Vodafone Advantage code not arriving

[Nichrome]

Hello,

I'm having hard times with Vodafone, maybe there's some at least half competent person on the forums as neither  live chat nor 191 seems to help.

I'm currently working for an employer that is registered for VA scheme.

The full story:

Excited about upcoming iphone 13 pro, I preorder it on Friday as that'd be my first iphone (thought to give it a try).

Upon doing my little finance spreadsheets (my spendings tracking) I check the contract details, and rather than 20% Vodafone Advantage discount, there's just 5GBP.

I call up 191 and ask about it and if it can be applied.

They said I have to cancel my order, apply for the code, and re-upgrade providing the code in the checkout. On that same call, I asked them to cancel my preorder. They said it'll be sorted out within 72 hours.

72 hours later I go on live chat, they apologise and what not, and say it'll be cancelled within 48 hours.

Here comes Friday, launch date of new iphones, and courier is meant to come around. They actually haven't as ETA was 14:20-15:20, but point 15:00 I see live tracker that courier is heading back to Depot in Cardiff (I'm in Bristol). Eventually it arrived next day on Saturday.

Well done Vodafone, in total I went through 2 phone calls and 2 live chats to cancel this preorder and giving you full 5 working days, just to receive it anyway. I brought it to local store and they returned/cancelled whole thing immediately without any hassle.

At the same time after I ended first call with 191, I applied for Vodafone Advantage code. Just work email didn't work, neither for myself nor colleagues, so I went the registration path by providing employer name, work email address and proof of employment.

5 working days later I call 191 and ask why I didn't get the code yet. They said there is something wrong with the system and will get back to me by Wednesday (today).

I went on live chat today, and I learnt 2 things:

1. "Customer service" employed in India are incompetent. I ask about the code, and they keep going on about that I already have the discount. Well no **** Sherlock, I need new code for the upgrade.

2. Whoever in Upgrades team I was transferred to, told me I cannot use the code on any iphone 13 as they all come with 5GBP discount and it cannot be overriden. Well, fine, but what if I want different phone? Why wasn't I told this when I called 191? [[silence]]

So:
Who do I contact to get the code sorted out? I no longer want any iphone, and I have an Android phone in my mind. But I need to get the code first regardless of what phone I want to upgrade to.

Thanks, and sorry for lengthy post.

[Nichrome]

So I called 191 again.

We have generated the codes again and this time they arrived and worked.

Gentleman said he has now requested upgrade team to apply the discount to the account and it should be reflected in next month's bill.

However I still don't see VA discount on my account, and the £3 airtime discount or whatever it is is still there..

[Mark]

Hey I'm glad to see everything's being sorted @Nichrome. If your request's been raised to one of our back office teams to remove your old discount and add your Vodafone advantage discount, it can take up to 72 hours for them to pick this up and make the changes. It can then show a short while to show in your app. I'm sure everything will be all sorted by the time your next bill's produced 😊

[Nichrome]

I mean, my request has gone through back office about 100 times now, and it wasn't resolved until yesterday. Although I am yet to see the discount to be applied.

[Nichrome]

72 hours later still no sign of discount on account.

I will visit V tomorrow morning and let them deal with this parody of customer support.

[Farai]

We appreciate the update on this @Nichrome. We hope you'll be able to get the confirmation you're looking for in store Tomorrow. If you'd like for us to help you take a closer look at the account over on Twitter or Facebook as alternative, please don't hesitate to drop us a line 👉 here 

[Nichrome]

I've not made it to Vodafone on Friday nor Saturday. Both days claimed to be open until 7pm but I was at the place few mins past 6pm and it was already closed...

I'll call 191 later today.

[Nichrome]

Just called 191.

Lady asked me for the code and she raised request with back office to apply the discount.

It should be done within 48 hours and we arranged callback on Saturday 10-12 in the morning to ensure things are resolved.

[Nichrome]

Seems like we finally made it through.

 

[Amanda]

That's great to see @Nichrome - thanks for letting us know and for updating the thread! 

[Nichrome]

Yeah, thanks Team.

Please consider this resolved. There's no best answer here, as it was more 1 way conversation providing updates, for a month..