Last month, I wrote a couple of blog entries (here and here) about the decision I was trying to make about whether to trade in my old mobile phone for one of the latest smartphones. I was a little reluctant, partly because I suspected that it would all go badly, as indeed it seems to be doing.
Anyway, I eventually decided to take the plunge, and on Saturday, I phoned up Vodafone and asked them to send me 2 nice shiny new HTC Desires (the second one for my other half, in case you were wondering). I'm still not totally sure I really need one, and suspect I have just been seduced into getting a new toy by the marketing hype, but as most of the people I know who have smartphones think they are brilliant, I finally gave in.
My new phone hasn't even arrived yet (it's due to arrive sometime today), but already, things seem to be going badly.
When I phoned Vodafone on Saturday, I asked if they would be prepared to offer any kind of discount on their standard tariffs, given that I was ordering 2 phones on a single account. They said they would, and I was happy. But I was conscious that this was something agreed only on the phone, and that I had nothing in writing. Many years of experience of dealing with big faceless utility companies have taught me the wisdom of making sure that anything that's agreed is agreed in writing.
Anyway, the person I spoke to said that they would confirm all the details in an email, so I gave them my email address, and felt reasonably content about the whole thing.
As of this morning, no email had arrived, so I phoned Vodafone to try to chase it up. It was about 7.30, and I wasn't sure if they would be open at such an early hour, so I checked on their website. It said that their customer service lines were open 24 hours, but some services may be limited between 10 pm and 7 am. That sounded like it should be pretty safe, given that it was now after 7 am.
So I phoned them.
"Please press 1 to..."
Beep
"Please enter your account number"
Beep beep beep beep beep beep -- oh bugger
"Please press 1 if correct, press 2 if incorrect"
2
"Please enter your account number"
Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep
"Please press 1 to..."
Beep
"Please press 1 to..."
Beep
"I'm sorry, we are closed until 8 am. Please phone back later".
Well, that was 5 minutes of my life I was never going to get back.
Anyway, I tried again after breakfast, and after going through all the rigmarole of pressing various options and entering my account number, I finally got to speak to Paul, who sounded like he wasn't completely awake yet.
I explained that I had not received the email confirming the deal I had been given, and Paul seemed to struggle to understand this concept.
He pointed out that terms and conditions were posted on the Vodafone website. That's not the point, I explained, I wanted confirmation of the specific tariff that I was being offered. I pointed out that the person who signed me up had promised to send me an email. Paul said that they don't do business by email, so they didn't send emails to customers.
I asked why the person who signed me up had asked for my email address and promised to email me the details.
Paul didn't know.
However, when pressed, Paul did say that they had sent an old fashioned letter in the post to confirm the terms under which I'd signed up. I'm not sure I believe him. It took a lot of prompting for me to get this information out of him, and I can't see why he wouldn't have volunteered it earlier had it been true. I suspect that this was just a ruse to get me off the phone, given that there was no way in which I could immediately prove him wrong, as he said they only sent the letter yesterday and today's post had not yet arrived. This seems to be a common tactic by people in call centres for big utility companies. They know that when you phone back later even more annoyed that not only did what was supposed to happen not happen, but also they lied to you about it, the chances that they will have to take the call again will be miniscule and it will now be someone else's problem.
Time will tell.
I was also told on Saturday that the phones would arrive today, and that my other half (who often works at home and is doing so today) would receive a text message at about 8 am to advise her what time the phones would arrive. By the time I left the house at 8.30 this morning, she had not yet received a text message.
So, even before I have my phone, that's at least 2 things that have not turned out the way I was told.
I have a bad feeling about this. Fortunately, under the Distance Selling Regulations, I have 7 days to change my mind and send the phones back if I wish to. If I don't get written confirmation of the deal they offerred on the phone within that time period, I shall be making use of that facility.
Right now, I am so glad I haven't yet cancelled the contract on my old steam-powered mobile phone.
Comments
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oh dear. that's not good. but then, with all that effort spent on shifting money around to offices in small countries with low tax rates, you think they'd have the personnel resources available to, y'know, provide good customer service? ;) i hope this isn't shutting the cat flap after the horse has flown the nest, but there's one more tip i picked up from a friend who used to work at a mobile phone company's call centre. if someone promises to do something, insist that they type it into the "notes" section on your account before you hang up. when he worked there, anything that was written in the notes was considered gospel. you might have to act a bit like a primary school teacher to get them to write it (and maybe to get the next person to read it) but the nagging should pay off. hope this helps the next time you have to deal with them.New comment
Yeah good tip with the notes section. When I negotiated a bit of a deal I asked them to write it in the notes section and then I phoned back 5 minutes later in order to get through to someone else to check it had been recorded correctly (which it had). It's a bit ridiculous to have to do that but it worked.