WiFi Calling on iPhone 6s Plus *not* bought from Vodafone

[faraw]

Hi all,

I am a new customer to Vodafone. I have an existing iPhone 6S Plus I bought from the Apple Store. I want to use WiFi Calling. WiFi Calling worked on my phone for the first week of my contact but then stopped working mysteriously.

All the Customer Support and Live Chat guys are telling me I can't have WiFi calling on my phone as I didn't purchase the phone directly from Vodafone........as my phone won't be compatible!!! (sounds BS to me).

I would really appreciate an official response from a Vodafone Mod so I can forward this thread to the Live Chat guys.

Should WiFi calling work on a SIM only Red Entertainment bundle or do I have to purchase the phone from Vodafone?

Thanks

Anthony

[AnnS]

Hi @faraw

If you are using an iphone 6S plus, to benefit from WiFi calling, the phone does not need to be purchased direct from Vodafone.  Providing you are on an eligible Red tariff, you will be able to use WiFi calling.  Please see below how to set up WiFi calling.

Support - WiFi calling

[faraw]

Thanks Ann, this is my understanding too. WiFi Calling is enabled on my iPhone. It worked for the 1st week but mysteriously stopped. This is the response I've had from the Vodafone social media team after raising a ticket. They won't budge and they won't help me. I don't know what I need to do to get past this mis-information:

Hi Anthony,

Thank you for your email.

 Though, we won’t be able to check that whether you were able to use the Wi-Fi calling feature in the initial days after taking the Vodafone contract however, I can’t confirm that you have a SIM only contract.

 We can’t confirm that whether the phone that you are using has been purchase directly from Vodafone (i.e. stores, online or by phone through our customer services team).

 If the phone has been purchase from a third party, then Wi-Fi calling feature will not be functional. Please click here to know the same mentioned on our website

If the iPhone 6s has been purchased directly from Vodafone, then let us know so that we can discuss this case with our technical team.

This is already part of a web ticket  (#15914877) they just won't listen. What can I do to get through to them???

Thanks

Anthony 

[AnnS]

Hi @faraw

If that reply has come from the Team here it's disappointing.  Wait for a member of the Team to get to the thread again.

[faraw]

Yes, that came from the Vodafone social media team. I've been so fed up with 2 weeks of ongoing mis-information from that team, I called Vodafone Customer Relations. They fixed my WiFi calling issue in 5 mins. 

They removed it from my account, re-added it and now its working again fine. Problem solved!

I won't name and shame here but if Vodafone would like the names of the 3 people on the Social Media team who clearly need some more training, PM me and I'll share them.

[jeffkinn]

That is absolute and total nonsense. WiFi calling will work on every relebvant model of iPHone no matter where it's purchased.

I buy my phones unlocked and directly from Apple and Wi Fi calling works perfectly.

It is more than disappointing that a member of Vodafone should give you such false information, assuming you made it clear that it was an Apple product and not an Android phone.

[faraw]

Yep - the whole week long conversation was farcical. Customers knowing more than the CS reps doesn't paint a good picture of the company in question. Here was the exchange of emails - bear in mind this is with different members of the Vodafone social media team:

Unfortunately I've still got outstanding issues that they just cannot resolve. I just go round and round in circles with them accomplishing nothing but wasting my time. Any attempts made for an escalation just land me right back with the Social Media team who just tell me to wait another 5 days. . It really is quite bad. Nothing ever get's resolved and internal escalations seem to vanish into thin air.  Any requests for escalation here is met with an invitation to speak to the Social Media Team again. Its mind boggling how bad customer service this is.

Thankfully a call to Vodafone Customer relations has my WiFi Calling problem now resolved. Just the MyVodafone access needs fixing now.

[Jenny]

@faraw - I’m sorry to hear your My Vodafone problem is ongoing, but I’m pleased to hear Wi-Fi Calling has now been resolved.

So we can assist further, please reply to the latest email from us.

[faraw · Accepted solution]

Sorry Jenny - no, I'm not playing this game anymore. You just refer me back to the social media team who tell me more lies. I come back here for help and your colleagues refer me back to the social media team again....and the cycle continues. See the farce above.

I see you've removed all my images so you're clearly embarassed to see what your customer services teams are saying to customers.

My account issues are now being addressed by the Office of Nick Jeffrey.

[152bobby]

I was going to submit a new topic, but luckily found this one, which is relevant to my issue.

I went through the very same thing with Vodafone Chat, spent about 30 minutes trying all sorts of things to activate WiFi calling on my daughter's iphone 6s.  Whilst I was on the chat, I was searching Google for extra advice and found out that it actually does state on the vodafone website that they cannot activate WiFi calling if the phone is not bought via Vodafone and I had to tell this to the live chat person, so he quickly used this as the reason why he could not activate it.

Anyway, so later in the day, I asked my daughter to try calling me on WiFi to see what happened.  It actually worked and still does, however, texts do not work.

So I popped into the Apple Store today to see if the text issue can be fixed.  They said that taking the SIM out and resetting the WiFi calling settings should sort it....i cannot try this, as my daughter is at uni, so will try this at the weekend.

I took the opportunity to pop into the Reading Vodafone store whilst I was there, so I thought I'd get their input on it.

They said that one of their techie guys would have a look at it and he said, because the phone was not purchased via Vodafone and if they fix it, there would be a charge !!

I was gobsmacked, because the reason my daughter needs this option activated is because there is absolutely  no vodafone signal on her uni campus at all, despite the vodafone on line signal checker saying that there is excellent coverage both inside and outside, what a load of rubbish.

I have checked this myself when visiting and there is no signal at all.

So this is yet another reason I may take my three vodafone contracts elsewhere come December.

Does anyone know if taking the SIM out etc will solve the text issue on WiFi calling ?

I know I'll find out this weekend, but I just thought I'd share this with you.

Thanks

Bobby

PS:Why on earth is the WiFi Calling function on iPhones not activated as default (whether it is done by vodafone or Apple)? Surely any extra functions to help with calling etc when in a bad reception area is more than welcome !!