Anyone happy with Vodafone fibre broadband?

[Thebroughfamily]

Thinking of joining but vodafones facebook page is nothing but doom and gloom of faults and problems, and this community board seems very much the same... is it because there is nothing but trouble with the service or is it simply because only people with problems head somewhere to vent there opinions while those that get good service just carry on with life?

Im with BT and to be fair, there facebook page is similar, and i saw the which report recently and BT came bottom, but in all honesty ive not many issues, its the current pricing structure im not agreeing with.

[jeffkinn]

A forum like this will only show you comments from disgruntled customers. Perhaps stories like these help to provide some balance

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/02/01/vodafone-uk-sales-slow-despite-broadband-boost/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/01/31/talktalk-plunges-cash-fears-vodafone-attacks-broadban...

[prs1000]

As you suggest, people are more likely to register for this forum if they are having a problem. 

In my years of experience with vodafone when its set up and left alone the fibre is excellent. Obviously it has to be set up correctly in the first place. My problems with vodafone have always come up when I have to deal with one of their staff. I have been told so many lies by 1st level support ( and occasionally other higher up the chain ) that I could write a book. They routinely lie when there seems no need to do so.  "We will call you back" and "I am putting notes on your account" are the most common ones I have come up against. One guy clearly knew that I was annoyed at a call back not being received and said he was gooing to renew my confidence in their customer service. He was going to investigate my problem and call me back the following day. He never called.  Things like that are hard to comprehend.

They're not all bad of course but unless I am the unluckiest person in the world the bad seem to far outnumber the good.  Only this evening I contacted customer service and the guy was excellent. He seemed to known what he was talking about and after the call ended I was happy with the support. Twenty minutes later he called me back. There had been no mention of a call back but he had continued to investigate my issue and had some extra information for me. Now THAT'S customer service. Maybe he was new.

[machare]

I am happy with the 38Mbps service using a Zyxel VMG8924-B10A router  which I bought 2nd hand on ebay. The Vodafone router should be avoided because of the poor wifi.

[Soofla]

Initially, no. However at the moment, yes.

Back in December 2016 when I was due to go live, I didn't. I then had to wait nearly 4 days after my "live date" to get a connection. Although I was given the impression this doesn't happen often, subsequently I have read others with the same problem - how Vodafone cannot get that simple part of the process right 100% of the time I do not know.

I then experienced speed issues. A 78mb package which fell through the floor to around 50mb. which I eventually had the line reset on and thankfully it sorted.

Fast forward to now.

I have a connection that gives me 75/19 speeds whenever I run the speed tests (even at peak times). I get very close to this in real world tests too.

I've seen maybe 3-4 outages around midnight over the past 13-14 months, I cannot explain them, but they last no longer than around 15 minutes.

After a very shakey start, I am happy with the service at the moment.

[Resali]

I moved from BT to VF in December 2017 after researching numerous providers (which I always do when my contract is up for renewal). I signed up just before the price dropped, but VF were happy to put my order on the cheaper deal. The order process was straightforward, router arrived on time, and fibre and phone went live on the day stated. For some reason their system allocated a new landline number to me, but after a call to customer services this was undone and my old number reinstated. I knew from reading this and other forums that the VF router would be rubbish, so I was not expecting a lot. It really turned out to be awful (the WiFi performance, not the actual fibre connection), so that I replaced it with a better router. I get 54Mbps down and 12Mbps up which is slightly more than I got with BT on their Smart Hub. Speed seems to be fairly constant with up to 12 devices (on 2.4 and 5GHz) connected, so I am happy. Just a shame the stock router is so bad, but I am expecting to use my new router with future providers too.

HTH. 

[Thebroughfamily]

Thank you everybody for the replies, it really is appreciated.

[Thebroughfamily]

Took the plunge, home internet and phone being changed from BT to Vodafone on the 6th march.

Ended up getting 2 Vodafone SIM contracts too.. haha.

Thanks everyone.

[craigr98]

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@macharewrote:

I am happy with the 38Mbps service using a Zyxel VMG8924-B10A router  which I bought 2nd hand on ebay. The Vodafone router should be avoided because of the poor wifi.

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How easy was it to install your own router? What did you have to do?

[machare]

You need to contact the support staff and ask them for the connection userid and password, They will probably ask you which of the routers on the BT Sin 498 approved list you plan to use. 

Router configuration details can be found in other threads.

[okecokey]

The BT SIN 498 list is a bit of a black hole so just check with the manufacturer's data of the router you decide to buy to ensure it has MCT approval which is what the list is all about (my reading tells me that the list doesn't include all approved modems/routers). Then speak to VF to get your ID/Password before you spend your money.

[Sgt_Bilko]

I contacted them a few hours ago for the login details, stating that my connection had yet to be activated, but I had heard the Vodafone router wasn't very good. They supplied the details without any problems at all and no question was even raised over what router I have. 

I would be curious to hear from others though in what respect they find the Vodafone router is failing, since it gave me the same signal strength on wifi around the house as my Asus router. For those who are struggling I wondered if a simple wifi booster would do the trick. 

[machare]

AIUI the problem comes if the wifi is heavily used. Apparently the Wifi chip in the router gets to hot and ceases to work properly.

[okecokey]

Interesting about the wifi, is there somewhere this is discussed / any parameters for heavy use, I'm still using the VF box Huawei 963168_HUAWEIVOX25. I have the much discussed FEC issue & the occassional slow speed which I put down to peak times usage but wonder if this may actually be signs of the wifi issue.

[Sgt_Bilko]

Yes I would also be curious to know what amounts to heavy usage. This is not something I've experienced previously with other routers, whether supplied by an ISP or even a dirt cheap TP-Link router I had hooked up to an old Open Reach modem. It would not be unusual for two of us to be watching Netflix on different TVs while another is downloading something on a computer and this has never caused the wifi to stop working. 

My switch is due to take place tomorrow, so I really don't know whether to try the Vodafone router or see if my Asus will be OK. It was originally set up by my current ISP CloudScape, who I believe are Vodafone resellers, so in theory I should only need to change the login and password under the ppp settings. My sync speeds are excellent. 

[MrsMorg16]

I have had Vodafone fibre broadband in since 26th September. I haven't had stable connection since we've got it in. On our second router also. We usually have 4-5 devices connected at one time. But when we were with sky,I never experienced any problems having muliple devices connected. Also with having mobile phone & broadband on same account,you'd presume there would be some sort of discount. My overall experience with Vodafone hasn't been that great. 

[Sgt_Bilko]

@MrsMorg16 Have you tried it with a different router to see if that helps? I've also wondered if a £15 wifi booster from Amazon would help in some of these cases. 

[okecokey]

MrsMorg16 surely you're getting the £2.50 per month discount ?

[MrsMorg16]

We hadnt considered using a different router yet. But reading the comments,were definitely going to invest in one. It's just deciding which one to go for really. I haven't seen any discount on my account at all. 

[okecokey]

Think I'd query the discount I certainly get one

Regards buying a router, first I don't see why anyone should have to buy a router for normal use (I can understand there might be a need for special uses) second I can't find anywhere much detail on routers which have been reliable on VF ie minimal dropouts & minimal errors. I did mention in another topic https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Broadband-Home-Phone/High-FEC-Corrections-and-CRC-errors-on-upstream... why don't we have a list of routers that seem to work better but had no responses. I wait to be convinced either way.