@vodafoneuk Vodafone Phone Stolen: Bill Fiasco

[Peopod]

Hi, I'm desperate for some help please with an issue with Vodafone.

 

 

 

Summary of details:

• My son thought he's misplaced his phone on the 9th May whilst in Barcelona, by late Sunday he realised he'd either lost it or had it stolen
  
• He flew back to the UK late Sunday and was on the road back to his base to take part in a military exercise (we have retained the flight confirmation as evidence of his movements and have confirmation of the exercise)
  
• He asked his partner to report the loss and have the phone blocked which she did
  
• Sadly she had recently had a 3rd miscarriage was undergoing medical treatment as a result and so she reported the loss to Vodafone on Tuesday 13th May i.e. the following morning/day
  
• At no time during the call to block the phone did Vodafone advise her about any fraudulent calls and she heard nothing else from them until she called on the 5th June to request proof of purchase and blocking for an insurance claim when they told her about the forthcoming bill of £2,228
  
• She explained the phone had been stolen and initially was told she had to go into a Vodafone shop and it would sorted. This was followed by a call from Egypt saying that this wasn't the case and they had to pay and my son should have been more careful
  
• She became very distressed and asked me to help as she was going back to hospital the following day and was completely overwhelmed by everything
  

 

My sons partner has had a contract with Vodafone for 12 years, 4,380 days, has always paid her bills on time and has demonstrated loyalty and reliability many times over the years. This is further demonstrated by the fact that she's paid £300 off the bill on the due date as she wanted to pay for their usage and so over estimated this just to be sure

 

 

Headlines surrounding this case:

 

 

• Vodafone insist the bill has to be paid regardless of the extremely extenuating circumstances around reporting the loss of the phone or the loyalty demonstrated over the last 12 years
  
• The Directors' Office advised that it wouldn't be fair to their other customers to waive/apply goodwill and that all roaming charges must be paid. Comment: Having done a lot of research, this is totally incorrect and I can offer other similar cases where all charges have been dropped, see: Post from Mcbainhaydon to name but one. I can provide further links to cases and national newspaper articles on request
  
• Vodafone advised they don't always get data for usage overseas straightaway and so can't always see unusual behaviour. Comment: The Euro Passport, which my son has opted into give customers the opportunity to use their UK Plan whilst in Europe. If a customer exceeds this, Vodafone contact them via text to tell them. This means they can see the usage and have the ability to stop unusual behaviour as indeed the banks do. Note: 406 calls were made fm Barcelona, varying in call length and dialled in rapid succession with a country code of Estonia, resulting in £1,850 call charges. My son's normal usage is around £26 per month per Vodafone
  
• The main account holder is my sons partner, who simply added a second phone last year for my son. Vodafone have confirmed they sent my son a text (which he didn't see of course) to alert him about exceeding his UK Plan but they don't email the main account holder. Comment: The contract is up at the end of July but Vodafone won't release the PAC code whilst there is still an outstanding balance insisting this is 'one account'. If this is the case and it is 'one account', why didn't they alert the main account holder with the 'exceeding usage' text as well? If they did this as a matter of course to customers/businesses with multiple handsets/users, then customers who haven't realised they've either lost or had their phone stolen wouldn't be as vulnerable and it would save Vodafone a fortune in fighting with their customers
  
• As I write, the £300 which my sons partner has paid, on the due date, for their over estimated usage is currently 'sitting' at the door of Vodafone as confirmed by her bank. Comments: Why? And why hasn't this gesture being recognised by Vodafone?
  

Headlines: Customer Service:

 

 

 

• Despite multiple calls to them and the promise of a call from a manager within 48/72 hours, it took them a staggering 264 hours to get back to me, telling me they were dealing with a large backlog. Comments: They could easily have reset my expectation by sending me a quick email, it could be an automated process and would save the Domino Effect occurring and Vodafone a great deal of time, money and resource trying to deal with customers calling back to see where their calls are, not to mention making a bad and stressful situation worse
  
• The Director's Office advised their Escalation Process is for the intention of determining whether a case can be placed in 'deadlock' which means you have 30 days to prove your case or face financial ruin. Comments: The Escalation Process is for the purpose of a fair review by a more senior person and used in order to try and settle any dispute. In our case, I was told that he would be escalated but and I quote 'It won't change the outcome…' The manager it was escalated to was the same grade as the original manager and so unlikely to have the authority or the appetite to over ride a colleagues decision
  
• The Directors' Office have told me that if I contact them again, they may not answer me. Comments: I emailed the CEO, had a quick response saying his Directors' Office would call me within 24 hrs, which they did. They advised the case remained closed, they weren't prepared to review it. I asked about the poor level of service, the response was that he didn't know the case, wasn't prepared to look at it and it remained closed. I strongly suspect all emails to the CEO go directly into the Directors' Office, hence a quick call back, and the fact the CEO didn't answer my second email and this was before the agent told me he might not! Not exactly the behaviour of a CEO is it…
  
• Having requested proof of purchase and blocking for the insurance claim on the 5th June, Vodafone emailed last week to say the handset remained unblocked. Comments: Proof of purchase has been requested 3 times in writing, we have this now, proof of blocking had been requested 5 times and this is still outstanding and so any insurance claim is void
  
• Thought it only fair to let Vodafone have a word about their values:
   
  Our values
   
   
  We’re obsessed with giving exceptional customer service. We’re hands-on, positive and always looking for fresh ways to deliver. The essence of who we are underpins our values. And by listening to our people, we've found that three things sum up what we're all about: Comments: Really? Where is the evidence of this?
  
  • Speed – we’re focused on bringing innovative new products and services onto the market quickly - comment: How about sorting out the many issues surround phone thefts, installing an alert system which gives customers EVERY opportunity to help themselves and YOU?
    
  • Simplicity – we make things easy for our customers, partners and colleagues: Comments: 264 hours for a call back wasn't easy. Speaking to the Directors' Office isn't easy. This department should be the customer service flag ship of Vodafone, there to help their company AND their customers. Instead it feels more like a toxic zone. What's bizarre is that they share all of their negative approaches with customers, they don't even bother to try and dress it up
    
  • Trust – we’re reliable and transparent to deal with: Comments, the true measure of a company is how they react when a customer has a problem. The definition of reliable is: consistently good in quality or performance: able to be trusted. Something has gone badly wrong within the Vodafone empire, they are neither reliable or transparent as is evident from all of the above. We're currently awaiting the full record of notes and calls, both incoming and outgoing but have been told that they usually only provide outgoing calls and they don't record ALL calls, really? How convenient is that. Luckily I have a full log/record of them, with dates and names etc., As my mother used to say, if you want something doing, do it yourself!
    

  This is genuine case, we have the evidence to prove movements etc., My son is in the military and with his partner is just trying to make his way, do his bit and live a good life. They now face financial ruin for the foreseeable future due to something which Vodafone could have helped them with, both from the perspective of installing an early warning system for all customers as mentioned, and also in the way they train their agents to deal with their customers when there is a problem. They are full of contractions as you'll see from their values and lack any sort of empathy for their customers. I accept that in an ideal world customers will let Vodafone know as soon as their phone are lost or stolen, but here is the point, often they don't realise until some low life has taken advantage. This makes customers very vulnerable to both theft and it seems Vodafone.

   

   

   

  Finally, I have a suggestion for a new tagline for Vodafone which reads: Vodafone: Getting to customers with solutions before they get to us with a problem… Ofcourse this would mean sorting out their systems and service levels and given that I've read similar issues going back to 2010, one wonders if this is just another not spoken about lucrative arm of the Vodafone Empire?

   

   

  Any help or suggestions greatly received. reading other forums and posts, the Vodafone Web Team have been very helpful to other customers with similar cases. Can they perhaps help us finally?

   

   

  Thanks in advance,

   

   

  Peopod

Edited July 8, 2014 by BankFodder
Closed - please do not merge