My Vodafone experience (Vodafone Network)

Name: Irene21

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Product:	Vodafone Network
Date:	29/11/01 (520 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very good support, good "roaming"

Disadvantages: not cheap tariffs, very expensive "roaming"

I bought my first mobile last November,and believe it or not I was forced to.No that anyone told me "either you buy one or you die".It was just the fact that with me being out of the house most of time, running from the library to work and then to university nobody could find me-making it impossible to have a social life.
Hence a mobile could solve my problem: No more missed phonecalls,greater ease in communicating with people and with a "Pay As you Go" handset, not any significant costs since I had no intention of using my phone for anything else that receiving phonecalls (of course everyone who owns one knows that this is impossible but anyway).
I must admit here that I Vodafone was the only place I went to.Most of my friends were connected to this network and were quite satisfied and besides Vodafone to Vodafone calls were (and I think still are) only 10p per minute.

THE VODAFONE SHOP

So I went to my nearest Vodafone shop to look around and I must admit that I found it quite irritating when after only 1 minute in the shop, I was approached by a salesman, who very kindly asked me "If I was allright". I don't know about you but I find this question quite stupid, especially after such a short time in a store (What companies should know is that the irritating bit is when you look for a salesman and you don't find one and not when you don't want one). I ensured him that I was fine and I looked around the shop. The thing that striked me was that it had plenty of empty space,it was very clean and the handsets were clearly displayed. Immediately I found the one I want (it was a Trium Mars) and asked for more details on that. Then came my first dissapointment: I was told that they didn't have one in-store and I should wait about a week to get one.Of course If I wanted another model I could buy it immediately. Obviously I didn't and left the shop-believe it or not I went to every Vodafone shop in S
heffield and didn't find a single Trium Mars available.Everywhere I was told that "it was sold out".What else I could do? I ordered one and waited.
Surprisingly it took them only one week to re-supply.However and although I had paid a deposit I didn't receive a phonecall from them to inform me that my handset has arrived: I popped into the shop after one week and there I was told that they had new stock of the phone.I'm sure that you guessed quite correctly that I wasn't happy at all for that...

THE NETWORK

Being a customer for over a year I must say that I'm not really dissapointed by them.
I must admit that I faced great difficulties trying to register my number to their network (to get my 7.50 pound credit) since you couldn't do that via their website(at that time) and there was no response(!) to the designated phone line. However, I managed to do that by post (and it took them a month to credit my balance).
Additionally, their prices are extremely high when you use their "roaming" service (i.e. using your handset abroad) but at least they didn't want a week's notice for that (something that happened at the time with other companies) and they use a highly automated operator service, which maybe cheap for them but it's not very helpful for very specific problems which don't fall into the pre-designed categories: In such cases (if you want to speak to a person that is) you have to pay an amount which may not be great but is definitely respectable.

SUPPORT

This is maybe the best part of my Vodafone experience.After almost a year of use, I started experiencing a screen-freeze while talking on the phone. At first I thought it was me, pressing buttons by accident but when the problem persisted and since I was near the end of my warranty, I decided to take it back to Vodafone, sothat they would take a look at it. Since in that year I haved moved cities, I had to g
o to a different store to the one I bought it from: I must say that although I was afraid that they wouldn't accept it (and say something like "it would be better to return it where you bought it from") they actually did and after asking (kindly) a couple of questions, they took it for repair.
Then came the (positive) surprise: Although in the store they told me that it would take about 10 days for them to repair it,after only 5 I received a phonecall from them saying to collect it. Suprisingly enough it has been exchanged for a new one, since the old handset couldn't be repaired.
Sadly, I lost a couple of phone numbers, but the fact I have now a brand new phone (without the scatches and the damaged back door of the old one) makes up for it. Don't you think?

IN OVERALL...

Vodafone surely isn't the cheapest network around, nor the services and offers that it has are the best in the market (the fact that they still have in some schemes the "service charge" is rather irritating and out of date in my opinion).
However, their support is very good and they assist you happily in any problem you have.
If you decide to join them, is totally up to you, but I should give them credit for being prompt and quick in my case.

Summary: