Very. Awful. A disaster. I regret ever switching to them and am counting the days to the end of my contract when I can switch to someone else.
Broadband is critical to me because I work from home. I’ve had no problems with performance before now. I switched from a 3MB ADSL line with BT Ireland to a 7MB ADSL line with Vodafone Ireland. For you non Irish people, that sounds pathetic. It is. We live in an IT stone-age in this country and it is far from the “digital hub of Europe” that politicians like to claim. Why don’t I switch to a business service? Because they cost a FORTUNE. Your 30MB broadband connection is probably cheaper than my 7MB one.
It started of with a brutal purchase process where I had to gain attention from online rants to get marketing people to come in and save their reputation. Customer “care” failed to resolve the issue so I had to go nuclear.
Then there’s the daily outages. Vodafone sets the DHCP address scope for your router’s external interface to have a maximum life of 24 hours. There isn’t a smooth renewal process like normal DHCP. Oh no! Instead your router loses communications with the Internet for 3-5 minutes. I’ve usually found this happens when I’m in the middle of an RDP session doing some sensitive administration task on a server or when I’m in the middle on an online form with a session timeout. Vodafone’s line on this is … most ISP’s do this and it’s perfectly OK. Huh? No other ISP I’ve been with has done this. And no it’s not OK in a time when we’re trying to promote home/remote working. Their other line is that most people turn their routers off at night. No they don’t, you filthy liars.
When you go from a 3MB to a 7 MB connection you expect a performance increase. I know there’s contention to consider but … I’ll explain. When I got the service I ran some speed tests. I got 6MB out of my 7MB line. OK, it’s ADSL. Downloads from Microsoft were nice and fast. Fair enough. But web browsing – oh does it suck. And it’s completely random.
I follow the NFL. Sports pages have plenty of images. On my 3MB BT Ireland line the pages downloaded fast. On my 7MB Vodafone line they are painfully slow to download … often taking 30 seconds. I’d expect that from dial-up. I recently signed up to go to a conference in the States. I had to do the ESTA online process for the visa waiver and the page wouldn’t load. Friends could get to the page but I couldn’t. I ended up changing the router, changing DNS and eventually doing it via RDP and our data centre at work where I could access the page with no problems.
I called up Vodafone Ireland Customer “Care”. The muppet there refused to escalate the call. His little menu only told him to reset router (done), change DNS (done), change router (done). I used multiple PC’s. He couldn’t even understand the problem because his fragile little mind was just too weak. I went online and targeted @VodafoneIreland on Twitter. I was promised a callback. I got a call at 15:00 on a Friday. That person said an engineer would call me at 18:00 to investigate. 1 week later and no call back. I targeted Twitter again. Eventually a call came to investigate but for some reason I was able to get on the ESTA site now. Hmm.
Last night I had a 90 minute outage. OK, outages happen. Of course, I would expect not to be charged for that 90 minutes. I had no service when I needed it. They failed to provide service so I should not be billed for it.
Afterwards I decided to go onto the Vodafone Ireland Online forum. It was time to see what others were experiencing. It appears I’m far from alone from the rubbish experience. Lots of people are complaining. I decided I would try to sign onto this forum and join in on the fun to vent my spleen too. A funny thing happened – the sign-in and registration pages weren’t responding. Maybe it was my “can’t load some pages issue”? I waited until this morning and tried again. The forum wasn’t even loading now. Maybe my problem was getting worse? Now I tried an anonymous proxy because that would bypass the random Vodafone Ireland broadband pages not loading issue. No response. Could it be that Vodafone Ireland pulled the site to prevent people from complaining?
So here’s my advice to people:
- We know that BT Ireland customers are being forced over to Vodafone Ireland as part of the home broadband takeover. If you have the option then don’t do it. Find another ISP, even Eircom cannot be as bad as this. I’d take an Eircom 1MB line over a Vodafone 7MB line right now because my Vodafone browsing experience is like using a 56KBPS dial-up.
- If you are tempted by Vodafone Ireland’s “cheap” (for Ireland) prices then look elsewhere. Do not switch to Vodafone Ireland fixed home broadband. It is truly awful.
I’m not the only one saying these things. People have responded to me on Twitter to report similar experiences. Their forum (when it was running) also was full of similar comments. Steer clear of Vodafone Ireland. They give an awful service and brutal customer “care”.’
Dead right mate, i’ve been having problems since the changeover from bt , and its been 2 months of a nightmare , the vodafone tech support team clearly do not know what they are talking about.
I had a tech tell me that 70 ms ping was average for online gaming , i responded by saying i was playing online games for over 10 years 30 is the average .
I’ve even told them where the problems are , at the exchanges but still they do nothing .
Tech suport must be one of the worst in the country.
Paul,
The only way I could get anything done was to get ComReg involved. And I also put my complaints all over the “Vodafone Ireland” facebook page, @VodafoneIreland on twitter and their support forum.
Normally, the only way to get your case past Customer “Care” is to start impacting on their marketing efforts. Past times in the last 4 months when “Care” didn’t care, I blasted them, and out of the blue a phone call would come in from some marketing person or team lead. I know the case wasn’t escalated from “Care” because either the agent would hang up or I would.
Aidan.
I seem to be having the exact same problems now. 3 weeks with no internet. 3 modems that all switch off and seem to reset every few seconds and Vodafone are blaming Eir for a line fault. I have had Eir technicians in the house 3 times showing that the line is fixed on their modem device. I’m at my wits end
It explains a lot – Im now 3 days on Vodafone and have been getting the daily outages and Dyndns wont work reliably but Tech Support are pointless. I am going to ask for a refund and run away from them before this gets any worse
After a lot of patience they have agreed to assign a static IP to me which at the cost of 3.99 a month should sort the dyndns problem and hopefully the outages
Hi did static IP helped with outages on Vodafone broadband?
Don’t know if it was the static IP, or the changes that it required, but my problems went away. That was pre “fibre”, so things will be very different on modern connections.
Here’s a good thread on Boards.ie with lots of angry Vodafone at Home Customers:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055738410
Vodafone’s service is disgraceful.
I wonder if COMREG have been informed of Vodafones bad service.
It looks like I am in for some troubled times. I too work from home and noticed my broadband speed decelerated from 3.7Mbs (I am in rural Ireland so that’s considered fantastic) down to 970k over the weekend now today I am seeing less than 500k. I have of course logged a fault but now that I have seen this entry and other forum entries I am busy looking at the Eircom deals.
Thanks very much for the advice. I was 6 months into my 12 month BT contract and as soon as I received a letter from vodafone saying they were taking over , I decided to check on other ISP’s and came across loads of angry customers who were 100% dissatisfied with Vodafone. You have saved me a lot of bother and I appreciate this. I’m not sure who I should go to now. Any advice ? I was very happy with BT and was paying €50 per month for a 7MB broadband and was always getting this when doing internet speed tests
Paul, if you can get cable broadband from NTL then go for it. I don’t know how true it is but Perlico seems to be using the Vodafone network and I’ve read of people having trouble there. To be honest, if you cannot get NTL you will be paying the same amount for less bandwidth elsewhere, but the bandwidth will be genuine. We’re pretty stuffed in this country – 3rd from bottom in Europe. Steer clear of the “over the air” services.
23/02/10
I was a satisfied BT customer until Vodafone took over and since then my BB is non existant at weekends and evenings.
A trecert to vodafone.ie results in a continuous loop between 213.233.129.69 and
213.233.129.77
Ping vodafone returns a “TTL expired in transit” error from 213.233.129.77
I sent this to vodafone support, I thought it might help. I got a huge email apologising for the problems they were having and that they were working to resolve issues. Issues are scattered across the country
“The main hub sites currently being investigated by our supplier are
:- Monaghan, Letterkenny, Killarney, Drogheda, Castlebar, Balbriggan, Enniscorthy, Skerries, Mallow,Mervue, Middleton, Ashbourne, Gorey & Ballincollig. ”
and they expect to have them fixed in 12 to 13 WEEKS
I also filled in the complaints form on the COMREG site( haven’t heard anything since)
I need to move to another supplier.
Did you call VI after opening the case with Comreg? Only when you file a formal complaint with Customer Care, quoting your Comreg case number, will you get any traction. And then blast them on Twitter and Facebook. Keep doing this with every missed appointment.
Hi All
Just been on to vodafone tech support again and would you believe I was up and running in 2 minutes. The solution which worked for me (fingers crossed) is:
Change your router settings to PPPoE (Default is usually PPPoA)
Hope it keeps working.
John
That’s good to hear John. I guess you had a non-VI router. There’s lots of reported issues with non-VI routers. This is how the DSL connection is set up in their config:
VPI/VCI = 8/35
VLAN ID = N/A
Con. ID = 1
Category = UBR
Name = Data
Interface = ppp_8_35_1
Protocol = PPPoE
Service = Enabled
I also disable QoS.
Aidan
I’m using a Netgear DG834G V2 with all of the settings you describe(except for PPoE until now)and never had a problem with BT. Anyway BB is still working even through the rush hour 🙂
John
Guys
Wait until you hear my story with VI…
I had the 7mb package with eircom up until July 09 but I had it disconnected as there was an over subscription with the Carrick-on-Shannon exchange and I wasn’t getting an answer on when it would be resolved. The oversubcription was leaving me with a 450kbps download speed when I was getting 5Mbps
So…
Dec 09
I make a request to have my line reconnected with VI. After a few calls and a day or two later VI tell me this is not possible. They say that their system (gotta love these systems in their waterford call center) which ultimately checks with Eircom, reports that the line is not suitable for connection (note that its a connection I’m looking for first and then a broadband package later) Now hold on a minute, broadband was/did work on this same line six months previous with Eircom. So after arguing my case to and fro and also on to Eircom I open a case with ComnmReg. Eircom say that there is no way that they are preventing Vodfone from making a connection.
Jan 10
VI still looking into it. Vodafone keep coming up with the same answer (their magic callcentre system!!) even though comreg are not excepting that excuse. As far as comreg and I are concerned they need to provide a proper reason for not providing me with a connection.
Feb 10
We begin to get a “little progress”. VI have now accepted that they can get me connected. However that request enters some black hole in the VI head office in Dublin. It goes on and on and still no connection.
Mar 10
Finally I get a call followed by a letter with my VI account and bingo I have a line and number! Now to get BB package. I go for the 3MB with static IP. I get the letter to say 21 days bla bla and BB will be enabled. This seems rediculous but how and ever. Three weeks go by still nothing. I enquire and I am horrified by what I hear… Your line has being cancelled!!!!! I wents nuts. They didn’t have the balls to call me back and just left a voicemail explaining how they f***** up again. So a day later the line gets re-enabled and I’m told that the order process will have to go thru the 21days again.
So I find myself googling to see are VI really as bad as service as I am finding and delighted (bit of a paradox) to see I’m not alone. I am now questioning should I get out whilst I can and go back with Eircom (hoping they have sorted out the exchange 9mths later). I too am a rural subcriber so choice is not like that of urban users.
Has anyone experienced similar issues to mine, getting connected with VI? I get the opinion that these type of requests are too much hassel for VI. The reason why I didn’t go back with Eircom was down to the 6mth contract they tie you into (effective Dec 09) for a line. VI do have the best rate out there for fixed line packages but all I have had is 4 months hassel and thats before I even have BB!!!!!
Also Aidan on the DHCP thing, I have seen very similar problems with disconnections for 2-5mins on a friends Vodafone BB that he recently moved over. This disconnection happens at the same time each evening (20:00hrs). Of course it only started to happen since Vodafone took over the account.
Fergal
Just wanted to add to the many voices telling the same story. Vodafone ireland is terrible, and our communications regulator is a lame duck who moves at the same pace as any service in this country that’s designed to give ordinary consumers any kind of justice. We need to rip the whole bloody system out and start again, otherwise we’ll always be paddy last and 10 years behind the rest of europe while our politicians still tout the merits of our “wonderful information technology infrastructure” for the clueless masses out there to swallow hook line and sinker.
I was reasonably satisfied with BT’s broadband service and had had no major issues with them up to the changeover to Vodafone. I was getting a solid 6meg off an 8meg capable line. Not perfect (this IS ireland after all) but on the whole they had a stable solid connection with a reasonably decent ping, low enough contention ratio, and fairly consistent up and down speeds, as well as no stupid download limits.
Since switching (or rather being FORCED to switch) to Vodafone 3 months ago, i have seen my ping speed double, my average U/D speed tank because of a much higher contention ratio on the loop, page load times are a multiple of what they used to be, any kind of video streaming or web conferencing services vary wildly in performance, evening and weekend performance is akin to my first dialup 56k modem connection from 10 years ago at times (no exaggeration) and the list goes on….
By FAR the most annoying and inconvenient problem though are the CONSTANT total dropouts, as mentioned for 3-4 mins at a time. Sometimes up to 5 or 6 times a day. This really pisses me off, because i NEED a solid, stable service. Everything from web conferencing to gaming to IP telephony, everything i need the internet for DEPENDS on it. The most frustrating thing about this is that i know that the problem is at Vodafone’s end, but in order to get anybody from their escalated support team to look seriously at it i have to spend weeks jumping through their little first level technical support flowchart loops while their flunkie support reps eliminate all sorts of ridiculous possibilities that take days each to check over before actually getting me to the root of the issue. Their support process is soley designed to encourage me to grow tired of getting nowhere over a period of weeks and just forget about it, so they can close the support ticket and reset the whole frustrating beaurocratic process next month when i finally decide “ok, enough is enough, i’m calling them AGAIN”, and get through to a completely different idiot who starts right back up at the top of the flowchart again.
At the moment i’ve been waiting a full week for an unneccesary check by a 3rd party engineer on a perfectly working phone line in an exchange that delivered a rock solid service to me for the last three years but that i am supposed to believe has suddenly developed a major fault in the last three months since vodafone took over as my broadband provider. This engineer will, no doubt (eventually) report back to Vodafone that the line is (as i told them it was) perfectly fine. They will then AGAIN fail to call me back to let me know, and instead leave the ball in my court to call them and chase them on it (because hey, 50% of people will just forget, right?).
This part of the process could take weeks, and all for them to say “huh, OK, i guess it wasn’t that then…let’s try something else…”
Take it from me, anybody thinking about getting ANYTHING from vodafone, EVER, should think again if they have any option to do so. I have always hated them, and steadfastly avoided them at all costs, because i know that this is how trhey do business, and so i was particularly annoyed to see that i had been sold out to them by BT without any consultation whatsoever. They just aren’t worth the hassle of dealing with, and to be honest i only continue hounding their woeful customer service department at this stage to let them know that i WON’T be fobbed off by their bullshit and am DETERMINED to penetrate their beaurocracy.
My contract runs out in 3 months, and i will be taking my €127 every two months (yes, you read that correctly!) and getting my phone and internet services from their major competitor instead.
You might want to take a look at the new Eircom services that were announced a week or two ago if they are in your area. Yup, Eircom isn’t happy with just having broadband haves and nots. Their plan is to have fast broadband haves and nots along with stuck-in-26KBPS-Dialup-Hell.
Hi … for the third time since I was switched over from BT to Vodafone in Jan 2010 I cannot sent email out via the vodafone or perlico servers. I can get breoadband still, but now I have to access the eircom email website directly to send out email. It’s horrendous. Can anyone recommend anything else I can do – apart from the obvious solution to engage an alternative to vodafone?
Same problem as you’re describing here in Co. Clare. Called tech support, promised a call back that evening, a week later after crap connection / failed webpage loading / images not showing , i called them back, no record of my complaint logged on their system.
Went straight to the bank to cancel the direct debit , just waiting for them to cut me off now. Total crap service from vodafone.
For what it’s worth had lots of dropout & similar problems until I configured PC and router to use Google DNS, Primary 8.8.8.8, Secondary 8.8.8.4. All I need to do now is get them to put me on the tarrif I asked for back in December!
yep, vodafone, very unstable, infact so random and unstable i have not bothered to complain as i know it tak ages and most probably waste of time, waitign fo my contract to finish…
switched from Gaelic Telecom and boys am I sorry. I have involved, at my expense, Eircom Engineers, Comms Engineers, PC technicians et al. All to no avail. Vodafone insist the problem is not of their making.
I can’t wait to switch back to Gaelic Telecom
Absolutely terrible browsing experience. Just like many Irish people mis-sold Vodafones excuse for broadband Im counting the days till my contract expires but then again I may just have to bail out and find a proper ISP to work with. I work in Creative Multimedia and connectivity is crucial for sending and receiving files and docs but with Vodafone I occasionally feel like its a conspiracy …… but its not….. its the World Champion of Crappy broadband…..its Vodafone.ie.
I work from home a few days a week and after a few months earlier this year of being really irritated with VFI BB, I looked around and upped sticks and moved to UPC for phone + 5mbs for €10 less than what I was paying.
I found VFI Cust service required patience & perseverance which I was unwilling to keep up with.
I sympathise and your experience is not unique. It says a lot about a company when you finally realize that ruining their marketing and SEO efforts is the only way to open a support case. Customer care should be there for support, not for “we don’t care” responses.
hi, we all need to report this to consumer affairs and terminate the contract based on breach of terms. Mine is so bad i have stopped using it totatlly.
Dont know if this forum is still running, but I have had almost weekly problems since my business was switched to Vodafone from BT. At time I can only send 4/5 emails in a single session, before I’ve to quit and restart mail. Do you know of any really reliable broadband providers?
I was ported over to Vodafone from BT and didn’t have any issues until this week, when I lost broadband altogether on Thursday evening. I rang customer (don’t) care on Friday and they said there was a known fault and they were working on it.
Today – Saturday – still no broadband and Vodafone’s line has not changed – it’s still being “worked on” and refused to escalate it or give an explanation as to the nature of the fault or when it is likely to be resolved. They are blaming eircom but a neighbour two doors down is on eircom broadband and has no issues. When I told this to the call centre monkey all he could say was “that’s the way it is”!!!
Between this experience and the similar experiences of Vodafone customers that I know know about, I’m reluctantly going to switch back to eircom. Vodafone really don’t give a shit about their customers so this one is voting with his feet and I encourage their other customers to do the same.
Tom, a friend went through a similar experience in the midlands. His outage went on for weeks. He only got it resolved with the assistance of ComReg. The only way you get to speak to someone other than Customer (don’t) Care is to make a stink. Customer (don’t) Care is only there to delay you and to get money from you. That’s the same with all of them unfortunately.
This is very true, im a vodafone home broadband customer myself, i was forced to it from bt, and i found this page while looking where to complain about outages.
i am actually in an outage atm, i am just lucky i still have like 2 months left on my o2 mobile broadband contract from college term. which is also completely rubbish broadband btw.
ireland does just seem to fail when it comes to the internet… i heard on the news its due to all hubs using older un-upgraded tech than most countries.
it is aggrovating that ireland didnt wish to take part in progressing forward technologically, however the fact we have to pay as much if not more than other internet users abroad for a great deal less is apauling, but not surprising…
everything costs at least twice the price it should do legally in ireland, its a country of pirates and bandits, yet they were pretty snappy to persecute all pirates online over here, with eircom being the first ISP worldwide to use the 3-strikes policy
it is retailers and service providers that should be persecuted, they are making money off fresh air!
I finally have fixed lie bb available. Advise please on who I should sign up with. Perlico, Eircom, or vodaphone ?
Have a read of my blog to see what mine (and many) others experience is of Vodafone Ireland. Perlico piggy backs on VI AFAIK so will be subject to the same issues. Eircom have some nice stuff on the way but there is the Eircom thing 🙂 And UPC isn’t known for their customer service either. It’s not a great selection.
I was with Bt for 5 years then turned over to VF with the take over.
VF nothing will change you will be better off!
They take €2 off my bill and give me a cap of 100 gis when i was on unlimited with BT.
Arh yes I am better off with a cap on my BB wait no i am bein shafted and given €2 just to so they can say you are btter off as tis cheaper.
Screw that keep your €2 and I am taking my unmetered bb.
All was well for a while then could not login they changed the passwords and did not tell me.
I then had problems for a while with not able to get websites.
DNS issue fixed that with open DNS
and gooogles Free DNS.
I get a few outages now and then but not a lot at all.
Now the enhanced BB is here and everything seems good.
But when they said nothign will change and then they cap me I knew they were a bad company as the first thing they said to me was a lie.
Trouble is there is no one cheaper if there was then I would be with them.
Vodafone fixed line Broadband
I have been with VF Fixed Line Broadband which was formely BT for circa 2 years.
Service yesterday was down a few times ( no Internet light on the BT Voyager 2100).
This has happended a few times over the last 4 weeks & is happening more frequently.
After eventually getting through to Tech Support, I got an explantion which was to do with the cache memory on the router being corrupted. Solution was to turn off the router for 30 mins. This did not make sense so I reset the router & re-entered the logon codes. This worked for a while & then the service went down again. Rang tech support again. their explanation:
” there is an exchange problem which is being sorted”.
When said I?
“Don’t know”
A Fews days or weeks said I?
“Hopefully a few hours”
Eventually it was up again yesterday evening but guess what, it went down again at 1920. Tried Tech support again & could not get through.
This morning it was working again. Great said I & then guess what. It was down again.
Rang tech support having run the Router dignostics which indicated a server problem on the DSL network.
Tech support said ” you need to use the ethernet cable & not the wireless connection”
Why when clearly I have connectivity & you can check this at your end said I
“No you need to connect your PC with an ethernet cable & then we run tests”
At this stage I figured I was wasting my time so I said thanks & hung up.
I logged off the DSL netwrork , reset everything again & logged on again.
It worked but I said: ” Do I need this?” no said I.
Got on to UPC & got a bundle of 15MB DSL, & Free local, national & 400mins international phone calls over their OWN FIBRE OPTIC NETWORK with no VF or Eircom exchange link. All for Euro 57.75 per month incl VAT & with the same phone number!
Adieu VF
hello UPC!
GJ
How can somebody run service like this? Why if there is so many complainers, nobody stop them? I never had a problem with BT, but since i switched (was switched) to Vodafone, my life changed. I had never so so so frustraiting experience ever. I am right know without Internet and vodafone is trying to tell me, i cant leave them before 2011, even i was with BT since March 2009. I recently moved and have thought that the easiest will be to take over my connection. I let Vodafone know one month before i moved, they asked my what package i want, what is the new address and told me it will take 44 days to move me. OK, i can wait few more days, i thought. I took them 1.5 month since i moved to provide me so called internet (with the notice – 2.5 month). I was patience enough. Now, even i choosed the fastest option of 24MB i am on 3MB and being disconnected every cca 15 minutes. There are no answers on Vodafones email support and on the phone support you can only promised callbacks. It happens three times already. Nobody never called. The tech support is useless, how you can run the support if the only advise you provide is to restart your modem? Maybe in IT crowd it works, but not in the real live. After two months being disconnected and couldnt use internet for anything, b ut the emails, i decided and called vodafone, that i would like to close my account, cos I am not getting Internet connection (you really dont want to restart your router every 15 minutes till the end of the life. How big was my suprise, that i need to be with them till 2011! 3MB connection, useless for ANYthing due to disconnections for 65 euro per month for next 6 months? This could make somebody thinking about suicide.
1) File a formal complaint with COMREG. Using the complaint # they give you, call Customer Don’t Care and say “I want to file a formal complaint. My COMREG case number is ….”.
2) Blast Vodafone Ireland on Twitter and Facebook. I don’t mean just one or two messages. I mean respond to everything.
3) Do the same on every board that Vodafone is one.
4) Find any official Vodafone Ireland blogs and comment like nuts there.
Trust me; you’ll eventually get a call from an engineer.
COMREG can also facilitate termination of the contract for you if VI are not providing a stable service.
Thank you very much for this. Your site helped me psychically seriously, cos its really hard to describe, how annoying and frustrating is this all. I am gonna do everything you just told me. i am gonna be pain in their useless a**. Thanks to you I have found the COMREG and hopefully they will atleast help me with braking the vodafone chains i have now around my legs. Tkank you.
My wife hates me. I switched to Vodafone landline 2 months ago and now she calls me daily reporting drops. “You better call those @%!!! vodafone people again……” Actually she harldy ever swears, she leaves that to me. Last night I was working from home on a work server and lost the connection completely, luckily i had an 02 mobile bb stick in the bag. Should have sent back the pretty white router on week one but i wrote the helpdesk number 1800805014 on it in permanent marker (big letters) as I was calling it so often. I am Cisco Certified CCNP and an IT Manager so it is hard to listen to these support people. Dont like having to give my name addreess and birthdate to 2 total strangers everytime as well. After the router finally turned up and some vague letter I finally connected my lovely white router. Worked ok, a few drops, I noticed the connection speed was 3mb so I reported this and was told that I would get an immediate “free” upgrade to the higher speed. This would happen in the next 24-48 hours. I spent 6 days listening to excuses while they gave me the “free” upgrade 7mb, which i still dont get. I didnt like the term free upgrade much as I had been sold the vodafone landline service on the premise that i would be getting a 7mb connection. But they still insisted on calling it a “free” upgrade. During that period the vodafone router would not work at all but every day after venting my spleen on the care people I would plug back in my Imagine router and lo and behold solid connection again. I got every excuse under the sun from them. We are upgrading the exchange, your line is testing bad, our gateways havent been updated yet and my favorite, plug it out for half an hour, give it a try and call us back. The joke is they tried to sell me landline phone and broadband service at work as well, probably would be on the dole queue by now. Also my shiny new Laptop with windows 7 will no longer connect wirelessly to the router, worked fine till 2 days ago then just gave up. Brought home an eircom adsl2 router from work and will see if the connection works with that, must go and google the vf login username and password.
Just plugged in the eircom modem. Changed login to vodafone@vodafone.ie and broadband. Changed no other setting. Connected fine and at 7mb now, interesting ???
Hi, I moved house and Vodafone couldn’t reprovide the service at the new address. I’ve spent two months trying to cancel my contract with them. I’ve phoned, emailed… everything they asked me to do. I cancelled the direct debit through my online banking. Vodafone keeps reactivating the DD and taking another’s month’s payment. Everytime I call Customer “Couldn’t Care Less” they give me a new line of BS. I have to keep phoning my bank to get the stolen money returned to me (which costs Vodafone every time it happens). I’m now paying €20 a month more to Eircom for a crappy BB service. We moved here from the UK and are stunned at how shocking broadband provision is in Ireland.
The way to get money back from VI goes like this:
You call Customer Don’t Care and tell the agent “This phone call is your invoice for the X euros that VI owe me. You have until end of business tomorrow to refund me. After that, I shall be charging 100% compund interest, as is my right to do under the consumer rights laws of this country.”
The agent will panic and fuss. This will be the _only_ time that a supervisor will be available to talk to you … it’s the only time I ever got to talk to one when they ripped me off for money for a returned mobile phone. The supervisor will say there’s paperwork to be done and thing don’t move that fast. Sure, you’ll respond, but they moved fast enough when they wanted your money. Now it’s time to pay the piper. Stick to your guns … I got my money refunded within an hour.
Man, VI down for 2 hrs last night. Am going spare, has been going on and off for two months now. Was launching a new business yesterday and vodafone cuts out. Had to connect a bollocks old eircom modem. Unbelieveable. Want to get a connection and maybe my own satelite signal. Must go now and cool off.
About a month ago after 2 weeks of intermittent internet problems, Vodafone decided to replace my Zyxel modem with a Vodafone modem. They then asked to signed a new contract for 12 months. My Vodafone broadband 8mb is going up and down like a yoyo. Every so often the DSL goes down. It is just frustrating and awful. I would not recommend it to anyone.
I am originally from the mighty land of NTL (Virgin Media) however now we are living in the Emerald ‘ADSL’ Isle, where the price of ‘broadband’ if you can call it that is through the roof. My old 10MB fibre optical connection cost me £25, and now my 7MB ADSL one cost me 45 Euro. Although using VI this is cheaper than other providers.
After reading the above pages my connection is actually that bad.. However I think the main fault with VI is those useless mass produced white routers?
After the first storm we had here in Donegal I went straight on the phone to their ‘Technical Support’, again if you can call it that. After testing the line there was apparently a fault on the line. OK fair enough, there may of been however one thing for sure was that white ADSL modem router was definately also at fault as it kept powering off seconds arfter it was turned on. After a long phone call I finally got them to send me a new modem router.
The Eircom engineer duely tested the line and said no fault with it.. So back to these rubbish routers which I think is to blame with a lot of people complaints..
After sending numerous emails to VI asking for ‘how to DDNS’ and having numerous responses along the lines of “DDNS isn’t supported with our modem routers” so why is that an option within the firmware??
Anyway to cut a long story short I’ve disconnected my VI modem router and I am now using a Belkin ADSL modem router. To be honest the service is now much better and I don’t seem to have that much of a problem since changing.
If you are with VI and are using their white modem router it’s worth getting another modem router and giving it a try. Maybe it’ll be a simple fix?
I still am on the lookout for another supplier, however like most I am limited for choice, maybe WiMax’s 4G could be worth a look? That is when they finally get around to putting in an aerial up here in the wilds of Donegal!
Thanks for the Post,
I have been considering a fixed line option as I only have three mobile broadband and I am one of those people that want to throw the computer out the window after trying to connect to the Internet. Having a fixed line is important to me because I wish to use Linux when I boot my computer with a mobile broadband connection I will not get a network connection unless it’s a full Hspda connection. So I thought that Vodaphone Home Broadband would have been a Good option thanks to your post I know that I will have to look at more Home Broadband providers in Ireland.
There is a fault on my line…..
Hi All, have just read through all your posts, and I am horrified. Am moving to Ireland from UK in about a week and need broadband for working from home in Co Wicklow, near Carnew.. What should I do, was going to go to Vodafone, but think I’ll give it a miss now? I need BB for work and access to my friends too in the UK whilst I am over in Ireland.. would really appreciate any advice, I dont do a lot of downloading, but sometimes streamline, and have a website I update periodically
Eileen, Carnew is a bit in the middle of nowhere. You will need to verify that you can get broadband in the house. Messy: get a phone line and commit to it for a year. Get the number and test the line. Then order broadband. Even then, it might not work. If you can, try get the existing number in the house to do an online test, or the number of a close by neighbour (no gurantee that you’ll be in the same enabled/disabled exchange). You may end up working on a 3G modem.
Hi All
Just found your site by googling vodafone with another problem
Long story, but will try to keep it brief, considering it went on for 4-5 months.
Switched from BT to VI. I never had any probs with BT. Major problems since the switch. When we got the email to say VI were carrying out upgrade works, our BB was never the same again. We had the old Eircom modem, turns out after alot of serious arguments with VI, that the box was not compatible with the upgrade works, due to the speed increase. We found out that problem and told them.
Demanded a supervisor and wouldnt get off the phone until I got one, as I was ringing every single day complaining, sometimes several times a day, had names/dates and times of the different technicians. Had eircom out twice. The supervisor sent out a new white vodafone modem that very day, as I threatened them with all legal action etc. It worked fine for approx 3hours. Then it was intermittent (i.e. dropping). This is so frustrating when you are working from home and lose everything or paying for an order on line.
Demanded a supervisor again (in my opinion- Waterford office are the only customer dont care who do anything). Got another free white modem sent out as we thought the first one might be faulty, by threatening them again. Second one we had the same problems.
Quick summary of the fault, that my husband who works and studies in IT told them, what the fault was and we have told everyone we know. That white vodafone modem runs a modified version of Linux. The problem is a protocol within Linux called PPPD. Google it. When these drop outs happen, the modem does not receive a valid acknowledgement from vodafone and so drops the connection, the problem on vodafones end is, its servers which is are more than likely a Unix server because these drop outs only happen between Linux/ Unix client/ server network. It will not happen with a Linux/ windows server network.
So we dealth with one supervisor who rang me everyday to check on the situation. When my husband explained the fault to her, she sent me an old second hand perlico modem and this worked. So I demanded a new modem, got a netgear DGN1000. I paid for this and sent them the receipt, they credited my account with the amount.
This went on for months, I threatened them with everything. Alot of stupid technicians telling me, it was our problem and nothing to do with them, I refused to accept that, as I was paying for a service and not getting it and demanded action, I got alot of cheeky technicians too, how they still have a job, I don’t know. Eircom came twice. Both times, we didn’t get any notification of them calling, but we didnt mind if they fixed our problem’s. I was told to be in one day and had to take the day off work at my own expense, rang them 3days later after staying in, all of 3days and they said they were doing it remotedly, was I not told, luckily I was recording all my calls and they do too, so told them to check what I was told. I was constantly angry and it caused major problems at home. Everyone was angry and losing different types of work etc. VI constantly tell you, your problem is being escalated and the line will be checked and they will always come back, when you ring again, that they found no fault and there is nothing they can do – don’t accept this, you are paying for a service.
So I got the money for the modem refunded and two months bills. As I explained, if I didn’t I would send the receipts in, for the time I had to take off work, for all the recabling etc, that we recabled everything, phone lines, ethernet cables(to eliminate that being a fault) and Eircom changed their junction box in our house, ordering things twice by mistake, when it dropped during the final order process and being charged twice and not refunded etc, I could go on and on. I explained I would accept that refund, on condition, that they don’t let any other customers go through what we went through and to fix their problems with their server/modems. She assured me, that she would be telling her bosses and something would be done.
Now we have another problem, its going slow all the time, so on to phoning them again tomorrow and maybe comreg on Tuesday. Sorry for the long message, I tried to keep it short, but hope it helps some people!! I also told them I would put posters etc up and get a meeting together with everyone in the town who had VI, if they didn’t do something, as many people who don’t know anything about computers, think its a fault with their pc’s.
http://www.insideireland.ie/index.cfm/section/news/ext/irelandbroadband001/category/1091
Absolutely the same story with me and vodafone modem/support/ Internet connection. I am also former BT customer and for 5 year we were so happy with everything, we called once Tech Support and got back excellent service and help.
With vodafone we can all only loose our nerves , time , money, work that we are doing. There is no Tech Support there its a joke.
We lost connection and for 4 days they couldn’t figure out that our old modem didn’t work , we told them where is the problem , then they were telling us that we need to buy new one for 70 euro hahhahah i . They didn’t bother that they couldn’t sort the problem for so many days they wanted more money. We did get for free through battle with supervisors and customer support. But then we got new shiny modem (crap one) and was fine on the beginning but then after that upgrade its worst then ever. There is no day without interruption and problems. When you call the famous number 1907 and go to tech support recorded message is welcoming your call to first reset the modem and then if you still have problem to wait for representatives. That tells everything…… no comments here.
My mission is now to movie to someone else , any suggestions??? Another mission is to stop many friends to connect to VT broadband which I am doing that very successfully . We don’t need more people to suffer while VT is earning more money on our tears :)))
Please everyone out there don’t go Vodafone Ireland Broadband, find alternative.
I worked in the vf call centre in waterford for my sins the promblem is no vf but the eircom line cant take the higher speeds vf are selling they also said to us there has a big increase in trafic since rte i player has come on line eircom also do everything not to fix the lines so the customer will chage back to them aslo the vf modem is rubbish how they can charge 70 quid for a modem that only work in the main phone while the eircom neptia will work in any phone socket. basily there is too much tracfic on the lines to handle the higher speeds they are offering
@thevfblooger Then explain to people why everything was perfect on BT Ireland, and the day they moved to VI’s network it all fell to bits? And care to explain why “customer care” is inept and lies to its customers? For example “we’ll arrange a supervisor callback”. I got one of your co-workers to admit that the manager callback is a way to get the customer off of the phone and that it never happens … plenty of evidence of it on here.
The quality of the line is what determines the speed and the quality of the broadband as well as contention. I am from London and surprised to find so many people in Ireland using BT, VODAFONE and the like especially in current economic climate. Do not believe the hype very few if any can get 30mb in the UK. I decided when I moved to Ireland that my best chances of getting comparable broadband lay with EIRCOM as they are in control of the infrastructure, have a depot in nearly every town in the country and have technicians on the ground to deal with the problems, they are slightly more expensive but then you only get what you pay for.
It the extra taffic on the network from more banwidth been used all the line are owned by eircom no matter what provider you are with you need to get your profile downgraded to increase the performance you line may no longer be capable of 7mb then can tell you this by doing a eircom sync test on your line. There is 2 call centres dealing with the calls now sound like the limerick call centre your were dealing with. Downgarding the profile will stop the drops on the line it may need to be downgraded a few times to fing the corect speed for your line try tech support you also have to the passwords chaged from bt to vodafone. It also may be just the modem
Don’t know if this will help anyone but I had exactly the same issue as everyone is experiencing, constantly dropping connection driving me crazy.
I got a replacement Vodafone Modem, no good, got a lend of an Netopia modem, no good. But, just this evening, I tried
“2) Move your router to the main drop point in your home (the point at which the telephone line enters the house).” as recommended in the link below.
http://forum.vodafone.ie/index.php?/topic/3100-general-helpful-tips-for-slow-speedsvodafone-at-home-service/
I really didn’t think it would help but it’s been solid ever since, no dropped packets, can’t believe it. This didn’t happen when I was with Eircom so there is still something fundamentally wrong with Vodafone’s service but if it fixes the issue, then I thought it worth sharing. Will let you know how I get on.
Im drove completely insane with vodafone im only 4 months in to my contract an im on the brink. to start off i was only receiving 6MB while paying for 7MB for over 3months. when i rang up about this i got it corrected only to be sent into a rage by the email there support sent to me ‘ Welcome to 7MB broadband’ it was phrased as if he was sayin why didnt u upgrade sooner, them for some reason my always on broadband turns off every 5hours just for the sake of it at the most awkward times which is frustrating.. i use the internet for gaming and playing poker and i take it very seriously so the bad service is killing me
Personally im just going to cancel my diret debit after the next bill, fuck them and their termination charge good luck to them trying to get it out of me, if they bring me to court they dont have a leg to stand on as far as im concerned, they broke their end of the contract by supplying my 6MB while i was Paying for 7MB. at peak times my download speed is operating at 1.6mb which is shocking slow, eircom were bad but their 3MB is alot better than vodafone 7mb.
Im going to try UPC and their fiber power broadband ive heard good reports
I’m an ex-BT customer, who’s had my fill of VF and their “service”. My service was bumped up to the 8MB ngb equivalent during the summer, no problems, went fairly smoothly getting download speed between 4 – 6MB, no problem with that as I don’t need to download any large files/work from home etc. The problems have arisen since 31/10 when at some point after I disconnected, I lost Broadband connection. I am using a BT Voyager, and have had a constant stable DSL light since yet no BB connection. I have been in regular contact with them, tried resetting passwords on the modem, moving it to various points in the house, removing splitters etc….Eircom checked the line to the house, that’s OK, they checked it at the exchange, that’s OK, i even had Phonewatch temporarily remove the alarm from the circuit to see if i could get a connection to no avail. All this after VF told me it’s an internal wiring issue. So after almost 3 weeks without broadband (phone service works) a CSR tells me that he is escalating the issue to BT (??), i ask why this is the case as Vodafone took over the service from BT only to be told that BT “authenticate” the broadband(?) lines. This conversation took place on Tuesday, I am allowing them the 3 working days that i was told it would take and then I’m off to COMREG and UPC for my broadband.
Hi,
Just found this post via google and was wondering if anyone has the same issue as me?
Does anyone have any problems with VI when you are loading a website, it takes aaaaaages and then decides to just load a kind of text version of the site with no pictures or anything?
It’s been doing this to me on certain sites for a long time. It’s weird!
All in all VI service is rubbish i mo thuairim!
Hi Eoin,
Yup, I had that problem. The load takes about 3 minutes and then no images load. Customer Don’t Care will claim they’ve never seen it before but it’s nothing new on the VI network. The only way I got it resolved was to lodge a formal complaint with a COMREG case number.
Aidan.
Cheers Aidan,
I’ll give them one last chance to try and sort it but I won’t hold my breath. I can’t go with UPC because they aren’t available in my house. Have you heard anything about wimax? (apart from the song!). They are the best value I can get at a decent speed where I am in Dublin!
Eoin
Oh, and how did they resolve it? Did you just get out of your contract or get the issue sorted?
I’m not quite sure how -> there were lots of calls with various engineers. Then one day, everything was fine. It did take a formal ComReg case number, endless tweeting, comments on boards.ie, endless posting on their forums, and lots of negative comments everytime the announced something on Facebook. That gets attention outside of support and gets you into engineering. Even then, I had to persist.
Its scandalous that they are now adding the download and upload usage together and calling it usage when everyone signed up to unlimited upload data. Now they have changed their off peak calls from 6pm in the evening to 7pm without telling anyone of this change. I was using my landline phone after 6pm to make landline and vodafone mobile calls thinking they were free and now i get hammered with a phone bill for them.
I also got a letter in the post and a phone call from a dumbass VF rep to say i exceeded my bandwidth of 40gb this month when i only downloaded 32gb and uploaded 4gb. do the maths vf- they seriously think that ppl are stupid.
I went from BT to vodafone but they updated my one year contract to a further one year because for an extra euro i could get 200 mins free calls to vf mobiles.
I cant wait til the end of january to get away from them. I dont recommend anyone join up with them and if they offer to replace a modem or update your bundle for free dont let them renew your contract as you will be screwed for a year when you see what crap they upgrade you to.
I sent a complaint to comreg about them and i recommend everyone send in a complaint, and get comreg to kick their arses into touch.
I’ve been onto them for weeks and have been given three different usernames to try, all fail equally after a while. I’m off to UPC, giving up on this shower.
Hi Everyone
And a big thanks to Aidan for starting this. My girl and I are with 3mobile and our contract is up in Jan 2010 and truthfully I thought 3mobile had the monopoly on bad service so we were thinking of switching to VI, but as a result of all your messages, and we are sorry for all you guys, and what you are going through but if its ANY consolation we are going keep away from VI as a result of your advice.
We are going to still pull the pin on 3Mobile them jokers are worse, we may just use two empty bean cans with string between them, I can assure you that we would all be better off.
I will follow and pass on this site at every opportunity I can, Thanks again Aidan, nearly a year now and this post is still helping.
Hi John
I be wary of UPC as well. I was with them for TV when they under the name of Chorus. Such a nightmare, their tv kept freezing and going all funny when you were watching something. I rang them to complain and they totally did not give a shit. They switched off channels and gave me crappy channels instead then said this was part of the upgrade service. They bumped up the price every second month. I told them I wanted to stop the service and what do I have to do to terminate it and they put me on hold for 15 mins then said I could not terminate the service as i was in a contract.
I stopped the direct debit and got in sky tv, then i kept getting bills from them every month. Then came the phone calls to my mobile, telling me we would have debt collectors calling and a bad credit ratings if we did not cough up.
In the end after a few months of this, we owed them over €130 for their bad service and they were unrelentless to us. we ended up paying them €100 to get away from them.
I know this is TV service but they changed their name from chorus to upc and do broadband as well. But i would be very wary of these guys. The service was crap and they did not want to know. Instead they upped the price, changed channels, like took bravo off and gave me a cartoon channel (what was that all about?) and gave no support on the phone.
So be careful of this John, dont say you were not warned beforehand.
Hi All,
Again thanks to Aidan for starting this discussion. I’m in Blackrock in Dundalk which seems to be brutal for broadband. Wimax can provide service but I’ve heard bad things and I was more interested in a DSL service. I’ve been told that NGB is not yet enabled on my line (new estate) so the best I’m likely to get is 3MB. I had considered Vodafone but after reading your comments I won’t inflict the pain o myself. Can anyone suggest an alternative supplier. Everyone keeps telling me to avoid Eircom too but I don’t see what other choices I have!
John,
If you think Vodafone was bad THEN, your should try them NOW! It appears the whole network has in recent weeks just COLLAPSED!. Read all pages in these two forums below (If yo dare!)
Regards
Duliner1080
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056105242
&
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056107671
I cannot agree more. I was one of those poor BT ireland sheep sold into the Vodafone stable without being consulted. First few months were ok then my 7 MB line has gradually fallen thru 1 mb right down to 20KBPS now – 1/3rd of dial up speed! Then it collapsed entirely for a week over Xmas. Thank God cause it forced me to sign up with Eircom broadband. Awaiting that to go live – and as you say it cant be as bad. I know the line is fine – as I always had 6.5 MB with BT & never had a problem with them. Vodafone & even their helpline are unbelievably bad!!
Over 4 years later and no change at Vodafone. I too was on BT Ireland and forced over to Vodafone, with an immediate decrease in performance and forced disconnects every night at around 2am. If anything, since then, the performance has decreased even further.
There website maintenance team seems to be totally deficient to. There website can be described as flaky at best, and again as been this way for several years!
Aha, that explains alot, and me going to replace my modem to try and resolve my vodafone broadband woes…
Am sorry to have to confirm but they are CRONIC as a service provider.
The tell WOPPERS about the costs and then flog you off with all the extras in the billing.
As a disabled person and am on a very limited income I done need such crap and seem tobe stuch with them for a bit. But I can not recommend them at all, other than they gave me an eircom service package which I am stuck with now.
Think you ort totry and find another supplier!if you can ?? but take your time in the selection process.
Good luck, Dr Sena J. Strand
Totally agree. I have never experienced such brutal customer service in my entire life!
imcompetent and extremely ignorant. One staff memebr even shouted and cursed at me. Over 90 phone calls and 6 hours in store and no solution to my problem.
They are an absolute disgrace and i struggle to see how they are suviving as a company
if I could just add my two cents, Eircom are also terrible. The street next to me can get fiber, but all I get is copper wire “20MB uncongested” which really amounts to 1MB in the evenings as it gets really congested. I also try to work from home by using a Horizon View VDI which does not require much of a connection yet my connection can’t really manage this. I have to tether to my phone and use 3G mobile data to connect from home. My €35 per month contract costs me €49.99 per month.
Absolutely pathetic for a supposedly advanced nation. At least I’m in Dublin and not marooned in the IT wasteland that is rural Ireland.
5 years on, and guess what….the issue is still the same. Vodafone does not care about its rural customers, and their customer care team doesn’t have a clue about these issues. Why should they? They’re in Egypt!! I put in a Comreg formal complaint in July, after having a ridiculous reduction in what already was horrible service, in October 2014. Comreg is a bit of a waste of time as well – they ‘close’ their file once Vodafone ‘recognizes’ the problem – not when the problem is resolved. And that recognition is pretty much lip service. The last ‘news’ I got from Vodafone was that there was a part on the mast that was not working properly – but they are unable to locate a distributor in order to purchase the replacement part. I am currently on their wifi modem and normally have speeds of 20kbs. That’s 20. Forget about any data access on a mobile phone. It’s time to dump Vodafone….
Five years on and I’ve just found this page while looking for a way out of Vodafone. Terms and conditions – are these enforceable? You can’t cancel the contract even if they fail to provide a replacement modem in 3 weeks. Sent the old one back within 2 days… I work from home and it’s a 150-mile a day commute to work… just found out I might be able to use a non-Vodafone modem. They didn’t volunteer that information. Great how corporations can do what they like in Ireland, isn’t it?