Re: Very poor data/3G in G2 Glasgow

Dave · 28-11-2008

Hi guys,

Just a quick update for you.

Site 32520 is scheduled for some upgrade work later this month which should help to improve matters in the area.

In the meantime, the local sites have been checked over and a couple of possible issues have been cleared - has this helped to alleviate the issue at all?

Looking forward, this area is scheduled to get significant number of new 3G sites in the coming months as part of our national rollout of network upgrades. Once these have been completed, you should see a significant boost in the local coverage.

Dave

eForum Team

dajamjar · 11-09-2008

I was, very briefly, able to use HSDPA yesterday. Thanks to the android app called OpenSignal which someone on this board directed me to i can tell that it was down to the tower i was connected to, because as soon as the phone connected to a different tower (without me moving of course) the data signal completely dropped and i have to force it back to GSM only and it fell back to EDGE.

I take heart that you recognise this as an issue, but not enough to overcome the fact customer services do not and refuse to offer any kind of compensation for six months of a sub standard service.

53 days until i can cancel my contract, and counting.

phoenix21 · 21-07-2011

Hi

Just to add to the complaints!

I have recently moved from O2 to Vodafone. With O2 I had perfect 3g signal in my office (G2 7HX) but with vodafone it has been awful - i rarely can access the internet on my phone in the office and when I can its normally a small snipet of the day.

I thought vodafone was supposed to be particularly good with regards signal, data networks etc, evidently i was wrong!

dajamjar · 11-09-2008

I recently moved office to the Queen Street area, 3G reception is perfect, inside buildings and at street level, same SIM and phone.

Is ofcom the regulator for the mobile phone system too? This lack of action and unwillingness to compensate its customers by Vodafone is an absolute disgrace.

kerrysalvona · 31-10-2008

the update talks about a 'significant boost' in service in the coming months - i dont understand how vodafone 3G coverage in Glasgow city centre has went from excellent to almost non- existant in the space of 6 months or so, yet vodafone dont seem to think this is an important issue?

i would like to know if anyone has got anywehre with vodafone re bill adjustments etc and i would appreciate a reply from vodafone on this

jheenan · 23-01-2010

I got a £10 credit after phoning in and complaining. Not really much considering the many months it's been broken.

I'm firmly voting with my feet - my contract's up in 18 days, my unlock request is already in progress, and a t-mobile (who I'm told are very good in the city centre) sim is on the way.

dajamjar · 11-09-2008

I, like many others, have been suffering from unusable 3G services in the G2 area of Glasgow for the past 7 months. I've logged many calls, tried to complain and been run in a merry dance and am not waiting for either my contract to expire (2 months and counting) or the issue to be resolved.

That said i would like to Vodafone to refund me part of my monthly bill as compensation for the, now recognised, unusable service i have been recieving.

I've tried calling to make a complaint (your call centre tells me i cant, am already speaking to the customer care team and there is no escalation beyond them) however upon noting one of the web team refer another complainant requesting a refund to post here i thought i would give it a go.

I cannot properly express my frustraton, anger and disgust at the level of customer service i have received from Vodafone during this issue, at every instance choosing to inconvenience me rather than addressing the issue i have returned the phone to HTC for repair no fewer than 4 times to fix a fault that wasnt there, not to mention paying for a service i wasnt receiving.

Regards,

James.

thomasmclean · 20-07-2011

3g down again in the g1 area!! yippeee, VF at its best - keep up the work for your competitors as thats where everyone will end up going!

Go vodafone!

jheenan · 23-01-2010

thomasmclean wrote:
3g down again in the g1 area!! yippeee, VF at its best - keep up the work for your competitors as thats where everyone will end up going!

Seems about the same for me, G1 2DT. Data seemed to work for a small bit after a reboot, then stopped working again - just sits saying 'Connecting...' in iphone mail app. Same yesterday too. (Perfect 3G at home, so doesn't seem to be my device.) Turn 3G off and data works, albeit rather slowly.

Calls on 3G today are awful at the same lcoation.

thomasmclean · 20-07-2011

woohooo as of this time - no connection - i have had zero connection all day........big accounts will be cancelled if this isnt sorted.

jheenan · 23-01-2010

thomasmclean wrote:
woohooo as of this time - no connection - i have had zero connection all day........big accounts will be cancelled if this isnt sorted.

Sounds a tad dubious to me. If you had a big account you'd have an account manager who'd care about stuff like this, surely.

That said, Voda can rest assured that no one I know that lives around here will be signing up for a vodafone account anytime soon.

thomasmclean · 20-07-2011

no am not involved in the big accounts, but people with big accounts and the say so to do so will leave if they keep having an abysmal service, i'm pretty sure its been flagged by several A/M's and still nothing, so what is VF actually doing? I'll tell you *nothing*

thomasmclean · 20-07-2011

Another day with no data axs to my phone. yahhooo!!!

Trev · 04-05-2010

Hi all.

I'm sorry we've not updated here for a while, but there was no further news to update you with.

The site 32520 is still having issues, and has a fault raised ref. 2259601. This site will also be undergoing an extensive upgrade in the near future. The knock on effect of this site been down, means that the remaining three sites in this area have extra traffic, which can cause congestion and drop outs to the service.

We are fully aware that this area is problematic, and the upgrade of 32520, and a future introduction of further sites in this area is scheduled in the near future to resolve this.

Any further news I receive I will update to the thread.

Regards

Trev

eForum Team

mrdeejay · 02-09-2008

Well are we going to get a discount???

£40 a month and cant even use my iPhone for it's purpose!!!

I am fed up of contacting and phoning up regarding this!

Think OFCOM will be next.......

squawkbox · 10-06-2009

I still cannot believe this issue is still on going.

Vodafone are clearly not treating customers with any respect and they have a shambolic approach to responding to customer complaints about this issue.

I've found this issue to be particularly bad over the last few days - I've had to force my phone back to 2G. This wouldn't be particularly bad if the majority of vodafone sites in Glasgow were EDGE enabled, but unfortunately they are not. Accessing data on GRPS is akin to pulling teeth.

I'm not wasting my time dealing with your outsourced customer service; as

1. This thread has been running since March. Why has it taken this long to resolve?

2. Why is there an inconsistent response in compensating customer's for lack of data service?

3. I don't believe for one second that it is one site that is causing all these problems. Glasgow city centre has loads of sites (as seen by OFCOM's site finder), there is clearly multiple sites having problems not just the one that is continually referenced in the prior posts.

4. Will vodafone spend time to investigate these faults? Including conducting a drive by testing of various areas in the city centre at various times of the day to see for yourself the extent of the problem?

Most importantly, why is no-one taking ownership of this issue?!

Wayne · 04-08-2008

Hi mrdeejay and sqauwkbox

Thanks for both of your posts here. I appreciate how frustrating this must be for you both.

I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to give you any credits at this point as you are still able to use 2G. Calls on 2G seem to be unaffected by this issue so you can still use your phone for its purpose (making calls).

1. This thread has been running since March. Why has it taken this long to resolve?

Upgrades require a lot of work and are not instantaneous I’m afraid. We’re working as quickly as possible to get this up and running. Taking our time doesn’t have any benefit because our customers are unhappy and that’s the last thing we want.

2. Why is there an inconsistent response in compensating customer's for lack of data service?

I’m not sure what you mean by this? Can you clarify?

3. I don't believe for one second that it is one site that is causing all these problems. Glasgow city centre has loads of sites (as seen by OFCOM's site finder), there is clearly multiple sites having problems not just the one that is continually referenced in the prior posts.

As Trev mentioned above, the problems that site 32520 is having, is in turn having a knock on effect to sites surrounding the area.

4. Will Vodafone spend time to investigate these faults? Including conducting a drive by testing of various areas in the city centre at various times of the day to see for yourself the extent of the problem?

This is why the upgrades are taking place.

Most importantly, why is no-one taking ownership of this issue?!

I believe we have taken ownership of this. After all, we have noticed that there is a problem in that area and are now in the process of implementing upgrades to better serve the higher traffic levels that are now present in Glasgow.

I understand how eager and desperate you all are to get your 3G data up and running again. Our engineers our working as fast as possible to get your service back to normal. Please let me know if you have any more questions and we’ll be happy to help you further.

Thanks

Wayne

eForum Team

mrdeejay · 02-09-2008

Well at least you have responded.

At least I only have a 12 month iPhone contract.

I will be walking with my feet when that is up, if this is the way your treating your customers.

Your telling me mobile data does not matter in this day and age as I have 2G for calls. I purchased a smartphone on what Vodafone regard as "not thin and crispy" network and your are going against your compnays advertisting of your network. So you are selling your network as one thing and it is clearly NOT. Here's another quote " Our Network is built for data - You will always be able to get the most from your iPhone" . I would love to know how you can describe your network as a "deep pan pizza" there is nothing deep about.

These iPhones are expencice and if you think customers buy these for just calls then you really are silly.

These tariffs are more expencive due the data etc. If customers just wanted calls they would not be on such high end tariffs.

This is poor poor customer service, If I done this in my work place I would be sacked if I did help them or reinburse them for something that we were not providing them with. It would be called a refunnd even if they got a half service they would get the cost back.

I cannot wait to leave this monkey of a company. I will be contacting OFCOM firth thing in Monday morning regarding this issue. £700 plus a year Vodafone are not prepared to keep their side of the bargan and provie me with what I am paying for.

Utter discrace.

You are selling high end products that cannot do what there purpose is. If your telling me the majority of customers buy an iPhone for calls they you really are silly

squawkbox · 10-06-2009

I'm in agreement with mrdeejay, I think it is terrible

I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to give you any credits at this point as you are still able to use 2G. Calls on 2G seem to be unaffected by this issue so you can still use your phone for its purpose (making calls).

That response would have been suitable if it was perhaps at the start of 2005 but not today. Consumers come to vodafone with smartphones take contracts out for multiple purposes, not just to make calls as you suggest above. I entered into the agreement with Vodafone to provide both circuit switched services (calls and SMS) and packet switched services (data). As you'll see from my usage, I'm very much a heavy data user and don't tend to use too many SMS or use much of my allowance. You even advertise data as part of your PR for your network (see "deep pan" and other silly marketing terms you use).

Incidently, I worked for another mobile network before I started studying again and if I had published or responded to a customer with the above, I would have been subject to disciplinary action. Very poor show.

You said:

2. Why is there an inconsistent response in compensating customer's for lack of data service?

I’m not sure what you mean by this? Can you clarify?

Well, as already demonstrated by this thread, you said "I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to give you any credits at this point as you are still able to use 2G" - yet yesterday, I called customer service and received a credit for lack of 3G data services.

I previously worked in the network department of another network and I was able to see when sites were due to be upgraded or what particular faults were. If the issue impacted a large number of customers then it would be raised as a high priority fault and was usually quickly resolved. If I felt the issue was big enough, I'd push it on behalf of customers to get looked at sooner.

Why didn't you seek an update on this particular site? Why didn't raise a case to have the other sites checked for faults? For example I've done some testing and I've been connected to the following 3G sites:

LAC: d5 CID: 30dceff

LAC: d5 CID: 30debd6

LAC = d5 CID: 30dceea

(and a few more that I have not noted down).

Attempting to establish a packet data session on this cell site is met with the response:

connecting...

"fail because Insifficient Resources"

At the times where a connection is made, the phone tries to upload data, which is then timed out.

Rather than wait on this upgrade to site: 32520 (BTW: Can you advise exactly where this site is please?) - Can you please raise an esclation to get the packet data element to the sites nearby checked. Even at this time on a Saturday night (and my testing in the early hours of the morning), I'm still experiencing the same fault.

This suggests to me it is an additional fault rather than completely due the excess demand placed on it due to site 32520 being down.

From my own testing LAC: d5 CID: 30dceff / LAC: d5 CID: 30debd6 / LAC = d5 CID: 30dceea are passing circuit switched elements (calls and SMS) but are not allowing devices to obtain a packet data connection.

Can you please get this escalated? Don't take this "sit back and wait" approach to see if the fix to site 32520 resolves this issue.

I shouldn't have to do all this work as a customer!

thomasmclean · 20-07-2011

Squawk, I am also of the radio background myself with the design and commision of the Pathfinder South and North project, the countries largest Local Govt initative to bring networks together in all highlands and islands locales.........and to this I can certainly say when one of our sites went down we had a 24 hour fix for this and that was with us having to commsion a heli crew to an island to get there + several other factors like bob cats, cherry pickers...so I think VF are just dragging there heals as I used Nera radio kit for along time and I know all about it, to upgrade there network would take a matter of weeks and I know the company (sitec) who do their upgrades....Please get your act together VF.......... it's shocking.