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[benrod]

Hello.

I am a Vodafone client my account number is [Removed]

I ordered the broadband on the 06th of February 2021.
The router was delivered to me few days after. Consequently the first engineer from Openreach came to my house to install the service on the 24th of February.
As soon as he arrived, he realized it would not be possible as he wasn’t a roof engineer and the specialized one wasn’t available.
Due to this inconvenience I had to book another engineer to come to my house which was the one Vodafone said that should be the roof engineer, as soon as he arrives, he says he is not the roof engineer. Therefore, this one calls the actually roof engineer which after some hours came and finished the installation. All of this happened in March. One month after joining Vodafone.
One hour after the installation I noticed that I was losing the connection, so that I had to restart the router. As this became systematic I contacted Vodafone to explain the problem.
They gave some directions which included: change the socket, reset, restart the router and change some configurations through the browser. They have done some tests and at the end they said everything was fine and that after 7 days the connection would be stable.
I spent the whole week restarting the router every hour.

At the time I asked Vodafone if I could cancel the contract without paying early fee termination as the service provided was completely awful, and as only had the service running for two weeks.
They said it would be impossible as the date of the contract is different from the activation date.
I doubt of the legal side of it, as I have accepted a contract with no guarantee if the service will or will not run smoothly and if not I am not allowed to cancel the contract.

After a week once again, I contacted Vodafone and they tell me they don’t have any knowledge of my former problem and so they wanted to go through the same steps from the first time I have called them.
At the end they sent another engineer. This one was the fourth engineer sent by Vodafone.
When he arrived he did not have any clue of what the problem was. I explained the problem; he connected a device to the installation and stayed for 30 minutes. At the end he said that some data was gathered to be sent to Vodafone, so that they would contact me to solve the problem.
In the same day Vodafone sent me a text message stating that my problem was solved even though they knew that nothing was fixed.
I called Vodafone for the second time using the reference they sent in the text message above mentioned.
Once again they told me they were not aware of any issue from my side. I had to explain myself again, they wanted to follow the same procedures from the last time I called and once for the third time they sent a fifth engineer.
He arrived, he did not have any acknowledge of my problem. I explained myself, he connected a device to the router, some minutes have passed, and he turns and said that the line was fine and that the problem was with the router. The router should be changed, and so I just had to wait until the Vodafone contact me for a new router.
Thus, I contacted Vodafone about the incident and they said that they have received the notes from the engineer and that he wrote that the router was fine and so there was not any need to change it, they only had to do some remote configurations. I was on hold for 20 minutes. After the call, apparently the problem was solved. I did not have to restart the router roughly for the following two weeks.

At the time I was living on London South East, then I moved house which takes 30 minutes driving from my former place.
I asked Vodafone to transfer the service to the new house, they said we would not need any engineer for the installation; we just had to turn on the router. After that one hour since we have connected the connection drops as it was happened before.
I contacted Vodafone; I explained the same situation as always. They wanted to follow the same procedures they have done in the beginning of this horror movie. They insisted to send the sixth engineer.
As always when he arrived he did not know what the problem was. He done all the required tests, he said that the problem might be caused by Thames Water as some road works were running on the road.
He left, and said he would send a report to Vodafone. On the same day Vodafone send me a text message saying the problem was solved, when once again those poor agents knew that nothing was fixed.
I called Vodafone, I explained everything and then they once again insisted to send the seventh engineer.
He came; I explained what the problem was. He used the same device as the previous ones.
He said that the line was fine and that the problem should be associated to the router, and so it has to be changed. I asked him to call Vodafone while he was in my house and he requested a new router.
As it happened before Vodafone sent the typical and misleading text message saying that the problem was solved. I called them, I asked for the new router, and they said that the router was fine and so, they did not have to change it.
They wanted to send the eighth engineer, they guarantee, and even swear that the problem would be finally solved with the eighth engineer.
When the eighth engineer knocks my door, the first thing he asked was what my issue was.
He rapidly called Vodafone; he stayed 30 minutes talking with the technical support. They finally came into a conclusion that the line was fine and the problem was actually with the router as the previous engineer said. They told him they would send the router within 3-4 working days. On the same day I receive the same text message from Vodafone they always send, saying the problem was solved.
I called Vodafone and the first question they make is if the router is plugged.
I ask myself if I am a joker. Which kind of organization Vodafone is?
Once again they told they cannot send a new router. They wanted to send the ninth engineer to my house, to solve the problem.
I asked for the deadlock letter, the woman on the phone said she didn’t even know what a deadlock letter is.
After some minutes she said the only one who could deal with the problem would be the manager.
The manager wasn’t available and so that I had to wait for the next working day. 

During those painful months, I have always tried to speak with a manager, tried to make complains and the answer was always the same. I should go online (but in your page it only has the FAQ) to be able to make a complaint and in some occasions they told me that they could not transfer my call to another department to complain.
I can make an estimative and say that I have made 40 to 60 calls to Vodafone, along with texts messages in the chat, since 24th of February.
In conclusion I don’t even know the rights words to describe Vodafone.
There is not a platform with the clients’ data, 8 engineers coming without having any knowledge of the situation, a poor and horrible technical support.
They are a big liars, they guarantee that the service will be fixed, they tell you they cannot contact others departments, they even promised they would reward me with 20 pounds, another joke, because my bill came with the original value. They are not willing to help at all.
Tomorrow I will cancel the contract, I will pay the last bill and present a formal complaint against the Vodafone in the CISAS and I will ask for the refund of the amount I will have to pay for the early termination fee, A refund of all the months I paid and I did not fully benefit of the services and a indemnity for all the damage caused.
Every day I have to deal with interferences on my videoconferences, my wife work from home, lots of time she lost assignments and tasks because she constantly loses the internet connection.
Furthermore, my wife is also at university. All of her online lessons were online and the final exams were held online too with 3 hours duration each, this meant that she had to restart the router every hour during the exams.
During the day, we end up restarting the router 10 to 12 times per day, which makes impossible perform, uploads and downloads constantly which is a shame. This is completely unacceptable.

At this point we are not concerned with the resolution of the problem anymore, having it fixed or not will not change anything on our fight against Vodafone.

I already asked for all of my records and it seems that I will have to wait a month just to have access to the records. With this publication I have two objectives:
1- Expose the disgusting company Vodafone is;
2- Demand the delivery of the deadlock letter.

Thanks.

[MOD EDIT: This post has been edited to remove personal information, please see Community Guidelines]

[Jayach]

Thanks @gipjon for that clarification. I don't know exactly what the OP can do if the complaints team aren't responding.

[gipjon]

If you ring up and say you want to escalate a complaint the escalation department has 24 hours or 48 hours  to phone you back. Its one or the other and if you have already escalated a complaint then you get a dedicated phone number and pin 

[benrod]

@Cynric
I have to pay to see Telegraph page. Thank you for your help.

@Jayach
I will use the Complaints Code of Practice | Vodafone. Thanks.

Yesterdar someone (probabily a manager) call me and told me I can end my contract without paying a fee. In june I will start with other provider, and in the same day, Vodafone will end the contract. I just have to call them providing the end date of the contract.

Now I gonna send the "oficial" complaint demanding payment of compensation. If they refused to pay, I will have to proceed to the regulator, after receiving all the information and notes on my account (SAR).
I think in this case I do not need the deadlock letter, all the information about my issue will be provided through SAR.
Futhermore, I am not sure, if, by law, they are required to deliver the deadlock letter, knowing that they have already allowed the contract to end without paying fees.

Thank you so much for all your help.

[benrod]

Hello,

I just want to say that I took my case to CISAS and I won the last level of Tear, with a refund of the last two months I had payed to Vodafone.

Vodafone it's a shameful company, if you have some problem with Vodafone, you should complain as soon as possible. And if you take your case to CISAS, they never will accept a value out of the Tear, so if the company make you an offer of the same value, just agreed with it, in other way you will waste your time.

Thank you for all your support!

Regards

[gipjon]

Nice outcome but then again it was obvious.  And yes always go to cisas