Had no working phone for 27 days!

[Laneybaby1980]

This is very long winded, by the end I'm sure you'll see why I'm so frustrated.
I went on holiday to a remote country, no 3G there but I could hop onto the hotel wifi. I capped my data as I was worried it was eating it up even though it wasn't connecting. Landed back in the U.K., switched on, phone says 3G at the top but won't do anything. I call five times; data cap taken off, all data switched off and reset numerous times. New sim sent. Still nothing.

I went into the store and the phone was sent away. Comes back 'fixed', minus my sim. Shop put new one in. 'Don't worry, you don't need todo anything, we've activated it'. Nothing. Now I have no network or data at all. I call vodaphone 3 more times, each time I'm told to be patient, sims take a while to set up. After 4 days, still nothing, so I asked for another new sim.

Today, it arrives. I've called to set it up this morning. I've had an email saying it's activated about 5 hours ago. I've switched off and on again. Still 'no service'. I still don't even know if the 'fix' the shop did well over a week ago has even worked.
I need my phone for work, I absolutely dread to think about the money I've lost.

[AnnS]

Hi @Laneybaby1980

From what you have written, your problems look very much account related.  The first place to look would be your online account to make sure payments are up to date and there has been no unusual account activity.

I am not quite sure of the reason your phone was even sent off for repair but you should always remove the SIM before sending the phone off for repair and treat your SIM the same was as you would your debit or credit card. The first thing the store should have done was to try your SIM in an alternative phone. 

Although there was probably nothing wrong with your other SIM cards, if you have done a number change to a new blank SIM and asked to activate a replacement SIM today, you may find it does not work until Monday morning (the next working day).  However, it won't do any hard doing a quick network search on the network settings and turning the phone off and back on.

Live chat will be able to look at your account and find the reason for you being unable to connect to the network.

In the meantime, please try the steps on the link below, which includes trying your SIM in an alternative phone, they may help.

Network Issues

[Laneybaby1980]

The first thing I did was pay my bill when I got home from holiday so don't think it's that. I won't have access to another phone until later tonight but I'll give that a go.

[Rahim]

@Laneybaby1980 Are you still having issues?

If you are, please contact us directly using the details from the private message I've sent.