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The Demise of Vodafone?

justinsherry
4: Newbie

 

I have been a loyal Vodafone client since 1991 when the company was widely considered to be the best for business users other than BT and Air Call.   Since 2007 I have noted a marked decline in Vodafone's attitude towards its customers, both corporate and personal.  I opened a business account in January 2007 with a data and voice allowance plus an upgrade package so that the contract and all phones contained within the package ran from year to year on a rolling 12 month agreement.  In 2010, after a number of issues with Vodafone and several client manager changes we decided to move to O2. We were advised that Vodafone had changed the terms of the agreement in line with the date of upgrades (in essence now all of the corporate phones had separate terms of agreement (a total nightmare to manage) this was done purely to advantage Vodafone and to prevent us from a wholesale move.

In 2015 my daughter was due an upgrade on our 6 device personal account. We went to a Vodafone store and were advised that the upgrade was free and that it was for a further 24 month period. The contract did not contain any reference to upgrade cost.  The next month I received a £120 charge for the upgrade.  Phones Vodafone and told sorry, it a matter between you and the store. Visited store and presented paperwork to be told I was a pest and lier.

 

March 2017, purchased a mobile data hub 30G with Euro roaming as advertised for £25PCM for 30 day contract.  Email from Vodafone confirmed 30-month contract.  Went to Vodafone store and was advised not to fulfil that order but to pay another £35 instore and get what I wanted.  Ordered 30G 30 day with roaming option.  Went to Portugal and France and yes, got a £30 bill for data roaming. Called Vodafone and told to visit store. Visited store and told to call head office as they cannot amend contracts instore. Call Vodafone and told to revisit store. Revisited store and told they would rectify the matter.  2 days and nothing, no refund as promised or change to the contract. Called Vodafone again and put through to complaints. They advised termination as they cannot and would not do anything for me. Contract terminated.

I have issued a lawsuit against Vodafone Group PLC for breach of duty of care and fiduciary duty and breach of contract. I am not worried about Vodafone or their inept management or legal team, in 2009 I sued Microsoft, Yahoo and Real Networks all companies far larger than Vodafone and won in each instance.

My real disappointment is for all of the good people that work for this company and their shareholders. Dealing with Vodafone is akin to dealing with Enron, they share many of the same top down management styles and corporate governance towards their customers and charges. They have the same smug 'go to hell' attitude if you raise a complaint such as the recent issue with billing or the loss on access to billing online. They were fined £4.6m by OFCOM for poor customer service, mis-selling and inaccurate billing. OFCOM have two further investigations into Vodafone which are likely to levy further fines. Put simply, Vodafone don't give a damn as these fines are a small price to pay when valued against all of the money they chisel from their clients annually.

There is a boardroom smugness that beset Ryan Air, Marks & Spencer and Tesco of late, the notion that they are too big and powerful to see a wholesale change in their fortunes. Time will tell but people are starting to vote with their feet and when Vodafone admit they have a problem, it may well have passed point of return.

Only the collective might of the large shareholders can prevent this from happening, One would urge them to call for an EGM to instigate a wholesale change of management and reconnect with the core values and listen to customers through focus groups. Your customers are shouting as loud as they can but you have installed sound proofing, you can only hide in Newbury and behind an inept Indian call centre for so long.

Vodafone is sailing ever faster into troubled waters and their relevance as a company is diminishing. 75% of all mobile data traffic is now short form video a market the carrier retains no share.  2020 will see 5G, which will deliver a massive boost in speed but at the cost of a lower per gig price point.  Vodafone's Bedrock (Flinstones) price plans are another example of how backward this company is, selling talk time (are you kidding me? No one uses their phone to call anyone these days and if you spend all year on it you probably wouldn't dent your monthly data allowance). Anyone can attest who uses publich transport, you see everyone staring into their phones like they have lost their souls in cyberspace and desperately trying to locate them

The fact remains that Vodafone has only one thing to sell, data and its getting cheaper.  A  single product offering in a world of emerging telcos such as  Huawei are progressing an aggressive expansion policy. They and run all backbone operations for Vodafone. I suspect they will eye Newbury for the position of a shiny new Huawei sign given they have the resources  Vodafone has all the ingredients for a few rough years ahead, economic uncertainty surrounding the UK and Brexit will fuel this position.   The UK now more than ever needs teleco providers to prevail and support SME business in a world that is rapidly becoming mobile centric. Vodafone needs to re-establish is core values and raison d'etra, rediscover its DNA and  support the UK and its business community and banish the open cheque book policy.

 

 

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Let’s hope Vodafone don’t up it back up to £35! Three has all you can eat for £24 and EE with their superior speeds and coverage gives you 20GB for £21 and all pay monthly customers now get free Apple Music Subscription on EE. That leaves o2 hmmm... I don’t think anyone cares but they still do 20GB for £21. Let’s not start on the VMNO carriers. Oh and EE and o2 has visual voicemail and allows you to share your data. 

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60 REPLIES 60

justinsherry
4: Newbie

Hi All,

I am the person responsible for starting this thread “The demise of Vodafone” and have been dealing with Vodafone for 26 years. There is no doubt that there has been a marked decrease in customer focus and OFCOM confirmed that the complaints about Vodafone are in most cases double than for other mobile carriers. This is one reason why OFCOM fined Vodafone £4.6m for (inter alia) poor customer service. That is quite something, how many public companies would allow things to deteriorate to such an extent that it would be fined by a governing body? Vodafone simply don’t care, this ingrained in their lousy corporate DNA.

With regard to my lawsuit, Vodafone originally stated that they fully intended to fight the case but I knew the evidence would prove different. I received a call from their legal department stating that they wished to settle the claim which, in fairness they did 100% including costs.

It is true what the moderator said about Vodafone UK, the business struggles in the UK against stiff competition from BT (EE). But it also had a disaster in India where the division was haemorrhaging cash until its merger with Ideal earlier this year. Vodafone is weak, a subdued share price and losses make it vulnerable. The mobile carrier market it very mature in Europe and Vodafone has not kept its bib clean. There is a good reason for Vodafone to consider a merger with Liberty Global (Virgin Media owner) in the US. Mr Colao dismissed this earlier this year but seems to have softened to the idea. I would predict that Vodafone will be taken over (billed as a merger) and there will be a wholesale change of management and staff (Think Comcast and Universal merger (AKA Comcast takeover)). I would like to think that this would be a terrible thing but, I am struggling. Given the poor PR that Vodafone gets and the OFCOM issues, I wouldn’t blame any prospective owner to rebrand the business. Hence, the demise of Vodafone!

I am not convinced at the timing of a class action lawsuit which in real terms could delay any prospective takeover / merger. Let’s face it, any new owner cannot be any worse than Vodafone is now?

I don’t think that this is the best place to discuss your battle plans as this forum is owned and controlled by Vodafone.

jeffkinn
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion
I’m not a moderator but a customer just like you.

Jeffkinn_Sig.png

Okay, sorry, understood.

rio_w
4: Newbie

I’ve been with a few other networks and I can honestly say Vodafone has been the best in terms of customers support when I call up, it’s just a shame they've been cutting back/not offering certain services like visual voicemail and data sharing to name a few. I must admit Vodafone aren’t the best in terms of expense and in that case I can see Lose of customers as competitors are offering better deals. I stop going to stores unless I have no other option, I do everything over the phone or internet, so I can’t comment on their customer service in store. 

jeffkinn
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

For sim only contracts I find Vodafone to be very competitive. I'm getting 20GB of data for £22 a month and I'm quite happy with that.

 

I also believe the idea that the brand has been significantly devalued and is vulnerable to a hostile takeover is quite wrong. Vodafone is a huge worldwide brand and force in the mobile phone sector. It maintains a high dividend and its share price has been quite steady over the last five years.

 

All British companies are vulnerable to some extent post Brexit but I'd be surprised if Vodafone as we know it now wasn't around on the same form in 5 years time.

Jeffkinn_Sig.png

Let’s hope Vodafone don’t up it back up to £35! Three has all you can eat for £24 and EE with their superior speeds and coverage gives you 20GB for £21 and all pay monthly customers now get free Apple Music Subscription on EE. That leaves o2 hmmm... I don’t think anyone cares but they still do 20GB for £21. Let’s not start on the VMNO carriers. Oh and EE and o2 has visual voicemail and allows you to share your data. 

jeffkinn
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

I get Spotify Premium which is a better service in my opinion than Apple Music (which I also have) and I'm not at all convinced that EE speeds are better although they do have a larger geographic coverage. Three's all you can eat data is £28 but as I don't have half of my 20gb that's of no interest to me. 

Jeffkinn_Sig.png

Each to his own... Apple for me is better, I have an iPhone so it just makes sense. Three does a £24 deal you get 200 minutes instead of unlimited which you get with the £28 deal, and all you can eat data. On average EE is the fastest network when it comes to 4G, they hold the most spectrum in 4G and operate on all 3 4G bands while Vodafone operates on only 2, still I’m happy with speeds on Vodafone so I’m not complaining.

jeffkinn
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion
Everything I have is Apple which is why I have a family subscription to a Apple Music. But I still prefer Spotify and it works with my Google Home. If I didn't get it from Vodafone I'd leave Apple Music and subscribe directly.

Jeffkinn_Sig.png

Well for sure each to his own... all my music is stored in itunes, I like Apple musics intergation with iTunes and having all my 10000+ tracks in the cloud so I can listen to them anywhere is invaluable to me. The only other service that I find better is google play music which stores all my song for free in the cloud. The last time I had a Spotify subscription I couldn’t store my library in the cloud. If I do get or any others do get google home I’d think google play music would be the obvious choice.