Paying for Mobile Signal that I can not receive.....

[humpbackmaniac]

I am furious with Voda(no names on here) I am locked in to an 18 month contract on a phone that only works if I drive in to the village down the road. I have suffered this for three months but yesterday I bought one of their signal boosters, However only when getting home do I find out they dont work with Sky Broadband. So now I have to pay for the mobile service I can not use at home. Is that legal under supply of goods act?

[miniman]

Sadly yes, the terms and conditions don't make any guarantee of **where** the phone will work.

[Davi]

phone them, I've had this issue with them, I have had several refunds of monthly bills and they have agreed that if they can't sort it, they will cancel the contract.

[philthy]

miniman said:

Sadly yes, the terms and conditions don't make any guarantee of **where** the phone will work.

Exactly this.
Sorry, but you should have checked before you signed. Maybe, they will let you out of your contract, but I seriously doubt that.

[humpbackmaniac]

How can you check before you sign? I gave him the postcode he says yes it will work.

The network coverage indicator actually says no coverage in the shop today, its an iphone 3G which "can" use 2g but not well. And there is no 3G coverage where I live. Or work. So the phone simply doesnt do as described.

HUMPH.

[RobM77]

You're not using an iPh*** are you? (no names on here!). I had full Vodaf*** signal in my house and around this general area with my old Sony Ericsson W910i, and my girlfriend does now on her basic Vodafone branded phone and her Blackberry. However, my iPh*** spends most of the evening at home sat there saying "no signal". According to the coverage surveys and data I've found on the web, Vodaf*** still have the most prevalent mobile phone signal in the UK (there was a time when in the Lakes and Snowdonia you could only get Vodaf***), but strangely a friend of mine with an iPh*** on O2 can get full 3G pretty much wherever he is, whilst I'm often struggling to even send a text! Usually my iPh*** isn't consistent - it'll flip in an out of having signal and having no signal at all.

I've spoken to Vodaf*** twice about this issue, and all they do is tell me to disable 3G (and then what's the point of having a smart phone?!) and try switching Aeroplane mode on and off, bnoth of which are a right faff as there's no shortcut on the iPh*** to do this. Oh, and they don't work either. They've suggested a signal booster, which is a nice idea for when I'm at home, but this is a mobile phone. I'd hate to have to rely on my Vodaf*** iPh*** in an emergency.

I'm also locked into an 18 month contract with Vodaf***, but am considering either switching to O2 once the contract's up or perhaps trying another brand of Smartphone running Android or similar.

Any advice?

Edited by RobM77 on Wednesday 25th August 14:37

[philthy]

When I had the shop open, we used to get a lot of this. The mobile operators have these nicely vague maps, which dupe people into signing up.
We used to lend out an old phone, with some sims, for customers to check the various signals if they wanted to. One problem for us, was the lousy 3g reception at Dawlish warren, where we got a lot of enquiries for the 3g dongles. Asa local shop, we traded on service, and people respected us for that.

Sadly, larger firms don't see this as a requirement.

[bobfather]

If you go about this the right way you should be able to ease the contract terms a little, I got out of a Voda! contract with 11 months to run last year. Don't speak with customer services, select the option that says 'Are you thinking of leaving Voda!'. Explaining my problem to them in a non-aggressive and respectful way resulted in a very helpful response. I got my PAC code and signed up with T Mobile without penalty.

Got to be worth a try.

[Raverbaby]

Have you spoke to them about the matter?
What did they say, are they sayin tough luck?
Seems pretty unfair to me.

[W00DY]

If you use the T-mobile postcode check and it says your signal will be good you get 7 days to cancel if it isn't. Not much use now perhaps but it's one of the reasons i chose them.

[Davi]

RobM77 said:

You're not using an iPh*** are you? (no names on here!). I had full Vodaf*** signal in my house and around this general area with my old Sony Ericsson W910i, and my girlfriend does now on her basic Vodafone branded phone and her Blackberry. However, my iPh*** spends most of the evening at home sat there saying "no signal". According to the coverage surveys and data I've found on the web, Vodaf*** still have the most prevalent mobile phone signal in the UK (there was a time when in the Lakes and Snowdonia you could only get Vodaf***), but strangely a friend of mine with an iPh*** on O2 can get full 3G pretty much wherever he is, whilst I'm often struggling to even send a text! Usually my iPh*** isn't consistent - it'll flip in an out of having signal and having no signal at all.

I've spoken to Vodaf*** twice about this issue, and all they do is tell me to disable 3G (and then what's the point of having a smart phone?!) and try switching Aeroplane mode on and off, bnoth of which are a right faff as there's no shortcut on the iPh*** to do this. Oh, and they don't work either. They've suggested a signal booster, which is a nice idea for when I'm at home, but this is a mobile phone. I'd hate to have to rely on my Vodaf*** iPh*** in an emergency.

I'm also locked into an 18 month contract with Vodaf***, but am considering either switching to O2 once the contract's up or perhaps trying another brand of Smartphone running Android or similar.

Any advice?

Edited by RobM77 on Wednesday 25th August 14:37

Rob, mine is on an iDontphone. it's utter st isn't it!

First off, take it back to Apple. There is a known problem with them - I had 3 in a row with zero signal, now I have one with "some" signal on it. Apple will replace it there and then in my experience. Once you've done that a few times, phone Vodacantphone and tell them, then say that you refuse to pay for a service they cannot provide. Keep shouting and they will let you out of your contract.

[RobM77]

Davi said:

RobM77 said:

You're not using an iPh*** are you? (no names on here!). I had full Vodaf*** signal in my house and around this general area with my old Sony Ericsson W910i, and my girlfriend does now on her basic Vodafone branded phone and her Blackberry. However, my iPh*** spends most of the evening at home sat there saying "no signal". According to the coverage surveys and data I've found on the web, Vodaf*** still have the most prevalent mobile phone signal in the UK (there was a time when in the Lakes and Snowdonia you could only get Vodaf***), but strangely a friend of mine with an iPh*** on O2 can get full 3G pretty much wherever he is, whilst I'm often struggling to even send a text! Usually my iPh*** isn't consistent - it'll flip in an out of having signal and having no signal at all.

I've spoken to Vodaf*** twice about this issue, and all they do is tell me to disable 3G (and then what's the point of having a smart phone?!) and try switching Aeroplane mode on and off, bnoth of which are a right faff as there's no shortcut on the iPh*** to do this. Oh, and they don't work either. They've suggested a signal booster, which is a nice idea for when I'm at home, but this is a mobile phone. I'd hate to have to rely on my Vodaf*** iPh*** in an emergency.

I'm also locked into an 18 month contract with Vodaf***, but am considering either switching to O2 once the contract's up or perhaps trying another brand of Smartphone running Android or similar.

Any advice?

Edited by RobM77 on Wednesday 25th August 14:37

Rob, mine is on an iDontphone. it's utter st isn't it!

First off, take it back to Apple. There is a known problem with them - I had 3 in a row with zero signal, now I have one with "some" signal on it. Apple will replace it there and then in my experience. Once you've done that a few times, phone Vodacantphone and tell them, then say that you refuse to pay for a service they cannot provide. Keep shouting and they will let you out of your contract.

Thanks I actually love the iPhone. It's the best GUI/HCI I've ever used and it does everything I want a phone to do and more. Absolutely marvellous bit of kit. Except that making calls can be a pain! Less iPhone and more i.

I was going to get it repaired or replaced, but the main thing that puts me off is prior experiences with Vodacantphone (I'm liking that by the way!), whereby they replace your lovely well looked after phone with a scratched secondhand one. I take great care of my stuff, and when my W910i broke I handed in my pristine phone to them, only to hear that it was unrepairable, and I got back a shagged out scratched and dented phone as a replacement - it even had a button hanging out revealing a sharp bit of metal! They argued that it was like with like - secondhand in, secondhand out. I found their attitude and service on that occasion totally unacceptable, so since then I've been put off getting any phone repaired or replaced. However, Is it Apple that deal with iPhone replacements rather than Vodacantphone?

[bobfather]

Davi said:

Keep shouting and they will let you out of your contract.

I'm amazed that people still think 'aggressive' works. You may get there eventually and think that aggression helped the process. It really doesn't, it just delays the desired outcome. If you treat these people well, they treat you well in return, if they don't then just select another option and speak to someone else. It works every time.

[Davi]

bobfather said:

Davi said:

Keep shouting and they will let you out of your contract.

I'm amazed that people still think 'aggressive' works. You may get there eventually and think that aggression helped the process. It really doesn't, it just delays the desired outcome. If you treat these people well, they treat you well in return, if they don't then just select another option and speak to someone else. It works every time.

I'm glad that you were there with me throughout the entire process to know how well reasoning with them worked initially to be able to make that judgement, but slightly perturbed that you have access to my calls, please remove any bugging devices you have.

[s3fella]

You should speak to voad...they are actually very helpful about signal issues. I raised a concern as my home signal reduced and genuinely, wihtin 15 minutes, I had an engineeer on who took some details. Later that day, he had visited my local mast and explained that he'd turned the power down on it a little, as it was causing some drop out when interacting wiht another mast that I was midways between.
Sure enough the signal was imporved by 1-2 bars, and he also advised to turn it to gsm only not 3g and gsm if the signal is particularly poor any particualr day.

It's not as good as signal as it was three or 4 years ago, due to this new mast, but I was impressed hwo seriously they took it and how helpful they were, tbh.

[Nimbus]

humpbackmaniac said:

yesterday I bought one of their signal boosters, However only when getting home do I find out they dont work with Sky Broadband.

Why doesnt it work with your Sky broadband, and what do the shop say about that ?

Have you tried their online forum for help ?

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/forum/70-vodafone-sure...

[Davi]

RobM77 said:

However, Is it Apple that deal with iPhone replacements rather than Vodacantphone?

if you want it to be.

They come with a 12 month apple warranty, so just walk into a iStore (well, book in with the genius bar on their website first, to prevent going in twice) explain that you have no signal in areas that other phones on the same network do, explain that it's not a vodacantphone issue as discussed with them.

The chap in iStore actually said to me "please, any problems with your iPhone, please don't go to vodacantphone, they don't know their arse from their elbow, we prefer to treat our clients with some respect"!!!

on average I was walking out with a new iPhone within a few minutes of walking in, to see if it was working.

[RobM77]

Davi said:

RobM77 said:

However, Is it Apple that deal with iPhone replacements rather than Vodacantphone?

if you want it to be.

They come with a 12 month apple warranty, so just walk into a iStore (well, book in with the genius bar on their website first, to prevent going in twice) explain that you have no signal in areas that other phones on the same network do, explain that it's not a vodacantphone issue as discussed with them.

The chap in iStore actually said to me "please, any problems with your iPhone, please don't go to vodacantphone, they don't know their arse from their elbow, we prefer to treat our clients with some respect"!!!

on average I was walking out with a new iPhone within a few minutes of walking in, to see if it was working.

Brilliant, thanks very much. I'll do that

[humpbackmaniac]

Nimbus said:

humpbackmaniac said:

yesterday I bought one of their signal boosters, However only when getting home do I find out they dont work with Sky Broadband.

Why doesnt it work with your Sky broadband, and what do the shop say about that ?

Have you tried their online forum for help ?

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/forum/70-vodafone-sure...

Thanks But yes I have, there are pages of "number two light flashing", you may see my posts under the name Gumball. They do nothing at all about it. They say its Sky, Sky says its not them, Netgear dont support this box, and all in all its a load of arse.
And four trips back to the shop at 14mpg are costing me a fortune let alone lost work.

[Nimbus]

humpbackmaniac said:

Nimbus said:

humpbackmaniac said:

yesterday I bought one of their signal boosters, However only when getting home do I find out they dont work with Sky Broadband.

Why doesnt it work with your Sky broadband, and what do the shop say about that ?

Have you tried their online forum for help ?

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/forum/70-vodafone-sure...

Thanks But yes I have, there are pages of "number two light flashing", you may see my posts under the name Gumball. They do nothing at all about it. They say its Sky, Sky says its not them, Netgear dont support this box, and all in all its a load of arse.
And four trips back to the shop at 14mpg are costing me a fortune let alone lost work.

Fair enough, I see you've taken it back now.

The problem wont be with Sky broadband as such, the sure signal doesnt care who provides its internet connectivity, it will be with your router setup. The sure signal needs to be able to set up a secure tunnel to the vodafone end, and I imagine a firewall, or port blocking on your router was stopping it.

I agree tho, your experience does sound very poor.

When they work, the sure signal is a great piece of kit, just a shame they can sometimes need a bit more configuring on the customers end, than the box suggests..