- Joined
- Monday July 13, 2009
Today marked the latest farce in my ongoing battle with Vodafone. The short story is: my perfect handset (HTC Magic) turned itself off one day and never again joined the world of working phones... 
I sent it in for repair and got a phone back that had food in the battery compartment. Yes, a sticky gooey smearing of something all over it. This is the complaint in all its detail - up to today anyway. The letter that follows is one I have sent via email to the CEO of Vodafone UK, Guy Laurence:
I know that my chances of this even being read by a human is are about equivalent to winning the lottery 5 weeks in a row, but what the hell - it made me feel happy for about 5 mins.
Where's that Scotch...
I sent it in for repair and got a phone back that had food in the battery compartment. Yes, a sticky gooey smearing of something all over it. This is the complaint in all its detail - up to today anyway. The letter that follows is one I have sent via email to the CEO of Vodafone UK, Guy Laurence:Mr Laurence,
As someone who proclaims to be "committed" to the best service possible and "passionate about listening" to customers, I thought you would be interested to hear about my own experience with Vodafone Customer Care.
The level of customer service I have experienced has been so poor that I wrote a detailed letter to the customer care department. I have reprinted it here:
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Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to provide feedback on the level of customer care I have received from Vodafone over the last 3 months, or rather, lack thereof. As an owner of a Vodafone-branded HTC Magic I was dubious about the practicality of agreeing to a 24 month contract, however I was persuaded to do so by the renewals team under the advice that my handset was fully under warrantee for this time period. The handset in question is approximately a year old, immaculate in condition and until recently without fault. I was genuinely shocked when the handset shut itself down and could not be turned back on.
As directed by customer care, I used my local store to send the phone in for a repair. The updates at this point became sporadic to the point of non-existence. I had to call customer care to find out that my handset was delayed in repair and then sent to the manufacturer after a significant delay. Having been without a phone for a number of weeks (without being offered a courtesy handset) I called to check the status of the repair and was told a ‘new’ handset had been sent back to the store, but not to go and collect as the stores ‘often take ages to open the post’.
Upon finally confirming the store had my phone I collected my ‘new’ handset, only to discover that not only was it refurbished, but in a poor cosmetic state with damaged buttons and what appeared to be food spilled in the battery compartment! The store looked at the handset and provided me with a shrug and the following advice: “Not anything to do with us mate – best off calling customer careâ€Â.
Following this useful and polite instruction, I called customer care to be told that indeed my disgust was warranted and that if I could provide the EMEI number of the handset a replacement would be sent immediately. As I was using a car-kit at the time I was unable to read the EMEI number to the advisor. He was apparently unable to do anything without it and agreed to put the details of our conversation into his system for action as soon as I could call back with the EMEI number. Making a second call to customer care revealed that not only had no details of this been logged, but the EMEI number was clearly on record and instantly available to the second advisor. This means either the first advisor was lying in order to avoid dealing with my request, or was simply so incompetent that he didn’t fully understand how to access the relevant information box on his own system. Advisor number two informed me that unless the phone was non-functional it could not be sent back for repair as this was not covered unless I had additional insurance. I asked to have my details recorded and speak to a manager only to be informed that advisor number two’s “system was down†and would have to transfer me to someone else. Following the transfer and subsequent third re-telling of my security details and the issue in question I was given another variation on what constitutes Vodafone policy and at this point lost faith in customer care to provide any assistance. I asked to speak to a team leader and was rudely told that I could only leave a request to speak to a team leader and that it may take anywhere up to four hours to be addressed. I duly left my details and waited for the call.
The team leader was considerably more helpful than any of the previous advisors, demonstrating a degree of politeness and efficiency. I was offered a postage-paid envelope in which to return handset number two for repair by a senior technician. This action was taken and I awaited a response.
I continued to wait whilst the same level of information as the previous experience was supplied to me. After 8 working days I received the following email:
[Email dated 23-11-10 reprinted here with all errors]
Ref: 3665976
This email is to update you on the progress of your requested phone repair.
Your phone has been processed at our repair centre and has now been returned to you via Royal Mail special delivery.
You will receive it tomorrowat the address provided.
If you need any assistance or have any questions then please contact us using the details below.
Yours sincerely,
Stefan Langkamp
Customer Operations Director
With no information on what was repaired, I called customer care yet again to ask for details of the repair and a tracking number for the parcel. Having taken a day off work to wait in for the delivery, I was given a ‘consignment number’ and told the handset could not be repaired by Vodafone so a replacement (now the second) had been obtained from HTC and sent directly to me.
The consignment number wasn’t recognised as a Royal Mail ‘Special Delivery’ as specified in the email, causing me to call customer care yet again. I was recommended to “wait and see if it turns up†by the advisor, which I duly did until 4.30pm. Given Royal Mail aim to deliver before 1pm I felt this was enough time to “wait and see†so called customer care again. The advisor took my details again (the third time in a single day that the advisor had no idea of my case) and was told that no repairs are sent Royal Mail special delivery nor are they sent next day. I asked for clarification, as based on the exact wording of the email, either the email was completely wrong or the advisor was wrong. According to the advisor I should wait 3-5 working days – “normally three†and I didn’t actually have to wait in for the delivery as it was put in the “normal postâ€Â. So to summarise the situation at this point:
1. I have waited in all day
2. I have lost a day’s earnings
3. I have been lied to directly by customer care via email
4. My phone has been sent back in a completely unsecured and un-traceable manner
Given the above I asked the advisor what would happen if the parcel was unable to fit through my letterbox – she informed me that it would be left on my doorstep, but that it wouldn’t be a problem as the parcel is un-marked and no-one would know it was a phone. So my handset, worth hundreds of pounds would be left on the doorstep unattended? What (I then asked) would happen if the weather was wet? I was told by the advisor that she would “hope the post person would know not to leave a phone in the wet†– but surely if the phone is packaged in an unmarked parcel the delivery person would be unable to know! So I have been told to ‘hope’ that my phone arrives dry and without being stolen from my doorstep? The advisor was unable to offer any other assurances, but did provide me with a refund for next month’s line rental as an apology.
Should the phone arrive water-logged (if it arrives at all) I have already been assured that it will NOT be covered under warranty as water-damage is only covered by insurance (that I do not have).
At this point I have been weeks without an equivalent handset, have been sent a food-covered replacement, given information that has directly resulted in a loss of earnings on my part and then told to simply rely on ‘hope’ that my once-immaculate and expensive phone arrives back to me at all. If I was not already tied into a 24 month contract this level of ‘customer care’ would have been enough for me to cease all involvement with Vodafone. Having been a loyal customer (with accounts for both my wife and I) for over 3 years, even through the well publicised slow decline in signal availability and increase in contract commitment, I am disappointed to have reached this point.
Yours ‘hopefully’
Christopher Fowler
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Following this letter I have received no response via phone or mail. The handset eventually arrived, however the "Repair Test Certificate" was un-signed, with only the name 'Smith' written on the card. This refurbished handset started displaying significant issues on Saturday 4th December and failed to work at all today (Monday 6th December). I called customer care to arrange for another replacement handset and was disconnected three times. After repeating my request to the final advisor I was told that she was "happy to inform me" that as my handset was replaced so many times she could offer me a different model in replacement. I asked if this phone would also be refurbished and was told it would be "nearly new" although the advisor could not elaborate on what this exactly meant. The list of handsets available were:
Nokia 6370
Sony Vivaz
Samsung M1
So, as an alternative to my touch-screen HTC Android smart-phone worth £200-£300 I was offered a Nokia which is currently one of the most basic handsets on the market, a poorly-received and under-specification Sony or a vastly inferior Samsung model that has been discontinued for almost as long as I have owned my current handset! Finding none of these acceptable I was told my only alternative was to call back in "a couple of days" to see if any other phones were in stock. As a sensible man I'm sure you can appreciate my shock at this - I have been supplied faulty equipment, but to compensate me for this I can accept a used, inferior and incomparable handset. I asked to speak to manager and was duly told to wait 1 hour for a call back.
After almost 2 hours I called back myself. I was told quite simply that I would have to wait for 24 hours for the matter to be passed to a manager, not the initial hour I was originally quoted. This marks yet another occasion where I have been clearly lied to and misled by Customer Care and still I am without a working phone.
Again I find myself writing to someone at Vodafone in the hope that this can be resolved - although given the level of care I have received thus far, I have no evidence to support the fact the Vodafone care about anything other than taking my money and ignoring me.
Yours (once again) in hope,
Christopher Fowler
I know that my chances of this even being read by a human is are about equivalent to winning the lottery 5 weeks in a row, but what the hell - it made me feel happy for about 5 mins.
Where's that Scotch...
