Vodafone doesn't care about disabled customers?

LandOfConfusion

Bit of a rant here but also a warning about Vodafone.

My grandmother is 91, disabled and landline dependent. She was paying north of £60/month with PlusNet, mainly because she wanted the unlimited anytime calls.

Earlier this month we switched her over to Vodafone as it was £20/month cheaper and offered faster ADSL (10Mbit as opposed to 0.9Mbit download). Everything was fine until changeover day when we were told the engineer technician was at the green cabinet changing her over. Then her line went dead and has only come back briefly once.

For the avoidance of doubt Vodafone was told about her medical conditions during sign up and that she was vulnerable and landline dependent. Her profile as supplied by Vodafail looks like this:

-----

Accessibility needs

You have registered these areas of adjustments

Age

Deaf or hard of hearing

Motor-skills

Physical disability

Power of Attorney

-----

So bearing the above in mind the timeline so far looks like this:

02/09 - Changeover and line goes dead.

03/09 - (Morning) Tell Vodafone about the issue.

04/09 - (Afternoon)

Vodafone calls and the Indian national at their call center cannot understand what my grandmother is saying, and asks that we take her to the nearest Vodafone shop in order to confirm her identity.

We explain that this is not possible because (a) it's very difficult to get her out of the house and (b) doing so would cost significantly north of £300 in disability-equipped taxis. This leads to an additional two calls where we eventually find out how to set the second user PIN and my aunt, who has the power of attorney (LPA) is finally able to pass the security checks.

They then say that they will send someone out.

10/09 - (Morning) Seven days without a phone line.

A BT engineer technician comes out, does a line test and in not so many words essentially says that the contractor who Vodafone uses didn't do a good job. Line still not fixed. New appointment requested.

(Afternoon)

Get a text from Vodafone saying that another engineer technician will be coming out on the 12th, 10 days after the fault occurred and 9 whole days without a phone line.

During this time and because she doesn't have a landline a relative has had to stay with her just in case.

[On a side note, it also turns out that her digital-compatible Lifeline telecare alarm won't work if plugged into the router when the line is down. Seems like it uses Voice over IP (VoIP) and if the router is switched on, and even though it's not connected to the Internet it won't work. So for anyone else in this situation the solution is to unplug it from the router so it falls back on its internal cellular phone.]

Vodafone says on their website that they'll treat vulnerable customers with priority and yet it's taken 6 days just to get a technician out to investigate. Compare this to BT who on their website say they'll try to do it within 24 hours...

I've also noticed that Vodafail has recently removed their customer forums. I can't think why that might be.

flaneurs_lobster

It's a cliché but there's a reason why Vodafone are cheap. 

LandOfConfusion

Yes I'm getting that feeling, although I wouldn't say nearly £45/month for 10Mbit/0.2Mbit is cheap.

Vitor

Contact Vodafone complaints team (formal written complaint, not just phone calls – starts the clock for resolution/compensation under Ofcom’s rules).

NB the cheaper deal with Vodafone may have effectively bundled in an involuntary migration to Digital Voice, something Ofcom has already warned providers not to spring on vulnerable customers without proper checks.

flaneurs_lobster

LandOfConfusion said:

Yes I'm getting that feeling, although I wouldn't say nearly £45/month for 10Mbit/0.2Mbit is cheap.

I take your point - it isn't. 

LandOfConfusion

Vitor said:

NB the cheaper deal with Vodafone may have effectively bundled in an involuntary migration to Digital Voice, something Ofcom has already warned providers not to spring on vulnerable customers without proper checks.

Thanks for the advice; I'll do that tomorrow.

Also I think you might be right about digital voice / VoIP. When I signed her up there was no mention of this, only that she'll need to get a digital telecare system or else not sign up. I assumed this was for future proofing reasons as she's still on xDSL (can't get FTTP) and on switchover was a little surprised to find the BT telephone socket no longer worked and that I had to plug the phone directly into the router's "TEL" port.

p00hsticks

LandOfConfusion said:

Vitor said:

NB the cheaper deal with Vodafone may have effectively bundled in an involuntary migration to Digital Voice, something Ofcom has already warned providers not to spring on vulnerable customers without proper checks.

Thanks for the advice; I'll do that tomorrow.

Also I think you might be right about digital voice / VoIP. When I signed her up there was no mention of this, only that she'll need to get a digital telecare system or else not sign up. I assumed this was for future proofing reasons as she's still on xDSL (can't get FTTP) and on switchover was a little surprised to find the BT telephone socket no longer worked and that I had to plug the phone directly into the router's "TEL" port.

Be aware that if she is on VOIP, the phone won't work during a power cut - if she doesn;t already have one, she may need to consider getting a mobile for use in such a scenario. 

Vitor

-  I assumed this was for future proofing reasons as she's still on xDSL (can't get FTTP) - 

She's probably been moved onto Single Order Generic Ethernet Access (SOGEA). You just get broadband down the copper from the green box and voice is delivered as Digital Voice/VoIP via the router, no traditional phone line.

- if she is on VOIP, the phone won't work during a power cut - 

As vulnerable person, Vodafone should have provided battery backup for the Router 

QrizB

Vitor said:

She's probably been moved onto Single Order Generic Ethernet Access (SOGEA). You just get broadband down the copper from the green box and voice is delivered as Digital Voice/VoIP via the router, no traditional phone line.
- if she is on VOIP, the phone won't work during a power cut - 
As vulnerable person, Vodafone should have provided battery backup for the Router 

I've got Vodafone SOGEA.

My router, DECT phone base station and a few other bits of comms kit are plugged into a cheap UPS in case of (brief) power cuts.

prowla

I'd suggest the mobile route.

(They can typically be set to work over WiFi to save costs.)

£40+ for a 10Mb line is very expensive.

LandOfConfusion

p00hsticks said:

Be aware that if she is on VOIP, the phone won't work during a power cut - if she doesn;t already have one, she may need to consider getting a mobile for use in such a scenario. 

She now has a "digital" Lifeline / telecare box, which uses a SIM card as backup and rather conveniently has a 18650 Li-ion cell as a battery backup.

Vitor said:

As vulnerable person, Vodafone should have provided battery backup for the Router 

That's what we thought, but apparently 'no' is the answer. And although they're quite nice their Indian support staff can't really seem to explain why not nor offer any help either.

prowla said:

I'd suggest the mobile route.

(They can typically be set to work over WiFi to save costs.)

£40+ for a 10Mb line is very expensive.

She wants / needs the "anytime calls", mainly for social contact, pestering the doctor's receptionist, opticians, etc but otherwise I would have gone down that route. She lives at the urban-rural edge and gets her power & telephone via a pole, and is outside of 5G and even though 4G reception isn't great on any network my phone still gets faster Internet than she can.