Vodafone Complete Lack of Customer Service

[mcintyre]

I have been a Vodafone customer for a number of years now with 5 numbers on my account which I recently reduced to 4 because of Vodafone's complete ineptitude when it comes to customer service.

I have had nothing but mistakes made on my account by Vodafone for the past 3-4 months now.  One of these mistakes was to cut off my phone completely.  This took almost 2 days to get reconnected despite everyone telling me it would be done "within 24 hours".  Even when it was reconnected that wasn't done correctly meaning I had to spend hours trying to get through to various customer service people exactly what had happened and EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. having to explain from the beginning what had happened as no-one updates notes on the system.  EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I have to call about yet another of Vodafone's errors the only way to get anyone to DO anything is to threaten immediate cancellation of all the numbers.  This then gets you through to an English speaking person who can actually get stuff done.

The current error is that an amoutn of £1000+ has appeared on this month's bill and I am trying to get it corrected.  The itemised bill I have shows that the amount should be closer to £122, yet everyone I have spoken to over the past week has given me different figures and, yes, promised to get it sorted "within 24 hours", which never happens.  I've just gotten off the phone with someone in India who speaks so fast it's impossible to understand a word he says who now tells me I have to wait "3-5 working days" for the bill to be adjusted.  He also gave me yet another figure but I couldn't make out what it was.

I have been keeping records of every single conversation I have had to have with Vodafone over the past 3 months (there's over 300 HOURS of it!) and am going to send all that to the communication ombudsman now, see if Vodafone will try and continuously fob them off and lie to them.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi @mcintyre

I'm not surprised your frustrated and upset at those sequence of events. 

Especially after such a large amount of money has been taken. 

Usually the Communications Omsbudsman would engage if Vodafone hadn't been able to resolve a complaint within 8 weeks unless Vodafone agree to give the account holder a deadlock letter. 

I'm not sure if your bank could help under the direct debit guarantee but it maybe with asking them. Be careful tho that if your bank takes the money off Vodafone and return it to your account Vodafone could start proceedings to re acquire it if they feel the money is owed to them. 

[mcintyre]

Thanks for the reply.  Thankfully I don't pay Vodafone via direct debit, I do it manually using my debit card online every month.

The extra amount it seems was added to my bill as an "early termination fee" when Vodafone wrongly disconnected my phone for 2 days.  Thing is when they eventually got the phone reconnected they seem to have left this fee on my bill.  

You'd think it would be simple enough to sort out but then after making mistakes on an upgrade on one of my other numbers (which led to that number being cancelled by me in the end), making mistakes on an order (still waiting for that to be sorted) and telling me a different story every time I ask about anything I'm not going to hold my breath.

The last guy I spoke to told me not to make any payment towards my bill until the amount has been corrected, but I know from past experience that Vodafone disconnects all phones on an account as soon as you go a couple of days over the due date so what's the betting all my lines will be disconnected by mid next week?  And then I'll have to get back on to Vodafone using the live chat facility trying to sort it out again.  Plus there'll be no record of his comment as it was converted from a live chat session into a phone call by the person who put me through to him.

*Sigh*  I really have had enough.  I'm a disabled person (I have MS, kidney failure and young-onset Alzheimers) living on my own and my mobile is the only phone I have in case of emergencies so it really does have a huge impact on me when anything goes wrong.

I just can't see any other way of getting things put right other than going external, even making everything public if need be.

[BandOfBrothers]

You're welcome.  

As this concerns your bill / account and a disconnection has occurred I would suggest checking your credit file.

Http://www.experian.co.uk are one option that provides this. 

This eforum is owned and monitored by Vodafone U.K. We have members of the Vodafone Tech Team who are available to respond and Help where they can. They have the Vodafone logo next to their name. All posts are read by them.
 
Hang in there and I'm sure they'll be in touch. 

[mcintyre]

Oh great.

I just remembered all the hassle started when they botched a repair job twice by failing to actually do a repair and then refusing to and telling me that that number was due an upgrade - that was the very beginning of the problems.

[Retired-Charles]

@mcintyre - I've sent you a direct message so we can help further with this.

[mcintyre]

Nope, you haven't.  Message box has nothing received since last year.

Ombudsman has now made their decision and Vodafone have left me in a position where, after a number of years as a customer (and quite a high-paying customer too) I am now in a position where I have no chance whatsoever of being able to pay the bill caused by Vodafone's complete ineptitude (as demonstrated today, they can't even send a message properly).

My proposal of a way forward has been rejected and so shortly I will cease to be a Vodafone customer.

Thanks Vodafone, you bunch of ##>##, for completely ##~## up something that should have been simple and expecting the customer to pay the price for your errors.  No.  Not a chance.

[MOD EDIT: This post has been edited to remove off topic content please see community guidelines]

[Rahim]

@mcintyre Sorry to hear about your experience. 

I've checked @Retired-Charles sent items and can see he sent a message via 

private message to your inbox with details on how to get in touch on 27 August 2016. 

As you've mentioned you are now with the Communication Ombudsman, we'll no longer be able to intervene with your account.