Confusion and Chaos rules Vodafone’s Launch

After releasing Vodafone’s "Flexi" Plans to the public, it seems that there is a  huge confusion and disappointment  from the Qatar public regarding their choice of plans and pricing. It seems the even the CEO of Vodafone, Grahame Maher, has joined in answering these issues in QatarLiving.com. 

 

I am not sure why the Vodafone CEO would actually give themselves a pat on the back for improving QTEL’s Services and rates. It might be the case but shouldn’t they strive to be bring BETTER services than saying BRAVO to QTEL for better services and taking the credit for it?

Why would Vodafone resort to using a general/public website for answering questions and queries? If this is important for them, isn’t it easier to create a forum from the Vodafone Website itself? WAIT… wasn’t that what they created for and limited to the "1st 1000" which they called a blog, and was filled with suggestions and complaints from the 1st 1000 users. And to which they just "unplugged" and "shut down" after announcement of the Flexi plans to avoid more complaints from their "1st 1000" users.

In the end, even if they Vodafone gives me better rates than QTEL, I wouldn’t dare loose QTEL. Until Vodafone provides me a better and stable service. Your 1st 1000 have repeatedly commented on the "no service" areas especially in City Centre and Ras Abu Aboud and till now, after 4+ months, coverage hasn’t really improved much, if at all, in those areas.

Also, why haven’t you worked out with companies like Kahramaa for their SMS services, banks or even Karwa? I was trying to ask for a taxi from Karwa and was told they can’t call me back because they can’t call Vodafone numbers. I had to use my trusty QTEL number. Vodafone numbers are not recognized by their systems so how can you expect people to use Vodafone if these mobile alerts/services are not available on your network?

Or how about not receiving SMS from other countries? Imagine Vodafone asking the 1st 1000 customers to call their country’s Telecomm companies so that they could open their network for Vodafone Qatar or recognize their numbers. Weren’t they supposed to do that? Nor should we call QTEL and tell them that we’ve been receiving the same SMS 30+ times in a day from a Vodafone number. Wasn’t that supposed to to be worked out by Vodafone? People agreed and paid to help you by reporting the problems but not to solve the problems for you.

I’ve been using their network as part of the "1st 1000" customers and frankly, I don’t want people "jumping" in without knowing what they’re getting into when joining the Vodafone Network. I don’t care if I save 10-15 QR on Flexi or Shahry, HALA or RED. You can do all the calculations you want but nothing beats knowing what you’re actually paying for and what you expect from the service.

If they are doing damage control at the moment, they are failing miserably. Whoever thought of launching a new service for a higher price (no matter if I get more calls/SMS) is stupid…plain and simple. And to keep drilling "Flexi" and "Freedom" is more irritating than a chalk on a board as there is nothing flexible with their plans nor do I get any freedom at all when I can’t fully trust your service and coverage.

STOP patting yourself on the back with QTEL aggressive campaigns but give yourself a kick in the ass so that you could move forward and do better than QTEL. Cause if that is not your goal, then I could already give you my applause, stick with QTEL and be happy I don’t have to change numbers and confuse my friends who use QTEL.