Appaling Vodafone Customer Service (Vodafone Network)

Member Name: William R

Product:	Vodafone Network
Date:	24/07/09 (104 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Many

I phoned Customer Service to cancel my mobile broadband contract. What I expected was some form of concern as to why, and then to explore possible ways to save me, but No - I was told just to visit their web site and fill in a Contact Us page.
What? I can't do it on the phone? I've given you all the security answers to prove my identity..... "No, we have to have it in writing" I was told.

Thing is that I've not "Registered" with their web site as I saw no need to. I bought the dongle and service from a Vodafone shop and they have all my details and bank account info etc etc. What good is registering I thought?

Well it took a while, but I jumped through all the hoops necessary and got off my request form. My contract anniversary is in 5 days and so I "hoped" I'd be ok to cancel on date...... No, of course not. You need to give them a month's notice.

That's nothing more than a money making scheme, and would make me junk them as a supplier, but believe it or not I'd decided to stay with them, but just to go on to their latest Pay as You Go service.

The reason being that I've used only a tiny fraction of my 3GB per month allowance, and they've had £180 over the last year for transporting about half a Gig total. Going PAYG is only the right thing to do and they can't possibly have hoped I'd keep giving them £15 a month for so little return.

Anyway, I'd told the phone operator my thoughts and she proceeded to tell me to first cancel, then tell them to change my tariff, then when I said "Hang on, it's a different dongle for PAYG isn't it", she said to go cancel the contract again, and then once more she changed her mind and said ask to change tariffs.
I had to point out that we'd just eliminated that option, but dummy operator was concentrating too much on her life outside Vodafone to remember two minutes earlier.

So - I've established that phoning CS up is a waste of time, and then gone through the hoops on the web site...... Submitted the contact form, and then it comes back with - "You will receive a reply within 5 days"...... What? I had them on the phone a minute ago and now they're wriggling out of addressing my request for up to 5 days?
Well I was concerned that I'd be canceling past my anniversary date and they'd ask for yet another month, but fortunately the reply came back in about 24 hours.

Not that it was any use though. I'd told them I'd already cancelled my Direct Debit and that unfortunately couldn't be undone (I thought I'd paid them all they were due you see).
"Send me an invoice" I said and I'll pay it (under duress)....... but what did they come back with? An identical reply which says again not to cancel the DD. Arrgh!

I wrote back again and restated the same position. However, it's now obvious that my requests are being handled in India and I'm sure the language barrier is at fault here. They've clearly got no idea, and can't pick out the pertinent facts.

Hey Vodafone - Firstly get your UK Operators to be more helpful. Then give them the power to do something rather than direct us to web forms. Then, take your helpdesk back into the UK and make sure they're all at least GCSE grade 1 qualified to speak and write English.

Summary: Say you're canceling and be prepared to be led a merry dance.