[Hands0n]

Its enough to make one consider the Conspiracy Theory :D

Saturday 26 Aug and the Vodafone 3G network was dire - calls would drop, not complete, numbers be unknown or unobtainable. Not a good system to be using up those wonderful Stop The Clock minutes.

After very many attempts at having a conversation with one of my contacts I decided to call Vodafone's Customer Services and see if there was anything afoot. The heart sank when an Indian voice answered (sorry, but I still have vivid flashbacks to 3's Mumbai-based CS team).

The chap who answered was very courteous, asked questions, listened and volunteered that Vodafone were having difficulties with their 3G network. That their engineers were working on the problem, but that there was no indication as to when it would be stable again. Fair enough, networks fail.

I was pleasantly surprised when he asked me what handset I had, and then proceeded to guide me (it was impossible to stop him :D) as to how to switch the handset to 2G GSM only mode. Assuring me that I would not have the problems that I was experiencing with 3G. Now that was very thoughtful, knowledgeable, and extremely helpful to anyone who perhaps does not know their way around their 3G handset.

My distant colleague who was also on Vodafone 3G had the same CS experience, so consistency was apparent.

Full praise, then, to Vodafone CS for being (a) honest, (b) knowledgeable and (c) helpful. It just shows that it can be done. :cool:

[Ben]

That's good, at least they provided some useful information that will let customers continue to use the core functionality of their phone without interruption. Did they stress that you would need to repeat the procedure before 3G would work again?

I wonder if we'll hear what happened to the network? The Register sometimes picks up on these things...

[maxspank]

yeah it was a busy weekend for us, loadsa calls about it. We do get good training working for Vodafone, and obviously we feel better if the customer does :D

[Ben]

Is there a 'party-line' for the reason of the failure, maxspank? Orange and O2 recently had problems due to fibre breakages (if I remember correctly) - was it something similar?

[3GScottishUser]

Having a GSM network of your own has huge advantages as customers can be advised to switch over if technical problems occur on 3G. Using this simple solution certainly solved the short term issue for me and ensured total call stability for the rest of the day.

I also caled Vodafone CS and have to say their information and advice was complete and provides a object lesson in how to be honest to customers when technical issues affect them.

[solo12002]

My brother in Northern Ireland was in the same boat and had no access at all. To be fair to vodafone they did credit his account with £5 pounds.

However I wonder if this is something the network is going to face all the time now with offering free calls at the weekend? ive not forgotten the days when o2 offers things free at weekend and the whole network failed.

[maxspank]

Is there a 'party-line' for the reason of the failure, maxspank? Orange and O2 recently had problems due to fibre breakages (if I remember correctly) - was it something similar?

Not sure what the problem was, they just tend to tell us there's a problem. I assume its all fixed. I know there were still a few customer being affected by it yesterday.

[3GScottishUser]

AFAIK it was only the 3G network that was affected and the GSM one was fine. Doubt if they have enough 3g PAYG users to make any significant impact on their UMTS network at weekends. If anything the business users using datacards in cities would be more of a problem in terms of capacity I would have thought.

Were any of the TV channels showing anything particularly popular on Sunday?

[vfDeac27]

Hi,

I also work for Vodafone. Sorry to anybody who experienced problems with 3G. I’ve since spoken to our technical department and they tell me that a mass outage with 3G was caused on the Friday of the August Bank Holiday weekend when one server went down.

While they were trying to fix the fault on this station a domino effect was created which knocked out the other sites. This has since been resolved.

Again, sorry to hear of the inconvenience caused.

[Hands0n]

Wow! Welcome to Talk3G and thanks a bundle for the background information.

I think that the great bit behind all of this is that not only was your own 2G network fully functional and available but that your CS was giving the express advice to switch the handset over to 2G. It demonstrated true coordinated effort - whether by intent or accident the effect was the same - a happy Customer base :D

[solo12002]

I agree with handson. While Im not on vodafone they did credit my brothers account with £5 pounds, above all they appeared to of taken the time to admit there was a problem with their network and to explain users how to switch from 3g to 2g.

It sure makes a change from some CS and networks fobing the user of , telling dam right lies or not admitting the prob. So 10 out of 10 to vodafone on this one.