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

[jpwhyley]

It would appear there are a lot of us out there that have been mislead A LOT!

I have been told that it is likely to be a 6 - 8 week waiting time, I am not allowed to cancel my order or close my account.

There is no sympathy from anyone at Vodafone and they are still taking orders and promising quick delivery dates, no wonder they are losing custom, staff and loyalty.

I was told to ask about compensation and told it’s not our fault and it’s Apple, yet they were happy to take the custom on false promises. Any ideas where to take this next as the online complaints won’t be actioned I am sure.  May be the omnibus man?

[bma]

Ask to speak to customer relations and raise a formal complaint. When they ask you what your resolution is, tell them that you want your phone to be delivered and reasonable compensation for the messing around.

They have 8 weeks to resolve the complaint, then you'll be able to take it to the ombudsman. Make sure to keep transcripts of the live chats, etc, as proof of the lies.

[brandscill]

Doesn't change the fact that Vodafone lied and failed on the communication front Sarah.

[michaeljcox1948]

You are luckey even to find any CEO email Address,

I have not had a signal for my phone for 4 weeks or my wifes phone, I have gone round in circles getting it sorted, The shop when I told them I was No longer prepared to put up with [MOD EDIT: This post has been edited to due to inappropriate content please see Community Guidelines] threatened to call the police, I have cancilled my contract and gon else where, with this attitude over 4 months join me and go else where some one may take notice if they have no customers.

[Gemma]

@michaeljcox1948 - For us to look into this for you, please follow the steps from our network troubleshooting guide.

If you get to step six, please follow the instructions from there.

We’d advise if you're still in contract with us, not to cancel your direct debit, as this may impact your credit rating in the future.

[nio36]

My ordering exp too has been a mess, infact since upgrading with vodafone ive been FAR from happy.  Ive asked to leave without cess fee (both within the return period and out of it)  countless times due to them continuoulsy ##~## up but seems they'd rather keep me and dampen my quality of life by raising blood pressures.  

1st of all they promised me a phone they failed to deliever then to fix the issue told me to take a second line which was totally incorrect and caused me 2 weeks of stress to get out of the second line contract which i did not ask for.

So my ordering exp was a mess and on top of that ive had nothing but failed callbacks, funds taken from  my account when they shouldnt have been and failure in service.  

IF YOUR THINKING OF GETTING A NEW CONTRACT WITH VODAFONE ...........DONNNNNNNNT

[Colleen]

@nio36 This is really disappointing to hear and we'll be happy to take a look into this. 

I've sent you a private message with details on how to get in touch - we'll be able to access your account and help get this resolved.