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More broadband shenanigans !

Lotus

I posted last week about moving home and the problems I'd had getting my new broadband set up. Since then it's been working fine at my new home, but my problems with my internet provider (Vodafone) are sadly not yet over.

Today I received an email with my latest bill, which had charges for my new home for the next month, plus charges for my old home too, but the service at my old home was supposed to have been cancelled 4 days ago!

I tried online chat - first time got connected to an advisor, but got disconnected halfway through. After 5 more attempts to chat to an advisor - when the AI bot kept asking me a couple of questions, then froze up and didn't connect me to someone, I finally got to chat online with someone who said she could see my instruction to cancel the old service from just over a month ago, but it takes 30 days to be disconnected and then another 22 days for the final bill to be produced, so it would probably be sorted out on my next bill.

A bit later it occurred to me that I hadn't actually had confirmation that the service at my old address had been disconnected. So I rang and asked if it had. The advisor kept me on hold for ages, then came back to say it had now been cancelled. A few minutes after getting off the phone, I got an email saying they were delighted I had decided to stay with them and my service would now not be disconnected!

So, back on the phone and more going through security and waiting. Finally I was told that there had been a problem with the initial disconnection order and it hadn't gone through as expected, so the connections team had to cancel the original order and place another for "instant" disconnection, which will happen within the next 48 hours. When did "instant" come to mean "In the next couple of days"?

Frustratingly, I can't cancel my direct debit as they're using the same one to take payment for my new home. So hopefully it will now get disconnected and I'll receive a credit next month. That's what I've been told should happen, so fingers crossed!

Just wanted to have a rant really. Has anyone else had a similar frustrating customer "service" experience ?

  • Thanks to everyone that replied, particularly   for the useful advice regarding complaints.

    I'm happy to report that I logged into my broadband account this afternoon and the old plan at my old address has disappeared and the balance is showing as a credit (due to them taking payment for the old service which they shouldn't have) So it appears that the old plan is now disconnected and the billing looks correct.

    I'm just so glad I didn't have to phone them again!

  • You could consider calling Vodafone's accessibility line and ask their advice on their ideas on how best they could help you to resolve the situation and consider marking your account as a vulnerable customer:

    https://www.vodafone.co.uk/help-and-information/accessibility

  • in reply to TheCatWoman
    Lotus said:
    Should I ask how I make a complaint to them?

    I would call them and say that you want to make a complaint and ask to speak to a manager - this will normally get a result if you stick to your request and don't let them fob you off.

    If they get a bit funny about it then ask which regulator covers their service, what the complaints procedure is and who are you speaking to so you can include it in the report.

    The risk of being on a formal complaint to the regulator normally speeds things up tremendously I have found.

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    We did try plusnet for a while, but it was so slow, they might have good customer service, but when the internet itself seems to be handcranked, I'd rather they spent money on improving the service.

    We don't get cable round here, cable is very patchy around the country with some streets having it and others not, even when they're only a few doors away.

    You need a BT line to be able to have sky too.

    We have BT and have found them no better or worse than the others, I just get on the phone to them and hassle them continuously until I get what I want. At our old place where the speed was so slow BT couldn't run thier own speed test, they OFFERED us reduced rates. We had no mobile signal there either which totally confused any engineers that came out.

    You'd never guess but I have been known to yell down the handset at pre-recorded messages telling me I can do it all online, when if I could get online I wouldn't be phoning them.

  • in reply to Iain

    Thanks for the reply Iain.

    I haven't yet had an email to notify me that the service at my old address has been disconnected, although the 48 hours isn't up until tomorrow afternoon.

    If I still haven't been notified that the service has been disconnected after the 48 hour period ends, and the plan is still showing in my online account, do you have any suggestions how to handle it? Should I ask how I make a complaint to them? Should I threaten them with Ofcom? Should I threaten them that I will cancel my direct debit? I just don't know what to do.

  • Oh yes! I have had many experiences of a lack of customer service. I get frustrated with the amount of time I have to spend on telephone calls without speaking to a human. When calling an organisation, I dislike being put on hold and having to listen to descriptions of all the amazing offers that are available and being forced to listen to horrible music between promotional talk.

    The worst thing is when the recorded voice will tell me that the information I need is likely to be available on their website. I make telephone calls because the information isn’t available on the website.

    I moved into my current home some years ago and had a bad experience in the process switching from BT broadband and phone to the same service in my new home. BT had organised appointments with me for Openreach to make connections. The engineers failed to turn up on both dates, and I got very agitated. I spent ages on phone calls to BT, but nobody could help me or tell me what was going on. In the end I made an official complaint and actually made contact with someone who telephoned me back with further information and apologies. I didn’t want to proceed with BT, so I chose Plusnet because they seemed to offer good service, even though it is owned by BT. I was able to keep my phone number and BT sent me financial compensation for the missed appointments.

    Plusnet used to have better customer service than they do now, so a few months ago I upgraded to Superfast fibre back with BT. Virgin has had extremely bad reviews because they overcharge and underdeliver, and some of the alternatives were not viable for me.

  • in reply to TheCatWoman
    TheCatWoman said:
    Funny how theres always a problem when it comes to them them being unable to stop taking payments from you, but they can start one up in seconds?

    The devil is in the contract detail. The closing down delay is simply a money making thing for them but since all companies do it there is no way to get round it, especially as it is in the contract you sign.

    Lotus said:
    Has anyone else had a similar frustrating customer "service" experience ?

    I've helped people with all kinds of broadband suppliers and the issues they had but there are 3 that stand out as truly aweful in my experience.

    1 - BT. Top of the list by a country mile. Long wait times, unhelpful staff and nearly impossible to escallate issues.

    2 - Sky. It depends very much on the technician you get but they seem purposfully slow to respond and are never willing to admit to being at fault.

    3 - Virgin. Largely down to lack of staff and attempts to make you pay for everything. I don't know if there is a commission scheme on the go but it really felt like it.

    I used to research the company for service quality before signing up and to them. There is a good review of them here:

    https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/broadband/article/broadband/best-broadband-providers-aIIx34f51krz

    I've used Plusnet and found them to be great with support.

    The one downside is almost universally they rely on BT Openreach to actually install or connect a line and they have a monopoloy on the market and the service they gave (commercial or residential) has been almost always poor at the very best.

  • I'm not surprised you want a rant, go ahead and have a "Catwoman" momment!

    I often find going into a store better, although ofen they can't help either as they only do sales. I ended up telling EE to shove thier sim card where the sun don't shine after they kept taking my money and giving me no service and wanting another £10+ to restore it.

    Funny how theres always a problem when it comes to them them being unable to stop taking payments from you, but they can start one up in seconds? It's like online shops, they can take payment in seconds, but when it comes to giving refunds it takes a couple of weeks.