Lukas Svoboda: Strategy, Architecture, Governance & Technology

I've now been a Vodafone customer for more than 10 years. I've had personal accounts and corporate accounts with Vodafone going back to Bellsouth days. I've designed mobile solutions around the GPRS and 3G networks. I was there when Vodafone were using the mobile system architecture I developed for Tip Top as a major reference on how wonderful the GPRS network is for mobile applications when it was launched.

In short - I've always been a loyal customer and had generally spent a lot with Vodafone. Recently as readers of this blog know I've moved from Fronde to Mighty River Power (MRP). At Fronde when I joined I had my personal account moved over to the corporate account so I could keep my old number. Leaving Fronde I wanted to keep my old number. MRP gives out Telecom mobiles for staff. This left me with two options - either get a personal Vodafone account again (and end up with two phones) or port my number over to the new Telecom connection. I initially decided I wanted another Vodafone account and leave my MRP telecom mobile account separate.

So I went to a Vodafone store and asked what they could do for me. They proceeded to give me two brochures to read. I asked what deal they could give me on a phone as I didn't have a Vodafone phone after leaving Fronde. They rattled off the standard lines and standard offers. They didn't even bother asking me what my needs are or what I really wanted. The guy then tried to convince me the best Vodafone phones are Nokias. I said I was happy with my Vodafone 1210 previously and he told me he had tried all the phones and the Nokias were the best. Obviously thought I had no brain - the whole attitude was quite condescending. I can't say I was too impressed. So i walked out. I called up the call centre to see if they could do something for me (and get some better service). Similar type of story - told me to look at the website, no effort to help or understand what I wanted. Sounded like they just wanted me off the phone so they could answer the next call. Really disappointed.

So in the end I've decided to stuff having a personal account with Vodafone. I'm having my number ported over to my new MRP Telecom phone. At least the old number will still get me on my Telecom account. I'm surprised to see though it takes a week to get the number ported over. Given the recent number portability project, I'm really surprised this process is so slow. Having said that I will be getting an OKTA touch which looks like a fantastic phone/pda combination. If the comments on Geekzone are anything to go by I'm looking forward to my new Telecom phone.

Overall my treatment with Vodafone has been shambolic - disinterested, unhelpful and generally very disappointing. I also have another separate account with Vodafone which I think I might just move over to Telecom as well - in fact the telecom instore people have been hugely helpful comparatively with giving me some options. Coupled with the problems their new billing system has had I'm really not impressed from a customer perspective.

Telecommunications

1/30/2008 11:10:12 AM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)

Comments [12] |

1/31/2008 2:12:23 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)

What I can't understnad is why it would take a week? I work in a Telecom store and although I haven't ported anyone lately, I was unaware that the Porting process was taking any more then the usual 24 hours.

Linda George |lindagAT NOSPAMorcon dot net dot nz

1/31/2008 3:03:56 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)

I recently left Fronde and had a similar shambolic experience with Vodafone, it took 8 working days to port my number after a Vodafone store transferred my number without proper authorisation. Unfortunately I am still with them but that will change (the VF account manager who eventually took on my case was great - thanks Trevor Hayes)
Is it to Vodafone or leaving Fronde that create this shambolic service I wonder?

As for a week to port, this is not the stated SLA for Carriers porting, I should know, I was the project Manager for Number Portability!

Gillian |gillian dot clarkAT NOSPAMassurity dot co dot nz

1/31/2008 5:49:33 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)

Interesting comments Linda and Gillian.

I'm glad you replied Gillian given your involvement. I guess the porting side is a bit of experiment given our previous discussions on the project. I'm be interested to see if it takes longer. I've been quoted it should be friday or monday which makes it either 5 or 6 days. A lot longer than I think is reasonable.

Linda - very interesting to hear your comments. The week did come from the MRP telecom service provider so not sure why it's taking so long.

Question Gillian - what is the SLA? If it's publically statable that is!

Lukas Svoboda |lukasAT NOSPAMsvoboda dot co dot nz

2/11/2008 11:30:01 AM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)

No surprise really. I had the same problem when we left. I wanted to put my account on hold. Nope. Pay something to keep the number I've had for 10 years? nope (3 months on hold max). Port it to pre-paid? You'd think I hadn't paid, on average, $100/month to them for the past 10 years....

So, I ported the number to Telecom prepaid. Which worked perfectly. The phone(s) are now sitting at my parents place. If telecom does their GSM network before I get back, I'm not going to get a vodafone line again - and you, of all people, know what I think of Telecom :)

BTW, my number moves from VF to TCNZ in, I think, about 3 days. That was in August.

Nic Wise |nic dot wiseAT NOSPAMgmail dot com

8/6/2008 12:08:48 AM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)

I've recently had a very poor experience with Vodafone trying to port a pre-pay number from Telecom to Vodafone. More details here:

http://glennandert.com/2008/08/05/vodafone-customer-service-is-bad-real-bad/

Glenn Andert |glenn dot andertAT NOSPAMgmail dot com

9/3/2008 7:50:52 AM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)

Hey there, I also had an awful customer service experience with vodafone over the past few days. I have been a vodafone customer for many years. The problem is still not resolved. To save boring u with the whole story, here are my main areas of disappointment.

And I am disappointed - I thought vodafone was doing a great job and was a great innovative company until I had this experience. :-(

- the vodafone contact centre staff haven't got a clue. They have no idea of the products sold on the vodafone website or of the difference between vodafone and non-vodafone stores. They kept telling me there was no such product, and I kept saying this is what I saw on the website.

- not all vodafone stores are vodafone stores, even tho the branding is similar (ie the big red circle). LOOK OUT! Do not sign up at a non-vodafone store - their system does not talk to the vodafone system and there will be delays (or even no action) if you wish to cancel your plan or change. There seems to be some commission set up with the non-vodafone stores that encourages dishonest behaviour

- the store staff will not be honest with you. I was under the impression (dumb I know, but I've got a lot of other things in my life to worry about)that the products available on the website can also be signed up for in a store. WRONG! But the guy in the store will not tell you that, cos they want a sale. In my case the store staff lied to me, and told me the store products were the only ones available and I must have been mistaken in what I saw on the website.

-the best place to buy a vodafone plan is via their website - do not fall for the 'free phone' or cheap phone deal in the shop - it will be a crap phone and you'll pay somewhere

- the vodafone contact centre tells you things that are blatantly untrue - for eg there is a 14 day period after you sign up when you can cancel or make changes. They don't record their phone calls, so if you have a complaint the customer is wrong and the vodafone contact centre person is right.

- you cannot get hold of native speakers of english at the vodafone contact centre - some people have v. strong accents or even trouble comprehending what you are saying, indicating a lack of depth of english skills.

- vodafone does not respond to complaints - even tho you put yes - I want a response on the complaint. The contact centre said I would get a response within two days - but I didn't. To me this last point is the most important - how are they addressing service and process problems without looking and dealing with the complaints.

I feel as if my loyalty to vodafone has been 'dissed'.

Has anyone out there got any suggestions?

Grace |helengandersonAT NOSPAMyahoo dot co dot nz

9/3/2008 7:51:40 AM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)

Grace |helengandersonAT NOSPAMyahoo dot co dot nz

9/3/2008 7:53:43 AM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)

sorry, somehow I posted the comment twice - kept encountering an error when I submitted. Then went back and saw the comment had loaded.

Grace |helengandersonAT NOSPAMyahoo dot co dot nz

2/25/2009 3:03:50 PM (New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13:00)

You should try the Vodafone home & broadband customer service. Last time I called support the support person hung up on me after asking to speak to his supervisor.

I called back and asked to file a complaint. They put me on hold, came back and told me they have spoken to the person that hung up on me and they said I used the f word. Which was a lie obviously.

Goes to show. Some serious problems happening there.

Gordon

5/13/2009 6:29:06 AM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)

Hello. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
I am from Republic and also now'm speaking English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "Maintype the easiest professional font manager and font viewer.In typography, a font also fount is traditionally defined as a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface."

Thanks :p. Tyee.

Eurostile |jullya2AT NOSPAMlink dot net

8/3/2009 1:59:29 PM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)

3 words "American" "Economic" "Crisis".

Before this happened Vodafone was the best provider, now they fired all the expensive and good service staff and now have school kids or overseas (outsources) service officers as a way to slash support costs.

Dont expect Voda anytime soon to lift their came. Optus is what Voda used to be and Voda is what Optus was.

As a rule of thumb i found Asian technology providers didn't get hurt as much from the problems last year, if anything they have flourished from it.

Jim

8/3/2009 1:59:57 PM (New Zealand Standard Time, UTC+12:00)

Jim |jimAT NOSPAMjim dot com