My worst experience began with Vodafone when I firstly activated my mobile connect services on 4 June 2008 on my existing number. After making a request to activate it I realized its too costly as compared to the free wi fi connectivity on my iphone, so, I wanted to deactivate it. Vodafone follows a procedure to activate or deactivate the services by messages. I sent a message to deactivate it but never got a confirmation. Then I called customer care to deactivate. They said it has been deactivated. My bad experiences with Vodafone underlines:
1. So I called to confirm it and got a respond that due to some technical problem you haven’t deactivated it before but we will do it now manually and not by an sms. Then I never checked it whether it was deactivated or not.
2. I was on the scheme to get the bill on my mails, which mind it, they never send me.
3. Then When on 28 November, I call customer care centre to ask for my bills to be send for the last 4 months, what I see there is Mobile connect charges on me every month. (I have activated for 199 plan, and on the rocks they were charging me 499 every month.) Firstly they never send you a bill on your mails and then they over charge you on the services you have already deactivated. But now when I have asked the bills and have the records of the Last 6 months in which I was charged unnecessarily the amount every month, you are not cooperating with me.
Besides being an old customer of Vodafone, I am a member of Consumer court under the act Consumer Protection 1986.

I think you would be concerned and take the immediate actions for it.

Reference number: 1384006470, 1386858906, 1386856480, 138971988, 1393783506, 1392703088, 1392733790, 138971988.

Moreover when I talked to the senior executive at 111, name Sandeep, he told me that my problem will be solved. And for that matter I said I will wait to pay the bill of November so that I can get the refund.

Current Status; they say I won’t get any reversals.

Please I would like to say the concerned authority that they should take some serious steps.

My worst experience began with Vodafone when I firstly activated my mobile connect services on 4 June 2008 on my existing number. After making a request to activate it I realized its too costly as compared to the free wi fi connectivity on my iphone, so, I wanted to deactivate it. Vodafone follows a procedure to activate or deactivate the services by messages. I sent a message to deactivate it but never got a confirmation. Then I called customer care to deactivate. They said it has been deactivated. My bad experiences with Vodafone underlines:
1. So I called to confirm it and got a respond that due to some technical problem you haven’t deactivated it before but we will do it now manually and not by an sms. Then I never checked it whether it was deactivated or not.
2. I was on the scheme to get the bill on my mails, which mind it, they never send me.
3. Then When on 28 November, I call customer care centre to ask for my bills to be send for the last 4 months, what I see there is Mobile connect charges on me every month. (I have activated for 199 plan, and on the rocks they were charging me 499 every month.) Firstly they never send you a bill on your mails and then they over charge you on the services you have already deactivated. But now when I have asked the bills and have the records of the Last 6 months in which I was charged unnecessarily the amount every month, you are not cooperating with me.
Besides being an old customer of Vodafone, I am a member of Consumer court under the act Consumer Protection 1986.

I think you would be concerned and take the immediate actions for it.

Reference number: 1384006470, 1386858906, 1386856480, 138971988, 1393783506, 1392703088, 1392733790, 138971988.

Moreover when I talked to the senior executive at 111, name Sandeep, he told me that my problem will be solved. And for that matter I said I will wait to pay the bill of November so that I can get the refund.

Current Status; they say I won’t get any reversals.

Please I would like to say the concerned authority that they should take some serious steps.

Today Vodafone, I love you just a little bit more.

This morning I got a note over Skype from Richard Hyndman, Head of Development at Mippin, telling me about Yoigo:

“Dude, cheeky hint if you want to use your N95 out there (in Barcelona) http://www.yoigo.com/
It is a company similar to UK’s carrier 3 (Three).
I have just called Yoigo, and they have confirmed me that you can buy pre-paid SIMs with a British passport, the SIM card cost 10€, you have 10€ credit on it, and you have unlimited 3G data access for 1.2€ per day.
That would be £6 for the card and unlimited data for the whole of MWC…”

Nice one, cheers Rich.

Only problem? My handset is network locked. Bugger.

Dialling 191…

“Good morning Mr Whatley, my name’s Ann how can I help you today?”

“Yes hello, I wonder if you could. I’m off to Barcelona on Sunday and I’d like to buy a Spanish SIM upon arrival so I don’t get overcharged using my VF account for the duration of the trip.”

“I can see what Mr Whatley…”

“The only problem I have is that my handset is locked… aaaaaaaand I was *wondering* if you guys would give me the unlock code so that I could use the Spanish SIM?”

“Yes of course Mr Whatley, not a problem.”

This took minutes and I had an email from Vodafone, with my unlock code within, by the time I got back to my desk. So of course, I dropped a note back to Richard exclaiming my happiness:

“I’m going to try that…” he said.
Note – Richard is not with VF, he’s with TMO.

2mins (and a few expletives) later…

“I just called T-Mobile they said it would cost me £15 and take 28days to get the unlock code…I said “but I’m going away on Monday”. they said they couldn’t help… I tell you when I’ve got my shiny new N95 8GB (bought SIM Free the other day) and my contract expires? I’m going to leave T-Mobile. I’ve had enough.”

“RIch, can I quote you on that?”

“Yes! Even the fact that I worked for T-Mobile for 3yrs contracting and 2yrs permanent and the fact that I have a half price phone & contract won’t save them this time. Correction: That is, half price FOR LIFE isn’t going to be enough to save them… and I’m taking my Wife with me!”

He then went to rant about dropped calls, level of service, 3G (or lack thereof in his office), etc etc etc….

For the record, Rich got his N95 with TMO a full month before I got mine on VF and we’re both on 18mth contracts.

Customer service is, and always has been, paramount to me when choosing *any* product/service.

TMO lost two high value customers today.

Bad form.

James Whatley’s last blog post..When giving presentations…

@Ewan: Gaaaa! where’s the science? Dropped call rates are the same now (or below the threashold of a user’s noticability radar. Can we collectively agree that technically, voice calling on *ANY* UK MNO is not an issue any more?

It just distracts from the real discussion, which should focus on (as you rightly point out) tariffs, T’s & C’s, and customer service.

@James: so those really careful Voda customers with a 5 year old handset in good nick are subsidising your destructive frenzy?

Disclaimer: 2 years back I had a spat with Voda, which required CEO Tim Miles’ intervention to sort out. I was 6 months into an 18 month contract, had paid over ***£4,000*** (yes, four GRAND) in charges in those 6 months (mostly UK data charges and Vodafone on-net roaming in Europe), then when I switched from contracting to a full-time job and wanted to cancel the remaining 12 months the F**kers wanted an early termination fee. Like they hadn’t_got_their_money’s_worth_already.

But I’d use them again – I’d not hold a grudge and loose a good deal, should they have one. That spat apart, I thought the coverage and service I got were fine, down to an outside-the-square solution one CSR came up with for a tricky account issue.

Cheers,

Mike

It’s the former RF engineer in me: when I hear patent rubbish like ‘That level of interferance’ being used as a reason to change MNO, it just winds_me_up.

To be specific, what ‘Interferance’? Are you/the bloke down the pub implying that aircraft/airport radar or radio systems interfere with non-Vodafone mobile communications? I’m sure every airline, airport operator, regulator, handset/network vendor and MNO in the world would be interested in this assertion. The frequency bands that radar/aircraft radio and MNO’s use are pretty far apart, whereas the MNO’s are all squeezed in to – relatively speaking – the same postage-stamp sized bands. If there were ‘interferance’ then it would afftect EVERY MNO – including Vodafone. Their network is essentially no better/worse than any other. Dropped call rates in the UK networks are all around the 1% mark. You can’t get better without spending an exponentially huge amount of cash, so the MNO’s accept that on average, around 1 in 100 calls will fail. If you live/drive in a poor coverage area you will have more (my old house was 1 in 10), if you live in a CBD you will probably have one in a thousand.

The engineers at the 5 UK MNO’s are all much the same. They are engineering graduates, with loads of experience. Most of them have worked for several MNO’s. Some for many, as contractors. The planning tools they use are much the same. The RF networks are much the same. Same vendors, same standards. The handsets are the same (literally). Some networks (the newer or updated ones) will handle data better, having flatter architectures / fatter pipes joining the dots.

Regarding my apparent ‘self serving shallowness’ (nice), here’s some truthiness. 3 years ago at launch 3 had far fewer sites than they do now (like around half), so naturally they had more dropped calls. They now have as many as the rest (in some cases many more 3G sites), with roaming onto the largest 2G network (O2). The days of MNO’s having a pub pissing contest over voice coverage are basically gone. 3G coverage is still a differentiator, hence the sometime-this-decade Voda-Orange tie-up and the announced 3-T-mobile deal. I assume O2 will stick with wet string for the time being

So in the UK, coverage is not an issue for the vast majority of people, on any MNO. Maybe 95%.

This is good for customers, as MNO’s are forced to compete on price and service, which we have seen come on in spades in the last year. As James points out he’s been historically pretty happy with his Voda service, but lately wishes for a bit more love.

As I said, and as UK banks/fixed-line operators rely upon, most people can’t be arsed shifting, even if it would save them heaps / deliver better data performance. Historically as the first UK MNO (Jan 1, 1985), Voda will have a lot going for them in brand loyalty. Hence my ‘stuck in a rut’ analogy. But hey, as this survey points out http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7187577.stm , if paying more makes you think you get better service/coverage, feel free. It’s your ca£h

IMHO, listen to independant sources. Which? magazine etc. Someone with no interest apart from getting the consumer the best deal, with the best service and (increasingly irrelevant differentiator) the best coverage.

Cheers,

Mike