Cellular Operations Review

Overall Rating

Futuristic Building, friendly staff, 2002-2003 service Provider of the Year

Cellops Management don't have a clue how to run a business.

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.

Members' Comments oncellularoperations's Review

• avaluedcustomer on 7th Nov 2003

  As a so called valued customer I find your comments unbelievable. COL have to be the most incompetant company I have ever come across - your callcenter staff were unhelpful and constantly gave conflicting advise, you don't have a phone in the complaints department (very odd for a communications company) you took large sums of money out of my bank account without athorisation more than once and you also managed to send me a copy of a confidential memo from your bank to your accounts department; you refused to end my contract when requested, the list goes on..
  Just how did you get your awards...
  I for one am very happy to see Vodaphone close you down

• cellularoperations on 8th Nov 2003

  Monies taken were because the account would have been in areers, secondly any complaints procedure with any company is normally dealt with by a phone call to you as soon as we can investigate what the problem was on the acccount which is why they want it in writing and thirdly most companies need this incase legal proceedings do take place. I blame the management for any confusion as they dont know how to run a company.,I find your comment about GLAD VODAFONE SHUT YOU DOWN, to be quite harsh remember christmas is coming up and these staff need money for christmas and will lose their jobs. We may have been rubbish to many but i would hope any one wouldnt wish redundancy on anyone else.

• sarahncm on 12th Nov 2003

  I'm sorry if you ended up losing your job - I'm sure there were some good staff at Cellops. Unfortunately I was never lucky enough to encounter any of them! Cellops, and Vodafone themselves, offer terrible customer service - I've just wasted a whole morning trying to get through to obtain my PAC so I can bring my number across to a new network - still no luck! I keep getting told to call Cellops - pretty difficult seeing as they no longer exist and the number I have just goes straight through to Vodafone customer services. I wish I'd never signed up with Cellops in the first place. I'm glad they're not around to rip off and inconvenience any more people.

• avaluedcustomer on 17th Nov 2003

  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

• wolsty on 18th Nov 2003

  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!

• cellularoperations on 24th Nov 2003

  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.

• luket on 13th Jan 2004

  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.

• Toghill on 13th Feb 2004

  Of course the sales people were nice to you, they were trying to make you into one of their commission statistics!