Vodafone to spend £100m on 150 new Brit phone shops Vodafone has said that it plans to add another 150 shops in Blighty and create 1,400 retail jobs in the next 12 months as part of a £100m expansion. The cash for the expansion is coming out of the company's billion-pound investment pot, which is also funding its aim to cover 98 per cent of the UK population by 2015 with 2G, 3G …
I'm cursed in that our corporate plan uses Vodafone. It's rather amusing to be standing in front of a poster advertising Vodafone's new 4G service in a given area, watching as my phone fights for dear life to get 3G and four bar signal. Meanwhile a friend sat opposite me with an identical handset on EE or O2 is getting full bars and LTE.
Priorities much? Vodafone are hands down the worst network I've used in the UK and I at least now know not to move my personal contract to Voda when it expires in October.
I chucked Voda, last year, after a four month argument with them about their handling of complaints about, you've guessed it, Customer Service. When I finally gave up, I hadn't had a single reply to several letters, or for any sensible answers to a whole sheaf of emails.
The only company that I've found with worse customer service than Vodafone, is Santander. If you bank with one of their Subsidiaries, you may as we'll just give up now, rather than attempt a complaint. They really should use the title music from 'The Magic Roundabout' as their call on hold music.
Like many of Vodafone’s victims, sorry *customers*, I’m duty bound to comment on any Vodafone story to try and prevent as many of my fellow humans as I can from being snared by its gaping, apostrophe-shaped maw.
Friends, this is a beast that offers precious little in the way of connectivity, and even when a decent signal is conferred by your device, you must throw a six to see if that 4 bars of 3G actually translates into any significant throughput. Often it is but a cruel illusion and your fate is to stare at a faltering progress bar, awaiting the inevitable timeout.
As a metaphor for the whole Vodafone experience this is strangely apt.
I recently stood in a Vodafone shop and demonstrated this remarkable phenomenon to one of the disinterested staff. Their comments of “Well, what do you expect?” and “Yeah, it’s like that sometimes” should tell you all you need to know about their contempt for us, their unsuspecting prey. After the terrible kicking they’ve received since the economic dog days of 2007, the prospect of more of these shrines to incompetence and indifference is probably the last thing our beleaguered high streets need.
Like many, I was initially seduced by an excellent deal on a handset, but to my eternal shame my error was compounded by my intransigence and subsequent failure to avoid taking the dangled bait of an even more generous retention deal on one of Mr. Jobs’ portable telephones a couple of years later. Never underestimate the power of The Shiny.
Now 18 months into this two year purgatory, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and am looking forward to the day when I can emerge, blinking and bewildered, from the belly of the bloated crimson creature, free to tart myself about the networks as I see fit.
Until then I can only repeat; friends don’t let friends Vodafone.
p.s. If after 30-odd years of consistent and pervasive branding, you still think the company is called ‘Vodaphone’ then you deserve everything you get. Sorry.
Vodafone's coverage and performance was excellent where I used to live. One mile up the road however where I now live, and I'm in a coverage-hole - despite being practically line-of-site to a Voda mast 1km away. On first floor occasionally see 4 bars of 3G/HSDPA, but drops to one or none, then falls back to EDGE as soon as try to use it.
I've been with Vodafone for years as a customer, rarely ever do I have network or data issues. Sometimes its a little slow, but I'm always connected, and have never been cut off.
As to your obviously jaded and singular point of view descibed in your example, iIf you are asking sales staff technical questions about network operation, what sort of answer do you expect? Think about your audience and ask an appropriate question.
I've found them to be an accomodating and engaging service provider, from a personal contract and business contract point of view, I have in the past, and continue to wholehearteldy recommend them to friends and strangers alike.
I've found their service to be perfectly fine, even when calling up and talking to one of their employees in a call centre. I didn't even see a drop out when they managed the Olympics network. I mean they must be poor if they are were the strategic mobile partner for the Olympics, who would ever give them that contract when they couldn't even run a 3G network! </sarcasm>.
In terms of coverage maybe you should consider that this is regulated by the Conservative government. They don't have free reign to deploy masts wherever they want. 80% of mast planning is blocked by THE PEOPLE that live there. So blame your neighbour. Also remember that EE had a 12 month head start on 4G due to backroom dealing in spectrum, so maybe that plays a factor in the fact that they don't have as much 4G coverage?
Also I'd check your facts a little before mouthing off, Vodafone as a company hasn't been going 30 years.
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