Using Vodafone 3G mobile broadband abroad? My £2,579 experience
| August 26th, 2008
Over the last few weeks I’ve been away a fair bit and because I run my own web-based business (Shed) I need to have fast, reliable broadband whilst I’m away. At the beginning of the year I went back to Vodafone (after leaving for T-Mobile a few years back after getting sick of the often unpredictable and always high monthly charges) and signed up for a 12-month mobile broadband contract at £15 a month for 3 gigabytes of data.
Before I left I checked in on the Vodafone website to see what the costs of using the dongle abroad (in Portugal as it happens) would be and much o my frustration, it wasn’t really clear. There was (and still is) also much talk of these costs coming right down for roaming data charges so I thought I’d call Vodafone customer services to make sure everything was 100% crystal clear and I was set up to pay the least amount possible.
After lots of discussion on the phone (there were lots of pauses and moments of uncertainty left, right and centre about mobile broadband in the UK, let alone using it abroad) I established that the best thing for me to do is as follows:
1. Change my contract temporarily for an extra £10
2. Pay £10 (£8.50 + VAT) for every 24 hours of use
3. Don’t go over 50MB in that 24 hour period
But - that came with the big caveat - you have to make sure that you are using the Vodafone Portugal network otherwise you will be charged at £10.28 per MB! Now I’m using the dongle on a Mac and somewhat predictably the software that comes with the dongle in a bit flakey - meaning that to access my modem I click on the app icon a few times, watch it bounce but not open, then open the network connection via network preferences. So, a question: “How am I supposed to know what network the dongle is connecting to?” Answer - “Take the sim out your dongle and put it in a mobile phone to see what network it connects to”. Response: “But, I am on T-Mobile and my phone is locked so I can’t check”. Answer ” Call T-Mobile and ask them for an unlock code”. Fail. In the end I used my wife’s phone (she’s on Vodafone) to check when I was out there.
Just to cover my back, because I’ve seen loads of issues with data before (including Ian’s CPW debacle), I asked for a confirmation email from Vodafone and this is what I received.
From: Customerservice@vodafone.co.uk
Date: 1 August 2008 10:45:14 BST
To: hopkins.jonathan@gmail.com
Subject: Vodafone Customer Serviceson preferred network, vodafone potugal telecel the charges for using your mobile bb abroad is 9.99 p 24hrs as ive changed your pp to mobile bb roaming @ 30 p m. if you wander onto a different network the charges will be 10.28 p mb from vodafone
Yes, that’s official communication from Vodafone to its customers. No Dear Jonathan, Dear Sir, Dear customer. No email signature. No helpful links. No ‘have a great holiday’. Just the words. The absolute bare minimum number of keystrokes. And to make matters worse, despite trying to get off the line, I had to sit and listen to it being typed.
Anyway, appalling email aside, I get to Portugal, check that the network is Vodafone Portugal and fire up the dongle. Nothing. Absolutely nada. So, I call up Vodafone and because I recently changed contracts, a bar has been put back on my contract preventing me from using it abroad. Doh. I called to change contracts to a roaming one and they put a bar on. Ok, onwards and upwards, the bar gets removed and everything works fine. So, I use my mobile broadband and feel all good about mobile broadband again and the fact I can sit in the mountains of Portugal by the pool and do all my favourite web stuff.
Then, I get home. Everything is still working fine until yesterday my dongle stopped working. It wouldn’t connect to a carrier and I called Vodafone. After a big long winded explanation about the problem, I found out that my account was suspended and the person on the other end of the phone went a bit quiet. She said she needed to check something and need to put me on hold. So, there I am on hold for what seems like an eternity, I actually started to wonder if she’s hung up on me but then she came on the line and said very sheepishly “I’m sorry to have to tell you this but your current bill stands at £2579.77″. Yes, that’s right. I owed Vodafone over two and a half thousand pounds. It was surreal.
I then obviously outlined the whole situation and explained I’d done absolutely everything as instructed and she disappeared again. More hold music. More waiting. She then comes back on the line and tells me that ‘as a goodwill gesture’ Vodafone is crediting my account and reducing the bill down to £45.44. I then ask for an email to confirm everything discussed on the phone, partly for peace of mind and also to see if it’s from the same mickey mouse school of email that the last one came from.
Which it was:
From: Customerservice@vodafone.co.uk
Date: 25 August 2008 20:40:14 BST
To: hopkins.jonathan@gmail.com
Subject: Vodafone Customer ServicesDear MR Hopkins This is a confirmation email reg what we have disscuessd on your call earlyer to vodafone. there were charges accourde on ur broadband usage while you were roaming in Portugal. The charges where 257.977 but then that have been reversed and 2434.88 has been taken from that bill. the out standing balance now is only 45.44 and your price plan has been changed back to mobile broadband 3GB 12 month contact for 15. Thanx Vodafone
This time at least I got a ‘Dear MR Hopkins’, some more punctuation and a ‘Thanx Vodafone.’ But still no signature, horrendous typos and a glaring error on the first amount. Just for clarification, that figure was £2579.77.
THe reason Vodafone gave for the error was that the network in Portugal had charged them for the data and they had passed that charge directly onto me. Or something like that. Once I had confirmation that the charges were to be dropped, I wasn’t that interested. Vodafone screwed up, they didn’t even really apologise for doing so and to make matters worse, if my two emails are anything to go by they’re communicating with their customers really badly.
So, Vodafone, if you’re listening, here’s some feedback:
1. Sort out your website so the charges are made explicitly clear for using mobile broadband abroad and what the process is for doing so.
2. Make your charges as low as possible. We know you can do it. So do it, before another network beats you to it.
3. Improve your Mac dongle software. There are loads of us using Macs these days. Including a disproportionate number of bloggers and journalists.
4. Think about using Google maps to showcase network coverage in different countries more effectively. I knew exactly where the villa was I was staying, down to the postcode. Your maps don’t work on a Mac.
5. Use email signatures! Include useful links - I might even think about buying something from you or using one of your services when abroad
6. Be human. In both cases the call centre staff were really friendly, this didn’t come across in the emails. Also - apologise if you screw up. The fact I was told that it was a gesture of goodwill really wound me up. Let people in call centres use their names.
7. Train your staff how to use email and don’t be afraid to use it. Most people want confirmation that isn’t sat on your system and it represents a great chance for engagement with customers.
8. Just like the banks do - don’t let huge abnormal bills run up on people’s accounts. Call them (or email them!) to ask them if everything is OK before those thousand odd pound bills happen and you create unhappy people like me.
9. Train more of your staff on mobile broadband/data. Or have a crack team that all calls get passed over to, if so make that team big enough for the number of people now using it.
10. Listen, using social media and simple things like Google Alerts. We’ll see whether or not I’m right on that one. Over to you, Vodafone.
I guess it’s a sign of The Speed of Progress (formerly known as the Pace of Change) that I grumble about the shameful decline in the quality of customer service given by the phone companies in the same way my folks grumble about the decline in service given by high street banks.
Shameful, stupid and short-sighted.
Hi Jonathan,
I use 3 for my broadband provider. If you are in a country where there is a 3 network you can avail of the 3 like home service. I used my dongle in Hong Kong earlier on in the year and still only got charged the 10 GBP I normally pay in the UK.
That’s shocking! But they didn’t charge you at least.
And I like your 10 tips. I wonder if they’ll like them.
@ Justin - for sure. I always think too, what if I wasn’t techie and didn’t know what I’m talking about?
@ Ged - that makes perfect sense to me - as it should be. The rest should and will follow I think.
@ Drew B - It is indeed shocking. If they had charged me there would have been a whole lot of bother. Let’s see what Vodafone says (if anything). I’m really hoping that they come up trumps and that my feedback is in some way useful.
I bet that most people going abroad with their vodafone modem don’t even know the full extent of the charges.
I sometimes take mine and though I figured I shouldn’t be downloading music I had no idea that it was actually a tenner per mb!
@ Dirk Exactly! The cheapest way to do it is to pay £10 a day by swapping contracts for an extra £10 before you go. If you just go freestyle then you’ll pay through the nose.
Wow. I think if someone could come in and offer roaming in an easy-to-use package they could massively win! I’ve heard nightmares like this from everyone. Suprisingly Vodaphone does come up fairly often. Glad you had everything “documented”
@ Lisa Hi Lisa, nice to see you round these parts- yep me too. Always insist !
Ouch Ouch Ouch. Close call.
I tried Vodafone mobile broadband, didn’t like the graphics “optimisation” and gave the thing back before the 14 day deadline (although they wouldn’t take it at first because I didn’t give them the “free” sim back).
Hi Jonathan,
WOW, what an experience you had there! Firstly I’m glad it’s all sorted out and that you haven’t had to pay that humongous bill.
Secondly I would like to show that Vodafone are listening and address the points you’ve made:
1) I will defiantly be feeding this back to our online team. I agree with you it’s imperative that our website makes things clear and easy to understand. We are currently in the process of upgrading our online help centre so this is the perfect time for me to give this kind of feedback.
We already have a system in place that prevents high bills from occurring. Clearly in your case this didn’t work. We have a department call “Credit Alerts”, their job it to monitor account usage compared to past usage and alert customers, by call, text or voicemail when the usage is unusual. If we don’t get confirmation from the customer a restriction is placed to prevent further charges being run up. At times a part payment towards the bill can be requested to reduce the charges back to a more reasonable rate. This service is supplementary and is not guaranteed to prevent high usage. Networks have a delay of up to 72 hours in the UK and as much as 3 months when outside of the UK, this means that we may not receive the call data in time to warn you.
2) We regularly review our price plans and our call charges. These have recently undergone a big improvement which I see you’re already taking advantage of, £15 for 3GB. I assume here you are talking about our roaming charges for data? We do offer these as low as we can, what we all have to bare in mind here is that Vodafone pay the network you connect to abroad for any usage whilst you are there, we then pass this charge on to our customer. Let’s also remember that we are a business and will add a profit onto these charges. That said I will again feedback you comments and who knows it may just make the difference.
3) We fully understand that a lot of our Mobile Broadband users are MAC users. We do everything we can to support you and if you pop onto our own eForum (http://forum.vodafone.co.uk) you will find additional support, (one of our eForum hosts is a MAC expert!) And yet again I will be feeding this back into the right area of the business.
4) I like this idea, a change like this is well out of my scope but I will do some digging to see how feasible this would be and find the right person/people to pass this idea onto.
5) Our email customer services team use great signatures, that explain who they are and where they are from (department wise) and they also provide great links to various things, like surveys on our service, latest products, our eForum etc. I think the problem you had was that you had been speaking to a telephone based customer service agent and they aren’t trained or developed in sending emails. They were in effect doing something outside their job role, they probably chose to be a telephone agent for the very reason that they struggle with spelling, typing etc. Regardless of this fact if an agent is offering to provide details of a call by email or letter it should be of a professional yet friendly style. If you would like us to address this with the individual agents then please contact us and we can do so. (To contact us please fill in the required section on our contact us form and in put the code FIT135 in the body of the email, this way it will come through to the eForum Team.)
6) Our call centre agents are allowed to be themselves and it is fact encouraged. We want the contact you have with Vodafone to be a relaxed and friendly one. Again this is another issue I will report back on. I would like to say a big “SORRY” to you at this point for the screw up. I know it may not mean as much as it was prompted but I promise you I mean it.
7) I agree with you here, I like to have confirmation by email. What I would say is that if you do prefer to have contacts in writing then you are probably best suited to our email contact centre. (Use link above for this.)
9) This is already in place, our staff are undergoing further training on all of our data products and we will continually review and develop knowledge in this area. We also have what we call “product wizards” who know everything there is to know about a particular product/service and are on hand at all time to supports our agents.
10) Nice suggestion and again something that is already in place, my team search through Google alerts, online forums and our own eForum to provide help and support through social media channels. I hope you agree with me when I say we’re doing a fantastic job.
I hope this addresses all of your points and offers you reassurance that we do take customer in put seriously and want to do what we can to improve the service we provide. Most importantly I hope it shows we do LISTEN.
All the best,
Gembo
Vodafone eForum Team (UK)
Hi Gemma - thanks for the detailed response.
As the formatting isn’t the best in the comments (and to make sure that everyone hears what you’re saying), I’ve just done a fresh post with some extra feedback.
Anyone else reading, head on over there.