Advice on Vodafone broadband issues

alphawhisky

I recently moved over from TalkTalk to Vodafone - I've been with the latter for my mobile for years, so the pricing made sense. It wasn't a particularly smooth process which, in hindsight, should have been a warning. 
They haven't been able to achieve the minimum speed guarantee so I am at least getting a discount for now. However, my issue isn't so much the sync speed reported by the router, but the actual speed on devices seen throughout the day. They suggested I'd accomplish a minimum of 55Mbps download - router reports 54Mbps sync speed, but recent speed tests are showing I'm getting anything from 8Mbps to 15Mbps which is awful. This isn't consistent - sometimes it might get close to 30Mbps but generally it's very poor.
I'm not really sure how to proceed - I'm beyond the initial 14 day period which, to my mind is a bit of a scam anyway (since for 10 days of that, they suggest the speeds may vary). We haven't had issues like this with any previous suppliers (TalkTalk, BT, and Sky over the years) - but I suspect Vodafone will say that they are not responsible for the throughput in the house, just the speed to the router.
I've been resetting the router to see if that helps and, when I'm running speed tests, I'm using a cabled connection. Anyone have any advice on how I should approach this with Vodafone? To my mind, the service isn't fit for purpose and, given I work from home, I don't think I can cope with this for 24 months... 

alphawhisky

Here's the most recent speed test (on single threaded test)... 

JJ_Egan

Work from home then you need a business service not a home bb .

Router shows as 54 coming in .Poor out on Ethernet suggests possible poor router . Resetting the router will drop sync at the exchange if done to often .

alphawhisky

Thanks @JJ_Egan - I had contemplated that but, given the home broadband had been fine up 'til the move to Vodafone, I thought I might get away with it!  
I've contacted Vodafone who have provided my login credentials so I'm going to use a 3rd party modem/router to see if dropping their router out of the equation resolves some of the issues.
Failing that, I'll need to go back to them - I suspect they are just trying to cram too many users on to their infrastructure. 

mnbvcxz

As JJ Egan mentioned rebooting the router too often is probably not a helpful thing. If it shows a good sync speed and responds ok then probably leave alone. If you use you own router it may be harder to get any support.

Random thoughts that occur;

Using an ethernet cable to rule out wifi is absolutely the right thing to be doing, well done. Emphasize to support you are not using WIFI. 

Try using the thinkbroadband.com speed test. I find it to be one of the more accurate ones. Some are way off. 

Try testing at different times of the day. If you are brave at 3am say. If it is much faster at 3am then that suggests congestion at Vodafone's end.

Try a VPN service perhaps? I know little about them but some like windscribe I belive give a free version with 20gb a month or something. Connect to a UK server and see if faster. If speedtests suddenly get better then perhaps Vodafone are throttling and you are evading it?

You are not alone. They have their own forums where the admins seem to do a wonderful line in winding up people using ethernet cables by parroting "you are probably blocking your wifi and have to many people using it".
https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Internet-speed/bd-p/Speed

Make a proper registered complaint with Vodafone. Don't assume that by complaining you have created a complaint.
https://www.vodafone.co.uk/help-and-information/complaints

Read the details of their adr ombudsman service and such. If you get your complaint in now then you can spend eight weeks or so trying to resolve it and if they don't then you can ask for a deadlock letter and ask the ombudsman to release you from your contract. (So get the registered complaint in now to start the eight weeks going).

Keep lots of records of contacts and speedtests by cable not wifi. Then you will be able to support your complaint. They may still side with Vodafone with some specious reasoning. If it comes to that you may be left with just the small claims court...

Best of luck. Maybe they will suddenly upgrade their bandwidth and it will all suddenly improve or you really do have a faulty router or something fixable.

alphawhisky

That's great, thanks @mnbvcxz - really helpful advice.
I do have a VPN service that I use when travelling (i.e., when on public WiFi), so can give that a shot to see if it has any impact on speeds. 
I did some reading last night on the Ofcom code of conduct plus reading Vodafone's own terms & conditions. It's a bit confusing in terms of the sync speed and throughput speed. I'll need to do some further reading on this when I have the time but I think they would struggle to argue that the speeds are in-line with reasonable expectation. 
New router should arrive tomorrow so I'll see what happens there. Interestingly, quite a few comments on the Vodafone forums that the provided router is garbage. Not expecting miracles but may help a bit. But, as you say, suspect the issue is just one of bandwidth and infrastructure on Vodafone's part.

Rooston86

@alphawhisky, Please keep this post updated if you manage to resolve the issue. I have the exact same problem and still found no solution. I have registered complaints and recieved the same responses such as I use to many devices and there should only be one ethernet port used at any time..
Again I would appreciate any updates.

alphawhisky

Hi @Rooston86 - sorry to hear you have similar issues. 

I set-up a new router today - it's a Netgear Nighthawk model (D7000-200UKS) which acts as both the modem/gateway and the WiFi router. Set-up was straightforward (it has a Vodafone profile available in the set-up process) and, admittedly it's early doors, but there's been a noticeable uptick in connection speeds. The sync speed is still below the guaranteed level (so will still be getting my 15% discount) but the 'real-world' speed is better on a range of devices. Not a massive change, but a few Mbps on download compared to the fastest I've gotten on the Vodafone supplied kit. The upload speed is much better though.

Real test will be whether those speeds are consistent. I'd rather not have had to spend £100 but figured that it was worth seeing if the Vodafone kit is the root of my issue. I'll post again once I know more but my feeling is that Vodafone are sending junk routers that can't handle a number of devices and begin to fall over.

Hope you get the issues sorted out. I'll post again soon with more info once I see how the Netgear equipment works out. 

JJ_Egan

Few ISPs hand out a decent wifi router in regards to wifi .Cheaper the package end of ISPs more rubbish the router .

Guess that's due to not supplying wifi .

alphawhisky

I just wanted to post an update (apologies in advance for reviving an old thread). Thought this may be helpful for anyone encountering similar issues in the future.

The Netgear Nighthawk (D7000-200UKS) resolved some of the issues, but the WiFi wasn't great (3 storey house so it's always going to be a challenge). We ended up keeping this but using as a modem only.  It's now connected to the Netgear Orbi mesh network. After some teething issues, this is mostly working fine. 

My view on Vodafone has softened a bit. They aren't brilliant by any stretch but, in fairness to them, they continued discounting the service and it is cheap. Unfortunately, their supplied equipment is garbage. Though they aren't the only ISP that provides poor standard equipment. All in, I now have a set-up that ensures any connectivity issues are unlikely to be in the house. 

mohammed1111

Rooston86 said:

@alphawhisky, Please keep this post updated if you manage to resolve the issue. I have the exact same problem and still found no solution. I have registered complaints and recieved the same responses such as I use to many devices and there should only be one ethernet port used at any time..
Again I would appreciate any updates.

Standard response from most providers, best thing to do is connected one wired device and switch off WiFi on the router, then split the screen to do a speedtests and take screenshots