Vodafone vows to create 2,100 jobs in the UK to enhance quality of customer service

Vodafone vows to create 2,100 jobs in England, Scotland and Wales over the next two years as part of a £2 billion investment plan.

The mobile phone giant is slowly trying to recover its tarnished reputation over the botched IT billing system and poor customer service record by hiring thousands of call center employees in the UK.

According to several media reports, Vodafone plans to expand its customer service centers with 800 additional posts in Manchester, 150 in Newark, more than 150 in Stoke-on-Trent and about 100 in Glasgow. Its third-party customer service partners will also create 600 new jobs in Newcastle, 200 roles in the west of Scotland and 100 in Cardiff.

Vodafone says the new jobs will improve the quality of service for its millions of customers in the UK as part of its billion investment program in networks and services. "These new, skilled roles will make a real difference to our customers and a real difference to the communities that are the focus of our customer service investment," Vodafone boss Nick Jeffery said in a statement.

Last October, Vodafone was fined £4.6 million by UK communications watchdog Ofcom for misleading subscribers about their rights of making a complaint and other serious breaches of consumer protection rules. Ofcom further said Vodafone charged pay-as-you-go customers for top-up credit but providing nothing in return. Vodafone vows that the new jobs will enhance the quality of service for its 18 million customers.

Currently, the company houses 12,500 employees in the UK. It has 3,700 workers in its UK customer care operation with 2,450 of those are in-house while 1,250 are with other partners. Meanwhile, Vodafone announced on Friday the hundreds of job redundancies at its Newbury headquarters that employs 4,500 workers. The company said the decision was made to simplify its business structures and warned that those working in the project management, managerial and functional roles were at risk of losing their jobs.