vodafone broadband still waiting

tighthead

16th April 2014 I entered contract with Vodafone to hook me up with broadband. This included putting two poles up which happened soon after the order. Today 28th July nothing further has happened.
I've rang umpteen times and even been hung up on, I've never disrespected anyone. I've been told several completion dates.
On day I asked for a manager I was told there was none working at the time ( I laughed) he Hever hung up. I called back and low and behold a lovely chap put me onto a a supervisor who listened to me promised a call back last Friday week and nothing. I called the other day and was told a pole had to be erected. I sighed as informed him the poles were up over 2 months. Do vodafone have a clue realy??????
I lodged a complaint by email, they asked for stuff that I explained I am awaiting for and stated they can not find my account. I was a told my account was cancelled and did I want to set up new account. Vodafone ye have my head fried
oh but I was offered 10 euro off first three months yippee (not)
If I cancelled my phone ye would be after me for contractual breaking fairly quick maybe ye should full fill the contract I've made with ye.
I am <SNIP> my number is <SNIP> and no ill not pm ye as it's fair obvious that anytime I call ye there is a different story so ye call me

zool1974

Have you tried contacting the communication ombudsman? They will help you in this. They can give you advice and tell you what to do next. No matter what, keep all your letters or emails that you sent and received. Or Google Vodafone and find someone high up and start emailing them. They won't want hassle like that, so hopefully they will set the ball rolling. Hope it helps. Or post your issue on Facebook and Twitter too, or any other forum. Boards.ie is a good start. There is nothing like using social media to air a grievance.

tighthead

Jeny I had totally forgotten there was one of those that will be done tomorrow. Thanks a million for that. I'm gonna put on all social media next week if this isn't resolved
:-)

zool1974 wrote: »

Have you tried contacting the communication ombudsman? They will help you in this. They can give you advice and tell you what to do next. No matter what, keep all your letters or emails that you sent and received. Or Google Vodafone and find someone high up and start emailing them. They won't want hassle like that, so hopefully they will set the ball rolling. Hope it helps. Or post your issue on Facebook and Twitter too, or any other forum. Boards.ie is a good start. There is nothing like using social media to air a grievance.

slimjimmc

tighthead wrote: »

Jeny I had totally forgotten there was one of those that will be done tomorrow. Thanks a million for that. I'm gonna put on all social media next week if this isn't resolved
:-)

There is no communications ombudsman as such, what you're looking for is the Commission for Communications Regulation (comreg). Their contact details are on their websites:
http://www.askcomreg.ie/about_us/contact_us.26.LE.asp
http://www.comreg.ie/contact_us/comreg_contact_details.141.contact.html

flavialutetia

Same kind of awful experience with vodafone here. And i'm not even in a rural area so i can imagine the inept excuses they came up in your case.
I registered in store for a home broadband about 6 weeks ago, some contractor came to install a phone socket (just the one, the landline existed already as i live in an apartment building…) and now i'm waiting. And waiting.
No modem received, no communications whatsoever except if i call them and then every time a different vague story to explain the delay.
Today was that they were testing my line?!? (the line has been ready for weeks though, so why only today…)

Ah yes, i was also warned that even once i get the modem (if i ever get it) the broadband connection will still need days to be activated. Why? No answer. When they say 'days' now i hear 'weeks'…

It's just plain unacceptable, there is no warning whatsoever when you sign up that it will take more than 2 months to get online.

I'm quite fed up and i'm starting to think about about having my contract legally cancelled if that's possible, for repeated failure to provide the product they advertised or something on that line. It's limit fraudulent advertising and if not intentionally fraudulent at least definitively misleading.

That unreliable slow service is what one was getting in the 80s not in 2014! I'm just back from Asia and boy am i disappointed with europe's internet! Over there i had fast and reliable broadband without a glitch, and if i remember correctly i got the connection the day after registering for it! Why is Ireland left to lag behind, are all providers so technologically challenged? (the providers, not the people!)

mickmadoodle

Same same but different for me.. Once I had parted with my bank details, I was effectively not contacted by Vodafone again. I made a dozen phone calls + sent 4 emails to try and get some answers. Got the same run-around," its been escalated", "will call back" and was also hung-up on when I told the customer care rep I was recording the call.

From the start they it was a mess, the technician never showed up at the scheduled time(I took a half day off) and then they started arriving unannounced leaving bits of paper " we missed you"
I did get a text message a week or so in, stating my "line was active", soon after the modem arrived. I hooked it up and nothing happened.
I called VF and was told 10 days, waited 10 days and nothing. Called again, was told 10 more days, waited 10 days and nothing. It went on like this until I was told there was an "internal error" and that a technician needed to come. In the end I had to get the number of the Eircom technician( the people VF use to do the line installation etc) and make an appointment with him myself.

He arrived then disappeared without communicating if the problem had been fixed or not. Anyway, I called VF and was told next week it will be active, waited, nothing happened. Called again and was told maybe next week.


From the start I tried to emphasis the importance of getting connected asap as I had rented the apartment on condition that internet would be working by the move-in date.
The day before the tenant arrived there was still no internet. I was forced to ring and cancel the contract(on breach of contract grounds). Somebody from VF rang back after a few days. They could see from the log how many times I had called in the past and how useless they were . He apologized for the poor service and told me he would cancel the contract.

In the meantime I went and bought a mobile broadband modem from three.ie. which got me out of a hole, but its much more expensive.


I have written a letter of complaint to VF. It was sent by reg post and arrived on 23rd July. According to their website I should have received an acknowledgement within 3 working days.. nothing so far except that my account was debited for 2 months home broadband usage yesterday

Shocking stuff from a multinational, want to puke

What to do next ??

flavialutetia

I found this link that sort of guides irish consumers in their complaints, they also have a link to report a business directly.

[I can't post links apparently… but if you google "how to complain national consumer agency" you will get there. The homepage is consumerhelp dot ie]

They advise to start by sending a letter and they give a good template.
But you've done that already. Though if you got charged for a connection that you clearly don't have yet, that's definitely worth a formal complaint with the NCA i think.

That is one point that enrages me as well, is that vf is absolutely unapologetic, no offer of compensation of any kind for the delays and the troubles. I dunno, one month of free unlimited data wouldn't bankrupt them now would it?
And they wonder why more and more people get anger issues… ;-)

I'm just wondering though, is it specific to vodafone ireland, to vodafone in general (vf uk and australia seem to be just as bad really with vf australia having a class action lawsuit hanging over their head already…)
Or is it like that with all irish internet providers because of poor and out of date infrastructure?

In some ways, from what i see on other forums, it even looks like some people somewhere along the line are making use of that chaos? Modems that never reach their destinations, duplicate charges for landlines connections that don't get done, payments taken from yet unconnected customers? If we were in india or africa, we would assume immediately some corrupt middlemen… i wonder if we're not seeing the same thing emerging here too… That would be sad :-(

dudara

@tighthead Do you want me to move this thread to the Talk to Vodafone forum, to see if the reps there can assist?

dudara

flavialutetia

@dudara, nothing to lose to try a new thread i guess… keeping in mind that we all have had many unproductive interactions with vf customer service agents already, hence the fed up posts…

dudara

@flavialutetia I can split our your posts and move them to the Vodafone forum, if you want? This thread was opened by tighthead, so it's more "officially" their thread

dudara

flavialutetia

@dudara True. I could have started a new thread i guess, sorry, but if you can split this one, sure, you're welcome to do that.
Thanks for the suggestion!