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.