Dublin thoughts

We had been with Shell Energy and subsequently TalkTalk who took them over for a couple of years and were out of contract in August 2026, with a copper/ADSL connection and landline phone. Having had very few phone calls to our landline, and now out of contract, we decided to drop the landline and try to get deals for a 4/5g router, rather than fibre which is not quite available in our area. For interest I called TT to ask for a price without a landline, and they said £25pm with the existing copper/ADSL connection. Having gone to various price comparison websites, I opted for Quidco's Vodafone where I was initially quoted an excellent £15pm (rising in April 2027 and 2028). On clicking through, I was routed to Vodafone and then discovered, as a TalkTalk customer, there was a further reduction to an outstanding £11pm. I completed the switch and not long afterwards, Vodafone sent a provisional contract pdf via email and information that I could collect the 5G router at my local Vodafone shop about 2 hours after the order. For various reasons I was unable to collect it. The day after, some 26 hours after they sent the provisional pdf contract, I received a text to say there had been a "technical issue" with my order, and reassuring me "no payment had been taken". Following several online chats to Vodafone support, they said they could see no issue with the order and suggested visiting the shop for further info. The day after I went to my local Vodafone shop to collect the router as instructed and ensure the account was ready to go. On checking they discovered there was no order kn "My Vodafone" account - this is what I had discovered the day before. To cut a long and frustrating story short, I then decided not to pursue Vodafone. I strongly suspect that the Quidco discount, added to the Vodafone TT discount, had triggered alarm bells in Vodafone Towers, hence the block. The next best offer for 5G on Quidco was via Three, and I successfully signed up for a package identical to the Vodafone £15pm. Their communication was excellent, including a brief online chat to ensure Three had contacted TalkTal about any moving (and I subsequently received an email from TT acknowledging the move and seeing if they could retain the contract). The 5G router arrived in the post the day after (Friday), with an activation day the following Monday. However, I had an issue establishing a Three online account since, having inputted my email and password, they required my Three phone number but my personal phone was with another company and obviously the SIM in the router is unable to acknowledge one-Time codes! This was sorted by my phoning Three and eventually being put through to their Tech team. The very helpful person manually inputted my personal mobile number and went through the process with me. I do think it is a little strange that Three require a Three phone account for broadband orders (presumably Fibre too), where I would have thought that a significant percentage of potential customers don't have Three mobile accounts. The router is now operating really well and I'm getting speeds not far short from prospective fibre speeds. The latency has largely been good; TalkTalk's copper/ADSL was no great shakes and often dropped at busy times, especially over the weekend and even when only streaming (we're not heavy bandwith users in our house). The Three router is quite large and my other half was not happy with the LED "Christmas Tree" light effects, but I've switched those off via the online app (phone app didn't seem to offer that level of advanced control). The postscript to the process was an error on my part - when TT took over from Shell I had a lot of issues trying to establish an online account using my Yahoo email (the issue was that TT said my email address was already in use - about 12 years ago I had been a TT customer but long ceased - some GDPR issues which I haven't chased here I think...). To sort it I used my Google email address which worked. For continuity, when signing up for Three, I thought it prudent to continue with my Google address. However, my Quidco account is linked to my Yahoo email, so I've just today been informed that my QC Three payment was declined (and QC offer no chance to challenge their Comparison tools). To summarise - a provisional Vodafone pdf contract is obviously not binding. Their customer services left something to be desired; Three's was far better. If you're using Quidco's comparison websites, ensure you use the same email address for everything.

Labels: switching from adsl to 5g