Vodafone tops charts for most complaints
A woman who lost her phone number to another customer was upset her provider didn’t do more to secure the number in her name.
She took her complaint to Telecommunications Disputes Resolution (TDR), the external dispute scheme for the telco sector.
The woman had held the same phone number for years, taking it with her when she changed providers. But as the line was seldom used, the number was eventually disconnected due to inactivity.
When the woman contacted her provider to ask if she could get her number back, she was told it had been ported to another provider. The number was later released to her provider, who began arranging a connection with the woman. However, during the process their call disconnected, and the connection order was not completed.
Unable to reach the woman to complete the process, the provider placed the phone number on hold for seven days in case she called back to complete the order. The woman did not call back and the number was released to the number pool and assigned to another customer.
Two weeks later the woman called her provider and discovered that the number had been given to another customer, who did not agree to a change of number. The provider explained it could not force another customer to be disconnected.
However, she felt she had been misled and had received poor service by not being connected in a timely manner.
After an unsuccessful attempt at mediation, the case proceeded to adjudication where TDR makes a decision. In this case, while there were some customer service failings, TDR found they were not deliberate and there were mitigating circumstances such as the Covid-19 lockdown and the disruptions that it caused.
TDR also noted that the phone number was allocated fairly to the new customer who now had use of the phone number and a contract with the provider. Because of this, a disconnection and reconnection for the complainant could not be ordered and the complaint was not upheld.
The case was one of 1008 complaints and inquiries resolved or closed by TDR in the six months to December 2020, according to its latest report.
The majority (98.5 per cent) were resolved without any formal intervention, while the remainder required mediation or a decision by TDR.
Despite improving over the second half of last year, Vodafone still had the highest rate of complaints for both mobile and broadband services.
Vodafone spokesman Rich Llewellyn said the TDR complaints process gave telcos a chance to remedy issues, which Vodafone had done in almost 99 per cent of cases.
‘‘While we know there is a lot more service improvement to come, and our service is not as consistent for all our customers as we want, it’s pleasing there has been significant reductions in the number of complaints to the TDR from the peak of the first Covid lockdown in April 2020 through to December 2020.’’.
The company expected the downward trend to continue following an investment of more than $10 million in new domestic customer service roles and bringing its business call centres back to New Zealand in 2020, he said.
Over the next year, it would also accelerate the roll-out of more simple and stable digital products and invest more than $100m extra to improve mobile and internet coverage.
‘‘Our service is not as consistent for all our customers as we want.’’
Rich Llewellyn
Vodafone spokesman