Self-rebooting Gigafast Routers and Apple Devices

[Hot_Penguin]

I had Gigafast Broadband installed in December 2018. Everything worked flawlessly up until about six weeks ago when my router started to reboot itself, occasionally at first but then constantly in phases. I had several Nest and Amazon devices connected and they soon complained when they kept losing their internet connections. I also had a Philips hue bridge, and Sky boxes connected in addition to a few computers, tablets and phones. Importantly, all my devices were the same as when Gigafast Broadband was first intalled.

About 4 weeks ago, I contacted Vodafone (VF) Tech Support and followed their standard advice, which involved connecting and disconnecting devices and changing cables. This time-consuming work made no difference. Later, I installed a new Gigafast router (with updated firmware) that VF sent me, and this made no difference. An engineer came and checked the fibre optic cable and connection, which were fine, and changed the ONT box. This made no difference; the router continued to self-boot. About two weeks ago, my fault was elevated up the tech support chain to Level 3 but I have not heard anything back from them.

Also, about two weeks ago, I finally worked out that my iPhone XS Max seemed to be the culprit. When I took my phone away from my home, the router rebooted, and when I came home with my phone the router rebooted. To be fair, VF Tech Support had advised me that there were reports of issues with Apple devices, but they had not been specific. Their advice was to update to the latest version of iOS. I did this; I updated to iOS 13.1.3. The router only stopped rebooting when I also reset the network settings on the phone. So I was happy again.

Everything was dandy up until yesterday when the router started rebooting again. I noticed that my iPad Pro (2015) had updated itself to iPadOS 13.2, and my Apple Watch 4 to WatchOS 6.1. My iPhone was unchanged, and yet on testing, it appeared to be the culprit again. I updated the iPhone to iOS 13.2 and everything is stable again – for how long, who knows!!

What I can deduct from my experience is the following:

• iOS 13 looks like it is may be causing significant issues with some Gigafast routers - others have reported similar problems on this Forum. My rebooting issue seems to have started around the same time that iOS 13 was first released in September. People who read about these things will know that iOS 13 has had lots of bugs and caused a host of problems.
• VF need to fix this issue – I’m assuming it’s a router firmware update that is required. It would be welcome, and even good practice, if VF contacted customers, who have reported issues, to acknowledge that there is an issue and it was working on a solution.

I feel I am being left in the dark.

[philds]

The connection is now stable , just a couple of drop outs and syncing at 40meg.

Informed the likely fix is at least January and also there is a problem with amazon fire sticks as well.

whoever is their head if IT should be looking for a new job, appalling system.

[MikeyDoodle]

Wow, so we've gone from expecting a soulution by 8th December to January? I agree, someone is really doing a terrible job. Also, interesting that nobody from VF has weighed in on this discussion. 

[philds]

Late January I was told at the earliest.

I have recieved 2 months free BB and dropped my complaint but have made it known if the issue is still there in February I will ask to leave.

I also wonder how many other devices are causing an issue?

[boardmann]

Hi, Thought I would give people an update into the appalling mess that Vodafone have left us with regarding the issues with there new Router.

I received a call yesterday from the Directors Office to inform me that the new firmware update had been pushed to my Router and this was going to be monitored for the next 48 hours, apparently just for testing purposes.

The firmware update seems to have made no difference I've had two reboots since one last night and another a few moments ago.

[MikeyDoodle]

Oh that's reassuring to know... Oh wait, no, the other one. 

What on earth are they doing? It's as though they don't care at all. They're just putting no effort in whatsoever. It's all well and good them giving the odd compensation payment or a free couple of months here and there, but what about all the time we've spent trying to get them to actually see that there is a real issue? What about the hours we spend on the phone to their customer service department to be given a different answer every time? Or worse, what about the times our calls get mysteriously disconnected? 

I've written to newspapers about this (and the huge lack of support from Vodafone) and I've spoken to many tech brands in social media, but nobody seems to be able to get any real answer from Vodafone about this issue. 

I don't know which is worse, call centre agents who genuinely don't know that there's an issue, or call centre agents who deny any issue, even though there are growing numbers of complaints about it. 

[philds]

The performance of their management team and CEO is appaling, surely a public statement should be made.

Only by chance did I find out about the issue via this forum.

It looks like their CEO and IT are following the ostrich mentality.

Bury their heads in the sand.

[philds]

It also worrying that no mention is made of this issue when contacting the tech team.

The openreach engineer was astounded when he called to check my line as this is what the support team initiated.

This issue and the forum was sent out to the openreach management as well, so hopefully they may check when visiting a premises with vodafone as their broadband supplier.

I too have also sent emails to various tech websites and also BBC watchdog.  

[Gbh1]

I just got out my contract they let me go as they didn't keep up with there's end of the deal 

[boardmann]

Hope you managed to also get some form of compensations for the appalling service that VF have give you.

[Gbh1]

I was able to end my contract with them. Told them that they didn't keep up with there contract. already have a credit on my account. Going over to BT as they have started Gfast where i live. Just hoping that works lol