The puppy employed by Vodofone in their excellent advertisements is very active (physically) and proactive (in reaching out to others in need). But their Customer Service personnel are not.

I had the bitterest experience of my life with

Vodofone customer service personnel on 9^th Nov.

I hold a corporate post paid connection. Basing on my experience at Hyderabad, I suggested to my daughter, who is working in Multi National Company at Bangalore, to go in for Vodofone’s corporate post paid connection at Bangalore.

My daughter listened.

She was on tour this week and had to travel to Chennai. While at Chennai she last her mobile and she requested me to lodge the lost mobile report with Vodofone.

My problems with Vodofone started right earnestly at this point of time.

The local Vodofone office who are located near my place of residence refused to handle this special request stating that I need to lodge the lost report at Vodofone Customer Service at Bangalore.

However, they were kind enough to provide me with the contact number of Customer Service, Vodofone, Bangalore.

When you are in a hurry, when you are totally lost and when you are in dire need in getting through, you face some stone walls. This happened exactly with Vodofone Customer Service at Bangalore. To listen to the lengthy pre-recorded tele-instructions to press 1 or 2 or 3 or more is a real torture.

When you finally get through, you get someone on line stating their name in a hurry without even giving a moment to you to note and recall the name. You are also asked question after question and now you are in a receiving mode. The customer service, particularly at Vodofone Bangalore was not customer friendly.

In a hurry I noted the number of the lost mobile of my daughter and conveyed to the Bangalore VCS. They repeated the number umpteen times to check, recheck and countercheck. And they also addressed me Mr… many times and at some point of time, I lost my patience and shouted – ‘Please record the details of the lost mobile’.

The person at the other end was not in a mood to listen to my urgency to get this done; instead he was as cool as cucumber. And after all these ordeals, he dropped the bomb shell. That the number I gave was not the right number. When I argued (I should accept here that I argued), he advised me that he would put through this call to another operator.

This operator also followed the same old story, getting my name; spelling my name and the number I gave and put me on hold. I was holding on to my abated breadth by now. After a long spell, he came back again and informed me that the number was wrong. I was shocked.

I gave my daughter’s name correctly, her organization connection correctly, and I was willing to provide more details if he wanted to check again.

Instead he passed on my line to his supervisor (?). He was also one like the above two I faced in Bangalore VCS. He took again the number, name, address only to confirm again the number was wrong.

At this point, I lost my cool and asked him whether he is recording our conversation. I also told him my intention to lodge a complaint. Probably this might have influenced him. He asked me to hold on and asked to repeat the number, name, date of birth, email id, alternative email id of my daughter. I should appreciate my memory and accurate guess. He took all of them and advised me the correct number should have been 99XXX XXXXX instead of 98XXX XXXXX I gave. He also ‘advised’ literally that I should provide the correct number.

I asked him how he found out the correct number. Though he did not answer me and avoided this question, I guess, he might have checked with the name option to find out the right number. He and his two other colleagues did not make this effort in the first place, when the number I gave was wrong asking me the right kind of questions. Instead they played with my time without making any efforts to ‘service’ my requirement.

Despite all these, I sincerely thanked him (the third guy – the supervisor?) for his efforts. Instead of accepting this sincere thanks, this gentleman had the audacity to advise me that I should remember and provide the correct number when I lose my mobile phones next time in future!. I had nothing else to do but to swallow this. He has not sympathized with his employer’s customers in the first place; he has not made efforts on his own to assure his employer’s customers that he is there to help them instead of finding fault, avoiding to serve and finally advising inappropriately.

This episode speaks volumes of the quality of service provided by Vodofone. Do you agree?

I have a question to Vodofone – Why don’t you walk that extra mile, Vodofone in your customer service efforts? That puppy in your advertisement would have helped me better than your customer service personnel at Bangalore.