How Vodafone Made A Software Upgrade Into A Downgrade or A Lesson In Customer Service.

29Jun09

Edit: Mat Clarke, from Vodafone Web Relations Team has done an excellent job rounding up my issues and resolving them. I’ll post tomorrow about my upgrade if I manage to get on my brothers computer.

If you have ANY problems with Vodafone, just @VodafoneUK him.

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I decided to set this down so I could let people know what I’ve been moaning about on Twitter, and also have something to show Vodafone. If you want to see my main compaint, skip this backstory & jump to break.

I’ve been a Vodafone customer since November 06, over 2 years 7 months. It’s the longest relationship I’ve been in haha! Early last year I decided to leave the trusted Sony Ericsson’s that had done me good service for a year & a half and move up into the “smartphone” market. I’d been interested in Blackberrys for a while and so I decided to get one. At the time I didn’t like the size of the Curve handset so instead settled on the Blackberry Pearl 8100. Yes as I soon realised I had the non Wifi, non video camera version of the popular Pearl but I wasn’t fussed – Push email, apps, better internet on my handset, I was sorted!

Like other smartphones, Blackberrys run on an operating system that is upgraded over time. I think the oldest BB OS in use today is 4.1. The Pearl 8100 comes with OS v4.2. You learn to remember this as when I started looking for more apps, some are only available for OS 4.5 or for certain devices, i.e. the 8100 Pearl doesn’t have GPRS so I couldn’t use any Fire Eagle apps or similar geo -location.

Anyway, I’d seen on the Crackberry.com forums that Vodafone Germany had release the 4.5 OS for the 8100 in August last year but I wasn’t brave enough to see if I could upgrade, I’d wait til the official Vodafone UK 4.5 version came out. I didn’t have to wait too long. I can’t remember exactly when I upgraded to 4.5 but I just found a Get Satisfaction comment I made 6 months ago, citing I had OS 4.5.

A little aside about the upgrade to 4.5. Blackberry smart phones have an accompanying Desktop Manager, this only runs in Windows and as I run the Linux distribution Ubuntu I am unable to install this unless I do it through WINE*. I decided I wouldn’t do this as the only thing I would use it for is to upgrade the OS. My brother has a XP computer so one night I seconded the use of it to this exact task. A few hours later & I was up and running with the new software, happy that I was now running the most up to date software on my handset.

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The Main Complaint:

Fast forward to about 6 months ago, and I started noticing my Blackberry was egg timing occasionally, maybe once a week? Egg timing is a well know phrase to Blackberry users, basically the handset becomes unresponsive or VERY slow, with an egg timer spinning on the screen.

This didn’t bother me until about 2 months ago when it happened more regularly and I finally decided something needed to be done. I called 191, Vodafone UK Customer Service and the guy ther suggested sending my handset away for flashing & possible upgrading the software. I asked if this was covered and he advised as long as I got the phone from Vodafone then yes I was covered.

So Monday 15th June, I went into the Vodafone retail store in Dundee & they sent my phone away for repair. I was advised to come back in a week to collect it and sure enough it was back in a week. I asked what had been done, the lady looked at the accompanying letter, just a software upgrade she said, and something about an internal clean? I thought good, no more egg timing.

I peeled off the screen cover they had applied and the two scars were still on the screen where I’d caught it on a button last summer. Same handset I thought. I turned it over to put back in my SIM (which was a new one as I’d asked them to swap my number to as 2 & a half years can ruin a SIM’s connection plates.) and battery then I noticed how clean the inside was! Maybe they’d given me a new handset, I confirmed this when I noticed the backcover release button was still there (I’d dropped my phone about 2 months after I got it & since then I’d had to jam the cover on as that button had sprung off)..

So a new internal handset with my faceplate over it, that’s pretty decent, obviously it was too much hassle to repair my handset. Over the next few days I set up my phone again, added my essential apps & set up my email addresses. I decided to settle on the Vodafone Today theme rather than the BB Dimension Zen theme I’d used before. I noticed though all I had for internet was the Vodafone today icon, not the usual Blackberry browser icon, I just thought this was due to the theme.

I couldn’t find the blackberry browser on the phone so I decided to call 191 again, they advised they’d resend my service books, (I would’ve done this but I also couldn’t find that link either!) and that should set things right. Alas no, the browser didn’t appear.

I was thinking about my move away from Blackberry to the HTC Magic which I’d talked about a few times on my Twitter feed recently, Vodafone had advised me I could upgrade on 29th August, as that was 70 to the end of my contract. I had a thought heading back from Tesco yesterday that I’d see if I could offer to pay a month to them and see if I could start on the Magic on 29th July as I’m going away for two weeks to rural Perthshire for the annual SEC Youth Weeks and there’s basically no signal there. A mobile with Wifi would be excellent as we have a wireless router set up for the fortnight and I could connect the Magic to that rather than leave my Blackberry redundant for a fornight.

Nothing I could lose I thought as I called 191 to advise that the service book hadn’t worked for getting the browser. The guy I spoke to was excellent, he advised I could download the Blackberry App world and I could get the browser from there. Excellent I thought, simple idea, I didn’t use the app world as I wasn’t fussed with it and to be honest it’s aimed at the US market than the UK. I asked him about my idea for early upgrade, he advised he himself couldn’t do it but thought if I called back around 20th July & spoke to a manager I might be able to as I was a long serving customer who was willing to pay the last month to do it, oh & I’d mentioned I was thinking about getting 24 month contract.

Anyway I agreed I’d call back then and try the App world idea. I didn’t immediately get the App world but for some reason thought, “what OS is this thing running?” I checked.

Then I flipped.WTF.

v 4.2

v 4.2.1.103 to be exact.

Blackberry OS v 4.2

(excuse the image, I had to use my old Logitech webcam and the max image resolution is 352 x 288.)

Permit me to lose it a bit here but software upgrade my ****ing arse! That’s a downgrade, no questions asked. I was fuming, why couldn’t they have told me they’d had to give me a new handset, even that it was running a lower OS than when I’d given it to them and I would have to upgrade.

I called 191 back, and talked to a guy who I have to say wasn’t totally getting what I was saying. He keep saying that maybe when they flashed the software, they put it back to the original setting. Then it was maybe they couldn’t fix my handset so had to give me a new one they was reset to the original settings.

Now let me be clear here, I’m annoyed they gave me the handset back with 4.2, but I’d accept that if they had communicated that to me! I asked him at the start of the conversation what was noted had happened when they “repaired” my handset, he said that phrase again “software upgrade“. I said, giving them my phone with 4.5 and they give me it back with 4.2 on it is like giving your PC for repair with Vista on it and getting it back with XP! (I wouldn’t agree, I prefer Vista but that’s another blog post). He agreed with this fact.

I explained to the guy, that I knew this was a different handset, as explained before, the inside was immaculate, no dust at all, brand new looking and also the backplate release button was the major give away. I explained to him I run Linux etc so it’s an inconvenience for me to upgrade again. My main complaint, I was lied to. Let’s not try to get away from that fact, I was told my handset was repaired & it was upgraded yet I now have a different handset with my faceplate on it and a lower operating system.

I work in a call centre & I know what this guy was experiencing, and it was the reason I had called – a pissed off customer just wanted to call to complain, to register their complaint that they had not been given the service they wanted.

So I thanked the guy for his time and said I just wanted it noted I was unhappy at the inconvenience I had been casued.

I then downloaded the App world and thought, well at least I can have the BB browser until I can get Gordon’s computer for a while. I downloaded it then clicked to launch it.

I couldn’t believe the error I was presented with:

Blackberry App world advising me I didn't have the correct data plan.

If that isn’t clear, what it says is this: Upgrade your service to a plan that includes browsing and discover the possibilities at Blackberry App World. Contact your service provide for mor details.

Now that might be due to the Blackberry settings or something so I decided against calling Vodafone again, instead I ranted on Twitter about it.

@VodafoneUK have replied to one of my tweets on Twitter so I’ll see what they have to say about it.

Rant over//

Filed under: Blackberry, Linux, Tech, Vodafone, general, mobile, observation   |  1 Comment
Tags: customer service, software, twitter reply, Vodafone