Fibre Upgrade

[Craigw10]

Pepare for a tale of woe......We decided to upgrade to Fibre having been on Home broadband. This was in May. We were given a date of 20th June for completion. Now before I get too caught up in the installation, I will add that the initial issues were BT's Openreach team getting a couple of things wrong.   Eventually our go live date was sometime in early July.  Since then, I dont believe I have had a constant connection.  I have spent hours on the phone to Vodafone, speaking to technical assistants and God knows who else.  No one has managed to sort the issue.  I have had three different people tell me it is a firmware issue and have updated the firmware, which ultimately hasn't worked.  I'm not expecting a definitive answer, but maybe a Vodafone customer services rep might see this and actually make contact.  I think the most annoying and frustrating thing is the fact that I have to go through all the same steps every time I speak to Vodafone. Because it is a different technician every time, they have to go through it all again. I am fed up and on the point of calling it a day with Vodafone.  I'll take my chances elsewhere. 

There have been previous issues before the ones I am about to detail, but I didnt write them down, thinking the issue would be solved fairly quickly.

On Sunday 14th August, I had no service at all. Spoke to a technician who couldn't fix it (also completing a firmware update) and he said that 2nd line team would need to call me.  The same technician rang me back on Monday 15th and said the issue had been resolved. I explained that I had had two dropouts just that morning but was advised by the technician that this was due to the router updating the firmware and that it would stabilise after 24 hours.  Within ten minutes of the call, the connection had dropped and constantly dropped throughout the day.  At 1800 hours it went completely. I spent over an hour on the phone and was eventually told that the 2nd line team would ring me in two days.  I told them that was no good as I went on holiday in two days.  Whilst away, we received an email telling us it was all resolved and all working.  We returned yesterday and within twenty minutes of connecting to the internet, it has completely stopped working again.  I had three green lights on the Fibre box on the wall and the internet light on the router showed white, but shortly after connecting, the internet light turned flashing red and hasnt changed since.  So far, I have spent all day today on and off the phone to a technician who has stated that the firmware needs updating.  As this has already been tried twice before with no luck, I am not holding my breathe. It hasnt worked and now I have to wait until tuesday until someone from the pre-activation team rings me. Ridiculous.  I have now just made a complaint about the service I have received.  I was using online chat and they have offered 40 credit to use to but data.  Not woning a Vodafone mobile, this is useless. I asked for SIM card with data and was then transferred to another adviser. Before I even asked a question, they transferred me to another advisor. The minute he heard it was a complaint, he transferred me to the Home broadband team who I'm guessing wont be able to issue a SIM card.  Funnily enough, the broadband team said its a Sales team thing and tansferred me.  I'm at my wits end.

Please, please, please Vodafone, find me someone who can take this case on personally and monitor it until it is resolved.  And get me an unlimited data SIM card so I can actually use the internet at home.

[Effie]

Hi @Craigw10 I hope you're doing well. 

I am sorry to hear about this situation as it's certainly not a good experience that you are having. 

If you drop a message to our Social Media team here they can take a look at your account and see what is being done to rectify the issue with your connection drops. Unfortunately we do not provide data only SIMs at a standard care level so the complaint would need to be escalated to our Customer Relations team. The Social Media team can get this escalated for you. 

[Craigw10]

Thanks Steph. I've got on to them this morning.

[Jayach]

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@Craigw10 wrote:

I had three green lights on the Fibre box on the wall and the internet light on the router showed white, but shortly after connecting, the internet light turned flashing red and hasnt changed since.  

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Are the LEDS on the ONT still green?

[Craigw10]

They were yesterday but the internet light on the router was flashing red. This morning all the lights were green and my lights on the router were all white. I tried to connect to the internet and the router immediately crashed and reset itself.  A short while later, everything then worked but about six minutes in, the internet light on the router turned flashing red.  The LOS light had then turned red on the fibre box on the wall.  This flashed for a few seconds and then all the lights returned to green on the box and white on the router. The internet then worked again but crashed a few minutes later, with the same result as before.  Since then, I have not had a connection and the internet light on router is constantly flashing red.  All lights on the wall box are green (not the LOS one, that light is not on).

[Jayach]

Oh wow, that is bad. It's difficult to guess if that it an Openreach or Vodafone problem.

Normally I would say definitely Vodafone if the LEDs are correct on the ONT, but as it sounds like the ONT may be playing up (LOS is Loss of Signal, shouldn't really expect to see that) it may be best to get Openreach to test it.

Of course it is up to Vodafone to call them out, so keep pushing Vodafone for an update.

It seems the only way to get action from Vodafone is to make a complete nuisance of yourself, so I suggest also putting in an official complaint for the poor service you have received.

Complaints Code of Practice | Vodafone UK

[Craigw10]

Thanks Jayech.  Having spent all day Saturday dealing with this, I got a phone call back from the Tech advisor today saying that if things were still not working, I would need to wait another five days for something to do with billing of my home broadband to be sent to the 2nd line activation team.  I pretty much lost it on the phone with her and told her that if it is not working by Friday, I am leaving. I've found that I am just referred to different departments and no one can provide an answer. I have previously been referred to the 2nd line team (a few weeks ago) who checked the line, believed it was working, and then closed the referral.  I am not hopeful and despite the fact that I have asked for a complaint to be raised, nothing has happened. As I say, if they have not sorted it by Friday, I will cancel my contract and demand the credit on the account to be paid in cash.  As a slight side note, the Tech Advisor asked me to check the lights on the router. I told her I had had to come to work and then she balmed me for not being at home to check the lights. That was when I pretty much lost it, telling her that it should not be for me to sit at home 24/7 just to monitor a router that doesn't work. 

I'll also add that the Social Media team did get back to me but have said that as I was waiting for a phone call back, they wouldn't really get involved.  I think I will go back to them and see what they can do now. I worked it out earlier and its been nearly three months since my Fibre should have ben installed and its still not working properly.