From
which.co.ukWhich? Mobile’s mystery shopper calls up the UK’s major mobile phone operators to find out how good their customer service skills really are.
Eighth place: Orange
Bottom of the pile was the rep from Orange. He just seemed to want me to go away. I had to work pretty hard to get any information out of him but, with enough prodding, I managed to get some useful nuggets.
Asking about ways of topping-up the only one he missed out was using ATMs and he also told me what the minimum top-up was. The main problem with the call was the fact he just didn’t seem interested and made it sound like I was getting in the way of his afternoon snooze.
Seventh place: 3
Seventh place goes to 3’s rep who finally answered the call after a lengthy and frustrating experience with 3’s automated system, where the right option wasn’t working and sent me back to the start.When I finally got through the rep didn’t seem to listen all that much and was a bit too focused on pushing the sales pitch rather than giving me any of the information I asked for,
Sixth place: Virgin
In sixth place was Virgin, whose rep didn’t agree with what I was trying to do and kept telling me how much better value a contract would be. Well done for giving me the advice, but listening to me would have also been a bonus. We got through all the methods of top-ups and I was even treated to some unsolicited advice about changing networks, but, without checking how much I used my phone, she decided that PAYG was not for me and became fixated on contracts, making it feel like a hard sell.
Fifth place: Tesco Mobile
My call to Tesco was fielded by a rep who told me it was a call more suitable for the sales team. I pushed for more information regardless. She did offer up quite a bit of information about top-ups and the advantages of Tesco – namely triple credit top-ups and the ability to link it with your clubcard.
Despite being apparently able to answer my queries she seemed very keen to be rid of me and she offloaded me before I could even get through the full set of questions.
Fourth place: T-Mobile
T-Mobile took fourth place, with a rep as robotic their automated system, but at least he managed to provide me with most of the information I was after. He provided a lot of information about the rewards I would get if I topped-up and went through the tariff in detail.
He also asked me about my usage and suggested an appropriate tariff and generally performed admirably, if only he could have done it with a hint of personality.
Third place: O2
Bronze medal goes to O2 when its rep explained as many PAYG tariffs as there are grains of sand, or at least that’s what it felt like. She had a lot of information to hand – almost too much for a PAYG novice (like I was pretending to be) – and delivered it well.
Going through tariff after tariff definitely gave me all the information I could ever want, but tailoring the information for the listener would have been a better option. She also managed to go through all the methods of topping up and drew on her own experience to provide me with advice over whether I would save any money or not.
Second place: TalkMobile
Talk Mobile claims silver thanks to a noble effort from their rep. He gave a lot of information about PAYG, which was particularly impressive as he turned out to actually be one of the pay-monthly reps.
Still, he managed to tell me all the methods of topping-up and go through the most appropriate tariff for me. By the time I ran out of questions he said if I wanted to know anymore I would have to be transferred, but he had already done a good job.
First place: Vodafone
Top honours go to Vodafone, with a star turn from its rep combining professionalism and the personal touch. She gave me all the information about topping up and tailored the tariff information meaning I wasn’t deluged with minutes and text costs.
She also used her own experience to provide advice and managed to sneak a little plug for Vodafone’s freedom packs in here too. And not only that, but she also did all this with personality and even laughed at one point. Good work.
