To set the scene, my father has just turned 63, he is disabled, suffers with mental issues (this could be down to his son!), is not very internet savvy, and has been a Vodafone customer for 5 years with a business account.

Happy Birthday, From Vodafone

My dear old dad had a birthday at the end of October, so I popped over to the family home for the weekend to celebrate, drop presents, cards and sample some home cooking.

I am still here, four days later, luckily I can work from anywhere, but my father is not too well, so I am here doing a few bits and bobs and generally giving a bit back from all I have taken over the years, shame Vodafone cannot do the same.

I pick the story up this morning, when my dad is asking me if he is going mad, has he got the right address? Now I am scatty, quite distant at times, so forget things like this all the time, but my dad is in quite a flap at this, he thinks he has forgotten where he lives (seriously, and dealing with anxiety is not his strong point). I check the letter he has in front of him, from Vodafone, one of their bills to my dad’s address, I check the address against the one he sent them in an email saying did not match to his account. It did, I can assure you, exactly the same!

Dad relaxes a tad and asks what should he do now? So obviously I want to know what has sparked all this off, my dad is nowhere near being committed to a care-home, but he is not well, and is not as internet and spam/scam savvy as I; I am always telling him to check email addresses, especially when replying.

Anyway, he shows me an email he sent to them on the 27th (actually, they said their computer systems were down, so he could not send this to them until the 28th October 2011). My dad has been with Vodafone for 5 years, with both of their (his and my stepmums) phone bills going through this account, he has recently taken a couple of iPad contracts out too, so he was querying why his anniversary date had been changed without his knowledge, why one iPad contract is 48 months (he was told about this afterwards in a retail store), why he had received a message to XXXXXXXXXXX saying his internet allowance was almost used up, when he was on unlimited usage and he could not list the other complaints, as he had ran out of characters on their “webform” (I will get to that in a moment*).

Add to this, the fact that he also reminded them that they had taken two unauthorised payments from his card this year (I believe this is called theft), the first of which (14/02/2011) was promised to be returned to his card/account and never was, it was credited instead, meaning he still didn’t have it back in his own account specifically used for Direct Debits (this is budgeted from his savings account when they are due out). The second was taken, without authority, on 08/09/2011, and refunded on the 14/09/2011 (so it seems they can refund, not just credit).

Now, obviously this annoys me, because this is my father, but it get’s worse when they reply!

Vodafone – Security Conscious Company?

How many times are we told never to share our pin numbers, or that “our company or representatives will never ask for your pin number”? This is a online security room 101! So what is the first thing they ask my dad for? His pin number! I am always on at dad about what he sends online, so he sent them his address instead, from the email that is linked to his account.

Their answer: This address does not match the address on your account (remember we started here!), so this really is being strung out, and with my dads mental issues, it is really sending him to a place nobody likes to be. A question raised on the 27th, still has no answer, or even an “I’m sorry Mr Carrier, bear with me while we look into this for you!’.

Having looked at their Privacy Policy (something which in my line of work, I am extremely familiar with), and I quote 008000;">Security, 5c. Communications over the internet, such as ff0000;">emails, are ff0000;">not secure unless they have been encrypted. Your communications may go through a number of countries before being delivered – this is the nature of the internet. We cannot accept responsibility for any unauthorised access or loss of personal information that is beyond our control.

Yet they ask for a pin number, and personal information that can clearly be snatched from the digital atmosphere, could they not have called him? Could they not have given him a customer care team number to ring?

*And Another Thing…

I am more critical than most when it comes to online contact, websites etc, as this is what my company does, so to see Vodafones email coming from “Webform”, I mean come on, I have sole trader clients that have more professionally set up email than that! Webform, this narks me completely, I charge for services I/we provide that are professional and image conscious for our clients customers, and when we set up their emails and contact forms, they would never be left with a standard templated description such as Webform!

I am utterly disgusted at this shoddy, amateur giant.

I expect much more than an apologetic email for my father, it is not something you want to see, the man you wanted to be as a child, big, strong, assertive Dad, flapping and getting seriously upset because some minimum wage, desk jockey, untrained in correct customer care, does not know how to help! I mean come on, who shares their pin online, via an email, to a company, who’s email says “Webform”, not even “Vodafone Online Care Team” or whatever, you get the point. Rank amateurs. And then going on to say the address is wrong, but it has been fine for the years they have been taking payments for their terrible reception, overpriced contracts, poor service etc etc! Why the hell my dad should pay for their F1 advertising when they cannot even get his contracts or address correct, I don’t know!

7 days from the first enquiry, and nothing…

Kip's natural habitat is at the mac messing around with websites and graphics . . .