Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:00a.m.
By Ludwig Wendzich
Great technology begins with great people and ends with great customer service.
Vodafone, you have a technology that I love and really want to use. You seem to have potentially great people working on the products, the marketing and maintaining the great technology but you are greatly let down by your customer service.
I recently purchased an iPhone 3GS only to be told that I must get a new number in order to buy an iPhone. Hear me right, not to go on an iPhone plan, just because I am buying an iPhone!
If I purchased any other phone I could have kept my old number and gone on the same plan I’m on now but because I wanted the best phone in the world, I have to purchase my third Vodafone SIM card (the second card was purchased to overcome the once a month TXT2000 limit.)
I was fine with a new number, I was informed of this slightly late in the process of buying the iPhone 3GS (I would have preferred this mentioned a lot earlier however keeping it from me until the very last point at which I could pull out of the purchase meant that I had already "bought" the iPhone mentally/emotionally which meant it would be harder for me to give up on the purchase just because I have to change my number!)
I was aware of some Vodafone100MB/month for three months promotion when you signup with a YouChoose or OnAccount plan, so I asked the sales assistant about this offer who assured me at least three times that yes the offer that I described existed, that I was eligible and would in fact have three months of 100MB mobile broadband.
I was a happy iPhone 3GS Vodafone customer who made use of my mobile broadband to use Maps, check my Email and check 1-day.co.nz daily. One day, however I checked my balance to see how many texts I had left to send and was surprised to see that I owed Vodafone money. That was odd, I was pretty sure that my first month was free and in any case, it didn't match the $33.95 that I should be paying monthly.
I went to check my billing information on Vodafone's website only to find that none of the TXTs or phone calls I had made were being charged (I was well within my Family plan, 2 Best Mates and 30 minutes of calling.) Confused, I assumed that the plan cost for the month was added daily and would therefore increase by about a $1 a day
($33.95/31 days) however this also wasn't the case.
I called Vodafone's Customer Service looking for an answer to the why I owed Vodafone money. They told me that my phone calls were being recorded and charged to my account, at the end of the month my 30 National Minutes, Family and BestMate calls would be removed from the bill. Apparently this was a feature to show how much I would be paying without Vodafone's add-ons. Odd, I thought, but thanked the CSR and hung up.
A couple of weeks later I wanted to know how much of my 100MB I had left. My iPhone 3GS suggested that I was close to the cap but I wanted to make sure. I checked my balance via TXT but was surprised to find that the data I had left wasn’t in either of the two TXTs that I received. I went online to check my usage but was presented with a day by day measure of my data usage. Finally I called 777 once more in order to find out from a person what was going on.
Turns out that I was not given 100MB/month of free data for three months like I was promised when I signed up for the account.
The previous CSR was making up reasons for the amount of money I owed Vodafone, it was in fact the amount I owed Vodafone for the casual data I was using, thinking that I have 100MBs of bandwidth that month. The CSR apologised and gave me his email address, he added the 100MB plan/ month to my plan and said that when I was billed I should contact him and he will remove the costs for the casual data and the $10 I would be paying for the next three months for the 100MB/month data add-on.
For the next three months of billing I have to contact someone at Vodafone to fix their mistake; telling me that I was eligible for and would automatically get three months of free data.
Two out of three Vodafone employees that I dealt with buying an iPhone 3GS and signing up for a plan (revenue over a year totalling almost $2000) made mistakes (the sales assistant may have forgotten to add the three months but the first CSR's answer was definitely made up!)
A great technology will only be successful if you can provide great service. I hate to sound like I can only find fault with Vodafone; I love Vodafone but some things can and should be better, just because you can get away with it due to brand loyalty, it doesn't mean it shouldn't be fixed.
UPDATE:
Just 3 hours under posting this blog post I received a phone call from Vodafone regarding my experience. Some notes:
1. No-one should have to go on a new number when buying an iPhone of any sort. What appears to have happened is that I was told I needed to go on a new number so that the sales assistant could gain a commission on a new connection! This is being investigated.
2. The first CSR didn't make any record on my account that they talked to me suggesting that they knew the information they had given me was incorrect.
3. The second CSR filled out the correct notes regarding his call with me, clearly explaining what the issue was and how he resolved it. I've been reassured now that when my bill is printed that I will be called and the issues will be sorted out without me having to remember that I need to call 777 again when my bill comes to get it sorted out.
Vodafone maintain that they are constantly on the lookout for stories like this one where customer service fails their brand. If you have any similar issues feel free to post them in the comments below or go directly to the Vodafone support forums and someone will help you.
Vodafone says that this wasn't just a case of failed customer service but fraud (point 1. above) and would like to know of any other similar cases that need to be investigated.