Terrible customer service. Poor signal. Price hikes. Rubbish value for money or incentives. What really irks you when it comes to your mobile network provider?
In our latest mobile satisfaction survey, we invited over 4,000 members of the public to tell us about their experiences with their mobile phone providers. We also asked them to tell us why they picked their current provider, and over 50% of people told us the decision came down to cost.
While cost is important, we know that it’s not the only consideration. For some, the customer service offered by their provider may be so bad that they simply can’t put up with it anymore. Those in certain areas will often be limited to certain networks, due to poor mobile coverage or 4G availability. Others have experienced price hikes mid-contract, or frustrating billing issues.
Customer service
EE and Vodafone are just two of the mobile networks that have struggled with billing their customers correctly.
In October 2016 Ofcom fined Vodafone a whopping £4.6m fine as a result of incorrect billing and poor handling of customer complaints. In January 2017, EE was fined £2.7m for overcharging tens of thousands of customers.
Following Ofcom’s fine, we asked you here on Which? Conversation whether you’d experienced a billing issue with Vodafone.
Many of you explained your billing problems with Vodafone. One commenter, Sharon, told us she was ‘fed up to the back teeth’ of her dealings with Vodafone and that the issues had affected her credit rating, something that several people also reported.
Others were frustrated by how difficult it was to contact the company, and were considering leaving the provider. Graeme stated:
‘I have been with Vodafone for many years but their customer service has plummeted in the last few years. What is frustrating is the time it has taken to resolve issues. I have often been passed round various departments before eventually getting cut off completely. It usually takes several phone calls to resolve issues and get credits put on my account. When I renew next year I will be shopping around!’
For David Young it was a painful process to claim back money incorrectly taken from his account, David told us:
‘Vodafone incorrectly took £245.22 from my bank. I contacted them, they agreed they were wrong, but it took them over 7 months to return my money. It took a lot of phone calls and emails for them to return my money with no real apology or any compensation.’
However, not everyone is unhappy with their service from Vodafone, Roland Beaney stated:
‘My first phone (analogue) was on Vodafone and I’ve always had excellent service and now their 4G service seems to be the best.’
Over to you
So, what makes a good or bad mobile service provider? Do you feel positive about the service you’ve received? Aside from billing problems, what are your biggest issues with your mobile phone provider? What would make you look around for a new mobile network provider?