Reader's Queries

Dispute over accountA reader from Tralee who signed up for a Vodafone phone and broadband account more than three years ago contacted us last week. His story starts in June 2008 when he switched his phone and broadband from eircom to Vodafone.

He was promised a connection speed of 7mbs at a cost of €59 per month. He never got anything close to that speed despite the fact that he dutifully paid his bills every month for 10 months. He called the company monthly to say he was only ever getting between 0.5 and 1mbs and Vodafone kept saying it was his fault.

Eventually, the company admitted that there was a problem with the exchange in his area and he said it would not be able to provide the service he was paying for until it was upgraded. Vodafone assured him that the upgrade on his exchange was due to happen within months but in the meantime its customer care people said they would switch him to a 3mbs tariff with a cost of around €44 per month.

Months passed and he was still billed at €59 per month. Eventually the price on his bills fell to €44 a month but then he noticed a service called Vodafone Voice had been added to his bill at a cost of €34.99 per month. He contacted the company and was told the error would be resolved but for another 12 months his bills were wrong. He accepts that he had stopped paying his bills throughout this period as he was waiting for the right bills.

In May this year he was told by Vodafone Customer Care that the company accepted there had been multiple mistakes on his bills and he was promised a written apology. It never came. His broadband speed was, however, upgraded to more than 5mbs. Then he was disconnected. He has had no broadband for five months. He accepts that he owes the company – although he disputes the amount – and is willing to pay but wants an apology, a payment plan put in place and his broadband reconnected.

We contacted Vodafone who then got in touch with out customer. A spokeswoman said that it could “not share specific details about this customer’s account, we can confirm that the service is up and running”. In a statement it said it regretted “that this customer has had a poor customer experience as a result of what appears to be a combination of human error and delay in follow up agreements to ensure actions were resolved.” She said: “Vodafone has apologised to the customer for any inconvenience caused and we continue to work to resolve the issue to their satisfaction.”

Confusion over Lidl bag

Last week we featured, as our Tweet of the Week, a comment from a reader in which he claimed about a smaller sized bag which he got in his local Lidl. “Did you see what Lidl have done to their shopping bags? Half the size, poor quality and still 22 cent each. So annoyed,” it read.

His comment prompted an almost immediate response from the company. “We have not changed our plastic bags to a smaller sized bag or changed the quality in any way,” the company said to us. A spokeswoman went on to say that its senior management team was extremely unhappy that our reader’s tweet had been printed and she pointed out that the company did not sell a bag for 22 cent. She said the 22 cent was a Government levy and she said the company actually charges 39 cent per bag.

The company also sent a tweet to our reader – and to us – saying much the same thing. He responded with a picture which appears to contradict what the company had told both us and him. The picture is of two Lidl bags, one dramatically smaller than the other. He said he had picked up the smaller bag in a Lidl in Clonee last week. In response via Twitter the company expressed confusion and said the small bags had been available in Northern Ireland some time ago. The company also said a box of smaller bags entered the supply chain in the Republic by mistake and was ultimately delivered to its store in Clonee.

€230 for Mazda remote?

Finbar Holland recently lost the remote zapper – he says it is officially called a fob – for the central locking of his “humble Mazda 3”. He contacted Joe Duffy Motors and they told him that they would be happy to supply him with a replacement “for a mere €230!”

Our reader reminded the people at Joe Duffy that “we were talking about a Mazda 3 here and not a Lamborghini with a complex computer generated encryption system. They insisted that the price was correct. I contacted Mazda Ireland and got a response from their inappropriately named Customer Care department. They confirmed that Joe Duffy Motors had indeed got it wrong. They said that the price was in fact €240! I attach their e-mail, because I wouldn’t blame you if you did not believe me. They are not able to provide me with any explanation as to why the price is so utterly outrageous. I think the answer is very simple. They know I can’t get it anywhere else.”