Vodafone signal become completely unreliable - grounds to cancel contract?

tripled

I'm looking for some advice on if I have grounds to terminate my Vodafone contract please.

Over the last few months, the Vodafone signal in my area has become completely unreliable. It started with the odd short outage now and then (these things happen), but then took a turn for the worse. We had a day with no signal at the end of November, three days over Christmas, a day in the New Year, it went down twice for around 20 minutes last week Thursday, most of the day last Saturday and has been off since at least 5 am this morning. These are when I've noticed, there may/may not have been other short outages as well.

When it was down in the New Year I contacted Vodafone to complain about the issues (using my 'backup' T-Mobile sim card which I now had), I was put on hold while the csa 'investigated' for at least 10 minutes until the credit ran out (total call duration over 20 mins). The next day the mast was back and I never persued it, however when it was down last Saturday I happened to be going into Hereford so I called in at their store, who told me they weren't aware of any issues but they couldn't do anything, I had to phone Vodafone. When I got back to home though the mast was back on.

Today I called them at lunchtime (from work), spoke to a csa who denied their was anything wrong with the mast and it was functioning normally, even when I explained to them I knew of two other people (who also have 'backup' sim cards) who also had a total loss of service. I also explained all the problems we've been having, and he did offer me a free SureSignal, but as I don't have home broadband (T-Mobile 3g dongle), I explained I appreciated the offer but as it would be useless to me I'd rather they fixed their mast. He promised he would pass it on to a high level team and they would call me back (!!) but I haven't heard from them.

My gripe isn't with the customer service overall (over the past 11 years I've found it has generally been good, as shown by the offer of a free SureSignal today, although not by the lack of a call back). The issue is, I have to keep a pre-pay simcard as a backup which means, as I only use it when the Vodafone mast is down, I don't qualify for any deals and I have to pay through the nose to use it (on top of my Vodafone line rental).

I'm 14 months through my current 18 month contract and, on the basis that their mast is faulty and I'm recieving a sub-standard service, are there are any grounds to cancel it early?

Just to confirm as well, it is not just me who is affected, but several friends on Vodafone can between them confirm every single one of these outages. Just last night we were having a laugh at someone in the pub for buying a Vodafone phone because they thought it was the most reliable network in the area, 6 hours later and the signal has disappeared again!

kazzymac_2

Well thats strange as I have had the same problem with Vodafone since Christmas. Glad to hear I am not the only one as they say that the signal is fine!

gjchester

tripled wrote: »

I'm looking for some advice on if I have grounds to terminate my Vodafone contract please.

Over the last few months, the Vodafone signal in my area has become completely unreliable. It started with the odd short outage now and then (these things happen), but then took a turn for the worse. We had a day with no signal at the end of November, three days over Christmas, a day in the New Year, it went down twice for around 20 minutes last week Thursday, most of the day last Saturday and has been off since at least 5 am this morning. These are when I've noticed, there may/may not have been other short outages as well.

When it was down in the New Year I contacted Vodafone to complain about the issues (using my 'backup' T-Mobile sim card which I now had), I was put on hold while the csa 'investigated' for at least 10 minutes until the credit ran out (total call duration over 20 mins). The next day the mast was back and I never persued it, however when it was down last Saturday I happened to be going into Hereford so I called in at their store, who told me they weren't aware of any issues but they couldn't do anything, I had to phone Vodafone. When I got back to home though the mast was back on.

Today I called them at lunchtime (from work), spoke to a csa who denied their was anything wrong with the mast and it was functioning normally, even when I explained to them I knew of two other people (who also have 'backup' sim cards) who also had a total loss of service. I also explained all the problems we've been having, and he did offer me a free SureSignal, but as I don't have home broadband (T-Mobile 3g dongle), I explained I appreciated the offer but as it would be useless to me I'd rather they fixed their mast. He promised he would pass it on to a high level team and they would call me back (!!) but I haven't heard from them.

My gripe isn't with the customer service overall (over the past 11 years I've found it has generally been good, as shown by the offer of a free SureSignal today, although not by the lack of a call back). The issue is, I have to keep a pre-pay simcard as a backup which means, as I only use it when the Vodafone mast is down, I don't qualify for any deals and I have to pay through the nose to use it (on top of my Vodafone line rental).

I'm 14 months through my current 18 month contract and, on the basis that their mast is faulty and I'm recieving a sub-standard service, are there are any grounds to cancel it early?

Just to confirm as well, it is not just me who is affected, but several friends on Vodafone can between them confirm every single one of these outages. Just last night we were having a laugh at someone in the pub for buying a Vodafone phone because they thought it was the most reliable network in the area, 6 hours later and the signal has disappeared again!

Unfortunaltly it's not grounds. The mobile networks are mobile radio services, the nature of which means they can't guarantee a signal at all times in all places. Read yout contract and it says although they will try and make the service available as much as possible sometimes through damage or maintainiance reasons that will not be the case.

Best you are likely to get is a refund on your line rental for the months affected.

Sorry it's not better news.

tripled

Thanks gjchester, I might have to take the hit then and buy myself out. After the third outage in the New Year I'd already decided I was switching as soon as my time is up in June, with the current debacle I think it's time for me to go. They're losing customers by the hatfull around my way at the moment.

gjchester

tripled wrote: »

Thanks gjchester, I might have to take the hit then and buy myself out. After the third outage in the New Year I'd already decided I was switching as soon as my time is up in June, with the current debacle I think it's time for me to go. They're losing customers by the hatfull around my way at the moment.

I don't disagree but if theres a mast issue they are probably trying to fix it. Don't take this the wrong way but you are probably small fry, if they have a business with hundreds plus phones they'll be the ones they listen to and chances are they can walk easily, not the personal user.

Most personal users (I'm one too not corporate) will be tied into a contract, anyone with an iPhone 4 on Vodafone will be tied to them till at least November of this year as they all came with a minimum 18 months contract.

It may be that once the mast is replaced the Vodafone coverage will be the best around, and even if you move to another compnay their mast could die just as easily.

Honestly they are all as bad as each other....

Techhead_2

I don't agree with much of what has been said, especially some of the waffle. Whilst its true that no network guarantees service, they do promise to make every effort to provide a service. You should therefore start with a proper formal complaint that you have notified them of a fault and are not satisfied with the response. You terms and conditions explain how to do this, basically it needs to be in writing and say it is a complaint. Don't forget to tell them what you would like to happen.

Vodafone

Hi Tripled,

I am disappointed you have had these issues with your signal. I can understand how frustrating it can be when you want to use your phone but can't.

So that we can take a look into this for you, can you send us an email here with WRT135 in the subject and a link to this thread.

Thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

gjchester

Vodafone_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Tripled,

...

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Heidi If you had read the post you's see TechHeads post was not about an issue but about the process.

All youhave done it posted the standard reply without reading the post.

gjchester

gjchester wrote: »

Heidi If you had read the post you's see TechHeads post was not about an issue but about the process.

All youhave done it posted the standard reply without reading the post.

For anyone following it looks like Vodafone have deleted there own response.

tripled

gjchester wrote: »

I don't disagree but if theres a mast issue they are probably trying to fix it.

Unfortunately not only have the problems now been going on for several months, they aren't the occasional outage, on two occasions I've complained while it's been down they insist there is nothing wrong, in which case what would they be trying to fix?

Don't take this the wrong way but you are probably small fry, if they have a business with hundreds plus phones they'll be the ones they listen to and chances are they can walk easily, not the personal user.

I don't dispute I am small fry, but I'm not sure what the relevance of this is? They are free to choose to listen/not listen, I am free to switch to another network (even if I have to buy out of the contract). Plus as it affects numerous personal users, not just me, and I know two people who are leaving them, I want out, someone else who's angry with them. Numerous prepay users could just disappear to another network without ever complaining, so I'd have thought they'd rely on the contract users, business and personal, to flag widespread issues. Individual issues, yes, they don't really give a stuff.

Most personal users (I'm one too not corporate) will be tied into a contract, anyone with an iPhone 4 on Vodafone will be tied to them till at least November of this year as they all came with a minimum 18 months contract.

Again, not sure of the relevance - my contract is up in June and I don't have an iPhone.

It may be that once the mast is replaced the Vodafone coverage will be the best around, and even if you move to another compnay their mast could die just as easily.

Doubtful, they used to be the best around for coverage (which is why I went with them 10 years ago), but since then other companies have far overtaken them, notwithstanding the recent intermittent service issues. Also Three, T-Mobile and Orange have masts in the area - if I went with T-Mobile, I get a 3G signal from Three under their network sharing agreement, 2G from T-Mobile and also 2G fallback from the Orange mast. I have a T-Mobile internet dongle at the moment and although the Three (3G) mast has gone offline before, T-Mobile hasn't (at least at the same time), so in the 9 months with them I haven't been completely without coverage, and dongles can't fallback to Orange like phones can.

Orange can also fallback to T-Mobile, and I would need to check it but I believe Three has 2G fallback to Orange. O2 is a waste of time around me.

As an aside, Vodafone doesn't have 3G by me, nor does the signal pentrate my local unlike Orange (and therefore T-Mobile and potentially Three).

Honestly they are all as bad as each other....

I don't doubt that for a minute

Although I disagree with much of what you said, I appreciate your input!

tripled

Techhead wrote: »

I don't agree with much of what has been said, especially some of the waffle. Whilst its true that no network guarantees service, they do promise to make every effort to provide a service. You should therefore start with a proper formal complaint that you have notified them of a fault and are not satisfied with the response. You terms and conditions explain how to do this, basically it needs to be in writing and say it is a complaint. Don't forget to tell them what you would like to happen.

Thanks Techhead, I think gjchester may be right and they'll try and hide behind their terms and conditions, epecially being as they only need to stall me for a few months until my contract is up anyway, but I'll have a nose through them - if I still have them! Although I keep the correspondence they send through, unless they sent them out when I last renewed I doubt I will still have them from 10 years ago.