Vodacom 3G sucks!

[Dave A]

I must be a sucker for punishment. Two years ago I went through a whole drama with Vodacom 3G. Eventually, I got the equipment functional if not at particularly impressive speeds.

Now I've renewed my contract and it looks like I'm going to go through all the pain again of getting the new equipment up to reasonable speeds. The default installation certainly blows big time. Disconnects. Hanging programs. Slow throughput.

[murdock]

think yourself lucky you are not with virgin mobile...they dont even advanced to 3 g yet...and my contract is almost up and they still havent got my billing right yet.

[twinscythe12332]

Speed hasn't been my main issue, but the disconnects.

[murdock]

i have made a decision today to go back to mtn with immediate effect...i will notify all my customers via sms in a short while...i had a call from another customer today complaining about having to call me 5 times before they can get through...apparently my phone makes 3 beeps then goes dead...it has something to do with the port from mtn to virgin...anyway time to move forward.

[kernel32]

I must be a sucker for punishment. Two years ago I went through a whole drama with Vodacom 3G. Eventually, I got the equipment functional if not at particularly impressive speeds.

Now I've renewed my contract and it looks like I'm going to go through all the pain again of getting the new equipment up to reasonable speeds. The default installation certainly blows big time. Disconnects. Hanging programs. Slow throughput.

Hi,

Even though I absolutely hate Vodacom, and there is nothing in the world that will change my mind about them, I might be able to help you out a bit with your issues. You see, some monkey at Vodacom/Vodafone decided that having their logo on the connection software was more important than delivering a reliable service. So they decided to create a software package that "works" with all the datacards available on their contracts. What I did in the past (before I told them to take a taxi) was to uninstall that crappy software they give with the datacard, and install the software supplied by the manufacturer.

Chances are you've got some sort of Huawei or Option device, and you will be able to get the connection software from their websites. It's quite a big download, but it will save you lots and lots of frustration. If you are unable to find the correct file to download, post your manufacturer and model number of the datacard and I'll try to assist you.

[Dave A]

At this point I'll try nearly anything. I've got the Huawei E220. I did a search for Huawei E220 drivers, but didn't find anything that looked like the business. So a link would prove very useful, thanks.

[kernel32]

Try this...

http://www.huawei.com/mobileweb/en/doc/list.do?type=-1&id=736

[Dave A]

I have been quite persistent in following this through with Vodacom, and finally after doing pretty much everything they have asked of me which feels like it wasn't much short of reformatting my hard drive, they have acknowledged that the problem looks like it might be too many subscribers connected by 3G to the tower I happen to connect to.

It was an amazing deduction that I find hard to believe is news to them.

It didn't take any rocket science to figure this out from my end. I happen to live in a residential area. When the residents are out at work or sleeping, things fly. When they're doing the evening cruise of the internet, things crawl in the 0-5Kbps range. If it was hardware, firmware, software, signal quality, firewalls, anti-virus programs, malicious scripts, cookies, DNS caches etc. one might have expected the problem to be a little less peak traffic time sensitive.

Apparently, if there are too many people logged in and active at once, the service "contracts." That would be corporate bullshit for having more paying customers trying to suck on more production than you can physically supply.

Something like the Eskom problem, you could say. Except you don't get charged for the electricity you cannot suck.

[kernel32]

They are actually admitting to something thats been stuffed the past year? I live in Midrand, and the general area including areas as far north as Gezina (sorry if my spelling is wrong) in PTA have had issues for months. Quite a few of my colleagues have switched to ADSL even though they still have to finish paying their 3G contracts for the remainder of the 24 months.

Vodacom persistently makes their users look like idiots by wanting to go through all the "settings". And then after weeks, they say something like the network is currently busy, or the technicians are working on the problem.

It really sucks that these fat cats keep getting away with giving the consumer a raw deal. Shame on you Vodacom!

[Dave A]

To some extent, this is almost becoming ludicrous.

My fault report was escalated, and now I'm getting a steady stream of phonecalls from different people at Vodacom saying they are looking into the capacity problem. This one has clearly jumped the standard fault handling rails, but it seems to be landing all over the shop now.

The upside of all this attention is it might lead to a better service in the area one day, I guess. But right now I'm also wondering if the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.

New territory I guess

[Dave A]

Unexpected error!



Not really. Just the regular inadequate service from Vodacom 3G in the Durban North area at this time of the evening

It's really starting to tick me off

[Dave A]

I think I'm going to keep updating this thread as things happen, or at least sort of happen. Call it my own little diary. Got to vent somehow

Today I get another call from Vodacom - "Have I been contacted by planning?"

It emerges that one of those phonecalls I got about three weeks ago when the issue was escalated was someone from planning. It is confirmed and logged on the system - not enough capacity on the tower. The only question left is how long will it take for Vodacom to fix it. After all, not enough capacity means too many (paying) subscribers. I'm assuming it must be financially viable to increase capacity, whatever that might involve.

The problem is also getting worse. Last night was just ridiculous. And I can't be the only person in the area who is getting really p'd off by this.

[murdock]

dave it sounds like you need to move away from gateway...someone told me they are having the same problem with 3 G up that way...try virgin mobile or telkom broadband ...found it...

[Chatmaster]

Personally I think Vodacom as a company has a fairly big problem on the customer services side, the problem is simple, they are VERY stingy...

[stephanfx]

I looked at vodacom, my mom got vodacom, I tried vodacom, I am very thankful for telkom! I feel your pain Dave.