What a shambles

[toomanylogins]

I'm writing this here as completely exasperated having wasted an hour with Vodafone on the chat and on the telephone.

I have a business account and received an email today to state that the account was in arrears. Logged onto the website and pay the outstanding balance of one month which was a small amount. I went to the dashboard to create direct debit but continually got the error

" Sorry You're already using the account you just tried to set up. If you want to change it, please enter the new details below. "

No payment methods were displayed in the dashboard.

I then went on to the chat and got booted out three times after going through all of the security because it would appear that the chat is only available to personal accounts not business.

You have to telephone to speak to business support and go through another rigmarole of authentication before you eventually get to speak to somebody. The person I spoke to informed me that there was already a direct debit when I asked why the account was in arrears and the direct debit was not used he could not provide an answer. I also explained I could not see the direct debit my dashboard (which was of see the reason why I was getting the error). He was unable to provide an explanation so no doubt the same thing will occur next month.

I asked him for an email address in order to complain and send the screenshot of the dashboard showing no direct debit under a payment method but he was unable to provide an email address. This is a salutary lesson in how not to deliver customer support to business customers. If you value your time It may be worth considering if Vodafone is the right choice for your business broadband.

[AnnS]

Have you spoken to the Bank about the direct debit to ask the reason for the transactions not completing?  @toomanylogins 

If Vodafone have submitted the mandate it should be on the list of direct debits on the account and there shouldn't any reason being unable to collect the monthly payment from the account.

[toomanylogins]

Thanks for reply. The issue is that the i cannot view the mandate under my payment methods but vodafone called me back yesterday and confirmed they have it. The problem is with them. But the real issue is that it should not have been so difficult. Why do we not have a version of this forum specifically for customer support.  It would have taken a couple of minutes for me to post my enquiry complete with a screenshot of the payment methods page showing no mandate. Vodafone could deal with it and sort out the problem. Instead I wasted an hour on the chat bot and the telephone and then a manager had to call me back to apologise. This support system is grossly inefficient.

[Cynric]

@AnnS  This may be relevant, please check if you can.

@toomanylogins  There are reports that a DD clearing house has been subject to a cybercrime event, for reference see https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/23/ransomware_attack_at_london_zurich/

I am not saying that this is the cause, but it may be relevant.

[Ripshod]

Great catch!! 

[Effie]

@toomanylogins I can appreciate the frustration caused by having to spend time on the phone getting help but I'm glad the payment was taken successfully. If you ever need to send a screenshot you can do this on the Forum as long as you blank out any personal details. For account specific issues, reaching out to the Social Media Team may be beneficial as they can receive screenshots, videos etc on those channels. The reason we can't take account details via the Forum is due to security and privacy protection. This channel is only intended for general queries, advice and conversations. 

@Cynric Thanks for the link and the information you posted. We're not aware of any impact this would have on Vodafone at this moment but we appreciate you sharing your thoughts and information that you've found. 

[toomanylogins]

I realise Vodafone cannot support via this community forum. But there is nothing to stop Vodafone implementing a version of a forum/private messaging in the account section of the website after you have logged in with verification. I run a software business and that's how we provide support to our customers. You get a thread of the discussion and if it's urgent people can use the chat bot. But for the majority of account queries it is not urgent and message type posts are the best way to provide support to customers in my opinion.

It's worth noting that when you log into Vodafone it always defaults to the personal tab not the business one. Therefore you get the chat bot prompt for support even though the chat bot does not support business customers. This is an oversight in the design of the Vodafone website.