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Online account error

mike37p
4: Newbie

I get the following error message when I sign on to my account - under the account summary tab

"Sorry, there seems to be a problem

We're working hard to fix the issue, so please try again later.: 104, Unexpected error: Invalid Data Value - AccountID should be Numeric(Error codes: 104_ null) - [Error ref 1j2]"

 

I've reported this and was told it would be fixed in "a few day" but no-one would contact me when it was!

Its a few days later, it isn't fixed and no-one has contacted me.

 

To me it looks like an internal error where the account number (which starts AM) isn't compaitble with a new update.

 

Any ideas how I can sort this out? 

167 REPLIES 167

I'm getting the same error here. I'm actually much more annoyed at the amount of frustration I've spent trying to report the error to Vodafone. They've reset my password and username several times, asked me to send the error in about 3 times and reset cookies etc etc again. They even gave me a escalation number saying I would be contacted which of course I have not. and they asked for all the same information again. So in summary  more hassle than it's worth really I will probably just keep it to use with teh one tariff, all the other PAYG providers let you use your balance to buy bundles these days which was what I was looking to do. I think I could still do this but I've already switched to Tesco  who have a much better standard bundle deal any way.

I should have checked this forum first I was thininking it might be related to my broadband login

Annie_N
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

@Natasha I was planning to follow the instructions in your PM, but, on reflection, attempting to deal with the situation by fixing one account at a time - presumably by giving us new accounts - is going to be hideously heavy on manpower. My husband had to have his account replaced a while ago, and it isn't the world's easiest process - we fouled up at the first attempt, and had to go through it twice.

I'm not sure how long ago the format of account numbers changed (within the past 10 years, from the evidence of my records) but there must be thousands of us affected by this, possibly tens of thousands or more, all long-standing customers with quite a track-record of loyalty. Some probably won't discover for some months that they can no longer access their accounts, especially relatively low-rate users with non-smart phones, but this doesn't mean that alienating them is consequence-free.

For some of those affected, the app is unlikely to be an alternative at all, and frankly the app is still pretty rubbishy for PAYG; and the group will include plenty of customers like me who have had their accounts for 20 years or more, and are still quite proud to say "I'm with Vodafone". If CS or Live Chat repeatedly puts customers through what are clearly inappropriate hoops, this is just going to alienate customers further, and plenty of them are going to follow srpsrp's example, and take their business elsewhere. Around here signal is poor, and Vodafone is marginally better than the other networks, so sentiment plus inertia will probably keep me here, but the increasing profile, availabiity and quality of the rivals serves as a permanent reminder that one of the glories of PAYG is the freedom to leave whenever one feels like it.

Since the problem seems to have taken Vodafone by surprise, I assume the change in programming was inadvertent and can be reversed. If there is some good reason why it can't be reversed, then either the old account numbers need to be replaced in some automated way or there needs to be some attempt to alert customers, and CS and Live Chat need to be made aware of what advice to give customers, rather than endlessly and pointlessly resetting passwords.

For the moment, I think I'll just keep the situation under review.

[I've assumed that PayM accounts aren't affected - if they are, things could get very "interesting".]

I agree with this. This (to my mind - I've been in the sofware applications support area for 40 years) is a programming issue and must be a simple validation statement that has been included recently. However there might be other places with the same assumption. I'm amazed this got through any testing - certainly no regression tests seem to have been done.

If it comes to changing my account I'll look to other suppliers and leave Vodafone. The only commitment I have to Vodafone is for the following month. This has been a painful journey so far (various empty promises and "we're working hard to fix the problem" - I don't think so) and I'm not going to extend it if I don't have to. 

Annie_N
Community Champion (Retired)
Community Champion (Retired)

There does seem to be a curious naivety about Vodafone at times!

Before posting this morning, I did take the precaution of checking that the issue hadn't gone away overnight. It hadn't. but I did note the "Notice of planned service downtime – My Vodafone won't be available from 12am - 6am on Friday 17 August due to planned maintenance" so we may yet be lucky.

Yes, it might be sorted but I don't want to feel lucky. I'd rather someone took this seriously and told me (and everyone else affected) that they own the problem. 

Let's see what happens next. I'm starting to look at other options. 7 days and I'll make a decision.

For Vodafone support reading this, please let me know what's going on!

I had THIS problem and it went away fora while but seems now to have rematerialised.  What is the answer?

saguaro
4: Newbie

I have the same error, on the only account I have, which has been around since 2010. The app does work for me at the level of checking how much data I have left, but it's going to be a bit of a pain next time I want to turn my Extra Data back on, and last time I tried to top up by voucher I had to use the 2345 route because the app interface wouldn't work. (It went all the way to the captcha and then decided there was a problem. But maybe I was typing the number in wrong and it's not connected to the account issue.)

 

I agree with the person above who said that it can't be efficient to deal with everyone individually for what seems to be a widespread error.

 

 

 

Gemma
Community Manager
Community Manager

@srpsrp @Annie_N @mike37p @saguaro @juds- Thanks to everyone who’s posted to flag this and I’m sorry for any inconvenience it’s causing. We don't want to lose any of you as customers.

We’ll need to take your details, so we’ve examples of what’s happening and can look into it further.

If you haven’t done so already, please get in touch with us by following the steps in the private message we've sent.

When you do this, please also include the link to this post.

Hi Gemma,

    Thanks, I've just done that!

     

I've had a response from the ticket I raised in the private message as below

"Thanks for contacting us, apologies about the delay in getting back to you. I'm sorry your having issues logging into your online account. I understand the importance of you having access to this and it's something I'd like to help investigate further for you.

In order for me to access your account can you please confirm the 4-digit code I've sent to your mobile number ending 781

Once this has been confirmed I'll get back to you"

 

I have responded as below 

"I'm sorry that feel you need to access my account(s). This issue clearly has little to do with only my account(s) as others have reported that account numbers start with AM have the same issue. I have two accounts with identical problems so I don't know which one you are referring to.

I respectfully ask you to look at your systems and try another test account that starts with AM to reproduce the problem. I think you are likely to find the same error code I encountered on both my systems and the same as others have reported on the community thread."

 

I won't be going down this route as the error message is clear and any organisation with any development and testing facilities can reproduce this at will. 

 

I've been using Vodafone for some time but this long drawn out poor support simply reinforces my view that Vodafone is not fit to support their customers properly. Online documentation is poor and it seems that the customer is at fault until proven otherwise. This problem has nothing to do with my account and I'd urge others to respond the same way and not get drawn into into password resets and address changes that seem to be the first port of call.