Terrible service from Vodafone.

I hate dealing with High Street retailers, especially when things have gone wrong.

The USB cable for my Vodafone 3G modem has broken. Not a big deal, easy to replace – why don’t I just pop into the Vodafone store and, you know, they’ll change it for me. I’ll be able to use it on the train back that evening and all will be good. Can’t take more than a few minutes. Right?

No. Instead, bloke in Vodafone shop, you tell me that my warranty has expired. Then, when I protest, you grudgingly tell me that you could send it off. But, of course, the whole modem would have to be sent off not just the cable. It would be gone for, oh, 6 or 7 working days at a minimum. Oh, and I’m not from here am I? Well, I can only get it sent back to this shop.

“It’s a goddamn USB cable”, I’m thinking. Over and over again.

He carries on: but it’s not covered by the warranty anyway, so… you know. (I really don’t) Of course, you could upgrade.

Upgrade for the sake of a bloody cable? I should have just gone to Maplin and bought one. Silly me to think I’d get some service from Vodafone. But I don’t say any of this, I’m very polite.

Do the new modems come with these cables? Yes? Can’t you just take a cable out of one of those boxes then? No, your warranty has expired, see?

So I end up moaning about how the Sale of Goods Act and its EU equivalents mean that I don’t need a warranty to get a fault replaced – the 3G modem is only a little over a year old – and storm out of the store.

Anger and annoyance for the sake of a £1 cable replacement, I’ll be changing away from Vodafone as early as I can.

What should have been a simple “Of course, sir. Here you go!” becomes an anger-inducing farce. A fucking £1 USB cable. That’s all. How hard could it be?

What I understand the least about these situations is the lack of any empathy from the sales-folk. I guess they don’t get commission from replacements, or something.

But, surely, they themselves wouldn’t want to be treated like this? Surely, they’ve been in these kind of situations, where they’re trying to get something that shouldn’t have broken replaced?

So, clearly, the Sale of Goods legislation isn’t worth a damn in the real world. Am I really going to go to the small claims court for a cable that costs a few quid?

A friend of mine tells of taking something back to Currys and having to quote the Sales of Goods legislation only to be told “I don’t care about the law, this is Currys’ law”. Indeed.