Vodafone Strikes AGAIN

aare

A year ago I had a massive performance with Vodafone trying to use 5gb free data to cover me while I waited for them to install landline broadband.

I had 3g broadband on billpay for years, but there was a gap between connections of about 10 days. Instead of using the data it was running through the money I had on account. Nobody could understand, I was refunded the money more than once, everything reset. No difference...

In the end after a huge issue they told me it was because I couldn't use that data in the dongle, system would not accept it, and if I wanted to do that I would have to pay 15 euros for data...

My landline (also vodafone) is faulty today, so I did as I was told - only to find the SAME thing happening again.

The chat centre did their best but they do not have the authority to reverse the 15 euros for 3gb data which is now sitting in a phone with no data capacity while I tether from the free 5gb in the other phone.

At this point in time I am paying for Vodafone's mistake - this is totally unfair.

aare

Yesterday I got hold of an old android phone to tether to try and use the 3gb. It zipped through the call credit and did not touch the 3gb data.

Now I am really confused. The 5g data in the other phone is going down, and the credit is untouched.

Ten Pin

Just to clarify the problem:

2 Vodafone PAYG SIMs, one is a mobile broadband SIM for a dongle, the other SIM is for a phone.
In order to bridge the gap in landline broadband Vodafone gave you a dongle and charged you 15 euro for 3GB of data.
The SIM in the phone has 5GB data that you can use as you wish (tether etc) and this is working OK.

Is that correct so far? If it is then why did you not tether from the 5GB phone SIM? That’s what I would have done.

Anyway my guess is it’s an APN issue. The dongle SIM was just loaded with credit and not set up with a mobile broadband “bundle” so you were being charged 19 cent per MB used. They sold you 3GB for 15 euro but I’m almost certain this is a phone data bundle so would not work with the mobile broadband APN and would just take your credit at 19 cent per MB.

Check the APN on the dongle, it is probably “hs.vodafone.ie” (no quotes), if you can change it to “live.vodafone.com” it should allow you to use the 3GB without affecting your credit. Better still, leave the SIM in the “old android” and edit it that way. The APN is under Settings>More>Mobile Networks>Access Point Names. You could also just add another new APN and enter live.vodafone.com in the APN box.

hs.vodafone.ie is the APN for mobile broadband bundles
live.vodafone.com is the APN for phone data bundles

It doesn’t matter what device the SIM is in, but the APN must match the bundle being used.

See if any of that works.

aare

No quite...
I used have billpay mobile broadband, so I have a 4g Wifi dongle/router
The old number was changed to pay-as-you-go A
I have another pay-as-go-number B
I "BOUGHT" 3gb data, as previously instructed by Vodafone for SIM A to use in Wifi Router
I have 5gb data in SIM B

When I put SIM A in router it ate up the credit balance and ignored the data. SIM B working fine in Iphone hotspot. This was sorted so I had a refund of the balance. But nothing could be done about 3gb data I could not use.

(Second phone is old iphone I can't tether to windows 10)

Borrowed old android...got hotspot to work with SIM A, and THAT ran through credit as well...while SIM B still using data allowance.

Customer care again refund credit then reset so it will take data through old android (it does).

I am now going to try suggestions to get dongle to take phone data...because if android reboots once more my sanity is at stake.

aare

Does not work in router...ate up data again...you can change it but I think it reverts itself.

Ten Pin

aare wrote: »

..ate up data again...

I assume you mean “ate up credit”

aare wrote: »

you can change it but I think it reverts itself.

Turn data off before changing APN’s, this is easier to do on android, just toggle to airplane mode, make change, save and then turn airplane mode off. If the devices are locked to Vodafone then this may not work, there may be a setting that auto changes regardless of what you try.


Have you tried contacting Vodafone reps on boards? They might be able to sort this out. I could keep suggesting fixes here but it might just keep eating your credit.