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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]

Typical Vodafone "support", unfortunately you should have complained officially sooner as that is the correct method for getting to deadlock. How to complain | Vodafone It can still take up to 8 weeks to reach deadlock.

I don't know if your router is faulty, the fact it eventually worked for 2 weeks at the previous house suggests not, but after so many call outs changing it as a method of elimination seems obvious.

I do hope you are able to get recompense from Vodafone. Good Luck.

[benrod]

I've already called this line several times, this post I wrote is summarized, there were more episodes.
but I took your advice, and called right now, guess what they answered? the manager will call me as soon as possible...

[Jayach]

---

@benrod wrote:

 the manager will call me as soon as possible...

---

I hope he/she does.🤞

[gipjon]

get the deadlock letter and take to cisas and don't forget you can also claim for stress 

This is all the information you need for taking them to cisas

once your complaint is 8 weeks old with Vodafone you can ask Vodafone for the deadlock letter,

Vodafone deadlock team will phone you to see if they can help first, and if the answer is no then they will give you the deadlock letter.

It's also a good idea to do some online chat with Vodafone and on the chat, you can also request a chat transcript

You should also ask Vodafone for all the information and notes on your account. This is called a Subject Access Request (SAR) this will help you to find any records about issues you have etc.

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/gdpr-sars-form/

Once you have the deadlock letter you can upload it to Cisas along with any proof you have etc.

https://www.cedr.com/consumer/cisas/

You can claim for everything including any costs which you may have incurred including stress. All you have to do is fill out a form and upload any proof, (chat transcript, accounts notes, speed tests, sync speeds. etc )

Cisas will check the information to make sure they can take on the case, normally within about 7 days.

Cisas will email you with a link to your complaint portal where all the files and updates are kept

Cisas will negotiate the information with Vodafone to try and come to a solution and this gives Vodafone 2 weeks to make you an offer.

Vodafone cisas team will look at what they can do and make you an offer you can accept or refuse.

If you refuse cisas will look at the case and all the files and make a decision on who at fault and whats needs to be done etc which you and Vodafone should comply with.

Vodafone gets 21days to process the offer and anything else they said they would do.

[benrod]

I had already read this publication, and I also did the  Subject Access Request (SAR).

But I do not understand what do you call as "complaint". I complained on the 24th of February, and I still with the same problem. Today is 28th of May.

There is a different complaint that I should do? I do not understand this way of working. I called several times 0333 3040 441, the last time was yesterday, and I still waiting the manager to call me. This is unbelievable,  How much times I have to call more? I already talked in chat with them, they dropped me off!!

And about the proofs, I do not have the proofs, the proofs are in Subject Access Request, I want to believe that Vodafone is not an obscure company that destroys the evidence that exists against them, with the aim of harming and deceiving customers. Or am I wrong?

So, in short, how can I find out if such a complaint already exists? In my opinion the first complaint was done on the 24th of February.

[Cynric]

.@benrod Here are some alternative routes that may be useful

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/vodafone-contact-how-make-complaint-customer-serv...

[gipjon]

Your issue or complaint clearly started in feb so get on the phone and push for the deadlock letter 

[Jayach]

A complaint really only starts once it is registered as such. Up until then it a just a problem. I would think an official complaint code or registration number would have to be give. @gipjon would be better to advise on that as he has been through the process.

 Complaints Code of Practice | Vodafone

[gipjon]

What they said to me was it starts when you first get the issue so they have had more than 8 weeks to sort the issue out . To be honest the deadlock team is ok or the person I dealt with was very good.  Just remember to claim for stress and any thing else you can add . Like ringing them off your pay and go . Any month you paid for when you had the issue etc etc (think big ). You need to speak to the escalation department to get the deadlock letter . Then the deadlock team will ring you