Poor reception for Vodafone coverage claims

Vodafone has come under renewed criticism in respect of its reception in North East Clare, despite claims from the company that it has resolved coverage issues there.

Former Mayor of Clare, Councillor Pat Hayes first raised the issue in early September. However, despite assurances from the mobile phone company then that matters would be resolved within 10 days, he says he is still getting complaints from frustrated East Clare Vodafone customers.

 

According to Councillor Hayes, the problems started recently when the company carried out works changing the signal on its new mast at Maghera and that Vodafone users in areas across Killanena, Flagmount and Scariff are still affected by poor coverage.

He said the company had pledged some technical issues would be fully resolved a few weeks ago and is unhappy as the situation appears unchanged.

In a statement to The Clare Champion Vodafone said it has carried out “quite a lot of work to restore the level of coverage in the area” and that the company was “confident that the matter is resolved and coverage has been restored”.

Councillor Hayes added that East Clare customers were also experiencing difficulties trying to get someone to deal with their complaints, some of which were directed to an outsourced customer support call centre in Egypt.

“This issue is causing a lot of concern for people in North East Clare. A lot of people rely totally on their mobile phones because they don’t have a landline. It is causing a lot of problems for families with children, particularly those who are tied in to one-year contracts. People are also finding it hard to make contact with someone to address their problems,” he said.

A spokesperson for the mobile phone provider in Ireland said the company is looking at further increases in the level of coverage in the North East Clare area but, following works carried out to date, they understand that service has been adequately restored.

They advise anyone still experiencing difficulties to contact customer care for further assistance as there may be issues with individual phones.

In a statement issued on September 18 this year, Vodafone Ireland said, “While the recent site move in the Maghera area has resulted in some benefits to customers in the area, we are aware that some customers have been impacted with intermittent loss of coverage.

“We are currently working to make adjustments at the site so that the issue will be resolved for customers as a priority and we estimate that this will be finished within the next 10 days”.