Vodafone Branding - P990i in particular - Can we get rid of it?!!?

[Satguy]

The trick is not to let the front office people at Vodacare to give you the run around. Get the name of the technical manager and don't give up until you have spoken to him.

I had a call late last night from one of the technical guy's at Vodacare in Midrand. They were in the final stages of running tests on the generic firmware for the P990. Why they need to test software that is already successfully being used all over Europe beats me, but maybe they need to test it on the Voda network, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

Regarding warranty, if Vodacare does the flashing...... YOUR WARRANTY IS VALID!

I have our Vodacom SP accounts manager taking the handset through to Vodaworld this morning. Will advise on the outcome as soon as I get the handset back.

As for switching to MTN.... tempting..... very tempting!!!!

 

[Satguy]

Got the P990 back from Vodacare on Saturday. All traces of VLIVE have been removed. P990 now looks and feels like it should.

 

[JK8]

Got the P990 back from Vodacare on Saturday. All traces of VLIVE have been removed. P990 now looks and feels like it should.

You should have waited 3 more days for the updated firmware!

 

[Satguy]

You should have waited 3 more days for the updated firmware!

I does not matter, beacuse you can now update from the SE website (SEUS).

 

[jiteshraj]

Great news. i've sent mine in today. just one question, does it have any sign of vodacom on the phone (meerkat,startup and shutdown). btw the staff at vodacare are really incompetent. it would really help vodacom if they told their employees that the vodafone software can be removed from p990. if not for the help from someone at a higher technical level i would still be stuck with voda branding.

 

[Maestr0]

Hi there guys. I have sum great news for everyone. After spending over an hour an Vodacare and explaining to the incompetent staff that vodafone has totally ruined the software on my m600i (p990's little brother-same OS-UIQ3), I finally spoke to the right person at their main technical department. I was told that the generic software(original SE) has just passed testing and vodacare WILL be able to flash ur phone. You will not lose your warranty. This probably applies to the p990 as well. I'm taking mine in on monday. Cheers guys

This is the best news ever. I upgraded to the M600i about 3 weeks ago and only realised the horrible truth of Vodafone branding last week. I'm going to phone them now and take my phone tomorrow. Sick of these ugly grey and red icons. Thanks for the good news.

 

[JK8]

I does not matter, beacuse you can now update from the SE website (SEUS).

Ye I normally do that but I lose my warranty.. i dont really mind but others should.

And a New anouncement, Ermmm Voda will no longer be supplying the generic software, some legal ****..

 

[Maestr0]

Dude I hope you kidding...you have proof of this announcement?

 

[JK8]

Dude I hope you kidding...you have proof of this announcement?

Errr its just a mail.... no authorised signatures if thats what you asking.

 

[PsyLenT]

Well I took my phone in at Vodaworld Vodacare about 2pm today and got my phone back with Vodafone's junk completely removed so I don't know about it being stopped but if it was - I got it sorted just in time! That said, there's no voiding your warranty through Vodacare doing it at least.

It's best to try (with much effort) to phone them before hand and speak to somebody who knows what's going on before you make a useless trip out that way.

Anyway good luck to all those who still need to fight that war... One thing I have got to mention though is how awful Vodacare is. I had a huge argument with their Benoni branch and I ended up having to go out of my own capacity to phone the midrand branch and get somebody in the know to explain to those idiots that what I was asking IS possible. Unfortunately I was told only Alberton and Midrand can do it at this stage.

So I had to drive out and spend agonising time wasting away at Vodaworld. EVERYTHING in that place is in slow motion. The tension is everywhere and the minute you walk into Vodacare, you kind of have to slice your way through the invisible negative energy there. There was not one customer in that place that was not fuming. The service quality is absolutely pathetic, and I find that it's deteriorating. I had drama with them early in the year but watching the people today - I PRAY my phone stays in working order.

I think I'm off to hellopeter

 

[jiteshraj]

I think if voda refuse to put the generic software we should all try to fight this together. i research my phones before i purchase them and i don't want a product that has less features than what the manufacturer promises. especially if it breaks the usability of the phone. vodafone branding has not only changed the icons but disabled the ability to end programs in task manager.UNACCEPTABLE

 

[Satguy]

I can't comment on the legal issues surrounding reflashing the P990 with generic software, however when I first tried to have VLIVE removed I had a serious argument with the SE guy's. They told me that there is a licence agreement with Vodacom regarding the firmware on the P990 (and possibly other SE VLIVE phones). This may mean that Voda gets their SE stock at a lower price than the generic versions, as Voda are essentially providing the firmware (or part of it anyway - user interface) for the handset. By reflashing to generic Voda are now using SE firmware, which has not been paid for?? Whatever the case it is clear that the VLIVE firmware provided with the P990 was clearly a rush job, with no similarity to the original firmware.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that Voda is intent on only supplying VLIVE phones. The reson for this is simple - MAKING MORE MONEY! All VLIVE phone are pre-configured to take you directly to the VLIVE portals where things become seriously expensive for the uninformed or unaware customer. I believe that all Voda customers should have a choice on the branding issue, maybe they can offer an incentive for taking the branded handset over the non branded handset, but this is a cash cow for them and I doubt it will ever happen. For me MNP has given me the choice to move to another network (not that MTN's service is any better, but at least the handset's are stock standard).

 

[adsl3g]

I took my V800i vLive phone to an MTN store (with an MTN pre-paid card in it) and the guy sent the phone to MTN to have the vLive branding removed and loaded with the default SE firmware. He charged me R90 and it took 2 days. It was worth it - I have never liked the vLive software interface and with the SE you can't change the icons as with a Nokia Symbian phone.

 

[PsyLenT]

This is quite interesting from the legal point of view but yeah I totally agree that customers should be given a choice. I personally would never use VLIVE - the only service I might in future be tempted to play with is live t.v. but not at what it costs now - I'd rather hook up my IM's and chat to waste time. I can download millions of content for my phone to my PC for free and transfer it myself - I feel terrible for those people out there who fall for this crap they advertise on tv for wallpapers and ringtones.

I believe that customers who are buying phones like the P990i are going to be essentially customers who are after the phone's sophisticated uses - I think it is wrong to brand phones that power-users are likely to buy - I think branding is wrong full stop but more so with phones likely to be bought by power-users.

I will keep an eye on this branding-habit over the next 2 years, but I won't hesitate to use MNP if Vodacom is not going to give their customers a choice. I am curious to see how far Vodacom can be pushed on hellopeter - perhaps we should start encouraging our uninformed friends to join us in our quest for fair choices!

 

[JK8]

I took my V800i vLive phone to an MTN store (with an MTN pre-paid card in it) and the guy sent the phone to MTN to have the vLive branding removed and loaded with the default SE firmware. He charged me R90 and it took 2 days. It was worth it - I have never liked the vLive software interface and with the SE you can't change the icons as with a Nokia Symbian phone.

Ye the V800 was the worst branded phone ever!! You needed Digital Rights Manager to use Mp3 as ringtones, and only music downloaded from the Vlive portal could be used as ringtones!!!

Glad they removed that crap!

 

[Satguy]

Oh, I almost forgot - Hellopeter, what a difference it made. I had nothing but arguments and reluctance to help until I made my post on Hellopeter. Within 2 hours I got a phone call from Roderegue from Voda. He said that he would sort it out before close of buisness that day, and it was. I was given the name of the workshop manager at Vodacare at Midrand, but he gave me the choice of taking the handset to any Vodacare. I told him I had waited too long for the phone to worry about driving to any Vodacare that could give me the software that I should have got in the first place. As a precaution before driving all the way out to Midrand, I phoned the workshop manager at Vodacare and by that time he had already been informed by Voda HQ to expect the handset and that the generic software must be loaded.

Its a pity that other companies and suppliers doing business in SA don't have the concerns over bad publicity on the Hellopeter site that Vodacom do. I also wonder if Voda would have been so keen to sort my issues out if MNP was not a reality!

 

[Maestr0]

I phoned Vodacare and asked to speak to the Workshop manager...the bitch on the phone told me sorry but they do not take phone calls. Screw her I'm taking my phone in tomorrow.

 

[PsyLenT]

I'm amazed you got through to Vodacare at all. A small miracle in it's own right!

 

[jiteshraj]

my m600i has been sent to jhb and i just pray and hope it comes back to Durban with the generic firmware. it has been sent to Mr XXXXX whom i'd been in contact with by telephone. he is the one who has told me that voda have approved the generic firmware. If anyone runs into problems here please PM me and i will try to help. the voda firmware is old and buggy (version R3B VS generic R4C). Cheers

 

[kingrob]

Ye the V800 was the worst branded phone ever!! You needed Digital Rights Manager to use Mp3 as ringtones, and only music downloaded from the Vlive portal could be used as ringtones!!!

Glad they removed that crap!

I got a Vodafone SE P800 whilst working in England - all they changed was the startup & shutdown screens (actually looked very funky). Now they put the whole Norton Internet Security suite on it.