Gigacube too slow for working from home

[ihatebodafone90]

I'm having a nightmare with Vodafone and my 5g gigacube. It used to work very well but about 2 months ago became extremely slow. Vodafone admitted there was a network issue in my area, yet the problems persisted once the network issues were officially "resolved". I have since spoken to the technical team about 6 times and despite trying everything they suggest nothing has improved. I have also made a formal complaint. The complaint team has done absolutely nothing to resolve my complaint and simply say they need to raise it with the technical team (but they never do). So now I am stuck in a loop of the complaint team phoning me every week and asking me if the problem has magically fixed itself. When I say no they again state it needs to be raised with the technical team, but they never do this. I can no longer make video calls on the device as the upload speed is too slow. This affects my ability to work from home. I want to cancel my service as I feel it was missold (I was told it was "ideal for working from home") but I cannot get anyone at Vodafone customer service to escalate this. I am simply being passed round and round the same loop over and over again getting nowhere. I find Vodafone customer service absolutely shocking. It is almost as if someone designed the system to be as infuriating as possible.

[Farai]

We'd be happy to help you investigate the network issue and if needed we'll escalate it to our Network Team once we have a bit more information @ihatebodafone90. So we can get the ball rolling, please try the initial steps highlighted here and drop us a message over on Twitter or Facebook here and we'll pick things up from there 👍

[ihatebodafone90]

For the benefit of anyone reading this. I contacted them as requested and was told "we can't get involved, wait 8 weeks for your deadlock letter". What shocking customer service. My advice is do not buy a Vodafone Gigacube if you rely on your internet for work.

[MarkD]

Hi @ihatebodafone90, did you contact us over the social media channels? If so, did you include your username in the message? From your post it sounds like the complaint has been escalated, if that's the case our care teams wouldn't be able to make any changes but they should be able to get you an update. 

[ihatebodafone90]

Yes I did. The relevant part of the response:

Nonetheless, as you've advised that your concerns are with our Customer Relations (Complaints) team, it's important to note that they are the highest escalation point here at Vodafone, which means we're unable to interfere or comment on your case - the saying "Too many chefs in the kitchen" would be used. This rule is put into place to ensure your case is resolved as efficiently and quickly as possible without multiple channels of contact getting involved and interfering, resulting in mixed communication, confusion between channels, inconsistency and more importantly delaying the resolution you require.

[MarkD]

Thanks for your reply, we'll check on where we're up to with the conversation and see if we can get you a complaint update. If we can, we'll send this over social media channels. 

[ihatebodafone90]

Having eventually got compensation from Vodafone for my previous problems (resolved November 2021), I am once again having severe problems with my Vodafone 5g gigacube service. The speed has been getting worse and worse over the last two weeks. I am now receiving less than 10mbps download on a 5g gigacube. It is barely possible to even browse a website. Once again I am unable to work properly from home because of this. I have checked the coverage checker and to my surprise, 5g coverage is no longer listed for my location?! It is "coming soon". This has to be a mistake. Surely you have not switched off 5g with no word of warning and are still charging me for a 5g device? Absolutely shocking. That doesn't explain why 4g isn't working either. I need a resolution to this please that does not involve being given the run around by that awful call centre for the next two months.

[Mark]

I'm sorry to hear you didn't have the best experience last time you needed to contact us @ihatebodafone90. I'm sure we'll be able to get to this sorted for you and get your Gigacube reconnected ASAP. To help us investigate this, please provide the information requested in our initial network checks and we'll take a look.

[ihatebodafone90]

Hi Mark,

Some of the questions on the form really apply to mobile phones not mobile broadband but I've answered below as best I can. I do have a theory on this problem. There is a transmitter near my house. Engineers have been working on this transmitter for a couple of months. It has been a big job and very noticeable, as they closed one lane of the road and installed temporary traffic lights for about two months. The engineers have now left. Your website is no longer showing a 5g service for my area (where there was one before). My theory is that the 5g service has been switched off due to some issue with the transmitter and I am now connected via 4g. The problem being, I have a weak 4g signal at my house. It's usually 5 bars for 5g and 2 bars for 4g. This would explain the problems I'm having. Can you please verify i) whether this is the Vodafone transmitter I would be connected to, ii) whether you have switched off the 5g service in my area. The transmitter is near the junction with Wedal Road and Allensbank Road in Cardiff. My postcode is CF23 5PG.

1) Does the issue happen in just one location? If so, how far do you have to travel to regain service?

 Unable to verify as mobile broadband.

2) What is the full postcode (e.g. ST1 1AA) of where the issue occurs? If you don't want this showing on the Community, add it to your profile here.

 CF23 5PG

3) Does the issue occur if you try your SIM card in a different phone?

 I don't have another 5g device but when I put the sim in my 4g phone I had the same issue. My speed tests were: 2.1mbps, 4.1mbps, 2.8mbps (attached). Extremely slow and pretty much unusable.

4) What errors are seen or heard when the issue occurs?

Just slow running, sometimes "cannot connect to server or website" type messages on my browser.

5) Does this happen on 2G, 3G, 4G or all?

    Not known. My theory is the problem relates to the 5g service. The 4g signal has always been weak here and I rely on 5g.

6) When did you first notice this issue?

 A few weeks maybe, worsening over the last 2.

7) Is the issue permanent or intermittent? If intermittent, are there certain times of the day when it occurs?

Worse between 2pm and 8pm, although having problems this morning also.

[Amanda]

Thanks for getting back to us and providing that information @ihatebodafone90 - a quick check of your postcode does show that you're not in a 5G area. You are on the edge of a strong 5G area which may be why you can see your service dipping in and out. You can see all this on our Network Status Checker (NSC).

You're in what we call a 'dense urban' 4G area and this means you should have good 4G signal both indoors and outside - there's a local mast that's experiencing issues (which again, you can see on our NSC and register for the latest updates). This isn't likely to be the mast you're connecting to but it may be causing a knock on effect as other users connect on to your local mast. I've checked your local mast and that's working as expected and there haven't been any drops on the 4G cells.

Once the work has been completed on the local mast, we can then revisit this and if needed, get our Network team to take a look.