Vodafone Upgrade Consistency??

chavezychavez

Hey All,

I've just become eligible for an upgrade with Vodafone and so far I have gone into three stores looking to upgrade. My tarrif is Alltime 180 and I have been with Vodafone for almost 7 years. An average bill for me is €30-€35 a month. I'm looking to upgrade to a Nokia E65

Story so far:

Shop 1 - Vodafone Store 1.
The assistant verified my upgrade and told me that I was entitled to a discount in line with Perfect Fit 100. There was no problem with getting any phone but their stock was limited that day, and he advised me to come back later on that month, even going so far as to recommend waiting until the Winter stock had come though to get one of the new models (which was farily sound by him).

Shop 2 - Independant Phone Shop - Agents for Vodafone
The assistant verified my upgrade and then proceeded to try and convince me to change my tarrif. This went on for 20 minutes and when I finally convinced the assistance that any tarrif she was trying to put me on would cost me more than I'm currently paying, she didn't seem to want to deal with me any more. I was given the brochure with a list of their prices for handsets and told that I would have to pay €10 extra on any phone due to my old tarrif.

Shop 3 - Vodafone Store 3
Again, upgrade was verified and a quick suggestion to change tarrifs was given. This time however, my discount was only in line with Perfect Fit 30 and I could not buy a 3G phone unless I changed tarrifs to Perfect fit. Therefore I was limited to

The lack of consistency between the different places is hilarious. Has anyone been involed in a scenario like this previously while trying to upgrade.

I'm seriously considering changing to O2 just to spite Vodafone. They don't seem to care about retaining long term and loyal customers.

Would anyone be able to clarify what exactly I'm entitled to?

pyramuid man

Wouldnt vodafone c/s be able to do that?

chavezychavez

You're probably dead right about using C/S.
I'm just dreading another "upgrade your tarrif"/"need new sim"/"can only buy 2 tin cans and a piece of string" scenario

In the meantime, has anyone actually bought and liked the Nokia E65.

I've read a few threads regarding this phone but none seem to be overly-impressed with it.

I like the Wi-Fi aspect of it and it seems to be loaded with extra features.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Slice

Generally speaking the new tariffs are better value than the old tariffs with fewer restrictions in terms of the type of numbers you can use your minutes to call and the out of bundle call charges also being less restrictive in terms of the time of day you should be using your phone. What's more you wouldn't be able to avail of any add-ons with an old tariff or promotional offers either. It's generally the same with all networks.

Although the exception would be with Meteor when they sneakily tried to raise their prices for their PAYG Anytime tariff from 20c per minute flat rate to 25c per minute flat rate when they introduced their call a friend for free offer. Any saving from the offer for the average user would be offset by the higher additional cost of calling any other number - it's effectively a 25% price rise because you're also loosing the old offer of free on-network texts.

chavezychavez

Update on this little scenario.

Rang Vodafone C/S this evening in relation to having to change my tarrif to buy a 3G phone.
The guy who dealt with me doubled checked with other support sections in the call centre and it turns out there is absolutely no need to change my tarrif. In fact he advised against changing my tarrif, as going by my usage, it was perfectly suited for my needs and would cost me more if I did change.

His final recommendation was to use the Vodafone website to order the phone, and that way I could avail of the current offer they have of a free bluetooth headset with selected mobile sets.

Faith has been restored to Vodafone again, and maybe I was lucky but the geezer on the other end of the line could not have been more helpful. Kudos to their C/S.

I'll avoid commission driven agents from now on.