First Issue after BT / Vodafone merger

Hi all,

I currently am a Vodafone at home customer. I used to be with BT, but the merger "forced" me to switch to Vodafone. This was fine while everything was working fine. I have been with that connection for both broadband and phone since I bought my apartment 3 and a half years ago.

Last night, the modem I was given by BT for my connection (well technically the second one as the first one broke down a little over a year ago) started acting up - rebooting by itself taking a few tries to get it back up again - and this morning it failed completely. So I called 1907 after following the few troubleshooting steps advised by my manual.

I got through to technical support who confirmed my diagnostic and then something strange happened, they asked me for €80 to get it replaced. After being hung up on a couple of times, being treated quite rudely, being refused to talk to a manager I finally gave up and looked for another solution.

The excuse they gave me was that the modem was out of warranty. I just don't get it. My modem is the most basic wired modem that was given to me by BT. I never bought it, I never chose it, it's not even branded. How can that run out of warranty ? Isn't it part of the package of the broadband connection ? Why did BT exchange it without asking for anything the first time it broke out of warranty ? Why don't I have a choice for a lesser modem ? Why don't they refer me to another place to buy a modem? Why am I not offered any alternative ? Is the Vodafone policy set up to trap former BT customers ? What is €80 to them (well I suppose they take a margin on this) when I've been paying between €50 and €60 a month for 4 years (over €2000)?

Oh, and the modem they're offering me for €80 comes free with any new connection set up by new customers.

So I need to create the alternatives myself :
- find a working modem in a pile of old unused equipment and find a way to set it up without their help, I'm not sure I'm even allowed to do that.
- find another ISP (and wait for the 3 weeks to get connected - which is not possible as I use the connection to work and manage a few websites)
- close my account and register a new one in my wife's name (and wait to get connected).

I don't feel like I'm asking for the moon, here. I'm asking to get the service I'm paying for up and running. I'm not asking for a free upgrade, I'm asking to get what I'm paying for. I know €80 is not much (still about a weeks shopping for my family) but I want to understand first !

Now, if anyone has some advise on what I should/could do next, I'd really appreciate it.