Cellular Operations
Layout of shop
Quality of service
Value For Money
Cellular Operations
User Reviews
Quality of service
Value For Money
Cellular Operations - The Problem With Cellops Was
Cellular Operations - The problem with Cellops was that, unless you were very au fait with the mobile telecoms market, you could be landed with a very bad deal - the customer was expected to do their own research first and be very astute about mobile phone marketing practices, such as hiding information in smallprint and signing up to services, which the customer then had to take the initiative to cancel if they had managed to find details of the extra charge, rather than just throwing information away - often the customer is/was informed, but the information was disguised as advert leaflets and the like.
This means that, despite offering very good value for money, many would not get this. Cellular Operations should have concentrated more on giving loyal customers good value for money and deals that matched their loyalty/call spend rather than hoping the customer knew no better and then overcharging. This is a dishonest, but unfortunately much-used practice that leads to anger and frustration on the customer's part.
Perhaps if Cellops had not taken its eye off the ball and offered the customers the sound advice they deserved, then the company might still be around today. Perhaps (and more likely), on the other hand, the company was being primed for a take-over by a big operator as long as five to seven years ago and therefore customer care fell by the wayside as it became second place to money making by top level directors and the like.
Like Uniqueair before it - cellops had a fantastic team on the phone,sales,CS and distribution - i worked on the independent dealer channel in slaes.
Cellops were very good at what they did and offered pretty good deals. If you want to see what a bad company was for its customers? Phones4u were the kings of the ~~~ and awful!
Cellops went because they (Vodafone)owned the customers and pointed out that an internal upgrade wouldn't be paid - they already owned the business so there wasn't much point in having an on site Vodafone specific sales team - they had bought the customers when they bought cellops.there was no conspiracy, the days of 3rd party indie SP's was about to end as Voda took control (remember they were not allowed to sell to the public themselves hence voda retail and voda connect and the various indie firms were on a level playing field along with the dealerships, when this regulation was dropped in 98 it was game over -Voda were coming for everything) Finally, Voda had enough call centres and was about to outsource around this time.
I miss companies like cellops, they were not large corporate and like Uniqueair, you could go on jollys in swindown and banbury with the CS reps and meet up and have this thing called fun.
Oh the late 90's.....bliss.
Quality of service
Layout of shop
Value For Money
I Am Still Awaiting The Additinal Money That I Gav
I am still awaiting the additinal money that I gave Cellular Operations via direct debit and they have failed to keep their promise of sending back the additional money. I find it embarrasing to keep chasing COL for 10-15£.
you wont get your money back we are shut
Quality of service
Layout of shop
Value For Money
I Much Prefer Colto Vodafone. I Was A Customer Of
I much prefer COLto vodafone. I was a customer of Cellular Operations for just under a year when Vodafone took over. I had no complaints at will with COL, however Vodafone makes my blood boil. The day Vodafone took over, they wrote to me explaning that my existing terms and conditions would be honoured, however, when they started to charge me for inclusive minutes & inclusive txts, I complained. The Vodafone operator stated that Vodafone had exercised its right to change my terms and conditions WITHOUT prior notice (in fact without ANY notice at all). Is this legal ? Vodafone are yet to respond to my complaint - its been about 12 weeks now.
The Service I Got From Cellular Operations Was Wel
The service I got from Cellular Operations was well below par. They gave me a sim card which already had another number, it took atleast 25 mins everytime to sort out the problems I occured.The staff were not very helpful and I was always put on hold.PLEASE DO NOT DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE . IT COULD COST YOU A FORTUNE!!!!!!
Value For Money
I Am In My Second Year With Cellular Operations An
I am in my second year with cellular operations and have had no problems with there service. They were gagging to kepp me after 12 months, and gace me an excellent deal after a bit of haggling. I wouldn't even be writing this if the my mobiles website hadnt been shutdown. Thought i would do a google search to see if it had moved, only to find the company has been closed.
I have not been told about this, however i am at university and my mail goes home so a letter may be waiting for me. I'm slightly worried about what is going to happen with my contract now, is Vodafone gonna take it over? or am i gonna have to change?
Apart from this, i say well done to the staff, always friendly and helpful.
No need to worry as your account will be handeled in the same way by Vodafone Limited
Value For Money
I Have Been A Col Customer Since May 2001. I Had 2
I have been a COL customer since May 2001. I had 2 contracts one after the other. The first contract was 600 min off peak, 50 txts costing £11.99 + £2 line rental. Dialaphone gave me 6 months free line rental in the first 12 months and vodafone gave me 3 months to take me to 16 months. I was charged an extra month since cellops tried getting my final 3 months. I spent £126 in total
At month 15, I cancelled the contract so as to get a new contract with a new phone. They called me up and offered me a very good deal. Line rental was £32.99 for the year, giving me 500 off peak minutes a month, 50 texts and a new Nokia 3410. I tried to cancel at month 11 but they refused saying it was 12 months + 30 days notice, so they charged me £20 line rental for the final 30 days. Including the £2 itemised bills and call charges I spent £75 for the yr. I'm now with T Mobile.
Value For Money
As A Member Of Staff At Cellular Operations Limite
As a member of staff at Cellular Operations Limited (COL) I will let the truth be known about COL and the reasons why the company is really being closed......
First of all. During the boom period in the mobile phone industry, people were appointed senior management positions and these people were not qualified or know how to do the job effectively.
The senior management at COL isolate themselves from the staff in the call centre itself and are one big clique who dont interact with staff at all despite being on the call centre floor. They will take long lunches and joke around all day and if you joke around you get a rollocking.
These managers dont have a clue how to run a business and to be honest i cannot see how anything they have done has had an inpact in any aspect of COL.
The staff themeselves won the mobile phone service provider of the year 2002-2003 and that is something we are proud of.
Then some managers sold the business to Vodafone which was a smart idea because we were giving phones Free Of Charge to people spending 15.00 a month which in effect means the company was losing money and within 2 years would be bankrupt.
COL Was a dynamic business with great staff, a great bulding and an amazing passion for the business.
Despite being annoyed with Vodafone for Closing COL I can see the reason why they did it and to be honest I would rather the business be shut on Vodafones terms instead of going bust.
At the end of the day COL was sold to Vodafone because it wasnt making any money and to be honest I blame the senior management who do not reward the staff at all and do not make the staff feel like part of the team which clearly the customer can see.
I wish my collegues all the best in the future and thank you for all your support us Cellular Operations staff say its a pleasure to have given you the best service since 1995.
Of course the sales people were nice to you, they were trying to make you into one of their commission statistics!
As some of the other respondents have said, it's a shame you lost a job you enjoyed. I wonder if you worked in sales? They were the only department who were ever friendly to me. Every other contact I had with CellOps was a disaster and they stole over 100 pounds from my bank account and credit card. I can confidently use the word "stole" because my bank agreed and refunded the money. But CellOps caused me an enormous amount of stress and I'm very, very glad they're gone. It's just a shame the managers made a windfall from it. My favourite ever quote from a CellOps customer service person: "I think I know more about Vodafone than what you do." Hmm.
I think that COL was a good company but as noted above people were in positions they shouldnt have been, People were hired for positions purely because they looked good not because they had the know how to run a successful business. I have other work now and do feel the some of our recovery efforts were a bit harsh and charging for failed direct debits when the bank does that easily made a 20.00 invoice into 70.00. Once they sold up to Vodafone it was only a matter of time before Cellular Operations was shut down. Everyone knows big companies dont like duplication therefore COL was doomed right when the purchase was made.
I, too, have had terrible service from COL, including inertia selling, use of debt recovery firms to pursue me for payment on cancelled contracts, failure to respond to telephone calls and e-mails and failure to notify me of options before my annual contract came to an end. Unexpectedly, it was the debt recovery companies which acted professionally and competently - I explained the situation and heard no more from them. COL, however, wouldn't let go and even when the debt recovery companies had given up, I received letters and invoices asking for payment. Eventually, quoting legal advice from a solicitor, I wrote to the MD, in terms even he could understand, to require him to stop this harassment. Eventually, after six months stressful conflict, it ceased.
I don't rejoice in anyone's losing his job. I've been there; it's bad. I'm sure that most of the Cellops staff are just innocent victims of an unscrupulous bunch of directors and shareholders. The really galling thing is that the financial press reports that the MD and a couple of cronies did really well out of the sale to Vodafone. Truly this is the unacceptable face of capitalism!
Let me clarify that my account was NOT in arrears COL took money out of an old account which had not been used for 5 months, for a phone they had billed me twice for. The complaints I had ran for over six months so I feel that I am justified in my views. Even my solicitor could not get any form of a reply from them.
Interesting to note that staff did not comment on the memo from your bank to your accounts department warning them about their gross mistakes
Value For Money
After A Year With Cellular Operations They Sent Me
After a year with Cellular Operations they sent me a letter explaining they were being taken over by Vodafone. When I phoned they offered me a choice of staying with my current deal or changing and keeping my existing phone and number. Although they offered me one deal which later turned out to be unavailable, if you don't want a new phone the pre-pay deals are fantastic value for money, especially if you want cross network calls.
So don't be put off by the less than comprehensible bills - the staff were helpful to me, so keep trying and a good deal is out there!
Value For Money
I Worked For The Company For Enough Time To Unders
I worked for the company for enough time to understand how it worked. COL or cellops is (sorry was) one of Swindon's greatest success stories and I genuinely belive that. Problem was that one or two senior managers would not know how to run a nose let a lone a call centre. As a result staff, most of them decent people, felt degraded and under valued. Behaviour breeds behaviour as one eminent person once said:
Junior managers were chosen for their ability to say 'yes' rather than for ability to lead and be effective - in short they did not question the often ludicrous decisions made.
Now COL is owned by Vodafone and nearly all staff are to be made redundent (just after Christmas for most) why should they give a damn.
Nigel Bunter and Ric Lee were very good at their job and were very successful, their only failing, maybe, was putting too much trust in the 'Yes' monkies below them.
Please do not be hard on the staff in the sweatshop we dont deserve it. Or rather, dont shoot the messenger.
I totally agree with you I work at Cellops and must say that manangers who were chosen that were not fully qualified for the position. All senior managers are a clique and instead of encouraging you, knock you when you do something wrong. They are selfish and I can think of atleast 2 managers at Cellops who should not hold the position they have. Vodafone made the right business decision to shut us down because those 2 managers would have gave vodafone a bad name. COL was not making money in fact was losing money and it cost more to connect Cusotmers through COL as opposed to Directly through Vodafone. Good Luck to all my collegues in the future its been a real pleasure and in true Cellops tradition see ya at the Woodlands Edge!!!
The Staff Are Rude, The Managers Are Just Ruder Lo
The staff are rude, the managers are just ruder louder monkeys dragged up from the ranks because of the lack of response to external advertising, It makes the world a better place for its closing and as for Richard Branson buying the building, ha, dont make me laugh, hes more likely to invest in a hotair ballon made from JAM. -
and good flipping riddance!
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