Vodafone BB - is it a scam?

DRice

Hi i signed up for vodafone BB at the weekend. FTTH. Looking forward to it
The nice sales lady in digiweb informed me that i might want to consider cancelling within my cooling off period and to check trustpilot reviews

https://ie.trustpilot.com/review/www.vodafone.ie

She wasnt lying. Should i cancel and go with someone else? Is vodafone BB really a scam or are they all as bad as each other? Is digiweb dearer for a reason or is that just a sales pitch?

manodepeeple

Didn't read many of those reviews, but we've had Vodafone FTTH for nearly 2 years now here in rural Wicklow. Bit of structural hassle getting the actual fibre to the house (nothing to do with Vodafone) but once they sorted that, it's been excellent ever since.

We're on the 150M package and can get the full 150M on wireless.

Don't have Vodafone TV but do have a few TVs on IPTV (Now TV etc.) without any buffering or lagging ever.

I would recommend to find out exactly when your 14-day period starts/ends (it shouldn't start until the day of actual installation - not signup) and test the hell out of it before that. Best of luck.

DRice

Seems to be activation but i struggle to get it in writing. The terms and conditions are full of boiler plate thats not precise enough to answer the question

pandaa

DRice wrote: »

Seems to be activation but i struggle to get it in writing. The terms and conditions are full of boiler plate thats not precise enough to answer the question

I dont get good speed when watching TV content. Read about similar stories on FB page. Speed as low as 4m for 4K content. Speed for browsing is at about 90 at the same time.

Thinking of trying VM - That is an expensive option though.

DRice

Yeah vf reviews are too bad. Gonna pony up for a more reliable option myself. Might try sky. Only marginally more expensive.

fionny

DRice wrote: »

Hi i signed up for vodafone BB at the weekend. FTTH. Looking forward to it
The nice sales lady in digiweb informed me that i might want to consider cancelling within my cooling off period and to check trustpilot reviews

https://ie.trustpilot.com/review/www.vodafone.ie

She wasnt lying. Should i cancel and go with someone else? Is vodafone BB really a scam or are they all as bad as each other? Is digiweb dearer for a reason or is that just a sales pitch?

That looks like a review bombing to be honest. Tonnes in a matter of days? Suspicious.

I’ve been with VF for FTTC for about 5 years and it’s grand. I always get a good deal when contract ends which keeps me.

Am considering moving this year though to sky as VF won’t give me their new fibre modem which is ridiculous.

pandaa

fionny wrote: »

That looks like a review bombing to be honest. Tonnes in a matter of days? Suspicious.

I’ve been with VF for FTTC for about 5 years and it’s grand. I always get a good deal when contract ends which keeps me.

Am considering moving this year though to sky as VF won’t give me their new fibre modem which is ridiculous.

Kind of agree. They have bad speed while streaming possibly my bad luck. Yet, it is not difficult to get through them. Eir and VM just to apply for a new connection, I was on call for over 40 min and ended the call.

To be honest (dnt kill me), Level of CC in Ireland are below par. I have lived in various continents including Asia and must say service levels are best in developing countries - Possibly because it is cheaper to employ people there and law of large numbers. We get most expensive broadband and yet service levels are pathetic in most cases, simply because our numbers in population are so small that business find it difficult to employ extra people which is a variable cost. They possibly find it tough to recover fixed cost if they reduce prices and hence the premium.

All said and done a great place to live. :-)

Xithus

The website and app are unusable. Their customer support is atrocious, promising calls backs etc. and never do. The TV service is woeful because the equipment is cheap and unreliable the interface is slow and the picture and sound quality on some of the channels is like a bad youtube stream. Go have a look at the old 'Talk to..' board here as well to get an idea of how bad they are.

Basically you're rolling a dice. If you are lucky enough to get connected smoothly, your line never develops a fault and you don't care about the rubbish TV service then you'll be happy enough. However if you have any sort of problem you'll regret ever considering them for a second. I've said it before, you'd be mad to willingly hand over any money to that crowd.

fionny

Xithus wrote: »

The website and app are unusable. Their customer support is atrocious, promising calls backs etc. and never do. The TV service is woeful because the equipment is cheap and unreliable the interface is slow and the picture and sound quality on some of the channels is like a bad youtube stream. Go have a look at the old 'Talk to..' board here as well to get an idea of how bad they are.

Basically you're rolling a dice. If you are lucky enough to get connected smoothly, your line never develops a fault and you don't care about the rubbish TV service then you'll be happy enough. However if you have any sort of problem you'll regret ever considering them for a second. I've said it before, you'd be mad to willingly hand over any money to that crowd.

Again in the interest of balance... I have been with them for BB only (cant speak to TV and wouldnt even consider it)

But I have had a few line faults and they have organised Open Eir to fix relatively quickly... Remember the infrastucture outside is belong to Open Eir if its a copper line....

Are they brilliant no... but they are very well priced and from what i can tell about a million billion times better then Eir's own support which I have seen covered in newspapers multiple times.

BigMoose

My 2c on the TV, it's fine, actually pretty good if you want sports channels. The box is cheap, yes, but it works infinitely better than the VM Horizon box, but it's nothing like as slick as SkyQ. The multi room wireless set up just worked. The picture quality is fine and you'll find plenty of over compressed channels on Sky too. Maybe I was lucky not having any issues but couldn't fault it for what I paid compared to Sky - wouldn't pay the extra for SkyQ.

Xithus

I personally found the Horizon STB to be better, faster and more reliable.

The Vodafone one is limited to 1080i and in my experience the interface is extremely slow, the recordings are not reliable (sometimes it just records a black screen, other times what it records is a stuttering unwatchable mess) the search function is unusable, the 7 Day rewatch thing is so limited it in what's available it may as well not be there. The child lock can't be removed permanently so you're stuck putting in this 4 digit password all the time on some of the channels.

And as if that all wasn't bad enough, the app / account / website functions are absolutely terrible especially if you have multiple services like phone added on which means if you have a problem you need to try talk or chat with someone. The chat service never works, and if you're 'lucky' enough to get through to a person on the phone they can rarely ever help because its not their department or remit, and they'll promise you a call back you will never get.

I haven't clicked on that trustpilot link above but I'd be willing to wager it's people repeating exactly what I'm saying above. I doubt any of it is review bombing tbh

Leprechaun77

I signed up to SIRO via Vodafone and it has not gone very smoothly. There have been installation issues, no-shows and billing issues before the service has even been installed. It is impossible to speak to anybody on their customer care line, which is one big automated circle. Eventually they send a text to your phone with a link to the ‘MyVodafone’ portal on their website, which is severely buggy and limited in what it offers....may need to using cooling off notice as the have started my contract (even though service is not installed yet!). I actually went with VF as I thought it would be safer, and that they would have more resources for after sales issues....boy was I wrong!

Ah-Watch

Have vodafone down the country and its rock solid and cannot fault it and is far far more reliable than what Eir was but also switched from Sky to Vodafone in Dublin solely based on cost per month but it wasn't as reliable than Sky. I wonder is it region specific reliability wise or something but I would also think it's worth a shot and worst case you have a cooling off period

fionny

I think its important to note on the installation front VF is just a middle man for either Siro or Open Eir... they are beholden to those infrasturcture providers 100% on the install so youd experience the same issues with Eir or Digiweb etc...

Nigzcurran

I have Vodafone broadband here in blanchardstown the last 3 or 4 years, I’m paying €35 a month for 90 mbps and it’s flawless. Can run as many devices as I like on WiFi and watch Netflix 4K no problem

mobrien2

I have ftth with them, originally was with digiweb but changed due to price, the Vodafone customer service is absolutely awful.

But once I upgraded the router then sent me to a TP Link one for 60€ on amazon I am getting speeds of 400+mb
Was only getting 100 with digiweb. I think upgrading the hardware is a must with any provider in Ireland, even the digiweb one which was Better than most had nothing on the TP Link one

DRice

Just as an update i went for the out of the frying pan and into the fire option and switched to eir.


Even worse customer support apparently but better network capacity apparently. I just couldnt justify digiweb. Out of my price range. I didnt go with sky as i had problems with usung chromecasts with them before

brentanrodgers

Vodafone are grand if it works out of the gate but once any problem arises it can become a nightmare in my experience.

My contract was up with Eir recently ( FTTC ) so I begrudgingly rang up Vodafone to see what they could offer. I was connected to some off shore call center who told me I could not keep my landline number when switching over - this is misinformation of course but an indication of how atrocious their customer support is. I tried to inform the agent what he said is incorrect but he refused to listen so I ended the call there.

I went for pure telecom in the end, haven't had any problems - their call center is based in Dublin.

mackcracknsack

I recently switched from Eir to Vodafone and they are absolutely hopeless.

Broadband connection is patchy which means Amazon echo disconnects frequently and won't automatically reconnect without being switched off and on, similar with Android TV as the TV losses signal with WiFi and disconnects. Listening to radio through WiFi, either TuneIn or radio app results in stations constantly disconnecting. VPN for work constantly disconnecting.
Vodafone are and absolute disaster!!!

I have had the Eir technician out to try sort out the problem but he said there was no issues.
I never had a problem or any issues with Eir apart from the price increasing from 30 a month to 60.

Next step is to cancel Vodafone, which may be a battle as it will result in early termination.

okidoki987

Got Vodafone 500MB Siro BB recently.
Everything was working fine until I tried to log into Amazon Prime today and couldn't connect over WIFI.
Saying "connected but no signal", also having problems connecting an Alexa Echo via WIFI.
Everything else seems to be working fine including Netflix so not sure what the problem with these two is?

DRice

brentanrodgers wrote: »

- this is misinformation of course but an indication of how atrocious their customer support is. .

This is what really winds me up about vodafone. The call centre staff frequently and habitually lie on the phone and pass it of as fact. I can never tell if its sheer incompetance , laziness to get their facts right or deliberate lies. None of these are good qualities in an organisation.

I told the guy yesterday, while.trying to find out a simple piece of information on when the cooling off period starts ..the usual row incurred...i said that i didnt believe a word a vodafone rep says to me and i have zero trust in them, i wanted it in writing

He then turned around and told me if i had zero trust in them i should actually cancel within cooling off. So i did.


Vodafone mobile is decent but Vodafone at home is rotten to the core.

brentanrodgers

Lad I was talking to was pretty aggressive in his stance too and once I said I'd leave it he offered no resistence and just OK bye. Strange to be honest, you'd imagine if someone higher up got a wind of those calls they wouldn't be best pleased.

DeconSheridan

Blindly signing up for a subscription without doing some research on availability is probably going to bring headaches for you.

fionny

Renegotiating my contract with Vodafone BB right now, they wont give me the new gigabit hub until FTTH available in my area which is rubbish as its still compatible with FTTC technology and their old modems are coming up for ancient now... best price they will offer is 30 a month for 12 months which is same as a new customer would get...

Sky of course offer 30 a month with a much better modem offering...

VF did offer me a month free also but I dont think its worth me staying, ive been their customer for about 5 years now but time to move on!

My father has VF FTTH and has had no problems. However, we both agree that VF Customer care, and the VF website are an elaborate joke at our expense.

bryanpmurphy30

Would steer clear if I was you. Got the Gigabox it on pretense it was 1GB but informed FTTH not in my area post sign up (should have done my research but am based in Dublin city centre so though it was no brainer). I was then informed that it would be a max of 24MB which is not the case, its a split line which gives a max of 10-14MB and upload of 0.5MB.
I've now been without Broadband for 3 weeks as the upload ceased to be in mid August. An Eir engineer under contract came out and made things worst by blowing the circuit in my phoneline. Then followed a KN engineer who didn't want to compound, so didn't fix it. Another Eir engineer came out and said everything was fine without even checking internal phone.

Customer Service sound helpful but logging and communication of details keep compounding the issues. They recently inadvertently changed my 12 month contract in to a new 18 month contract in meantime without any request to do so. I'm in the process at the moment of trying to cancel but its been 5 days and still in limbo

fionny

So I have to come back here today as a now former customer of VF due to my own issues but today on behalf of my father in law I rang their retention team to renew his contract and get the same price as a new customer. I thought this will be easy no hassle.

Got through directly no problem. But it went downhill from there. I told them that I (as my father in law) wanted to downgrade to the 500meg deal as he wasn’t benefitting from the 1gig.

I was told that would cost MORE if I did so. I called nonsense and said it’s 30 euro a month for 12 months as a new customer and I expect to pay that. The agent said no it couldn’t be done as he’d got a new customer deal over a year ago and despite being out of contract she couldn’t help.

I told her then that’s fine we’d move away if she was so set on losing a customer.

This is where it went real bad. The agent bare face lied to me and said if we moved provider siro would deactivate the line take it away and we’d never get siro again. I called bull**** on this but she held the line. She kept on the same story that if you change or cancel then you cannot get it ever again with any provider including Vodafone.

I told her this was flat out incorrect info she held the line so I told her she lost a customer and made a vocal opponent when all they had to do was match the price of a new customer.

I then contact Siro directly who replied as you would expect with the image below. Confirming again that VF was talking complete rubbish.

Since they have removed all the Irish service include the retention team they have brutal.

I am tempted to get the recording if I can under GDPR and highlight them lieing as best I can.

Disgraceful.

TheDriver

You could get the recording but it isn't going to get you anywhere. I would write to Vodafone expressing disappointment that there is no loyalty retention offers and your disappointment to the obvious lies being spread.