I've got 3 minor landline issues which, after multiple phone calls to Vodafone customer services, are still unresolved. If anybody has any ideas, or a definitive explanation, I’d be interested to hear them. I’m getting tired of the BS from the Vodafone CSR’s.

I acknowledge these might be considered as '1st world problems', but I’m sure I’ll feel better after a good rant!

First 2 issues occurred after changing from Vodafone ADSL to fibre using an Ultrahub router

1) The flash hook feature no longer works. For folks that don't know, this is the button on the phone which disconnects the call and returns to the dial tone for another call.

It is/was probably most commonly used in offices to transfer a call, but my primary use is for calling radio stations for competitions. If the phone was engaged, hit flash and redial to try again. Used to work with each of our 3 landline phones on copper, but on fibre, it doesn't do anything. Need to hang up, wait 5 seconds, pick up the handset then dial again. Nowhere near as quick.

After performing the obligatory router reset, Vodafone CSR suspected a faulty router, but swapping to another Ultrahub made no difference. They sent out a HomeHub - HG659 router but when we attempted to use this, another CSR says that it nothing to do with the router but I need to pay for the 3-way calling at $3.99 a month. I objected to having to pay for this service as it has been just a standard phone line feature for decades and the new system should just emulate this. Managed to get a year’s worth of the service for free but I find this doesn't actually work. Latest CSR now says it’s only for Business customers.

2) When calling a phone number, if no one answered after 20 seconds, the call was terminated. In a lot of cases, this isn’t actually long enough for the call to go through to voicemail or for elderly people to get up and answer the phone. Vodafone have managed to extend this to 1 minute but it used to be 4 minutes on copper. Sometimes 1 minute isn’t actually long enough but CSR says this is the maximum and increasing the time has caused other issues – didn’t elaborate on what the other issues are.

3) Chargeable local and 0800 phone numbers. There is a local Auckland phone number for ferry information provided by Fullers. A couple of years ago we started getting charged for the call – the local phone number I dial appears as a 0832 number on our bill (type IQ) and charged at $0.10 a call. There was also an 0800 number to the same service and again this appeared on the bill asthe same 0832 call, also charged at $0.10 a call. I changed to using my prepay 2degrees cell phone and do not get charged. Recently, the 0800 number has been discontinued and have started using the local Auckland number again and are now getting the same 0832 calls on our bill. My question is how is this a chargeable call, and if it is, where is the message saying I will be charged for the call? My Vodafone plan includes ‘Call NZ’. It's not a huge amount per call but it does mount up over the month and why should a local call be charged at all?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Cheers