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Vodafone Ninjas? Yeah, right!

22/10/2019

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So here my beef. I have been on Vodafone's RED+ plan for several years. Recently on a trip to the US I was roaming and about to run out of data when I discovered that my original plan spec had been upgraded from 1.5GB to 15GB for new subscribers.

​I was not impressed that I had neither been told nor been upgraded automatically. Anyways, I placed an order to switch to the 15GB plan. To make sure I also confirmed with an online Vodafone Ninja that the order had been received and would be processed. A month later back in NZ I received an 80% data warning and had to realise that my plan has not been updated. What follows it the follow-up call with a second Vodafone Ninja.
original transcripts: ① September 2019 ◆  ② October 2019

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​Talking with Vodafone Ninja Dwayne
October 2019

Dwayne: Hi, my name is Dwayne.

Dwayne: Good Afternoon! Welcome to Vodafone New Zealand's online customer service

Dwayne: How are you doing today?

Rudi: Hi Dwayne, Rudi here.

Rudi: I requested my plan to aligned with current terms i.e. 15GB 23/24 last month whilst in Dallas. Nothing has happened! I'm getting 80% warning messages. Not best peased!!
File attachment upload has started.
The file Vodafone Live Chat.pdf (42.97KB) was received.

Dwayne: Thank you for sharing your concern. Please do not worry, let me look into this for you.

Dwayne: Please allow me a couple of minutes to check the details. Dwayne: I did go through the transcript you sent across.

Dwayne: Let me check the details for you. Please help me with your phone number.

Rudi: 021???????

Dwayne: Thank you.

Dwayne: Please allow me a couple of minutes to check the details.

Dwayne: Thank you for waiting, I really appreciate your patience.

Dwayne: May I please know how did you request this? Store or on call?

Rudi: Through the system online it did show pending and followed up with Ninja Shaun to ensure follow-through. As you can see from the dialogue he assured me it would happen. Yet, here I am again chasing on what is frustrating anyway as Vodafone has left me on old terms in the first place.

Dwayne: I apologise for the inconvenience.

Dwayne: I am investigating it for you.

Dwayne: For security check, please help me with 4 digit PIN to your account?

Rudi: ???? I think

Dwayne: Thank you.

Dwayne: Please stay connected.

Dwayne: Thank you for waiting, I really appreciate your patience.

Dwayne: The order was declined the very same as picked up by system, as it was placed from an IP address out of NZ.

Dwayne: *the very same day

Rudi: Can you please fix this and confirm that I have not been charged any over data since the commitment from Shaun?

Dwayne: Let me share, under on account, you will not be charged any extra on top of your data balance if it runs out. Be assured on that part. To fix this, same order needs to be placed again. I would request you to place it through sale steam over the call, so that they can place it on your behalf and confirm you over the call if accepeted.

Dwayne: You can reach sales on 0800 777 301 Monday to Friday, 8 am to 8 pm. Or if you wish let me arrange a callabck for you from them. The team will reach you in next 24 - 48 business hours. if that is okay with you.

Dwayne: As you say, at your comfort.

Rudi: Sorry, all was clear, you have the contact and my instructions, confirmation from Shaun. I don't wish to place another order just because of the way that Vodafone choses to deal with this. That was a contract.

Dwayne: I understand your point, but let me share, you did contact the same day to confirm if the order was received. On which Shaun checked and confirmed it did, looking at the status "pending" and assured you on general terms that orders are completed with in 24 - 48 working hours. After your conversation, in few hours it was declined as you have placed it from the IP address outside NZ

Dwayne: Thus, the same order cannot be reopened but you need to place an new one.

Rudi: Dwayne, I was not advised that my IP address might be an issue and Shaun's assurance was not conditional. I'm sure you can relay the situation to an authorised person to precess. I have spent a considerable amount of time with Shawn when I was in Dallas and now with you.

Dwayne: I certainly understand that. However, the time you talked to Shaun, the order was just received and was not declined yet. it was declined after that for a genuine reason that it was placed from IP outside NZ. Moreover, this rejection is very rare as we come across a very few cases where orders are placed from overseas. Also I could not see the same was mentioned while chatting with Shaun the you were in Dallas.

Dwayne: I am sorry if my explanation does not hold the ground in front of you. OS907373??? is your online order number. I would request you to speak to our orders team once on 0800 837 867 from Monday to Friday 9 am to 6 pm or write to them on onlineshop@vodafone.com and see if they can re open it by any chance. I assure, you we do not wish to bother customers on anything if the strings are in our hands.

Rudi: Dwayne, we going around in circles. Vodafone has good notice of what my instructions were and it was confirmed by a staff member. With that I want you to execute on that commitment, I am your customer and it is unreasonable that you ask me to redo all this just to make it easier for Vodafone internal system.

Rudi: Dwayne, you seem to be a smart bot but not a ninja that sort things for Vodafone customers. If I am already talking to a real person why would you tell me to call yet somebody else? The ninja label would suggest the ultimate in customer service. I am a prolific blogger and you may just have provided me with a little story.

Dwayne: This is because we are from service team (call, data, texts and tech). Your issue is regarding an online order. The organisations have multiple departments which work on different hierarchy and has defined role. The online order declined will be under Orders team discretion. I did provide the best of the information available at our level. However, if it comes to core team' s discretion, you will have to contact the team itself.


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  1. Very poor customer service to early customers when they are not automatically upgraded to the new terms that are offered to new customers. 
  2. If a customer places an order and Vodafone decides to cancel the order then Vodafone must notify the customer.
  3. Vodafone cancelled the order and removed it from the system so that it could not be traced by the customer, necessitating a tedious support call.
  4. Vodafone proudly provides international roaming services clearly recognising that customers travel the world. This makes the non-NZ IP 'security' check nonsensical. If a phone is lost or stolen in NZ the risk of a fraudulent plan change is just as great.
  5. ​A file note from the first ninja should have made it clear that the request for a plan change was legit, coming from a user currently travelling in the US.
  6. The conversations with each ninja ran over an hour. Note how the transcript is without time stamping.​ 
  7. Whist Vodafone seem to be able to reconstruct the sequence of events and pinpoint the problem in the internal process no attempt was made to correct the mistake. Instead it was pushed back to the customer to repeat the process to fit into Vodafone's inflexible process flows.

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Sadly, NZ has lost Ray's Wing Power

4/8/2018

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Sadly, Ray Thomson has passed away recently. He was instrumental in kickstarting my angel investor career. He had a charming but very effective way of helping fledgling angel investors grow their wings. He would simply stand behind them at the deep end and push them in to fly, swim or drown. In startup speak 'drown' would be 'fast fail'.  Worked for me and from joining Ice Angels in 2010 I rapidly advanced to become chairman of their screening committee and a member of their advisory board under Ray's chairmanship.

  • With respect to gardening tools we were always in total agreement and would always call a spade a spade.
  • Ray was the first recipient of Ice Angels' William H. Payne Active Angel Award in 2010 and I followed in his footsteps the following year.
  • From 2012 to 2014  Ray was also chairman of the Angel Association New Zealand. Under his stewardship the number of angel investors in formal angel networks increased by over 150 to 500  and over 100 Kiwi startups received seed investment.
  • In 2014 Ray was awarded the prestigious Arc Angel Award at the 2014 Angel Summit.
  • Ray was a very IP and returns oriented investor, whilst I focus more on founders and collective investment process.
  • Ray was concerned that  the monopolised dealflow at Ice Angels would be threatened when I set up Flying Kiwi Angels ☞ in 2014 ​with a bunch of others in order to avoid the conflict of interest that results from a commission based angel model.
  • Thankfully, we caught up in June this year for a coffee and chat, one might call it a reconciliatory chat. He reckoned that he had still 10 or more years of active angel investing left in him. Sadly, he did not. 
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His investment style may have been divisive but with his enthusiasm and drive he was an example for many angel investors, myself included. 
2xR Angel Investors 120810.pdf
File Size: 1990 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

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Beer and Pretzel - all in a name

7/5/2018

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OMG, I know that I have no Bavarian blood in me but it tuns out that my name is very Bavarian. Beer and Pretzel is quintessential Bavarian and my name picks up on that. Interestingly, there are more pictures of smiling and sober women holding beer and pretzel than of men.

First Name

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Greg Young (not young like FKAngelina Jackie) has more time to indulge in zythophile pursuits since he stepped down from the FKA board after 3.52 years as independent director. One of his discoveries is RUDI'S beer and to prove the point he sent a copy of this newsletter.

Second Name


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Now Also Adult FunCarts

1/4/2018

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Aisleworx is world leading in the design and delivery of its patented digital media shopping carts for families with young kids. The FunCart™ is safe and fun to use.  It provides onboard entertainment for the kids and additionally special offers for other shopper via short clips on a front screen and static images on the two side screens.

Top US retailers with nearly a total of 1,000 supermarkets already offer one or more FunCarts™ for the the convenience of young families. FunCarts™ create shopper loyalty, young families spend longer in the store and buy more, and instead of potentially disrupting other shoppers the family with FunCart™ image has a positive impact. For that reason major brands are considering to co-brand the physical FunCart™ to leverage these feel good factors.

Independent research has shown that the digital media advertising on FunCarts™ is highly effective with 15-20% category lift compared to control stores. Now in over 1,000 stores, FunCart™ ads reach more eyeballs than the major TV networks. It reachers consumers inside the store which makes  FunCart™ digital media more targeted than any other medium.

Aisleworx is well poised to expand the US business having recently set up a dedicated US digital media company to exploit the new and exiting instore advertising channel that the FunCart™ platform is rapidly creating.
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Doug Bartlett, CEO & Rudi Bublitz, Chair
Encouraged by the success Aisleworx has designed and built a first Adult FunCart to give a fun option also for mum and dad.  Initial market validation suggests that dads will be 10 times more likely to buy an Adult FunCart.

The staged photo below contrasts our established FunCart™ with the prototype of our Adult FunCart. Special thanks go to the team at ShopperChopper.com 👍
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Cool Brand? Boys Active, Girls Passive?

20/8/2017

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Surfing brand Billabong, true to their name, got themselves into a deep water hole. They could have done a cool photo contrast like my mockup above. The contract of active vs passive also nicely reflects my understanding of angel investing and why I am so passionate about Flying Kiwi Angels. However, instead Billabong chose to piss of millions with this contrast imagery.

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Ice Angels, 1 Name, 2 Brands

2/7/2017

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What do you think when you hear ice angels?
There are two different takes on this. 


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Subscribe to a Killer Newsletter

25/6/2017

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Bringing most Fridays Kiwi news on angel investing and the startup ecosystem. Snappy commentary, selected event listings and some serious fun on a Friday afternoon.

See one example below and subscribe ☞ here.

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Monetising Marriage and Divorce

17/6/2017

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Reading the Sunday paper I stumbled across this article lamenting the rising cost of weddings in New Zealand. Given my recent personal experience I think this needs to be put into proper perspective.

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Dictator or Facilitator?

16/6/2017

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​The following is an extract from the original article Dictator of Facilitator? by Doug Macnamara.
​He has also a number of interesting monthly LinkedIn posts under the title The Governance Doctor.

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FKA Pitch Night with surprise guest

24/5/2017

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Every fourth Tuesday of the month Flying Kiwi Angels have a pitch night which is generously hosted by the motley crew at KPMG Enterprise. They are working with FKA to bring relevant services and support to the startup ecosystem.

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