Epic Fail

On the way home from work last night I stopped at a local garage for some fuel.I remembered my pay as you go mobile phone was getting a bit low on credit and duly requested a £10 Vodaphone top up voucher.Sitting back in the car, I dialled the number for top ups and listened in frustration to a 10 minute message telling me how much quicker it would be to top up using the Internet.It would a lot feckin' quicker without having to listen to that crap first!

Anyway, I keyed in the 12 digit number on the voucher and a polite automated voice tells me there must be some error.I joyfully listen to the "using the internet to top up couldn't be easier" message another six times as I try again and again to put in the number I was given, before eventually I give up and stomp back in to the girl at the garage serving counter to let her know there's a problem with the voucher."You need to phone Vodaphone customer service",she says."No,I bought the voucher from you 5 minutes ago and if it's not working I'd like another or a refund", I retort.She repeats her opening gambit and I make it clear that as it was the garage who sold me a faulty voucher, it's up to them to sort it and I wouldn't be fobbed off.

This went on for a while and at one point the assistant even tried keying in the voucher number on my phone herself to get the top up to work.( as if I'd be too dumb to manage something as simple as that)."Look,it's asking for a 16 digit number and the voucher your garage has supplied to me only has 12 digits so there must be something wrong with your voucher machine" I told her."Whatever the problem is though,it's not mine and I want my money back, right here,right now".

The manager wasn't available and after taking head office details, the supervisor on duty agreed to call Vodaphone customer service to try and sort it,taking my voucher through to the back shop with her.As the assistant handed me back my phone,I pressed a button and was greeted with the message "Welcome to O2".It's my pay as you go laptop dongle for broadband which is with Vodaphone.My mobile has been on the O2 network since I bought it.Aghhhhhhhh!

Did I immediately confess my mistake to the assistant and wait to get my voucher back from the supervisor, ( still on the phone to Vodaphone) or did I quickly bolt out the door whilst uttering crap like "I'm late for my dinner and just don't need any more stress"?

I'm never,ever going back to that garage..

I did actually play some poker last night after that shenanigans and had my first winning night for a while.It was only $46 but it was very welcome.Back soon.

Next post is number 1000....