Rafi n.

Australia Australia Australia,

The most beautiful country on earth & the most welcoming country on earth. But what has happened to our customer service, how have we lost it in our tracks, the biggest company welcomes you very nicely when you purchase a product but a lot of them forget us smaller buyers when it comes to re-servicing a product. My story started a year ago, I purchased a Samsung Z3, it cost around $2,600, I also paid almost $200 for an extra warranty for any problems including breaking that could occur with the phone. I was very happy with the phone; all my business had run through the phone. Other than this mobile I had another phone for my daughter with Vodafone and also my home internet ran through Vodafone. I paid in total $268 for Vodafone a month with the hope that when the time came and I needed good customer service I could have gotten it from a big company. The time has now come, and I have a problem with my phone that's under warranty. Its not broken but the tablet view is not working. I called Vodafone customer service a nice man answered me and told me that he couldn't see my purchase and I would have to go to the shop that I bought it from. I went to a different Vodafone store on Glen Huntly that is close to my house there was only 1 person serving with a big line of customers after approximately 20 minutes when I could see the line wasn't moving I decided to go and come the next day. Thank god when I came the shop was empty but the seller was on the phone laughing and talking in a different language so I couldn't understand what she was saying after a few minutes I assumed that she wasn't talking to a customer and I tried to get her attention suddenly she put the phone aside and asked how she could help me. I explained how my phone wasn't working and she didn't really care that I had a problem and told me to go to Samsung, I explained that I had purchased the product at Vodafone, it was still under the original warranty but still she didn't have a 2nd thought and told me that anyway I had purchased it in a different store. I was a bit upset and explained that it wasn't very good customer service and that I had a problem that needed to be fixed by Vodafone. I don't know from where this has come from, but it looks like today there is a common system of instead of giving customer service like anyone deserves it's easier to say that your are being threatened and kick the customer out of a store. I left the store and then proceeded to drive to the city where I knew where that there was a Samsung service centre there, when I got there unfortunately, I found out that they weren't there anymore. I drove from there to the Samsung centre in Chadstone when I got there, they said it was a Sunday and that they didn't give services on Sunday and only sold products on Sundays. I asked what I needed to do and they replied saying I would need to comeback in the middle of the week give them my phone and then come back to pick it up in 6 business days, I explained that I couldn't do it because all of my business had been on my phone and they said "it is what it is". A few days later I finished my work early to go to southland to the 3 floor at Vodafone and explained my situation once again, they said that they couldn't help me because I had purchased the phone at the Vodafone store on level 2. I took my final stride to level 2, and I saw a man and women working there and they were speaking with each other in another language I explained to them my problem they said that they couldn't do anything because they only sold products they didn't service them. I explained to them my entire situation and everything that I had already done but they didn't care I asked them why they couldn't just give me a refurbished phone swap the data and all would be good (this is how apple does it) the lady jumped straight away and said very rudely "we don't service here, go to Samsung". From the other side the man tried to help more and called his manager I tried to listen to what they were saying so I could understand but obviously once again it was impossible because the vast majority of the conversation was in a different language. I was already exhausted when he explained that his manager said they couldn't do anything I asked if he could give me a simple Samsung phone because then I could smart switch all my information between the phones until my phone would have come back from repair but he answered that they didn't do anything like that. I asked many times to speak with the manager/supervisor to understand why this simple service couldn't be done instead the lady told me that the supervisor would contact me soon and told me to wait at the store, instead of a supervisor came along 2 really nice security men, I was shocked again this faulted system was shun upon me instead of giving me the good customer service that I deserved they used their leverage and along came the excuse that they felt "threatened" by me. When the sellers explained to the security my situation even the security men were shocked and told the seller "what do you want from him, he is a customer in need of service, do the right thing and give him a new phone and if not give him a different phone to at least transfer his information until his old phone came back from service because that is the right thing to do". Suddenly they found "a phone to give me" ( before they said they didn't have a phone to give) but when we came to transfer the data we couldn't do it. Why? Oops! Because they gave me an iPhone and an android cannot transfer to an apple product the entire system is different. The security asked the sellers if it was a joke and asked for the sellers to give me either the same phone or a simple Samsung which would've had the same system to operate and transfer the phone and then astonishingly they said "oh we have another phone" but again Oops! They handed me a newer model of once again another iPhone even the security lost it and asked them what has happened to customer service he asked them to go upstairs to level 3 where there was another Vodafone store and to take a Samsung phone and do the process. They denied it after I had been there for more than an hour and for the first time in my life I had been late to pick up my kid from school. More than that I was already thinking a step ahead and was paranoid that if they falsely alarmed security towards me and put me in the situation where I would be embarrassed in front of many people outside the store looking at me wondering why there was security people with me, I was paranoid and asked myself what was next? Are they going to see that the security wasn't helping and and then call the police and again falsely alarm them that maybe this time I had robbed or raped them (even though they weren't my type). Mr Vodafone shame on you, you are an embarrassment to the beautiful Australian country, your turnover is $211.9 MILLION a year (thanks to many customers like me, it looks like you have forgotten that) and this is your customer service? Is it really that hard for you to have spare phones in your store to provide better customer service? Most of your workers are immigrants just like myself and I don't have a problem with it. But if you are going to use cheap labour to save money is it too difficult for you to teach them the Australian example of good customer service? Is $211.9 MILLION not enough for you to give a bit of offer into good customer service? This a real embarrassment to the face of Australia. I really suggest that you send your cheap labour to Bunnings in Moorabbin so they can learn what real customer service looks like (most of the workers there are also immigrants like me the only difference between Vodafone employees and them is that the bunnings employees are taught by bunnings the right way of customer service) From the bottom of my heart I'm begging for our beautiful government and parliament friends to stand for the right of all of us simple workers, and bring back the right of good customer service and to stop big companies like Vodafone from giving low level embarrassing services because it is in our right that when we purchase a product not only during the payment but also when it is under warranty and we need their service to give us our right for good service as customers because it is apart of the price (if I didn't care about customer service I would've purchased the product of the internet cheaper). So that when we fix this fault in the system we can build an better Australia.