Is Vodafone sale a sham!! (S5 for £289)

[London1234]

Is Vodafone sale a sham!!

Samsung S5 for sale at £289 advertised on vodafone website.

Ordered online c3-Jan-2015. Money deducted from my account and got email confirmation for delivery on 7th Jan. Haven't received the phone yet (13-Jan).

Spent nearly 3 hours at multiple occasions with online chat + tel and vodafone is forcing me to take a refund as they can't deliver.

Few facts:

- DPD website (track your parcel) says they tried to deliver on 6th but delivery was refused (no note was left at my mailbox, and delivery was confirmed to me by email to be on 7 Jan). 

-  Customer service resopnse: sorry there was no address (only account number) given by vodafone to DPD so they couldn't deliver (bear in mind i gave delivery addres but vodafone failed to pass it on to DPD). DPD returned phone to vodafone warehouse and it can't be redelivered because it's in warehouse now (??). Vodafone offered refund, which I refused. They can't raise a new order. I need phone.

- Escalated to vodafone manager twice, who were supposed to call me within 48hrs but no body called back. 

- I called again and same story. Finally without telling me they transferred the call to refunds team. 

- Very rude customer service. Call transferred to multiple teams and I had to repeat story from scratch atleast 10 times.

My point remains, I ordered a phone, gave the correct address, was at home at delivery date but vodafone is not willing to send phone to me. They can only offer refund. Does it look like a sham!!

[hrym]

It sounds as though the forum team need to get involved with this.  Hang on for them to pick up your post - they deal with everything in order, bu will get to you.

I suspect it's a simple delivery failure, which could be down to any number of things (I've had a lot of experience from both ends and every time I think I've seen it all, something new comes up).

[London1234]

Thanks HYRM

My theory: sale is already over, vodafone has no further stock and they will cancel/refund any undelivered orders. Not ethicial.

Their unwillingness to redeliver (or arranging a store pickup) and forcing refund is the key problem.

I went to their Moorgate store this morning who confirmed no S5 stock and the likelihood of receiving a phone is nearly zero. Please note it was a general comment and not specific to my order as physical stores don't have access to online orders.

[hrym]

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@London1234 wrote:

Thanks HYRM

My theory: sale is already over, vodafone has no further stock and they will cancel/refund any undelivered orders. Not ethicial.

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I think it's more likely that the order has been cancelled because it went back to the warehouse.  DPD are generally quite good and will re-attempt the delivery and/or leave a card if you're out.   It sounds as if there was a problem (or a perceived problem) with the address.   Once the order's been cancelled and the promotional period is over, the normal customer service people won't have the authority to re-instate it at the promotional price.  However, if that can be done, then the forum team should be the people to do it, so just hang on until they pick up the thread and see what they say.

[tammyangelzn]

I bought the s5 in their sale too. I contacted vodafone and spoke to a lively lady who confirmed that my order would be dispatched the Monday. Monday I got an email to say dpd would deliver my handset between 10am-11an. Needless to say no note from dpd so I called in tuesday to find out where my handset was and a Mr Watkins had signed for my phone. I went mental and eventually tracked my phone and had to go to a complete stranger to fight for my handset. Dpd blamed vodafone and Vodafone didn't even get back to me about it yet!

[hrym]

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@tammyangelzn wrote:
I bought the s5 in their sale too. I contacted vodafone and spoke to a lively lady who confirmed that my order would be dispatched the Monday. Monday I got an email to say dpd would deliver my handset between 10am-11an. Needless to say no note from dpd so I called in tuesday to find out where my handset was and a Mr Watkins had signed for my phone. I went mental and eventually tracked my phone and had to go to a complete stranger to fight for my handset. Dpd blamed vodafone and Vodafone didn't even get back to me about it yet!

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That sounds like a misdelivery.  It's disingenuous of DPD to blame Vodafone (from the sound of it), but your contract is with Vodafone, not DPD (Vodafone are their customer, not you), so hang on for the forum team as they should be able to unravel this.

[missoneill15]

I have also had a similar issue with the s5. I order in the sale (2-jan-2015) whilst there was still a decent amount of stock. I had ordered myself this phone due to having issue with my current phone. I received an email to say it would be delivered within a time window by DPD on 5th Jan. I made sure I was home before and after that hour slot due to being excited for new handset. I tracked this via DPD to find out it had be classed as refused and sent back to warehouse.

But there was no sign of even attempt to deliver my phone. When I spoke to DPD they said it had been refused and now counted as fraud. So called Vodafone to be offered help about re-sending it, they said they'll call me back. Heard nothing! So called every day since, I have either been put on hold and disconnected, waiting for a call to never arrive, even advised to check out in store for help. None helped! Had to take a refund because there was nothing they could do, although it was sitting in their warehouse!

What’s more annoying, spoke to staff at a Vodafone store to find out they are stopping the sale due to people buying several handsets and selling them on. I only order one handset, I gave the right address, was at home waiting and Vodafone also would not re-send the phone. They are still unable to return my calls and give me a decent explanation to why they were unable to re-send the handset since it was their mistake!!

[tammyangelzn]

No one to date has bothered to get back to me from the time i complained. Its a joke!

[hrym]

Just hang on.   The normal response time up up to 48 hours, though there's a lot on traffic on the forum at the moment, so it may take a little longer.

[Jenny]

Hi everyone,

I’m sorry to hear of the problems you’ve had with your orders.

If you’re still awaiting refunds, we can look into this for you. I’ve sent you all a private message with instructions on how to get in touch.

We aim to reply to emails within 48 hours. If you need a quicker response, please visit our Contact Us page.

Thanks,

Jenny