If you get error messages - cancel order immediately. Delay in activation

[Indrek]

Moved home and was looking for a new broadband, like many of others on this forum. After comparing offers, decided to go with Vodafone. I did read reviews and checked for issues and was a bit unsure as vodafone has one of the worst ratings amongst broadband providers, but brushed it off and thought "that's not going to happen to me" - like many others that have written posts here. 

So - i put in an order and everything seemed to be in place initially until I started getting error messages on my account portal as well as on order nr (message: order nr not found, check again or contact support). So knowing that there can be an issue with vodafone and openreach, I was on top of things and contacted support to make sure  - or so i thought. My experience is described below:
----

On May 6th I made an online order of Vodafone broadband under a campaign offer. (Order nr: WEB-000000000). Go live date was supposed to be on 18th of May

I saw on customer profile that something was wrong with the order as I saw error messages and contacted support to verify that everything is in check as i kept seeing error messages. Customer support confirmed that everything was still in check and order is being processed.

I received my dongle and router - everything was in check. As I did not get a technician confirmation for visit, I contacted customer support and checked if everything was still in check (Again, I kept seeing that order nr is incorrect message and other error messages on customer portal and highlighted this during my contact) - support verified, everything was in check.

Come go live date - still no confirmation from technician and no internet. Phoned support - they told me there is an error with my order, my phone nr has not been allocated and therefore open reach could not process my order and they are working on it. Promised update in 48 hours.

48 hours later - no update. Phoned Vodafone again, they said there is still an error on my order, open reach working on it and I’ll receive an update within 24 hours.

24 hours later(this is now 21st of May) received a call saying that there is an error with my order and I’ll get an update on Monday(the 24th of May) and there is probably going to be a delay with my broadband.

Now comes the fun part - 24 hours later (22nd of May) I received a call saying that my order has been cancelled due to an error (which I suspected at the very beginning after filing an order) and they need to put in another order. With go live date in 14 days (this is now a month after putting in initial order).

The new order was placed (order nr: SBL-00000000) and now I don’t see any error messages. The confirmation page outlines nicely my new landline nr, order progress, activation date, specific time for an engineer. None of this was visible on previous(failed) order. 

Another 14 days until activation, so i recon I'll update this thread but my honest suggestion - if anything at all seems off, cancel the order immediately. Don't expect customer support to check things and make sure things are aligned. Cancel and put in another order or ask them to put in another order due to error messages. You'll save yourself time and might actually get broadband on time.

[gipjon]

so far you have the same story as me but my story went on a lot longer because mine got cancel 4 times in total. so the best of luck with this. 

[Jayach]

It seems impossible that you can see errors on your order, but "support" apparently can't.

My advice, to anyone else, would be to think very hard before you move to Vodafone, and pull out and go somewhere else at the first sign of problems. Unfortunately the problems sometimes don't crop up until you are in contract. (14 days cooling off is not enough, especially as they will constantly tell you it needs 10 days for your line to stabilise.)

[Indrek]

Based on my experience - i agree. I mean, if anyone wants to stick with it (offers, best availability or for whatever reason) - at least make sure you don't get any issues along the way. 

* The order should show up in order tracking fully - with different stages (order confirmed, date agreed, go live date etc)
* You should not see any error messages on customer portal or issues with your order

If any of the above pop out - pull out and pick another provider before you commit and start thinking "another provider has 14 days of activation anyway" - you'll more than likely lose that 14 days + extra for issues to come up anyway

[Indrek · Accepted solution]

AN UPDATE:

So, the new order was put in, everything seemed to be in place and even got openreach to contact me regarding the activation date and time. 

Got the new router, everything was in check and the go live date was supposed to be tomorrow. 
Logged in to vodafone order tracking and the order has been cancelled again.

Got in touch with customer support, they confirmed and asked me to give them another chance and they could compensate by giving me a month off of first month charges. In total i'm looking at 3 weeks delay as of now, another order would be extra 2 weeks - that's 5 weeks of delay waiting for a service that i have no confidence of ever receiving. And this is worth 35 pounds for them - what a joke. I've spent more than 8 hours in customer support. not counting delays that's already a bit more than 4 pounds an hour. Take into consideration the complaints, and service satisfaction of Vodafone - i'm out. 

Going to end my mobile contract with the company as well and moving to EE.