complaint. So does that mean that Vodafone is now refusing to accept complaints? That is unacceptable.
She eventually put me through to Customer Services in England and then eventually I did get through to Resolutions, where I spoke to Mark Stinson. He took my complaint, but still couldn't give me any satisfactory answer as to when I would get my phone. He offered me £50 compensation, which I consider insulting considering I had taken an unpaid day off work for this and I had been promised delivery today. He escalated my complaint to the next level (what he called the highest level of escalation)- their response was to withdraw the previous offer of compensation and to tell me to call back when I had my phone. Is this really the way you expect your employees to treat customers?
I have just ordered a package from you in good faith which is going to cost me the best part of £1500 over 2 years, yet I've been treated terribly. I was promised delivery today so I took time off work so I've lost a day pay for no reason. I'm paying for a more expensive handset and tariff even though I don't have the phone. My contract has expired so I could be saving at least £34 a month by going sim only. So I am rather out of pocket!
I'm sure you are going to reply by telling me that it's Apples fault for not providing the handsets- that's not my problem. You promised me the item today, and the least you could have done was communicate something to me this week with an update.
To make matters worse today is my birthday and I had gotten quite excited about receiving my new phone and pairing it to my brand new Apple Watch.
I really hope that this email does not get ignored by you or your Executive team. I always think that the real measure of a good company is how they respond to a problem in times like this. I look forward to your response, what you intend to do for me, and of course when I am going to receive my phone.
Yours
James Williams

[Baskcm]

he wont 

[mowens1988]

Reading over this, it does sound like such a first world problem. Especially the apple watch part hahah. But ##~## it, I am in the same boat as you sir. Respect for sending this email to him.

He is probably sitting playing and reading your email on his new iphone 7 plus 256gb jet black. With tonnes of vodafone ##~## by his side sipping on their extremely costly 4G data. In other words, we're more or less third world to him. 

Moderator note: Edited post, please refer to our Community Guidelines

[d4c1981]

This will be emailed to his secretary and she will type up a diplomatic copy and paste job that they probably do for all emails sent to the CEO of Vodafone. If he actually responds himself I'll be very surprised. Keep us updated.

[DJboy1832]

I Was just told that all emails to CEO are handled by customer services and they are about as much use as a chocolate firegaurd

Anymore info would be welcome

Dave 

[Gemma]

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[brandscill]

At best this will go to the exec resolution team and they'll fumble along and resolve some of your complaints, but nothing meaningful will happen. Until there is a mass exodus from Vodafone due to their awful CS and business practices they'll stick their head in the sands and pretend all is well.

They're taking the Three approach now though, cheap generous SIM only plans. Only three did this, grew customer base and massively improved their CS. Sadly Vodafone don't seem interested in improving CS

[Retired-Sarah_L]

Hi @bmb7jiw, 

Sorry for the delayed reply. 

It's been confirmed by Apple that customers who have pre-ordered some variants of the device, may experience delays. The challenge around stock is impacting all UK operators, and orders are based on a first come first served basis. 

If you haven't done so already, please have a look at our statement here. 

As the matter's been raised to the highest point, we're unable to intervene with this - please update the thread with any outcomes of your complaint. 

Thanks, 

Sarah

[bma]

@Sarah_L

That statement doesn't explain why Vodafone have been actively lying to people. One person from Vodafone even told me that my phone was out for delivery and would be delivered between 11 and 1 that day. Surprise surprise, it didn't.

Read through the thread - there are hundreds of people who have blatently lied to throughout the process. If you'd have said "Sorry, we've got no phones" people would have been annoyed but gotten over it. But you didn't, you kept telling people they'd have their phones. Promising that they'd arrive. Giving excuse afte excuse (mine went from "out for delivery today" to "6-8 week wait" in an hour). It's THAT which has gotten people's backs up, and there's no Vodafone statement apologising for that.

You can blame Apple for the lack of phones. You can't blame Apple for the lack of customer service.

[slevuk]

I have also today e-mailed Mr. Colao and Mr. Jeffery concerning the pre order fiasco and would like answers as to why there is no proper communication from Vodafone and also asked does they think it is good customer service for sales and suport advisers to constantly lie to customers time and time again.