Nailed by inflexible Vodafone insurance policies

Justin is CEO of NinetyTen, the people behind location based social network, BuddyPing. He dropped me this note to tell me about the experience his wife Aimee had with Vodafone. Deary me.

So Aimee and I spent the weekend in York with old friends, but alas, her phone was either lost or stolen on the train, and ended up in Edinburgh (I knew this because I did a lookup using buddyPing 😉

Aimee didn’t want to report it lost/stolen because we assumed as it was in Edinburgh, just near the station, it was in Lost property. Lost Property is closed on the weekend, so she rang them this morning. We were told the phone was not there, and had probably been nabbed by the cleaners. After asking to be put through to the cleaners, she was told she couldn’t do that.

Right, assessment so far: Phone Stolen

Step 1:
Rring Vodafone, explain what has happened, block the SIM and phone and get a replacement on insurance. Talked to a nice lady in customer services who blocked the phone and sim.

Step 2:
Transferred to Insurance

Step 3:
A world of pain

It turns out that even though Aimee was a responsible person who did not want to jump the gun and end up with 2 phones, wasting her and Vodafone’s time, they wouldn’t pay out. Why!? Well, you see, she had to report her phone lost or stolen within 24 hours of the incident happening.

After protestations from Aimee, she asked to talk to someone more senior than her.
She was told she was the most senior person.
Aimee asked if she ran the department.
No.
So can she speak to the person who does.
No.
Why?
They are busy.
Well, I want to speak to them now.
Please hold (another 5 minutes on top of the 30 minutes she has been trying to sort it out)
I’m sorry, she is not available

And that was how it was left. Aimee has been told she can appeal, which she will do.

She is now left phone-less, and very pissed off.

Even though she has only had the phone for 2 months (plus a renewed Voda contract), I am seriously considering advising her to leave them, transfer he number and go to someone else.

Aimee, take it to Mr Sarin and get him to fix it. If he can’t resolve it, swap to another network. Don’t reward ’em.