No Vodafone signal for 3 weeks - what to do next?

Aiduri

I took out a 24 month contract with Vodafone a year ago, as we'd just moved house and it's the only network we can reliably pick up in our village.

All was fine until about three weeks ago, when the local mast went down. Since then we've had no 3G signal (I can occasionally get one bar if I perch the phone in specific places). The Vodafone faults board says that yes indeed the site is down, and that "there is no timescale for resolution".

I've contacted them via email to try and find out more info, and to ask about compensation for the outage - no response. When I tweet them, I just get referred to the unhelpful post on the faults board. I can't ring them as I have no signal! :mad:

Any ideas what to do next? Other networks in the area are patchy, but have got to be better than this! Can I break the contract if Vodafone are not providing the service they promised? If the mast never gets fixed, I'm not prepared to spend another year paying for services I'm not getting.

Thanks for any advice!

buscape

I'm sure there's something in Vodafones terms and conditions in clause 11 that will allow you to end your contract early in these circumstances, I can't post links but if you search for vodafone pay monthly terms and conditions you should find it.

Buzby

I very much doubt this - if there's no signal, if you move elsewhere you can make a call, so it is hardly non-delivery of services. If it is a BTS (cellsite) outage, then the usual deal is to credit you for the duration of the loss of service, and a little extra for inconvenience. Only if the BTS has been decomissioned (say, to be moved) will a network consider ending the minimum term early.

Aiduri

buscape: Thanks, I will take a look.

Buzby: Yep, if I get in the car and drive 20 miles, I can make a call. I can tolerate that for a few days, but not another year. Thing is, I have no idea if the BTS is being fixed, or if it's permanently out of commission, because Vodafone won't give me any information. I just get fobbed off to the same old thread on the faults board. If it's going to be fixed soon then I'd be happy to accept credit for the loss of service (which they have NOT offered me - grrr), and stick with them until the end of the contract. But I can't just wait around for a year for it to be fixed.

I just have no idea how to get them to respond to me.

DUTR

Aiduri wrote: »

buscape: Thanks, I will take a look.

Buzby: Yep, if I get in the car and drive 20 miles, I can make a call. I can tolerate that for a few days, but not another year. Thing is, I have no idea if the BTS is being fixed, or if it's permanently out of commission, because Vodafone won't give me any information. I just get fobbed off to the same old thread on the faults board. If it's going to be fixed soon then I'd be happy to accept credit for the loss of service (which they have NOT offered me - grrr), and stick with them until the end of the contract. But I can't just wait around for a year for it to be fixed.

I just have no idea how to get them to respond to me.

A single BTS does not cover 20 miles, do you get 2g coverage?

Vodafone

Hi Aiduri,

I am sorry to hear that you have been having some problems with your signal.

If a site has been logged on our faults board, it is a known fault that will be in the process of being fixed by an engineer.

I understand how frustrating it can be to not have signal but I can assure you that we will do everything we can to get it back up and running as soon as we can and when we have further info, the post on the faults board will be updated.

You can subscribe to the thread so that when it is updated, you will receive an email notification.

If you would like to get in touch with me personally, you can do so by emailing me via the address here and including WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject and a link to this thread.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK

Aiduri

DUTR wrote: »

A single BTS does not cover 20 miles, do you get 2g coverage?

I know it doesn't, but I live in the middle of nowhere. Even when the BTS is working, the signal is patchy between my village and the next large town.

I don't know if I get 2g coverage, my phone is 3g. I've no idea how to find that out, other than buying a 2g phone - unless there's a way to switch my Nokia E5 to 2g, but if there is I haven't found it yet.

Aiduri

Heidi - thank you for replying, I'm very glad to hear from a Vodafone representative. Do you have any idea of the timescale, or do you just know that it's being worked on? How long does it usually take to fix these things?

Will I be able to get any of my money back for the outage period, and if so, how do I go about this? I pay £15/month for the contract.

Thank you!

simax

Why not get a Sure Signal and plug it into your router? You'll get 3G coverage all the time in your house then?

Aiduri

simax wrote: »

Why not get a Sure Signal and plug it into your router? You'll get 3G coverage all the time in your house then?

I've thought about it, but why should I pay to fix their problem? If it doesn't get better soon though, I might have to.

simax

Well to be fair, network outages happen. No network is perfect, so if you want coverage now, you'll have to pay. Ring them and see if they'll do a discount?