Good mobile network - good value for money (Vodafone Network)

Member Name: emmajt81

Product:	Vodafone Network
Date:	12/10/09 (107 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Their European roaming charges are excellent (even without this years summer promotion)

Disadvantages: USA roaming is extortianate, call centre are not very knowledgeable

Having been with T Mobile for over ten years I was somewhat reluctant to move from them to another network. But for work purposes I got a Blackberry and by far the best tariff deal was with Vodafone so I made the big leap.

Their setup - over the phone with customer service - was quite good. They did make a mistake (I sorted out two phones for me and my colleague) with one of the tariffs but this was quickly rectified. I received the Blackberrys a couple of days later so I can't complain about their service for that.

The network coverage from them has basically been very good. As with all phone networks you are bound to get areas where you don't get great reception. For me it was actually better than T Mobile as I never got good reception with them on the bottom floor of my house, whereas Vodafone I get good reception all over my house. For my colleague though, Vodafone's coverage in his house is pretty bad - the same as I had with T Mobile. I mean, you can't really moan about this since it's the same for all networks. One thing I am pleased with is I haven't had any downtime and I haven't had any dropped calls which you do get from time to time. I have only been with Vodafone for 10 months so this still could happen but so far so good.

One downside I have found with Vodafone however is their telephone customer service team. Having Blackberrys I had a few issues with a few things, so needed some help and most people on the phones don't have a clue about anything. On one occasion I spoke to several people who all told me different things. If you want to up your tariff or find out about your bill then they are spot on, but if you actually want help with services then you're better off going elsewhere. Their online help team more than makes up for this though. Vodafone have support forums where you can post questions and their online team answer them for you. If they need to speak or deal with you on a personal level they will email you. They are quick and efficient and knowledgeable and are by far the best support for Vodafone. The call centre team should take a leaf out of their book!

Their online sign in site is good but could be better. I found T Mobiles online billing facility much better to be honest. Vodafone's is very slow and has numerous problems. Registering for the service takes a while and isn't instant unlike other networks and while it isn't complicated, it's not straightforward either. It can take up to 3 days to put your unbilled calls up - annoying if you are trying to manage your minutes - it also doesn't list how many texts you have used or have left. The only way to check this is to ring Vodafone - very long winded. If you are a business customer you don't have the option of texting a number for your balance either - only personal customers do - this is something which definitely needs changing. Perhaps they think business customers don't need to check their minutes on the move? Well we do! You can change things online like roaming and international call bars, although you can't up your price plan on there - even though it says you can. Like I said, it's alright but could be a hell of a lot better. This online service has been updated in 2009 and I don't think it is any better to be honest. During the update a lot of customers were unable to use the service (like me) and this proved very annoying.

I find Vodafones call rates to be very competitive within the UK. I got a lot of minutes for my money - I pay £30 per months and get unlimited landline calls, 250 texts, 700 minutes, Blackberry email and unlimited internet use. Very good value I think. Their summer promotion for roaming in Europe was also very good. I went to Europe a fair bit over the summer and it was great to know I wasn't running up a huge bill. All my calls simply came out of my minutes as if I was using the phone at home. And when their promotion isn't on, Vodafone still offer the best roaming rates for Europe. You simply pay a connection charge (I think its 70p) when you call home or when someone at home calls you, and then the rest just comes out of your minutes for up to an hour - then you get charged 20p a minute on top of your inclusive minutes (you could of course hang up after an hour and call back). So 70p for a call home plus your normal minutes is great. Most networks still charge 75p per minute.

Their calls from roaming in the USA aren't so good however. My colleague called home whilst in the States and was charged £1.25 per minute. Using internet on the phone costs £12 per megabyte per day which is outrageous. I have a USA sim card for use in the States so I don't get stung with these charges anymore. Whilst Vodafone aren't the most expensive for the States, they are not by far the cheapest - T Mobile are I believe.

All in all I would recommend Vodafone. There are a lot of improvements they can make with customer service and their online billing system as well as their roaming rates in the States but really they are one of the cheapest networks out there. They are good value for money, offer a wide choice of handsets and a wide choice of price plans and their coverage is very good throughout the whole world in fact.

Summary: Good mobile network - good value for money, still needs a few tweaks though