Vodafone has angered some of its customers
Photo: DPA
A customer loyalty campaign by Vodafone has gotten out of hand.
Actually, it should be a kind of thank you for loyal customers in times of the corona crisis: Vodafone sent advertising flyers to contract holders with landline connections for a "loyalty gift" - a WLAN repeater, "completely free," as it was called.
The reason for the mild gift is already in the headline: "Fast Internet has never been so important".
The problem: The campaign was so well received that many customers went empty-handed and were annoyed that they had not gotten a device.
Gottfried Zantke, architect and urban planner from Bremen, is one of them.
He tried to redeem his voucher in a branch in Bremen.
There he was put off.
Unfortunately all devices are currently out of stock, so please ask again in a few days.
But even after a week there were no devices.
You couldn't help him with a Vodafone hotline either.
Finally he was informed in writing that nothing could be done for him.
Vodafone says that 50,000 repeaters have been made available for the campaign.
"Partly" the goods were also available in the shops, says a spokeswoman.
"In fact, there was a significantly higher demand for this campaign compared to previous campaigns, so that existing repeaters in the local shops were sold out very quickly," says Vodafone.
Vodafone wants to have learned from it
The entire contingent was sold out after a week, and no further devices could be brought in.
This has led to disappointment for one or the other, admits the spokeswoman.
Vodafone customer Zantke is concerned with the principle.
"My impression is that Vodafone started this campaign without being in the least clear about the expected demand," he says.
Vodafone says they were surprised by the great demand.
In the future one wants to take these experiences into account.
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