Dear visitor,
Since its inception Vodafail.com has made a significant
contribution towards raising awareness of the problems and issues faced
by Vodafone customers.
Vodafone Australia customers have had the opportunity to voice their concerns, their fears and their troubles from every corner of Australia and beyond our borders.
You have gathered the courage to stand up for your rights as consumers and to make your voice heard.
Each and every person who shared their story should have a sense of pride in this achievement and the changes that have occurred since the start of Vodafail.com.
More recently, traffic to Vodafail.com has declined significantly.
Having achieved the goal of raising awareness and promoting concrete action in early 2011, we have now reached the point of closing Vodafail to new complaints.
The site will remain online for as long as possible as a
reminder and an example of what is possible when we share our experiences.
It has been a privilege to run this initiative
and I'm am forever grateful for the help and support I've received. In
particular I would like to thank Melissa, David and Travis for their
continued efforts over the past 15 months. I'm also thankful and humbled by the support of ACCAN, Choice magazine and a wide range of media outlets, blogs and websites.
You can still browse existing stories and find out how to file a complaint if you are experiencing problems.
Until next time,
Adam Brimo
Share Your Pain
| ACT (1140) | Everywhere (19206) | NSW (7557) | NT (170) | QLD (3578) | SA (987) | Somewhere else (224) | TAS (242) | VIC (3573) | WA (1735) |
15342 Someone from QLD thinks vodafone is DEAR VODAFAIL at 8 Feb 2011 03:59:51 AM
Dear Vodafail posters,
As a very recent ex-employee of Vodafone, I want to share my disgust with what has been created here.
RANT 1.
I totally understand people need a place to vent frustration. Heck, why not create a "customer-fail" website for Voda employees to vent about how John Doe bought a new phone and then moved to woop woop and now wants his money back. Or how Jane Doe bought the latest greatest gadget and wont let anyone show her how to use it, instead she demands a full refund and compensation for her "dramas". Both John and Jane will come into the store, rip shreds off whichever 17 year old girl they can find, demand to speak to the manager, who, in all of their power, can only do their best and refer them to higher power (customer care have the highest power). This then turns into a tirade of abuse as they REFUSE to take responsibility for their own problem and would rather post on a website, abuse innocent staff, and embarrass themselves with their own stupidity. If you are signing a contract, DO THE RESEARCH. Its pretty obvious their reception sucks, so DONT SIGN A CONTRACT. You have opportunity at every point to ask questions and get all the facts BEFORE signing, and once you DO sign its YOUR problem if you didnt do the research. I think you'll find most employees are fairly honest about reception in problem areas (much to HQ's disapproval).
RANT 2.
John and Jane Doe "cant" wait on hold for 30min. They're happy to wait 1hr at a restaurant on friday night, but to be made to wait on hold for a company with almost 2 million customers is apparently downright disgusting. Have you tried calling Telstra or Optus lately? Use the call back feature. Try resolving the problem YOURSELF. Have you tried turning it off and on? (this sounds stupid, but reconnecting to the network fixes 9/10 problems and is the first thing tech support will ask you to do, the second thing is a factory reset) If neither option will fix it, you dont have reception! How is complaining or abusing staff going to fix the issue? Still, they will clog the phone lines waiting on hold just to ask questions like is my bill due? How much data have i used? How long is left on my contract? Do you have iphone 4?
RANT 3
YES, THE CALL CENTRE IS IN INDIA. These are people too, and during my stint at Vodafone, I made friends with some of these people. Calling them pappadums, currymunchers, ragheads, curries, bombay bimbos, ching chongs (they're not even chinese...), and every usual australian slang insult is not only unnecessary and non-productive, but DOWNRIGHT DISGUSTING BEHAVIOUR. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES. They are trying to do their job as well as they can with as much power as they have been given. Do you really think they WANT to come to work every day just to rip you off, just to "steal" from you, just to be "greedy", and to cop such a massive amount of abuse each and every single day. You can see why the call centre is not in Australia. Noone here would take that crap for 2 seconds. GROW UP. What happened to decent behaviour and treating everyone fairly. This is Australia, we are not a backward racist nation.
RANT 3.
Retail staff are always young. 3 reasons... Firstly, you can thank Labour and unions for pushing award wages so high that it is too expensive to hire older people. Secondly, if Vodafone hired more experienced staff, they would have to pay more and charge you more. Hello Telstra. Thirdly, noone in their right mind would apply for a job at Vodafone just to come to work everyday and cop abuse from idiots who cant handle a problem sensibly. Give these staff a break. There is minimal training, and definitely not enough staff to cope with the amount of outright ABUSE they cop every day. Honestly, the sheer amount of abuse employees have to withstand regularly and i mean REGULARLY reduces staff to tears, people have to leave and go home because they are emotionally scarred, people have been physically threatened (myself included), sworn at, belittled, defamed, insulted, dragged through the dirt in front of other customers and colleagues. THESE ARE REAL PEOPLE WITH REAL EMOTIONS. Do you honestly think we WANT to NOT be able to help you? It has ruins relationships, lives, dignity, self esteem, people come out of it with temper or depression. Would you walk in to a car showroom and abuse the salesman because you didn't put oil in your car and it broke down? Give them a break i can guarantee they are ALL trying their DAMNED HARDEST to HELP YOU.
RANT 4.
Dont buy a phone if you cant use it. Dont buy the latest gadget if you have fat thumbs, or one arm, or are 90 years old and dont know how to turn it on (sorry if you are 80 and techno literate, i apologize, but the majority arent). Yes this sounds judgemental, but you need to be real. You dont buy a bicycle if you have no legs. Every phone has a working demo in every store. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY. You cant take it back. You cant take a car back because you dont know how to drive can you???
RANT 5.
We wont access our system when you call us on the phone. We wont access your details without your password. We wont cancel your friends sisters mothers account simply because she said you could. When you sign the contract, the salesman signs a section on behalf of Vodafone stating that we will do whatever we can to protect your privacy. This includes putting a password on your account. If you dont have your password or adequate ID to prove your identity, TOO BAD. Its not the staff members fault you forgot your password and cant prove who you are. You cant withdraw cash or hire a DVD either without these things so why should phone accounts be any different?
RANT 6.
Staff at stores have low-level access to customers accounts. They cant see credit card details, they cant bring up an invoice you forgot to keep for warranty from 18 months ago, they cant play god and ruin your life simply because they can see your phone account. They have policies to follow and this is to protect your privacy and also to protect you from staff who dont know what they are doing. Each department of Vodafone is trained different to handle different enquiries, noone is trained in all enquiries. This means that sometimes you cant get an answer from the young girl at the store. You have to call up. Please dont abuse her, because if she could help, she would. She is not trying to ruin your day, and instead is frustrated because she cant help you.
RANT 7.
Why should telco's be different to every other industry. Everyone assumes they should get more value out of every dollar with a telco. If i buy a toaster and it breaks i take it back and get it fixed. I dont demand a "loan toaster" while its gone, and if it takes a few weeks because the repair centre is located 3000km away I sigh and thank them for acting speedily and I await its return. If it breaks after the warranty finishes, I go and buy a new toaster. If I get 6 months down the track and realise its not the toaster I wanted I punch myself for being stupid and not doing more research before I started.
How come when its a phone everything changes? Warranty means nothing to customers. If its broken it should be fixed for free on the spot. GET REAL. There are billions of the phones in the world, and cramming a GPS, phone, music player and organiser in one cheap, mass produced device means that some will break. Thats what warranties are for. They take time to fix, and they ALWAYS will fix a warranty issue. If you crack the screen or drop it in the toilet IT IS NOT A WARRANTY ISSUE IT IS YOUR FAULT. If you decide you wanted a white one instead of black... sorry. You had your chance to decide. Can you take your car back to the dealer and swap it for the white one? If you crash it, can you demand a new one for free?
RANT 8.
Reception sucks. This is well known. So well known in fact that I wonder why you signed up with Vodafone in the first place? Now who's fault was that....
RANT 9.
Do you honestly want to get out of your contract?
Do you still think after reading this post that you have a good case and deserve to be treated more specially then someone more honest and decent then you? simply because you abused the staff more? Read on...
There is one way to do it, call Customer Care. NOONE ELSE HAS THE AUTHORITY TO DO THIS. Noone and i repeat NOONE in the store can cancel a contract on your behalf. Trust me I've tried.
There is one department in the whole company that has authority. They are called the "Win-back team" (or "Cancellation department" for laymen). To get to this department, call Customer Care and say "cancel contract". It is that easy. If you have a good reason, they will cancel it. If you dont, they wont. Dont argue with them. They are having a bad day too now that they've talked to you and heard about how you hate their guts and want them to die.
The next simple step is contact the TIO. You HAVE to contact Vodafone first before you can proceed with a complaint to the Ombudsman. Once it reaches this level, if you have a solid case, you will win. If you dont, you wont.
IT IS THAT EASY.
Why does it have to resolve to websites like this appearing? People refuse to take responsibility for their own problems. They come in and make demands like "this is YOUR problem, YOU fix it" or "I want out of my contract before I leave and I wont pay another cent because I refuse to contact Customer Care" or "I refuse to troubleshoot because I read in some forum that this phone is dodgy"
Take the appropriate steps, and CALM DOWN! If you have a real reason for getting out of your contract, they wont charge you any more money, so if it happens today, tomorrow or next week, what difference does it make?
CONCLUSION
Ok, i went a bit off topic a few times, and forgot alot of what I wanted to say, but the point is... grow up. Stop abusing innocent people. Stop whining because you forgot your ID and we should still be able to sign you up for a 2 year contract with just a bank card. Noone has all the answers, you have to find them yourself. Take responsibility for your own problems. Noone is here to wipe your bums, especially for a $20/hr wage.
If anything I have said here you feel to be untrue, please... feel free to comment.
Sincerely,
P.S. Thankyou to all those patient customers, the ones who understand that its not our fault. The ones that give us a chance to fix their problems. The ones who pay their bills on time every month. The ones that look for help, not for answers. You were a pleasure to serve and sometimes the only reason I went to work each day.
As a very recent ex-employee of Vodafone, I want to share my disgust with what has been created here.
RANT 1.
I totally understand people need a place to vent frustration. Heck, why not create a "customer-fail" website for Voda employees to vent about how John Doe bought a new phone and then moved to woop woop and now wants his money back. Or how Jane Doe bought the latest greatest gadget and wont let anyone show her how to use it, instead she demands a full refund and compensation for her "dramas". Both John and Jane will come into the store, rip shreds off whichever 17 year old girl they can find, demand to speak to the manager, who, in all of their power, can only do their best and refer them to higher power (customer care have the highest power). This then turns into a tirade of abuse as they REFUSE to take responsibility for their own problem and would rather post on a website, abuse innocent staff, and embarrass themselves with their own stupidity. If you are signing a contract, DO THE RESEARCH. Its pretty obvious their reception sucks, so DONT SIGN A CONTRACT. You have opportunity at every point to ask questions and get all the facts BEFORE signing, and once you DO sign its YOUR problem if you didnt do the research. I think you'll find most employees are fairly honest about reception in problem areas (much to HQ's disapproval).
RANT 2.
John and Jane Doe "cant" wait on hold for 30min. They're happy to wait 1hr at a restaurant on friday night, but to be made to wait on hold for a company with almost 2 million customers is apparently downright disgusting. Have you tried calling Telstra or Optus lately? Use the call back feature. Try resolving the problem YOURSELF. Have you tried turning it off and on? (this sounds stupid, but reconnecting to the network fixes 9/10 problems and is the first thing tech support will ask you to do, the second thing is a factory reset) If neither option will fix it, you dont have reception! How is complaining or abusing staff going to fix the issue? Still, they will clog the phone lines waiting on hold just to ask questions like is my bill due? How much data have i used? How long is left on my contract? Do you have iphone 4?
RANT 3
YES, THE CALL CENTRE IS IN INDIA. These are people too, and during my stint at Vodafone, I made friends with some of these people. Calling them pappadums, currymunchers, ragheads, curries, bombay bimbos, ching chongs (they're not even chinese...), and every usual australian slang insult is not only unnecessary and non-productive, but DOWNRIGHT DISGUSTING BEHAVIOUR. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES. They are trying to do their job as well as they can with as much power as they have been given. Do you really think they WANT to come to work every day just to rip you off, just to "steal" from you, just to be "greedy", and to cop such a massive amount of abuse each and every single day. You can see why the call centre is not in Australia. Noone here would take that crap for 2 seconds. GROW UP. What happened to decent behaviour and treating everyone fairly. This is Australia, we are not a backward racist nation.
RANT 3.
Retail staff are always young. 3 reasons... Firstly, you can thank Labour and unions for pushing award wages so high that it is too expensive to hire older people. Secondly, if Vodafone hired more experienced staff, they would have to pay more and charge you more. Hello Telstra. Thirdly, noone in their right mind would apply for a job at Vodafone just to come to work everyday and cop abuse from idiots who cant handle a problem sensibly. Give these staff a break. There is minimal training, and definitely not enough staff to cope with the amount of outright ABUSE they cop every day. Honestly, the sheer amount of abuse employees have to withstand regularly and i mean REGULARLY reduces staff to tears, people have to leave and go home because they are emotionally scarred, people have been physically threatened (myself included), sworn at, belittled, defamed, insulted, dragged through the dirt in front of other customers and colleagues. THESE ARE REAL PEOPLE WITH REAL EMOTIONS. Do you honestly think we WANT to NOT be able to help you? It has ruins relationships, lives, dignity, self esteem, people come out of it with temper or depression. Would you walk in to a car showroom and abuse the salesman because you didn't put oil in your car and it broke down? Give them a break i can guarantee they are ALL trying their DAMNED HARDEST to HELP YOU.
RANT 4.
Dont buy a phone if you cant use it. Dont buy the latest gadget if you have fat thumbs, or one arm, or are 90 years old and dont know how to turn it on (sorry if you are 80 and techno literate, i apologize, but the majority arent). Yes this sounds judgemental, but you need to be real. You dont buy a bicycle if you have no legs. Every phone has a working demo in every store. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY. You cant take it back. You cant take a car back because you dont know how to drive can you???
RANT 5.
We wont access our system when you call us on the phone. We wont access your details without your password. We wont cancel your friends sisters mothers account simply because she said you could. When you sign the contract, the salesman signs a section on behalf of Vodafone stating that we will do whatever we can to protect your privacy. This includes putting a password on your account. If you dont have your password or adequate ID to prove your identity, TOO BAD. Its not the staff members fault you forgot your password and cant prove who you are. You cant withdraw cash or hire a DVD either without these things so why should phone accounts be any different?
RANT 6.
Staff at stores have low-level access to customers accounts. They cant see credit card details, they cant bring up an invoice you forgot to keep for warranty from 18 months ago, they cant play god and ruin your life simply because they can see your phone account. They have policies to follow and this is to protect your privacy and also to protect you from staff who dont know what they are doing. Each department of Vodafone is trained different to handle different enquiries, noone is trained in all enquiries. This means that sometimes you cant get an answer from the young girl at the store. You have to call up. Please dont abuse her, because if she could help, she would. She is not trying to ruin your day, and instead is frustrated because she cant help you.
RANT 7.
Why should telco's be different to every other industry. Everyone assumes they should get more value out of every dollar with a telco. If i buy a toaster and it breaks i take it back and get it fixed. I dont demand a "loan toaster" while its gone, and if it takes a few weeks because the repair centre is located 3000km away I sigh and thank them for acting speedily and I await its return. If it breaks after the warranty finishes, I go and buy a new toaster. If I get 6 months down the track and realise its not the toaster I wanted I punch myself for being stupid and not doing more research before I started.
How come when its a phone everything changes? Warranty means nothing to customers. If its broken it should be fixed for free on the spot. GET REAL. There are billions of the phones in the world, and cramming a GPS, phone, music player and organiser in one cheap, mass produced device means that some will break. Thats what warranties are for. They take time to fix, and they ALWAYS will fix a warranty issue. If you crack the screen or drop it in the toilet IT IS NOT A WARRANTY ISSUE IT IS YOUR FAULT. If you decide you wanted a white one instead of black... sorry. You had your chance to decide. Can you take your car back to the dealer and swap it for the white one? If you crash it, can you demand a new one for free?
RANT 8.
Reception sucks. This is well known. So well known in fact that I wonder why you signed up with Vodafone in the first place? Now who's fault was that....
RANT 9.
Do you honestly want to get out of your contract?
Do you still think after reading this post that you have a good case and deserve to be treated more specially then someone more honest and decent then you? simply because you abused the staff more? Read on...
There is one way to do it, call Customer Care. NOONE ELSE HAS THE AUTHORITY TO DO THIS. Noone and i repeat NOONE in the store can cancel a contract on your behalf. Trust me I've tried.
There is one department in the whole company that has authority. They are called the "Win-back team" (or "Cancellation department" for laymen). To get to this department, call Customer Care and say "cancel contract". It is that easy. If you have a good reason, they will cancel it. If you dont, they wont. Dont argue with them. They are having a bad day too now that they've talked to you and heard about how you hate their guts and want them to die.
The next simple step is contact the TIO. You HAVE to contact Vodafone first before you can proceed with a complaint to the Ombudsman. Once it reaches this level, if you have a solid case, you will win. If you dont, you wont.
IT IS THAT EASY.
Why does it have to resolve to websites like this appearing? People refuse to take responsibility for their own problems. They come in and make demands like "this is YOUR problem, YOU fix it" or "I want out of my contract before I leave and I wont pay another cent because I refuse to contact Customer Care" or "I refuse to troubleshoot because I read in some forum that this phone is dodgy"
Take the appropriate steps, and CALM DOWN! If you have a real reason for getting out of your contract, they wont charge you any more money, so if it happens today, tomorrow or next week, what difference does it make?
CONCLUSION
Ok, i went a bit off topic a few times, and forgot alot of what I wanted to say, but the point is... grow up. Stop abusing innocent people. Stop whining because you forgot your ID and we should still be able to sign you up for a 2 year contract with just a bank card. Noone has all the answers, you have to find them yourself. Take responsibility for your own problems. Noone is here to wipe your bums, especially for a $20/hr wage.
If anything I have said here you feel to be untrue, please... feel free to comment.
Sincerely,
P.S. Thankyou to all those patient customers, the ones who understand that its not our fault. The ones that give us a chance to fix their problems. The ones who pay their bills on time every month. The ones that look for help, not for answers. You were a pleasure to serve and sometimes the only reason I went to work each day.
No. Service DIDNT suck when i signed my contract I've never had problems til about November last year when it all went to shit, i couldnt even get coverage in my own home anymore. So that blows your theory! i DIDNT move, so why dont i get reception here anymore?
RANT 2 - waiting at a restraunt is NOTHING like being sitting on hold for 2 hours and no one picking up, restraunts take ur order a few minutes after you get there and u know you are waiting for them to cook it. we are sitting on hold for 2 hours not knowing if anyone is actually even gonna pick up.
- Call back feature, YEAH that would be great if WE GOT A CALL BACK
- No i do not have a Iphone 4. i have a vodfone brand Samsung.
- DEAR GOD those horrible customers how dare they ask unimportant questions like how much data do i have left how long til my contract ends, THE HIDE OF THEM.
RANT 3 - People complain about the indian call centre because THEY HAVE NO CLUE, they dont know whats going on here in Australia they are reading off scripts and have NO IDEA. plus half the time you CANT understand there accent, its not there fault its just really hard to understand. i feel rude asking them to repeat themself about 5 times every minute. thats one of the main reasons i dont like ringing up. coz i know im going to have trouble talking to them.
RANT 3 PART2 (u put 2 rant 3's by the way) - welcome to the real world,i work in retail its not just phone companies that get abuse EVERYONE gets abuse in retail its part of the job, deal with it or quit. You wouldnt have so many compaints if you fixed your fucking network problems and your useless website and answered your phones.
RANT 6 - well what the fuck can they do?! they have no problem taking our details and signing us all up, but then the minute u dot the pen they suddenly cant do anything. People come into the stores complaining coz they CANT GET THROUGH to the phone number u give us. people are frustrated and need someone to help them, where else are they supposed to go? You would assume people in the VODAFONE store could help you. GUESS NOT!!
if they cant get get new phone if they get it wet then what the fuck are they paying insurance for?
RANT 8 - YES IT DOES. but when i signed up it didnt suck as much as this.
there you go you admmitted it sucks so that is fraud that you are signing people up still with the promise of reception. take a look at your coverage maps. THEY ARE BLATANT LIES
People are paying you money to be able to make calls and connect to internet, dunno about you but i cant do either of those things. so why should i keep paying you???
You get told there is no cancellations team.
Websites like this bring us all together to show how fucking rediculous Vodafone is. WHy are you here?!?!?! go make your I LOVE VODAFAIL website if u feel so strongly. then im sure you would complain to the people who come and write bad comments about it. am i right?
they wont charge you more money HAHAHAHAH what a laugh, just read half the comments on this board. they charge you rediculous amounts to get out of the contract. why do u think people are stuck on them?
maybe you should grow up?
Your company is a joke.
1. stop abusing staff who have no power to fix your problem
2. yes... the network sucks, get over it and leave vodafone. ITS NOT THAT HARD.
3. you HAVE to call customer care to cancel.
All you have shown in your reply is that you are still unable to process information properly and instead would rather hurl abuse yet again. Cancelling is as easy as collecting the information you need and calling the correct department, waiting on hold for a few minutes (the longest time i ever had to wait for cancellations was 15min, yes I called customer care about 10 times a day), and then stating your case. If they dont fix it you go to the TIO. IT IS EASY so stop being useless and follow the procedure I have just outlined to you. I did quit. I hated working for Vodafone. All I did was deal with you have now confirmed to be useless idiots who would rather sit on a forum and abuse the hell out of someone you dont even know, then simply call up and cancel. All I did was offer the best solution to getting out of your contract from having experience dealing with this every day and asking you to stop abusing staff who are my friends and real people, and you turn around and abuse me without even giving it a go... and then you ask ME to grow up...
Vodafail.com Moderation Team
This is not an ALP conference.
But yeah, maybe we should compete with the Indians on $2 a day so Vodaphone can afford to get their act together. Would management consent for competitive salaries like those?
We clearly need more regulation to keep ratbags like your fucking company in line.
1) Would you pay for a service when you are not receiving its full potential? I don't think so! I asked Vodafone staff questions when i signed my contract not once did the staff disclose to ME that Vodafone are doing upgrades in my area or upgrading their towers!
2) unfortunately everyday day life people constantly get abused and be-littled if you need to have time off due to emotional scarring, HARDEN THE FUK UP! Emotional scars are when you have been beaten or raped, so dont you dare say that Vodafone staff have emotional scarring you wouldnt know what the fuck your talking about!
3) IS YOUR PHONE SERVICE WITH VODAFONE?????
4) we have the right as a consumer and customer to challenge when we are not getting a fair deal and cancel our contract, look at this website have you read every single comment on this website about issues that Vodafone customers are faced with? NO didnt think so
5)We cannot understand the Indian call centre because they go around in circles in what they are saying this is by no means being racist.
6) Find something contructive to do with your time.
7) YOUR SINCERELY MELANIE PHELAN, PERTH WA