Online purchase fiasco

[Paul1916]

I need someone to explain to me why it is apparently so difficult to cancel and upgrade an order when an item is out of stock or on back order.

I placed an order on the 28th of December for a Hauwei P8 lite which at the time of ordering did not stipulate that the phone was low stock or out of stock. I have had a few emails advising that vodafone are supposedly trying to sort out the order however after over 3 weeks i have had enough. 

i called customer services last night and wasted an hour of my time being passed from department to department and eventually got cut off by the retentions team. I spoke to pay as you go team, customer services, contracts, sales & retentions and not one person was able to deal with my request for help. I then had to waste yet more time 'chatting' to someone on the web site only to be told that the best they can do is cancel the order which will take 48 hours to process and to call sales back after this time.

I am disgusted by the way a loyal customer can be dealt with in this manner. I have been a customer for a long time and have mobile, landline and broadband with vodafone and when i try to purchase a phone via the online store for my sons birthday it would appear that no one in your organisation is able to upgrade my order to the next phone up!!!!

I bought this almost 4 full weeks before my sons birthday on the 22nd of january and i still have no phone.

To add insult to injury the staff in the local store were of no assistance either and basically told me that i need to call the sales team on 191! I have already wasted more than enough of my time.

I think in light of this fiasco it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect at least an upgrade to the next phone up which is the P9 lite and is on sale at a reduced price, for same price as the phone which i had originally wanted.

Is there anyone there woh can please sort this mess of crap out??????

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi

Unfortunately the high street store will direct a person to live chat or Customer service on 191 as they are primarily there to open.contracts and upgrade and sell accessories. 

If a phone goes on delay or back order Vodafones Systems won't allow a cancellation unless a person cancels within the 1st hour of.olacing the sale. They first deliver the phone when it comes into stock and then the person rejects the phone or sends it back. Them once received back Vodafone will cancel the upgrade or new contract. 

I'm not overly impressed either at this process. 

What has been discussed in other posts is if a person pushes firmly enough they'll pass it through to a department to cancel. 

Vodafone do monitor all posts here with staff engaging and helping where they can. Please be patient and I'm sure they'll catch up to your posts asap. 

[Paul1916]

Many thanks for the reply, it's good to hear that there are people who are willing to at least share and offer some empathy.

I don't see myself as unreasonable and would have been happy if someone had just said 'we can't offer the phone for whatever reason'. If this was the case i would have just paid the extra to upgrade to the next one up and i'd have been on my merry way.

But with the lack of customer care i feel really aggrieved and think some sort of good will gesture would go some way to restore some faith.

I shall wait and see...

[BandOfBrothers]

You're welcome. 

From my own experience I'm aware that stock availability can change quite fast online and even more if it's a newly launched model. The agent would I hope have been giving the information from their line of sight at the time. 

On a side note when I'm discussing upgrading and taking out new contracts and if a high street store is local and convenient to get to I do suggest going down that route as that way their is no delivery to wait in for, no possible handset delays and the contract is explained and supplied in hard format. I do however accept it's not always convenient to do this.

Also their is the Click and Collect service where a person can do their order online and opt to collect the phone from a store. This does mean however the phone is delivered to the store for you and does not come out of their pool of stock. 

In regards to a Goodwill Gesture that is something you'd need to put officially to Customer service. 

[Paul1916]

I had actually been into my local store and another store local to my place of work and neither had stock. My idea was to go online as it seemed logical that online orders would be honoured before store deliveries and thus i would have received the phone before a store delivery.

As the website never had realtime stock numbers i had assumed that stock would be available.

It seems to me that i am probably wasting my time and will most likely have to consider going elsewhere.

It does leave a very bitter taste in my mouth and i am very much considering leaving vodafone based on this lack of customer service. Having said this, most of these large organisations would appear to be much the same. They claim to put customers first but really once they have your money they're not interested.

[BandOfBrothers]

Ok. 

Totally understand the frustration this must be causing. 

I wish you well in whichever decision you make. 

[WieldsOblivion]

 Hi Paul,

I tried to buy this phone in store maybe a week or two ago. The person in the store had none in stock, nor did the other shop in the same town. Online no longer listed it, so I called Vodafone. Eventually, someone told me that they no longer sell it at all.

The person on the phone I spoke to said that the stores (and presumably also the website) are like 6-8 weeks behind in terms of what stock they have/will be receiving. So it could be that they were discountined at the time you ordered it but that there wasn't a real time update (the page now 404's which is why I ended up calling them).

Hope you get this sorted soon.

[Alex]

@Paul1916 Sorry to hear about your experience. 

If you wish to discuss your options, feel free to contact our Sales team on 03333 040 191. 

[Paul1916]

Alex, is this number a direct line to sales? I've wasted far too much of my time already to be passed from pillar to post again.

[Makelo]

No, it's the same as dialling 191 from a Vodafone phone that takes  you through to customer services.