Contract

[Ticcer]

I have a Samsung Google Nexus S handset, since May 2011.  It's okay...  not without it's problems.

Call quality is hit and miss... even at home.  

There were a LOT of initial problems that sorted themselves out over time.. seemingly on their own.  The outstanding issue being I still cannot get my handset to talk to my partners HTC Legend via blutooth.  Not a massive concern, but it would be nice if it worked.

I travel up and down the east coast between Brisbane and Byron Bay every week.  I get no real service...  intermittent at best whenever I drive out of a city.  Which means that for about 6 hours or so on any day I travel, I am not very contactable.  I have mentioned this to Vodafone about 8 months ago, with no solution offered.

FAST FORWARD to a month ago.  My credit card had expired and I was a little slow to recitfy the situation for reasons of time.

I called VF to sort it out and paid over the phone, and set up a new automatic payment.  At the end of this call I was asked the usual questions about whether I was happy with VF.

I've been qith VF in two different countries spanning 15 or so years.  I try to support the underdogs in telecomunications and am obviously okay to a degree, with the lower quality of service.  However, I mentioned that due to being self employed, and requiring service on the highways of the east coast of Australia, I'd be switching to Telstra when my contract is up for renewal.  I also mentioned the call quality issues I constantly experience. I can't aford to give my customers a second rate experience when calling me on my mobile, by virtue of having to ask them to repeat themselves due to bad call quality.

Admirably, the people in India swung into action.  Network upgrades in my area were looked in to.  I was told of the jump in call quality I may experience when certain cell sites are upgraded etc, etc.   I was also told about National Roaming, and told of how that would solve my highway issues and the reasons why.

National Roaming was activated on my account.  I reset my handset, and indeed, highway communications are much much better.  Thank you muchly.

I get a txt message asking me to do a 4 question survey about my recent VF service experience.  So I oblige, as objectively as I can...  it was a better than average assessment.  The 4th question asked me to write some comments.

I described that from my perspective, it seemed, only with the treat of moving to Telstra that National Roaming was offered; indicating my dislike of that apparent situation.

Overall, if by the end of the year, the call quality issues I have around my home and in the city were solved with the advised network upgrades, and given that National Roaming solved my highway issue, my thoughts on moving to Telstra were abated.

Frankly, I was very impressed with the level of commitment VF displayed in regard to solving my problems with their service.  Whatever VF is doing internally to lift service levels, it is having a very positive effect in terms of how I felt as a paying customer, and the attitude of the VF representatives towards my discussion, was a 100% improvement on previous interactions over the years.  Bravo!!  Keep that up...  please.

VF tried to call me a couple of weeks ago, after all the above was sorted out.  I missed that call, but they tried again on Monday with success.

The call was to follow up on the comments I'd made as well as gain further insight as to how satisfied I was with the process.  The call was marred by terrible call quality, from my home office, 9 km south of brisbane CBD.

Anyway.  The nice man in India for whatever reason, offered me a new handset at no charge, and explained it would be on the 2100 band network...  LTE?, I enquired.  Yes. WOW!

Maybe it was the bad call quality, but I honestly thought the man said he would be sending out a Samsung Galaxy S3.

My first thought was one of a stunned mullet.  I didn't know what to say, but thanked the man, emphatically.  WOW!

My second thought was, "I'd rather have a new Galaxy Nexus due to the vanilla Android experience.  I really dislike all the overlays and extra apps that Samsung and other OEM's put on their handsets, which is why I don't buy them, and never will.  And I like even less, the fact that Android updates rarely happen, if they happen at all, for these types of handsets.

BUT my 3rd thought was, "Dang!  Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.  The SG3 looks like a nice piece of kit anyway, and it is top end"

Fast forward to a couple of hours ago.  The courier arrives at my front door with a package.  "It's from Vodafone, I think.", he says.

I opened the box to see another box with 'Samsung Galaxy W wonder' written on it.  Not a handset I'd beed aware of up until now.

A little confused, I jumped on the vodafone site as well as Googleing the handset.  I'd not been aware of the handset because I don't do mid-range.  I'm a power user.  I like a large screen.  I like bleeding edge.  I like up-to-date operating systems, that have a chance of being updated in the future.  I use my handset for music, spreadsheets, a PDF viewer, a calculator, unit convertor, web browsing, phone calls, a torch, a few games, etc.  I have it charging at every opportunity, at home, at my workshop, in the car, etc because I use it so much the battery doesn't last 8 hours on a single charge.

I will never use the Galaxy W.  I'd have to buy a 16GB SD card to even start using it.  It only runs Android v2.3, where as I have my Nexus S updated to v4.0.4.  I really like Android ICS, and the direction the OS is going.  I would feel like I was going backwards if I had to start using Android v2.3 again.

The bottom line is, bravo and much kudos to Vodafone for lifting the service level to a degree where for the first time in a long time, I felt that my patronage and support of Vodafone, through the recent bad times, was worth all the dropped calls, bad call quality, and frustration with Vodafone staff.  For the first time in a year, I've stopped using the term, VodaFAIL, and was verging on feeling proud to be a Vodafone customer, once again, rather than thinking about becoming a TelSHEEP customer.

The complimentary 'Galaxy W' MAY in some ways be comparable to my Nexus S, and even better in other ways, but it falls grossly short of meeting the requirements I look for when choosing a handset.  Number 1 requirement for me is vanilla Android, that gets updated when Google themselves push out the updates, and is an OS that isn't loaded with an OEM's interpretation of what THEY think the Android experience should be.  Number 2 requirement is the largest screen I can get with vanilla Android, without having to void warranty by rooting the phone and using a Modified OS.

The Galaxy Wonder is a great phone for my girlfriend, who couldn't care less about the flavour of Android, and just wants to take a few photos, video, send a few txts, make calls, and play the odd puzzle game or two.

What began as a very well intentioned and very appreciated gesture towards showing support for a customer, ended with a Bleh! sounding thud.

The complimentary handset wasn't a necessary gesture.  I was and am still happy with the outcome of Vodafone's probe into my experience and the resolution now in place.  But if you're going to offer things like complimentary handsets, at least go to the trouble of finding out what the customer requirements are before going to the trouble and expense of shipping handsets, that ultimately have no value or use, in the eyes of the customer you are trying to service.  It has the power to turn a very professionally handled problem into a disappointing anti-climax....  which is kind of how I feel now.

What do I do with this Galaxy W??  Give it to my girlfriend?  Send it back?  Can you exchange for a Galaxy Nexus under the same terms?

Please advise.

Many thanks.

[zabzabcanfly69]

Go into a store straight away and take it back.. Thats not cool at all... I mean if i got offered a S3 and got a W I'd be pretty rank.... But if your happy to just le your GF chill with it thats cool to

I think this is a topic vodafone really need to take up with its call center staff.. It must be a requirement that they take notes during the entire conversation... I would gladly spend an extra 5 - 10 minutes on the phone to verify that i was getting the right facts and that they were understanding and hearing me...

[Ticcer]

Yeah. I thought I'd see what the response was here first.

And as it happens, I can't get to a store till Monday/Tuesday. Besides, store staff are not very empowered to assist beyond order taking. I occasionally frequent various stores up the east coast; store staff rely heavily on the website and call centre staff, in my experience.

I am reasonably sure an S3 was the offer, which is why I was so stunned. The rep had just asked about what handset I was using and I thought by this months standards it was a comparable replacement, even though the Nexus would have been the desired... The offer was much unexpected and appreciated. The fact I even got a call was a huge endorsement of VF's new service commitment.

I feel no sense of 'wonder' about it, so I haven't even broken the seal on the box to have a look inside. That's how uninterested I am about the Galaxy Wonder.

In the spirit of the Olympics, I score VF:

9.99 / 10 for making the effort to inquire and actually listen.
9.99 / 10 for the delivery of a resolution to satisfaction.
2 / 10 for the attempt of a 'cherry on top' (2 marks for such expedient delivery of the new device)

EDIT:  I'll just add that the call quality was not good during the call, but in no way am I using that as an excuse to suggest that I may have been mistaken about an S3 being offered.  Call quality wasn't so bad that my brain couldn't fill in the gaps of words and syllables that were only partially heard in full.  I managed to get through the entire conversation understanding everything the gentleman was saying.

[zabzabcanfly69]

Well i meant you could take it back in... but yea.. and i give you Kudos for that absolutley "wonderful" pun hahahaha so bad it made me laugh haha...

and yea i mean just call up 1555 tell them you've received the wrong product and they might be able to sort it out... if they cant i'm sure one of the Voda reps on the forum can...

[itsmoe]

Hey there mate,

Do you mind letting me know what plan you are currently on? and if you pay any phone installments?

I think the Nexus S is the same Value as the Galaxy W. And hence why it was offered to you. They might have mentioned the Galaxy S III over the phone but they were probably referring to the Galaxy W (Especially with their special accent). A lot the staff don't really know much about phones, they mostly refer back to the website for prices and caps as well as phone features.

I myself went into an Optus store once, I wanted to check out the New Lumia 900 and have a play around with, as I entered the store, a young girl approached me asking if I needed any assistance, I kindly asked if they have the Nokia Lumia 900 in stock and how much it was? The girl said sure let me check..... she goes away for a couple of minutes and comes back asking me, was it the Lumia 400 or 500 you were asking for? Mind you these two handsets never and will probably never exist!!! I was standing there with my brother LOL'ing! Is this girl so very unaware of what phones her employeer is offering? 

^^Sorry that was off topic, but it shows you how much some of the staff at the call centres and shops know about their jobs!

Regardless, every conversation is recorded with Vodafone, so you can call them up again and ask for the reference number of the call and ask them to listen over it and see to whether they did really offer you the Galaxy S III and not the Galaxy W.

Hope you get this sorted mate, and I do suggest you leave the phone sealed, as if they disagree to give you the Galaxy S III, I recommend you ask them for another Nexus S as it is bettter than the Galaxy W.

All the best mate.

[zabzabcanfly69]

HMMM if thats true about the being able to ask them to check through the recorded conversations that will be very good cause i was told by them that they couldnt do that... hmmmm

[Ticcer]

$29 plan, I often go over in data usage, so $40 odd dollars, this month.  No phone installments.

The current Galaxy Nexus is the same deal, so I'd consider that comparible, more than the Wonder in both value and tech.  I'm reasonable.  I can now see the S3 is more valuable.  An offer was made. I accepted it thinking one thing, and an entirely different thing arrived.  I'm not asking for anything that's of a higher value, I never asked for a new handset in the first place, but sending me a gift that's largely useless to me under the auspice of customer respect, is not my idea of a win/win outcome.

Special Accent or not.  Customer Service 101: Know what you're talking about and be clear about it.  Doubly so, when you're putting the cherry on the top of an escallated customer issue.  Who trains these people anyway???  ...I'd like to offer my services and 30 years of experience in sales & customer service.

If I now have to sit on a phone to get them to dig out a recording of the conversation, to decide either way, I'm not going to be impressed.  I'm a busy man.  This is not the best use of my time right now, but one has to report these things in a timely manner.

Still waiting for a Vodafone response.

Cheers.

[zabzabcanfly69]

Voda has a backlog of questions they also dont see the forum like we do.. we see the external forum they see the internal version as far as i'm aware.... 

I can defiently understand the being a busy man. I may not appear busy by the amount am on the forum but its cas ei type at about 130 words per minute lol hahahaha. But yea as they say in my busness the earlier you say something the more likely you are to remember the details

[Ticcer]

Yeah, I just read they answer the queries in the order they are posted.  Doesn't seem like it to me, but there you go.

T

[Ticcer]

Why thank you kind sir.   I'm pleased someone else on here has a sense of humour.  lol  Wonderful!