Ofcom has fined Vodafone £4.6m over a series of failures in its UK business, including its handling of customer complaints.
As first revealed by Sky News City Editor Mark Kleinman, the ruling comes after the conclusion of two investigations into the communications giant.
One probe concluded that Vodafone's customer service representatives "were not given sufficiently clear guidance on what constituted a complaint".
Ofcom also criticised the firm's processes, which were "insufficient to ensure that all complaints were appropriately escalated or dealt with in a fair, timely manner."
Another investigation found that 10,452 pay-as-you-go customers did not have their Vodafone accounts credited after they paid to 'top-up' their mobile phone credit.
The telecoms industry regulator says the affected customers collectively lost £150,000 over a 17-month period.
Ofcom consumer group director Lindsey Fussell said the failings were "serious and unacceptable".
She added: "Phone services are a vital part of people's lives, and we expect all customers to be treated fairly and in good faith.
"We will not hesitate to investigate and fine those who break the rules."
In a statement, Vodafone said: "We deeply regret these system and process failures.
"We are completely focused on serving our customers: everyone who works for us is expected to do their utmost to meet our customers' needs, day after day, and act quickly and efficiently if something goes wrong."
It added: "It is clear from Ofcom's findings that we did not do that often enough or well enough on a number of occasions. We offer our profound apologies to anyone affected by these errors."
The firm said it has fully refunded or recredited more than 10,422 customers an average of £14.35 each.
On the Ofcom ruling, Sky News City Editor Mark Kleinman said: "Vodafone is still the most complained about mobile network in the UK, which suggests that problems which led to these fines today have still not been fully resolved.
"£4.6m is loose change down the back of the Vodafone's sofa, it has a market capitalisation on the London Stock Exchange of nearly £60bn."
No comments:
Post a Comment