Vodafone won't let me use my own router; how can I cancel with no penalty?

SouthLondonUser · 15 February 2017 at 10:40PM

For technical reasons which I will not go into here, the Vodafone router is terrible; I want to buy my own, but I learnt Vodafone won't let me use my own equipment as it won't give me the password required to connect to the broadband. My problem is: this restriction is not mentioned anywhere in the contract, so I want to cancel without paying any penalty fees, since they are imposing a restriction I never agreed to. I have made a written complaint and am ready to escalate the matter to the Ombudsman ( as a new user, I cannot post the link ).
My question is: is there anything else, anything specific I can do?

By the way, when I challenged a call centre 'manager' about this, he pointed me to clause 6.12 in their terms and conditions (again, cannot post the link) , but this only states that I can only use CE-certified equipment, and that I am not to connect any equipment which may cause harm to the network. Well, of course I am going to use a CE-certified router, and of course using a non-Vodafone router does not harm your network! I pointed out that this clause makes no mention whatsoever of any kind of restriction preventing customers from using non-Vodafone equipment, and he tried to argue it's just a matter of interpretation, which is honestly so ludicrous that it's offensive!

LazyTyper · 15 February 2017 at 11:14PM

A very quick google found that some people have had success in getting the broadband username and password after persuading Vodafone they would take full responsibility if things didn't work.

http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,16987.msg330096.html#msg330096

Maybe you will be able to persuade them to give you this info also.

SouthLondonUser · 15 February 2017 at 11:19PM

Nope. This was in the past. The Vodafone policy has since changed and they will not release the username and password, not even under torture! A google search reveals how these details could be identified, at least in the past, on Sky connections using wireshark (a packet analyser tool), but AFAIK this is not possible with Vodafone.

TadleyBaggie · 16 February 2017 at 12:15AM

One technique (Sky a few years ago) I used in the past was to do a settings backup from the router admin page. When the resulting file is examined, the password was present, encoded in Base64, which was easy to decode.

Edit: Just tried this on my current PlusNet router and discovered that the whole thing is binary, so maybe plaintext backup files are a thing of the past.

boliston · 16 February 2017 at 12:20AM

This does seem a very odd policy - like buying a car and only being allowed to use their "preferred" brand of fuel or buying a washing machine and only being allowed to use a single brand of washing powder.

SouthLondonUser · 16 February 2017 at 12:23AM

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, this router exports the setting to an encrypted file only. Vodafone puts more effort into crippling the server and making customers' life miserable than into actually making the router usable.

lee111s · 16 February 2017 at 9:35AM

Perhaps you should have queried this before taking up service.

editor1 · 16 February 2017 at 9:36AM

Not too sure where the OP is coming from, essentially the Vodaphone router is just a souped up modem, as such, why don't you just use one of the 4 ethernet ports the router has and plug one of those in to any new router you get, which means the vodaphone router/modem just acts as a modem and passes your broadband signal on to your new router, which should automatically link to the existing modem and allow you to beam wifi from your new router - just means having to power two devices - until we got our Sky Q Hub I used an old TalkTalk modem connected via ethernet cable to a Apple Router.

SouthLondonUser · 16 February 2017 at 9:41AM

lee111s wrote: »

Perhaps you should have queried this before taking up service.

Thank you for your most useful advice.
I suppose I wasn't clear:

I could have never imagined a broadband provider would have this kind of limitation.
I read the terms and conditions before signing up and there was no mention of this restriction, as per my original post.
Asking Vodafone would have been useless: their forum is full of complaints by people who were told they could use their own equipment, only to find out later it wasn't true.

lee111s · 16 February 2017 at 9:46AM

SouthLondonUser wrote: »

Thank you for your most useful advice.
I suppose I wasn't clear:
I could have never imagined a broadband provider would have this kind of limitation.

I read the terms and conditions before signing up and there was no mention of this restriction, as per my original post.

Asking Vodafone would have been useless: their forum is full of complaints by people who were told they could use their own equipment, only to find out later it wasn't true.

If you feel that they are going against their T's and C's, request a deadlock letter and take the issue to the Ombudsman.

SouthLondonUser · 16 February 2017 at 9:47AM

editor1 wrote: »

Not too sure where the OP is coming from, essentially the Vodaphone router is just a souped up modem, as such, why don't you just use one of the 4 ethernet ports the router has and plug one of those in to any new router you get,

The Vodafone thingy is a router, and cannot be used as a modem only. True, I could switch off wifi and connect my own router to the Vodafone router, but:

I have no guarantee that I won't have to reboot the Vodafone box periodically even with wifi switched off.
Double-NAT. Not ideal. I cannot post links, but google is your friend if you don't know what it means.

The whole point is not how important this restriction is to most users; I fully appreciate that for most users it's irrelevant. The whole point is that Vodafone is enforcing a restriction which is not in the contract and which I never agreed to; am I the only one who thinks this is wrong and unacceptable?

Vodafone won't let me use my own router; how can I cancel with no penalty?

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