I have just switched from ADSL with Home Phone to UFB with Home Phone. I have difficulty comprehending the incompetence of Vodafone in managing this change.
1. Despite being a broadband, phone and mobile customer for the past 10+ years, I was treated as a new customer. They needed to carry out a credit check - unbelievable! All correspondence and brochures were worded as though I were a new customer.
2. The email with Order Summary attached was correct - it showed the $10 On Account Mobile discount, the correct total $75 and a list of the correct names and numbers for my 5 BestMates.
3. Two days later I received another email "Good News - We've validated your On Account Mobile details to receive your $10 discount. This means you'll pay the discounted monthly fee below". However, the monthly fee shown was $85, not the discounted amount. After phoning Vodafone I was told to ignore the fee shown in this email.
4. Then I received a Welcome Pack by post. This contained an interesting statement - Please note: Your first bill is likely to be more than usual as it includes a part-charge for your first month plus a full month of charges for the first month. I have yet to see what this bill will look like but I await it with interest.
5. I also received an SMS from Vodafone saying that as my property was a ROW the installation would be delayed until I received resource consent and I would need to get approval from my neighbours. This is absolute rubbish, it is simply a back section with my own private driveway. I contacted Chorus who commented that this was common with Vodafone who seemed look on a city plan or maybe just Google Maps, and saw a back section, they automatically assumed ROW. Chorus carried out the site survey as scheduled and installed the fibre on the scheduled day. It was connected the following day after they found the correct port in the exchange.
6. I had already configured the Home Hub and was able to access the Internet and use phones immediately.
7. I then picked up emails through Outlook and 3 of the mailboxes were fine, but the primary mailbox failed with an invalid logon. I tried using Vodafone Webmail with the same result. I tried to access My Vodafone using my previous Username/Password to check the mailboxes but could not logon. I then tried following the instructions for new customers in the Vodafone Welcome Guide and tried to logon to Customer Zone using my Account Number but had no password supplied by Vodafone and I had not selected one as was implied in the Welcome Guide. So, a call to Vodafone. I was given a password verbally. If it had been emailed I might have understood and not copied it down incorrectly. I certainly was not One that I would have selected.
8. This is when I learned that because I had switched to UFB, which as far as I am concerned is just another connection technology, my account on the Vodafone system that I had been using, together with the primary mailbox, had been closed. Duh!!! I would need to create a new profile in what was described as the Clearnet system. However, this was not working and was being investigated. I had already used up 4 of my 5 logon attempts before the account was blocked according to Vodafone, so I gave up on this issue.
9. Two hours later I received a phone call to check email and this was now working.
10. Next day I was still unable to access My Vodafone/Customer Zone, but My Customer/Broadband and Home Phone was available with my ADSL account logon, the mailboxes were listed, but I was unable to find any details of BestMates.
11. Another phone call to Vodafone and this time I was connected to the Business Help Desk where I got good advice. Contrary to previous advice, I did not need to create a new profile but I could find nowhere to set up mailboxes and I was told that the limit on the "Clearnet" system was only 5 before additional fees. I have yet to follow up on this. It appears that my existing .ihug.co.nz and .Vodafone.co.nz mailboxes will remain on the previous system and if I ever discover how to set up mailboxes on the "Clearnet" system I will likely need to access Webmail on each system when staying in hotels.
12. Once I had logged on the Customer Zone, I discovered that somehow Vodafone had attempted to transfer my 5 BestMates. Only problem was only 3 of the numbers were populated, these had the wrong names associated with them and they had an effective date of 29/8/2014, which based on Vodafone's rules of only allowing a number to be changed once a month, prevented me from making changes. I have just spend 60 minutes on hold on this problem and eventually sent an email.
13. The Welcome Pack is totally inadequate for changing from ADSL to UFB. It does not mention any differences between the systems, nor what happens to existing Mailboxes and BestMates.
After only 2 days, compared to ADSL, the connection appears to be reliable, the Upload speed is good at 10Mbps, the Download speed varies between 5Mbps (Slower) and 25Mbps (Faster). For some reason, presumably know to someone at Vodafone, existing customers are being moved to the Clearnet system when they change to UFB. When I phone some Vodafone numbers (from their Website) I get asked if I am a previous TelstraClear customer. It is obvious that the systems are still running in parallel and causing confusion within Vodafone.
If I had to do this again, I would retire my mailboxes in advance and probably sign up with another company for UFB.
It is even a bigger problem for those customers on ADSL with the My Sky package. This is not sold by Vodafone with UFB, instead getting the Vodafone TV package, with a different recorder which doesn't support remote control with a Smartphone App.
Others may have had a better experience, they cannot all be this bad, I would hope.