I need a new mobile phone. But because I am blind I need a phone that will work with a piece of software called talks that makes it speak. This piece of software can be installed on a certain range of nokia phones, but there are only actually about 4 phones currently on the market that are compatible, and these are all top of the range phones so very expensive.
So I do my research, and I discover that vodafone will provide this software free of charge to their visually impaired customers (which is very handy as it costs £150 to buy the software alone and the software is tied to the phone so every time you change the phone you need a new software licence).
So I ring vodafone to enquire about this scheme, and they tell me that yes, I can have the phone on a certain contract and that they will provide me with the software as well - excellent.
So I agree to take out a contract and phone is duely delivered last week, except ... no software installed, or evident in any way
So I ring them, and the guy says that the order was never placed for the software, and the best way to deal with it would be to go to a local vodafone shop where they will install it for me - bit inconvenient but fair enough, and as I know someone who got a phone from them I have no reason to think that will be a problem.
So off I trot down to the vodafone shop in town. "oh sorry," says the man behind the counter, "if you want this software installed the phone will have to be sent away and that will be at least two weeks." (now bear in mind that as a new customer I have just 14 days to back out of the agreement, so if I send the phone away then by the time it comes back I will not be able to return it if there is a problem).
so I decide that I'm fed up with them and that I'll return the phone. So I go home and ring them, and spend 45 minutes on hold to their returns department (funny how I can get straight through to new customers and existing accounts but there's a massive queue for returns ). So eventually I speak to someone who says "oh yes, I've dealt with this before, and they all got it wrong. What should happen is that we should pre-install the software and send the phone out with that. So what I can arrange to happen is to do a like-for-like exchange. We will issue a new handset with talks installed, and will then take away the one you have, and it will be delivered on Tuesday." So I give her the benefit...
Today is Tuesday...
I have stayed in all day...
No delivery...
so now I wish to tell them to shove their business...