New customer - terrible experience

[unhappychap]

I decided to join Vodafone for my Home Broadband service and so far it was an absolute nightmare! It started so well, went on your website, typed my postcode and was informed I can get a SuperFast 2 Plan broadband. So I’ve placed the order and it just went from bad to worse ever since. Here is the timeline of what has happened to me so far:

27st January - order placed 

Was informed that an engineer visit is required and it was booked for 21st February the afternoon slot (1pm - 6pm).

Few days before the engineer's visit I started to receive emails and text messages that the appointment was booked but for the morning slot instead of the afternoon one. I’ve contacted Vodafone (three times) through online chat about it (have records of that) and was told that it’s just an issue on the system and that the engineer will come in the afternoon slot. In a bit to eliminate any misunderstanding I booked the whole day off to be sure that I will not miss the engineer on that day! Whole day of waiting he never showed up!

Very same day called Vodafone and was told that they are sorry but the engineer could not make it that day! No text, no phone call just a simple no show! Nothing can be done and that the visit has been now booked for the 26th of February instead (morning slot). 

Again I’ve booked a day-off from work in order to get that sorted. 

25th of February

To my suprise engineer showed up the whole day earlier just as I was getting ready for work! I was surprised but then I thought, what the hell, at least the guy is here. It will be sorted. Well it wasn’t. First I was told he cannot re-locate the phone socket as he is not authorized. I did ask for that prior to Vodafone installation - apparently it was not recorded anywhere. OK fair enough, nice chap, swapped the facia plate on my socket and said it will be working later on that day. Well it wasn’t, it turned out something needed to be changed in the cabinet on the street. Why he couldn’t fix it is beyond me!?

After another phone call to Vodafone was again told they are sorry but another engineer will come (this time not to my house) and it will be fixed on 27th of February!

27th of February

Router still is not connected, just blinking red light. Called Vodafone again and was told it will start working after midnight. I pressed the guy on the phone and asked if he could tell me if the engineer came to make it to work in the cabinet on my street? After several minutes on the phone, I was told the engineer never came (due to lack of resources)!

Again I was told they are sorry but this is now booked for 2nd of March and it will work then!

At this point I'm totally disappointed. Not only did I booked twice my day off from work, spent +3 hours on the phone talking to useless Customer Services, was charged £60 for engineer visit (which he refused to relocate my phone socket) and to top it off Vodafone started billing me for service which I still don’t have!

When I asked for a refund, I was told I am not yet a customer of Vodafone?! Somehow they are OK to collect money from my bank account. I placed the order on 27 of January. It is now 27th of February and apparently I will get another engineer on 2nd of March to fix this.

I think there is a very good chance the engineer is not going to come (based on the previous record) Who do I report this to? Police? Ombudsman? Small Courts? Can I cancel this service or what my options are to get this sorted?

Surely, lying and collecting money for a service that does not work is illegal in this country?!

This is beyond a joke and an outright SCAM. Vodafone is a terrible service and I would not recommend this to my worst enemy!

Meanwhile, awaiting the engineer on the 2nd of March. Why do I have a bad feeling about this. Eh

[Mark]

It doesn't look like you've had a great start with your time with us @unhappychap. I'm sure everything will be fine once the engineer visits you on Monday. If you'd like us to confirm the appointment's been made. Send us a Direct message on Twitter or Facebook with your full name and account number and we'll be happy to check 😊

[unhappychap]

2nd of March (update time)
So the dreaded 2nd of March came. I've asked my partner to check if broadband is working and as we expected it is not! Red light is still blinking! Called Vodafone and after 45 minutes was told technician came but issue is still not fixed and someone will call me tomorrow to explain. Couldn't get any further explanation!

Somehow what he was saying didn't add up so decided to try my luck with the Vodafone Chat Service. Got to another person who told me that my service is activated and all I need to do is to reset my router! (what really?) As I was not at home I've asked for a Chat ID so that I can continue from home.

Get back home, got connected to another Web Chat assistant and the story continued from there. I was told the following:

"I have checked your account thoroughly and I could see that your landline order has been completed on 25/2/2020 however I see a delay in broadband activation unfortunately. The delay is there from Openrech's end because of some work pending . I see that they have put a delay of 7 days after 24/2/2020 and hence the next review date here is 5/3/2020."

These dates totally does not allign to what I was told over the phone (no suprise there). I kept pressing what is the issue and why is it taking so long and also what will happen on 5th of March?

The response was somewhat the most confusing but the to quote:

"I have had a word with my manager for you now. And we are keeping your account in our personal vision to get the services active asap. He has also contacted Openreach to discuss this case with them and got to know that they have found a potential fault on the line which needs multi skilled engineer to fix it. Which is why there is a delay in service activation. "

So there is a fix that they knew about from the very first technician visit, yet nothing has been done! I now need to wait until 5th of March?!

Am I being unrealistic here? I will wait till 5th and then if it's not fixed I shall cancel the whole thing. It has been such a waste of time. Why do I think on 5th nothing will change as it did not change on any other previous date!

[vivekkhanna]

Mark, I think no one has any great start with Vodafone

I have purchased a new broadband connection which got installed on 19th may, but so far my service is not activated yet. I have to call everyday to customer care or 2nd level tech team but team has no clue what is going on and why it is not yet up and running. to the best they just book an open reach engineer which never shows up, at the end of day open reach gives a note that router is not up at my home and rejects engineer request and cycle is now ongoing from days and today it crossed limit when Vodafone rep said that we have booked engineer so many times that we can't now even book an engineer for you. This is totally unethical, unacceptable and highly unprofessional and i am surprised that vodafone is so crippled that it is unable to get me an engineer to resolve any fault. This is totally frustrating that such a big company is setting up benchmark on how not to behave. I am clueless that how hard is it to get a new connection from Vodafone. the coordination with open reach is definitely wrong here as despite of high level escalation neither of two companies are taking this seriously.

I have DM'd on facebook numerous time, but no response and broadband is still not activated.

[Garybb1]

I also have been waiting since the 21 feb for my broadband activation

i also keep getting the same excuses 

they say there is a problem and an engineer is needed so activation is delayed  and when the new date arrives and it's still not activated  they just say another problem has been found and there will be another delay

i really wish I had stayed with ee

 thanks

[Tash]

If you haven't already, please drop us a message on Facebook or Twitter @Garybb1. Our team will be able to check on your activation for you and get to the bottom of this  Please include your Community username and a link to your post - then you won't need to repeat your query.