Vodafone Sure Signal

[mrblack]

After spending most of my xmas holiday performing unpaid IT work for Vodafone I was very curious as to why my device has suddenly sprung into life, so have been working backwards...

I've closed all the ports that I was told to open

I've removed the device from DMZ

I've shut the firewall 

I've removed the static IP

I've disabled UPnP

The tracert still ends up at the same place

Rebooted everything

And it still works - so it's none of those issues.

I've had a look at all the other posts from Sure Signals that have suddenly sprung to life like zombies from the grave

They're from different ISPs ; Using different routers ; From different IP ranges

So VFs finger pointing at the ISPs and routers has been wrong.

And if it's a whitelist issue, it's not initial IP addresses (as requested) - possibly later hops?

The only common thing I can see is SS serial numbers beginning 

401145

401146

are the ones that suddenly started working this evening.

Hmmm. I can only conclude that every single bit of technical 'advice' we have received to date has been wrong.

And while I'm thankful it now works, I'm pretty upset about how much wasted time and effort we have all had to go through.

So, Vodafone, what happened? 

[Apple_Fanboy]

Hi Mrblack

From what i have read and been told it was an issue system issue that affected all the units, the diagnostics you undertook are standard steps that would usualy resolve the solid power light only issue which is normaly caused by internet/router problems.

I can understand its frustrating to not only jump through the hoops of performing all this but then find out they are not needed. Without completing these however vodafone would not have been able to properly diagnose the issue before ruling out other factors.

[mrblack]

@apple_fanboy

thanks for your opinion, I also think it would be good if a VF representative told us precisely what the issue was as opposed to you making excuses on their behalf. If it was a system issue, what was it exactly? what systems were affected? and how was it finally resolved?

If a company expects customers to spend days performing what should have been internal and prerelease diagnostics, then surely the company should have the respect to inform their customers of the details of the solution now that it is apparent?

let's be clear - I (and many others) were repeatedly told by various members of tech 'support' that it was a problem our end, and all of these steps had to be undertaken to make the unit work, when in the end, it obviously was not.

[mrblack]

Can one of the forum team please respond to this?

[pman]

Mr Black

I think your original post is spot on. All of these troubleshooting steps were a total waste of time.

Apple_Fanboy

Whilst I can accept that in an isolated incident it makes sense to undertake prescribed troubleshooting steps as a first measure, I was told (eventually by Vodafone Customer Services) that this issue affect 10,000 users. I have no idea of the accuracy of this number however it was clear from the amount of activity on this forum that there was a generic issue long before VF accepted that. Furthermore, hundreds of people on this forum undertook the troubleshooting steps, shared their output and confirmed no issues at ISP end. Additionally, from what I can see, there is a well established history of VSS being a poorly performing product with poor customer service attached: indeed there is an external website dedicated to problems with it. Finally, after many, many phonecalls and escalations to Vodafone, I was informed that Vodafone had an issue at their end - this was 6 days before the issue was fixed and, although I asked for an update to be put on the forum, no one from VF bothered to do that: indeed it was left to me to update the frustrated members of this forum with that info. so, I am all for following a standard troubleshooting methodology but in this case Vodafone could and should have done more: it is hard to believe that the whole episode wasn't a wilful and deliberate attempt to mislead and delay customers until the one guy who understood what he was doing came back to the office.

So Mr Black is right- Vodafone, you owe everybody who wasted hours and days over their Christmas break an explanation of what the issue was and why you took so long to acknowledge it, let alone fix it. Eforum guys, this is no way directed at you, who I am sure were doing your best with limited resource. Someone in a Senior position from Vodafone should take the time to write a paragraph of explanation to this collective group of customers.

[DaveCD]

Hi mrblack and pman.

Thank you for your posts, I understand that this has caused you frustration and I would like to thank Apple_Fanboy for his understanding of this, as mentioned these are steps taken to ensure that we can rule out other possibilities and narrow down to the route cause.

Our support teams have been working at full capacity to get this up and running and as you mention this now works, the steps taken we have found often resolve errors customers are having, I am sorry this was not the case for you and the many others that experienced this issue.

Please accept our sincerest apologies that this has taken more time and effort on your behalf than normal, if you have any further queries we can help you with please do not hesitate to post and we will gladly help.

Many Thanks

DaveCD

eforum Team

[mrblack]

Hey Dave

Appreciate the apology, but what was the issue?

[Lee]

Hi mrblack,

The root cause has yet to be found and investigations are continuing.

Thanks,

Lee

[mrblack]

Whatever was done at about 5.30pm on the 4/1/12 was significant, as there seemed to be a good few posting here that all began working at the same time....

Let us know when you do.

[mrblack]

bump re query as to how issue was resolved. Please link to explanation here when you have one.

[Lee]

Hi mrblack,

I've still not heard anything but have pressed for information.

Cheers,

Lee

[Tom]

Hello mrblack,

The issue is resolved. We've never explained what issues were or how they were fixed on the eForum, and we won't be on this occasion either.

I apologise as I know you really want to know what caused it, but this is just something we don't do.

Kind Regards,

Tom

[mrblack]

I would like an explanation for reasons I've outlined before - if you don't want to post it then PM me.

[mrblack]

nothing from you yet, and it seems that people are still experiencing a similar problem - there are a number of posts asking for more information.   

If you want people to get deeply involved in troubleshooting when the devices don't work, I don't think you can withhold the solutions once their time has been invested. You have already created the customers need to know.

[Digsy]

To be fair I think we can't expect any kind of explanation of what the root cause of the problem was, but in a way I think we have our answer. The vast majority of people on here who dutifully followed all the troubleshooting steps to no avail had their Suresignals suddenly spring into life for no reason on the same day. Ergo, all I can assume is that the problem was in fact at Vodafone's end. I suspect in today's society that any kind of admission of that from a Vodafone employee on a public forum would open them up to all sorts of compensation claims from small businesses and the like for loss of service - so its not going to happen.

Personally, I'm just glad mine is working. However I think there is something badly wrong with the way SureSignal is being marketed. All the blurb on the website says it is "plug and play". Indeed, it comes with practically no instructions at all, other then how to set it up and very basic troubleshooting - sufficient only for the user to recognise if it is working or not. If it doesn't then you are immediately set adrift to contact first line support and eventually you will end up at the troubleshooting list. However, Vodafone needs to realise that for a lot of people, even these initial steps will be beyond the capabilities of some users, taking them in one step from "plug and play" to "incomprehensible". I'm 40 years old and have been a computer geek for longer than I care to remember but I still have to refer to written instructions to set up port forwarding. Suresignal is sold as a plug and play device, but in reality if you are not PC literate and your Suresignal doesn't work it is about as useful as a brick.

Vodafone are in a difficult spot here, because in the instances where SureSignal doesn't work, and the user isn't computer savvy, no amount of support can work. In order to run through the basic troubleshooting steps you have to get inside your router, and there are simply too many different types of router for Vodafone to provide step by step instructions for, and before anyone mentions PortForward.com that site can be a bit misleading, too. At least one user on here mistakenly thought he had to buy some software advertised on the site in order to change his port settings, which he did - of course with no success.

I was also a bit surprised to read in some posts that SureSignal seems to be being sold alongside new contracts to people in Vodafone blackspot areas? I live in a what you might call a "grey" spot where the signal comes and goes, but if I had specifically bought a Vodafone contract knowing I was in a black spot simply because I was told that also buying SureSignal would fix things, then I would be pretty annoyed.

I have no idea how going through the rigmarole of troubleshooting might affect your rights as a consumer because as we know the last thing that Vodafone will do is concede that there is a problem with the box itself (and in that case usually a replacement is sent out, which or course does not work either). I'm not sure if it would have made any difference, but as soon as I read this forum and saw the amount of people with the exact same problem, and at the time with no sight of a solution, I e-mailed Vodafone and informed them of my intention to return the SureSignal for a full refund as not being fit for purpose (i.e. not "easy to set up" as described in the advert) if a solution was not found in a timely manner.

With respects to the forum guys, I think the fairest thing would be for Vodafone to provide some better first line tech support for this product. Some kind of remote management or remote diagnostics (if that is even possible) so that Vodafone can run the some of the basic troubleshooting steps instead of the end user. Surely is must be possible to contact the SureSignal boxes through the required ports from a remote machine at Vodafone to establich if the comms are at least working? Or maybe a simple tool (could even be web based) that can run on a local PC and then send the results to Vodafone automatically.

Anyway, my SureSignal works, and in my case I was only scratching my head for a few days which is small potatoes compared to some of the issues posted on here. I'm just glad I could follow all the steps without causing any collateral damage in the process. I don't need an answer or admission of guilt from Vodafone because I've already decided that in my case the problem was at their end and they fixed it quickly. However, I do think that if the first line of support for a "plug and play" product requires you to do a long list of pertty tedious computer-y stuff then Vodafone should try to find a way to make that a bit simpler for the average user. If this cannot be done then a no-quibble returns policy or a clear cut "BT style" day by day compensation scheme for loss of service (the length of which would be simple to establish at the Vodafone end) would be a fair way to take the sting out of the time waiting for the problem to be diagnosed and fixed.