Pay as you go services

[Slowmotion]

I am unable to get a BT engineer out to set up broadband until the end of January so was told about the wonders of pay as you go Dongles.

Been using a Vodafone dongle for a couple of days, it wont allow me to use Yahoo Messenger.

"

You are not able to access this service because Content Control is in place.

If you're 18 years or over, you can remove Content Control by contacting your mobile service provider's customer support
team."

I am well over 40 so signed into my account and clicked "manage setting for call barring and content control" but get this error message "

• Sorry we're unable to process your request right now. It won't take us long to fix this issue. Please try again later."

So I went to email customer services, filled out the form and sent it but get an error message saying this service is out of order.

What can I do to get rid of this restriction?

[mari1970]

Hi Slowmotion,

The quickest way to get your Content Control bar lifted is to give Customer Care a call during opening hours, you can get them by calling 08700776655 from another line.. As long as you have a valid UK CC they will be able to resolve this for you.

Alternatively you can pop into your nearest Vodafone store with proof of ID and they can also do this..

[Debsjeav]

I do not understand why we have to call a costly number to get this removed or travel to a local store when we never asked for it to be put on in the first place

[mari1970]

Hi Debsjeav,

Every Vodafone sim card has Content Control bar in place in order to restrict anyone under the age of 18 accessing content that they are not authorised to use, ie, sites meant only for over 18's..

The information that i gave on my post was because the OP was having problems lifting Content Control through their online account, so would have been the quickest way to get the bar lifted..

You also have the option of lifting your Content Control if you have an online account set up and a valid UK CC..

[Debsjeav]

You will see from my other post that I HAVE on several occasions in the past 3 days tried to remove the bar online thought my online account.!! And as others on here have had no success as each attempt results in a page of script error. I have also tried on several occasions to email re this problem & each time also get an error message. Thought it may be the pc I was using or the time of day but tried it half hr ago from work pc & same thing. So what is your solution

[mari1970]

If you are having the same issue you can always follow the advice i gave on my first post..

Alternatively one of the Tech Team will be along in the next couple of days to respond to your post

[Debsjeav]

So I either phone a local rate number number to remove something I did not request/know was on the sim or find time to travel an hour to the local store or I wait a few days for someone to be able to respond on here. it may be easier/quicker to change service provider

[Slowmotion]

OK good to know the problem is not my end.

Very frustrating as I have spent most of my online time trying to resolve this and failing, very time consuming with the slow loading of pages, having to go through the online forms and filling out my personal and credit card details to find it has not worked.

So it looks like I will have ot go into town and visit the Vodafone shop, I hope they can lift this restriction if I take my credit card in with me, will I need anything else with me?  Hope not my driving license as that has been sent off to get my new address put on it.

[Debsjeav]

it 's bad that you are the given the convenient option to do it online but then it constantly fails. The fact that you cannot email either and the slow loading pages are a nuisance. I was warned about Vodafone and wish I had listened

[Slowmotion]

Do you know of a better option?

I hope to be on BT broadband in a few weeks but need something faster and without any restrictions.

It was PC world that told me Vodafone has the best coverage in my area so I bought the dongle from there.

If I take it into the Vodafone shop I assume I need to take the dongle with me which contains the SIM card?

[Debsjeav]

not really sure. Virgin are supposed to be good especially if you are already a customer for tv, telephone or broadband, but many people are telling me O2 is the best

[Martin]

Hi Slowmotion

I know that this is something that we can help with. I have therefore just sent you an email, if you can reply back to that we will be in touch so that we can remove the content bar from your number.

Thanks

Martin

[Debsjeav]

Good luck SLowmotion

they sent me the email, I replied straight away, then they sent me one asking for more info which once recived "the bar would be removed" sent that info and still 2 days later, bar still there!

[Slowmotion]

I walked into town to the Vodafone shop a couple of days ago and the unhelpful girl in the shop removed the restriction, which became effective after Midnight.

I am getting connection problems now, copnnects and then disconnects itself after a few minutes.

I am on a top floor flat in an apparently good Vodafone coverage area too.

[Dave]

 Hi guys,

Debsjeav - I can see from our emails that my colleague DaveCD got back to you to advise this had been resolved. If you have any other issues, please let us know.

Slowmotion - Did you have any of these issues before the content bar was removed? The removal of content control should have no bearing on the ability of the dongle to hold a connection.

Can you also try a few other things for me to help us get to the bottom of this:

 - Can you try the dongle in an alternate USB post?

 - Can you remove the SIM and give it a wipe with a dry cloth to remove any dirt which may be affecting the connection points?

 - What lights does the dongle show?

 - Does the disconnection always happen after the same amount of time, or is it random?

 - Does it happen more a certain times of the day? If so, when is this?

 - Does anything change on the computer when this happens? For example, do the icons by the clock on the toolbar show anything else opening, especially anything which states it has found a new storage device?

 - Can you confirm your full postcode so we can check to see if there is a local signal issue?

Let us know and we'll be happy to investigate further.

Dave

[Slowmotion]

Helo Dave,

Thank-you for your time and effort in trying to resovle this.

The disconnections were happening during the storm but I have had no connection issues today at all.

to answer your questions,

"Can you try the dongle in an alternate USB post?"

Yes I did try the Dongle in many different USB ports which did not help the disconnections.

" - Can you remove the SIM and give it a wipe with a dry cloth to remove any dirt which may be affecting the connection points?"

Yes I did that.

"What lights does the dongle show?"

When working normally the dongle shows 4 out of the 5 green lights indicating coveragew very good.

But when I was having disconnection issues it was showing 3 of the 5 green lights indicating, coverage good.

"Does the disconnection always happen after the same amount of time, or is it random?"

I did not notice any pattern with regards to the the disconnections except it would not connect first time, always needed at least 2 attempts.

" Does it happen more a certain times of the day? If so, when is this?"

It was throughout the 2 days, morning, noon and night,

Does anything change on the computer when this happens? For example, do the icons by the clock on the toolbar show anything else opening, especially anything which states it has found a new storage device.

No, nothing else else changes on the PC.

"Can you confirm your full postcode so we can check to see if there is a local signal issue?"

PL1 3FJ

Apparently this is a good Vodafone coverage area.

Incedentally I went to http://speedtest.net/ today

and my results were

Download speed 0.33 mbps upload speed 0.20 mbps

Ping 1170 ms

Grade F, slower than 96% of GB

No wonder it seems slow.

Best regards.

[Slowmotion]

I am looking forward to you investigating further.

Regards