quote:
Dear Sir/Madam,
I write to you as an authorised party of the abovementioned mobile account, on behalf of my friend and colleague xxx xxx xxx. You will note from your records, there has been there has been an active dispute and complaint over the last couple of months which I have been dealing with. It is this experience I would like your understanding of and comments on; an experience which I can only describe as the most appalling and relentlessly disrespectful service I have ever come across from a large firm like yours. Having spent a large part of my working career in Customer Services, I can expect you must write off comments like this daily as emotional hyperbole, but I can assure you, I am a very reasonable person.
As a preface to my larger concern, I have to say I am shocked that your billing policies would allow for this situation to eventuate in the first place. The situation I’m referring to, of course, is that a 20 year old girl who clearly did not have an advanced understanding of internet protocols, was mislead by a Vodafone licensed dealer about what would constitute ‘downloading’, and then was allowed by Vodafone to rack up a bill in excess of $2,000. Does this sound to you like the spending capacity of a typical young woman barely out of her teens? I would’ve assumed, as a responsible company, that you would have policies in place which would have perhaps a phone call after the first $500 or so to check if that was her intended usage; perhaps a temporary block until that can be established; perhaps a low credit limit on all new accounts until it can be determined that customers genuinely understand the conditions of their terms. That’s what I would expect of a responsible company. Having said that – I had soon spoken with an employee of yours who informed me that there is a policy in place to deal with the aftermath of these events (even if a preventative measure would’ve clearly be more helpful), named “Bill-Shockâ€; an apt name, given <name>’s reaction having received the bill. So, I called up your Customer Services line to see how I would go about having this policy applied on her account.
Now, I would like to provide a timeline of events since then, describing my attempts have Bill-Shock applied, and I can assure you these details are correct:
- Approximately two months ago. I make my first call to Vodafone regarding this issue and am told by the CSR that the bill-shock policy actually no longer exists: it has been revoked due to the wide sources of information now available for people to check up on their account. I ask to speak directly with the manager, CSR informs me that I will receive a call back within two hours. Incidentally, the issue of authorisation on the account was never brought up at all.
- I receive a call back from Vodafone Team Leader, who assured me that bill-shock does still exist, and he would be happy to apply it to this account under the condition that I properly educate <name> on what kinds of activity on the internet would incur charges like this. He told me the total bill to pay would be just under $360. I agree to this deal, and was told this would be credited that day, and that was the end of it. I left this conversation very satisfied with the level of service I’d received. I was so pleased, in fact, that I did not write down his name.
- Approximately three weeks later. <name> receives another bill still demanding over $2,000. I call up Vodafone to explain there should have been a credit on the way. CSR informs me there is no record whatsoever that I’ve spoken with any manager, or that anyone has requested any credit at all. I request to speak to a Team Leader. Again, I am told that someone will call back within two hours.
- Two days go by with no call back. I call back and manage to speak directly with a Team Leader who assures me that while he doesn’t have the authority to instantly process the credit himself, he will put the request to his superiors and call me back with an update at 3pm that day regardless of the outcome to keep me posted on what’s happening. I let him know “that’s what the last person saidâ€, to which he replied “in all fairness, I am not that person, and you’ve never spoken to me before, so I’ll definitely call you back at 3pmâ€. I finish the call, again satisfied that someone is at least taking ownership.
- The next day. Still have received no call that was promised me at 3pm the previous day. I call back and speak with the same Team Leader again, and ask why he failed to call me back at the time he promised. He said (paraphrasing) “Oh, I put the request through for someone to call you back so I figured they would get onto it†– despite his very clear promise that he would personally call me back. Said he will get in touch with the ‘Business Development Manager’ who will call me back within another two hours
- The ‘Business Development Manager’ calls me back, in just over two hours, and promptly refuses to talk to me until she receives verbal authority from <name>. This, despite my dealings with two team leaders already who have not introduced the issue of authority at all. This aside, I got hold of <name> who provided this authority. Talk further with the BDM, who doesn’t even understand the bill-shock policy herself, as she was telling me it would be $59.95 per GB used total; rather than purely the amount which exceeded the 2GB free allowance. I let her know this is incorrect. She said she’d verify this and call back within five minutes.
- BDM calls back over half an hour later, repeats the same offer that I had with the first Team Leader, confirms that she will put through the credit right now, and gave an authorisation code. She again outlined I would need to educate <name> on how the charges work. She agreed the total bill would be just under $360, and I confirmed acceptance again of this arrangement.
- Another month goes by. <name> now discovers her account has been barred. She promptly calls up personally, and is told again will need to pay around $2,500 before the service will be re-enabled. I call Vodafone the next day, am told by CSR that I’ll receive a call by a Team Leader within 90 minutes.
- Over three hours go by without call. I find they’ve left a message after this time when I was no longer able to accept calls. I call back to respond to the message, the CSR simply says she has no idea who that particular manager is and hung up on me.
- I call back again; CSR gives me the complaint code “080103000376†and says I will be receiving yet another call back within 30 minutes.
- Receive a call an hour and a half later, from Team Leader Graham. Bemused at the consistent non-meeting of given timeframes, I asked why he did not respond in this time. He offered no apology, and merely excused that he has a “lot of calls to makeâ€. I also queried why none of the previous deals offered by Vodafone had been followed through, his response was that it’s a “lot of money†they’re crediting back which they “don’t have to do†because it’s a “good-will gestureâ€. He then offered to put yet another request through for the credit amount, but only for $1492 – which was contrary to the previous two deals I had agreed to with Vodafone. Graham refused to discuss anything further than this, and explained that he would refer me to the “Escalations Department†– Who would be calling me back by close of business Tuesday (around 4 days later) to discuss my concerns.
- I call back after close of business Thursday (two days after the given timeframe) when yet again no one has called me back at all. After holding 20 minutes, I spoke with Team Leader Rona. She told me that a credit has been put through, for the amount which I had tried to dispute with Graham, and could offer no explanation for why the Escalations Department hasn’t called me. She said she will definitely call me back by 8pm that night (about 2 hours later).
- I called back the following day, Friday 11 Jan, having received no calls to either my home phone or cell phone, and spoke with CSR Nancy. She claimed that Rona did try to call me back at around 7:45pm but did not get any answer. Incidentally, this is provably false. I have complete logs of my phone activity for both phones and there were no calls whatsoever. I also confirmed with Nancy that she has the correct number noted for me. I asked to speak to a Team Leader again, and was told someone would be able to call me back within 48 hours. I outlined I wanted to speak to a manager more urgently than that, and was fed only the same line again that I would receive a call back within 48 hours.
- Now it’s Tuesday, 15 January, four days later, and have still received no call at all. I called at 5pm today, spoke with Tafao (who identified herself as a “support personâ€), she advised that she will put a request through and hopefully someone will call me back tomorrow. I demanded an email address to send a complaint to, she refused. I requested that Tafao take ownership of the problem and at the very least agree to call me back personally tomorrow, regardless of the outcome of the request to keep me informed. She refused, and repeated then that someone will definitely get back to me tomorrow, and then hung up on me.
- I call back again; speak with CSR Noha, asking for this postal address to forward my concerns.
In summation, it has taken fourteen phone conversations to arrive at this point, and still, no one has called me back. I have been told three times that a credit has been put through when it hasn’t. I still don’t know if it’s actually been put through, but if it has, it’s certainly for less than the amount I have agreed to. I have been told ten times that someone will call me back within a set timeframe, and not one of them has met that timeframe. Granted, some have been close, but no one has taken the initiative to apologise for being late without my prompting, and most have not bothered to call back at all. I’m quite sure I don’t need to indulge in too much more detail how frustrating this has been, how much of my personal time has been wasted in attempts for someone there to take me seriously.
As I said before, I am a very reasonable person. I understand that people make mistakes and I understand that it’s not always realistic to empower all of your staff with the authority to think “outside the box†in terms of internal policies. But the experiences I’ve just outlined above, do not fall into the scope what anyone would deem reasonable. Not only have mistakes been made; but they have been made repeatedly, with no hint of apology, and with apparently no inclination to fix them. As a loyal customer myself for many years, and as someone who has previously deeply admired Vodafone as a company for its operating practices, I am left stunned and bemused. What I would like to hear from Vodafone, is the following:
- Why there has been repeatedly no follow-through on promises
- Why there has been zero effort into either providing realistic timeframes, or sticking to them
- What Vodafone plan to DO to resolve my complaint, given the hassles experienced, the fact that the service has been barred for an extended period, and also given that the service was not able to be used for several extended periods due to an undisclosed “technical fault†which <name> has called about personally.
Based on your response, we will both be deciding whether Vodafone is a company we wish to continue services with. Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to your reply.
Yours sincerely,
Luke Stanford
![[quote]](http://static.biggie.co.nz/img/dis/message_quote.png "Quote message"){kind=small}
but I'll send it through to all of my teams so that if there are any (central) Auckland ones they send them to you. It's a whole load easier than sending it through Beyond the Call that's for sure! 
