Content control problems!

[Ihatevodafone]

Hello fellow complainers. Please excuse me but im new here, but unfortunately not new to vodafone problems or BAD customer service.

For two whole weeks i have suffered problems with vodafone's 3G data card and "Content Control" for two whole weeks I have made numerous callstrying to sort this out... Im sorry to say that i have phoned them almost every day and been promised that it would be sorted out... the promises were endless.

I can accept that there will be operational problems with any network, but my main gripe is that along with these promises, i have also been promised all sorts of good will gestures, which i only now find, I WILL NOT GET

last week i was promised that if the problem continued for a further 2 days they would give me a months worth of good will credit against the cost of my 3G contact... 8 days later, NOTHING

I was also promised an upgrade from 1.8 to 8meg connection and unlimited usage to start that day again as a good will guesture... you guest it, im still at 1.8 meg and if i do have unlimited usage i can only use it to stare at the vodafone content control page. Furthermore, the unlimited usage offer is available to anyone who pays the same as me, huh, some good will gesture that was.

upto now I have spoken to countless of vodafone staff, the worse comment I recieved so far was "Vodafone no longer offers good will gestues to customers - you will just have to expect the service not to work" the best comment was "sorry -there's nothing i can do"

But guess what im still expected to pay £25 plus VAT per month for my contract, if i didnt they would soon send round a debt collection agency.

So my best advice is NEVER subscribe to vodafone unless you want a service that doesnt work and customer service that doesnt give a shi....

[Tym]

simple job for the tech team, just delete all features on the account and re-add them. have you gone to a store to see if they can help? i mean i haven't heard of this problem on a 3g card... kinda stupid but hey... anything goes.

go into a store and ask them to take content lock off "mobile number" see if they can process it.

[bbb4]

I have just joined them 2 weeks ago, now paying £25 a month. The Content Control drives me crazy. I can't even go to SKYPE officeal site. I went to Vodafone shop and they unlock the content for me, but it worked for 1 hour, and it comes back again. I brought my laptop into the shop and show them what happened. They rang the office and the reply was ' they are having a problem regarding the content control, they are tryng to find out the reason why the block comes back automatically'. The solution is, unplug the modem and plug it again when it happens. They should have warned us before we sign the contract.

[voda_retailguy]

hey there i work in a retail store, the problems you've been having are stupid and should not be happenin. just pop into a store (i know its stupid you have to go to this length) and we can take the content control in minutes. i know this wasnt about the post. but i noticed you mentioned skype, just be careful how much you are going to use it. as i have seen many people who have used it a lot and within 20 days have ended up with an £8,000 bill...yes! 8 grand! so be careful because skype uses data at a very fast rate. just as a guidline 8 minutes on skype uses about 1 mb. hope this helps:D

[bbb4]

The Vodafone plan now is £25+VAT per month Unlimited, fair usage policy is around 3GB per month. So how could someone spend £8000 on Skype? I am confused. Does Vodafone charge extra for VOIP? You scare me now. I have just started using Skype on my 3G USB modem, normally, i don't use more than 50mb per day includes SKYPE. Are you talking about the old pay per MB plan?

[voda_retailguy]

on both and older plan. if you monitor you usage you should be fine. ts mainly people who have been using it excessivly who have come out with bills like it...i.e 12 hours a day on skype.

[Miguelli]

Interestingly I had the exact same problem with content control on the 3G service – what transpired would have made a grown man cry.

Call 1: I called Vodafone and asked the operator to lift the content control. He put me on hold. A few minutes later I hung up.

Call 2: I called again and this time I spoke to another operator, same request. I was assured that it ‘would take about 3 minutes’. Yippee, thank you.

Tried the service, still content control.

Call 3: I called again and this time I spoke to another operator, same request. I was assured that it ‘would take about 5 minutes’. Yippee, thank you, so that was it, 5 mins to wait.

Tried the service, still content control.

Call 4: I called again and this time I spoke to another operator, same request. This one told me that I must pay 1 pound, do I have a credit card? I am thinking that this one’s taking the piss. I argued - why must I pay for lifting control that I was never told about in the first place. She hung up on me.

Call 5: I call again, livid. Spoke to another operator, patiently explained that the first 2 operators never mentioned a word about 1 pound/credit card. She seemed to think I was inventing this.
She explained that I would get 2 pounds back. I asked what was the point of putting content control only to give money back to people, whatever. She enters my CC details; sorry your bank has declined the payment. £$”£% asked if she was taking the piss. They wont take a debit card, apparently kids or other impostors are unable to get a CC but can get a debit card. If you choose not to have a CC for financial reasons, sorry for you – you are stuck with content control. Looks like having a CC will prove you are an adult, a debit card wont. Called the bank, some error on their system. Fixed.

Call 6: I called Vodafone and asked the operator to lift the content control. He must have been the same one as number one, he puts me on hold gain ( the ‘system was slow’ he explained, apparently putting people on hold speeds it up. )A few minutes later I hung up.

Call 7: Called again. Operator took the CC details then tell me that the content on my mobile has been lifted. I asked why the blue blazes did she lift the content on my mobile for? (I did not even know there was such a thing. But she insisted that I had asked to lift the content on the mobile. Took CC details, this time lifted the content on the 3G card, credited the CC with 1 pound.

Content lifted.

[faza20]

Hi Miguelli

Working for Vodafone, I'm very sorry to read the problems you had getting your content control removed.

The reason we endorse it is to prevent minors accessing unsuitable content, which is why a credit card is needed to remove it (a lot of parents etc get a contract for their kids, if they choose to remove the bar for them, they we have no further responsibilty to prevent them viewing anything and banks will issue a debit card at age 14). If a customer does not have a credit card, it is possible for the bar to be removed in any Vodafone store, as long as 2 forms of ID are provided.

The reason a £1 payment is taken, is to make sure the card is active and registered. The £2 credit purely is a goodwill gesture provided to all customers.

All UK networks currently run similar schemes though there are minor differences.

I hope this explains the actual scheme to you, and if you have any further problems with your account, please feel free to use the Contact Us (http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Page_BOS_ContactUsContent&pageID=PCU_0001&redirectedByRedirectsImplServletFlag=true) section on the Vodafone website to send us an email (if you include FIT135 anywhere in the body of the text, it will be picked up by a team who will be able to help)

[Ihatevodafone]

My God if you think my previous post was bad... wait till you hear this!!!:mad:

My first post reported that I was having problems with vodafone customer service and their useless internet "content control"

The problem has now lasted 4 weeks, and I have been eventually told that this is a vodafone problem!

during those 4 weeks i had made 26 calls totalling over 8 hours to vodafones customer service (using the term customer service lightly, as vodafone doesnt understand what this means) ....YES calls I had to pay for.

Im on a contract and i pay around about £70 for a phone and 3G card so they are not going to get an extra £1 just to prove im an adult.

furthermore I was promised, and yes i use the word "promise" that as a good will guesture they would credit me £25 for the datacard contract, £20 for the calls and £10 for the inconvenience.

SADLY not when my bill came through, i didnt see any of these good will guestures, infact they had only charged me £10 more, for calls and usage which would normally be included within my price plan.

when i called to enquire why i was told, and wait for it..... Ah yes this is a vodafone problem, we know we have incorrectly OVERCHARGED some customers and we will be getting round to sorting your bill out.

So in short if you ignor all the vodafone bullsh1t, i have been given in the form of good will guestures i have been FALSELY promised. I have paid FULL price for an internet sevice which hasnt worked for a month, paid for 8 hours of calls, which was covered by my priceplan but i still had to pay for and then pay an extra £10 because vodafone had made yet another mistake on my bill.

Vodafone are totally useless

..and please no replies from vodafone staff, who I have already PAID to listen to there false promises and ONLY here to try and give this useless company a good name.:mad:

[sillybilly]

Hi Ihatevodafone

26 calls is an awful lot of calls to have to make and i can understand that this must be pretty frustrating. I do think on the other hand though that if you’re ever going to get this sorted it needs to be done through some kind of contact with a member of staff at vodafone. from reading what you’ve put, you’re owed some kind of recompense from vodafone the calls made, lack of working and paid for services etc. my advice would be to email them with the details. Faza20 in an earlier post has explained how to get in touch using a special code. i’ve seen them give this code out on the forum a few times in the past and people seemed grateful for the help. i think the code gets your email to some kind of specialist team who will get the job fixed for you.
good luck and hope you get it sorted

[JulsC]

The Vodafone plan now is £25+VAT per month Unlimited, fair usage policy is around 3GB per month. So how could someone spend £8000 on Skype? I am confused

the old plan gave you about 250 m'b a month. from reading around on here this week i'm not upped to 3g'b fair usage for the same cost. Good move by vodafone and covers my data costs

and ONLY here to try and give this useless company a good name.

ive had outstanding support on an n95 and data plans (above) from vodafone staff on here so they have given vodafone a good name :D

cheers

[secretlondon]

The reason we endorse it is to prevent minors accessing unsuitable content, which is why a credit card is needed to remove it (a lot of parents etc get a contract for their kids, if they choose to remove the bar for them, they we have no further responsibilty to prevent them viewing anything and banks will issue a debit card at age 14). If a customer does not have a credit card, it is possible for the bar to be removed in any Vodafone store, as long as 2 forms of ID are provided.

I apparently need a passport or a driving license. I don't have either and am in my 30s. It's actually illegal for you to offer me a contract and credit if you think I'm under 18. Your website help says you don't need a credit card to remove this censor if you are on a contract, your piss poor outsourced customer services disagree with you. When you credit checked me didn't you get my date of birth?


All UK networks currently run similar schemes though there are minor differences.
You sold me BROADBAND - I have never had broadband anything like this. It's worse than work or college provided broadband - and I'm paying £30 a month for it!

I hope this explains the actual scheme to you, and if you have any further problems with your account, please feel free to use the Contact Us (http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Page_BOS_ContactUsContent&pageID=PCU_0001&redirectedByRedirectsImplServletFlag=true) section on the Vodafone website to send us an email (if you include FIT135 anywhere in the body of the text, it will be picked up by a team who will be able to help)

When I point out the contradiction between your help files and your practice I get a wonderful comment from your rubbish customer service:

We require these details due to some service provider's policy.

Eh?

I tried to ring up but of course you can't ring from a usb modem (even if you put the sim in an old nokia you have lying around). I had to ring from my non vodafone phone which ran out of credit before anyone dealt with me.

I managed to jump through some of the hoops you set - getting online billing that you can't register for as you don't know your phone number - sending an sms from windows to my mobile got round that one.

Vodafone don't seem to realise that an unhappy customer tells all their friends. I've been blogging about all my ****ty experiences - I wonder how much business you'll have lost? Whenever people ask why I'm not contactable I tell them how crap you are!

IF it really was blocking porn and gambling then there would be no problem - I don't look at either. It blocks things I use every day like freenode IRC server which we use for development of free software and wikipedia. You block flikr and image shack so I cannot show my photos to my friends, and I cannot see photographs on other people's sites - I've learnt to realise that the gap is where your censoring crap is.

I have really bad blood towards you. I feel cheated. I even looked up TOR but guess what? You block that too!

Pretty please nice Mr Vodafone - am I big enough to be allowed on IRC now? I'm not actually stupid enough to have a credit card so the nice lady in the call centre says I'll need to stay behind the filter for my own protection!

[secretlondon]

Oh and you block access to bits of wikipedia too!

I've just tried to load Wikipedia's page on Internet Censorship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship) and you block that too!

Hysterical!

[spawn2007]

Without sounding rude, it's not Vodafone's fault you don't have a credit card, passport or driving license.

I'd prefer for content control to be in place instead of having my kid looking at porn or some other crap that's posted on the net.

It's been in place for at least 3yrs (when I took out my first contract with them), so it's not like they've sprung it on you.

If you didn't like it, why did you go with them in the first place or not cancel in the 14 days? As lets face it 2 weeks is long enough to relaise the websites you visit are blocked. :confused:

[secretlondon]

Without sounding rude, it's not Vodafone's fault you don't have a credit card, passport or driving license.

Well then they should update their website help files to reflect their current policy. (and perhaps require proofs of adulthood when they sign people up to credit and contracts)
I'd prefer for content control to be in place instead of having my kid looking at porn or some other crap that's posted on the net.

You can do this at the computer level, and don't you supervise your children? Why do you want Vodafone to act as mum for not only your kid, but for everyone else?

Anyway - if you have the contract isn't it up to *you* if you give your kid access??

If it just blocked porn and gambling I really wouldn't care - as I use neither. It blocks mainstream websites!

It's been in place for at least 3yrs (when I took out my first contract with them), so it's not like they've sprung it on you.

If you didn't like it, why did you go with them in the first place or not cancel in the 14 days? As lets face it 2 weeks is long enough to relaise the websites you visit are blocked. :confused:

Well I'm still within my 2 weeks - and they don't advertise it as filtered broadband, they advertise it as broadband. We all know what broadband is, and most adults don't want Vodafone deciding what we are allowed to read, especially if it's not illegal.

I have NEVER had broadband from a commerical provider that is like this.
Vodafone are not selling phones with this product - they are selling broadband for computers. They sell me net access - they are my internet service provider. They are not behaving like an internet service provider as only work-based broadband has this amount of censorship. (and that's fair enough at work as you are not actually paying for it and you are supposed to be at work)

My problem is do I return this rubbish (and try and deal with BT and get a landline with extra hassle and cost), or do I pay £75 for a passport which I can't afford to use.

Other people have been caught out by this crap. When computer magazines have reviewed this they have been horrified by the censorship (http://labs.pcw.co.uk/2007/08/hsdpa-on-trial.html)

[spawn2007]

Yes you can set this at computer level, however if you use the in built Windows content control, then you've not doubt noticed that you have to either manaully input every website that you want to be able to view, as it will also block every website that does not have a rating (eg - Google, Hotmail, Yahoo, Ebay), either that or enter the password everytime you want to be able to view a site that is either rated incorrectly or does not have one.

Yes it is up to me if they use my laptop, however as any parent of a teenager will know it's impossible to monitor what their child is up to 24/7, so a bit more piece of mind is never a bad thing.

If it's something you are unhappy with, I'd return it and get BB instead, as like Faza20 says, every network now supports it.

[Hopefullyuseful]

Well then they should update their website help files to reflect their current policy. (and perhaps require proofs of adulthood when they sign people up to credit and contracts)

You can do this at the computer level, and don't you supervise your children? Why do you want Vodafone to act as mum for not only your kid, but for everyone else?

Anyway - if you have the contract isn't it up to *you* if you give your kid access??

If it just blocked porn and gambling I really wouldn't care - as I use neither. It blocks mainstream websites!


Well I'm still within my 2 weeks - and they don't advertise it as filtered broadband, they advertise it as broadband. We all know what broadband is, and most adults don't want Vodafone deciding what we are allowed to read, especially if it's not illegal.

I have NEVER had broadband from a commerical provider that is like this.
Vodafone are not selling phones with this product - they are selling broadband for computers. They sell me net access - they are my internet service provider. They are not behaving like an internet service provider as only work-based broadband has this amount of censorship. (and that's fair enough at work as you are not actually paying for it and you are supposed to be at work)

My problem is do I return this rubbish (and try and deal with BT and get a landline with extra hassle and cost), or do I pay £75 for a passport which I can't afford to use.

Other people have been caught out by this crap. When computer magazines have reviewed this they have been horrified by the censorship (http://labs.pcw.co.uk/2007/08/hsdpa-on-trial.html)

Hi,

It would seem that you're having some problems with content control on your datacard with us, I am sorry about this and I have some information for you.

We don't currently block any content that isn't classed as 'Over 18's only'. There may be some other underlying reason why some other content has been blocked. We wouldn't class sites such as wikpedia as parental control or over 18's certainly. We'd like to look into this for you to see why this is happening and try to at least offer an explanation or resolve it if we can.

If you were to send us an e-mail using our Vodafone online contact us form here (https://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Page_Help_ContactUs&pageID=PCU_0002). Include the code FIT135 somewhere in the body of your e-mail an this will come to the forum team. We can then look into this for you and try to find out what may be causing this. Please give some examples of other sites that you have had blocked that you wouldn't consider as over 18's, this will aid us in our investigations. Please remember to include all of the correct details about your account that the form asks for. This will then stop us from having to contact you to ask for it, which will only delay us getting back and sorting this out for you.

Hopefullyuseful
Vodafone UK