Vodafone. Be warned.

O2 do an app for the iPhone which you can use to monitor your usage.

I was thinking of starting a thread about how bad they are.

They are a dreadful company who when you speak to their representatives say they are doing something, and then nothing is done. Specifically in my case it has been Vodafone ringing or sending signals to the phone which have either woken me up at 2am, or this week, woken me up after working through the night.

I do need to have my phone on at all times in case of being contacted about urgent work, and I also use it as an alarm.

I changed to Vodafone as they claimed to have reception at my home, they do not. For any company that could be the case, distance of masts, etc. can cause even an area that should be covered to not have enough signal to use. The phone does ring, and texts can be sent, but it cut out if you try to talk.

That I can accept.

Over the last ten days I have received quite a number of calls from them, to ask about my account. They do not leave a message, but repeatedly pester you. Four calls while driving 50 miles down the M1, for instance.

On Friday while in a shop they rang, and I made it very clear that I was not to receive any more calls from them. Monday, after working through the night and trying to catch up on some sleep, another call, and all I heard was, 'Sorry I can't hear you, I will call back later.'

I did try to call them back through my land line, but most of their combinations have automated messages trying to get you buy things. When after 3 minutes of ****ing about with their phone system I was transferred to an operator, the lines were all busy. I tried a couple more times.

I got dressed, went to the local Vodafone shop, and told them that if I received any more calls from them, I would take the matter up with the police. No calls in the last two days, so far. I will say the young man I dealt with in the shop was very polite and helpful, and I apologised for my angry frame of mind.

When I joined they gave me a new phone for free (as all companies do), it was faulty, and they were going to charge me £20 to rent me a phone while they repaired the faulty one. Instead I asked what was the cheapest phone they had, £20, for a phone that just does calls and texts, just what I need.

All singing dancing small entertainment centres are no use to me, and they use up the battery, and what I need is a phone, especially when I am away on a TV/film location for long hours with nowhere to re-charge.

They returned the faulty phone, I told them I would keep it as a spare. Then at 2am every morning sent an unreadable text message, which turned out to be an automatic software update for the phone I had told them I was not using. I contacted them, and after four different calls, I spoke to someone who realised that the text was the software update, and said they would stop it. The texts at 2am continued. More calls and my time wasted until it was eventually sorted out.

Their representatives may enter some details into their computers, but I doubt that they know what to enter where in order to stop their various departments doing things you have expressly stated you do not want.

They are an appalling company in my experience, but I suspect that no worse than some others.

Oh, and while I am ranting (sorry) about phone companies.

Avoid Pipex Homecall, they employ call foreign centres to deal with your problems. The people there seem to be reading from scripts, and if your call does not fit the script they are useless.

The scripts are mostly filled with the meaningless polite phrases to assure you that you are important to them, and they say these to you while you are trying to explain a problem. They do not listen.

I had a fault on my line, which was sorted out, when I finally spoke with one of their engineers. The fault was at their end.

Then two day later someone called me to tell me that the fault was with my equipment, after much meaningless polite drivel. It can be said that I really did not appreciate being called up by someone from their company to lie to me me, and spout drivel.

I contacted BT, and changed to them straight away. They have been very helpful, so far.

quote:

I contacted BT, and changed to them straight away. They have been very helpful, so far.

They in general are but their BB service desks calls are mainly dealt with by an Indian call centre.

Guess who phoned me this afternoon? Vodafone, for a courtesy call, only showed up as a missed call, reception must have dropped.

I called their payments department, only way to speak to a human it seems, and made it very clear this was the last chance. One more call, and my next call will be to the police.

You think you have it bad.

I have to put up with Vodafone's French operation, SFR - the only 'network' that has coverage where I live. I put the word 'network' in inverted commas because it contains the word 'work' and so is simply inappropriate. SFR allegedly stands for Société Française de Radiotéléphone, when in fact Seriously F*cking Rubbish would be a better and more apt option.

Think your experiences of Vodafone crossed with any experiences you may have had of French "customer service" (a contradiction in terms if ever there was one).

I dream of call centres in India.

750 texts a month??

Admittedly I do not have any friends but I make it a special effort of mine not to do kiddy texting!

quote:

One more call, and my next call will be to the police.

....and they will?????

Send a SWAT team down to Vodafone
Tell you they have the same problems and when you find a solution to let them know
Tell you its nothing to do with them

Tough call between options 2 and 3

Cheers

Don

I usually send about one to two hundred texts, May was a strange month.

Tony

About an hour ago I spoke to Chris in the Collections department.
The upshot is, I hope, that he'll phone the debt collection company tomorrow to cancel their service, send me the itemised bill and to the correct address this time, and try to reduce the bill from about £50 down to £30.

If that happens I'll be a far happier little soldier than I was last night.

If it still goes Pete Tong, I'll send them this little video I shot at work yesterday. Perhaps they'll get the hint: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLSwq-_x3Ws

Tony

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:

quote:

One more call, and my next call will be to the police.

....and they will?????

Send a SWAT team down to Vodafone
Tell you they have the same problems and when you find a solution to let them know
Tell you its nothing to do with them

Tough call between options 2 and 3

Cheers

Don

I suspect option 3, but I will at least have logged a complaint which I can send to Vodafone, and then maybe You and Yours or the BBC TV thing.

It is at least a threat to use on the company.

I always thought that orange were a good company but they have yet to get my bill right and debited to the correct direct debit account.
seems to me that they are all much the same as......SHIT!

Vodafone have acknowledged my third request to cease their nuisance calls, and have said they will be able to stop them on 21 October, but at least 21 October 2009.

As Don points out, the police can do nothing, but I suspect negative publicity is more of a threat to them anyway, perhaps time to draft a letter to something like 'Watchdog' or 'You and Yours'.

I remember many years ago, 1970's, someone was ripping off a farmer I knew, they threatened various legal actions, they then said they would write to Ester Ramsom's show, and they gave in straight away. The media does not have that power now, but still worth throwing a few stones at them if they continue the be a nuisance.

Voda may be bad, I'd caution against thinking that O2 can deliver anything approaching competence, especially if you went via Carphone Craphouse.

Well, their collections dept cancelled the services of the debt recovery company and as a goodwill gesture the final bill was cut in half. I paid immediately over the phone!
I hope that's the end of it.

Tony

Had a few technical issues since upgrading to my HTC Magic, nothing to do with the hardware, all to do with Vodafone f**king up my voicemail account. After many, many, many attempts to get a resolution by phone (well actually just to get them to answer the phone) I drove into Belfast yesterday and went into the shop. Waited in turn for 15 mins and then a further 40 mins while the assistant was bounced from department to department until they solved the problem. Also found out that the extra £50 on last months bill was down to two international calls as they have removed the International call saver from my account (f**k 'em I'll use skype from now on).

Just opened yesterdays mail. A letter from Vodafone. Upgraded Mrs Willy's phone last month so that it would work with our Vodafone 3G hub and now have been informed that since it's not on Direct Debit they will charge an extra £3 per month to settle by cash/cheque. I've only been a Direct Debit paying Vodafone customer for 13 years! Fortunately the number they gave me to call isn't manned on a Sunday. Gives me a few much needed hours to calm down before I talk to them tomorrow.

The reason I stuck with Vodafone all these years was their outstanding service levels. Not any more. Just wish I'd known before signing up for another 2 years. Next renewal will not be Vodafone.

Willy.

I have been advised by a friend that although the police are powerless against such people, that the data protection commissioner has huge powers against them and can issue fines.