Vodafone Broadband

yoshiktk

Hi,
any opinions about the Vodafone Broadband in Charlesland area?
I could save myself few euro per month if I would switch to Voda, but im not sure how good it is?
Thanks

Charlie-Bravo

mobile or fixed line?

yoshiktk

Line. 35/25€ per month, compared to my current UPC bill now, its really big saving in a year. Efibre would be nice, but 50€ after 6months would be the same which im paying now, and just going for it cause the speed increase isnt to good idea for me.

Charlie-Bravo

do you have a TV sub? Any point in bundling?

Jimjay

yoshiktk wrote: »

Line. 35/25€ per month, compared to my current UPC bill now, its really big saving in a year. Efibre would be nice, but 50€ after 6months would be the same which im paying now, and just going for it cause the speed increase isnt to good idea for me.

Utv 70mb fibre is 40€ including phone line rental.

bido

yoshiktk wrote: »

Hi,
any opinions about the Vodafone Broadband in Charlesland area?
I could save myself few euro per month if I would switch to Voda, but im not sure how good it is?
Thanks

If I got Vodafone Broadband free I wouldn't take it ,Terrible company to deal with for broadband. :mad:

Kitty113

I switched to Vodafone from eircom last month. The sales rep looked at my eircom bill and promised me that if I switched I'd only pay 60 a month incl 200 mins to any Irish number. I got a bill in today for 240. The vat alone cost 55! They charged us 30 for the modem they sent out after telling us we could use the one we already had, 40 to set up a contract! And 2 for each bill they post out. We were not told about any of these charges when we signed up. It is meant to be 70mbps but it is much slower than eircom was. I would definetly not recommend!!!

fat-tony

@kitty113 - did you buy this contract at the door or did you set it up over the 'phone?
Sounds odd that you were charged so much. I'm an existing VF customer and got switched to fibre for free (no modem charge, no install charge) and went for the €40 package which is 70Mb, 100 mins free calls. As my wife has a VF billpay mobile and I opted for a 2 year contract they gave me a further €10 discount. Just got my November bill yesterday. Just a shade under €30. (you get a further 71c discount if you opt for email bills.) My previous package was costing me €49 and I was getting 8Mb and unlimited landline calls.

Seems strange that they wouldn't offer you free install/modem just to get you away from eircom.

caji

Avoid, avoid, avoid!!

I was with Vodafone and the broadband was terrible. I spent hours on the phone to them and they were extremely frustrating to deal with. I moved as soon as the contract was up. They rang me repeatedly afterwards to find out why I moved! Pity they weren't so attentive when I needed help.

Some friends were with them too and they changed providers. They really are not worth the savings of a few euro a month.

fat-tony

@caji - it's unfortunate your experience was so bad, but here's mine to balance the debate.

The infrastructure from your house to the exchange is all eircom's not matter what provider you're with. I've been with VF (and BT before that) since 2006 and have had stable broadband at 3Mb and 8Mb when the exchange was upgraded (2012) during that time. One voice quality issue on the line a couple of years back was sorted by eircom (through VF). My experience with the fibre ordering process from VF was painless and quick. Ordered from 1907 (customer service) on 1st Nov, modem delivered three days later and line upgrade done on 11th - simples;)
Now, I grant you, the time you spend waiting on the line for CS seems endless and the quality of info you get from the representatives is poor, but I think most of the phone/broadband companies are similar in this regard. You just have to know clearly what you want and be prepared to be persistent. The eircom forum on boards is full of tales of woe in regard to fibre upgrades. The thing is on boards you don't see the high percentage of installs that actually do go right, mostly the ones that go wrong.

Lenstroni

I'm SO frustrated with Vodafone right now. I ordered home BB on the 5th of November and its still not installed. To make matters worse I cancelled my other broadband with 3 thinking it would be installed by now so we're now working off our mobile phones for web connectivity . An Eircom engineer did called me yesterday at 9am while I was working to see if he could call out and check that the line was up to scratch. I told him that I could meet him during my lunch break but he told me they don't do appointments. I've heard nothing from them since. I've called Vodafone twice now and they have no visibility of the process. All they say is the order is with Eircom and we haven't heard back from them. They wont even give me a number that I can call so I can get back in touch with the engineers to reschedule. I don't think its very fair that customers should only get one bite at the cherry and if you're not in at the time you're forgotten about. Vodafone tell me it could take up to 35 working days to get installed. I honestly dont recall them telling me that when I placed the order. Thinking of cancelling and going with Eircom. If only UPC were in Bray.

bido

Lenstroni wrote: »

I'm SO frustrated with Vodafone right now. I ordered home BB on the 5th of November and its still not installed. To make matters worse I cancelled my other broadband with 3 thinking it would be installed by now so we're now working off our mobile phones for web connectivity . An Eircom engineer did called me yesterday at 9am while I was working to see if he could call out and check that the line was up to scratch. I told him that I could meet him during my lunch break but he told me they don't do appointments. I've heard nothing from them since. I've called Vodafone twice now and they have no visibility of the process. All they say is the order is with Eircom and we haven't heard back from them. They wont even give me a number that I can call so I can get back in touch with the engineers to reschedule. I don't think its very fair that customers should only get one bite at the cherry and if you're not in at the time you're forgotten about. Vodafone tell me it could take up to 35 working days to get installed. I honestly dont recall them telling me that when I placed the order. Thinking of cancelling and going with Eircom. If only UPC were in Bray.

\You would be better off with anyone but Vodafone, Ours never worked properly, an engineer even suggested there was something in the walls that stopped the wifi from going around the house. another engineer suggested we buy a modem from Harvey Norman. avoid avoid avoid .:mad::mad::mad:

fat-tony

bido wrote: »

\You would be better off with anyone but Vodafone, Ours never worked properly, an engineer even suggested there was something in the walls that stopped the wifi from going around the house. another engineer suggested we buy a modem from Harvey Norman. avoid avoid avoid .:mad::mad::mad:

I thought from reading an earlier posting that you are an eircom customer and are having issues with their service?

bido

fat-tony wrote: »

I thought from reading an earlier posting that you are an eircom customer and are having issues with their service?

WE went back to Eircom from Vodafone ,it's not perfect either but works most of the time unlike Vodafone which never worked.:) I am a bill paying customer of Vodafone since mobiles were invented and have no problem great service. they should stick with what they are good at and leave broadband to others:)

fat-tony

Pity that you had such a bad experience! - the original modem/router that Vodafone supplied for ADSL was certainly rubbish (but later firmware might have improved it). I must say that the VDSL modem/router has been running superbly for me since it was delivered almost three weeks ago, first on ADSL, then on fibre since the 11th.

grudgehugger

My two cents...

Just upgraded to Fibre with Vodafone. Was waiting a few weeks for the engineer to come out and do the upgrade but they turned up reliably when they said they would, were done quickly and everything worked straight away.

Download speeds at 45Mb/s according to a speed test, and that's over wireless with 3 other devices connected to the network and maybe slowing it down.

Also my costs are €37 a month for phone and BB - pretty sweet deal imo.

fat-tony

I must say that it's been a win/win for me as well - lowered monthly cost and higher broadband throughput.

Lenstroni

Quick update on the post below. I still haven't received my broadband a month after it was first ordered. I have called Vodafone 'customer care' or the sales team every two or so days and apparently they have escalated the issue with Eircom, whatever that means. It seems Eircom only give customers one bite of the cherry. Their attitude seems to be 'If you're not in at the time we want to install the line then tough-sh1t Paddy! " So its been a month since I first ordered this and even though I was given a 7-10 day turn around we still do not have broadband in the house. What is it about Irish companies that they think they can treat customers like sh1t can get away with it. Considering cancelling and going somewhere else. Any recommendations? :mad::mad::mad:

Lenstroni wrote: »

I'm SO frustrated with Vodafone right now. I ordered home BB on the 5th of November and its still not installed. To make matters worse I cancelled my other broadband with 3 thinking it would be installed by now so we're now working off our mobile phones for web connectivity . An Eircom engineer did called me yesterday at 9am while I was working to see if he could call out and check that the line was up to scratch. I told him that I could meet him during my lunch break but he told me they don't do appointments. I've heard nothing from them since. I've called Vodafone twice now and they have no visibility of the process. All they say is the order is with Eircom and we haven't heard back from them. They wont even give me a number that I can call so I can get back in touch with the engineers to reschedule. I don't think its very fair that customers should only get one bite at the cherry and if you're not in at the time you're forgotten about. Vodafone tell me it could take up to 35 working days to get installed. I honestly dont recall them telling me that when I placed the order. Thinking of cancelling and going with Eircom. If only UPC were in Bray.

fat-tony

Did VF not send you a text/email with the date of the engineer visit? eircom are in the loop because they own the infrastructure and they have to visit your home to install the new splitter/filter. eircom (in most cases) use a company called kn to do the actual install. I got a reminder from kn on the Friday before the tech was due to visit and then a call from the tech immediately beforehand. VF should have been able to cancel the appointment if it didn't suit you and arrange a different time, but if you never got notice of the appointment in the first place then VF obviously "dropped the ball". Have they given you any indication of a new install date? The kn techs are all over Greystones at the moment so there would seem to be a lot of installs in progress.

Lenstroni

Thanks for the reply fat-tony. I have never once received this magical text that customer care keep talking about. The first and last time I was contacted was by an engineer at 9:30am on a Thursday morning 2 weeks ago. I said I'd meet him at lunchtime or on Fridays when my wife is not working, he said he'd call me back and then silence. He did say that he wasn't allowed to make appointments. Its so maddening. 4 weeks and counting now...

fat-tony

I think you need to push VF on this to get you a new appointment. The eircom/kn techs just have a list of jobs and if the customer is not there I think they just mark it as a "no show" on their tablet PC. The individual technicians wouldn't be able to give you a new appointment as I would imagine they have a quota to fill each day and this is determined by "head office".

The text I got from Vodafone read as follows:

"Thank you for choosing Vodafone Broadband. The engineer will visit you between 12:30 - 16:30 on the 11/11/2013 to set up your service. To change this appointment call 1907...."

Lenstroni

Thanks fat-tony, I dont even need a new line though as I borrowed a phone from someone, plugged it in and hey presto - it works. So all I need is the f***ing modem and for them to switch on the line.

I'm still waiting. 6 weeks and counting.. I've spent hours on the phone to customer (dont)-care. They are now disputing the price I agreed on the phone with the sales rep so have to listen back to my original phone call with them. In all my days I've never experienced customer service like this.

Vodafone should be ashamed of themselves.

fat-tony wrote: »

I think you need to push VF on this to get you a new appointment. The eircom/kn techs just have a list of jobs and if the customer is not there I think they just mark it as a "no show" on their tablet PC. The individual technicians wouldn't be able to give you a new appointment as I would imagine they have a quota to fill each day and this is determined by "head office".

The text I got from Vodafone read as follows:

"Thank you for choosing Vodafone Broadband. The engineer will visit you between 12:30 - 16:30 on the 11/11/2013 to set up your service. To change this appointment call 1907...."

fat-tony

The technician has to fit a new master box to the line (it's called an NTU) which is why you need a visit. He/she also has to connect the VDSL kit in the cabinet to your line. I had assumed you had an existing working phone line.

But if you haven't even got the modem yet, then it would indicate that there is something wrong with the entire order process. I ordered on Fri 1st November, got my appointment text within 20 minutes and got an email with a tracking number for the modem that evening. It was delivered on Monday 4th and I was using it for a week as a standard ADSL modem until the upgrade.

Lenstroni

You serious? Thats all it took? One of the customer service reps (the only one worth their salt) wanted to cancel and rebook the order today but he wouldn't give me the discounts originally agreed when I ordered the service so its a catch 22. Even if I was lying and they didn't originally agree the discount (which they did), they should still be giving me a discount now as I've been waiting so long. The pain!

RosieJoe

Lenstroni wrote: »

You serious? Thats all it took? One of the customer service reps (the only one worth their salt) wanted to cancel and rebook the order today but he wouldn't give me the discounts originally agreed when I ordered the service so its a catch 22. Even if I was lying and they didn't originally agree the discount (which they did), they should still be giving me a discount now as I've been waiting so long. The pain!

Fair play to you for sticking it out so long. I'd have told them where to go and gone elsewhere by now!

bido

RosieJoe wrote: »

Fair play to you for sticking it out so long. I'd have told them where to go and gone elsewhere by now!

And in the long run you will wish you had gone elsewhere.

fat-tony

Lenstroni wrote: »

You serious? Thats all it took? One of the customer service reps (the only one worth their salt) wanted to cancel and rebook the order today but he wouldn't give me the discounts originally agreed when I ordered the service so its a catch 22. Even if I was lying and they didn't originally agree the discount (which they did), they should still be giving me a discount now as I've been waiting so long. The pain!

Yes - that's all it took. I didn't expect it the procedure to be so smooth, but it was.

Lenstroni

****Vodafone ORDER CANCELLED after waiting 7 weeks******

I've just had to cancel my broadband order which I originally ordered at the beginning of November. Thats almost 2 months ago.

The final straw was being told by a customer care rep that the line was only capable of 5mbps even though sales (pack of incompetent liars) said it was up to 50mbps and the check they did on the line on the day of order was 22mbps.. or so they said.

The engineer did what he needed without access to the house. I thought this was strange given what fat-tony said. Anyway, the modem still hadn't arrived a week after the engineer did his thing so I called to ask where it was. She said it would be another 15 days because there was a problem. Remember, I ordered this in the first week of November. She said there was a problem and it needs to be escalated to yet another team.

Never in all my years dealing with companies have I ever experience such bad customer care. Stay away from these pr1cks at all costs. They have wasted so much of my time and energy. I'll be broadbandless this Christmas thanks these w@nkers. #SoP1ssedOff

fat-tony wrote: »

Yes - that's all it took. I didn't expect it the procedure to be so smooth, but it was.

fat-tony

@Lenstroni - sorry to hear about the crap treatment from VF
The roll out in Greystones/Kilcoole seems to be patchy - whereabouts are you? Are you far from a VDSL cabinet?

Lenstroni

Soon after I cancelled my order I got a call from a manager in Vodafone to say that my modem was on the way and should arrive Friday. I asked him what use it was if I'm only getting 5mbps? He said the information I received from customer care was incorrect and that he had checked it before he called me and it was a 50mbps line. I accepted that people make mistakes and gave him the benefit of the doubt. However, ANOTHER engineer is now required to fit the modem inside the house (you were right). This time I got the text from Vodafone confirming this. So I'm JUST waiting for modem and engineer to arrive now. My 3rd engineer I hasten to add. Hopefully it'll all be in place before Christmas. @Fat-Tony, I'm about 150m away from the exchange on the Boghall Rd, near to Pres-bray.

fat-tony

That's slightly more encouraging news, then:)
Ok - you're not in Greystones, but I had a look at the map showing the location of cabinets in Bray. There seems to be one up on the Vevay Road near the side entrance to Dell and another down at the Southern Cross Business Park see here - https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1M_lYcvMkt7xIqqSa43TdS1s25oRqtA2JgpxAkYM#map:id=4

I don't know how up-to-date the map is, but the VDSL cabinets are easy to spot.
The engineer/technician didn't do anything with my modem - perhaps because I had already plugged it in and was running ADSL. The tech is there to install a new master socket (NTU) which acts as a splitter/filter between the VDSL and telephone facilities.