Vodafone won’t update router on move to FFTH

roytom2

A couple of months back I upgraded to Full Fibre to the Home. On the install by Open Reach the installer asked why Vodafone hadn’t provided the latest high speed WiFi router. I said I’d already asked and they had refused. The man from OR couldn’t believe this and nor could anyone else I know who has FFTH. So I’m stuck with the grey Vodafone router that I had 5 years ago with ADSL.
So yesterday I contacted Vodafone “Customer Services” to ask for a new router. They refused but said they would send an engineer to look at our installation and make suggestions. He’s been round and looked at everything and said we needed a better router and at least two Wi-Fi boosters and he’d advise Vodafone of this.

The same Vodafone customer service representative rang up to say they won’t not be doing any of their appointed engineers suggestions. I know that Vodafone Customer Services has the lowest rating of all the telecom providers, but this is beyond belief.

Given their attitude I intend to threaten legal action to be released from the contract without penalty. I also intend to take it to the communications ombudsman. Notifying Rip Off Britain might also be necessary so as to warn others what to expect.

I wouldn’t touch Vodafone again for broadband or anything else with a barge pole.

flaneurs_lobster

What level of service (Plan) have you signed up for? What speed does it guarantee?

What speed are you getting when you test it using a device hard-wired to the router?

What additional service are you expecting from a newer router?

MattMattMattUK

They are under no obligation to provide you with a new router, nor boosters. You can plug in your own router and mech network, you just plug into the Openreach fibre box and set up the network however you want.

oldernonethewiser

Does the current router fail to deliver the advertised speeds when a device is hard wired to it?

Whether or not you need boosters is not really Vodafone's concern.

shiraz99

What service offering do you have? I'm on their 500mbps service but was only supplied their standard Power Hub router. As long as your current router works and meets your guaranteed speed then they're under no obligation to provide you with any upgrade. If you want something better than either get a third-party router or buy a newer Vodafone one from eBay.

JSmithy45AD

Legally you'll be throwing away your own money as you don't have a leg to stand on. Neither of the other two options will (I'd suggest) be interested either.

If that's the THG3000 router then it's Gigabit capable, you can upgrade by the looks (by paying more obviously) and get the WiFi 6 router but like the Sky Max router over their SR203 model, it can be a case of 'beware what you ask for'. You'd be better off researching a decent WiFi mesh system to either entirely replace the 'made to a price' ISP supplied router (from any supplier) or at least so you can turn off the routers WiFi and use the mesh in an AP mode.

QrizB

FWIW a THG3000 is under a tenner on eBay. I've got one here from my previous VF FTTC contract.

The WiFi 6 Power Hub (that I'm using on my current VF contract) is under £20.

And the Ultra Hub isn't all that much more.

(Which reminds me, I'm still running an ancient Technicolor TG582n as a secondary WiFi access point. I must get around to swapping it out.)

iniltous

As stated , if the old router has a WAN port (or switchable LAN/WAN port ) then it will connect to the ONT and behave in the same way as a newer version, you could check the VF T&C’s , many ISP’s after a particular date only loan you the router you never own it , so you are buying a complete service including the router , so if it were ‘faulty’ they may have to send out a replacement router (although it may be at the cost of renewing your minimum term ) , however you may need to get creative with the nature of the fault report , as they can ‘see’ if it’s working (being used) so if you said it’s bust , when it clearly has Internet connected devices while you are speaking to them , they can tell if you are lying, maybe unplug from the mains for a few hours before calling to lend credence to your ‘fault’ report

Albermarle

If you swap from BT broadband to EE ( which is encouraged as they are the same company and they are focusing on EE as the brand) you have to keep your existing BT Smart Hub Router and Wi FI extender Disk ( which you have to pay extra for anyway). This is FFTP.

Only if you upgrade to a Premium package do you get a new state of the art EE router, which apparently gives a better WiFi signal.

To be fair, if you request an additional WiFI extender they send a new EE one, which is compatible with the BT Router.

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Vodafone broadband issues.

AndyPK

TBH the old grey routers (while they don't look great), perform ok.

ebay sell the grey boosters. Just open the phone app and hold the button to pair