DO NOT USE VODAFONE IF YOU VALUE YOUR MONEY, YOUR TIME OR YOUR PATIENCE – BY FAR THE WORST COMPANY I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH IN MY LIFE I’m going to walk through my experience of Vodafone to date. - Dec/Jan several weeks before I moved into a new central London property, I booked and paid for installation of a Vodafone Broadband service – receiving a confirmation email etc. I took a day annual leave to be home for installation day, installation did not happen. - I phoned, and spent approx. 3hrs+ on several phone calls that evening to various people at Vodafone – from extremely rude and unhelpful agents who advised me that ‘all I can do is put another order through’ for installation in several weeks with no explanation and no ability to expedite my installation given that it was Vodafone at fault for not installing as expected, without even as much as a notification call. - Eventually I managed to speak to a manager – who on the face of it was able to help. The manager agreed that as a gesture of goodwill, they would: o Rebook my installation as urgently as possible o In the meantime, provide me with mobile WIFI with all the necessary GB and passes to tide me over until another installation was booked entirely free of charge – that I should simply go to the Brixton store to pick up my free of charge modem, use it during the period of having no broadband, and then I could ‘do what I want with the device’ afterwards as this was a goodwill gesture given the circumstances. - When I went to the Brixton store to collect the free of charge mobile WIFI broadband, the sales advisor told me that no, I would need to pay £35 for the device and ‘call customer service for a refund’ – he then proceeded to spend 1hr on the phone with somebody (no explanation given) while he processed the device and charged me for something that should have been free of charge. - I then called customer service once again, to make sure that I would be given a refund for the device that was supposed to be an interim measure because of the failure to install my broadband as expected. They assured me I would be credited. - My broadband was eventually installed and I stopped using the mobile WIFI device provided. - Many months later I am reviewing my bills bank account, only to find I have been billed approx. £100 per month for the mobile broadband service that I never signed up to and was purely provided as an interim measure and all covered by customer service as goodwill. This I feel is an absolute joke, and I am yet again calling customer service for yet more lengthy phonecalls. - October - I call to complain and am assured that yes this is a mistake, all notes on the account verify that the device and the service was a goodwill gesture and should not be billed the £600 that has been taken from my account without my permission. I would be refunded for the full amount within 10 days, as well as credited as a goodwill gesture to cover 3 months of my service given the terrible experience I have had to date. I specifically ask the agent for assurance that I will not need to phone again, and that she guarantees the billing will be corrected and I would receive a full refund and credits as promised – I was assured this would all happen and I would not need to call again. - Around 3 weeks pass of checking my bank account frequently for sign of the refund of £600 of my money which has been unlawfully taken for something that was a goodwill gesture for an already terrible experience. The refund never comes, I gear myself up for more hours on the phone to Vodafone. - I call customer service again to complain about where my refund is, and spend 1.5hrs on the phone to an extremely rude agent who tells me that I have to send the device back (which I no longer have and was told I could ‘do what I want with it’ as it’s written off as a good will gesture) in order to have my money refunded. The agent disagrees that it was offered as a goodwill gesture which I try to explain, and states there are apparently notes on my account saying I called in to arrange a return of the device – which I never did, I have never discussed returning the device with anyone or had any contact about this – presumably there is full call recording to verify this. I tell him that the note he is referring to is a lie, as I have never discussed returning the device as this was promised as goodwill. He aggressively repeats that I am ‘calling him a liar’ over and over, and refuses to speak reasonably or listen to my complaint. I ask to speak to his manager, he refuses, puts me on hold for the majority of the phone call and is extremely rude. - Eventually I am put through to the Broadband team – I explain my complaint start to finish and by this point I simply want my money back that has been unlawfully taken and I want to leave Vodafone altogether as the service is beyond despicable. I ask to speak to a manager and am assured of a call back, this was on Sunday evening (13th) and it is now Thursday 17th and I have had no call back, no voicemails, no emails or other contact from anyone at Vodafone. Currently Vodafone have: - Failed to install as promised. - Wasted many hours of my time on phone calls, largely on hold, and with extremely rude members of the contact centre team. - Unlawfully holding £600 of my money, charging me for a goodwill gesture which was only provided because of the extremely poor experience from Vodafone in the first place. - Failing to deal with the problem. My next step is to take this to the financial ombudsman as I cannot get anywhere with employees of the company, and I am beyond exasperated. I never ever want to have any Vodafone products in my lifetime, and I will certainly be sharing my experience to warn others as at every stage, every promise is broken and I am met with incompetence, aggression and rudeness from the team who are supposed to help its customers – and even more so when Vodafone are consistently making errors amounting to several hundred pounds. One way or another, I want to leave the company and terminate all services – and ensure I am refunded what I am owed. Vodafone are a total disgrace.