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Extremely poor repair experience

CrispThirty
4: Newbie

As you don't appear to have any method of registering a complaint on this site, other than telling me to call customer services, I'm posting this on here so that everyone can read it. Firstly here's the background:

Tuesday 30th September
I took my son's Nokia Lumia 520 (which is on my account) into the VF store local to where I work because the power and volume buttons had stopped working and requested a repair under warranty.
The adviser in the store removed the back cover, battery and sim card and gave them to me to hold onto, while it was away for repair. He then filled in the repair form and said he'd send it away for repair and be in touch when it was ready.
At no point in this process did he inform me that I should have removed the sd card before giving it to them or make any attempt to remove it himself, so this was sent to your repair centre in the phone.

Friday 3rd October
We were notified via text message that the phone was ready for collection

Tuesday 7th October
I went into the VF store to collect the phone. The adviser, briefly showed me the phone and confirmed that it was a Nokia and then put it into a box for me which I took away. I was given no other additional information by this adviser other than that "the problem was fixed" and "they'd upgraded the firmware"
When I got home that evening, I unpacked the phone and gave it to my son, who noticed it was a different model because the camera was different. This was confirmed when we tried to put the original back cover on.

Wednesday 8th October
Thinking that I'd been given someone else's phone I went back to the VF store to find out why I'd been given this phone. I then spent a considerable amount of time while the adviser shuttled between me and "the manager out the back" asking me various questions that this manager had asked. Eventually they decided that the reason was that the repair centre didn't have any spare 520's so thay had "upgraded" me to a 620.
Would it not have been good customer service to have told me this when I collected the phone? Also, I was now stuck with a useless replacement phone because the repair centre hadn't had the common sense to enclose a battery or a back cover to fit it. As I said previously the 520 items I had been left with didn't fit.
The adviser then decided he would order the replacement parts for me. As he had no idea what the store's post code was(!), he said he'd get them sent to my home instead. He said this would be no problems because the cover and battery were in stock, and that they would be with me in a couple of days.

Saturday 11th October
The back cover arrived in the post but no sign of the battery

Monday 13th October
I received a text from VF saying "We're sorry to say that the accessory you ordered is out of stock at the moment. We'll send you a text as soon as it's available."

Tuesday 14th October
I received the same "out of stock" automated text

Wednesday 15th October
As I'd been assured that the items were in stock and the texts gave no indication of when the battery would be back in stock, I went back into the VF store to question this.
In addition, my son had noticed over the weekend that the replacement phone didn't have a memory card in it, so I also wanted to be given a replacement for this, as I realised that the adviser hadn't removed it from the phone I brought in for repair.
Yet again my conversation was punctuated by the adviser having to keep going out the back to talk to his manager. The upshot of all this was that VF can't do anything about either issue.
The options I was given for the replacement battery were to wait until it's in stock (can't tell you when though) or buy one myself from Ebay or Amazon and bring the receipt in to get the amount taken off my bill. To be honest, having looked on these sites, I'm not convinced I would obtain a genuine Nokia battery from there, and don't want to risk it. I'm also left with absolutely no confidence that if I turned back up at the VF store with my battery receipt, that I'd have any success getting my money refunded.
The issue with the memory card was "not their problem" and they "could do nothing about it" unless I produced a receipt for the memory card. As the memory card came with the phone I don't have a receipt. I tried to explain to the adviser that as it was actually the store's fault that I didn't have the memory card they should replace it but he wouldn't accept this (After going out the back to the manager again!) and distinctly implied that I was trying it on. So I'm left out of pocket, having to replace a memory card that was lost due to either the store's or the repair centre's incompetence.
At this point, I realised this was going to go nowhere, so I asked how I escalate the issue and was told to "ring customer services, but they'll just tell you the same". I asked for the adviser's and the manager's name which was met with a big sigh and another trip out the back to get the manager's surname. Strangely when he returned, the bit of paper just had first names on it though!

I've not given the location of the store or the names of the advisers or manager but can supply them if requested.

My questions to VF:
Why was I not informed that I'd been "upgraded" when I picked up the phone?
Why did VF think that a different model without a battery and back cover is acceptable to give as a replacement phone to a customer?
Why do I have to pay for a new memory card  when it is VF's fault that it's missing?
Do VF store managers ever leave "out the back" and come onto the shop floor? It is very frustrating to have to deal with someone who has to keep relaying messages between me and the manager
Related to this, are there actually managers in the stores or does the adviser just go out the back to ring someone? It seems very suspicious that they can't come out and personally deal with problem cases instead of the message passing that seems to go on.

Most importantly, when are you going to send me the replacement battery, so that my son can use this "upgraded" phone?

My question to the forum
Can someone confirm that the Nokia 620 is actually an upgrade on the Nokia 520. The Nokia site doesn't display the models in an easy to compare way

22 REPLIES 22

I've received an email from Vodafone today telling me that they're going to credit my account with £25.00, so I've accepted the offer and I'll buy the missing parts myself.

 

To be honest, I'm bored with trying to get this sorted out myself and it doesn't look like I'll ever get the answers to the questions in my original post. So good luck to anyone else who tries to get their phone repaired by Vodafone without any problems, they obviously don't want to learn from their mistakes!

 

I'll be voting with my feet, after many years with vodafone, when my contract ends in Jan 2016. As we use "Vodafone family" to give us free calls to our 3 children this will be 5 pay monthly contracts you will have lost as my wife will be moving her 2 phones away as well as the 3 on my account. I just hope I never have to deal with Vodafone's Andover store or their repair centre again before I move because I can honestly say that this ordeal has been the worst example of customer service I have ever experienced.

 

Thanks

I ordered the missing parts on Wedensday night from a phone parts site and they arrived on Friday morning. You see Vodafone it is possible to provide a decent spares service!

 

Can anyone tell me whether the promised £25 credit will be viewable in my account or do I have to monitor the next few direct debits to make sure that one has been reduced by that amount? My previous experiences with this company have left me with very little confidence that this will have been anything other than an empty promise. Having had to purchase the missing parts lost or not provided by Vodafone myself, I'm now left out of pocket, so I certainly intend to make sure thet I get this credit.

Hi @CrispThirty 

 

Reply back to the last email we sent, our team will be happy to help.

 

Thanks,

 

Matt