Vodafone has the most unsatisfied customers in the world, according to a recent customer satisfaction survey on mobile providers conducted in the UK. If you’re outside the United States, you probably know who Vodafone is. They're one of the largest mobile operators in the world, with presence on all continents. If you're in the United States, Vodafone is still one of the largest operators in the world, you just probably haven't heard of it.That doesn't mean Vodafone hasn't been active in the U.S. - until 2004 it owned almost half of Verizon Wireless, and they're currently teaming up with T-Mobile for some network services.
Dropping the ball, Vodafone style
It's not unusual for users to complain about the service they receive - we all know that a slow internet can drive you up the wall - but Vodafone is reported to have gone way over the top last year.British telecom Ofcom announced recently that they received 32 is the magic number of complaints received from Vodafone users. Hey, that's not bad! But it is bad when you realize that it's actually 32 complaints per 100,000 subscribers. It's reported that Vodafone has close to 20 million total users, but some of those are prepaid users who weren't counted in this report.It didn't use to be as bad - in 2014 there were barely half these complaints. A spokeswoman for Vodafone declared that:"The points highlighted in this report largely relate to a major programme we undertook last year to transfer customers on to a new billing system, aimed at simplifying the operation of their accounts and opening up a range of better services, such as 'click and collect'."She went on to say that:
"Unfortunately, there were some problems during the highly complex migration. Now that the migration exercise is essentially complete, we expect our £2bn investment in our network and services will start to deliver a step change in customer experience."Let's hope, for customers' sake first, that the issues will be solved by next year.