My Saga with Vodafone

For a communication service provider, Vodafone can be so uncommunicative that it gets really nauseating to have to be a subscriber. It brags about giving power to the subscriber, yet it only makes the latter helpless, and frustrated. Instead of service, we get broad day-light robbery. It has just taken me three days to re-bundle my Vodafone X package, because the same system that informs me that I have exhausted my data and should top does not automatically reactivate the account when I top the data. Vodafone operates a very selective automatic system that allows it to rob subscribers

Woe betides a subscriber if for an emergency s/he decides to access the 24-hour or 48-hour service. The service is very specific yet once utilized, until one’s data is exhausted, Vodafone’s system will renew the service every morning. One agent told me that they assume the subscriber will use the service again, so they save her/him the trouble. Yet, when it comes to the monthly bundle a subscriber gets short-changed.

On the evening of September1, my Internet service was cut off since I had exhausted my data, so I topped up. The system that had cut off my Internet service would not automatically reactivate my account. Five months ago, when I had assumed that the system automatically renewed itself, it used my bundled data in less than twenty-four hours. When I inquired from the helpline, I was told that since it wasn’t my expiry date, the system could not reactivate, so it used my data ordinarily. About two months ago, I called the helpline for activation, immediately I topped up, but I was told that I did not have enough data. When I insisted that I had just topped up, the agent informed me that I should have turned off my data connection, but since I didn’t, the system automatically began using the data, therefore, I had to buy extra data in order to renew my account. With that experience in mind, I turned off the data connection on September 1 before I attempted the reactivation.  It is a good thing I did that, otherwise, I would have paid two- or three-fold or more for the bundle.

Vodafone has added a new stripe of annoyance through a very defective telephone help-line service. Usually Vodafone X subscribers dial *5888 to access the service. This time, however, every time I dialled that number, it would welcome me to the Vodafone service and promptly cut off. When I turned to the toll free 100 number, the recorded prompt was even more defective. Throughout September 1^st and 2^nd, the recorded message would skip mobile service, accessed from 1 on the keypad. Subsequently, the numbers mentioned did not co-ordinate with the steps I had to follow in order to reactivate my account. The nauseous part is that twice uncouth agencies on the helpline hung up on me when I tried to express my frustration at the poor service I was receiving. The second one occurred on September 2, 2016, at 2.51pm. I was dumbfounded on both occasions. And that was not the first time lopsided agencies from Vodafone had hung up on me.

What is most unfair is that each time I dialled, I was forced to listen to the strangulated voice informing me that I might experience delay, assuring me that my call was important to them. Considering the horrific nature of the service, that information is nothing but cacophony. From September 1^st to 3^rd, I had to suffer the hypocrisy, the delays, systemic errors because I needed the service, all and I didn’t even have the luxury of complaining.

At 9.45pm on September 2^nd, an agent picked my call, but he told me that he was on broadband helpline. He directed me to dial 100 and select 1 for mobile services. I responded that I had been doing that since the previous evening, but their system was not allowing me full access. I was hoping that he would link me with the mobile service, but he repeated that I had reached the wrong service, so I should try again. I thanked him and we both hung up. I am still wondering whether he is just a lazy employee or one that has not been trained by Vodafone. Elsewhere, I would have been transferred to the section.

 At 9.15am on September 3rd, I tried again. My perseverance was rewarded, because there was no skipping and one Rachel answered my call. When I summarised my dilemma, she readily reactivated the account for me. You are my Heroine, Rachel! It had taken me almost three days to reactivate an account, way to go Vodafone.

When Vodafone wants to steal my money, it operates an automatic system. However, when I stand to benefit, the monthly bundle I have subscribed to does not activate automatically.  If that is not corporate broad daylight robbery, I don’t know what else is.

Vodafone will dare not offer such lousy services in the UK or Europe, but in Ghana, it trumpets shoddy services. My voice does not go far; the National Communication’s Authority is not even aware of my existence. The Minister of Information simply talks politics. There are structures in place, but they do not work for the tax payer. Again, I howl: Who speaks for the Ordinary Ghanaian?