@vodafoneuk Vodafone warranty Repair [#11392829]

[A.mustapha]

I want to share my story in hopes of getting pointers to help me please. This is what I emailed the UK chief exec, Jeroen Hoencamp a week ago following a dispute over a warranty status with their repair team. A week later I'm still not getting anywhere! And the overall problem is approaching 3 weeks...

 

I'm writing to complaint about the terrible experience I'm currently having with Vodafone, a company that for long I praised for it's excellent service.

 

With 2 contracts both for myself and wife, I am now spending hours on the phone to customer services, who don't seem to know what they're doing.

 

I have given up calling customer services since the manager can't fulfil their promise of the turnaround nor take ownership to follow up!

 

there is a massive flaw with advise being given out by vodafone customer service and trying to transfer the issue onto the repair centre who in turn is doing the same thing. The result of this treatment is the customer going from a-b-a the whole time trying to get their problem fixed without support from the service provider.

 

I am being asked to pay up for repairs to a phone that's still in warranty, any damage speculated by the repair team was not there when the phone was handed over! furthermore the damage has no bearing on the issues reported and is no reason to void the manufacturer warranty! My expectations are for the phone to be fully repaired under the manufacturer's warranty including any such damage caused during transit.

 

My troubles started with my wife's handset (Sony Z3) heating up as well as well wear and tear to the shield covering the charger port. We took this into our local (Stevenage) vodafone store who inspected the phone thoroughly and tried to rectify the problems themselves. When the issues were confirmed they agreed to send the phone off advising that the phone was under warranty and repairs/exchange would happen within 3-5 days. We asked for a spare handset and after much hastle we were told that all handsets were out with other customers. This was on 2nd Sept 2015.

 

After a week I got a call from the vodafone repair centre, I had expected the phone to be sent off to the manufacturer not some third party! They suggested that they discovered a dent to the enclosure which voids the warranty! When I challenged this they said that's their assessment and per contract agreement with Vodafone I would be charged (£204) for the repairs. When impressing the matter further they said I should take up any such issues with Vodafone.

 

Since then I've been to vodafone customer services numerous times in the matter of approx 24 hours all with no resolve. During every call my patience was tested further in trying to explain the issue, and I refused to do so anymore after a few times of this which evolved to putting me on hold for extended durations whilst they said were reading up previous notes and still end up getting the facts backwards.

 

1. in the first call after explaining the whole situation they said it's out of their control and that I would need to speak with their out of warranty team, even when I debated that the phone was in fact still under warranty they advised that that team can resolve my situation. this was superceded by security checks where although I was added to the account long before (the contract is under my wife's name) and I have called up numerous times they couldn't find any trace of this suddenly and I had to get added again. the call concluded with them stating that they can't transfer my call to that particular number and that they would send it by sms, having asked for the turnaround they suggested a couple of minutes.

 

2. in failing to receive said sms to both phones, I called again. This time they said the sms wasn't getting through so I took it down (0870 074 0247) and called the number to be greeted by a Vodfone offices closed type of message

 

3. I called around 9:30am the following morning to hear the same recorded message

 

4. I called customer services again, during security checks it appeared that the details taken down during the first call wasn't properly recorded since the password I had given the previous day failed. upon hearing the hint I have the correct password! furthermore when I explained the situation they said they would connect my call to the appropriate team to which I was puzzled given the previous scenario, I luckily asked them for that number (02...) before they transferred me however I discovered that I was routed back to the repair centre 3rd party! a full 360 loop around the whole issue...

 

5. I called customer services once more and when they tried to route my call I asked them to confirm the number which turned out to be same number as before! I explained what was going to happen by transferring the call and asked to speak to a manager, in their effort to take ownership for that call they said they would try another channel. after extended holds they said they were transferring my call to someone that can help. It ended up being the repair centre, they guy explained that he tried to advise the vodafone customer service advisor that I had already spoken to them and that my dispute needs to be settled by vodafone but that advisor insisted that the repair team talk to me. another 360 loop!

 

6. I called demanding to speak to a manager, they advised that a manager would call me back however this didn't happen

 

7. I called up again chasing the call back, to which they said they would arrange a manager callback since all their managers were busy. the same line I got in the previous call... I demanded they put me through to a manager else I would write to the CEO, this somehow changed their response and I was able to speak to a manager! Speaking to a manager and explaining the situation to her, during the conversation she asked if perhaps the phone had come in contact with water to which I said the phone is waterproof! and that any damage that may have been caused would have taken place during transit, the phone is kept in a case therefore it's not possible for the enclosure to be damaged since the frame would absorb the damage but that there was no damage to the case which we kept! she suggested that she would write to another party since it wasn't in her power to do anything about this, asking I given 48 hours for a response and not to complete the survey in that time. I also explained my feedback about the way customer services were handling the situation however the tone of her voice suggested that she wasn't interested and just wanted to get me off the phone.

 

8. At that stage I wrote to the UK exec, I got an email response shortly after from Kate Wilson ([email protected]) with an apology and a promise that my case would be handled by Customer Relations Specialists "We’ll send you a text up to 30 minutes before we’re going to call you... We aim to resolve our complaints within five working days." A week on I havent had any follow up!

 

9. On the same day I got a call from a manager but 8 was in a meeting, I asked her to call back later she said she would try otherwise would call the next day.

 

10. 4 days later she finally calls back and it happened that I just started my dinner. Explaining that to her she said the same, that she would try calling later but can't promise! Not taking chances, this was the most positive follow up to date, I told her I will let my food get cold to talk to her. There was no sympathy or a hint of empathy and she simply carried on saying how glad she was to speak to me! Through the call I found out she had no clue that I had escalated the matter to director level... at that stage and after hearing me rant on about my troubles she stopped asking for the phone details, and wanted to share her good news that they would pay up the costs of repairs. She probably expected me to be more grateful! I had to explain that the phone was now back in store sent back by repair team... she asked me to go and get it sent again to which I refused and told her to take ownership and do that her end. She proceeded to ask me for the store address I said wait I can Google it for you, can't you do that? She said she'll take care of it but I should still pop in to make sure it gets sent! Either she was unsure of her own ability or that of the team at the store... she also tried to explain how they were going to credit my account but after several queries I still don't get it and fear that it's to balance the cost of repair which I still get charged!

 

I feel bad for such a long post but wanted to be thorough...

[silverfox1961]

Hi and welcome to CAG,

Well done for reading the forum and using the contact details from the VF thread and it is good to see that you have included your ref number in the title. Hopefully Lee (or one of his colleagues) will see this tomorrow.

 

When things are working well and when a call to VF is needed and it is something the customer services people know how to handle, things go well BUT when a dispute arrives, no one seems to care. You only have to read around the forum to see that they have serious problems with the customer services.

 

I have seen time and again where VF reject a warranty claim with some excuse or other (water damage, dents, cracked screen etc.) which bears no relation to the actual fault and blame the customer even if the damage happened whilst in transit from the shop to the repair centre.

 

It may be that you would have to get an independant report which means VF sending you the phone back. A warranty is in addition to your statutory rights under the Sale of Goods Act.

 

Within the first 6 months any fault that appears will be assumed to have been there from manufacture. faults that appear over 6 months would have to be inspected to see if there was a manufacturing fault (i.e. poor soldering on contacts)

 

Hopefully Lee will be able to resolve this for you but please update us as and when.

[A.mustapha]

Thanks for your response@silverfox.

 

I appreciate your reassurance.

 

We were contacted earlier by someone else who wanted to point out that the damage was caused by us sitting on the phone and that would cause the overheating problem!

 

My wife was told that there would be a charge to get this fixed! Now this is several days after someone else telling us we won't pay!

 

I later got an email with a photo of the phone illustrating the damage. The phone is literally bent! This was my response:

 

I'm glad you sent the below photo, to help us confirm that this damage was not there when we handed the phone over at the store. Furthermore, something this evident would have surely been spotted by the person who inspected the phone and noted accordingly!

 

I stand by my complaints re lack of care to our issue, lack of communication between your teams and the fact that our phone has been damaged when it should be getting fixed!

 

 

Hi and welcome to CAG,

Well done for reading the forum and using the contact details from the VF thread and it is good to see that you have included your ref number in the title. Hopefully Lee (or one of his colleagues) will see this tomorrow.

 

When things are working well and when a call to VF is needed and it is something the customer services people know how to handle, things go well BUT when a dispute arrives, no one seems to care. You only have to read around the forum to see that they have serious problems with the customer services.

 

I have seen time and again where VF reject a warranty claim with some excuse or other (water damage, dents, cracked screen etc.) which bears no relation to the actual fault and blame the customer even if the damage happened whilst in transit from the shop to the repair centre.

 

It may be that you would have to get an independant report which means VF sending you the phone back. A warranty is in addition to your statutory rights under the Sale of Goods Act.

 

Within the first 6 months any fault that appears will be assumed to have been there from manufacture. faults that appear over 6 months would have to be inspected to see if there was a manufacturing fault (i.e. poor soldering on contacts)

 

Hopefully Lee will be able to resolve this for you but please update us as and when.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi A.mustapha,

 

As I can't access your email, I've chased this up with our Customer Relations team to see what's happening with your complaint.

 

Once an update is available, you'll be contacted again.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

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Vodafone UK

[citizenB]

A.Mustapha, is there an update on this please ?