@vodafoneuk Communications Ombudsman - has any body had issues / problems????

[red-ed]

Has anybody had issues with this lot! They don't seem to know what they are doing ! They don't answer letters and when they do their responses make no sense ! If you write back they just ignore you. [edit]

Red

Edited November 3, 2013 by dx100uk
not needed - dx

[dx100uk]

what another moan......

 

how about you let the Vodafone rep take a look at your issue...

 

We thought it would be nice to introduce ourselves and to assure you all that our presence on CAG is with the very best of intentions.

.

vodafone UK has recently introduced a dedicated Web Relations Team which is keen to seek out customers who’re having difficulties with their accounts and feel that they have no other place to turn to than CAG and other consumer forums and blogs.

.

Naturally, it’s not possible for us to help directly with account specific queries on CAG and as such we would encourage those members who feel we can help them to contact us privately at webrelations@vodafone.com quoting ‘WRT135 – CAG Forum’ in the subject line.

.

When emailing us we would also ask that you either provide us with a link to your post or thread – if you’ve posted in another member’s thread please also provide your CAG username so that we can check what your query is.

****Also you will get an auto reply number. Post the number you get back in YOUR thread ***

 

Many thanks

 

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK.

 

 

dx

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Red,

 

Thanks for making me aware of your concerns.

 

As suggested by dx, could you email me with your details via the Contact us form here and quote the code WRT135 - CAG Forum in the subject line?

 

Once you've received our automated reply, could you update the thread with your email reference number and I'll get back to you as soon as possible?

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations

 

Vodafone UK

[red-ed]

Hi Vodafone,

 

If you don't like people 'moaning' about your service on the web and other places, i suggest you improve the service provided, instead of trying to silence people or re-direct valid criticism.

 

Ed

[silverfox1961]

Hi

I haven't had the 'pleasure' of dealing with the ombudsman but if any of the others are similar, I sympathise with you.

 

Lee does have a good track record and if he can help, he will bearing in mind that he still has to follow the VF party line.

[red-ed]

Hi All,

 

Don't allow Vodafone to bury or redirect these issues - Once buried Vodafone will just carry on offering poor service. The best approach is use CAB and other forms to share issues and concerns - and then maybe Vodafone will have the 'business' sense to address the root cause (poor customer service).

 

Ed

[silverfox1961]

Hi All,

 

Don't allow Vodafone to bury or redirect these issues - Once buried Vodafone will just carry on offering poor service. The best approach is use CAB and other forms to share issues and concerns - and then maybe Vodafone will have the 'business' sense to address the root cause (poor customer service).

 

Ed

 

You seem to have an issue with Vodafone. Have you started a thread on this?

 

While VF do have some very poorly trained staff who haven't a clue should a problem go 'off script' the VF rep does not bury things on this forum.

There are times when a thread will stop but that is for other reasons.

 

I am not defending VF but unless you air your grievance, no one can offer assistance.

[red-ed]

I believe that Vodafone will be more inclined to improve their services issues if they are aired openly and not deflected. This to me is one of the reasons CAG is such a good forum. Moreover, the nice chap from Vodafone turning up on CAG offering to help is welcome but far to late. Furthermore, i know that if they succeed in deflecting open and valid criticism they won't bother with the root cause - i.e. improve poor service.

 

The question i might ask 'web relations' is exactly what corrective action (with timescales) have they put in train as result of the CAG and other feedback ! This, i think, is what pretty much all the long suffering Vodafone customers would like see.

 

Ed

 

Ps

 

I have been a Vodafone customer (when it was Racal Vodafone) for 23 years - and have watched and experienced what was top QoS degenerate to what is quite frankly a disgraceful mess. The ombudsman service does not work either, and just looks like an attempt prolong and put down complaints.

[red-ed]

Thank you Silver Fox for your advice,

 

Have been overcharged by Vodafone - they even admit they owe me money!

 

I have written to Vodafone (as per their complaints procedure) four times and emailed more times than i can remember over the last six months asking them to resolve this - all i get is a standard response promising to resolve the issue in 24 hours - and then I hear nothing! They don't seem to be able to deal with any problem that requires more than 24 hours to resolve - they certainly cannot string together more one event or letter!

 

I have escalated this to the Communications Ombudsman - who, after six invalid attempts to refuse to deal with the issue, have finally agreed to sort this out. You should note that some of the refusal attempts demonstrated that a lack of understanding of even basic telephony which does inspire confidence. This is why i asked below at CAG if others have had similar issues!

 

As you can see I have given Vodafone every chance to correct this matter - and the matter is now with the Communications Ombudsman - so i do not feel that it is appropriate that i ask Lee to help. I would suggest, however that Lee, asks his Vodafone complaints team to provide him with a list of the unanswered complaints that Vodafone has chosen to ignore or lost or whatever, so he can intercept complaints before they are posted on the web!!!

 

Ed

[silverfox1961]

I would suggest, however that Lee, asks his Vodafone complaints team to provide him with a list of the unanswered complaints that Vodafone has chosen to ignore or lost or whatever, so he can intercept complaints before they are posted on the web!!!

 

You already know the answer that you will get for that question. Not a hope in hell will VF disclose this but if they did, a miracle it would be.

 

A few Caggers have taken legal action against Vodafone and dependant on the circumstances, I would encourage it. It is only when people start getting legal on VF's ass that they start taking notice.

[red-ed]

You already know the answer that you will get for that question. Not a hope in hell will VF disclose this but if they did, a miracle it would be.

 

A few Caggers have taken legal action against Vodafone and dependant on the circumstances, I would encourage it. It is only when people start getting legal on VF's ass that they start taking notice.

 

A web relations team is a good start and shows Vodafone are concerned about the negative chatter - the question is will they attempt to suppress the chatter or deal with the source. I suspect, because Vodafone is huge, it will be easier to try to suppress.

 

I agree re. small claims. I will give everyone in the Vodafone channels a chance to put matter right as this always reads better with Judge (as you done everything to try resolve the issue) if you need to file a claim.

 

Ed

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Ed,

 

It's disappointing to see that your concerns remain unresolved.

 

Had you opted to contact me last month I may have been able to help. However, as the Ombudsman has now taken your case on we'll need wait for the outcome of their investigation.

 

Naturally we don't like to see negative experiences on forums such as CAG; however, there will inevitably be those instances where customers feel that they have no other play to turn for help or guidance.

 

Over the years our presence on CAG has helped several hundred customers with a variety of issues. Of course, there are also those who we haven't been able to provide the solution sought.

 

Any updates provided after our intervention are entirely at the customer's discretion.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations

 

Vodafone UK

[red-ed]

Hi Ed,

 

It's disappointing to see that your concerns remain unresolved.

 

Had you opted to contact me last month I may have been able to help. However, as the Ombudsman has now taken your case on we'll need wait for the outcome of their investigation.

 

Naturally we don't like to see negative experiences on forums such as CAG; however, there will inevitably be those instances where customers feel that they have no other play to turn for help or guidance.

 

Over the years our presence on CAG has helped several hundred customers with a variety of issues. Of course, there are also those who we haven't been able to provide the solution sought.

 

Any updates provided after our intervention are entirely at the customer's discretion.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations

 

Vodafone UK

 

Lee,

 

You will note that contacted Vodafone UK on many occasions - and Vodafone had a chance to deal with matter.

 

I suggest you deal with the failures in customer service instead of trying to appear helpful AFTER the event

 

Ed

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Ed,

 

I appreciate that you've contacted us previously.

 

Unfortunately, without being able to access your account I can't see why you've experienced the difficulties you've reported here.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations

 

Vodafone UK

[red-ed]

I have had the pleasure of dealing with the communications ombudsman - they are slow and random - manned by low paid low quality people - and blind to the facts. The responses look like they were written by Vodafone which makes them either lazy or bias or both.

 

Put more simply the Communications Ombudsman are a waste of time - i recommend people take their disputes straight to the small claim court.

 

Ed

[silverfox1961]

Can you elaborate on what has occurred with the Ombudsman. It would help others in a similar situation.

 

Any initial decision is made by an adjudicator and if you disagree with that decision, you can go higher to the main Ombudsman. (if that hasn't happened already)

 

If you really feel that Lee cannot assist and your complaint is still unresolved you still have the opportunity for the small claims court.

[Axel29]

My advice after three instances of "run ins" with phone companies is to go straight to the small claims court. I have found from experience that dialog with these phone people and the adjudicator is frankly a waste of time and their main objective is to fob you off and not address the issue.

 

I will now bore you with my experiences:

 

(1) decade ago with Orange. I'd moved house, informed Orange that I had moved and got cut-off without any communication - OK I had not paid the bill for perhaps two months, but that was because Orange lost my address change sent by post (it was 1998) so they sent bills to the wrong address. Orange being a communications company, one would have thought I'd get a call on their mobile!.... It took 6 months to resolve this and several letters to get a full set of copy invoices. Orange at one point sent me the itemized bills of three other random customers. Once I received all my invoices, I paid the outstanding amounts deducting any late payment charges and also deducting for days no phone service was provided with an explaining letter in full and final settlement.

Went to move house few years later and Orange had reported me to Experian for non payment and my mortgage lender was not happy -the transaction may have fallen through. Experian's excuse was that they are not responsible for the information and they rely on what they are told. Fortunately I talked to a supervisor and explained the situation and reminded Experian that in English Law there is a concept of libel and the information publisher can be sued and the remedy could involve the costs of my house purchase falling through - sorted in two hours.

(2) Onetel #1 - they cut all my phones, broadband and mobile when I was abroad in the US for "non payment". Mrs Axel was furious. When I returned from the US, in dialog with Onetel, the issue was I exceeded a credit limit of £250 (which I did not know about). Despite Onetel having a direct debit mandate, they never bothered to phone me or try taking the money. I was annoyed. What really annoyed me was Onetel's insistence that I was a bad debt. So, and remembering the fun with Orange, I filed a data protection request- which of course Onetel ignored. The Data Commissioner had to intercede and a one foot high stack duly arrived. Unfortunately, it would appear that Onetel kept no computer records of conversations or correspondence with both their normal and "Chief Execs" customer handling (yes we believe that!).

 

(3) Onetel / Talk/Talk #2 - I enjoyed trouble free service with BT for a while and moved back to Talk Talk as they're cheap and promised me their customer experience was greatly improved.... Anyways I was enjoying trouble free service until the line stopped working - 9 days (and ? calls) it took before Talk Talk called up BT Openreach to fix it. It got fixed within 8 hours. It really was a line fault. I asked for compensation for loss of service - Talk Talk will refund you the line rental and service charges for the lost 9 days - how is that compensation! I complained to the adjudicator - I was surprised that the adjudicator thinks 9 days is a reasonable time to wait before calling out BT OpenReach to make the repair .., so I appealed... anyways, I paid my dues to Talk Talk with a covering letter explaining my calculation (the 9 days) as agreed by the adjudicator. Six months later Talk Talk write to me demanding more money - do they clear off disputed debts? As I had invested in many letters with the adjudicator and Ofcom (Talk Talk have previous on this type of behavior ), I went legal. It focuses the comms company on accuracy and timeliness of their replies. You are also going to get closure in known deadlines with the dispute, one way or the other....I got a settlement cheque from Talk Talk within 14 days and they have never bothered me again...Guys its mutual.

 

BT were doing great... I'm now a business customer as I work from home... they repair the line quickly ... they even sorted out three billing errors (the last one was £400 in error as they refunded me a deposit, their computer then assumed this adjustment was a call/charge refund and then claimed I had not met the minimum spend and billed me around £400.) Anyways BT may have had computer problems with new IT and Indian call centres in the last two years, BUT eventually someone suitably senior sorts it,,,,,,and they may refund a nominal amount for your time dealing with their billing errors. I was impressed with the service.

Until BT paperless billing was forced on me ... £6 for a paper bill, £3 to pay by BACs. I did phone (india) and said I considered this a material change to the contract and therefore I would terminate if they continued to charge a new and additional £9 monthly . "Ah, but you have a two year contract, you can't terminate without paying..." .... hum. I am in the process of moving to PlusNet - brilliant deal - line rental, unlimited broadband, free calls including international - cost £21.56 / month - one year contract. And PlusNet are owned 100% by BT... Its residential so I'll move my home number to this - its 1/2 what I pay BT BIz.

 

It is a bad strategy to have all comms sourced by one company - I can get data on 3G at home now, so there's redundancy in comms, and if you have diversity in supplier, you can survive a dispute on billing...

 

Overall ... I run companies - I have a degree and letters after my name - I do not understand why it is so difficult to buy a simple service and how these comms companies make it so complicated. They have all decided that customer loyalty is not to be rewarded, infact it is to be exploited - I know from energy (my day job) what the residential side of a big-6 pays to acquire a new customer - guys - if you looked after your existing ones, recognized rate tarts and charged an appropriate HONEST even premium amount to reasonable customers, you'd all make more money...Look at how BMW has got on ...I want to pay a reasonable premium, not get taken for a ride (BT, we'll be having a dispute over £40)....

 

Good luck, to those with the skills - go legal... it is quicker in your time. When the courts get clogged up, perhaps Ofcomm will police this better....

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Can you elaborate on what has occurred with the Ombudsman. It would help others in a similar situation.

 

Any initial decision is made by an adjudicator and if you disagree with that decision, you can go higher to the main Ombudsman. (if that hasn't happened already)

 

If you really feel that Lee cannot assist and your complaint is still unresolved you still have the opportunity for the small claims court.

 

Hi red-ed and silverfox,

 

As this matter has already been looked into by the Ombudsman I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to intervene.

 

Thanks,

 

Lee

 

Web Relations

 

Vodafone UK

[red-ed]

Vodafone had their chance, but did nothing to help, so i don't want to go back to them.

Ed.

[red-ed]

Agreed Axel29 - the adjudicators at these places are in the main incompetent. Not sure about bias - i think more hapless. Perhaps if we all march Vodafone in to court they might be less arrogant, and Ofcom might realise the public have lost confidence in the ombudsman process.

Ed.

[red-ed]

@silverfox

I will go the whole the hog just to be bloody minded - i know it is like banging your head against a brick wall - but i know the more people that do the more its costs, so some body might have the common sense to deal with our queries before them take on a life of their own as a complaint.

Ed

[Nishikigoi]

In my case ombudsman, has said Vodafone owes me £130, an apology and assistance with the issues we are suffering.

 

....the result....

 

Nothing, ignored the ombudsman, no apology, no £130 and no assistance. We have 5 Apple devices on high business contracts and will be leaving Vodafone as soon as is financially viable.

 

In my opinion Vodafone is an underhand company happy to take from their customers with no regard for if their action are fair or even legal.

Edited October 19, 2014 by ims21

[ArmchairPundit]

In my case ombudsman, has said Vodafone owes me £130, an apology and assistance with the issues we are suffering.

 

....the result....

 

Nothing, ignored the ombudsman, no apology, no £130 and no assistance. We have 5 Apple devices on high business contracts and will be leaving Vodafone as soon as is financially viable.

 

In my opinion Vodafone is an underhand company happy to take from their customers with no regard for if their action are fair or even legal.

 

Take them to Small Claims. The judge will enforce the Ombudsman's decision, and you can claim for additional compensation as well - court costs, distress, inconvenience, travel costs etc that you've incurred as a result of Vodafone's negligence.

 

It's not even touch and go in your situation, Vodafone definitely won't bother turning up AND you have the Ombudsman deciding in your favour.

 

Though £130 seems a bit low, considering you have 5 contracts with them - I would seek more if you've had ongoing issues with them.

 

You're right - mobile phone operators do not conduct themselves in the correct manner BUT they prey on people's apathy and unwillingness to chase issues up (in court). Most people just won't bother to take them to court, and that's where they succeed in fobbing off complaints.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Nishikigoi,

 

Thanks for making me aware of this.

 

If you'd like me to get things looked into further, email me with your details via the Contact us form here and quote the code WRT135 - CAG Forum in the subject line.

 

Once sent, you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Post back with this and I’ll check I've received it.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Social Media Comms

 

Vodafone UK

[Nishikigoi]

No thanks, your company should have dealt with the ombudsman, not need me to chase them.

 

I've only posted as this thread popped up on a Google search, hopefully someone might avoid buying from such a dreadful company by reading this.

 

Small claims and cancellation time for us.

 

Hi Nishikigoi,

 

Thanks for making me aware of this.

 

If you'd like me to get things looked into further, email me with your details via the Contact us form here and quote the code WRT135 - CAG Forum in the subject line.

 

Once sent, you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Post back with this and I’ll check I've received it.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Social Media Comms

 

Vodafone UK