Why is there no support when my home broadband goes down?

[ojos]

I've had Vodafone home broadband for a year or two. In the last couple of weeks it's started to become unreliable. I've lost my broadband three times, each time after 8 in the evening. There's never anyone available at Vodafone support at these times. I call the support number and say my broadband has gone down. It then gives me an automated message telling me no one is available and I must go online for help. How am I supposed to go online when I've lost my broadband? It also tells me to go to chat online. Does no one at Vodafone understand that with broadband down I can't go online?

In desperation I have resorted to my mobile phone to connect to chat. I explained that my broadband is down and I need help. To my astonishment it tells me no one is available to help and I must call support by phone. But I've already been told when phoning earlier no one is available and I must go to online chat! What a totally rediculous situation: I've lost my broadband and being told to conflicting stories with no support available whatever. My home is full of smarthome technology and I can't turn lights on or off or operate my home heating. What's the matter with Vodafone support that just leaves me stuck in this home disaster with not the slightest help available to me?

[MarkD]

Hi @ojos, we know how important it is to be connected. From your message, if your service has recently become unstable, it's likely that we're going need to test the line. We know that this is happening after 8pm, when you contact our customer care teams, even if it's the following day, we should still be able to see any recent drops. We also have our Twitter and Facebook team who are available 24-7 🙂

[ojos]

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@MarkD wrote:

Hi @ojos, we know how important it is to be connected. From your message, if your service has recently become unstable, it's likely that we're going need to test the line. We know that this is happening after 8pm, when you contact our customer care teams, even if it's the following day, we should still be able to see any recent drops. We also have our Twitter and Facebook team who are available 24-7 🙂

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Thanks for your response. I finally got through to someone Vodafone today., Several things came out of this conversation:

1 When a customer is trying to make a report by phone their broadband is down and if no one is available at Vodafone to speak to, why are customers sent text messages telling them to go online to find a solution? Doesn't Vodafone realise that when broadband is down customers CANNOT GET ONLINE?

2 Today Vodafone support assured me that online support chat is available 24/7. It seems Vodafone isn't aware that this is difficult to reach by customers whose broadband is down!  Other broadband providers I have used in the past had automated broadband checks available BY PHONE. I would call the relevant number, enter my Post Code and it would tell me whether there was a known problem in the area. Why doesn't Vodafone have a similar phone based system instead of forcing customers whose broadband is down to log in online?

3  As I am fortunate in having internet access available on my mobile phone I did try to connect with your online chat bot yesterday evening. However it told me no one was available to  chat and I should call phone support instead. Since Vodafone phone support ceases at 20:00 why does the chat bot give customers this nonsense information?

4 This morning I was told that broadband has been down regularly in my area during the last few weeks due to technical problems being investigated by Openreach.. In that case surely Vodafone should have an automated phone based system as used by competitors which enables customers to check if there's a problem in their area.  Instead, I was left struggling for many hours thinking that loss of broadband was caused by a fault in my personal equipment.

[MarkD]

Thank you for taking the time to provide the feedback following your conversation with the team today. We're always looking for ways to improve our products and services, we'll make sure that we pass your feedback on using our internal system.