Vodafone Sales to support - incompetent start to finish! ... and it doesnt end there

[JQ910]

Feel its only right since I've been battleing with Vodafone for a couple of months to share my experience here.

In a nutshell, I purchased 2 contracts from the 'flagship' store in westfield London.  the package deal was agreed and I signed up.  The paper contract I was asked to sign had a higher price than discussed but was told as a flagship store they would apply discounts when booking it onto the system.  I was wary and asked for the name/number of the sales person in case this went wrong and was given 2 numbers.

Sure enough my first bill was double my usual which projected my spend around £2,500 per year - not impressed.  I called the salesmans number which went to a Royal Bank of Scotland voicemail.  The other number didnt work either.  I tried a local store (I live 50miles from Westfield).  Waited and hour, they couldnt help me.  I called customer support, they couldnt help me but did play pass the customer very very effectively- I hung up after 1:37 mins 

Over the course of the next few weeks, I called and called.  each time a new person, each time more verification and I reaslistically clocked up 10-12 hours .

I was told I would have to go back into London to the store - I said I didnt live close and I would it would take a day there and back + costs of travel  to which they said in kind words...tough!  No other channel would assist me.  What if I was from abroad?

I kept trying the battery/call centre and finally someone said they would help.  I was asked to send in copies of the deal given to me at the store, luckily I kept them.  I emailed them in.  They said it would be sorted in 2 hours.  No response.  I used the email provided to ask what was going on....no response.  Despite chasing, a week later after explaining my story to most of the vodafone support start across multiple continents, I was told they had my emails, they couldn't use the agreements I sent and I would have to go to the store.  I asked it there was any way I could speak to the store.  they said no, the flagship store was so exclusive that they could not be contacted by anyone inside or outside of vodafone and they had no phone number which is strange for a phone company.  I called again and asked a different person - I got the number of the Westfield store mobile  I rang and left 3 messages - no response.  I called customer services again, just before I lost the will to live I was give the westfield store email address!  I immediately celebrated by buying a lottery ticket, assuming my luck was in.  I emailed a few times, but in an unexpected astronomical twist, the stores email address is linked to a black hole.  No response.

In the meantime, I went on holiday to antigua and made sure I had world traveller enabled to let me use my tariff abroad (this is relevant)....wait for the next installment...

[AnnS]

Hi @JQ910

This is going to be one for the Team to sort out, access your account and investigate the tariff agreed with the store.  

Stores generally do not have customer facing contact numbers which is probably the reason you had problems trying to call the store.  However, Customer Services should have been able to contact the store on your behalf. 

With pro ratered billing, you can expect the first bill to be higher than expected, this is due to being charged part of a month, plus one full months line rental in advance.  If you have agreed a discount, this is given as a credit at the end of the bill and subtracted from the final amount. The My Vodafone Application on your phone, will detail the tariff you are on including any discount. 

World Traveller is a discontinued service that allowed you to use your UK allowance in a World Traveller zone.  The service has been replaced with Global Roaming. There is further information about this on the link below.

What has happened to Vodafone WorldTraveller?

I hope you get your contracts clarified and any other issues addressed.

[JQ910]

Thanks for the reply, but firstly, the 'Team' will definitely not be investigating my account - they haven't progressed anything in 2 months - whas the trigger?  this post?

Secondly, if I cant use email, webchat, telephone support, the customer portal or any other store in your network and I only have recourse to ONE specific store then it ABSOLUTELY SHOULD have a customer facing number!!!!  Customer Services have told me numerous times that they CANNOT contact that store - I would really encourage you to call your own support lines mystery-shopper style and try it before telling me what they should be able to do.  I have paid my dues in your queues so I know.

Next, I'm really sorry to mention it but its really very patronising telling me about pro-rata bills.  I know that.  But I'm on the wrong tariff and no amount of 'pro-rata'ing is going to fix that.  I was hoping that had come across in my first post.  Its absolutely irrelevant and is a stock answer 'to why is my bill so much at switchover.'

World traveller or Global roaming - whats in a name?  I have it on my account.

...so, I came back off holiday.  Vodafone had charged me the full cost of roaming for calls made there - over £70 which should have been £5 for the day.  So I called customer services and they investigated - this was not a short call.  Finally, they asked me where I went on holiday, i told them Antigua, in the caribbean (covered in the global roaming list of destinations).  They said they HAD received call records from their roaming partner marked as "DigiCell - Caribbean'' but had no idea which country so couldn't charge the correct amount.  I explained that they didn't invite me to their roaming partner contract meetings so I couldn't comment.  They have now asked me to prove that I went to Antigua by sending a copy of my passport so that they can see the immigration stamps.  That feels like a GPDS/data protection issues at best.  Why should I have to prove to Vodafone where I went - why dont they know where their roaming records are coming from?  I'm not doing it and i'm annoyed at having been asked to.  I've mentioned that the caribbean is covered under the roaming countries so why does it matter which island - but thats not good enough.  Until I can prove which island I went to the charge stands.  Seriously - do all your customers have to send in their passports after a caribbean holiday because you cant agree a 'country of origin' label on your roaming records.  It that in the customer services procedure guide???

So I gave in....and decided to go to see the wizard in the FLAGSHIP westfield store to see if they could help me find my way home.  I wasn't happy having to waste my time to make the trip, nor did South West trains have a discount deal for Flagship Vodafone customers.

When I got there, the manager said he would sort it all out whilst I was there (spoiler alter, he didn't).  Apparently the deal I was sold needed to go to an authorisations team when I signed up.  it was still in their queue, 2 months later.  they hadn't looked at it, or contacted me which is convenient for Vodafone as the payments system has free reign to my account.  I was in the store for over an hour, whilst the manager called around to sort out the roaming charges - All done he said, I'll get a credit (nope!)

He said he'd changed the tariff, updated the system and asked me to take a picture of my tariff on my phone - which I did.

Fast forward to 10 minutes before registering to write my very first post on this site and I've just checked my bill - I need to visit the store again and have words.

If I could leave with the number I  ported in I would in a heartbeat - but theres a charge because I would be breaking my agreement with Vodafone !   You really just couldn't make it up.

[Colleen]

@JQ910 I'm very sorry to hear about what's happened. 

We really want to look into this for you. So we can access your account, I've sent you a private message with details on how to get in touch.

[JQ910]

Colleen, thanks the for PM "Click here and enter your information. Make sure you click the link to send us your details as we’re unable to respond to private messages." which opens a blank canvas to start again.  No thanks - this is far beyond any respectable ask for the time this is taking and I'm not starting again.  Be proactive!  

Time for an update - nothing of the promised refunds for overcharging took place - the managers promises to sort it out disappeared about the same time i left the store.  Now my account has a block on international calls which was highly convenient - love finding out when I need to call abroad in an emergency.  Apparently the store put it on (as a stocking filler?).  Vodafone cockups - the gifts that just wont stop giving  

If nothing else this whole experience has demonstrated that Customer Services is disorganised and in disarray.  Channels work in solos, processes are very broken.  Often good intentions are limited in their execution and the customer pays the prices over and over.  Its a volume business so Voda will continue to grows, doesn't matter if some customers fall off the wagon on the way.  Such a shame!

[Getafix]

You are expecting a Proactive response, but ypour Forum profile is not linked to your Vodafone Account.

You need to verify who you are for the Forum team to identify your Vodafone Account and the only way that will happen is by filling the form they have asked you too.

I would suggest you do that, but entirely your choice.

[donnyguy]

Good morning,

I've read your posts and they leave me shaking my head. There does seem to be a catalogue of errors on both sides here, taking everything you write at face value (and there's no reason not to) then what you need to do is break down your issues into what's gone wrong and how it needs to be resolved.

The way I see it is you're dealing with:

1. You purchased two contracts and signed paperwork to say that you agreed to a higher price than what was discussed. This is alarm bell number one. You've signed paper work you knew was wrong. Irrelevant to whether this store was flagship, high street or back of beyond, you've signed up. Even you yourself said there were alarm bells.

This then leads to how to resolve it. You call up other channels (e.g. voice / chat) and say I didn't agree to that (the classic miss-sell complaint) and all they have to reference you against is a contract that you did sign. This is frustration number one (there's no recording of a conversation you had in the shop) and this will be why they've referred you back to the shop. This is one for them to sort. So I can see why they referred you back. 

I can also see your frustration at why can't they just email / call the store on your behalf? But, all the store would have to say is that you're allegation is incorrect. You agreed to what you got, the paperwork backs this up.

2. Your holiday to Antigua - So despite the fact you referenced World Traveller, it's one and the same with the new Roam Further. So being charged incorrectly is not great. The obvious resolution here is you want to be billed correctly for the calls you made (quite rightly so) yet you don't seem to want to work with them to resolve this. They obviously have different records for where the calls originated (hence the incorrect charges) and this could be caused by the geography of the area (perhaps your phone picked up a neighbouring countries frequency - it happens) or even an error in the system somewhere. 

All Vodafone seem to have asked for is for proof that you were in Antigua - a scan of your passport page that shows when you entered and I assume left but that offends you? If I were in your position then I'd hap[ily send them this information as clearly they'd refund the incorrect charges. It's an easy resolve. Why make things any harder than they already are? 

Obviously this is a post from someone on the outside looking in. I'm not a Vodafone employee. I know they get things wrong sometimes. But really without co-operation, this could be read as this guy is trying to get out of the contact he signed up to by saying despite the fact he signed it. Some magical discount was agreed in the store yet we have no proof. This guy also got billed for roaming charges in country A yet called us and said he was in country B to try and get the charges waived. We asked him for proof and he said no.

What I would say is accept the offer of help that's been provided on this forum. If the link doesn't work then I'm sure they'll re-post it. Alternitively, if you go to www.vodafone.co.uk/complaints then you can register your issue there and it'll be case managed. But ultimately if you don't do either of these then you're not going to get a resolve which I'm sure is what you ultimately want.

I wish you luck.