Being charged to cancel the contract of a faulty Gigafast 900 service.

[laneyweb]

After 4 weeks of shocking responses and delays and cancelled tickets from Vodafone Support, I am forced to cancel my service and go elsewhere. I am being told that I will not be helped any further and that if I can get 900 down from one Speedtest.net site (even though nearly all others are only 10% of the speed they should be) they are not able to fix the constantly and repeatable terrible download speeds I have been experiencing. I can reproduce the issue constantly and not once have Support been prepared to discuss of help me with that. I am repetitively asked to screen shot Speedtest.net. We have proved my location and devices are 900 capable so it's certainly after the ONT where the issue is.

Now today, I am told they cant help as one site on Speedtest.net is OK on one single site, they are not prepared to discuss any other "real" site speed issues or other Speedtest.net terrible results, even if they are all OK for other properties/colleagues. I am still being asked about what browser I am using! We are talking about Apple and Amazon! for example!!

I am left with no choice than to leave and have now been told I will have to pay a termination fee! Customer relations will not waive the exit fees event though the service is not fit for purpose and I am told I now have to wait 14-21 days for an internal process to see if I will have to go to CSAS ombudsman. 

Does anyone have any advice or experience with this kind of position? I dont want to leave but it's clearly not fit for purpose and I dont want to pay for leaving a faulty service. I cant believe VF are willing to let it get to this

[gipjon]

Asj for a deadlock letter and take it to cisas . Also ask vodafine for a copy of your notes on your account 

[laneyweb]

Thanks  gipjon,

That's the next step suggested by the Customer team.... shame that's my only option left. I dont want to leave, I want to speak to someone that cares and understands enough to have a sensible discussion. Without asking for more Speedtest.net screen shots

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, it often seems that Vodafone is completely and utterly incapable of dealing with any customer issues that are in any way shape or form out of the ordinary.  So it often appears that Vodafone support is there to placate customers rather than to fix genuine issues.  As such the deadlock letter is the start of pretty much the only means to solution there is, without paying large termination fees upfront!

[gipjon]

This is all the information you need for taking them to cisas

once your complaint is 8 weeks old with Vodafone you can ask Vodafone for the deadlock letter, 

Vodafone deadlock team will phone you to see if they can help first, and if the answer is no then they will give you the deadlock letter. 

It's also a good idea to do some online chat with Vodafone and on the chat, you can also request a chat transcript

You should also ask Vodafone for all the information and notes on your account. This is called a Subject Access Request (SAR) this will help you to find any records about issues you have etc.

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/gdpr-sars-form/

Once you have the deadlock letter you can upload it to Cisas along with any proof you have etc.

https://www.cedr.com/consumer/cisas/

You can claim for everything including any costs which you may have incurred including stress. All you have to do is fill out a form and upload any proof, (chat transcript, accounts notes, speed tests, sync speeds. etc )

Cisas will check the information to make sure they can take on the case, normally within about 7 days. 

Cisas will email you with a link to your complaint portal where all the files and updates are kept

Cisas will negotiate the information with Vodafone to try and come to a solution and this gives Vodafone 2 weeks to make you an offer.

Vodafone cisas team will look at what they can do and make you an offer you can accept or refuse.

If you refuse cisas will look at the case and all the files and make a decision on who at fault and whats needs to be done etc which you and Vodafone should comply with. 

Vodafone gets 21days to process the offer and anything else they said they would do. 

[laneyweb]

Thank you very much for the advice. I will follow this. 

I have posted in the TBB forums today https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/vodafone/t/4683913-gigafast-900-terrible-dl-speeds-can-you-validat... and as a result I tested lots of the destinations that have been previously very slow this time using Nord VPN and all are very fast when I use Nord. This shows without question that the issue I am seeing is congestion or some other routing issue on the VF network or onbound. 

The trouble is, I cant talk to anyone in VF that understands or care to take this on. 

I suppose my hands are tied and I'm left with leaving and putting my case forward that route.