Can anyone tell me if my router's been despatched?

[displaced]

I placed a landline+fibre order on the 16th and was told my router would be delivered in 2 business days. 

My WEB-xxxx order number and postcode displayed only "Invalid order" on the tracking page.

I checked with Vodafone via phone calls and live chat.  Eventually I was told that the router had not been despatched due to "problems" and that another would be sent immediately.  That was Tuesday.

It's now Saturday and no sign of a router.  I have only 5 business days before BT disconnect my phone and broadband.  

I've repeatedly asked Vodafone for some sort of verifiable evidence that my router is on its way.  Apparently, because it's a "manual" order, no tracking is available.  

I have no faith at all that Vodafone have done what they've said.  Usually companies have the good grace to save their poor service until after it's been installed.  I'm *this* close to cancelling the order and keeping my massively overpriced BT service.  The only thing preventing me from doing that is I can't believe for a second that Vodafone would be capable of cancelling an order without messing that up too.

Can anyone at Vodafone tell me my router is definitely on its way?  Perhaps even supply the courier's package tracking info (like literally every other company manages to do?).  And please don't tell me to call the broadband team or spend another few hours trying to get into the always-busy Live Chat.  Neither of those services are able to give me a straight answer about whether or not a router's been sent.  Trust me, I've tried so many times.

Phew.  

(...and it would be quite nice if my Vodafone app could tell me how much data I've used, but that's not working either.  But that's yet another problem...)

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi @displaced

I can certainly feel your frustration with this and rightly so. 

This eforum is owned and monitored by Vodafone U.K. We have members of the Vodafone Tech Team who are available to respond and Help where they can. They have the Vodafone logo next to their name. All posts are read by them.
 
Hang in there and I'm sure they'll be in touch. 

[Retired-Sarah_L]

Hi @displaced,

My apologies for any inconvenience caused by the situation you're experiencing. 

Unfortunately, we're unable to help with broadband queries - you'd need to talk with our Broadband Team directly; either by calling on 08080 034 515 or through Live Chat. They'll be able to get this looked into for you. 

Thanks, 

Sarah

[displaced]

Thanks @Sarah_L

I've been told that the order is still 'Open' and has not been despatched.  The CS guy was helpful enough and spoke to the deliveries team.  Apparently the package might 'still be at the depot' and that if it doesn't arrive by Wednesday then I should call again and another will be sent.

That'd make it three times that Vodafone will have claimed to have posted a router to me.

I'm still not at all confident that I'll have a router before BT switch off my service, and I'm even less confident that Vodafone's service will even be active on my line by then.  

(not to mention, even if everything works out OK, I'll still probably have to fight to get the PPPoE login for my account so I can use my own router, despite the Live Chat assistant assuring me that'd be no problem at all when I asked before ordering!)

[Retired-Viki_R]

Hi @displaced

Have you now received your router?

Viki

[displaced]

Hi,

I'm afraid not.  Tomorrow is the last day which I can contact BT to prevent loss of service.  So if the router doesn't arrive today or first thing tomorrow, I'll be cancelling the Vodafone order.

I would have thought that of all the technical challenges of delivering a broadband service, sending the router in the post would be the very easiest.  Broadband is really important to me -- I work from home often and must have VPN connectivity and I'm now thoroughly unconvinced that Vodafone can offer a reliable service.  

[displaced]

I've gone for the weapon of last resort.

My wife's on the phone to Customer Services now.  She's giving them both barrels, and rightly so.

We're not putting up with another "Sorry, there was a problem, we'll send another".

Abysmal service, Vodafone.  Truly terrible.  Easily the worst experience with a telco/broadband supplier, and we've used BT, Sky, Virgin, O2 and Giffgaff recently.

Giffgaff don't even have Customer Services -- it's all self-serve -- and still manages to be infinitely better than Vodafone.

[displaced]

Ended up going to a store to pick one up. The first assistant hung up on my wife and was just plain rude. Second assistant was really excellent and provided the order number to give to the store when picking up the router.

I'm really not looking forward to Tuesday when the switch happens. Even if it goes well, I imagine I'm going to have a fight on my hands to get the PPPoE login so I can use my own router. I've read reviews that the VF router crumbles after 6 or so clients are talking. My home network's DNS server indicates I've got 22 hosts on my LAN at the moment, and I'm not going to use both routers and end up with double-NAT ruining online services.