I recently spent a week in London as a tourist from NYC. Before leaving the US I called Vodafone in London and told them I wanted a sim card for my iPhone so that I could use it to tether my laptop (I wanted to use my phone as a hotspot for my laptop). They told me that their "international freebie" card would be perfect for this purpose. When I got to Heathrow I bought the sim card, they installed it, and all was supposedly great. As I was leaving the terminal the salesperson caught up with me and apologized, saying that they had just realized the tethering plan wouldn't work. I followed him back to the shop, and they told me that I'd also need to buy a dongle. They didn't have them in stock, so the next day I bought one in the city. I initially had 500Mb of data, which the Vodafone salesperson assured me would be enough for a week of websurfing, email, and Facebook (no movies or music streaming). I attached the dongle that evening and it worked fine. That first night I spent perhaps two hours online. The next evening, after another sightseeing day, I returned to my hotel and went online again, and after about an hour the dongle disconnected, telling me I had exhausted the data plan! I was in shock--this 500MB of data had run out in around 3 hours. Vodafone customer service isn't available after 8, so I had to wait until the next day to contact them. They were very unhelpful, saying they had no way to know what I was doing online, etc. Insult to injury, while a foreign credit card was perfectly fine to purchase their sim card and dongle, it wasn't acceptable as a way to top up online or over the phone! So I went to a tobacco shop and bought a $50BP voucher, and, unbelievably, this lasted for about three more hours!! What an incredible rip-off! Once connected, the counter would show data download when there was nothing at all running on the computer--the browser closed, no updates, no email programs running. I called to complain about this and while waiting for someone to answer the counter showed I had used 20Mb of data!!
I would say avoid Vodafone dongles or data plans like the plague. They're a scam, pure and simple.
Vodafone Mobile Broadband Reviews
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Report abuseIt is very good
Grt speed connectivity.
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Be aware that the £3 / month for 250MB is a cleverly-worded scam. The implication is that you pay £3 line rental for 250MB, then after that £2 per day for additional usage. What it really means is, you buy our dongle outright. Then pay £3 a month for '250MB', but then you can't actually access it without then paying an additional £2 per day that you use the device. For a light occasional user, this could turn out to be a very expensive way of accessing the Internet. And that's if you can even get 3G coverage in the first place - in most cases you can't
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My experience of the Vodafone dongle has been pretty disappointing. When it works at 3G its great, but it very often doesn't, often appears but doesn't actually.
I've been told I need to remove the SIM card, put the dongle into a different USB port, take it back to a Vodafone shop to have it 'reprogrammed', put it in a handset to referesh it, and most frustratingly of all that the service is working perfectly as I've stared at a screen taking 4 minutes to load.
Thankfully my contract is up in March, and I'd rather use two tin cans and a piece of string than Vodafone again. -
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DONT MISS THIS OFFER - AVOID IT LIKE THE PLAGUE It is RUBBISH. If you can 3G connectivity (as rare as hen's teeth) then its not too bad and you can get speeds of upto 450 Kbps.The normal connaection (about 95% of the time is GPRS and this is ludicrous - it takes about 45 minutes to load the BBC News Home page. The speed is usually between 0 and 500 bps - it does occasionally speed up to about 30 Kbps but this is a peak and there are more troughs than peaks. I have complained to Vodafone but all I got in reply was a totally spurious e-mail about their Freebie Rewardz scheme - since tis is not applicable to dongle users it was a waste of everyones time. I then received a very impertinent, almost offensive e-mail written in very poor Hinglish which merely informed me when the last data 'bundle had been released to me . And that was it. Ive had enough and Im going elsewhere - anywhere but Vodafone
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My Vodaphone alleged 'broadband' PAYT dongle provides usually appallingly slow (sometimes 'dial up' speed) 'service', and sometimes no data at all, even with the signal level reading 'good'. :o)
To call this rubbish boadband at all is false advertising, indeed lying. I live not out in the wilds but in SE London and for it not to work even here shows how appalling it is. Don't use this trash, it is a complete con and waste of money.
It even took me three attempts and several minutes to connect to this site to complain about it, there's no point contacting the company, all you get are irrelevant options on their phone lines or automated and useless responses from their online 'support'. Just Don't even go there is my advice, from bitter experience. -
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Poor Coverage Vodafone please do something--
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I have been with vodafone for nearly 2 years and not had a signal since last January, i have a dongle contract so they wont let me leave, i am paying for 3 connect on pay as you go on top of my contract,ive done everything except take them to court, i am really fed up and tired of being ripped off, they say i have got a signal, its always their excuse.i took it to town to get a signal so they say i have used it so they wont help, arent we surposed to use a pc at home for goodness sake, ive been told its on watch dog ,i hope so ,i want pay back time.i am paying over £20 a month so you are lucky if your paying £15.
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Never had a problem with my Vodofone dongle ever ! £15 a month contract i have my 3000mb/100 hours still .Never had to pay more and always use my full allowance...sometimes a day or two more, i don't download much at all maybe half of what i could but surf for hours everyday including face book.
Connected to Vodafone3G and often 3G+ i have had this dongle for 5 years now ,the old one with the aerial extention, my contract ran out 3 years ago but i am keeping it because i go to loads of vintage caravan shows with my old van , maybe try an aerial extention its always worked for me on my laptop and the netbook x -
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One of the reviewees above mentioned Virgin Broadband. You must be one of the few who can get it to work then. They upgraded my connection to 20MB/s and the minute they did that, i could no longet get a reliable internet connection. Have had a VODA PAYGO dongle for the last 18 months, absolutely brilliant bit of kit. It may not be the fastest device, but always had good reliable connection and ok there are some areas in the UK where it may not work so well. But what do you want for £15 a month. Compared to my previous internet provider, this vodafone dongle is not only more reliable, its cheaper in the long run if you don't abuse and manage the data allowance.
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Everyone who buy's a Dongle are under the impression there getting Broadband ,when really there nowhere near the reliability of good old broadband in the home. All your buying is a basic 3g - GPRS - Plug & Play some piece of rubbish as i have in the past had t-mobile & mainly Vodaphones newest Dongles of death,it will go blue and you have fast-ish net and Green just means no - chance wait,wait,and wait longer . Why these companys are still selling these stupid part - time plug-in's is beyond me if your reading the papers or any social network Twitter/Fakebook then there sort of light use ,then if you hit a site on you-tube it will cost a fortune as i was paying £15 every 8/9 days so therefore sighned - up with good old Virgin broadband just that no package for T.V,PHONE nowt just Broadband,it came in a van - man and set it up all on my own as there was a previous person within this property had Telewest but thats who Virgin are noe so for £23.50 per month for 10-Gig + 2 mbps upoloads speeds then it's plenty for what i need and i dont have a bank account at all. They sent us a card or pay the bill with the code-line at the top of your bill,as i will never pull that dreaded Bogus Dongle in to use ever again the only one thing with no bank account Virgin will forward your bill 2 months in advance and your on a winner as we got 3 months for £18 to begin with and payed £60 up-front so nothing has gone wrong in the last 8 months now.....get ringing em and not sky as there just working hand in hand with B-T and demand £150 upfront forward billing no good as they cut you off to you pay the full amount .
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I purchased vodafone PAYG mobile broadband at £25 (included £10 top up), I couldn't get it connected at all, I phoned vodafone customer helpline (or the 'not able to helpline'), eventually after following operators instructions I was transferred from 3G to GPRS and it still didn't connect, the operator said I had a poor signal in my area, however my laptop was showing that the signal was excellent, no further help was offered. I called at the vodafone shop next day and after the assistant contacted the customer helpline, the dongle was transferred to a 'dial up connection;; with vodafone, this process took approx 1hr & 15mins, and it still isn't working properly, it's so frustrating, when it finally connects the webpage freezes or i just get kicked off halfway through something, no more mobile broadband for me .................
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The worst broadband ever, I've been complaining to them since October last year and asked that the contract be cancelled, the product is not fit for the purpose it was sold for, they said you can pay a early termination fee of £75, unreal, i've started keeping a log of daily issues and also I've recorded some videos showing it can take 20 minutes to load a bloody google page, the list is long and have told them that all info will be forwarded to office of fair trading, there's thousands of people pissed off with this crappy service, I've had 3 dongles in 6 months and a load crappy scripted answers, not paying for it anymore, apologies of the language but it is s**t........... give it up vodafone, you're not good at it.
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I got the Vodafone pay as you go dongle as im always on the road in my truck.. Im not impressed with how slow it is and how quick the money goes ! £10 in less than 5 days ! I go on the internet for Emails and on FB .. I don't download and films or upload but the money runs out too quick.. Im looking to find another dongle that works but from what im reading in all the reviews there is no dongle without fault !! I thought we were in the 20th century and modern times !! Smoke signals might be quicker !! That or carrier pideon !!
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same story here s75 area . awful coverage , after the sales guy in barnsley store said it was magnificent!!! (tosser!) i go on autotrader ..f/b ebay and hotmail it takes an age to displayanything . the credit seems to go very fast to. i used o2 until that became as relaible as a b/r train ! i think there all the same ,rubbish ! the t mobile fair usage policy is also a rip off i bought a dongle and sim card for 39/99 it said 3 months unlimmeted use ! b/s after 3 days of using it id ran out of data! and u cant top it up either! id uploaded some pics to auto trader some pics on f/b of my horses and sent 2 emails! how can that be unlimited? i rang o2 and said id used this for 2 years no probs now it svery unreliable the guy claimed id been using it for 9 hours aday? the dates he gave me .. i wasnt even in england ! he also claimed that someone else must have been using it !! utter crap i live on me own no one else in the house .. i,ll never use o2 or vodafone again
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regards to all. when i bought my vodafone dongle it was very poor so i wound some cooper wire around it and connected it to a home made aerial which went thru window and up the side of my house, now it works great.
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Hello computer, and mobile phone justice seekers...
Up until resently, when ever l have required to check up on my vodaphone, (£15 monthly 2gig dongle allowance) l have simply clicked on the vodaphone logo, "check balance" button, and l have had comprehensive credit information as to, ie, (expiry date), and very importantly, (how much of my monthly allowance is left) before that monthly allowance expires.. BUT SADLY NOT ANYMORE!!..
Since "vodaphone's" scandalous "price increace", (in the form of the reduction from, 3gig to 2gig for a £15 monthly payment) l have desired to make every effort to not increace my monthly expenditure to "vodaphone" in order not to reward "vodaphone greed"...
In order for me to do this it is absolutely essential that l have, (up to date information), but now, when ever l seek this essential information all l am able to obtain is that l am currently, "£15 in credit", or, (l have £15 ready to drop into place when the current 2gigs are all used up), but the vital, detailed information is unobtainable.. Are any other "vodaphone" users getting this (credit information blackout) problem?..
l unable to carry out my, (allowance monitoring) plans unless l know:
(1): When the expire date is, (so as not to lose my monthly credit, due to the expiry date, and:
(2): How much of the 2'gig credit l have left...
The only answer l can think of to this, (lack of information) supply from "vodaphone" is that when l start, a new £15 allowance l will have to make my own record as to its, expiry date.. lf l'm able to do this l will be able to, (later in the monthly allowance) "splashout" on the more expensive, video streams...
I hope that "OFFWOT?" may one day be able to protect the public, and curb such corporate greed, and protect the interests of consumers...
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I bought a Vodafone sharing dongle in approx August last year. I was told that as a member of HM Forces I would be entitled to a discounted contract on the £20 (ish) for 5Gb allowance. After several emails to Vodafone customer services, I received a reply quoting another email address that I must apply to for the discount. All this within the (ticking) 30 days I had to establish the discount. I was eventually told that as the contract was a business deal, I would not qualify for the discount. I bit the bullet, as the dongle is quite useful, however I am appalled at how quickly I appear to get through my 5GB allowance, this is made all the less palatable by the quotes (on vodafone website) as to how much surfing / downloading etc I could get for 1GB. I have gone over my monthly allowance after just 2 weeks (of purely evening use - and not excessive at that) and my bill (on top of my contract charge) is already at £55. I now face 2 weeks of fretting and wondering what on earth I got myself into. Thankfully it's only a 12 month contract. I will not be renewing and would NOT recommend a vodafone dongle or internet package to anyone. I shudder to think what sort of bill an individual could run up on an IPad2 contract with only a 2GB monthly allowance. Avoid these deals at all costs.
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I would not advise anyone to get a Vodafone pay monthly dongle. I got one for my daughter for Uni and she used it about three times, taking care of the 3GB limit. I have just seen a payment to Vodafone on my bank statement for £120 more than it should have been. I called Vodafone about this and was told that my daughter has used the dongle every day between the day it was activated and yesterday (17 Jan 2012). In fact, my daughter was in hospital for a week in late November 2011 and then moved home (where we have broadband) and the dongle has been completely out of use in a drawer. I explained this to Vodafone and they INSISTED that it could not be a defective dongle, Vodafone could NOT be wrong. They also said that there was activity on the dongle on 16 Jan 2012 - on this day I know for sure that my daughter was at Uni for the whole day, her computer was left at home and the dongle in the house, I was at work all day as was my husband. Vodafone said that SOMEONE ELSE must have used the dongle while we were out. No-one has access to my house and the only 'people' present were my dog and two cats - I pointed out that THEY were unlikely to have accessed the internet using the dongle. Vodafone have been extremely unhelpful and I intend to cancel all my accounts with them.
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O so sorry i forgot to tell you the guy above trying to make Vodaphone a better buy would it's his job ,any hoo these little Dumb-Dongles were tested in china where it takes 2 minites to download any movie free (they put a sattalite up many years ago and part of it was for best 3g) but in the U.K the story is different as we are not in-line with this satalite and that is mainly why these little devices will never work. They do not even have accelerators for better signal as were all used to ''EDGE'' +''GREEN DOT SYNDROME'' as we get the worst ever reception for these little rip off's go to hell Vodaphone if they can make a program called 'cowboy builders' then i am making videos about COWBOY VODAPHONE DONGLES + DONT BUY THEM AS IT'S MY MISSION IN LIFE FOR 2012. MMMWWWHHHAAAWWW
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If i have posted posted on here trying to help you all and now all the posts are so right,Vodaphone Lite does not work it is not broadband either it's 3g like an smartphone but to be honest i hope and pray no-one else is forced to buy any dongle in life especially a Vodaphone one,i had 2 and to be honest just useing my local paper and Facebook it would last 9 days maximum as for there 15 pounds for 2-gig is diabolical. So i hope you all have done what i done went to virgin - media and you only pay 18 quid max for just a broadband line-in,no telly box or telephone as everyone has mobiles now and for there t.v Freeview will be adding another 5 channel just this year so why have it or sky t.v were in a recession andneed to watch the pennys as paying to watch a t.v programs is beyond me when your both at work all day. So bye VODAPHONE DONGLE WE WANT ALL OUR MONEY BACK FOR WASTING ALL OUR TIME TRYING TO SORT OUT YOUR PROBLEMS
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does anyone belive vodafone care if we dont like their service? if anyone from vodafone was reading this they would shrug thier shoulders and say so what long as i get my wages. vodafone is a big company they dont have to care best advice is if you dont like service leave go to another company but who ever you go to they wont care either
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vodafone dont care what thier customers think aslong as they keep paying them. Big companies dont care about their customers they dont have to because if you leave someone else will join so youre just a number to them. If vodafone did care they would improve thier service
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Vodafone is a total rip off. it is not possible to get even normal use out of their pay as you go dongle before it runs out in about ten to fifteen days. Vodafone are just hoping that the general public will not get to know about this con called vodaphone broadband lite. this company is not fit to run a broadband service and the organisation should be closed down. Dont buy vodafone, they will rip you off! you have been warned!
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VERY, VERY DISAPPOINTED in Vodaphone! Signed up for dongle that dos not expire, tried to use in Cornwall, the Lake District and the Cotswolds with no luck. Came home and message appeared on my laptop to contact Vodaphone, contacted them and was told, very politely that my dongle had expired and the number was no longer valid. The whole point of getting this type of dongle was so that I was not time limited.
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vodafone dongle taking 18mb after 10 a night a hour is this wright or is it a joke wot a load of s**t
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I agree with Mr R Young.
I am also with voafone and have been for 3years, however for the past 8 months my connection speed has been cut just about allowing me to load a basic page, i was never told this was going to happen, Ive spent days on the phone and even been intouch with the CEO of the company's pa. After being told time and time again that it must be my computer that is the problem, which is not the case,and that there is nothing wrong with their system untill i ring the next day and told that infact they had been working on the towers near me, if they are going to lie they should atleast make sure that all their staff read from the same script. i am now stopping the contract, they have not kept up their end of the contract, so on that basis i feel i can get out of the contract without any penalty, they have agreed to this. The response from their customer service leaves alot to be desired, absolutely shocking service, for such a big company within the world of phones etc you would think they would look after their customers but oh no they dont. Anyone thinking about going to vodafone please think twice. -
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someone i know are useing a '' 3 '' Network and thats ment to work ok with windows 7,but do we need to keep shelling out cash to a better dongle comes along,no thanks you would think the actual amount of money Vodaphone are worth is staggering and yet we are mere minions filling there nice pockets. I have took steps on last friday to phone virgin media and im due for my new broadband and i will very kindly put a ''HAMMER'' TO THIS bogus dongle k3565 lite for good,why did i buy a dongle off vodaphone in the first place doh !!!
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Please don't read the comment above by Nick, he clearly has not used the Vodafoney service much. If you make one decision regarding an internet service provider, DON'T make the same one as me, AVOID Vodafone like a plague, here are just some of the reasons why.
I bought a Vodafone mobile connect dongle, and on the top contract too. I was paying 50 a month on contract, and was told in the store that this was unlimited, but after streaming a one hour documentary on YouTube and checking several email, my speeds went down to way less than dialup, in fact, what Vodafone don't tell you is that at any given time they WILL reduce your online surfing speeds so slow, that your browser has trouble loading the Google search engine, in fact you wont even be able to load your email client up, the speed test I had was 8kb/s download, not worth mentioning the upload.
I would have contacted Vodafoney via there website but sadly after watching a white screen for 10 mins, it didn't load up, instead my speeds were so slow that my Firefox browser just gave up trying, returning a DNS error page, the speeds were too slow to load the page.
I did however call Vodafone services up and was promptly told that the bandwidth was reduced until my next billing cycle, this was three and a half weeks away, so for 50 Euros a month, I got to watch a free documentary on YouTube, checked several emails, then the service was criminally reduced.
If you plan on using the internet, don't use Vodafone.
What's interesting is that in this Article the OP says that Vodafone are the largest mobile phone company in the world, but they are also the tightest when it comes to using their mobile internet, they have also just been given a massive tax break from the UK government, what a joke that is, I mean I wish my company could rip off it's customers and then didn't have to pay taxes either.
The truth of the matter is that wherever you maybe in the world, Vodafone are ripping you off BIGTIME with this mobile internet scam. The dongle is problematic to install, or to use on other systems, their customer services are nothing short of a huge joke, their prices are horrendous and uncompetitive, and the internet service they attempted to provide me with amounted to more white pages, then I have ever seen.
Its time that the watchdogs put an end to this, this mobile internet crime from Vodafone has to end.
Needless to say I will be contacting the regulators first thing tomorrow. -
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i was very unhappy with vodaphone pay as you go dongle, when i purchased it just over a year ago, i was sold a 3gb allowance a month which i tend to use as i view myself a heavy user. earleir this year when i topped up i noticed that my allowance had been cut back to 2gb a month. i contacted vodaphone about the change but i could not get any answers as to why this had happened, they kept on referring to their price plans, i couldnt find the info they were referring too and any reasons to why this had happened, so i asked a member of their costumer services to help me locate what they were going on about and the couldnt find the info either. i even wrote a letter of compliant and they couldnt even answer the questions i raised about this data cut back. i am currently topping up every 7-9 days around 15 pounds everytime, it would be cheaper to get a proper broadband connection to my property. i would not recommend anybody to use vodaphone dongles as they slash your data allowance without warning of doing this or explaination!
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