Argument with Vodafone tech guy on phone?

clearz

Just got off the phone with Vodafone broadband tech support there. I wanted to get my dsl profile switched from my current 8MB package to the upto 24Mb one. The guy told me that my line could only handle 15Mb and he refused blankly to make the switch.
I told him I knew how DSL worked and that nobody gets the 24Mb anyway and 15Mb sounded about right judging by my distance from the exchange.
He said 'no I can't do it. Your line cannot handle 24Mb and will not sync at 24Mb and there is no way to make it sync at 15Mb' He also said if he switched me I would only be calling them back after it diddn't work and my old (current) profile of 8Mb would not work then (WTF?) I told him that that is bull crap and he hasn't got a clue. After a bit more of a heated debate I just gave up but told him I would be calling back.
The conspiracy theorist in me says they want to keep every one on 8Mb for the "FREE" (whether you want to or not) changeover to "NGB" (Enhanced BB) when it comes to my area.

carbsy

clearz wrote: »

changeover to "NGB" (Enhanced BB) when it comes to my area.

Enhanced? Nope! It's just marketing and re-branding.

clearz

carbsy wrote: »

Enhanced? Nope! It's just marketing and re-branding.

I know its ridiculous, that's why I have NGB in quotes.

HattieMcDoogal

clearz wrote: »

I wanted to get my dsl profile switched from my current 8MB package to the upto 24Mb one. The guy told me that my line could only handle 15Mb and he refused blankly to make the switch.

I'm going to side with Vodafone on this. They're not going to sell you the 24MB product knowing that you will never get that speed. If they sell it to you a few weeks down the line you could ring back up, complain about the slow speed and ask for credit etc.

carbsy

clearz wrote: »

I know its ridiculous, that's why I have NGB in quotes.

Ah hehe

clearz

HattieMcDoogal wrote: »

I'm going to side with Vodafone on this. They're not going to sell you the 24MB product knowing that you will never get that speed. If they sell it to you a few weeks down the line you could ring back up, complain about the slow speed and ask for credit etc.

The product (Dont get me started about the fundamentals of xDSL) is sold as upto 24Mbit (And its impossible to accually get 24) which I'll admit can be a bit misleading to majority of customers but I'm not your average customer when it comes to tech Most regulars on the broadband forum would already have at least a guess about what speeds they realistically expect to get before getting on the phone to a customer support, mine was 15-16 and I was spot on with 15.

brophis

What are your line stats? Can't judge what speed your line is capable of without them.

hightower1

bottom line is vodafone dont have to sell you anything they dont want to no matter the reason

Dardania

is your exchange adsl2+? Because if it isn't, your 15 meg calc is purely academic...

clearz

brophis wrote: »

What are your line stats? Can't judge what speed your line is capable of without them.

My stats are pretty good and I've done the maths plenty of times and it comes out good at 15-16Mb/s

clearz

hightower1 wrote: »

bottom line is vodafone dont have to sell you anything they dont want to no matter the reason

Maybe in make believe land with goblins and fairies and stuff but in the real world companies are there to turn a profit and selling people stuff is how they do it.

clearz

Dardania wrote: »

is your exchange adsl2+? Because if it isn't, your 15 meg calc is purely academic...

I believe it is, but I can't remember where I saw that but I'm pretty sure I did see it.

hightower1

clearz wrote: »

Maybe in make believe land with goblins and fairies and stuff but in the real world companies are there to turn a profit and selling people stuff is how they do it.

Im not saying they have to do it to everone who calls them but they can if they want to, I never stated it was a good idea to turn people down in large quantities but even if they do want to say no to everyone its their right.

clearz

hightower1 wrote: »

Im not saying they have to do it to everone who calls them but they can if they want to, I never stated it was a good idea to turn people down in large quantities but even if they do want to say no to everyone its their right.

By "their right" do you mean the CEO's right, Some manager's right, or some random support guy on the phone's (like the guy I talked to) right to pick and choose what products to sell us at their own discretion, or maybe all three have this right. Tell me which is it? I'd love to know.

hightower1

clearz wrote: »

By "their right" do you mean the CEO's right, Some manager's right, or some random support guy on the phone's (like the guy I talked to) right to pick and choose what products to sell us at their own discretion, or maybe all three have this right. Tell me which is it? I'd love to know.

All three in fact.
Im not saying their reasoning for not selling you something is valid but thats not the issue, the issue is that anyone in the free world selling a good or service has the right to refuse sale, they dont need to give a reason at all. Like shops have the right to refuse admission to anyone they see fit, if they refuse all then the business goes bust but again that is their right if they so wish.

brophis

clearz wrote: »

My stats are pretty good and I've done the maths plenty of times and it comes out good at 15-16Mb/s

What are your actual stats? For example mine are pasted below.

Statistics Downstream Upstream
Line Rate 3072 Kbps 384 Kbps
Noise Margin 23.6 dB 18.0 dB
Line Attenuation 19.0 dB 10.0 dB
Output Power 0.1 dBm 8.4 dBm

It wouldn't make sense for Vodafone, or anyone for that matter, to sell you a product that your line is not capable of syncing at.

WhodahWoodah

Seems quite clear to me that the OP is just saying that he doesn't want 8Mb broadband, he wants the full 15Mb that he knows and Vodafone have agreed his line can take and he's happy to pay the Up To 24Mb price for it. He just can't understand why they won't sell it to him. I can't understand it either. If they only sold that package to people whose lines could take 24Mb then only about 50 people in the country who actually live on top of telephone exchanges and have no neighbours would be on it. I think it's probably down to the individual tech guy and if the OP either called back or upgraded online he'd be sorted immediately. Unless he was unlucky enough to getthe same tech guy again!! Lol.

clearz

WhodahWoodah wrote: »

Seems quite clear to me that the OP is just saying that he doesn't want 8Mb broadband, he wants the full 15Mb that he knows and Vodafone have agreed his line can take and he's happy to pay the Up To 24Mb price for it. He just can't understand why they won't sell it to him. I can't understand it either. If they only sold that package to people whose lines could take 24Mb then only about 50 people in the country who actually live on top of telephone exchanges and have no neighbours would be on it. I think it's probably down to the individual tech guy and if the OP either called back or upgraded online he'd be sorted immediately. Unless he was unlucky enough to getthe same tech guy again!! Lol.

Thank you WhodahWoodah (lol?) That is exactly the point and I actually thought about calling back straight away (and just hope for someone that's not on their first day of work) but was so dumbfounded by my experience I had to go to boards to bitch and moan instead.

clearz

brophis wrote: »

What are your actual stats? For example mine are pasted below.

Statistics Downstream Upstream
Line Rate 3072 Kbps 384 Kbps
Noise Margin 23.6 dB 18.0 dB
Line Attenuation 19.0 dB 10.0 dB
Output Power 0.1 dBm 8.4 dBm

It wouldn't make sense for Vodafone, or anyone for that matter, to sell you a product that your line is not capable of syncing at.

Here are my stats

Statistics Downstream Upstream
Line Rate 7616 Kbps 672 Kbps
Noise Margin 13.6 dB 13.0 dB
Line Attenuation 21.0 dB 12.0 dB
Output Power 5.3 dBm 12.1 dBm

WhodahWoodah

Glad I could help clarify Clearz. I had the opposite situation with Vodafone a while ago. I was on the up to 24Mb pack and I tested my line one day only to discover my line could only support 5Mb. I got onto them about downgrading to their up to 7Mb plan as they should have told me when I upgraded from the 1Mb pack that I was wasting my cash being on anything above the up to 7Mb pack and I had to row with a bunch of people and finally a manager before they would do it cos I was in a contract! They can be really hard to deal with-I feel your pain! Have moved house now and I can't have broadband at all now! Am stuck with the cellular and 3G coverage on my iPhone now! Had to go cold turkey basically! Balls!!!