Vodafone broadband - good, bad?

Hello all,


I apologise in advance for the long thread, a TLDR version will be at the end!


I've seen the post from MSE Callum (great name!) about Vodafones Ad's being banned for being misleading, for the record their internet banners do not seem to be affected as they are still making the outrageous claims to 'guarantee' your minimum speed and offer 'money off if you don't get it'.

For those of you fortunate enough to actually have decent broadband allow me to explain how Vodafone broadband works.
There are two options available: 'Superfast 1' and 'Superfast 2'
Superfast 1 offers speeds up to I think 42mb with a average speed of 35Mb and 'guaranteed' minimum of 25Mb.
Superfast 2 offers speeds up to 78Mb with an average of 65Mbs, and a 'guaranteed' minimum of 55Mb.
You can use the Vodafone Broadband app to connect via wifi and it will tell you what speed your router is syncing at, mine has never been higher than 52Mb. According to vodafone there should be a button in the app that allows you to claim a discount.. guess what? No button has ever appeared.


Now, allow me to start my tale of woe, I took out Vodafone Broadband at my partners property in 2016 as I was spending more time there then at home (as you do) and need constant internet access for my day job (Cyber Security).
After a week of no internet despite the activation date Vodafone blamed BT and BT had to repair a card in one of the cabinets, a month later this was resolved and I finally had internet.
The following August (2017) I bought a house with my partner and moved the internet with us, surprisingly this wasn't an issue although I did have to renew the contract to do so.


The problems started pretty early on, I figured it needed time for settle so after the first month past I noticed my max sync speed on their router was 52Mb, 3Mb under their guaranteed minimum, after arguing for my 'money off' as no button has ever appeared in their app (It's a lie). They relented and cut my bill, escalating to their 'Tech 2' team.
Now let me be clear, I'm VERY technical, so some indian bloke telling me to turn off the router and back on again isn't helpful or what I would call customer service but for the first three calls they tried this repeatedly. They refused to send an engineer until I had dismantled my fireplace surround to get to the socket behind it and used a different microfilter/plugged the lead direct.
Needless to say this made absolutely no difference and Mahboob run out of things to tell me to turn off so he escalated it for an BT engineer to visit.

Two days later and no sign of an engineer, I called and was told it was with Tech 2, transferred and was told an engineer is due to visit 'soon'. 10 minutes later I received a call from the engineer who told me he had only been called that day about 5 minutes before. Poor customer service again.
The engineer tested the line and confirmed he could pull no more than 52Mb through it.
His exact words were "You are at the end of the line from the exchange, now I can go and play about with the wires and maybe give you a few more Meg but you seem to be getting a good constant and stable feed, personally I would leave it be"

I agreed with him and he said he would report back to Vodafone.
I heard nothing more despite chasing it, a few months later they put my bill back up to full price.


Tonight I'm pulling 4Mb download speed, my whole house is connected via ethernet and at current only two devices are actively online.

My router is 'syncing' at 50Mb according to vodafones router page yet we are getting pitiful speeds.


My question is can I cancel my contract legally as they are not able to supply what they advertise and their service is shockingly bad?
Can anyone advise a better alternative?





TLDR:

Vodafone Broadband sucks and I need/want to change providers, can anyone advise how to do so?

Hi Carrot,


I've tested it using DSLReports (recommended) and speedtest.net
My service isn't capped (should be unlimited). We are restricted to ADSL and vodafone weren't too bad (when they finally sorted the connection out) at our old address.
Now though it really is hit and miss and as I need to download big mb files for my job its starting to seriously affect me.


They constantly offer 'free mobile internet' even though I don't have a vodafone mobile (and wouldn't again).
I think I only went with them as I loathe paying to rent the line.

You're "very technical" but went with Vodafone, who are right at the bottom end of the quality scale, compete soley on price, and do things like outsourcing support overseas to get that price down. Given how technical you are, and how you say you require constant internet access for your job, why didn't you choose a proper ISP with UK based support? e.g. Uno or A&A (who I use).

Also,you should realise that you are still paying to rent the line, it's just bundled up into a single bill for the broadband so you don't see it as a separate element. "No line rental" is a marketing gimmick, surely you saw through that immediately?

What are you paying for Superfast 1 or 2 ?, obviously if your line is only capable of around 50Mb download , then paying for Superfast 2 with its guaranteed minimum of 55Mb is pointless unless the extra upload speed is worth paying for.
It could be that your old address had SF2 , and when you moved they should have downgraded you to SF1 as SF2 speeds were not achievable at the new address, are you trying to claim the SF2 guarantee on a line that was never capable of SF2 download speeds, or the SF1 'guarantee' minimum speed.

If you were 'contracted' to SF2 at the old address, they may hold you to the SF2 contract at the new address ( even though you will get below SF2 minimum download speed) or expect you to pay ETC's for quiting SF2 early , even though you kept VF at the new address, they may ( if you are not already on it ) move you to SF1 with associated reduction of the monthly fee.
If your line is such a distance from the FTTC cabinet , that 50Mb is all you will get, then the SF2 average , SF2 max speed, or SF2 minimum speed guarantee are all pointless as far as your individual download speed is concerned....it doubt they would knowingly sell SF2 on a line that will only reach SF1 speeds then pay compensation on it because SF2 isn't achieved.

its not normal.

It's probably more to do with the cabling than vofaphone.

Switch after 12 months I guess