Customer retention...Vodafone don't care

[k1984]

Good afternoon,

I would like to share my Vodafone experience on this forum with all current, and potential future, customers.

I have been a Vodafone customer for around 7 or 8 years. Possibly a lot more.

During this period my average bill was around £150 and during the latter years of the contract, around 4 or 5 years, I have been entitled to Vodafone 'employee advantage discount' of initially 20%, now revised at 15%, through the course of my employment (not with Vodafone might I add).

During the last few year I have endured several problems with Vodafone which fell on deaf ear through their complaints office. These issues were only resolved last year after I emailed the chief executive officer.

Fast forward to today where I noticed a couple of weeks ago I have been due an 'early upgrade'

On looking online, and instore, the deals offered were pitiful. The service I recieved in store was shocking - the sales rep wouldn't even access my account to see if he could offer a better deal than advertised and could only repeat that there were "no discounts".

I took to the 'online' chat where again the deals I were offered were pitiful and insulting so I expressed my concerns and disappointment in a further email to the CEO.

The replies I have received have been, quite frankly, unsatisfactory. I spoke with John Day who claimed to be working on behalf of the CEO, yet while he agreed that the offers I was given in the online chat were poor he failed to offer anything better - on review what he offered, it was worse

The example being online I was offered £49.50 per month for iPhone 7 128gb, 32gb red entertainment pack. Mr Day, working on behalf of the CEO, could only offer that exact same deal...for £1.50 MORE a month. Incidentally both handsets costing £100 upfront which is at least double what other companies are offering. While this may see a reasonable deal - it is more expensive than if I was a new customer with a competitor

I did also inform Mr Day that competitors have advertised deals online cheaper - the examples being....

EE - 25gb data - handset cost £9.99, £57.99 per month (£46.40 with a 20% discount similar to Vodafone Employee Advantage).

Three Mobile - 32gb data - handset cost £20, £26 for 6 months and £52 for 18 months.

But the reply I was given was "we are rated the U.K. Number one network for voice" and they wouldn't offer a better deal. I have absolutely no idea what "...number one network for voice" even means but they certainly are not number one for price or customer service.

So this weekend will see the end of my involvement with Vodafone where I'll let my contract run until the end and obtain a new phone and new contract from, more than likely three Mobile, at the weekend.

The whole process has confirmed what I've always thought - new customers are a priority and no doubt make more money for the company than retaining the custom of an existing customer.

Overall disappointing customer service, in particular coming from the Chief Executives office.

I just wonder how many other people are in the same boat and how many customers Vodafone lose as a result?

ialso wonder if Mr Jeffery, CEO, know or cares that his representitives "working on behalf" of him seem to not care about customer care or customer retention.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi @k1984

The Retention Team will have deals to offer but that's most probably on certain handsets. 

Your wanting one of the newest iPhones which typically come hand in hand with higher end tariffs and sometimes with a handset upfront fee. iPhone contracts are notorious for not having much discount on them. 

Have you tried Carphone Warehouse and upgrading through them with Vodafone although discounts such as VEA are only if a contract is taken out directly with Vodafone. 

If you decide to give 30 days notice or move via  a PAC code to keep your number then Please consider not cancelling the Direct Debit until Vodafone have taken any final payment(s) and if applicable applied any Refunds. And you have received the final bill by post, paid by Direct Debit and a £0 bill and Sorry Your Leaving Letter has been received that confirms the account is closed. (Please retain this paperwork) 

Please take into consideration that not every Network provides the same signal strengths and Data Speeds everywhere, and in the same area. I assume to this point Vodafone have overall supplied a useable Service. Moving Networks may affect this.

However you decide to go I wish you all the best. 

[k1984]

Hi BandOfBrothers,

Thanks for taking the time to read through my post. 

I'm happy to keep my current contract (and pay it) until it runs out - I'll get the PAC code and use the current number on PAYG along with my new contract number from Three.

I think the disappointing thing is that had Vodafone offered the same price as Three or EE then I'd have stayed with them. The fact that they appear unwilling to match a competitor just shows a complete unwillingness to please an existing customer. Theee can offer the phone for £80 cheaper and can offer the contract for £26 less per month for the first 6 months - explaining to Vodafone that this would save me around £220 over the course of the contract was falling on deaf ears. 

I think, and this is just my opinion, vodafone and other networks use the excuse of 'iPhones can't be discounted' when they don't wish to retain custom.  Three can do it after all....

thanks again for reading my post - was just me sharing my experience

[VodafoneRpoor]

They don't care - I'm currently placed on hold after being told to calm down by "Shapna".  The whole set of staff are so confident that they won't be sacked, they have found it second nature to behave how they like with no fear of repercussion.  It's exactly why they change their tone and tell you stuff like "I'll have to end the call if this continues", albeit it's because some other pillock from another dept has had you being transferred all over the place because "They don't care".  OFCOM really need to press home it's unacceptable now.   The way to do that is to make the fine massive as opposed to an expected "easy-to-pay" fine.

I've had countless conversations with everyone - Retentions said "putting you through to billing".  No surprise that returns answered - they then put me through to something - what sounds like somebody messing ##~## about and not speaking.... Minutes passed, somebody said "errr, hello?" and then apologised saying "I was just going on my beak" - I mean, what the actual ...... !!!!

Everytime you call, it's no less than a battle for at least 40 minutes.  I've clocked up 12 hours in two years.  I'm doing the ombudsman thing (but will point out that their system purposefully doesn't keep records long enough for them for the ombudsman to investigate anything).

[CernalBlimp]

I could probably bore you all for hours, probably for as many hours as I have fruitlessley been on various telephone calles & online chats with Vodafone, regrettfully I can only draw one conclusion that despite all their protestations that they value loyalty & customer guarentees on network coverage etc, they really couldn't give a flying F..if you stay or go.

I tried killing them with kindness - nope, epic fail. All I want them to do is to provide me a free Sure Signal, as I won't pay for a product to help another product to which I already pay handsomely for each month to function as it should. Also I don't want to pay for a product that I have little faith in that it will actually fix the issue. I have offered to pay after 30 days if it works (yes stuck in my craw to do so), still same answer an emphatic NO.

I am not sure why it is bothering me so much & why leaving gives me a heavy heart, they are after all just a corporation aimed at emptying our pockets.

[Anonymous]

Don't want much, do you ? 

[Steve1967]

We have had an awful time with them also. We cancelled an account at the end of its contract, only for it to not happen and result in an overcharge of around £700 over the 2 years (this was hidden by the fact that there were multiple phones on the account and international business calls meant accounts fluctuated from month to month and we trusted a company the size of Vodafone with the DD being correct each month).

My daughter deals with all my administration and so is on the Vodafone account as someone who can access all information. She called and asked for the phone we needed cancelled to be actioned. Vodafone required myself to give the go ahead for this which I completely understand. I was in the office at the time and was able to give my go ahead. A week later when we were contacting for another matter my daughter asked for them to confirm that the phone in question would be cancelled when discussed. The advisor then said “I can see that you spoke about it but for some reason the final action was not carried out.” So, we went through the motions again once my daughter could pin me down. We thought that would be the end of it, the phone no longer worked (run over by a machine!) and was disposed of.

We slowly started to move of the mobiles we had to EE due to better offers, each one as their contract ended. When we came to the last few it was noticed that the advisor asked which of the 3 we would like to be cancelled (it should’ve been 2). After a lengthy conversation Vodafone admires we were owed around £700 and that funds would be returned in 2 transaction and would credit our account within 5 working days. 4 month’s later and we still haven’t seen a single penny. 

To add add insult to unjustly, all we seem to get called is liars and told the refund will no longer happen. First they said the number was used to make calls  in the time it was supposed to be cancelled (impossible, the sim was shredded). Then they said that we shouldn’t have been offered the refund despite we had confirmation of it in writing! Then they said that we hadn’t made any calls to Vodafone since March 2016!! I could count about 15 just relating to the refund let alone all the times we called previously. 

An email to the complaints department resulted in a call from an Indian call centre with neither party understanding the other and growing frustration. 

We called them out on social media and then they decided to stop responding in public once it picked up speed, saying that they would only talk in DMs. DMs resulted in no reply.

An awful, awful company with even worse customer service! We cannot wait to be free from them (last mobile running its last part of contract).

I warn anyone I know not to take a contract with them and have been advised that as we have confirmation of the refund in writing to seek legal advice which we will do. 

If you are looking to start a new account then please, please avoid Vodafone like the plague!! 

[prs1000]

I have been a VF customer for at least 20 years. Has it been pain free? Hell no. However I am still here. Am I mental? Possibly.

The thing is I like the product. Generally spaking my only issues occure when I want to change something. That means getting a real person involved. The vast majority of the first line advisors are friendly  but I suspect staff turnover is high as so many of them don't fullt understand the syastems they are working with. Many genuainly try to help. A recent advisor on chat told me that "You have my word that your upgrade will go through today". He wanted to help and the upgrade WAS scheduled for that day but it was already 9pm. A little naive maybe.

Then you get the advisors who cover up the fact that they don't really know what they're doing by promising to investigate the issue and call you back. They have no intention of doing so. 

Frustration levels get extremely high when you have to attempt to get them to do what really should be bread and butter tasks for them.  I have had the odd rant on the forum after several hours of being fobbed off on the phones. The typos in those rants are embarrassing! I never aimed anything at individuals though. Only the "company".  Shouting at people on the phone won't get you anywhere. I have never had to be told to calm down. Not always easy to stay calm, I know.

I have taken the CEO route a couple of times and my experience of that was very positive. My latest issue was regarding an upgrade to 76meg from 38meg fibre. No end of issues and delays. My CEO email prompted someone from the specialist Care team to contact me and he has been in daily contact by phone to make sure not only that my issue was being sorted but also that I felt like a valued customer.

So VF do care but due to their first line advisor being woefully under trained their customers often have to work ridiculously hard for what should be basic customer service. I can accept that providing mobile networks and broadband connections to huge numbers of customers is far from a simple task but lets face it, Vodafone, it's what you do. The systems need improving or at least the system users need improving. 

I have not had issues with fibre speed as I am fortunate to live close to the cabinet that serves our street but can imagine how annoying it is to pay for something that you don't get.

Just my 2 bobs worth...

[Alex]

@Steve1967 I can understand the inconvenience which this issue will have caused you and your daughter. 

If you did need further help with regards to your refund or any other query, we'd be more than happy to help you. 

I've sent the contact details to our team via private message.