In general I don’t like call-centres, but from time to time you do get good efficient service from operators with the power to change, fix and resolve issues. Not Vodacom (SA), they do not seem to get it.
Why Vodacom sucks:
The operators do not have the power to change anything. They can’t give you any facts. The can’t view your profile or settings. They constantly put you on hold while they try to track down somebody that knows what to do.. 5 or 10 minutes at a time.
Terrifyingly BAD music on hold. While they put you on hold for what seems like forever they play this hip-hop crap. I’m not sure who told them that everybody is a hip-hop fan.. it must be that Rat they have as a mascot that is doing all the thinking.
Middle-ware queues from hell. Everything takes hours to process. Enable the smallest thing and they say “It should take about 24 hours, or about 4 hours if you are lucky”. 4 (friggin) hours to update a database record? Let me guess the Rat advised you to build systems using 7000 levels of Java abstraction?
SMS assumptions. I hate SMS’s so it really bugs me that they assume everybody loves SMS’s. You can only get your password via SMS for the Vodacom4Me website. This is a web service right? Why can I not register using email? I tried to enable my incoming SMS service using the GSM code (#35*1111*16#) but I can only guess that it’s disabled on a network level after one of their previous little screw-ups where they reset my whole profile to some default.
It’s pretty obvious they are stuck in the “GSM way” of thinking. Lets deploy ~24 year old technology and hope customers will just fit the technology. Well, there is this thing called the Internet now and using this thing you can create useful web services, empower customers and make the technology fit the customers.
GSM RIP.
Kill, Kill, Kill the Rat.
It’s the music that gets me… That dreadful combination of the long waits and the music. Eish!
I have to admit it’s the frikkin rat that gets me. I will not embrace the rat, I hate the rat. I can’t believe how many middle-aged, well-educated South African’s love the rat? It’s a disgrace. Maybe not a disgrace, but it is very disturbing. It breaks my little heart.
Hmmm lets find all bloggers who have complained about vodacom…. I know I have, Haven’t listended to the new Amplitude yet(m4a?) apparently there is something about Vodacom there too.