Vodafone won't take SMS Text News reader's cash for international calls

Got this in from an SMS Text News reader. He’s an influential chap doing great things in the mobile industry and actually just swapped from T-Mobile to Vodafone recently.

Have a read of his experience this evening. I can feel a chat to Vodafone’s blog relations team coming on.

Oh. my. God.

I’m absolutely fuming! I just tried to make a call to South Africa using my new Vodafone CONTRACT account (£45 / month tariff with ‘unlimited’ data). It duly said that i couldn’t make the call and that I should call customer services… aarrghh – hadn’t realised these days that you still needed to call to turn on the ability to make international calls (I’d assumed that in this ‘global village’ it was normal to be able to call abroad).

Anyway, my call was picked up by a customer service guy called Leighton who works for Garlands the outsourced customer service centre. It took 3 rings before he picked up – not bad and i started to feel slightly cheerier about the experience. I mentioned I’d tried to call South Africa and had been asked to call customer services…

‘ah, yes, you’ve been with us for less than 3 months so you can’t call internationally’ said Leighton

‘er, what’ (hands beginning to shake a little)

‘it’s for your own protection and so we can see money having gone out of your account to establish a credit rating’ Leighton could tell this wasn’t going to be his night.

‘you. are. joking.’ I said, ‘I’ve worked for Vodafone in the past, I know that at 45 + 7.50 for unlimited data i fall into your high value customer bracket, you carried a credit check out on me when i joined up. Plus I’m on CONTRACT where you, can, bill me for it, not PAYT’.

‘there’s nothing i can do sir’ said Leighton

‘you’re blocking me from making calls, what kind of service is that? Ok, ok, let’s see, what about if i take out the Vodafone Passport, will that trigger international calling?’ I said

‘no sir, you’re barred from making international calls for 3 months and there’s nothing else i can do about it,’ forced out Leighton, trying to stay polite.

*Huge grinding of teeth, blood boiling, veins popping*

‘ok, well, I’ll be blogging this to let everyone else know about Vodafone barring calls and my freedom to call whom i choose, thank you for your service this evening…’ >click< God I'm so angry, I hate it when bureaucracy and front line customer care students with no authority or power get in the way of my otherwise decision filled, proactive day.

You’d think that, perhaps, Vodafone would ask for a deposit — maybe even £500 or the like, up front, to reduce their risk? Flatly refusing revenues from this SMS Text News reader wasn’t a good business decision. It’s a fine policy, I think, if you’re on their system as a home maker with no declared income and absolutely ZERO need to EVER call abroad. Waiting a few months isn’t an issue. But when you join Vodafone and expect to be able to spend hundreds of pounds with them right away, I can see just how annoying that could be.

Perhaps the reader — who asked to be anonymous — should get a MaxRoam sim card? 😉 Or revert back to his T-Mobile account temporarily. Deary me!

I wonder what the policies are on other UK networks? Are they the same?