I have been contemplating switching to Vodafone due to a pretty good SIM only deal they have on, but after checking out their online reviews it seems be uniformly terrible. I know people moan more online, but this is so unanimous I think I have actually found the one thing the internet agrees on!

http://www.s21.com/vodafone.htm
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.vodafone.co.uk
http://www.reviews.co.uk/company-reviews/store/Vodafone

Are they really this bad?

Utterly the most appauling service ever. Offered to refund monies but never did a and ultimately ended in court. I will never have another phone contract with them even if they were the only choice.

Yep….

Yes, X 1000!!!

They’ve gone from being head and shoulders above the competition ten years ago, to a pitiful mess that really just doesn’t care anymore.

Sad, but roll on December when I can finally jump ship. 13 years I’ve been with them and the decline is truly shocking.

I’m surprised they scored so highly.

The product is cheap, the service utterly hateful. I spent about 10 hrs (no exaggeration, I documented it in a complaint) recently trying to transfer a number from a Voda SIM to a Voda SIM…

If you can get anything like a decent deal elsewhere, do. You’ll save yourself masses of aggravation.

So bad that I left despite them being the only company to have a signal where I live

Steer clear…!

My experience of them has been pretty good so far. I needed to transfer my old number back into my name (my wife took it over and added it into a household plan) this was all done in one phone call, my plan is better than any other networks and the signal is great.
I’ve only been on the plan for 3 months but I’ve had them as my provider for the past 2 years without issue.

ellohell

There’s always one.

And just for balance – I’ve never had a problem with them (nearly 10 years now) Multiple phones, transferred number a couple of times, all worked fine.

Voda’s Business services have caused me big headaches since last June, I have never experienced an outfit be so consistently rubbish at every single opportunity. Do not consider their voice and data services because if anything goes wrong you’re doooooomed. Vodafone Business are seriously shit.

Vodafone still offer a choice – you can have dreadful coverage and dreadful customer service with them, or dreadful coverage and reasonable customer service with Telefonica (with whom they now share their network infrastructure)

EE have left them standing on coverage and now that EE have won the emergency services tender we’ll see EE extend their network even further to 99.7% coverage on 4g. As a comparison Vodafone were still at around 90% coverage on 3G last time I checked.

http://rootmetrics.com/uk/blog/special-reports/2015-2h-national-uk

Pretty bad here – my wife left them for EE as we had little or no Vodafone signal at home – despite being out of contract they charged a £160 early termination fee with no warning and weeks later we are still trying to get it back despite numerous promises that it will be refunded in “3-5 days”

I spent about 10 hrs (no exaggeration, I documented it in a complaint)

Does the phrase “Say Jeronimo” make you want to kill people, too ??

They are ok if you don’t have a problem or it is something very simple beyond that they are utterly hopeless. There initial support is all abroad, they work to a script and make it as hard as possible for you to leave. They were unable to port my number to a new phone and I spent hours trying to sort it with repeated promises it would be fixed in 48 hours and told I couldn’t leave after giving them 14 days to fix it. When eventually I spoke to someone in the UK ( who didn’t cut me off) I was able to leave in 5 mins. Also there shops seem to be completely separate from their on-line business.

I will never go near them again.

Been with them since 1987 and never had a problem. Currently paying 20 quid a month for 20 Gig and unlimited everything else….includes a subscription to Spotify.

Personally I’d recommend them.

Been with them for 3 years now and all problems have been dealt with as well as any other provider that I’ve been with

Been with them for years and never had a problem…..that may be the key though to my perception of them.

Keep wanting to leave them, but they’re the only provider with sufficient dB signal to get into the house, and their £3 per day European roaming is important. When EE unveil a promised new 4G mast 4 miles away, I’m looking forward to swapping.

and their £3 per day European roaming is important

That become irrelevant when they abolish EU roaming charges next year. Three have already done it in most European countries.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/27/europe-abolishes-mobile-phone-roaming-charges

I’ve used them for work, they seemed fine for corporate accounts but then someone else was sorting out billing and so on.
Bought a handset from them, it seemed more convenient to click and collect than be around to take delivery. I was sat for about 15 minutes with 3 or 4 of the staff in an otherwise empty shop while they tried to get their heads round HANDING ME A F***ING BOX I’D ALREADY DONE ALL THE ONLINE FORM-FILLING AND PAYING FOR ONLINE. I eventually left with the phone and a paper invoice thing on which one of them had laboriously written various IMEI and order details which were already on their online system.

0.3 out 10. Someone must have been feeling generous, no way do they deserve such a high score. Shame it can’t do negative figures.

E now that EE have won the emergency services tender we’ll see EE extend their network even further to 99.7% coverage on 4g.

Any more info on this?

an alternate view. been with them over 10 years. Wife came onto my account a few years ago as we got a great deal. never had any issues with them in this time, get some cracking money deals as a result of being with them for so long. we have 2 Galaxy S6 edges, got them for 10% than leading open market contracts. really surprised the score is so low! might have to go an review to balance things up.

Another long-term customer here. Work used Vodafone and I’ve just stuck with them. Still the best coverage in the Highlands. In the 7 years I’ve been a personal customer (3phones simultaneously on contract) I’ve only once had a minor issue. As usual with online review sites, only the angry bother.

I had no problem with the signal coverage or the way the phone works, it’s just when you ask them to do something they are shocking.
Transferring a Vodafone number to another Vodafone sim should not take the best part of 4 months.
I’ve been with them for 5+ years but will change this summer.

Pictonroad- see below:

EE wins 4G contract for UK emergency services

As well as adding cell sites over the next year EE are also turning on 800MHz coverage in March that will get 4g into the places that 2g doesn’t cover now. EE are believed to be proposing prioritisation on their network for emergency services users with the result that the airwave contract for voice will be terminated over the next 18 months. All or which will be very good for phone coverage whilst biking!.

BAD BAD BAD. They are very BAD!!

I would probably give up owning a mobile phone if Vodafone were the only option, based on previous experiences with them….

Well. So far it’s about 70/30 in them being a complete shower.

Even in lopsided internet statistics, that’s not that encouraging.

used them for last 15 years… never had a single problem.

No choice – seems to be the only network that reaches my house – and I live in surburbia!!

EDIT – a question on that aspect. I’m on an old 3G phone, will swapping to a 4g phone change that scenario i.e. does 4G use the same mast network or could coverage be better than 3G in the same location?

My sister was missold a contract in a Vodafone shop before working in Greece. She was receiving calls believing that she was not paying for them, only to return home to find a huge bill and threats of debt collection. Vodafone were contacted but not interested. It escalated, my folks’ address became blacklisted and Vodafone’s demands became more insistent. My Dad ended up writing directly to the CEO and – long story short – the result was the bill was halved but still a hefty amount, especially for a recently returned holiday rep. On top of that my folks’ address was still credit blacklisted.

Work phone is currently on Vodafone (not my choosing) and signal is noticeably less reliable than my personal Virgin phone.

Add that to corp tax avoidance and I wouldn’t touch them with yours.

Incidentally, the deal is £20 p/m SIM only. £240 a year with £80 cashback, so £13.66 a month for:

Unlimited calls and texts.
20GB Data (unlimited for first 2 months)
Free Spotify/Netflix for a year.
Access to some WiFi hotspots

….not been able to find anything that comes close from anyone else 🙁

I have them for work, so I can’t comment on the customer service aspect, but their network coverage is a mess. On EE I can get 4G on the train from Cardiff to London for over half the way, and 3G+ for the rest of it – only a couple of black spots now for a minute or two. On Vodafone, I can basically get bugger all of use, so I give up.

Utter crap. They’ve cancelled the direct debit for my son’s SIM card 3 times and then try to bill me for late payment. They’ve sent out SIM cards that don’t work and some that are the wrong size.

Their policy of notification of charging when you go over your data limit is not
suitable for kids and you can’t stop data when you reach your pre-paid limit.

I’ve spent far too long on the phone and live chats to them. When my son’s contract is up I’ll be moving him to someone who will stop data when the limit is reached, even if that means having a box attached to my internet connection.

EDIT: If I hear the line, “I will solve your problem today Sir” again, I will scream down the phone at them

Yep, thats a great deal. So good that it convinced me to sign up. 14 days later I have no data service, no spotify, my billing is screwed and I can’t cancel and port my number back to EE because I’m afraid I’ll lose it in the process.

Customer service has been awful. apologetic but unable to fix my issues. I would not recommend based on this experience.

As often is the case with these big firms who have lots of customers who only make them a tiny amount each they put a huge amount of work into making sure things work 99.9% of the time, but don’t really care an awful much about the .1% of people who have a problem, well they do care, but it’s not worth investing a huge amount into it – it’s just financially not – hence the terrible call centres, and slow responses.

I don’t suspect any of the other providers are any better, it’s just a case of rolling the dice on providers and hoping you’re not one of the 0.1%.

It’s worth noting that most businesses who use mobiles use a broker – it costs more but they deal with all the customer service crap, usually through dedicated broker helpdesks.

I’ve been with them for many years and not had problems. 4G coverage is good where I live and they have the best 2G coverage when I’m up in the Highlands. I pay £8 a month for about 2.5GB of 4G which I think is OK compared to listed deals anyway.

Yep, thats a great deal. So good that it convinced me to sign up. 14 days later I have no data service, no spotify, my billing is screwed and I can’t cancel and port my number back to EE because I’m afraid I’ll lose it in the process.

Did it ever work? The data that is?