26 Mar 2012 - Update Highest Rated Pain Stories Highest Rated Gain Stories Vodafail Local Facebook Page
Dear visitor,

Since its inception Vodafail.com has made a significant contribution towards raising awareness of the problems and issues faced by Vodafone customers.

Vodafone Australia customers have had the opportunity to voice their concerns, their fears and their troubles from every corner of Australia and beyond our borders. You have gathered the courage to stand up for your rights as consumers and to make your voice heard.

Each and every person who shared their story should have a sense of pride in this achievement and the changes that have occurred since the start of Vodafail.com.

More recently, traffic to Vodafail.com has declined significantly. Having achieved the goal of raising awareness and promoting concrete action in early 2011, we have now reached the point of closing Vodafail to new complaints. The site will remain online for as long as possible as a reminder and an example of what is possible when we share our experiences.

It has been a privilege to run this initiative and I'm am forever grateful for the help and support I've received. In particular I would like to thank Melissa, David and Travis for their continued efforts over the past 15 months. I'm also thankful and humbled by the support of ACCAN, Choice magazine and a wide range of media outlets, blogs and websites.

You can still browse existing stories and find out how to file a complaint if you are experiencing problems.

Until next time,

Adam Brimo

The Vodafail Report


I started this website out of frustration for Vodafone's customer service and ongoing network problems. It was designed to bring attention to the issues and show that aggrieved Vodafone customers are not alone. For the past month Vodafone customers and employees from all around Australia have shared their stories, the time they spent on hold and their phone reception details with Vodafail.com. Thank you for your openness and contributions.

The information you shared has been analysed and compiled into a report. The report aims to provide an insight into scale and complexity of Vodafone's issues, the causes and the potential resolutions that may be acceptable to the affected customers. The report is available in full on this page and on Thursday January 20th 2011, this report was submitted to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Australian Communication & Media Authority (ACMA).

Vodafone Hutchison Australia is the only company who can solve the problems of its own making and the Australian Government has the power to ensure future problems are less likely and more quickly resolved. The Australian Communication Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) and the Privacy Commissioner continue to be vital in ensuring consumers' rights are respected and that issues are aired. Those organisations have the responsibility and that is where the attention should be focused.

The media in all its forms has brought these issues of public concern to the forefront of the public's minds. Vodafail has helped to organise that effort and if you are still experiencing problems with your Vodafone services please follow the steps on our 'How To Complain' page. Please direct any media inquiries regarding Vodafone's issues to Vodafone or the ACCAN. The ACCAN has released a statement about this report and the ongoing Vodafone issues.

Thanks again for all your support.

   

Other People's Comments


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21129 Someone from VIC thinks the report is no reception/defaulted me at 15 Mar 2012 08:04:33 PM
I moved to a country area. spoke many times with vodafone.rebooted phone lost all contacts.i refused to pay bill until solved. $47 i owed. turned phone off for 12months. made contact with vodafone. still no reception..rang back 2011 Nov sick of waiting and they said i had another bill outstanding payed $140+ with out asking. this was the $47 plus expenses....hadnt used my phone or turned it on in 12months....they got the money out of me as i just wanted to pay and get out of there...GUESS WHAT i just found out today 15/3/12 they defaulted me on the $47 dollars and i cant borrow money. they failed to notify me of default..it was done out of spite because of my anger i believe....

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20611 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Wrongly defaulted at 15 Jan 2012 09:08:31 PM
Short story is in 2008 I paid out my contract and cancelled it. Asked if it was all paid of to which was told yes
Months later I find out I have been black listed on my credit rating due to not paying a bill of $161.81. Has completely screwed my chances of getting any financial loan at all since.
Have just started trying to chase it up after all this time to try and get it removed but ultimately don't like my chances of that happening.

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20605 Someone from VIC thinks the report is 850 network at 15 Jan 2012 07:54:20 AM
Vodafone swapped me to a new 850 network with new phone and modem at 3938. I'm one hour from Melbourne and after reading the advertising for their mega modem, realise that the new network is surely only in small regions of the CBD?! No wonder all the upgrade commercials equal zero difference in regional Australia. I can no longer complain to Vodafone as I am banned from all social networking sites after posting technical data from this region. I'm trying to get tat addressed but hey chose not to respond which is very unprofessional.

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20403 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Some of you should read before complaining... at 22 Dec 2011 03:09:00 PM
20143 from NSW, this site is supposed to be to register real issues.
The international call rates are clearly listed here http://www.vodafone.com.au/personal/services/idd/international-calling/index.htm and can be found by selecting "calling overseas" from the plans dropdown menu at the top of the screen. Vodafone might be fairly useless, but you're the one that can't perform a simple click on the screen...

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19993 Someone from VIC thinks the report is no coverage at 14 Nov 2011 06:43:53 PM
rubbish company!

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19819 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Poor Reception at 28 Oct 2011 12:33:11 AM
I have discovered in the six months that I have had my new phone from Vodafone it is increasing losing network reception in my area. I recently approached my local Vodafone store to see if the poor reception on my mobile phone could be addressed and hopefully rectified. At the store I turned off my phone to have it examined and was told that my SIM card was quite old and maybe replacing it would fix the reception issues. I agreed to replace the SIM card but whilst I was in the Vodaphone store the employee tried but failed to bring up my contract details on Vodafone's computer database in order to document the change of SIM card details. I was asked to come back in 30 mins so that the computer could be rebooted and try documenting the SIM card changeover again. During that 30 minute wait I noticed that my phone's network reception was working perfectly and when I went back to the store I informed the same employee that the phone's reception was fine but that I held concerns the phone worked well in the shopping centre because there were many mobile towers surrounding it but when I got the phone home I feared the reception issues would resurface. As it happened the problems were still there when I got the phone home again. I am anticipating that if I return to the Vodafone store I'd be told the same thing again and round and round I go. Is there a way to get Vodafone to take effective action to resolve the network issue as I use my mobile phone for business. I understand that I am one of tens of thousands of Vodafone mobile phone service customers with a grievance with the Telco and that my comments might not be taken seriously or worst still lost in the crowd but I felt that my concerns about Vodafone's complacent attitude and failure to honour their part of the contract needed to be exposed.

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19390 Someone from VIC thinks the report is No network all the time at 8 Sep 2011 05:52:29 PM
What happened to Vodafone? I live in Forest Hill Vic 3131. No network connected all the day!!!

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18745 Someone from VIC thinks the report is NO SERVICE BLACKSPOTS at 16 Jul 2011 08:03:06 AM
I have a crazy John Mobile Broadband prepaid. I have been told that they are now owned by Vodaphone and are on the Vodaphone network. When you check coverage you are referred to a Vodaphone Web Site.

Despite assurances from the sales person that my home would have good coverage and service, when I got it home and plugged it into my Laptop, it said "NO SERVICE"!.

I took it back to the shop complete with Laptop, where it worked OK. The inference seemed to be that it was a "Dummy Customer" problem. But back at home there was still no service. There was no more the shop could do and they gave me the call centre phone number!

A phone call to their call centre got me a frustrating conversation with a polite young Indian man with a perfect English accent and little comprehension of what he was doing! After telling me to uninstall the software and then reinstall it and reboot the computer, (which of course didn't work) he was obviously out of answers with nowhere else to go, so we said our friendly farewells, and I still had NO SERVICE!

Then someone told me about WOKTENNAS. It works a bit like a satellite dish. You hang the modem at the focal point of a parabolic Chines cooking Wok, where the signal is reflected concentrated and intensified. The person who told me about it was a former Telstra Engineer. He had gone from "no signal" to 100%! So I bought a wok and set it up.

I immediately got a signal and was able to connect. However I wasn't as lucky with signal strength improvement. Connection was only 2G and VERY slow. Less than dial up speed!! However later on, after about 8-00 pm, I tried again and found signal strength increased and I was able to connect 3G at useful speeds. However dropouts were still frequent!

That is how it used to happen 65 years ago with my first crystal radio! Wireless signals were always better at night than during the day.

Just 400 meters away from my place, at the home of one of my daughters, it worked perfectly all the time without having to resort to the WOK. However at the home of another daughter, 24 km away on the other side of town, I had to use the woktenna again. I got 3G and faster connection speeds there but still only about HALF what I got with a Telstra DONGLE. (see below)

A few days after I bought the Crazy John Dongle, my sister gave me her old Telstra wireless broadband dongle and I bought a new SIM card for it. What a difference! Everywhere I have tried it so far it ALWAYS connects 3G, and connection speeds are ALWAYS quite good.

I hear Vodaphone are supposed to be upgrading their network, but I am not sure what that might mean for the local blackspot problems I have experienced. However that is now irrelevant!! Telstra recharges seem to cost quite a bit more but their service does work!! And I think it might be a better modem!

Allon

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18393 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Bad reception at 13 Jun 2011 01:25:00 PM
I live in Pascoe Vale, Melbourne, Vic and vodafone's reception has reduced significantly over the last 6-12 months. On average my phone will drop out approximately 1 time for every 10 minutes of talk time. Vodafone was previously a great and up and comming network....the telco has fallen a long way in a short period of time......very disappointing!

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16644 Someone from VIC thinks the report is lied to and still taking my money at 3 Apr 2011 10:10:21 PM
I had Vodafone mobile broadband. After 4 months, the download speed became unusable. I reported it and was told and engineer would look into it. I heard nothing for 1 week so called them again. They told me there was no problem, so I explained there was, as I downloading was so slow I couldn't really surt the net. I eventually got my contact cancelled and argued that I shouldn't have to pay the cancellation fee. They said they would send me a bag to return the device. After 5 weeks of waiting and calling them 10 times and being told each time it had been sent, it finally turned up, having been sent only a day earlier, so I had been lied to all along. Now I've noticed they still stealing payments from my account even though I cancelled the contract 5 weeks ago. They are liars and theives. This is the first and last time I will ever go with Vodafone, they are a disgrace.

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15791 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Poor Service at 21 Feb 2011 06:36:45 PM
I am in Langwarrin, VIC, which is part of metro Melbourne and my phone continually go's flat because it is roaming looking for a signal the whole time. I get voice mail messages continually when the phone has never rung. And as far as using the internet is concerned I honestly don't even bother now because it is that bad. Look the fact is I have been with them for the past 4 years because they offered much better value than Telstra at the expense obviously of network coverage. But now that Telstra is now so much more competitive and Vodafones network capability has become so critically bad, why would anyone stay even if they are offering unlimited caps. Anyone who operates their own business would have rocks in their head to run with Vodafone. You simply could not take the risk.

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15242 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Vodafone Indian Technical Support LIES! at 5 Feb 2011 06:27:35 AM
To cancel your contract you need to attempt technical support, call Lara and ask for Data Services.

Only the operator, some guy in India, goes through a serious of rather trivial questions 1- did you use the usb modem on another PC 2- did you try your sim with another usb modem 3- does your service stay connected?

His guy concludes that its a problem with my simcard, despite me having two separate mobile broadband services, separate sims, separate usb modem, both happen to have a problem with the sim card? what a joke.

I told him you are lying, and he starts to stumble over his words... Then I tell him Im a network engineer, and I told him the real issue is that the network is oversubscribed and there is simply not enough network capacity because of the many iphone and mobile broadband users out there. What they need to do is upgrade their network from using E1's to fibre gigabit ethernet, which they simply cannot do as Telstra owns the majority of the conduit in the ground by which the fibre is laid.

The Indian consultant goes away for a VERY LONG time, comes back, and continues to parrot the same thing about a problem with my sim card, more BS, and is adamant the service and network is fine. Also boasting that vodafone has 10,000,000 customers so therefore the network must be great.

They are obviously lying and denying the problem with the network, i will cancel this service, and will call back, give em hell guys!
15 Feb 2011 07:21:14 AM: I had a very similar response from idiot voda man!

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15235 Someone from VIC thinks the report is vodafone - vodacrap at 4 Feb 2011 08:39:10 PM
I used vodafone since it came in to Aus that a long time now, Vodafone has been great in our area at Little River Vic, this was true until the merge with three(3). It is supose to be a strong 3G area acording to the vodafone coverage maps. (bull sh..t). My phone is now continually searching fo a connection. and even if i manage to get one its short lived and no data comes through. my wife I have 5 months to go on our contracts we are going to pay out the contract if nessasary and then chang over to Telsta

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15158 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Cancellation fee & very bad coverage at 3 Feb 2011 09:28:09 AM
I have been with Vodafone for about 6 years now and in the last 6 or so months the service has deteriorated to the point that I get texts and voice mails about 4 days after people have sent them, I constantly have "no Service" and "searching" I am unable to phone anyone; i finish work at about 3am i have to turn my mobile off and on again a number of times just to get 1 bar to make a call that will fail about 6 times to let someone know what im on the way home. My monthly bill comes in at around $300 as i go over my $79 cap due to "call fail" which means a 10 minute call could turn into a 30-40 minute call depending on how many times my phone shows "no service". I got so sick of my iPhone 4 contract that i went and brought another mobile with another carrier and i spend an extra $30-$60 a month just so i have a mobile that works so the next best thing redirect my calls to my other number and add all my contacts in that phone if i want to break my contract i was told today i would have to pay about $2000 soo soo disappointed with vodafone

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15085 Someone from VIC thinks the report is at 1 Feb 2011 10:05:46 PM
I have been with Vodafone for about 6 years now and in the last 8 or so months the service has deteriorated to the point that I get texts and voice mails about 4 days after people have sent them, I constantly have "no Service" and "searching" I am unable to phone anyone; i finish work at about 3am i have to turn my mobile off and on again a number of times just to get 1 bar to make a call that will fail about 6 times to let someone know what im on the way home. My monthly bill comes in at around $300 as i go over my $79 cap due to "call fail" which means a 10 minute call could turn into a 30-40 minute call depending on how many times my phone shows "no serivce". I got so sick of my contract that i went and brought another mobile with another carrier and i spend an extra $30-$60 a month just so i have a mobile that works so the next best thing redirect my calls to my other number and add all my contacts in that phone if i want to break my contract i was told today i would have to pay about $2000 soo soo disappointed with vodafone

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14972 Someone from VIC thinks the report is no reception at 30 Jan 2011 06:43:41 PM
i have 2 children and one on the way, we do not have a land line and my partner is an interstate truck driver. how am i ment to get in contact with anyone its just not good enough!

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14494 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Terrible Reception (& Service) at 24 Jan 2011 06:24:06 PM
Spent 43 minutes this morning because;
1- Off Air for 1hour (SOS ONLY).
2- Missed call without the phone having rung.
3- 7x msgs come through at once due to no network.
4- Poor reception.

All in 2 days. Went trough 3 CSOs, the third one telling me they will put through an investigation (again) and it will take 4 days for results.

Got home to find wife on the phone with Vodafone, with her Lost Network issues. She got them to put an investigation through (was advise it would take 5 days). They kept insisting that she needed to get a new SIM from a VFH shop, even when she told them 3 times she had already done so three weeks ago, and it actually made the issue worse, hence the reason for the call. total time on phone = 1hr 34mins.

Writing a long letter to VFH Accounts, VFH Client Services, VFH CEO to cancel contract by mutual consent, see how that goes...
24 Jan 2011 06:28:34 PM: Don't waste your time .. go straight to the TIO !
24 Jan 2011 06:44:27 PM: Check out the 'How To Complain' link at the top of the page

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14463 Someone from VIC thinks the report is at 24 Jan 2011 03:38:55 PM
I recently signed up to Vodaphone unaware of all these turmoils as it seems my previous service provider 3 has been eaten by Vodaphone. Since I have had increadibly bad call drops. Sometimes it doesn't even connect. Net browsing is so unreliable on my new Samsung Galaxy S phone that I even begin to hate Samsung products. I tried to speak to customer rep but was put on hold for 43 minutes exactly before I decided to hang up. I had it on speaker phone and watched TV and literally I was still on hold after the 30 min episode of South Park. My brother's service whose contract will end up in 6 months will not be signing up with Vodaphone period. I have had frustrations with phone/network providers of various sorts over 10 years or so but never have been so frustrated with a single company as this one.
9 Feb 2011 01:50:33 PM: I fell alseep when i was on hold waiting for them for 3.5 hours!

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14220 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Vodafone at 22 Jan 2011 09:44:33 PM
VODAFONE HAVE TO GET INTO THE GAME AND GET INTO THE 21st century, there service is just terrible,
26 Apr 2011 07:04:15 PM: *their

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14075 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Internet/MobilePhone at 21 Jan 2011 09:22:45 PM
I have been with vodafone since june 2010, and in that time i have found the service to be of the lowest quality. My internet drops out all the time and then i have to disconnect the re-connect again, some days it takes ages to load pages.. As for my mobile, the service drops in and out all the time sometimes i cant get thru to my partner and my friends dont get get text messsages for hours...Im sick of ringing customer service i have rang over 15 times and everytime it takes 35+ mins to speak to someone, they are rude and you can barley understand them...Im sick of being treated like i dont matter im on a contract for both i pay good money for poor sevice i want something done about this now....Upset Vodafone Customer Diana

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13678 Someone from VIC thinks the report is at 21 Jan 2011 10:04:53 AM
Well done Adam for creating this site, and for compiling a report for the ACCC.

My partner is a Vodafone customer, our housemate too, and I'm a 3 customer. I'm originally from Geelong, but since moving to Melbourne 12 months ago, my service has been ridiculous.
One house I lived in was right in the middle of a blackspot in my street - mind you, there was not a single thing to obstruct and create a blackspot - but if I had have gone to the end of the street or go next door, I was fine. Sitting outside was the only way I could capitolise on my already poor reception.

My partner's service isn't the greatest either - and I find it funny that we're both with the 'same' company, yet he will have no service and I will have full service, or vice versa.
He also doesn't receive voicemail notifications and gets phonecalls from people complaining they haven't heard from him in relation to their message!

I'm sick of my txts never sending, and finding them in my drafts folder days later.

Adam, you are a champion!
21 Jan 2011 12:51:08 PM: Thank you and everyone else for the nice comments. I'm glad that you liked the report and I hope that it strikes a chord with the ACCC and ACMA. I hope your issues get resolved and although it appears Vodafone is working on it we don't know many details. Hopefully the report encourages them to release more information.

Adam

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13677 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Poor coverage and wait times at 21 Jan 2011 10:02:18 AM

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13670 Someone from VIC thinks the report is gret report at 21 Jan 2011 09:57:33 AM
Thank you for all your time and effort in creating this website and this report. I am having so much trouble with my reception and have failed to get any satisfactory resolution. I work in the heart of Melbourne and I get "no service" on my phone for 90% of my workday. I am pursuing this with their customer service (so far have logged over 4 hours of just "hold" time in the past 2 days) but am continually being passed from person to person. Luckily I am persistent and am willing to keep fighting to get away from them and out of my contract. But I often think (having so much time while I am on hold waiting for them) about the people who don't have the resources or the capacity to follow up so rigourously. I am so frustrated and angry with Vodafone and am willing to spend countless hours of my time chasing them to get my contract cancelled, but what about those who can't do that. Who get stuck on a 2 year plan with average to no service? So thank you for your report, I hope it helps all those people out there who are unhappy with their service and who are unable to do anything about it.

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13576 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Agreed at 21 Jan 2011 09:09:07 AM
I live 4kms from Melbourne CBD. I have both mobile phone and broadband with them and neither are reliable. I have to go outside to talk on my phone and even then it drops out consistently. Mobile broadband - pfft! It's a good day if the coverage is upgraded from very poor to poor but even then it drops out.

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13570 Someone from VIC thinks the report is at 21 Jan 2011 09:07:41 AM
And I thought it was just my problem. Tired of dropped calls, duplicate texts, unintelligible voicemail and getting "1 new voicemail" signal at 2am when there isn't any!

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13546 Someone from VIC thinks the report is frustration at 21 Jan 2011 08:59:23 AM
i have been a customer with vodaphone for now 2 years... stupidly i got convinced to join up with them for another contract - BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER! when i first joined up it was fine...then slowly things fell apart - i couldnt get through to the customer help centre - i would call and call and it would say techical difficulty and hang up! this would go on for days! sometimes i woul dbe on hold for 1/2 then get answered to then it would hang up! i wanted to pull my hair out! then once i was told the wrong info over the phone - i had a phone that was in my name that an ex boyfriend was using - i wanted to check that he was making payments etc - checked and confirmed and checked and confirmed with the guy on the phone - he said EVERYTHING WAS FINE- it turned out the info was completely wrong and i got a call from a debt collectors saying that payments hadnt been made for months!!! i was furious!
i dont know how i got convinced to sign up again and im so regretful - people have tried to call me - and they cant get thru - it goes straight to my voicemail and i live in the city of melbourne and i've always got one bar. what can be done here?

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13531 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Missing Calls (even from Vodafone representative) at 21 Jan 2011 08:51:40 AM
Missing calls and late voice-mails!

I sent an email to vodafone regarding the network issues ... First I received a Voicemail directly ...when I checked, I was in Bendigo CBD building and it said, Robin from Vodafone, contacting you in relation to the email you sent regarding network issues - please call 1555. I called 1555 waiteed for 20 mins!!

Second call was also missed - Robin called up again and the network got down, result - another missed call and received voicemail a few hours after!

since then no response. I was with Three for last 4 years and never this had happened in Bendigo - which is 3's roaming zone! With Vodafone - SHIT! Absolutely!

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13470 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Texting at 21 Jan 2011 08:30:42 AM
I would send a text to my friends and they would get the text 3 or 4 times. It would cost me money. So i called the call centre and they transferred me and then again and then again. When i finally got throught over sea's they said.
"We are aware of the problem many customers are experiencing this". I said ok, then what do i do about getting the money back. They then transfered me again... I was on hold for such a long time i used my whole 45 minute lunch break and didnt even get to speak to ANYONE about the problem or reimburesment!!!- Remind me.. why am i with Vodafone again? - Oh and i dont get any service in my house... If I walk to the street i do.. just not in my house... strange??!!

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13326 Someone from VIC thinks the report is report at 21 Jan 2011 07:38:17 AM
Thanks for the report. And thank you for the website and inspiring me to not settle for next to no service. VF has one more business day until I tell the TIO that I didn't hear from them and to to take it further. I must be one in a long line of many.

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13316 Someone from VIC thinks the report is 3G Network at 21 Jan 2011 07:35:33 AM
Living 7km from Melbourne CBD you think that Vodafone 3G would work, NO it doesn't I cannot even get a connection to upgrade the useless software. Worse decision I ever made going to Vodafone. Never again

Shane Booth

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13290 Someone from VIC thinks the report is drop outs /no calls service at 21 Jan 2011 07:28:21 AM
i could not make calls at home even that vodafone told me i have full cover here with my iphone ! then they told me it would be much better to get a new handset , they told me to get the HTC Desire HD on a handset repayment plan .What i did , so i pay for my iphone cap $79 a month plus $25 a month for the HTC desire hd handset only plan ! The problem was that the new handset had the same problem " No service here at home " After a long talk over many days Vodafone canceled my plan and the handset repayment at no extra cost to me ,so everything is cancelled for free ! But i still think they have to pay me all my money back because i payed every month but could not use the phone !!! what can i do ?

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