Comments on: Vodafone iPhone FAIL

By: Joe Sokohl

Joe Sokohl — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 03:08:01 +0000

At least you have a choice between Vodaphone & Virgin. We USer are stuck with one choice…ATT, whose coverage SUX! So at least you can exercise some choice.

By: Donna Spencer

Donna Spencer — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 10:20:22 +0000

@Tracy – that’s interesting. I only heard about the Optus outright purchase after I got mine. The dude at the Optus store certainly didn’t tell me about them when I went in either…

By: Tracy Kyle

Tracy Kyle — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 09:49:39 +0000

I too spent 20 min on the Vodafone web site looking for a price for an iPhone. I couldn’t find one so in desperation I headed off to our local shopping centre which has shops for all of the major networks. Went to Vodafone first and enquired about buying a iPhone outright and having it on a prepayed plan. The promptly told us that they do not sell iPhones outright, only on plans. We went to Optus, 2 doors away and they were happy to sell us one outright and connect as a prepaid. Vodafone now have 1 less customer.

By: Ben Boyle

Ben Boyle — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:25:46 +0000

Oh if you can, check with friends, family, peers in the area about network quality. I stayed clear of virgin because we have their broadband@home and whilst the price is good and the sales service was good, the quality has been variable… lot of talk that Optus 3G (which virgin share) is overloaded atm. Best to check in your local area if you can!

I bought my iphone from nextbyte, a mac shop – just for fun!

By: Donna Spencer

Donna Spencer — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:38:09 +0000

Thanks for the comments…

@Kris – what buttons work – I can’t find any. You included a link, but I can’t figure out how to get there (via the site, not via your link). I should be able to get there via the site.

@Steve – you bet.

@Erica – There are some buttons beneath the big ad. But they go to the same page I showed.

@Clinton – you can walk into a Virgin store and buy an iPhone. But my additional problem today was that I wasn’t carrying enough ID to meet their 100 points test. So no go for that reason.

@Robert – I didn’t stop too early. I really, really can’t see what link you are suggesting. Have a look at my screenshots. They are real, and there really isn’t anything for me.

Maybe I’m getting a different version to you all – I certainly can’t figure out where else I could possibly click to buy a phone…

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:17:01 +0000

Although the site is shitty, you may have stopped a little too early.

I followed your links – on the iphone.vodafone.com.au page, there was a link to this page:
http://store.vodafone.com.au/iphone/?pid=vcadr:deals:home:b:2:3

It appears that the 4-ad panel in the middle may be dynamic, changing between requests; on 3 visits, I got an iPhone ad, with the above link.

Personally, I went for the Optus plan, with the Timeless option. I’d give you a link, but the Optus site isn’t responding right now… (Yeah, webstores suck)

By: dancingmango » Shoddy web experiences are still too common

dancingmango » Shoddy web experiences are still too common — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:47:04 +0000

[...] the high-street outlet doing this, but on the web this kind of thing is still sadly common place. Take a look at Donna M’s recent rant. Because it is a website (probably within the constraints of some dated CMS), a shoddy experience [...]

By: Clinton

Clinton — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:25:58 +0000

Hmmm … I don’t think you can buy a handset from Virgin, which will kill your plan to “walk in and walk out”.

By: Erica Van Uitregt

Erica Van Uitregt — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:38:28 +0000

Just has a look at the vodaphone site and they’ve improved it a tiny-tiny bit. There is now a panel on the page that you get to by clicking on ‘Pricing’ or ‘Buy’ that says ‘The iPhone you’ve been waiting for Buy Now >’.

So its more clicks than necessary to get to the price information, but at least now you CAN get to it.

By: Stephen Collins

Stephen Collins — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:47:48 +0000

Oh, dear. I very nearly chose Virgin over Vodafone myself when I got my iPhone. The only reason I stayed was I was a pre-launch signup and they nursed me through the purchase process.

Vodafone have definitely shot themselves here. You should totally have a section on your site where you highlight these bad customer/user experiences for the IA/UX community to examine and discuss.

By: Kris

Kris — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:17:23 +0000

Donna it seems those buttons on the left do not work but the other buttons do. http://store.vodafone.com.au/iphone/