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How can I make a complaint about home broadband renewal experience?

davebmk
3: Seeker
3: Seeker

Or make any sort of complaint I guess, which doesn't fit into the short narrow list of suggested problems? Typical of many other big companies who basically just want to make it nigh on impossible for customers to contact them unless it's to buy something. Hard enough to even find the Contact Us button without then being unable to pass on both criticism for hours of time wasted being passed from person/team to another on Chat, then similar experience on the phone. I did want to finally praise Mohammed and Ki in the Gigafast team, who sorted my renewal out in a few minutes. Were it not for illness at home which makes changing supplier at short notice an unwanted task I'd have been gone. Promised speeds and coverage have never materialised, and this would have been final straw. Starting from having me down in the renewal offer email as a Superfast 2 customer, offering me the wrong package, then time after time waiting in silence for 10 minutes+ "while  I get your details", or "I'm passing you to another team", to (the agent) being cut off and going dead in mid-sentence, the customer service stinks. Working from home I understand, but the management organising customer service/renewals needs to be drastically improved. Once I was finally passed to the Gigafast team it was like night and day.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

I'd say a big thanks to Jayach👍

 

I can't speak for anyone else but, personally, I don't want to pay for a service, have an issue, and spend hours and hours trying to get someone who's English is 'broken' to understand and deal with an issue. It takes forever.

 

All I want is to be able to explain the issue, succinctly, in an email/post and have someone deal with it and get back to me. That's how it should be, it's not rocket science. It worked fine before. That way 'they' spend the time dealing with the issue and I don't have to. I'm sick (in general, not just VF) of having to spend 45m to 1hour on the phone every single time there's an issue or a query with a bill, or whatever. It's an insane waste of time.

 

So, thanks for the link. If I have another issue with VF I will be using it!

 

KR, DW

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16 REPLIES 16

I'd say a big thanks to Jayach👍

 

I can't speak for anyone else but, personally, I don't want to pay for a service, have an issue, and spend hours and hours trying to get someone who's English is 'broken' to understand and deal with an issue. It takes forever.

 

All I want is to be able to explain the issue, succinctly, in an email/post and have someone deal with it and get back to me. That's how it should be, it's not rocket science. It worked fine before. That way 'they' spend the time dealing with the issue and I don't have to. I'm sick (in general, not just VF) of having to spend 45m to 1hour on the phone every single time there's an issue or a query with a bill, or whatever. It's an insane waste of time.

 

So, thanks for the link. If I have another issue with VF I will be using it!

 

KR, DW

I know you'll all say - "Oh no, not him again" but if it wasn't so serious it would be funny.

I'd thought I really just want to get the essentials done now, the main thing being to get the promised new router at the start of my contract, and while I'll take the complaints form route, that may well go into an admin queue. I had already written quite a long explanation of the issues on Facebook almost a week ago. I provided them with my account number as requested, though I'd asked if they could email me with answers as I rarely used Facebook. Hung around for a while with no response. Anyway though no messages were showing up on my Facebook page I checked Thursday night, only to find a question - why are you contacting us? Told them I'd been asked to DM them.

 

I had read your kind comment Evie, following what Mark D had asked me to do, and you both might want to read on.

 

Finally this afternoon I go into Facebook again, to be asked why I'm contacting them. At last then when I say home broadband, and ask the agent to check back I find the answer - ""Unfortunately, the social media team aren't able to assist with Gigafast queries""

 

Funny that because in the 1st paragraph of my 1st message I say "....I am disgusted with my renewal experience after hours of aggravation, before finally with the help of KI in particular and Mohammed of the Gigafast team achieving the simple task of renewing."  See, I do do compliments!  and appreciate the strain that management structure and systems put on the guys at the sharp end. Funny as well that I had the same experience both on using Chat renewal - after an hour found a different team handled Gigafast, and the next day having phoned the number the Chat agent gave me, they didn't do Gigafast either.

Tash
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)

I'm sorry to see your complaint hasn't yet been investigated @davebmk. I can see our automated messages had been sent in error, which can happen if there's been a break between messages as our system would see this as a new conversation and then ask our customers what their query is regarding. As we'll have already received your query when you first messaged us, we'd still be able to view the messages you sent to advise further.

I can see the adviser who replied previously via social media advised that they'd be unable to assist with your query and advised you to call our Gigafast team. I'm sorry to see this was the case as while in most cases we wouldn't handle Gigafast queries directly, we're still able to register a complaint on an account and feed back the comments you've raised to us. 

I've arranged for us to pick this up again so we can turn things around for you and I've fed back the messages you were sent before. If you haven't already, please reply to our latest message and we'll be happy to help from there.

Tash,

Thank you; I actually checked this page before dinner, having spent most of the afternoon getting nowhere. No-one's interested in a continuation of this thread, so I was going to post a couple of "helpful" tips to avoid more people suffering like me. I don't have the heart to go into Facebook again. It's no good you telling me it should be passed on, it will be passed on. It hasn't; it won't!!!

 

1. I had been told to send "messages" so did just that, waited a few minutes in case someone answered, only to find that it was more like chat, and I'd have to start again most times with a new person. Even though they had my account details no-one helped or could pass on my message.

2. I wrote a review on Trustpilot on 27th Jan., detailing some of my issues, and giving 1*, and that for the help the Gigafast phone guy gave me after nearly 2 hours on Chat and call to the previous day to random people. Vodafone replied to that review saying

"We're disappointed to hear this David and we're committed to getting this resolved for you.

.....please drop us a message on Facebook  or via Twitter  and one of our agents will be happy to take a look in to this right away."   You can imagine how I took that.

 

 

 

3. Finally this morning I sent this message via Facebook - "I'm contacting regarding my home broadband which is Gigafast. All I want to know right now is whether you have a Facebook team which handles queries re Gigafast so that I might ask questions about the renewal I've recently signed for. I keep being told to take my issues to the social media team on Facebook (or Twitter) by Vodafone people - in a Trustpilot message and by 2 different mods in the community forum. I've today had mixed info on here (Facebook that is). The last agent said ".... If you'd prefer not to use social media" then a few lines later said " .....Unfortunately, the social media team aren't able to assist with Gigafast queries. " I do know that on calls, I can't be transferred between say Gigafast and Superfast teams, can I ask - do you actually have a team on Facebook which handles Gigafast broadband customers or not, and if you do how the .... can I get through to them?

His reply -

"I completely understand where you're coming from David but we are the only Social Media Team for Vodafone and we are unable to resolve Gigafast queries online. You would need to call 191 and follow instructions to get put through to the dedicated Gigafast Team or you could call them directly on 08080 034 511. I hope your query gets resolved ASAP for you. Thank you. Saf"

 

You can't ask for clearer than that, can you?

Ring 191?  I don't think so.

 

In fact as I finalised my renewal over 10 days ago the agent gave me a better number to reach them on for help. My line/connection would have to be re-activated; he gave me a booking for 5th March p.m. and he agreed to send me the new router I'd demanded as a condition of renewal. Having heard nothing I rang the number today - 08080 034511.

 

"This number is now closed!"

 

The only way to reach the Gigafast account/customer service team is to dial 08080 034515, choose the "activation" option which takes you to the Tech. team, and they will transfer you to the right team. Don't believe me? Try it. An agent told me that. After 75 minutes of patiently holding, while the extremely nice lady tried to find answers for me, she had to inform me, among other things that my re-activation booking had been cancelled, though no-one thought to tell me, and no router had been despatched. I had no option but to put my tech-savvy daughter on, to discuss the various processes that had been previously been gone through without obtaining anything like the speeds we were paying for, and very poor coverage. We had got nowhere before the line went dead. No fault of the agent, but there we were. We couldn't re-engage, and after the second 30 minute? stage, frankly we'd had enough. I've now got pages of transcripts of the various exchanges we've had.

 

I'd had time to tell her that I had had enough. I appreciate the agents themselves working from home, but today is the last straw. The system and management are abysmal.  I've now spent day after day, hours most days, getting nowhere, but exposing flaws at every turn. I will somehow contact customer services tomorrow, and we'll be leaving a few days into the new contract for however many reasons you'd like to choose.

 

I'm sure you'll understand why I'm not prepared to engage with Vodafone on Facebook.

Hi Tash,

And just in case I haven't made clear, and you haven't got access to messages sent from me on Facebook, I did give them my account number, so someone could have checked my individual case, and found out what is/was going on.

Evie
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)

Hi there @davebmk - I can understand your frustration with this and wanting to get this sorted. Thank you for reaching out to us on Facebook, I can see we've requested security from you on there, and then we will be able to note the complaint on your account and pass any feedback onto a manager. However, as I'm sure you're already aware, we are unable to action anything/run any diagnostics on an account in regards to Gigafast via social media as we don't have the systems or the scope to do so. I do apologise for any confusion surrounding how we can and cannot help via our social channels. 

I'm also sorry to hear you've decided to leave, we would've liked to turn this around for you. As said above, if you would like your experience and comments fed back please respond to the most recent message we have sent to you on Facebook. Although I do understand that you've said you'd prefer to not interact via Facebook. I hope you've been able to get in touch today and move forward with this.

Hi

https://complaints.vodafone.co.uk/resource?id=27700

Registered office: Vodafone House, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2FN

 

        this is/was customer service             

 

consumer at help dot vodafone .co.uk   in case of html errors

 

Our advisers are available Monday - Friday 8am to 9pm and Saturday - Sunday 8am to 8pm

191 free from your Vodafone mobile.

03333 040 191 from other UK landlines or mobiles (standard call charges apply).

+44 7836 191 191 from abroad (free from a Vodafone mobile, international call charges apply from other landlines and mobiles).

08080 034 515 for Home Broadband support (free from all UK landlines and mobiles).