Why is it so difficult to get a 4G SIM Data Card activated on 4G?

[crunchieeagle]

I am a Managing Director of a specialist 4G mobile broadband supplier in Devon and Somerset and Dorset and just lately Cornwall, and an approved supplier of the Government Better Broadband scheme and Connecting Devon and Somerset Scheme for people with poor landline speeds.

.

Our target customers are businesses, home consumers, park home areas, in rural areas (outside of the FTTC network) and park homes.

We have lots of customers that can use 4G with our systems and get signals on a good line of sight for upto 10-15 miles away from a 4G mast. Most of the best infrastructure in the South West is Vodafone and EE. We use unlocked 4G routers and high gain 4G antennas

We have in the past tried many times to get customers on Vodafone, 4G, on monthly contracts either a year or a 30 day rolling contract but alot of problems always arise,  because the current situation is not working.

The sales or technical department don’t seem to understand what we do. They just seem to think 4G sim only cards are for phones and tablets. We use a TP Link MR200 which works with a 4G Vodafone SIM card beautifully (sets up the APN settings automatically) which is attached through low loss gain cables to our powerful 4G antennas. It should be just plug and play.

But

1. The cards often arrive not activated
2. There are no instructions or telephone number given to activate it
3. Some customers if they have been activated. have been activated on 3G only, even though they are purchasing a 4G sim
4. We have had customers not capped. Even though you can stop the allowance in the router to stop you going over your allowance, most customers don’t know how to do this or have the time to learn, so we are disappointed to find some customer being charged money without knowing they have gone over their allowance, and don’t know that the SIM Card has to be asked to be “capped”

We do about 30-40 installs a month on both EE and Vodafone. We give alot of business to Vodafone and all we get are headaches. Our customers have even been told by the sales team or technical team that our equipment does not work or not fit for purpose. 

I don't know why Vodafone even sell 4G data only Sim Cards, when they dont know what they can be used for, not just tablets!

I am a Managing Director  of a specialist 4G mobile broadband supplier in Devon and Somerset and Dorset and just lately Cornwall, and an approved supplier of the Government Better Broadband scheme and Connecting Devon and Somerset Scheme for people with poor landline speeds.

.

Our target customers are businesses, home consumers, park home areas, in rural areas (outside of the FTTC network) and park homes.

We have lots of customers that can use 4G with our systems and get signals on a good line of sight for upto 10-15 miles away from a 4G mast. Most of the best infrastructure in the South West is Vodafone and EE. We use unlocked 4G routers and high gain 4G antennas

We have in the past tried many times to get customers on Vodafone, 4G, on monthly contracts either a year or a 30 day rolling contract but alot of problems always arise,  because the current situation is not working.

The sales or technical department don’t seem to understand what we do. They just seem to think 4G sim only cards are for phones and tablets. We use a TP Link MR200 which works with a 4G Vodafone SIM card beautifully (sets up the APN settings automatically) which is attached through low loss gain cables to our powerful 4G antennas. It should be just plug and play.

But

1. The cards often arrive not activated
2. There are no instructions or telephone number given to activate it
3. Some customers if they have been activated. have been activated on 3G only, even though they are purchasing a 4G sim
4. We have had customers not capped. Even though you can stop the allowance in the router to stop you going over your allowance, most customers don’t know how to do this or have the time to learn, so we are disappointed to find some customer being charged money without knowing they have gone over their allowance, and don’t know that the SIM Card has to be asked to be “capped”

We do about 30-40 installs a month on both EE and Vodafone. We give alot of business to Vodafone and all we get are headaches. Our customers have even been told by the sales team or technical team that our equipment does not work or not fit for purpose. 

I don't know why Vodafone even sell 4G data only Sim Cards, when they dont know what they can be used for, not just tablets!

[pipcoo]

I found a cancellation form (quite well hidden ! ) and downloaded it and sent it by post as I`ve had bad experiences with web chat and call centres before saying things have been cancelled when they weren`t. It`s a shame as it was a good offer of 50GB per month for £25 as I pay £28 for 32GB with EE but at least it works ! I find it unacceptable that Vodafone sell plans on their website that are not as advertised and that very important parts of the software i.e. the data cap do not appear to work either causing people to rack up big bills. It must be a nightmare for you running a business and then have things not work as expected and not getting much help that is of any use.

[crunchieeagle]

Me too.. They are selling something that is not fit for purpose. EE are better deals than that, worth giving them a call.

[pipcoo]

As a final try I just went onto live chat and told them about the problem, they said hold on a minute and we`ll sort it out and guess what ? I now have 4g/LTE connection ! It still doesn`t alter the fact that you shouldn`t have to do this and that the sim should work "out of the box" but I`m now considering cancelling the cancellation !

[crunchieeagle]

Congratulations. I have done the same after a week trying 2 months ago. Trouble is i am telling people that vodafone is the strongest 4G signal in the area, as I install 4G antennas to go with their modems in rural areas, so people either call vodafone or get a 4G sim from the shop and it is not activated. They then won't talk to me as I am not the account holder. And round in circles we go. This thread has been on here for over a week, and no one from Vodafone has come up with an answer, except for one saying it works and it doesn't.

I dont know how Vodafone are getting away with this poor level of service. It is a mess.

[pipcoo]

Yeah, I was thinking about your case and the problems it would cause you having to try to activate each sim individually. I live in a rural area with no (usable) fixed line BB but 4g is a solution of sorts for me albeit with usage limits but the Vodafone is the best allowance I`ve seen so far but with the problems of getting it set up I couldn`t recommend it to others.

                                                           It`s frustrating as Vodaphone has the best coverage in my area and I don`t understand how they can`t fix this problem when others can e.g EE. I also don`t understand it from Vodafones point of view of the lost business for them. In your case you could give them a lot of extra customers if it was simple to set up. Have you thought of contacting someone senior in Vodafone explaining how this problem is costing them potential business ? Perhaps when they realise it`s affecting the bottom line they`ll tackle the issue !

[crunchieeagle]

Yes I have. Ian Curtis has been the only helpful person so far. he is trying to get us on a distribution portal system so we can activate the 4G sim cards ourselves, but all this take time.

But this wont resolve the general problem vodafone have mate

[pipcoo]

I was having a look at the settings for the data sim in My Vodafone and I turned the data bar on and the sim went back to only connecting at 3g so I`m thinking the problem with these cards may be that the data bar is on by default and so stopping them working properly out of the box. Can also confirm that the data cap does not work

[crunchieeagle]

It is just so shocking and embarrassing to Vodafone that a company can't even provide a SIM card to 4G To make matters worse, it can't even sell and make a simple card to perform that it is supposed to, I might raise this to ombudsman and ofcom because what they are doing is not just morally wrong, its just plain misguided incompetence

[crunchieeagle]

It can be done, but Vodafone are so incompetant

From a very patient customer.

I went into the shop half an hour ago and he checked and for some reason the box had been unticked during the process and marked as pending. He re ticked and I have just this moment checked it - download speed of 40 upload of 1.5 - so all looking good at this moment.

[pipcoo]

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