Backstory - probably the same for most. Checked the coverage on the Vodafone website before plumping for Vodafone 6 months ago (available indoors and outdoors, according to the site). Found that it only works indoors if I'm in our bedroom. Just received my new work mobile and - oh dear - it's also on Vodafone, and I'm getting colleagues complain about being able to reach me.
Having heard about the Sure Signal I went onto the Vodafone website; there it is. £100 is a bit steep to fix Vodafone's poor coverage but I need the coverage, and in a few months I figured I won't care about the £100. So I think OK, I'll go to the local store and pick one up.
Not only that, but my wife is on EE, and the signal (although better than Vodafone) isn't marvellous, so as she's outside her tie-in period we thought this would be a great opportunity to move her to Vodafone and have a single Sure Signal box giving great coverage for our 3 phones. Sounds great! Let's get to the shop.
"No, sorry, we're out of stock." Not only that, but no idea IF (not WHEN, but IF) they would ever get it back in.
"Not to worry" I said, "I saw it on the website, I'll order it from there".
So I get home, open the Vodafone site, find it - I try to add to basket - try it, please - and all I get is a string of "??????" beneath the button. It just doesn't work. I'll skip the lecture about poor eCommerce customer experience.
So I tried the live chat (if you want a laugh I can send the transcript). After a series of hopeless CSRs, I got to "Gavin" who suggested a callback and putting me through to the Sales team. This sounded promising!
Except the sales team turned out to be the installations/infrastructure team (I forget which). But - bingo - they were able to put me through to the sales team.
Except this turned out to be the Sales Refusal team. I have his name, I won't post it here as I suspect this might cause my query to disappear. I was told to buy it online - I explained it doesn't work. I was then told to go in-store - I explained my experience in the store. I was told he couldn't help. "OK, can you put me through to your complaints department please?" - I was told I have to go to the store to complain about Vodafone UK. "No, I want to speak to someone centrally at Vodafone please". The response? "Will it help?" - I'm not sure whether that was incompetence, ignorance, resignation..? So I gave up on that route.
I phoned 191 and found someone to lodge my complaint. I asked for someone to call me back to follow up. Unfortunately they hadn't read the case properly, because I had two voicemails on my phone (no signal when they called), so I put my phone upstairs for the third call. By the time I sprinted upstairs I was JUST too late. The voicemail? "This is the third try....please phone us back if you still want to speak to us". Good grief.
So I called 191 again, got through to someone who read the notes on file, told me the same nonsense about buying online or in-store. I said I didn't think that was really good enough for a company the size of Vodafone. "I'll get a manager to speak to you".
After 20 minutes of hold music I gave up.
So here's the summary:
1. I still haven't had my complaint dealt with
2. I'm not happy with the way it was dealt with - if I'm complaining because I have no coverage, don't leave a mildly-annoyed sounding voicemail that you can't reach me on my Vodafone number
3. Without a Sure Signal box I have poor Vodafone coverage
4. Without a Sure Signal box my wife is of the "over my dead body" view about moving to Vodafone
5. Without a Sure Signal box, once I'm out of the tie-in period I'll be Vodagone (probably to join her on EE).
Over to you, Vodafone - can you rescue this situation?
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