Vodafone broadband issues.. (spec me a better ISP?)

rainbowGuy · 16 Jul 2018 at 20:15

Short story: spec me a new ISP which is good and is around 21£ <30£

Long story:
Last month I decided to cancel virgin (50£ for just a <20MB internet, i dont use telephone/tv) was too expensive for me. So i decided to go for vodafone.

the whole month they didnt say anything. Couple (/few) days before the supposed activation date I chatted to them saying whether if their offering is FTTH or FTTC, the girl assured me its FTTH but i KNOW i dont have FTTH and told her so but she completely ignored me.

Come activation date, and nothing happened, chatted to them again and they said someone will come today but no one did.. they said they had to do something to my cabinet but I queried why no checks were made the whole month previous.. why did I have to contact them to get updates

I called them today as no engineer came and they then told me that oh he didnt come (Obviously!) and that he will come tomorrow..

Tbh the lack of updates, the willingness to do anything substantial is irking me and not giving me confidence. (They did offer 50GB internet on my mum's phone but its a headache trying to connect via my pc and when she leaves home then i am left with nothing) - even tweeted them and they ignored my tweet..

bremen1874 · 16 Jul 2018 at 20:36

They're at the mercy of BT Openreach. You've got no way of knowing whether it's Vodafone at fault or not.

Personally I'm still happy with Plusnet as an ISP.

Paying £50 for 20Meg with Virgin? That makes no sense at all.

The only answer to an ignored tweet is to report them to OFCOM.

crinkleshoes · 16 Jul 2018 at 21:17

Zen

Vodafone are the worst in the UK, couldn't believe that anyone could take that crown away from TalkTalk.

bremen1874 · 16 Jul 2018 at 21:22

crinkleshoes said:
Zen

As good as they might be, their cheapest package is 50% over the OP's budget.

Smokey Deza · 16 Jul 2018 at 23:15

bremen1874 said:
They're at the mercy of BT Openreach. You've got no way of knowing whether it's Vodafone at fault or not.

Personally I'm still happy with Plusnet as an ISP.

Shhhh. Best ISP ever. Ironic really, given they're a subsidiary of the worst company in the world - BT.

WJA96 · 17 Jul 2018 at 06:35

We have two home users on the Vodafone service, both new, additional line, installs and we’ve had no issues.

As others have pointed out, they are basically another Openreach line reseller and as such you’re dealing with a call centre and they then deal with Openreach. I think we’re paying something like 23+VAT per month for 76/20 VDSL and the lines are stable and uptime is every bit as good as the BT lines installed at the same houses.

I’m currently dealing with 7 UK ISPs because of carryover deals and Director’s whims (our IT Director DEMANDED Andrews & Arnold) and Vodafone are no better or worse than the others because I generally don’t have any issues with any of them.

I’ve seen PlusNet loved and loathed, TalkTalk I think operate differently in the Business sector from the Domestic so they’re one of my best suppliers and while I personally wouldn’t have Virgin, they’re cheap and the service is very fast once it realises you’ve asked the internet to send you some data.

I think once you have your Vodafone line installed, you’ll be happy enough. These things are a real pain the backside unfortunately.

crinkleshoes · 17 Jul 2018 at 09:48

We look after thousands of lines... Vodafone are the worst

Shawreyboy · 17 Jul 2018 at 11:49

crinkleshoes said:
We look after thousands of lines... Vodafone are the worst

Agreed, had awful experiences of them in the business sector when we had a legacy Cable and Wireless line for a client that required ceasing. No-one even our Account Manager could identify what the line was despite them billing us for it! :rolleyes:

Shawrey

rainbowGuy · 17 Jul 2018 at 13:45

surely all vodafone had to do was confirm with OPenReach or even me whether i had FTTH or not.. i clearly didnt :s when contacting them before activation date and telling them as such they didnt believe me obv and said everything will be fine.

WJA96 · 17 Jul 2018 at 14:02

rainbowGuy said:
surely all vodafone had to do was confirm with OPenReach or even me whether i had FTTH or not.. i clearly didnt :s when contacting them before activation date and telling them as such they didnt believe me obv and said everything will be fine.

If you knew you didn’t (and it’s very visibly different) why ask?

The only person dealing with your install from Vodafone is the person you are chatting with/calling. Everything else is Openreach. You could spend £60/month with A&A and other than getting great sympathy from them, you wouldn’t be any further forward. In another thread someone had FTTP installed through Zen and initially it was pants. Zen were great. Unfortunately it was a Openreach who were doing the work. Pretty much the only big provider who don’t use a Openreach are Virgin.

Fundamentally, this is all about the contact experience. If you don’t like the contact experience then pay more with someone who isn’t Vodafone. If Crinkleshoes reckons they’re a disaster then he’s dealing with enough issues you can probably say he has a good sample. Personally, I have had no issues so no contact with Vodafone and it’s cheap and I’m happy.

rainbowGuy · 17 Jul 2018 at 14:57

what do people think of nowtv? just say an 18£?

bremen1874 · 17 Jul 2018 at 15:05

AFAIK NOW TV's broadband is Sky broadband under a different name.

The £18 (notice the postion of the £ symbol

) is for ADSL so isn't super cheap.

MissChief · 17 Jul 2018 at 15:10

bremen1874 said:
AFAIK NOW TV's broadband is Sky broadband under a different name.

The £18 (notice the postion of the £ symbol ) is for ADSL so isn't super cheap.

That includes line rental too so is actually very competitive?

bremen1874 · 17 Jul 2018 at 15:15

It is cheap, but you can get ADSL with line rental for a similar cost elsewhere.

For example Plusnet will charge you £19.99/month for ADSL and are offering a £50 prepaid card as a sweetener.

PapaLazaru · 17 Jul 2018 at 15:19

crinkleshoes said:
We look after thousands of lines... Vodafone are the worst

How do you look after 'thousands' of lines from different providers out of interest?

rainbowGuy · 17 Jul 2018 at 15:31

now tvs 25£ fibre offering is quite good too.

bremen1874 · 17 Jul 2018 at 15:52

rainbowGuy said:
now tvs 25£ fibre offering is quite good too.

But still about the same as most of the other mainstream ISPs.

rainbowGuy · 17 Jul 2018 at 16:35

so which one would you prefer or recommend should i say.

bremen1874 said:
But still about the same as most of the other mainstream ISPs.

lltfdaniel · 17 Jul 2018 at 17:46

rainbowGuy said:
so which one would you prefer or recommend should i say.

Going with nowtv is prehaps your best bet, if the service is rubbish then you can cancel anytime as there is a no contract option.

b0rn2sk8 · 17 Jul 2018 at 19:53

Talk Talk is £25 a month for 50-80mb (18 month contract) with no activation.

It doesn't really matter what ISP you get, all the mainstream ones are basically the same when it comes to service. They are all great until something goes wrong at which point they are all garbage. The product they sell is indistinguishable to 99% of people, just buy which ever is cheapest.