What do you think of Vodafone Live?

[teden]

Morning All!

I work on Vodafone Live and I'm trying to figure out what people do and don't like about the service.

If you've got any comments / thoughts / opinions / etc - good or bad - please post them here.

Unfortunatley, I can't deal with any billing or network problems - you'll need to ring 191 for that.

Thanks

T

[Skyblue]

Nicely laid out, not much on it though (Orange World was better in that respect) and would be expensive with all the subscriptions/paid requests (for content that's usually free elsewhere), won't be keeping mine after the free trials.

[zoovision]

teden,

We have some content that we would like to offer via streaming to Vodafone customers, can you help me find the correct person to speak to about this? Our test streaming site is located here: http://www.zoovision.com/mobile.html or via WAP here: http://www.zoovision.com/wap.wml Thanks for your help!

Sean
ZooVision

[daveislander]

I must say that Vodafone live is a godsend for me and is used constantly by all three of us who all have PAYG vodafone Motorolas in this house. Having dumped our 3 a year or so ago I can see absolutely no reason to go back.. we still dont get any 3g coverage where I live but Vodafone live doesn't need it which makes it extra special IMO.
Keeping up to date with the Cricket both here and abroad was fantastic. The 50p per day options for News etc is brilliant, the text back service is too expensive and needs to be sorted a bit.. I asked for text back with the Cricket and got so many messages that meant nothing that I cancelled within 8 hours and it cost me about a fiver!
All in all it is probably the best service for me and my requirements.. I agree it can be a bit thin,, but I only need Cricket, F1 and news info so it suits me to a tee!
Having used the 3G services when in coverage I am very impressed with the speed etc but your service upgrades need to be either sped up, or perhaps we could be told the truth about when the services will be available? We have been promised full service for 8 months now,, but still keep getting fobbed off with "in the next few weeks" or By March, May, June or August depending upon who and how often we ask.
Overall our swap to Vodafone was the best move we have made... Vodafone live (even without streaming video etc) is useful, fun and exactly what we need.
Dave

[malsphone]

I agree with the comments so far, its better than it used to be but content is thin on the ground compared to others, e.g Orange World.

Also have problems with local content in Northern Ireland, the weather is never available for example, but the most annoying thing is no search function for anything other than ringtones/pics etc.

That and the fact that a lot of it is charged or look's like its free to view except for when you try to read the item and get the buying options page. Should we [the user] not have some sort of indication that this item is part of a buying pack before clicking the link?

[Adam]

When i first got my phone a few months back i was browsing Live for hours, and one thing i noticed was the poor chat service. I remember the chat service on O2 was brilliant, the 121 chat was instant. From what i remember on Vodafone, it was sloooow! Not the loading of pages, just took time for messages to appear on the screen.

[Jubas]

i use live a fair bit especially for football updates etc.. the content is fairly good, but there quite often seems to be a number of links not working etc. it says to call 191, but i honestly can't be bothered for something that isn't absolutely necesary. it also seems to occur through partner provided sections such as the financial times (i think) etc.. the free videos for the cricket were absolutely fantastic as i could see the wickets while sitting at the london beer festival and show my mates! i don't think i'd ever use a text back service..

i too am an F1 nut, so having interviews or highlights in a streamable video format would be fantastic as well :)

otherwise, i use:
news (text only, not video)
sport news (occasionally video, mostly text, or checking live scores)
weather
location related stuff (unpaid for content - not that often)
tv guide (this feature is unreal.. i don't end up buying newspapers on the weekend, so its always handy - although the times are sometimes out by an hour! :) )

[stryker135]

Have been using a vodafone 3g 500 / 6680 since the last 3 days and all i can say is that the 3g video calling thingy is a complete gimmick. Rest of all seems fine so far, not encountered anything unusual except a call centre that is 'Less' literate. Voda live seems good but many a times, things are not available and ur hit a dead end page.

They say i get 50 mins 3g video calls inclusive + free evening and weekend video calling, well thank you because i am not even going to be able to throttle you network, why because although i am in a 3g area, my phone signal catch the requisite band *rarely* and to top it of all u need ur mate or the other person to also be in a 3g coverage area *WITH 3G STATUS at thier signal bar*. Well i am not tech stOOpid, i did definetly did know about how 3g works before i got this tariff, but the main issue still is How well/often do our phones recieve 3G status at the network bar??
That is what they are playing at, because most consumers dont know nothing about how exactly 3G video calls go through.. what i say is they should make it more clear in their advertising..

EDITED ON 26th SEP:
I second that last comment, well the 3g coverage is good except for the few black spots. But i still dont understand why resellers (Eg. CPW say that voda provides unlimited trailers/news video downloads on the 3g 500 contact)

And about the free video downloads and all that they claimed, i am still figuring out what exactly is free, before i get conned into any subscription and end up with a nitro bill..

:eek:

Sorrie for making you all read this

[tumnus]

My wife and I managed to upgrade to the 6680 for free (AT200+500texts) from Orange and so far we're impressed. Coverage is always a bit of a lottery, but thankfully I get a full 3g signal at home (on the outskirts of Coventry) and at work (on the outskirts of Warwick). With Orange I could only just get a 2G signal at work on my 6600. We'll probably use video calling a bit since it is free evening and weekends until Jan 2006 anyway and we both have a 6680, but I don't know of anyone else with a video phone.

Anyway, back on topic....

I agree that Orange World had much more content for free and I too am puzzled at what is so free about the video downloads on Voda Live.

Besides that, I think the WAP pages could be laid out better. There are always too many graphics at the top of every page, meaning that you have to scroll down a lot to see the content on every page. Not everyone has a P900! The index page could be much more compact in general if the text and section icons were smaller, much smaller.

One bit of content I particularly miss from Orange World is free and easy access to cinema listings. With Voda Live it seems you have to jump through hoops to find a nearest cinema, which costs monthly and then I get those 502 partner errors frequently.

It's nice that the costs are laid out very clearly and when you want to, it is easy to subscribe or pay. Subscription services are reasonable-ish, but it could very easily get expensive if you start subscribing to several areas. Maybe discounts could be offered for multiple subscriptions?

Of course the best feature of Vodafone Live is that it is free to browse and doesn't use any data plan bytes. :)

[Gavincol78]

And about the free video downloads and all that they claimed, i am still figuring out what exactly is free, before i get conned into any subscription and end up with a nitro bill..

:eek:

Sorrie for making you all read this

The 'FREE' video downloads are basically 30day trial subscriptions that can be cancelled at anytime but will allow unlimited video downloads on selected topics ie, News, Film Trailers etc, but at the end of the day £3.00 per month for unlimited news videos or £3.00 per month for film trailers isn't exactly breaking the bank either.

Before anyone says about 3's bolt-ons who really wants to see that bl**dy ugly kid video clips over and over

Also I have been with Vodafone PAYG since the beginning of this month and I can't find anything to fault them with yet apart from the usual 3G black spots which isn't really that much of a problem as they are not the only network with the problem.

[stryker135]

The 'FREE' video downloads are basically 30day trial subscriptions that can be cancelled at anytime but will allow unlimited video downloads on selected topics ie, News, Film Trailers etc, but at the end of the day £3.00 per month for unlimited news videos or £3.00 per month for film trailers isn't exactly breaking the bank either.

Before anyone says about 3's bolt-ons who really wants to see that bl**dy ugly kid video clips over and over

Also I have been with Vodafone PAYG since the beginning of this month and I can't find anything to fault them with yet apart from the usual 3G black spots which isn't really that much of a problem as they are not the only network with the problem.

All i can say is when u already have a pay monthly bill of £40 (WHich was advertised as buy this and u get all the freebies in) it is hard to spend a bit more. I clearly remember CPW and similar resellers selling the 3g 500 contract as included unimited video downloads for the period of the contract. Now the video downloads thingy is turned out to be a complete gimmick. ANyways in the end customers riped :tired: because of less information in advertising, TELECOMS SIMILING :D all the way to the bank

[papa_k]

vodafone live is buggy - there is no to ways about it - you could blame the contracts department if you wish - but taking it on a customer face value view, i have not had a good experience using vodafone live - the content is average and updated at a reasonable pace when comparing it to what happens in the real world - it is better than the old o2 version that i used to use. i always wanted to wander off to the internet with the o2 one, with vodafone, it just about gives me what i need.

with regards to what it looks like, text seems to be the best way to present the information, and the images that are used in vodafone live always seem to be an after thought. they dont add any value to the message that is trying to be put across.

i do think that the video content and quality is very good. the billing aspect of it is shocking.

the music section of live is very clever, i like the idea of it, i am very disapointed that you do not get the option to use the music that you purchase (by the license to use) for other devices - NO BACK ALLOWED!! - which is not good for building a longterm relationship with the customer...i for one wont download anymore tracks from it.

[Deranger]

Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick, but I thought 3G was supposed to be faster? Anyway, I've got the SE V600i and it takes an absolute age to load the Vodafone Live page, then any links take forever to load. That and most of the stuff I was looking at ended in buying links put me off. Also, when will service providers wake up to the fact that not all of us are into football? There are motorsport fans using phones too you know!

[berrymwb]

Firstly the plus points:

Better content than three and charging system is FAR FAR more transparent than 3 - this really infuriated me about 3. Latest scores, be it football, cricket whatever (cricket wasn't on 3) are excellent and kept well up to date. I love the idea of Gillette Soccer Special on a Saturday as streaming, even though I haven't used it yet.

Generally faster than three, sometimes I found threes services a bit unresponsive needing several presses of the button to get the page I wanted.

Love the way you can still download videos outside of the 3g zone.

Now the negatives:

Vodafone pages, despite better responsiveness, give far more errors. Today for instance CAE 500 errors everywhere when trying to download anything.

Three interface is far prettier.

I have a free news video, sport video and film package yet keep getting charged. Fortunately I have an email from voda confirming these things are free for the life of my contact (Aug/Sep 05 offers) but I shouldn't have to keep phoning for refunds just because your m-pay system is buggy.

Lots of ' Web: Connection Time-Out ' errors on my Nokia 6680 when downloading which Vodafone seem ignorant to, or are just not admitting to. But at least your CS advisors can understand you!

Conclusion:

Very good compared to three in terms of speed and volume of content (and quality), but LOTS of bugs

[berrymwb]

OH m-pay doesn't work properly and people get charged for things that should be free.

I'm talking about the Free Film, News and Sport video offer. Most people are still getting charged for this which is unacceptable. SORT IT OUT.

[papa_k]

OH m-pay doesn't work properly and people get charged for things that should be free.

I'm talking about the Free Film, News and Sport video offer. Most people are still getting charged for this which is unacceptable. SORT IT OUT.

I have left vodafone and gone to 3 because of this very problem, always chasing them for things that i should not have been charged for - the tarriff for 3 is much better value anyway.

300 X-Net mins
1000 Texts (one thousand)
50 video mins
50 video / picture messages
£5 to download what i want (£10 for the first three months)
only £30 - BARGAIN!!