I am going to be a poor student next year (after several years in the workforce) so to save money I decided to trade in my postpaid Red $129 plan (which had just passed the two year mark so I am not locked in anymore) in for a prepaid $19 plan. Popped into the Vodafone Queen Street (Auckland) store and asked to switch my postpaid account to prepay, thinking it wouldn't be a difficult request.I was surprised to be told that it can't be done in store. The guy I spoke with told me that I have to call 777 to request this. While I don't mind calling in principle, I had already made the trip in to make a request I thought (reasonably I hope) could be handled in store. I asked why it couldn't be done and I was told that it was a requirement from higher up that switching from postpaid to prepaid can only be done via 777.Well the end result was that I figured it was easier to just cross the road to Spark and port my number over. The friendly guy I spoke to at Spark was only too happy to sell me a SIM card and submit my port request. Quite a stark contrast to the Vodafone employee, in a Vodafone store, dealing with a Vodafone customer in regards to his Vodafone account, who (shrugging his shoulders) advised me he was not allowed to process a switch from postpaid to prepaid. Bizarre to say the least.I am interested to clarify whether this policy actually exists (though I doubt the employee has just made it up as he seemed genuinely disappointed that he couldn't deal with it for me). And if it does, then I am interested to know whether Vodafone thinks it's a good idea to forbid their own staff from processing what seems like a fairly straightforward request. If it is a difficult process to do, then surely there should be some way for retail staff to submit a some kind of request to switch an account from postpaid to prepaid on the customer's behalf.- James
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