I want this post to be more of a discussion than me actually writing a post.  I am claiming that the strongest reason that would make employees quit their jobs is bad management.  I believe that one could hold on to a job with less salary provided that his manager is good and on the other hand if you will get a huge salary but work with a bad manager you’ll quit.  By a bad manager I mean:

1- one who treats his employees badly like lose his temper, discriminate, being harsh in his judgments, criticize in public, humiliate, not acknowledge good work, underestimate efforts, always creating stress and tension around the office…..etc.

2- Being unfair and favor some employees on others based on his own relations with them and not based on work quality and productivity.

3- Lacking time management and planning skills and being unable to balance workload.

4- focusing on trivials and not on core work issues

5- Not following clear, scientific and fair performance evaluation methods

6- following a centralized and dictatorship way of management and not opening room for creativity and innovation. And also not giving a chance to anyone to assume responsibilities and take decisions.

I believe that I can survive a job with a salary that I think I could earn more or without a very clear career path but to work with a manager that exercises any or all of the above is unacceptable to me.

What do you think? Please answer and distribute this post as much as possible because I would really like to know what people think.  It would be great if you could write your country of residence along with your answer to make the analysis more scientific.  I have discussed this issue with some people and we all tend to agree that in Egypt it is different than worldwide but is it really? I would like to know

waiting for your feedback

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Note:

I would like to highlight that I realize that submitting your resignation is not something that you do impulsively and so many reasons can be involved in the decision. What I am really trying to measure here is the effect of bad managers on companies’ turnover rates.  I am claiming it is the strongest reason that would raise turnover rates and trying to find out what most people think

 

How do you manage your time? Do you always complain that you don’t have enough time to get things done? Do you always have hanging issues and tasks that you keep postponing and delaying? Well, I have news for you the real problem is ….. YOU!

Yes you, No matter how busy you are and no matter how many tasks you have to do, you have to figure out a way to manage your time and get things done.  The problem is not that you are busy and you have too much to do so everyone has to sympathize and tell you it is ok to delay tasks.  It is about how you handle your task list?

Here are some guidelines from my experience:

1- Shorter job first rule.  If you have some very small tasks that don’t need much mental effort, then start with those and get them done quickly then concentrate on the big ones.

2- Have a daily routine.  For example if you are a sales manager then you must have half an hour everyday to meet with your team for a quick follow up on their work.  It has to be fixed on the same time slot everyday no matter what, a quick catch up with some advice from you to charge their batteries and get them going.  Or if it is part of your job to read and answer a lot of emails then that too has to have a fixed time of the day to do and get it out of the way and so on.  You have to have a daily routine and sacred times of the day where you have to do what you have to do no matter what.

3- Meetings are sacred.  Meetings can be a lethal weapon for wasting time.  Any meeting has to have a clear agenda and a clear expected outcome or else refuse to attend.  If the meeting didn’t start on time refuse to attend and leave.  During the meeting stick to the agenda and finish on the allocated time and not later.

4- Learn to say NO.  You know your schedule, you know your priorities so say NO to anything that will interrupt your schedule – unless it is an urgent popup – don’t get dragged into exceptions that will always destroy your schedule and waste your time.

5- Concentrate on results, not on being busy…some people love the act of being busy all the time.  Sorry but you are just wasting your time and other people’s time too. Don’t enjoy the fact that you are not answering your email and not returning your calls by the excuse that you are very busy.  The fact is you are a failure!

6- Always have a target on mind. Why Am I starting this task? and when should I finish it? If you don’t have answers to these questions then don’t do it.

7- Set your priorities…decide what is important, urgent, can be postponed, can be cancelled all together.  Get focused and know what you want to accomplish to be able to manage your time.

I will post here the chart proposed by Stephen Covey in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective people….Please check it out and see in which quadrant do you live to know whether time is your worst enemy or your best friend:

So Where are you?

Most of your time should be in quadrant II. if you want to succeed and make the best of your time.  Then Quadrant I. should have part of your time as well.  Know that you will never achieve anything if most of your time is spent in Quadrants III. or IV.  These can be real time killers that make you feel busy all the time when actually you are losing precious time in trivial matters.

I was lucky enough to be contacted by Agate Publishing to tell me a about a book titled “I, Steve” – Edited by George Beahm.  It is all about listing Steve Jobs own words in different occasions.  They compiled his quotations on Branding, Recruiting, Being The Best, Focus, Decision making, Death, Employee Potential, Excellence, Focus, Grace Under Pressure, Inspiration, Strategy, Success,…..and many other topics on different events. There is also a section at the end stating all milestones in his life from the year he was born 1955 until 2011.

I think it is a good idea to compile Steve’s words to keep remembering and learning from them.

 

The book is due to be released by November 21 and I was lucky to receive an advance reader copy.  I will list here a couple of Steve Jobs’ great quotations as mentioned in the book.

Everything he says shows how a great leader he was, if he really practiced what he preached.

Reprinted with permission from the forthcoming I, Steve: Steve Jobs In His Own Words, edited by George Beahm, Agate B2, November 2011.

 

 

 

1- About Employees:

All we are is our ideas, or people. That’s what keeps us going to work in the morning, to hang around these great bright people. I’ve always thought that recruiting is the heart and soul of what we do.

2- Being The Best

We’re not going to be the first to this party, but we’re going to be the best.

3- Beyond Recruiting:

It’s not just recruiting. After recruiting, it’s building an environment that makes people feel they are surrounded by equally talented people and their work is bigger than they are. The feeling that the work will have tremendous influence and is part of a strong, clear vision—all those things. Recruiting usually requires more than you alone can do, so I’ve found that collaborative recruiting and having a culture that recruits the “A” players is the best way. Any interviewee will speak with at least a dozen people in several areas of this
company, not just those in the area that he would work in. That way a lot of your “A” employees get broad exposure to the company, and—by having a company culture that supports them if they feel strongly enough—the current employees can veto a candidate.

4- Inspiration

As you’ve pointed out I’ve helped with more computers in more schools than anybody else in the world and I’m absolutely convinced that is by no means the most important thing. The most important thing is a person. A person who incites and feeds your curiosity; and machines cannot do that in the same way that people can.

5- Teamwork

In our business, one person can’t do anything anymore. You create a team of people around you. You have a responsibility of integrity of work to that team. Everybody does try to turn out the best work that they can.

6- Dent in the Universe

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me.… Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful—that’s what matters to me

——–

You’ll enjoy reading Steve’s so many quotes on different occasions but most importantly we have to learn from them.  A true leader creates leaders and it is obvious from his beliefs in recruitment, inspiration and motivation that he was keen on creating leaders and that he never did anything to be one of the crowd but rather to be the best.

I hope CEOs, HR managers, Chiefs and all decision makers realize the importance of “People”.  If you read Steve’s different quotes you’ll find him always stressing on the “People” factor.  Choose the right people and then inspire and motivate and you’ll get the best out of them and hence achieve your goals.

Unfortunately a lot of managers still believe that bossing around is the right way to get things done.  Some people take the recruitment process lightly or hire only by credentials.  Those forget that you have to choose the person who can culturally fit in your organization if you want to excel.

Now it is clearer why Apple Excelled!

Start and end with the customer in mind!! for any organization to flourish they have to realize that it is all about customer experience. Make sure your customer experience is superior, is something to remember long after he is served.  This is the only way you will succeed and make sure your customer will recommend you to others.

 

Comparing Starbucks and The coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Egypt in that matter I see that Starbucks understands very well the importance of customer experience while The Coffee Bean completely misses the point!

 

Starbucks beats everyone in opening really early at 8:00AM ..People can enjoy their coffee before going to work while all other cafes are still sleeping.  When they open at 8:00 they are ready to serve, you’ll never hear things like sorry we are still preparing, we are still brewing, we are still cleaning….nothing of such nonsense. They are open, fresh, ready to serve as great as usual.  Their staff are energetic and ready to serve…their food and beverages are ready and fresh…everything is perfect for a good morning cup of coffee.  You get in and out in no time happily served, no delays and no annoying experience.

The coffee Bean on the other hand made me regret choosing them to have breakfast yesterday.  I am on vacation and I went with my husband to enjoy a breakfast out.  we went to Tivoli Dome and found Starbucks crowded so I thought I’d go to The Coffee bean to enjoy a calm place …And what a bad choice it was.  They had their doors open claiming they are ready to serve but they were still cleaning, still putting their supplies in place ..the staff are not doing anything expect smile at you and keep you wondering “What is the meaning of this ridiculousness smile if you’re not serving”.  I ordered and waited 50 minutes until served!! Another man came in and no one cared to go and serve him until he complained and said “Can I at least have a menu?”

They have a very strong edge they are wasting which is having breakfast food that no other cafe has, including Starbucks.  They have different types of egg dishes and sandwiches so they are perfect to serve breakfast but to wait 50 minutes to be served!!!! and that is not all.  When we complained that we’ve been waiting for too long we got this look of “why are so annoying ..so what if you had to wait!!!” and when the girl brought us the food finally she said sorry the chef is not here and I had to cook it myself!!

I got my eggs cold and not tasty and a couple of hours later both me and my husband had diarrhea so there must have been something not clean in the food.

The ironic thing is a couple of days earlier I was wondering why The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is not successful in Egypt, they had their City Stars branch shut down and their Branch at The Platform on the North Coast also shut down.  I went there before and enjoyed their drinks but not early in the morning and was wondering what is not making them succeed.  Now I know obviously they have a very weak management.  It is so obvious that the company has no clear strategy that is well communicated to the staff.  So they start serving whenever they wish and the chef decides to come in late, and cleanliness has no standards….They don’t even know how to apologize to an unhappy customer.

Although Starbucks had a very fierce campaign against them in Egypt and a lot of people decided to boycott it because according to the story they are Israelis and they they take their income to support the Israeli practices against Palestinians, they are still always crowded and people enjoy their drinks.  This is a strong proof that when a customer enjoys his experience at a place he will keep going no matter what.

A remarkable, different, enjoyable experience is what every customer is looking for when dealing with any organization…if you want to succeed make sure you offer such an experience.

I have seen many employees change from energetic, eager and top performers to lazy and negligent.  Studying the reasons behind that I found out that it was due to bad management.  People who are managed by a bad Boss after sometime lose their desire to work and hence gradually lose their talent and start to under-perform.

One employee I have seen, has been a logistics manager for 10 years now and the kind of mistakes he does shouldn’t be done by a newly hired inexperienced employee.  Although at the beginning of his career he used to excel at what he does.  Looking at his manager, we found out that he screams and yells all the time.  He blames him all the time even if it is not his fault, he deducts from his salary often. He intentionally keeps him after office hours just to prove that “if I want you to stay then you must stay” and not for any work need.  And when he performs very well or accomplishes a difficult job he never gets any appreciation.  His manager believes that if he praises his employees they will become full of themselves and hence will not work well.  Given time the employee started to feel that it is all the same whether he did a good job or a bad job in the end he will be  yelled at and will never be appreciated, so he decided not to do his job right.  I don’t know if it is a conscious or unconscious decision but the result is he became an under-performer.

Do managers realize how they badly affect the performance of their organization by being bad managers? How many skills were killed? how many opportunities were lost because of bad managers? how many organizations under-performed or even shut down because of their managers inability to manage?

Managing people is a critical job and getting the best out of your staff is not an easy task, so before accepting a managerial post you must be confident that you have what it takes.

I just retweeted this saying by Simon Sinek (@simonsinek):

“ A leader without a title is better than a title without the ability to lead.”  and it inspired me to write the post.

Thinking about it, it is very true.  It is not important to have a title as long as you have the talent, qualifications and skills of a true leader.  A true leader acts all the time, inspires and accomplishes.  A true leader doesn’t wait for titles because he is busy inspiring and getting things done.

A lot of people have titles but unfortunately they are unable to lead and what do we get? complete failure.  I was on vacation about a week ago and we went to reserve a day-use in one of the hotels in the north coast for my daughter to use the swimming pool.  The employee who is supposed to collect the money and issue the receipt, came and the first thing he said is “Where is the money?” I was shocked. Is this a way to treat your customers? does he have a Boss who teaches him how to treat his customers? Obviously he was never taught or inspired by a true leader or he wouldn’t have dealt with us this way.  This means that all his managers up to the owner can’t lead although they have titles!

Another unfortunate example is major-general Mansour el Essawy- Minister of Interior.  He has a huge responsibility on his shoulders and yet he failed to deliver so far.  I think it is because he can’t lead, he doesn’t have leadership skills.  We all do respect him for accepting the job in such tough times.  We all do know that he has good intentions and he wants to reform but unfortunately he doesn’t have what it takes. Until now we haven’t seen a clear reform plan inside the ministry of interior and we still suffer from instability and thugs in some areas are still terrorizing people.   Still some of the officers and soldiers are not doing their job at all or are not doing it right.  In any case this shows that their leader was not able to enforce his new rules, not able to inspire them to change their ways and attitudes and didn’t put a clear timed plan for fixing and reform and this is why things are taking too long to settle-in.

On the other hand we see a good example of an Egyptian citizen who has a clothes manufacturing factory, coming up with a good idea to help street vendors have a legal existence and at the same time overcome the problem of them blocking the streets and causing traffic jams or bottlenecks and making the streets look messy.  It is a good idea that solves a lot of problems and makes these people have a living legally.  The brilliant part is he was able to collect signatures from thousands of street vendors that they agree to the idea and are willing to implement although it will cost them some money.  They believed in him and he was able to convince them of the idea that will resolve an issue that we have in the streets (for the good of everyone) and at the same time make them a syndicate that will make their existence legal and will dedicate a place for them to sell at.   Now that is a true leader without a title.  He was able to make people trust him and believe in him and gather around him to reach a certain goal.

Egypt now needs a lot of true leaders who can inspire and accomplish without waiting for titles or power positions.

 

Many companies wonder how to achieve their goals, how to increase productivity, how to cut costs, how to enhance quality, how to get the best out of their employees,….how and how

Today in Egypt many organizations will wonder how to survive this phase of turbulence and come out even stronger. Well I have the secret recipe: Take care of your most precious and critical asset .……. EMPLOYEES

Yes, employees are not slaves, not tools and not a means to reach your goals…they are your partners and they should be treated as such.

HOW?

1- Know “Why Am I here?” you should know why you exist in the market in the first place and then answer the following questions: “Where am I today?” , “Where do I want to be tomorrow?” and “HOW to get there?” i.e. put your own strategy.

 

2- After you answer all the questions in 1- decide on the skills needed to achieve these goals and based on them design your selection criteria and then start hiring.  This way you are sure that you chose the right people to join your organization.

 

3- Explain to everyone you hire the answers to the questions in 1- This way you make sure your employees understand “Why they come to work everyday?” it is vital that your employees understand why they come to work everyday and not just for the salary at the end of the month.  This way they are engaged and they will share your dream and help make it happen.

 

4- Employee Development … Employee Development…. Employee Development… You have to invest in your employees by internal and external training, whether in classroom sessions or on the job training. But your employees have to feel that you are keen to make them learn something new, acquire new skills and go through new challenges.  This way they will always be energized and will be motivated to give their best.

 

5- Create an environment that encourages innovation.  Have all your employees share new ideas and innovative ways to do their daily work. Never kill a new idea, but rather make it possible for everyone to innovate and share ideas. Have a pool of ideas and have a well established technique for discussing, filtering and choosing which ideas to develop.  You have also to acknowledge whoever comes up with an idea and reward him. This way your employees will love their work place and will be encouraged to engage and come up with worthwhile innovate ideas.

 

6- Have a clear and fair performance evaluation methodology in place to make everyone know how he will be rewarded or punished and expect it before it happens. This way there will be no problems related to why this employee got a promotion or why someone got a bonus or someone got penalized because everything is fair and clear.

 

7- If you want to grow, help your employees grow.  Train your employees in preparation for promotions and assuming new responsibilities.  Don’t just promote, train before promotion to make sure your employee is well prepared for the new position.

 

8- If you’re the type who is always busy, not answering or reading even your emails, no one can step into your office to share a thought or suggest something, your secretary is getting all your messages and never answering back, even your customers can’t get hold of you …..THEN…Know you are a big failure. Your employees have to be able to reach you easily, they have to feel that they are your partners and they have to learn from you. Yes there are times when you’re busy but you have to get back to everyone who tried to reach you and couldn’t, you have to be there to inspire.

 

Follow the recipe above and guaranteed, your productivity and quality will at least triple…You will reach your goals and will have room to devise new dreams and goals and reach them and so on to the very top.

 

Lately social media has become more than ever a powerful tool for companies to reach out to their customers.  Social media channels are supposed to be used wisely for creating a special bond with customers.  It is really very easy and yet should not be taken lightly.  For example through social media channels a company should not be too formal while contacting customers but yet not too casual to the extent that we start using street language and saying jokes and such.  So how to use social media wisely and make it the right marketing tool for you is a question that every company has to answer for itself.

I will mention here two examples that I recently came across, one I consider good example of how companies should use social media to their advantage.  While the other is on the other side of the spectrum, it is a typical example of how social media can damage a company image if misused or abused.

The good example: Nokia in Egypt

Nokia planned an event in a five stars hotel in Egypt and sent out limited invitations for people to attend (I think only 40).  They studied people’s behaviour online and chose the ones who can be effective if they start talking about their product online. All the attendees took an E7 for free just for attending, no strings attached.  They created a hashtag for #NokiaE7 on twitter and asked their guests to take their time using the set and then tweet whatever they want on the features of the phone whether good or bad.  During the event they explained the phone features and they didn’t make people tweet, they just left it to everyone’s choice to tweet whatever he wants whenever he wants.  One very important aspect is that the event was planned and people received their sets before the Nokia E7 was released for sale in Egypt so all attendees got something really special.  Most of the people who received the set talked about it on twitter after that, I saw a lot of good comments and some bad ones but the campaign worked.  Twitter was effectively used to market for the product before it hits the market. People felt special to get something for free that was not even for sale in the market yet and is expensive too, not a cheap set.  People are still tweeting on it till now.  So Nokia really planned this very well and made great usage of twitter.

Now the bad example: Etisalat Masr

The worst marketing idea ever launched by Etisalat on twitter.  They said the following on twitter:

“Want to win a free #iPad? Retweet this & use the #EtisalatMisr hashtag in 3 of your own tweets. A winner will be picked by end of the month.”

They explained in another tweet following this that they are giving away ipad 1 for free. Well what is wrong with this? giving away ipad 1 when ipad 2 is coming to the Egyptian market soon.  Apple stops selling old versions once the new is released. Apple is selling ipad2 already and ipad 1 is already moved to legacy products.  What does all this say about the Etisalat offer?? CHEAP. no respect to the customer whatsoever, they want to give something for free and yet they chose a legacy product….such a cheap move when they could have chosen to wait until ipad 2 is here and then do this raffle.  Had they waited it could have been a major marketing hit for them.  Offering something that probably no one will go and buy now is a very bad move and allows room for competitors to  swipe them of, if they go out tomorrow and offer an iphone 4 for free if people mention their name or hashtag more than once!! very bad move on Etisalat’s side.

Then they continue with their twitter abuse campaigns by creating a hashtag  #moretolife and making more raffles with more giveaways and people have to use this hashtag in their tweets to enter the raffle.  And the more you tweet the more you have a chance to win! complete failure I would say because it turned so many people into spammers.  I un-followed someone because he made his account issue automatic tweets on daily basis with this hashtag to have a better chance to win.  This is crazy and inconvenient and annoyed a lot of twitter users.   It also opened the door for some of Etisalat lines users to start talking about their bad experiences with the network and service because they were frustrated by the flood of tweets, so even more image damage to the company.

Furthermore, One twitter user when they started their ipad raffle tweeted on it thinking it was ipad 2, then he realized it is ipad 1 so he stopped and told them that this is too cheap and that they should have waited to offer the ipad 2….NOW THEIR REPLY was amazingly alienating!!! they said:  ”we’re sorry you’re dissatisfied. You’ve done everything to qualify for the raffle, but we can remove your name if you like” …. in other words, we will punish you because you’re talking badly about our offer!!! No company could ever intend to damage its image and do a better job than this.

Social media effect is so fast and once you damaged your image it can’t be fixed easily. So an advice for every company think very well before launching a campaign on any social media channel and put your social media channels in the hands of the best of your people and not the weakest!

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I am adding this part for everyone who keeps telling me that ipad1 is not a legacy product.  OK I am sorry about that maybe it is not legacy yet, but Apple released ipad2 and it is on sale now. They stopped selling ipad1 on their site and it is known that Apple once released a new version stops selling or supporting the old one.  My point here is before any company launches a marketing campaign they should think “what is the business benefit here?”  Etisalat by this campaign lost a lot but did they gain? nothing from my point of view.  Had they thought well they could have made an offer out of their own products that could have been much better.  And definitely the idea of who tweets more gets a better chance to win is so annoying and alienating.

Also in business the concept of “since they are giving it for free then they can just give anything” is totally wrong.  You give something for free to gain something back and to make your customers feel special and delighted not just for the sake of giving.  Compare the two examples above, Nokia gave away its latest release of mobile phones even before it hits the market and it is an expensive one too.  They gave away 40 sets for free which cost them quite an amount of money but the ROI is worth it.  Etisalat on the other hand chose to give something for free but without having to bear much cost.  Which one gave better effect on the market? We are talking about big companies here and not small businesses so in their case we shouldn’t appreciate anything so long as it is for free…..THIS is my point here and i hope it is clearer now.

Everyday I am more and more amazed by Vodafone!! After the event that I wrote about in this post:

http://dohashawki.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/vodafone-and-the-worst-customer-service-ever/

And after I received the brilliant call that revealed to me the big secret that I am being charged two invoices together, a couple of days later I got a friendly call from a Vodafone employee and she was inquiring about my case. She told me I had the right to see a detailed invoice and she sent me one by email!!

IF this is possible why didn’t the call center employees whom I called earlier do this from the very first call when I asked how much did I utilize from my 2GB????

anyway ….

She also informed me of something I never knew before which is that the unit of charging is 100KB so if you use 50KB for example in one session you’ll be charged for 100KB ….another secret that Vodafone keeps from its customers!!

AND today I thought well I want to see my last detailed invoice as well just in case because I started doubting everything they do (sorry to say so) and my suspicions unfortunately were true I am charged twice for the same period!!!

The invoice I already paid last month covered my internet usage until 13-02-2011 and the new one that I am supposed to pay started charging me AGAIN from 07-02 until 18-02 so I am paying for the same usage twice!!!!!!!

Guess I have a big fight today with Vodafone and I am greatly astonished and angry ….what if I thought they knew what they are doing and I just automatically paid the invoice without checking and what is even worse the customer support employee that I called to ask for the detailed invoice had the nerve to tell me that it will cost me 20LE per invoice to send it by email.  SO I will be charged 40LE on my next invoice for asking for two detailed invoices to be sent by email!!!!!!!!! seriously?????

Would like to have a chat with the customer support Manager or Director or whoever is responsible of this level of customer care!!!!

Vodafone does not seem to realize that they are losing their status in the market very fast.  I have seen lately several cases of extremely poor customer service cases with friends and relatives that proved to me that they are no longer the best.  For so many years they used to provide their customers with the best service ever and this is why we used to say “2ana Vodafone” as in their Ad.  Now I am not sure anymore!

I encountered a case with them now that made me really frustrated: It all started last Sunday 20-03-2011:

1- I called on Sunday morning because I received an email notification with my invoice value. I was shocked by it’s value as it was unexpectedly high so I called to ask why.  The lady who answered told me its because of my USB modem, my internet usage valued to this amount.  I said I doubt very much that I finished my 2GB limit as I rarely used the USB modem this month.  I asked her how much exactly did I utilize to pay that much? she didn’t have an answer and said that she will file a complaint and forward to the responsible department and they should answer back in 48hours.  It was a bit strange to me since I asked a simple question, how much did I use? does that need a complaint and forwarding to another department?? but I said ok I’ll wait.

2- I called back the next day Monday 21-03-2011 at night to see what is up.  The man who answered told me no it is written in the system that they will answer back on the 23rd. so you can call after 9:00PM to know the answer. So suddenly the 48hours became 4 days.

3- Again I called Wednesday 23-03-2011 after 9:00PM as I was told. The man who answered said: no , it is said on the system they will reply on the 23rd and the 23rd lasts until 12:00 mid night so you can call in the morning to see the result!!!! seriously??? Well I knew he was saying that just to get rid of me and end the call because definitely this responsible department will not work until 12:00 mid night but I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

4- I called this morning and guess what?? same answer: NO ANSWER YET! the lady told me if she got an answer until 5:00 today she will call me back to tell me, otherwise then I have to wait another 24 hours and then call back to ask!!

I am really shocked! does it take all this time to know my internet utilization?? how come they issued the invoice if they don’t know how much I used…to issue the invoice they must have measured my consumption so they have the figure ready and can be sent to the call center by the press of a button!!! or at least I hope so because if not then Vodafone needs to revise the systems it is working with.

I am sorry Vodafone but I have been a customer since 1999 and lately you have been loosing me step by step until now I reached the top, I really can’t stand your level of support.  If your people are too busy to answer my simple question, then give me a tool that I can install and monitor my consumption myself!!! if you don’t have a junior programmer who can do this application for you, hire one but don’t torture your customers. I know that you provide a tool that calculates consumption but it is useless because it measures by PC and not by the USB itself…in other words if I used my modem on PC#1 it will tell me I used XMB, if I then remove it and use it on PC#2 it will start counting from Zero again and tell me again that I used XMB or Y so I don’t really know how much my account consumed.  It should be per account and not per PC.

I am not paying this bill until I have solid proof that I used that much!!! and I as a customer believe that I should have got an answer from the very first time I called or at least within 24hours!!

And ohh forgot to say that I filled a complaint form on Vodafone website as well and I got no answer at all!!!! not even a confirmation of receipt by email!! you obviously have no support standards that your teams abide by!!