As we have a very poor 512kb/sec ADSL connection here at Bloggs towers I thought I'd invest in a 3G internet dongle to try. Only Vodafone has a strong signal local to Bloggs towers but it shows it in the strongest signal category on their website. Very good. I got one on a 30 day contract at £15 a month with a 5Gb allowance. Not a bad deal really. I specifically wanted to avoid a longer contract. Well, Vodafone seem virtually impossible to reach by phone and the Indian call centre that you may get through to eventually seems very poor quality, the spoken English was poor. The dongle took about 4 days to get here by post as opposed to the overnight delivery promised and the first attempt to order via the web failed, for some odd reason the order didn't complete. The second attempt worked OK. Vodafone took a week to call me back from an inquiry placed on their website and when the sales person eventually called me this afternoon (a week late) he was unaware that I'd bought a device. It sounded like he was down the pub to be honest but when I said I couldn't hear him because of background noise was he down the pub? He said it was the call centre noise. The dongle? Well, I got it and tried it. It connects very well and gives a stable connection, but not at the 2 to 4 Mb/sec we were assured we could expect. We get 384kb/sec maximum. I'm sending it back and canceling the direct debit. Thanks Vodafone.
