Why can't any VodaFone department take ownership of an issue without passing the buck?

[__graeme]

I need to gently vent my frustration with VodaFone.
I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I have spent 8 hours 45 minutes in 2 chat sessions with VodaFone support day. 
I have been passed between departments visiting some as many as 4 times within a single chat session. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I tried to escalate my issue several times and was told several times by various managers that my problem was fixed only to be transferred to the "upgrades" team who tell me my account is broken. Over and over again. Back and forth. 

Very, very disappointed with Vodafone right now. 
It seems impossible to get a staff member or manager to take ownership of an issue and just get it sorted. They don't seem to be capable of communicating between teams. The customer has to do that when they are transferred. Most of the time, having to go security again when you get put through to another team.  

VodaFone is a communication company isn't it? They don't seem to demonstrate any skills in that area. 

[Jayach]

Honestly can't disagree with anything you have written, it really is appalling.

Feel free to vent all you wish on the forum, it will do no good, but hopefully you may feel better.

[AnnS]

It's difficult to understand the service where you are having the account issues @__graeme , looking back on your previous threads, there was a problem with a pay monthly account but this is going back 2020.

It would be worth contacting the Social Team, they are part of Customer Relations and will at least be able to fix the account issues, take ownership and address other problems here:  Contact Us .

[__graeme]

In the original post I didn't give much detail about the actual issue, just how terrible the process is when things go wrong.

A brief(ish) summary of my actual issue:

I'm about to be Out-of-Contract on my Home Broadband so I secured a new deal and 24 month contract. I'm not fibre yet so the broadband package and speed were unchanged,  just a better price.

As part of the "upgrade", I was asked if I could switch to Digital Voice. It's not an issue for me so I agreed.

Vodafone put the order in with OpenReach but I've since found out that OpenReach rejected the order.

Vodafone telephoned me to tell me there was an issue and that my order will need to be re-done. They said they needed to wait until the order was completely cancelled before they could re-submit it. (That phone call lasted about an hour I think)
 

The next day I received automatic emails telling me my upgrade was complete and that Digital Voice was now live on my account.

Confused, I contacted Vodafone Support via chat.  I was given conflicting information by different teams and passed back and forth between the Broadband Support team, Broadband Support Team Seniors/Managers, Sales and Retentions. 

Basically, Broadband Support haven't been able to properly cancel off my first order in order,  although they claimed many times that everything was fixed before passing me to Retentions.

I was then told by Retentions that "the system" won't let them place an order on my account because there was an issue and that I needed to be passed to Broadband Support to get it fixed before they could do anything.

Back and forth, back and forth etc etc etc. 

During the chat I made several attempts to get someone in Vodafone to take ownership of the issue and deal with all the teams involved themselves. But no, it isn't possible to escalate up to a level where both the Broadband Support Team and Retentions have the same manager.  In common with most large organisations, every team member is now a specialist and only has authority and control over their little part of the process. There isn't anyone left anymore that has visibility or control of the whole process. The result is that the customer now has to be the messenger between the various VodaFone teams and the Vodafone teams are free to just bounce the customer around as they see fit. You never speak to the same person twice, and there is no accountability or continuity. 

I’ll try the Social Team now, thanks for that tip.
     

[__graeme]

Update:
I decided against talking to the Social Team. I just need this issue resolved as quick as possible.
I decided to raise a complaint instead (so it won't actually be quick). 
I've now discovered that process is broken as well. 
The complaints form asks for (insists on)  a phone number and an alternative phone number to contact me even though I've took the "I prefer email" option on the form. The form does not allow me to enter a valid landline number as my phone number. It's actually my Vodafone landline number. It did accept my mobile number in both fields. Bad form validation!  So I did eventually  manage to get my complaint sent. 
Next I get an email acknowledging my complaint and telling me they will be in touch in 7 to 10 days. All good so far.
Then I get another email telling me I can track the progress of my complaint using the complaints portal.
It says I should use the email address I gave in my complaint and they supplied a password. 
I tried to login in but password they gave is invalid. 
I thought I'd reply to the their email to let them know. It says this at the bottom of their email.
"A quick request: if you reply to this email, please don’t edit the subject line – it helps us identify your complaint." 
I replied to the email to let them know the password wasn't working and then noticed the reply address: "noreply@care.vodafone.co.uk"   

Honestly, you couldn't made this stuff up. 

[Cynric]

@__graeme  It really does make you wonder if that email address should be noreply[at]wedonotcare.vodafone.co.uk 😀

[__graeme]

I totally agree. 
I had already sent the reply before noticing the reply address. It hasn't been bounced back so I have no idea if they actually got my reply or it just went into a black hole. I'm assuming the later.    

[__graeme]

Update:
I used this service today to try to get my "Complaints Portal" password reset: 
"Call us:  Speak to our dedicated complaints team" 
The call gets triaged of course and the very first question is "if you have a problem with your mobile, enter your mobile number or if you have a Problem with broadband, enter you landline number", that's all the options. There is no "or something else" option. I picked the "Landline" option (what else could I do?) and got through to a nice guy but he couldn't help to get my password reset because a) They didn't know who to contact and b) they worked in Broadband support.
It seems like the "dedicated complaints team" is just a myth. At least it's a freefone number.     

Also, I have a theory about why the Chat Support teams won't ring other departments on your behalf and need to just pass your chat to another department. I think they probably don't have phones. Anyone know better?

[Ripshod]

"Also, I have a theory about why the Chat Support teams won't ring other departments on your behalf and need to just pass your chat to another department. I think they probably don't have phones. Anyone know better?“

You're not far off. They use voip software on their terminals. Each department is in it's own group. Calls can be transferred withing that group but not to another group. An exchange would have to handle transfers between groups and there's only a few members within each group that has exchange privileges. 

[__graeme]

ha ha, yes that makes sense. 
Thank you.