Trading Standards.

[ping]

My mobile broadband is not very mobile and it’s barely even broadband. I’m paying for a service I’m simply not receiving.

For my business I travel around the country, hence the need for mobile broadband, and I’ve found coverage poor at best. Simple web pages can load but anything more data intensive will cause the modem to ‘unexpectedly hang up’ -except it’s not unexpected because it happens so frequently. I’ve never been able to stream anything or download software and the speed is often as slow as dial-up and less reliable. In the past I had been putting this trouble down my being in out-of-the-way places but now I’m in London and it’s exactly the same.

At point of sale I was told my U.S.B stick would provide me with fast reliable internet access beamed directly from a satellite, they didn’t say: ‘totally unreliable, often as slow as dial-up, basic web pages only, profoundly irritating’.

Could this be a trading standards issue? This service is unsatisfactory.

[eileen.best]

Hi ping

I'm sorry to hear that you are having problems here. I completely understand your frustration with this and completely agree that in somewhere like London you should be able to get coverage.

Could you please post the postcode of the area you are currently using it in? We can check the coverage on our more enhanced in house coverage maps.

I'm sure we can expliain/fix this for you so please let us know and we'll be more than happy to assist you further

Thanks

Wayne

eForum Team

Wayne

I regularly travel from Stockport to London. I had a netbook and approached Vodafone with a few to being able to access the internet while on the train. I was informed that the service on this route was second to none, that I would have complete coverage and it would be at excellent strength with the dongle. Well I have to say this is just not true; the coverage is so bad that I have given up and started reading rather than reconnect all the time, it was seriously doing my head in, I would just start doing something and it would disconnect or loose signal again and again, and I refuse to pay a second charge for the wi fi on the train.

Maybe you could check this out for me please?

Thanks

Eileen

[Retired-Wayne]

Hi Eileen

I would love to have a look at this for you. The problem is I need some postcode as point of reference for these drop outs.

You may be going through pockets of no coverage and that is why it is dropping out. Do you have the modem set to use both 2G and 3G or just one?

If you have a postcode at all that will help me look into a particular area then please provide it and we'll look into this further for you

Thanks

Wayne

eForum Team

[ping]

Wayne

I regularly travel from Stockport to London. I had a netbook and approached Vodafone with a few to being able to access the internet while on the train. I was informed that the service on this route was second to none, that I would have complete coverage and it would be at excellent strength with the dongle. Well I have to say this is just not true; the coverage is so bad that I have given up and started reading rather than reconnect all the time, it was seriously doing my head in, I would just start doing something and it would disconnect or loose signal again and again, and I refuse to pay a second charge for the wi fi on the train.

Maybe you could check this out for me please?

Thanks

Eileen

I know exactly how you feel Eileen, I'm forever re-connecting and it's absolutely infuriating -especially when your internet access is work related.

I'm still waiting for customer service to 'get back to me' after contacting them on Wednesday last week -that's their 5 working day response promise broken! What I want to know is: at what point are Vodafone in breach of contract?

[Retired-Lee]

Hi ping,

Could you post the email reference number so we can take a look at this please?

Cheers,

LeeH
eForum Team

[ping]

Hi ping,

Could you post the email reference number so we can take a look at this please?

Cheers,

LeeH
eForum Team

Certainly, it's well over 5 days now.
SubmitContactUsQuery

[Retired-Lee]

Hi ping,

Thanks for getting back to me. Your original query has no details attached to it, though I can see we contacted you from the forum on 24/07/09 and you replied to us (reference 735979), but did not supply your details.

The reason we ask for these details is so we can access your account to check everything's fine at our end, then beyond that, we then have your details so we can raise a fault. Without these details, there's nothing we can do.

Could you please reply with your details and we'll be able to follow this up.

Cheers,

LeeH
eForum Team

[ping]

Hi ping,

Thanks for getting back to me. Your original query has no details attached to it, though I can see we contacted you from the forum on 24/07/09 and you replied to us (reference 735979), but did not supply your details.

The reason we ask for these details is so we can access your account to check everything's fine at our end, then beyond that, we then have your details so we can raise a fault. Without these details, there's nothing we can do.

Could you please reply with your details and we'll be able to follow this up.

Cheers,

LeeH
eForum Team

Thanks LeeH
I didn't supply the details because I wasn't instructed to do that when I contacted customer care, and the confirmation email I received (Jul 21, 2009 15:57) simply stated:
'Thanks for contacting Vodafone customer care. We’ve received your Email and will be contacting you within 5 working days.'

-No mention of supplying personal details to a third party. I don't mean to seem difficult but I am naturally wary of supplying personal details on the web, and surely customer care know my details anyway, I'm a customer after all, I have signed a contract, they must have a file somewhere!?


P.

[Retired-Lee]

Hey ping,

The email from us requested these details as the forum doesn't require and account specific info to sign up. Without these details we can't access your account.

The email you sent to customer services is a different matter, and if you want to wait for them to get back to you, then you'll have to wait I'm afraid.

If you'd like the eForum Team to deal with your query, then I'd urge you to reply with those details.

I understand your reasons for not wanting to supply personal details, I guess it's up to you how you want us to deal with your query.

Cheers,

LeeH
eForum Team

[danger11]

I would reccomend using a private proxy (pm me for one) this often speeds up the connection because its not going thru vodafones over cramped servers.

[ping]

More inconvenience!

After about 10 days I gave up waiting for this:
'Thanks for contacting Vodafone customer care. We’ve received your Email and will be contacting you within 5 working days.'
I took my U.S.B modem back to a Vodafone store, on the advice I received from jon_vodafone:

"We offer a free repair service on all our devices, and this is one such time where I'd recommend you take advantage. The process usually takes less than a week - and if you have Insurance on your account, you'll even be given a temporary replacement on the spot (subject to availability)"

!!Err, no they don't! According to the people at the Vodafone store the temporary replacement scheme excludes dongles and USB modems! I'm now without mobile broadband for a week.
Thanks guys!


>>Thanks Dannym9, I don't think I actually know what a private proxy is but if I'm paying Vodafone for a broadband service then that's what they should be providing me with!?