Eighteen months I had problems joining Vodafone but now I can't leave

Just over eighteen months ago, I was banging my head against a brick wall trying to join Vodafone, but now I'm feeling murderous over my attempts to leave them.

In November 2011 I rang Vodafone to discuss disconnecting my mobile as I was moving abroad, and they asked me to put my request in writing, which I did. I was advised that my contract was ending on 3 January, and I asked in my letter that the disconnection take place on this date. I sent the request by 'Recorded Mail', and it was signed for on 18 November by Vodafone.

On the 13th of February, after checking my bank statement, I noticed that Vodafone were still debiting money from my bank account; as my line rental was payable in advance and as I hadn't used the sim since prior to Christmas (expecting it to be disconnected on 3 January), I couldn't understand why there would be any need for Vodafone to debit money from my account. So I called Vodafone.

I spent eight and half minutes talking to Vanessa, who was very apologetic and confirmed that the disconnection request had been received, but she couldn't see why it hadn't been actioned. She confirmed it had been recorded onto my account in November, so they had plenty of notice. Vanessa advised that she would get it processed, and that a billing re-rate would be applied to my account, with the credit balance returned to my bank account.

I thought nothing of it, until checking my bank statement in April, and discovering that the money owed hadn't been returned to my bank account. By my reckoning, this was about £75, a not insignificant sum, and so I called Vodafone on 3 April.

This time I spoke to Heather, who claimed there was no record of my disconnection request, and no record of my phone call in February. I gave her the details several times, and eventually she told she couldn't handle my call and she would need to ask a manager to call me. I gave her my telephone number, but as yet, haven't had the promised telephone call.

At the same time, I also posted a message inside the Vodafone forum, asking for a resolution. I note that Andy from the eForum team edited the subject within 9 minutes, removing my customer account number. Over 24 hours later, I got a 'proper' response back, saying they would send me a PM to resolve this 'once and for all', but the PM didn't work. So I now was stuck chasing Vodafone by telephone and by web forum. When the PM finally worked, it was to ask me to tell them the same story again via a 'Contact Form', even though it was already detailed in my eforum posting. Swallowing my frustration, I did it again.

The response I got back was redirecting me to yet another contact form, which asked me to go through a 'security process'. This would be the same security process I had already gone through twice by telephone, with no result.

In the meantime on 4th April, I called Vodafone again, went through the security process again, and asked for the manager, who was too busy to speak with me, but James assured me that the manager would definitely, really call me back.

So I replied back to Vodafone's email, detailing my frustrations that all I seemed to do was go through security processes, and all Vodafone seemed to do was waste my time. I got back a standard script response asking - you guessed it - for it to go through the security process again.

So I called Vodafone again on 5th April (third time this week!), and again, no manager, no credit, no apology, but yes, the manager would 100% definitely call me back. Matt promised. Matt, your promises aren't worth the breath you used to utter it, because as yet, I've still not had a phone call from Vodafone. I have however had yet another Vodafone staff member email me, directing me to a contact form.

Now Vodafone, can I respectfully suggest that given I've been through the security process three times this week, and provided a contact telephone number three times for a mythical, imaginary manager to use to call me, that someone please do the following;

• cancel my mobile connection if not already done so
• re-rate the bill back to 3 January when the disconnection was requested for
• apologise
  

I'm beyond frustrated, and as of 9 April, the eight week deadline for complaint resolution has expired. So unless the matter is resolved to my satisfaction by 5pm on 11 April 2012, I will be doing the following;

• lodge a complaint with Ombudsman Services (Communications)
• lodge a claim with the County Court

Given that I've provided my contact telephone number to Vodafone Customer Services three times in less than seven days, I hope that Vodafone should be able to contact me without any difficulty.

My account number is 682343701.

How NOT to Treat Customers

(As demonstrated by Vodafone UK)

After being a Sony Ericcson user for years, I finally decided to make the leap across to an iPhone 4, and popped into my local Vodafone store before the launch to discuss the plans and costs. The Vodafone Retailer sales rep quickly went through the tariffs and purchase price, and then suggested I open an account there and then. I was confused, as the release date was still five days away, but he told me that as I was after a 32gb iPhone – unlike most people, who wanted the 16gb iPhone – if I opened the account then, he would allocate a 32gb model for me within their first stock delivery. I was surprised, as too often I had heard stories of people missing out and waiting weeks for their Apple iPhone to be delivered after a release date, but he assured me three times, that definitely 100% no problems I would receive a shiney new iPhone 4 32gb on the release date of Thursday 24 June – “Just come in after 9.30am, and it will be here waiting for you”. I was still cautious, and said that if there was any possibility of it going wrong, I’d rather he said now, so I could take my chances on the day and possibly go to a third party agent, such as Carphone Warehouse or Phones 4U, but again he told me not to worry, this was the easiest guaranteed way to get an iPhone 4 32gb on release. So I followed his suggestion, handed over my details and opened the account – ready to collect my new iPhone 4 on Thursday morning. The Vodafone Retail sales rep then gave me my Vodafone account number, then produced a handwritten order list; he showed me that I was the 4^th person ordering a 32gb iPhone 4, saying this was why I wouldn’t have any problems getting my new mobile compared to those wanting a 16gb, and I wrote my details down on the list.

On Wednesday 23 June, I saw some news reports saying some iPhone 4 purchasers had already received their iPhone 4s thanks to speedy courier delivery, and checked with my Vodafone Retail store to see if I could collect mine early – I was keen to get my hands on it, and also I had friends in town, so didn’t want to waste time on Thursday morning. Unfortunately the store said I couldn’t collect it then, but I could definitely pick it up Thursday morning.

Thursday morning, and I was excited! I walked down the High Street, feeling slightly smug as I walked past a queue of around a hundred people outside the O2 store. Then I reached the Vodafone store, and there was no queue outside and the door was already open at 20 past nine. This was going to be easier than I thought! And here’s where it all goes wrong… The Vodafone Retail store manager informs me that there isn’t a 32gb Iphone 4 waiting for me, and that they never bothered to keep one aside for me in the first place. I spoke with the Vodafone Retail store manager, explained what I had been promised, and that I was not happy as I felt my details had been taken deceitfully by the sales rep, who helpfully wasn’t at work that day! He didn’t apologise, just shrugged his shoulders and said “I can order you an iPhone, but its anyone’s guess when we’ll get more in”.

I understand that the iPhone 4 was going to be popular, but that’s why I was so cautious about opening an account – but I only handed over my details once it was confirmed that they definitely, 100% would supply it on 24 June. If the Vodafone Retail rep had been honest on the 20^th and told me I would be put on a backorder list on the 24^th, then I wouldn’t have given him permission to open an account in my name. Instead I’m left believing that the Vodafone Retail sales rep made the promise purely to extract my information to complete an account opening – which other Vodafone Retail staff have told me forms part of a retail sales rep’s monthly sales targets – and so I feel deceived and misled.

To make things worse, despite being told if I could find a Vodafone registered iPhone 4, then I could get it connected to my account, I then wasted nearly an hour of both mine and the Carphone Warehouse sales rep’s time, as the Vodafone connection operator refused to connect an iPhone 4 for me via Carphone Warehouse until I had connected one directly through Vodafone – despite Vodafone Retail and Online not having any stock. Finally Vodafone’s own order system will not allow the Vodafone Online team to process a backorder for me, as I don’t have an active connection. So ultimately I’m stuck in no man’s land, with an account Vodafone opened under which I feel are false pretences yet – to sum it up, I’ve got a mark on my credit record to open an account I cannot use.

The Vodafone Retail store manager, after a second visit to the Vodafone Retail store, gave me the impression that there is nothing wrong with the methods used by his sales rep, and was only interested in putting me on a backorder list, not actually solving my concerns relating to the Vodafone Retail sales rep. When I spoke with Vodafone Customer Service and explained that I was unhappy about their sales reps methods, I was told there was little point in complaining to Otelo as the only response I would receive is a recommendation that the sale rep undergo further training. This is why I've put this website up - £5.98 for two years is a cheap way to tell others of the experience I had with Vodafone Retail.

I chose Vodafone based on its slogan ‘the dependable network’; given that the definition of dependable is ‘…reliability [of a person to others] because of his/her integrity, truthfulness, and trustfulness, traits that can encourage someone to depend on him/her’. Too bad Vodafone haven’t lived up to their slogan.