Am I likely to get anywhere? (Voda customer complaint)

Hxc

Hxc

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Hi all

Just sent my BB9900 away for repair as it will no longer turn on. I pay a high end contract (£46 a month, frequently paying over that for chargeable items) and am, as expected, annoyed that the hardware has let me down. I do not blame vodafone for this, but I feel the way I was treated was not really all that great.

Obviously I am in need of a phone in the interim period while my BB is fixed or replaced, and as such I bought one of their cheapo PAYG handsets. I had no issue doing this, despite the cost.

What I do have an issue with is the fact that I had to pay a £10 top up charge on top of the cost of the phone; why should I have to pay to effectively join a network I am already a high paying customer of?! Whilst £10 is not a lot (although I am a student...), I feel the principal of it is ridiculous, and the fact there is no system in place for any sort of good will quite out of line.

I didn't get angry or anything instore, I just said that I thought it was silly and planned to complain.

My question is... am I likely to get anywhere with this? A £10 credit on my account would be all I'd really like, as I currently have £10 sitting on a SIM I am never in a million years going to use.

Cheers.
 
Associate
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Worth a try posting on their forums. Normally they are quite good. To be honest i would be similarly aggrieved if i had to top up. Only thing worth considering is they will argue that the 10 pound top up is effectively part of the deal when buying and is aimed to give new customers credit
 
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Don't really know anything about BBs couldn't you have used your old sim in a cheapy unlocked/voda phone?

I've usually found voda CS fairly good if a little slow to get moving sometimes, I had a problem with one of their advertising numbers calling me 5+ times a day and first time it happened they refunded me £10 off my bill for that month and when it kept happening the next month they waived an entire months bill (after which point they fixed it).
 

Hxc

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Despite an abundance of phones in our house, we don't have a single one that is unlocked or voda compatible. My old phone is annoyingly in my halls in bristol, where I won't be for another week and a half.
 
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If you had booked it in through Carphone Warehouse, they could have given you a basic phone for a £20 deposit. You just have to provide proof of purchase to book it in. Yea £20 could get you a new cheap PAYG phone, but you get the money back anyways! Pretty much every phone retail store will only sell you a PAYG handset for the price advertised providing you get a new SIM card to go along with it, which itself is free, but you have to make a topup on it. Might sound crazy, but some handsets cost more SIM free than they do as an unlocked+SIM card+top up package!

So I'm afraid you won't get anywhere, because buying a phone with credit is pretty much the same everywhere. And once SIM cards are activated with credit on it, there's no refunds on the system. Only the manager could make a goodwill gesture and raise you a voucher or something.
 
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Hxc

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Why would I book in a phone for repair through carphone warehouse when I have nothing to do with them? Why would they book my phone in for repair? :confused::confused:

And er, I'm fairly certain someone higher up could easily give me a £10 credit on my account; I'm not looking for a refund, I'm just feeling a little ripped by the fact that despite being a paying voda contract customer, I have to pay credit. If I was a pay as you go customer, I wouldn't have had to pay that. Surely I generate more revenue than a pay as you go customer, so why should I have to pay the £10 that I am never going to use?
 
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Because Carphone Warehouse handle warranty repairs for most manufacturers regardless of where you bought the handset from. http://selfhelp.carphonewarehouse.com/SelfHelp/request.do?view()=c{dffa0e10-286c-11df-7b6c-f20203001e3d}

It doesn't matter if you pay £200 a month as a Vodafone customer for 10+ years, you still have to pay credit when buying a PAYG phone. Heck even when CPW were selling the Alcatel phone for 99p, you still had to pay a minimum of £10 credit with it!

Vodafone may have their own batch of standby phones they can issue to their customers, but it depends on their stock levels. So if the store you went to had them, but the customer consultant didn't offer it, then yea I would be pee'd off.

Just trying to help mate but you're clearly not interested.
 
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Soldato
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Did you actually go into a shop?

Took in my Galaxy S2 in January to get it sent away for repair and they asked me if I needed a loan phone while it was away.

I said yes & they borrowed me a Nokia C5.
 

Hxc

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Because Carphone Warehouse handle warranty repairs for most manufacturers regardless of where you bought the handset from. And it doesn't matter if you pay £200 a month as a Vodafone customer for 10+ years, you still have to pay credit when buying a PAYG phone. Heck even when CPW were selling the Alcatel phone for 99p, you still had to pay a minimum of £10 credit with it!

Just trying to help mate but you're clearly not interested.

Why would they do that? There's surely no profit in them handling repairs for people they have no contractual involvement with?

Regardless, Carphone warehouse quite clearly state on their repair page that they send blackberries back to RIM authorised centres and that it's usually quicker for you to send back to the manufacture themselves.

I understand completely that it is the case that you have to buy credit when buying a PAYG phone in the standard case; I have no issue with that. What I have an issue with is that the charge could not be waivered because of the circumstance. The person even said that if I were already on voda PAYG or knew anyone that was I wouldn't have to pay the charge... which seems idiotic; they are part of the network, so am I. Why do I have to pay a charge just because I am on contract?

And yes, I went into 2 vodafone shops, the first didn't have a battery to test my phone with, so I went to another. They claim to only offer replacement phones if you are part of their hideously overpriced insurance scheme.
 
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They would do it just to get you into the shop. Likely with the hope that after a good service from them you would return.

No idea if they can make any money on handling fees or anything, wouldn't expect so, But the blackberry option is a little different yes.
 
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Strange, everytime ive had to send a phone for repair vodafone have given me a free loan phone. You have nothing to lose by complaining, you might get lucky
 

Hxc

Hxc

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Strange, everytime ive had to send a phone for repair vodafone have given me a free loan phone. You have nothing to lose by complaining, you might get lucky

Repeatedly queried this, but they insisted it was only for customers who take out their insurance policy, which for a tier 4 phone like mine would be £11.99 a month!
 
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And don't renew your contract like the millions of others do even when unhappy . Leaving them was best decision I made after constantly having to complain in order to get the service I should have got anyway
 

Hxc

Hxc

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Oh I plan to. Voda have been nothing but **** for me anyway, will move to a GiffGaff sim as soon as the contract finishes.
 

Hxc

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You're a tier A customer, you'll get the money credited back. I'm almost 99% sure of this, exec office is the place to write to.

Thanks, you're exactly the sort of person I'd like to here from. I've directed an email to the ceo office via the webform and will be writing a letter as soon as I'm back in Bristol tomorrow.

Out of interest, is 'tier a' a reference to the price plan and thus how important a customer is? Just curious.
 
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Email the CEO's email directly if you dont get any joy with the webform. I myself did this, and they were on the phone the following day, and my complaint was sorted in less than 10 mins.
 
Soldato
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Oh I plan to. Voda have been nothing but **** for me anyway, will move to a GiffGaff sim as soon as the contract finishes.

Vodafone was added to my list of companies not to use again after they repeatedly refused to do anything about my having no reception where i lived despite the coverage map saying otherwise, and then when i did get through to a sympathetic customer services lady taking almost two months to reply to say that during that time i had made 2 outward calls and therfore they wouldn't do anything about it. If id wanted to a service that was akin to using bt phone boxes i shouldn't have to give vodafone 36 quid per month for the privilege!

They must lose a lot of repeat business screwing over customers like that.
 

Hxc

Hxc

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Got a callback after using the CEO direct email, they have credited my account with £20. Basically means I've paid a fiver for a second handset to take to festivals, use as a spare in the car etc.

The high up customer relations team get a big thumbs up from me, got back to me within 24 working hours :)
 
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