An open letter to Vodafone: Why you fail.
Mikey 16 comments Poll
Dear Vodafone,
I've complained to you about this before (twice in fact) and never got any response, and though some part of me feels that I will be ignored again I simply have to do this.
Three times this week I have attempted to instruct your hopelessly unhelpful 'Lara' system to direct me where I need to go, and on each occasion I've been led in circles or dumped somewhere I didn't want to be. From a usability perspective (and I'll mention now that this is something I know a little about given that at different stages of my career I've been a usability and accessibility consultant) the system you have employed is what we classify in the trade as a 'miserable failure'. FAIL. FAIL. FAIL. Having discussed Lara with many industry colleagues and friends alike in the past, my assessment is shared with all of them. But you probably already knew that.
Earlier this week my Mother called me with the same story, and was also unable to get to where she wanted after several attempts, after which time she called me quite upset to see if I call Vodafone on her behalf - because given what I do for a living I should have no problem getting passed Lara. Imagine that.
So today I tried one of your other numbers - the prepaid mobile broadband number - in the hope I could actually talk to someone and get them to put me through to the right department. The first time I was on hold for 25 minutes and explained what I needed to happen. The gent kindly said he would put me straight through by navigating the Lara maze for me so I wouldn't have to. I was put on hold and then the call was abruptly cut off. Sigh.
I tried again right away, the same process as last (this time on hold for 30 minutes), and this time a different person said he would also navigate Lara for me and connect me through, and a few seconds later I hear a recorded message saying that I'm calling outside business hours which are apparently Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm. A quick check on your web site confirms these ridiculous support hours to be correct. Does Vodafone think people don't need customer support on weekends? Or that people might not want to connect a phone on the weekend? What about all those people who - you know - buy phones on the weekend?
This contradicts what your support guy said, and he insists the department I need is indeed open. He gave me a new number which he says would put me straight through to someone (which I wrongfully interpreted to mean someone human), , which I dialled only be be greeted with Lara again. Resisting the temptation to throw my phone out the nearest window, I jumped through Lara's hoops only to be eventually told the department I need is closed and that I am calling outside of business hours. FYI it's 4pm now on a Saturday.
Anyway, I've given up. Vodafone have proved to me without any doubt to be an uncaring organisation with an unusable help system and misinformed support staff. A organisation that believes people stop having problems after 8pm Friday. An organisation that in the past has been extremely prompt when it comes to getting money from me but exceedingly cumbersome when it comes to actually being of any help.
You might be wondering what my enquiry was about. Well it's really quite trivial - I want to put a new handset (one my Mother owns) onto a plan for her. How hard can that be? Apparently it's insanely difficult.
Just to throw a hypothetical out there - if Vodafone offered two numbers for customers to ring - one with Lara's endless navigation loop, and one which puts customers straight through to a real person, you and I know everyone would call the latter. That's not an accident. Good usability practices are about making it easy for your customers. As opposed to the Lara system which is evidently designed to keep customers at arms length and make things easier for Vodafone. From what I've experienced, it seems like the decision makers who put the Lara system in place were clueless management types who think they know something about what customers want, instead of handing the task to usability experts.
Just to reiterate, Vodafone, you have failed catastrophically. I am struggling to think of more ways you could have possibly failed me any more than you have failed this week. You've let me down, let my Mother down, and frankly I think let a lot of people down.
Sort your sh*it out.
Rusty Lime Poll
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...in response to this comment by Davo. No - still on hold. 45 minutes and counting...
...in response to this comment by Davo. It's been nearly an hour now. I strongly believe that nobody should be on hold for an hour under any circumstances.
I love iinet's callback service. If you don't get through right away you leave a number and they call you back. That's thinking about the customer - making it easier and more convenient for us.
Vodafone has no such feature, so we're forced to spend hours (yes it's official been hours now) on hold.
F to the A to the I - L.
Bob
Saturday 9th October 2010 | 05:53 PMSurprisingly enough (to me at least); of all the Telcos in Aus - Telstra has by far the best customer service (and theirs is pretty atrocious), they answer questions on Twitter, and if you call and say 'complaint' at any hour you get a real person. I moved to Telstra immediately after spending 4 hours (!) trying to get a bill sorted out with Voda only to be given the 'business hours' message.
andrew
Saturday 9th October 2010 | 08:27 PMand i thought it was me with lara, "tell me in a few words what you want" handset, customer care,etc...i end up shouting down the phone...
all what you have said mike i have been thru..i am sane!!
have they sent u the customer feed back form/survey,via email.the usual stuff how can we improve,twice i have tried to complete it and twice i couldnt..first time i had to enter my postcode,i did but according to them wasnt right or it didnt exist,then they sent another one out and same thing....
Henk V
Sunday 10th October 2010 | 05:33 AMisnt vodaphone and three the same mob now?
Marvin the Martian
Sunday 10th October 2010 | 07:00 AMMikey, I hate to tell you but this is a common theme. Foxtel, Telstra/Bigpond, Victoria Electricity and more all have the same problems. Austomated systems that frustrate the hell out of you and business hours that are only available when you are at work.
What surprises me are the companies that offer services that are necessary for our daily routine like water and electricity, but only have support hours from 8-8. I mean really, what if I have a serious electrical problem or water issue that requires the assitance of the supplier? No luck. If you have an issue Friday night at 9pm, you have to wait almost three days for help.
Optus is now advertising 24/7 support for their broadband services, maybe they are a better option?
Henk V
Sunday 10th October 2010 | 08:41 AMPrimus has a classic.. a few times something dickey has happened and I phone for support. Normally its just a call to find out if my purchases are supported because after a few attempt permutations, the product is running sweetly.
two maybe three times (after hearing what appears to be an over sexed, middle aged smarmy ex smoker female robot give me phone options for 5 minutes) i get a message along the lines of,
"services to Victoria are currently being re-established"
The line then drops out.
I live in NSW.
I dont mind the robot that much. Its just her overly long option messages.
The local services are classic. If you get a notice you should be aware that neither the water or electricity, rail or bus sevices will actually service to time or description.
Its a pain when you have a freezer with the kids meal boxes ready for the work week. Its a pain when the kids want to shower and the water is cut (they dont listen to me). Its a pain when they have to bug me for lifts.
It makes a lot of sense to maintain an el cheapo mobile phone service and a 10 buck wifi plan as back up.
I think that might be 47 dollars US last check of the exchange. Marvin, please note, you are now rich! Buy a rental property in New york on aussie dollars. Your down payment may be 5000 aussie bucks but by the time settlement comes, you'll have only outlayed 10,000 aussie dollars.
US currency crisis? Another visa moment..
Jake Farr-Wharton
Monday 11th October 2010 | 11:37 AMMikey, CALL THE TIO!!
It'll take you only a couple of minutes and they'll do the rest for you.
...in response to this comment by Jake Farr-Wharton. TIO???
Henk V
Monday 11th October 2010 | 03:48 PMyep, I am trying to work that one out too.. the closest I can get is tio mario...the moustachioed liquer
TVBIZ(BOB)
Tuesday 12th October 2010 | 06:47 PMIt's probably easier to just go into one of their stores in the end?
Awe come on Mikey...I much prefer navigating the maze of wasted time suffering through a companies inability (I mean choice not to pay) for enough staff to adequately staff their business. I especially love the really long recorded messages telling me how to leave a message.
And then leave more options.
And then letting me know I can either hang up, or press 7 and hear yet more options.
I mean when in history did we start leaving messages?
f~
Laiste
Thursday 14th October 2010 | 04:48 AMTelecommunication Industry Ombudsman
Henk V
Thursday 14th October 2010 | 07:08 AMIt would have been easier to say ombudsman. They never used to go under the guise of acronyms.
Joshua Kehn
Saturday 16th October 2010 | 03:48 AMI love callback services. The ring around the rosy automated systems are shit. I refuse to believe that they have ever actually helped someone with an issue.
Davo
Saturday 9th October 2010 | 05:09 PMThat sucks. Did you get through?