Vodafone apologises to Island customers

Maurice, they worked slightly, then this morning back to nothing, they have refunded me and my Mrs for the whole of last month and said they will waive the early cancellation of our contract so we can leave.

at around 1630 today Saturday the phones are active again at long last. and have been in touch with them and they have refunded the daily contract rate back to me, at least that is something.

Day 5 some good news I managed to find a signal in central Newport yesterday evening,BUT only by standing directly outside of the Vodafone shop,as I know that they have a signal booster there,so form an orderly queue,you may be lucky

David, what a stupid comment.

Imagine if you were driving home in the early hours of the morning and had a serious accident in the middle of nowhere and then someone turned up without a mobile phone. How would thy contact the emergency services? Wait for another car to turn up and send them to find someone?

We are reliant on them for a reason, yes some people rely on them too much, but there are older much more vulnerable people out there who need them to feel safer, not to mention sons/daughters of elderly relatives who feel better knowing they can be contacted if anything goes wrong.

Think about this sort of thing before you comment, it's not all about 'kids' using them to text mates, it's about safety and security of friends and loved ones and the knowledge that if anything goes wrong, chances are you'll be able to call for help and probably save someones life.

I had problems for months in Ryde and the mast was 50 foot away. I took screenshots of the homepage of my mobile which obviously had NO SERVICE bar, time and date. I pasted the images into word and sent the letters.

I left 3 months early before my contract ended without any payment and also got the money off my bills for time i had the problems.

I now have a GIFFGAFF pay as you go for the first in my life and it absolutely brilliant. 100% signal, cheaper and no hassle.

I suggest you all do the same....

I reckon it's to do with the introduction of 4G

Ashley, they told me to start with it was an issue with my phone using 3G and to switch my settings over to 2G thereby I will have a stronger signal. I told the lovely foreign lady my phone was fine and was not the issue as a lot of people had the same problem.

Presumably this problem only relates to Vodafones 2G signal? Loss of 3G wouldn't be noticed for days as on Voda that's virtually non-existent anyway unless you're within 10ft of one of their dozen or so masts in the country. We were with them for 8yrs but when we progressed (?) to a smartphone we found we couldn't get usable 3G anywhere much, least of all the IoW.

However quickly they get this sorted, I'll still be switching from Vodafone when my contract runs out in April. There coverage and internet speeds are a joke compared to other networks.

David, we need mobiles, do you remember something similar to this happening about 25 years ago-

Say you live in Totland and someone saying to you "take us to Newport in your car" and you drive in, drop them off near Woolworths and they say "meet us back here in an hour as they got to get back to Totland to get to work" and off you go for a drive to Ryde, get some cheap fuel at Tesco and come back an hour later and meet them outside Woolworths and go back to Totland.

Happy times!

Now, what would have happened if you had broken down at Ryde?

You would have no way of letting your mate know, they would have no way of knowing where you were, with no way of getting home with an arm full of shopping to get to work on time, you are stuck and cant ring a garage etc etc.

Nightmare times.

Mobile phones are a nessity.... nessicity,, nesisity,

(they also have a T9 function which spells words correctly!!)

We have all been conned! Life was fine before mobile phones but now they are indispensable? I say take a breath and leave the mobile at home and see that life does still go on!Apart from all the phoneboxes are gone of course!

Any views or opinions presented in the comments above are solely those of the author and do not represent those of the Isle of Wight County Press.