Vodafone Mobile Broadband - Unreliable Connection

[lorenzo79]

Hi,
I signed up to a 2 year contract (mobile broadband + laptop) last week and I am already regretting it. Before I signed up, I checked if coverage was good and from your maps it looked like 3G signal was strong where I live (central london), however the signal is actually quite weak, most of the times it says "Poor", although sometimes (rarely) it says "Good".
The connection is very unreliable, at times (not very often) it's really fast but then it suddenly turns really slow and I get disconnected way too often and it takes ages just to load very plain websites.
I live on the 14th floor and, as I said, in central london, so I'm really disappointed that the quality of the signal is so bad. Is there anything that can be done to improve the reliability of the connection? Am I stuck for the next two years with this awful broadband (should call it narrowband...)?
Any advice is very welcome.

[Retired-Jon_V]

George,
I have been in touch with the people ("the Link", avoid like the plague) who sold me the laptop and modem and they arranged for the item to be collected so I waited the whole Friday afternoon for the courier to turn up, which obviously didn't happen.
When I called them today they now say that the collection "failed" and that now it's too late and there isn't anything they can do. They say the coverage check you have on your website is not reliable and that they recommend people not use it (if just somebody had told me....)
I can't believe I'm stuck for the next two years paying 40 quid a month for a ridicolously bad broadband. Can you please let me know how I can get out of this contract?
I haven't "changed my mind", I'd be happy to keep laptop and broadband and pay as long as a decent service was provided to me, which is clearly not the case!
Please advise.

Hi Lorenzo79,

The comment about the coverage checker would certainly have been true a few months back, but in recent months it has been brought in line with our own internal coverage checking tools, so now is as accurate as possible. The one problem however, is that coverage is predominantly based on ground-level outdoor coverage, so if you're inside thick concrete walls or (as is the case here) on the 14th floor, your actual coverage is subject to far too many variables for us to ever accurately predict.

For this reason, we allow any user to return their device to us within 7 days if coverage is not to their satisfaction. Since this was purchased from The Link however, I'm afraid you are subject to their own returns policy, and not ours. The "failed collection" smells like a blatant fob-off to me. If you've reported the issue and intention to return within their agreed returns period, they have to honour it, no matter when the actual collection takes place - especially if it was their own courier that messed up in the first place. I wish it had been purchased from a Vodafone Store, as it would've meant we could take care of things for you from here, but unfortunately the equipment needs to be returned to the point-of-sale.

The only thing I can give you is advice, which would be to return to The Link and ask to speak to a manager regarding the collection. The idea that a failed collection could put you into "it's too late" territory does not sound right to me.

Jon

eForum Team

[lorenzo79]

Hi Jon,
Thanks for your reply. I've been in touch with the Link today to complain and now they say they can try to see if they can cancel the contract.
However they say they need to ask Vodafone, as it would be the network provider normally not allowing them to disconnect the line. They said they would check with Vodafone and let me know how it goes. Is there anything you can do to ensure this request is not declined?
Thanks,
Lorenzo

[Retired-Lee]

Hi lorenzo79,

I have to be honest, there's not much we can do here. It's a case of The Link admitting that thewy sold the device to you and the service was not obtainable and accepting the device back from you. In essence, it's their decision and not ours.

I'm sure you'll get the outcome you need from this.

Be sure to purchase direct from the network to safeguard against these situations in future!!!

Cheers,

LeeH
eForum Team