Since moving to the UK nearly a decade ago (has it really been that long?), I have been with the same mobile phone provider. Vodafone has always given me stellar service and awesome contracts that actually reward you for being a longstanding customer.
So it seemed a no brainer to switch to Vodafone’s broadband when my contract with another ISP was nearly doubling in price at renewal.
Welp.
First off, you can only be sent your router at home during typical office working hours and it has to be signed for by the customer so no leaving it in a “safe place” or with a neighbor. Luckily I work from home so it wasn’t an issue, but I wonder how other people who have 9-5 jobs fare with this.
The first delivery attempt, the guy didn’t show up even though he said he did. My dog definitely would have let me know if he had. So far we weren’t off to a great start switching to Vodafone.
When I finally got my router, the wifi didn’t have much reach and it dipped a lot. Then one day it was completely out and nothing we did would fix it.
We spent an entire Saturday afternoon with tech support, only to be told we had a faulty router. Remember how I said I work from home? This meant until a new router came in, I was SOL for working and would be losing money.
The new router finally came, but the exact same issues were happening which meant more time off work unpaid. I called in and had to move furniture, search for wires, and crawl around the house for their troubleshooting. Then the call cut off.
Not wanting to do this all over again, I waited for Vodafone to call back but they never did. So I picked up my phone and went through everything from the beginning. Ugh.
That’s when I was told it was an infrastructure issue and they would send an engineer over the next day to fix it and call afterwards to check on the connection. I was missing another day of work, but progress! And it seemed to explain the crappy reach and stability, too.
I think you know where this is going.
No call came so I had to contact them and go through everything yet again only to be told the issue was because I have two routers registered to my address. This seems like something they should have dealt with when they knew I was getting a new router, no?
So at this point I’d had 3 different reasons why my internet wasn’t working.
The advisor who said it was down to double routers said she would call me that day or the next to check on my connection and to also discuss a few things I had complained about. Guess what? Yep, she never called.
Officially at the end of my rope, I e-mailed the UK CEO’s office with my ignored complaint. I got a phone call pretty quickly and once again it appeared things were progressing, even though they told me I couldn’t break my contract. Argh. Anyway, I was told everything would be investigated and I would be contacted at a certain time to discuss it all.
Yeah, no. That call never came, either.
Then out of nowhere another person who hadn’t been dealing with the case called to ask how my internet was. I said it was working and he seemed happy with that and wanted to end the call. Uhhh what about my complaint, my dude? And the massive failures of service not only from tech support but now the Director’s Office?
I had to go through everything AGAIN and was given yet another promise this person would look into it all and discuss compensation with me when he called back. That callback was supposed to be two days ago and I think you probably know how that went. Ding ding ding! You got the answer right. He never called.
Even though I work from home, I have to be logged into my employer’s systems at certain hours so I can’t just make up for lost time later on. Also, in the UK you usually only get paid once a month so this month’s pay will be the last one before Christmas.
I received my paystub today and even though I knew it would be lower than usual, the actual amount was pretty staggering. Merry Christmas to me!
Not having internet at home is a drag these days, but for people like me who work from home it is also vital to our financial wellbeing. It affects far more than our ability to stream Netflix. To then be given this type of service just adds insult to injury.
I don’t know what these guys are playing at, but I don’t want to play anymore.
TL;DR: Don’t get Vodafone broadband if you value your internet connection, money, and sanity.
A Little Nerd Told Me 