Quite possibly the worst customer service I have ever experienced!

[User310118]

tl;dr - I am on day 6 since placing my order and all I have is a SIM card that doesn't allow me to connect to the Vodafone network and a bunch of excuses and broken promises from Vodafone!

Where do I even begin with this!

So, I wanted to join Vodafone as their network coverage is exceptional in the area I have moved into (compared to the non-existent signal and 4G I currently get with GiffGaff).

After a quick browse on the Vodafone website I decided to go for the £20pm sim-only deal.

After spending 5-10 minutes filling out the online form, I click the Submit Order button to be presented with an error. After this happened a few times I decided to use the Vodafone Online Chat facility (avoid using this at all costs if I were you!).

The lady I was chatting with had very poor English writing ability and at times it was impossible to work out what she was saying to me. After about 15-20 minutes she told me to try "Submitting my order again, and then immediately coming back to the chat and click on this link" - which I did.....which did nothing.....apart from the lady in chat copying and pasting the generic text from the "order complete" page into the chat.....assuring me my order was placed and everything was fine and that I would receive the SIM in the post the next day!

The next day comes and goes....and no SIM arrives (I still haven't even received a confirmation email of my order either by this point!)......so I (stupidly I now realise) go back onto the online chat and explain to the next person (who also had equally terrible written English skills) to explain my issue.....I won't bore you with the ins and outs of that chat but it turns out that the first person I initially chatted to hadn't actually placed an order for me at all!

So I reluctantly decided that my only option was to just phone Vodafone and speak to someone directly.....which I did....nice chap called Chris I think - who I could hardly hear as it sounded like he was taking the call in a lunchtime playground! Anyway, after spending 15-20 minutes on the phone with Chris he gravely apologised for his colleagues in the online chat and assured me that my order has now been placed and everything was set up and that I would received my SIM the next day.

Surprisingly the next morning I did in fact receive the SIM.....but nothing else....no email confirmation or paperwork telling me what my number would be or how to access my account online, or even that an order had been placed.

Still...I just assumed that it would all be fine and proceeded to put the SIM into my phone (which yes...is fully unlocked and accepts any SIM!) but when I tried to connect to the Vodafone network all I got was an error saying "No network access" and "Unable to connect to Vodafone UK", etc. etc.

I decided before calling Vodafone I would at least wait until that afternoon (trying the SIM at various points to no avail!) - but still no luck!

Back on the phone I get to Vodafone and yet another person to explain my plight to (does anyone in Vodafone even take notes of a customer's issues and update their account info to save people explaining everything from scratch to every new person they speak to at Vodafone?...I assume not!)

Anyway, this person manages to look into my order and tells me that "for some reason" there is an issue with it and to wait 24-72 hours for the issue to be resolved.......ok.....so I waited until Monday morning.

I tried the Vodafone SIM again before I called back JUST in case a mirracle had happened but no....same "unable to connect to network" errors.

I phone Vodafone again (speaking to a completely different person who I yet again have to fully explain my issue to) to be told that "Sorry sir, let me transfer you to someone that can help you." (GREAT......I'm going to have to explain all that.....AGAIN (I literally want to cry at this point).

The next person I speak to is actually a very nice chap called Ahmed who again completely sympathises with me and again apologises for his colleagues complete lack of customer service and assures me that he has my issue in hand and that he has now raised a "special, high priority ticket" for my issue to get resolved that day and that he will phone me back before the end of his working day (5pm).

I'm shocked but Ahmed actually comes through with his promise and calls me at just after 5pm to tell me that basically (and I quote) "your order is stuck in limbo.......like a pendulum....that is stuck in the middle" (thanks for that articulate anology Ahmed) and that although he would love to be able to personally call me back the next day to continue helping me, he is about to go on annual leave until next week but that his colleague (and I quote again) "I know her....I trust her and believe me when I say that she is going to do me a personal favour and get this issue resolved for you tomorrow and SHE will phone you back before the end of the day!"

At this point, I thank Ahmed for being so dedicated to tha cause but that I would just like to forget about it all and cancel my order and to go elsewhere......ANYWHERE actually......but Ahmed then tells me that because my order/account is not open, he is unable to cancel it (great!!!!!!) but assures me some more that his colleague WILL phone me back the next day and he even offers me my first month's line rental of £20 for free.....as a sweetener.......and so I folded, thanked him for his generosity and told him that I would patiently wait for his colleague to phone me the next day.

The "next day" was actually today and (surprise, surprise) no one from Vodafone phoned me......so I phoned them literally an hour ago to explain (ONCE AGAIN) my issues to yet another person.....who told me (and.....I.....quote) "Sorry to cut you off there sir but unfortunately our systems are having some downtime and so I cannot help you......please call back in 1-2 hours and hopefully our systems will be back online then"............

So....whilst I wait for one more hour to pass I thought I'd come on here and rant because as of this moment I am literally losing the will to live and cannot believe how awful my experience has been so far.

Anyway.....wish me luck guys and I hope that other people out there are getting much better customer service from Vodafone than I am.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi 

I apprecaite how unimpressed you are at this situation and im sure Vodafone want this to be as seamless as possible especially for a new customer. 

I think most of us understand that things can sometimes go wrong and mistakes are made but its then what is done to put that right that counts to instill confidence back in the service and product. 

Some of the Call centres are based abroad so I agree that sometimes things can be lost in translation due to English not being the first language. There are Call centres in the UK. 

For me I suggest to people to visit a Vodafone High street Store if local and convenient to start a new contract or upgrade. 

That way its less likely for a system glitch or something not being processed and the contract is supplied in hard copy and if a phone is being supplied there's no requirement to wait in for delivery or handset delays. 

Anything discussed with an agent should be noted in your account notes so that continuation can happen in case of a query. 

We have a Social Media Team here who read all posts and when they catch up with your thread they should be able to help. 

I wish you all the best with this situation. 

[User310118]

Ok, so I've just phoned back (2 hours later) to be told that I need to call back in 2 hours again as the systems are having an update.

Spoke to a nice chap called Omar who is actually going to phone me back as soon as the system is back online.

The saga continues

[Gemma]

@User310118 - I’m sorry you’ve faced all of these problems, from first ordering the SIM to it now not working.

You shouldn’t have had to contact us this many times. My team can help to get this resolved and we can feedback the experience you’re having.

We’ll also check the Live Chat conversations and why you weren’t called back as promised.

So that we can access your account, please send us your details by following the steps in this private message.

[152bobby]

This scenario is nothing new and we have all heard it before.

One thing I can say, not once when I have visited a Vodafone High St branch have they had the knowledge or experience to help me.

I can honestly say that by doing some online research myself prior to visiting a store, I always know more than the staff and also teach them a few things....and they can NEVER match the deals which can be given over the telephone BY UK BASED STAFF.  I have never had a good deal offered to me by overseas based Vodafone staff, so pick the correct UK time during the day and you have more chance of getting UK staff and the "lost in translation" scenario is less likely to happen.