Well after years with Virgin Media and an oversubscription issue in my area, meaning on a line promising up to 200Mbps i was frequently getting speeds as low as 1.2Mbps I decided to look for another broadband provider. Vodafone suppply my mobile service and seemed to have one of the best deals on the market at the moment. Up to 76Mbps for £24 per month with no setup fees.
I placed my order and discovered I would need a new phone line installed as there isn't a traditional phone line to the property. The charge for this was only £60 so i proceeded with the order.
The online order process was easy to use and all was going well. I chose an installation date of those available that would fit in around my work schedule, Friday 16th February 2018. I paid the £60 fee and got an email confirming my order with installation and start date confirmed as what I had selected.
Fast forward a week and I decided to use the track my order facility to check on the progress of my order. I input the order number and... 'ORDER NUMBER NOT VALID'. I tried again double checking that I had correctly input the 16 digits...'ORDER NUMBER NOT VALID'.
I started a webchat to try and find out what had gone wrong. The chap on the other end was very quick at finding my order and confirming that it was due for installation on Thursday 22nd February. I had the email in front of me, and sure enough it stated installatiion and start date 16th February 2018. I enquired as to why the date had been changed, didn't get much more than a scripted response.
I decided to try my luck with the call cntre staff. They too confirmed that my installation was scheduled for 22nd Febbruary. They also informed me that they rely on Openreach engineers and none were available so my installation date was changed to 22nd February. I asked why I had not been informed of the change until I had gone online to check the statys of my order and had to contact the call centre. Why had they not contacted me to say 'unfortunately your seected date is no longer available, but we do have these dates'. As it happens I have had to reschedue the installation as I am working on the 22nd February, which they would have known if they had contacted me. They had no answer for me. Why do they have some dates listed as availabe and some as not available if it comes down to pot lock when the installation is actually booked? Again no answer.
I am already beginning to regret my decision to change to Vodafone home broadband. I have some time(more than expected) before the installation date. I may have to look at an alternative provider, even if it means payiing a little more.
