Get rid of that annoying Lara who answers the phone, what a chringe.

Lara has told me to "Hang in there. We'll be with you shortly." for the last half an hour.

As I am writing this its coming up to 50 minutes on hold, all I want is for vodafone to cancel my monthly insurance on my phone since I am out of contract and no longer see the point. This is the third time I have requested for this to happen however Lara and friends keep telling me to hang in there because they are super busy and such. On the bright side my call has not been dropped and its nearly 51 minutes!!! a new record I think

Just always dissapointed , used to be happy but seems like its all going down hill. could talk for hours about it but basically , drop outs , no service , voicemail issues , text issues , lara issues - please let me speak to a human in less than 45 mins.

A bit ironic that the Australian Cricket team has not won a match since their branding changed from 3 to Vodafone. Both the cricket team and Vodafone are underperforming in the basics and both have a bad experience with LARA to some extent (Bingle that is !).

LADIES AND GENTLEMAN,

PLEASE IF YOU NEED TO CALL VODAFONE:

WHEN YOU GET ONTO LARA JUST SAY "ACCOUNT ACTIVATION". FOLLOWING THIS JUST SAY "COMPLETE REGISTRATION".

The average wait time is between 30-45 seconds. Longest I've ever waited was 2 minutes. Now for the tricky party...

In order to get your problem addressed, make a fuss, be annoying, create problems, be demanding, don't take no for an answer, demand supervisors etc... I'm sure by now you've all had lots of practice with this. Following this, demand that the relevant department call you back or they put you straight across. It'll save you the average wait time of 30-45 minutes for any other department. Don't let them dictate how we should get customer care. Screw their inept policies, procedures and simplistic problem solving/delegation.

How many different numbers does one need to call, and how many times do the menu options need to change?! The flexi cap etc is somewhat 'confusing'and limmits your choices as to what you need. I made the choice to bail from Voda as soon as the company became headlines on the news. Vodaphone need to sack themselves for breaching all of the privacy Acts!

I'm on hold for 72 minutes after "Lara" informing me of an "over 30 minute wait" when I first jumped in queue. After being on hold I get a CSO who can hardly string a sentence together and is so quiet that I have to keep asking him to repeat himself. After nicely (after all it's not the CSO's problem that my handset keeps crashing) explaining my issue he ends up grunting and then hanging up on me. Sadly this is what I've come to expect from their Tech Support.

I have no gripes with Vodafone support being offshore but I do expect civility and prompt service when I'm on a 24mth contract with them. If you don't have a good disposition, don't work in such a heavily customer focused role.

i signed up for a 24 month contract with vodafone 3 days ago. trying to port my previous number across. i was told initially it would take 2-3 hours. then i was told 24 hours after it was escalated to management for some reason i could not understand. so after 3 days and approx 4 hours on hold and going around in circles with lara (and calls dropping) i currently am still paying two providers and no closer to having my number ported. what have i got myself in to???

Here is some info on the voice behind LARA. This voice over person might be cringing I imagine ?
http://www.thatslife.com.au/article.asp?articleid=2932

I have heard the LARA voice recognition system is to be dumped for something supposedly better.....that is if Vodafone stays afloat as a company I guess....

fuck you lara, i asked for the operator

I've tried calling Vodafone customer care about concerns of my poor reception and dropping calls. I live in the coverage zone, in the east metro area. When I call I always try to go through Lara's tree branching 'voice menu' options by the keypad. This leads me to a point where my call is ultimately dropped after minutes of broken music. :sigh: Then I tried the other option to speak to Lara using voice recognition. Even worse. I may have an accent but I can still speak audible english that is understandable. When I say an option, Lara monotonously replies along the lines of, "I'm sorry, I don't quite understand you." and "Can you please speak again with a clear voice." She even gave me suggested options to say after she thought I wasn't speaking english. At this rate I won't be reaching customer support. If they don't block you one way, then they'll block you another way. God sakes, Lara just let me through to customer support and fkn shut up for once. Stupid machine should save her breath for those foreigners working at the call centres. Ironically, I bet not even they have the right darn accent to pass her. Perhaps there should be a third option: a fkn translator for Lara and the call centre. Nothing more than pathetic.

insurance is absolutely ridiculous, nothing can be done upfront. It's always go through automated robot lady named Lara who doesn't understand my feelings at all :(

Even though i live in the middle of the city, i hardly get 3G reception and am always on 1-2 bars on my iPhone. As well as shockingly bad call charges, Vodafone always overprice their caps. $79 dollars per month over 2 years slowly turned into $110 per month.

Either pick up your game or lose your customers Vodfone, because you have sure lost me.

This company is criminal by nature. They only respond when there is a possibility of new business when they can rip off some poor unsuspecting citizen

Any attempt to connect to their phone lines is the ultimate in frustration. Their robotic sex voice LARA connection is utterly useless. Even when you press all the right numbers the sex voice LARA robot tells you there is a problem & to call back later. Calls to Mumbai are answered by polite Indian people with no understanding of the frustration of dealing with a company that keeps people waiting in a queue for hours, which is the norm in India just to make a deposit or withdrawal from a bank or any other everyday procedure.

This company goes out of it's way to purposely make it extremely difficult to make any kind of complaint. Their phones either cut you off or do not answer for hours & if & when they do answer it is by a person who does not understand the problem, their email is sent from non-returnable addresses, they have no public contactable address & they send their hardware from disguised addresses through other intermediary companies.

If there is a vigalante band being organised to lynch the people who run this company please let me know so I can join.

I went to get a mobile broadband plan with Vodafone in November last year. Service was alright until I had 1 bar 3G signal, incredibly crap speeds, & it has stayed that way since beginning of January 2011. So much for a network maintenance, which some foreign customer service guy claimed would not take longer than a week. Must be some lying generic response, just an Indian version of Lara. The towers seem to be unable to handle the amount of users they are constantly attracting and taking in using their misleading marketing. Vodafone emphasizes their 'good' coverage and 'speed', which is so abysmal that even a snail can travel faster than the data that reaches my usb modem. Im living in a suburb with 3G coverage, but the connection dropouts are just appalling. It happens every few minutes. There is no point in using GPRS mode, since it's even slower than the oldest person alive. These days I seem to be paying monthly fees for nothing. You get several GB of usage and you can't even use it. This is seriously epic fail. It all started with me reading Vodafone's ad clustered site for technical information regarding coverage, speed, & service. They claimed to cover metropolitan areas, which included the suburb I live in. They claimed a reasonable speed range that most other telcos quote and boasted about their service. Then I waited an hour at the store to be served, the dealers seem to rather enjoy chatting with one customer at a time very slowly until their shift is over. To me, it felt like days. Finally I got my plan set up. After sorting out the VMC software problems, the product worked (yes I know strange as it may seem, it actually worked for a few glorious weeks) until it struggled again. Here I am, poor signal for weeks, 0-20Kbps 3G, & almost non-existent service. Even if the network tower is not far away & there is nothing major blocking the signal. Heres where the pain begins that customers have endured. I called Vodafone technical support 35 times, 30 of them were Lara transfer problems leading to call cut offs. WTF is the point of Lara's telemaze if it leads to cut offs. It's like having to solve a f*d up maze only to reach a dead end. The other 5 times led to horrid patchy musical hold up times equivalent to a theatrical length film. Finally I got to a foreign guy who told me these lame responses, which I, a pc expert, would have already tried. He still insisted me to try his troubleshooting even though I told him 10 times I've already done it. Ranging from reinstalling the device & software to deleting browsing history. Lame. Still got crap speed & signal. I really need to 'troubleshoot' someone in the head. Then he rambles on about a network upgrade in my area. Another generic response in their agenda. AND they always say there is no deadline for these upgrades. I hope people don't have to wait a lifetime's journey to get full signal again. Knowing their call centres are foreign these days, I gave up because even maintaining a call with them (that is prone to dropouts) will take blood, sweat, & tears. Now we have 12000+ Australians lobbying for a lawsuit against Vodafone, for reasons similar to my woes. I wouldn't be very surprised. We also have a recent issue involving customer data security breaches over the web. All Vodafone does is tell us that everything is fine. IT IS NOT. Whirlpool forums is packed daily with unheard complaints of Vodafone's services. In fact the threads are so vast it could form a large encyclopedia or a Lord of The Rings novel. As for the Vodafone staff seeking sympathy, think again. You are the cratered face of the company, so you must deal with the aggressive amount of recent customer woes. It is us customers that have all the power in the end. We can choose, in the extreme case, to do a mass exodus rather than put up with Vodafone's recent incompetences. We suffering customers (which seems to be a majority of Vodafone's customers in Australia, looking at how many complaints have plagued across the net) could all leave Vodafone & go to Telstra, Optus, etc. That will leave Vodafone Australia dying out of business, which will mean the Vodafone staff will lose their jobs. But then heres another issue. When customers attempt to cancel their plan & account, the customer service person attempts to hold on to the already dissatified customer for dear life like a leech, offering lame discounts & bartering. We shouldn't have to pay the remaining cost of the plan if we get slow unusable 3G net for weeks on end. We shouldn't have to rely on TIO and other full blown agencies to get our word across. This Vodafail site clearly indicates the last straw for the telco. It's just ridiculous, seeing that 'Vodafone' is an international business. If Vodafone doesn't fix these customer & network services, then too bad for the future. There won't be much for the telco to fix once its over. Not to mention the irony of 'gain sharing', I can barely post this using my Vodafone mobile broadband.

The saga continues, this is my 5th day, 3 times a dya 15 minutes at least...and still couldn't make it through to customer care!!! the only one i spoke to is Lara which makes me feel like a fool!!! I just want to close my account, I cant take it no more ... even closing the account is not that easy

The other day I called Customer Care to speak to them about my handset issues (after they'd given me a broken phone via insurance).
The Indian woman on the other end of the line didn't understand me, so I asked to speak to her supervisor, to which she replied 'There are no Australians working here.' When I repeated my request, she put me on hold for ten minutes and then came back on the line, no mention of the supervisor. She was probably taking another call.

While I was expressing my frustrations with Vodafone's bad service and explaining that this was just another thing that was going to make me leave if it wasn't resolved, she became personally insulted (because she didn't speak English, so took offence at what I was saying) and threatened to hang up on me if I continued to 'use profanities'.

I had to explain to her that 'It's not about you, I don't know you, you just work for a multinational corporation. I have a problem with that corporation, like millions of other Australians do right now.'

She kept putting me on hold over and over again and threatening to cut me off if I was rude to her (wtf!!!!!!!!) and then put me on hold to some other department where 'Lara' said the wait time would be 40 minutes. After my incredibly frustrating experience, I just hung up. I submitted my request to be released from my contract to the TIO immediately.

I've been a vodafone custormer for over 10 years now and I have found there service slipping everyday. If you call up you are put onto Lara who doesn't understand what you need and then you are put onto a Indian working in a call centre who isn't much more help. If you go into the branch they say the same thing. All they can do is call India and have the same discussion with them you would have at home. I'm on a $79 plan and for some reason keep on getting $110 bills. Everytime I call them they try and tell me I have gone over my cap which is near impossible. I have currently just signed a new contract with them and have absolutaly no help from them. My Nokia N8 started playing up so I took it to Vodafone and they told me to contact Nokia as it wasn't there problem even though I am paying them insurance on the phone. I would have left Vodafone is someone could point me in the dirrection of a better provider but that doesn't seem possible as Optus is just as bad. telstra rip you off and lets not even say anything about Virgin.

I had to ring vodafone customer support about three weeks ago. I had an issue with recharching my pre paid account. When I attempted to recharge over the phone, the lara lady told me sorry, we have some technical issues.
So I had to ring customer support. 40 minutes later I FINALLY got to talk to a rude vodafone guy. I asked why I was experiancing this problem and WHAT WAS THE TECHNICAL issue? He said he doesnt know. I was left feeling angry and fustrated by the poor quality of customer service.

no probs signing a contract ...
god help u trying to cancel it.
was on hold for an hour and a half in which time i had a shower, blow dried my hair and heard lara tellin me the wait coz it won't be too much longer.
finally got thru to a rep who i requested compensation from for calling a 1300 # from an Optus number on top of wanting to cancel my contract.
he advised me he would transfer me to the right department - a department which informed me via an automated msg tht it was closed over the christmas and new years holidays.
went to a store after that and was informed by a rep that you can only cancel via customer service.
spent another hour on hold in store.
gave up and told the rep i had enough i couldnt wait any longer.
the rep actually OFFERED to do it for me .. i was hesitant but i thought hey he's offered .. all i asked was for a callback if he couldnt ...
2 weeks later and nothing.
this is the worst experience!!! dont understand how a compant can get away with this!!!!

Have been trying to get through and actually speak to someone other than "Lara" for near on 2 hours now.

First call i was on hold for 45 mins before the call just dropped out, tried to call several times over the next 20 mins each time after getting past LARA it would ring and give me the message that they were having technical difficulties and to call back,

Still on hold 55 mins and counting and still havent spoken to anyone at vodafone.

So lucky i only have mobile internet with vodafone, and even happier that i only have a few months left on my contract. Dont know how a company that treats its customers so attrociously can still be in business!

Disgusting Vodafone, absolutely disgusting

I paid my bill using mastercard but it never was captured despite money taken from my bank. I have tried to get intouch with them but I spent two hours with lara and nothing resoved

I had two services with Vodafone. One private, and the other paid for by my employer.

Whilst on holidays, I had misplaced my private phone and needed the calls diverted to my work number so I can receive calls from both services. Well lets just say there is about 5.5 hours of my life I am never going to get back.

* 1st call. Got through to someone in god knows where and explained what I wanted. Was told that it was done and would kick in within 10 minutes. Rang my private service as a test 3 hours later, and went to voicemail.
* Tried again several times over two days, and still no good.
* Rang Vodafone Customer Service and was on hold for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Noone answered. When I finally thought I was going to get through, got a voice prompt from the ever so "charming" Lara, that there was a problem and cannot continue. I was cut off
* Repeat previous point x4 times in two days
* Went to Vodafone shop in Sydney, and explained what I was after and what I had done so far. They rang the same number I did, and I was left standing there for over an hour. Gave up an hour later
* Became incredibly frustrated, gave up and ported service to another provider.

You suck Vodafone. Completely over your complete lack of service and competence (both in your people and your technology). Some other provider is now getting my money.

On hold now for 40 minutes and counting.. The most annoying bit is every now and then, Lara pipes up and says, 'Hang in there, we'll be with you really soon.' I guess 'really soon' does have a pretty loose definition.

First of all I do not like Lara I am sick and tired of talking to a computer its just not right. Second of all My usage was saying that I was going over when I definately didnt I always monitor my usage and I barely use the internet anyway, so I spoke to a customer relations officer from Vodafone who was very caring and he told me that he was going to fix the problem cause he knew I didnt go over aswell & he put my plan up from 6gb to 8gb for the same monthly payment and apologized so I thought that was nice of him. Then a few weeks later I went to SMS 1512 50 times literally over a few days and got no reply to tell me how much usage I have been using. I rang Vodafone back to get that stupid Lara person & she could not understand what I wanted to do so I was cursing calling her every name under the sun as you would if you were very frustrated so I hung up and had a breather then I rung back and got through to where I needed to be so I had to wait on hold now I was on hold for 54 minutes to be exact I could not believe it luckily it was a free number to call from my mobile but still no one likes to be on hold for nearly an hour. Anyway I explained to the person about the SMS and she had no idea why that was happening and put me on hold to find out what was going on that took 10 minutes. The Lady said that If I want to find out what usage is to check on the internet on the website with my log in details, so I thought alright then ill check on there from now on until the SMS gets sorted out. I then asked when my contract was going to finish cause I knew that it was finishing up in the next couple of weeks but i just thought Id check anyway. When I did ask the lady told me because I upgraded to the 8gb from 6gb plan I was on another 12month contract and I was like wtf!!! no one had told me that I was another 12month contract I was never notified the guy I spoke to before gave me the upgrade in good faith until my contract ran out & now they tell me that there is nothing they can do about it. I cannot believe Vodafone I am so disappointed and I will be taking this matter further as i do not wish to deal with Vodafone again.

Lara needs to be sacked.

After asking around and from my own experience I have a theory that Vodafail support simply starts ignoring you. I started my battle with vodafone a week and a half ago trying to get my coverage issues fixed, or to get them to agree to waiving any penalties when I leave. After the hours on hold etc I'm finally told my case is being escalated and I'll be called on my land line at an agreed to time to troubleshoot. Never got the call. Since that time I've promised call backs that never came (4 times), been hung up on, simply not been able to get through due to network error (4 times) or gotten through and then got the message that there is a "technical error" and I need to hang up (6 times). Now I've gotten through, past Lara and the queue and the phone has simply rung and rung and rung for 5 minutes before I hung up. They are just avoiding me now aren't they? Anyway, I'm leaving and if they charge me for leaving my contract early I'll fight them every way I can.

I only use prepay with my vodafail so that I can control my usage. So my complaint is more about the coverage, the text messages that are sent multiple times to the annoyance of the recipient and probably to my costs. False and misleading competitions that vodafail never honor. Never being able to access the net on my phone despite good coverage at that time. Clueless, useless customer assistants. finally having to put up with lara and never being able to get lara to get you to where you want to go. Fed up customer.

Ive been trying to speak to anybody from customer care for the last three days, nobody picked up the line except that useless voice system called Lara!!!!
Vodafone is giving bad customer service a new meaning..

Am currrently on the phone trying to get through after being told to redial multiple times!

Have had issues with Vodafone for over 2 years. My blackberry curve was playing up, which took forever for them to acknowledged was faulty and I was getting charged ridiculous amounts for multiple messages being sent and vodafone's particularly laggy balance updater. I.e. It would tell me I had $200 of credit on my $49 cap plan when i had far less or it "couldn't provide a balance at this time". This would lead to my account going over, how can i manage my account if they can't tell me how much i got to spend? What? Spend less so they can have more of my money for less work? How many telco providers can't even provide you a normal account balance? I understand that it's not live, but be at least 1-2 days up to date.

Lara....oh Lara...How i wish you could actually understand a word i say. I've tried in futile to get Voda to fix issues, but this is just plain useless when you can't even get from point A to point B. I personally believe it is designed to just stall customers so they don't need to hire as many customer service operators on the other end in India.

Lastly, I for the love of god was reluctant to sign up, but have just signed up to Vodafone in December as my partner was also on the network (free calls voda to voda). First off, network signal has been shotty to say the least. I get calls that are patchy and I am on a new phone. My new blackberry torch 9800 (yes it's only just come out) sometimes losses reception and even rejects my sim. WTF? Yes Vodafone sucks and now i am stuck with them for another 24 months. Why can't you just work?

As i finish writing this...guess what? I'm stil waiting for a voda rep to answer my call...30 minutes in. Oh did i forget to mention that they are sending multiple bills for 2 different accounts? Which was what my call was regarding... And here comes the patchy reception from their own call center!

Voda I hope you get sued for every cent you've cost us loyal customers.

Hate Lare? We appear to be developing some sort of relationship. Does that sound sad? Well she does listen. I try to to understand her limitations and use her ruthlessly, sending her off in all directions until finally she gives me to her friend , THE MESSENGER! Am I losing it? I'll ask Lara (when she comes out of shower).

Issue 1: Poor customer service? Maybe not super poor, but less than ideal for sure.
Once my previous contract ended just midway through last year, I bought myself a handset from online (a Nexus One shipped from the States) and changed myself to a Sim-only cap which included 3G data allowance.
3G didn't work. The Vodafone dealer/reseller told me I needed a new sim (er... ok) so I go to the official brand store and wait in line forever (at least the chick who served me was polite enough) and I told them my problem and that I was told to get a new sim. No questions, suggestions, second opinions, just an "ah, ok" response and they gave me a new sim. Still no 3G. I thought my phone was faulty, but then I swapped sims with a friend with the same phone and that magically worked (although my sim f**ked his phone up momentarily). So I succumb to calling the call centre where the very helpful individual on the other end of the line informed me that data wasn't enabled on my account. They helped switch it on for me but they couldn't answer why it was disabled in the first place, despite my probing and cajoling. Although what I -really- enjoy is the fact that the staff in-store couldn't even take the initiative to solve the problem properly by checking my account options to see whether data was enabled in the first place.

Issue #2: Reception issues
I've had audio quality issues in the past (others not being able to hear me) and chalked it up to my handset (an original 1st gen iPhone). I changed my phone and plan, but since moving to my new place I've noticed a brand new set of reception issues. Nowadays, my phone calls often consist of the other person's voice cutting in and out such that I can't even follow what words they're saying, let alone piecing together a sentence, and eventually the call just drops out. The other person can hear everything I say, I just can't seem to hear them. In my unit this seems to happen 99.99% of the time. I play the walk-around-the-unit-repeating-"hello? hello? are you there?" game until I find a spot where I can start to hear them. It's not my handset, because it doesn't happen everywhere in the world/Sydney. It's not my unit, because everyone else who passes through my unit (including my housemates) are fine. I have to admit I was in denial at first, but now I'm pretty sure I'm a victim of sh*t poor service.
My family's mobile plans are all through the one Vodafone account which I manage. I can only hope that they aren't experiencing the same issues as I am because I loathe to think that our family is funding this freaking circus freak show that is Vodafone AU.

Issue #3: Security breach
Seriously. WTF. How stupid can you freaking be? Any and all breaches should be traceable because every single staff member should have a unique friggen login ID (amongst other authentication protocols). And high-turnover/low-level staffers should have the most limited access to personal information possible (if a mere dealer is responsible for such a serious breach, then it is most -definitely- the fault of Vodafone AU and its poor business/IT practices).
If there are indeed instances of "communal" login IDs in place at Vodafone branches/resellers/whatever, I don't see how changing the passwords every 24hrs is helping to track/isolate an offending employee/dealer who is using a login that is also used by n individuals (where n is > 1).

Issue #4: Lara
I hate automated phone menus which ask for verbal responses/cues. But my goodness, Lara is the ONLY one who makes me swear like a sailor within 20 seconds every freaking time I call. I feel very sorry for the individual behind Lara's voice. I just know that if I heard her on the street I'd instantly think of Lara and be like "F*ck f*ckity f*ck aarrrggghhhh!" and want to punch her in the face.

I am in the fortunate position of not having been a Vodafone customer for several years. I ran away when I had to speak to Lara. I cannot imagine a more infuriating, frustrating and futile waste of people's time than this absolutely pathetic IVR system. Just thinking about it makes me wonder at the insanity of this decision - honestly how much money did they think they were going to save? THey've lost thousands over the past 3 years by not having me as a customer and I'm sure there are many more out there. With the telco I'm with now (3), when I phone the call centre I speak to a human. Yes a real, live human. Yes I know they are in India somewhere but honestly I don't care, at least they speak to me like a human, can listen and adapt the conversation and actually solve my problem and answer my question not like some stupid robot. I SWEAR THAT IF THREE START USING LARA THEY WILL LOSE ME IMMEDIATELY AS A CUSTOMER. Just letting y'all know. Hopefully there is someone out there in telco land who is hearing this.

so glad i dont own shares

My prepaid was barred because lara stuffed up the personal info.

Tried 3 times to contact via Lara (no good). If you want to get through quickly ring the head office number 02 9415 7000 and ask for the operator when prompted, tell her you can't get through and she will connect you directly.You still go to India but the call gets answered straight away. Good Luck

I had a handset fail under warranty. But it was my second handset after the first was replaced under insurance afte rit was stolen. But they couldn't find the paperwork confirming my new handset so they sent out the proof of purchase for the first handset (which was no longer under warranty). What insued was a game of tennis between their customer service centre and their call centre in which I was the ball.

To get the replacement I had to drive from far southside Brisbane to Milton 4 times and endured countless frustated hours with Lara trying to get through to someone to get to the bottom of the problem.

In the end I did not get any customer service and to get a result had to act as a mediator between their two departments just to settle what should have been a simple warranty claim.

Lara asks me what I would like, I say a real person, she says, would you like to make a credit card payment? I say no, operator. She repeats would I like to make a credit card payment.. etc etc etc. Until I hang up because lara is useless.

Went to the customer service centre in Milton. Their feedback system is 8 questions to which answers are electronically input on a scale of 1 to 10.. After driving all the way to Milton to get service and then be confronted with another lifeless careless machine was completely insulting and infuriating!

Unable to connect from home in Perth's northern suburbs more than half the time since 17 December.

Trying to call "Customer Care" from a land line, as my mobile won't connect, results in an extensive navigation of 'Lara' and then a message telling me there is a technical problem, and that I should hang up and try again.

No kidding.

Why am I paying $49/month for a shoddy unreliable service?

Poor customer service, confusing bills, calls dropping out and the whining voice of 'Lara' make my blood boil.....Something should be done about these crooks!

I am waiting for my iphone to arrive, I am being billed for it, I have been told everyday since last Friday, and I am on hold with Lara for 2-4 hours everyday and then it cuts out! What Can I do??? I am being billed but no phone, and cant contact them? My bill goes out of my account for $100 monthly?

1)95% of the time, everyday now, I cannot make ph calls! I'll dial the no, only to be in limbo, waiting for ANYTHING to happen, before it just drops out. Never mind if I even wanted to call Vodafone to get help - it won't connect to anyone! Or it'll drop out while on a ph call. 2)I've often been kept waiting for 30mins+ when contacting Vodafone. Even when they've started 'helping' me, I've been transferred on to another 'customer service rep' only to wait longer each time! One time I was buck-passed onto about 7 ppl! 3)My voicemail, smss & pxts have consistently been delayed. 4)Don't get me started on 'Lara', or Vodafone staff for whom I have to simplify everything. Very unhappy.

I made 3 attempts at calling 1555 to upgrade my handset (I dont know why) arghhhh! Due to 'technical difficulties' my call was disconnected.

The 4th time i finally connected to 'lara'. With my enquiry issued, i was placed on hold for 57minutes before I reached a 'real' person.

Only to find that the department I wanted was closed for the day!!!!! I was then placed on hold AGAIN while the operator found me the right place to complain (at my request)

TOTAL time with a phone stuck to my ear listening to bad elevator music - 1 hour 3 mins. PRICELESS!

Some 30 hours to have my internet terminated 12 people I have spoken to on 1555,since 11/12/2010, been cut off, placed on hold, transfered to wrong dept, and to currenlty waiting for a call back which Lara told me would be 30 mins, today 10/01/2011, called at 4.53 pm told we'll ring you back within 30 mins & Yep still waiting at 7.30 pm.
I did notice how quick they were to donate large some of money to Floods appeal here in Qld Well done I noticed how quick they were to warn of a breach of private information leaked. Yet Lara & Co What about us the people who are waiting waiting waiting, I have placed a complaint in to TIO, I have a list of all 12 people I have had the pleasure to speak to be hung up by or tried to help me only NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE YET,Why do we allow this I will be ridding the problem as soon as they contact me what a Joke....Peter, No Service QLD

Got through to Lara but then told, due to tech problems, to call back! This call was to ask WHY MY PHONES ARE STILL CONNECTED TO VODA after canceling my contract on one phone and disconnecting a prepaid today (took 3 hours in CBD and talking to Mumbai)!

i have been hung up on by vodafone 7 times in the last 20 min then after i fanally get through lara i get a message saying im sorry there has been a problem you will have to hang up and try again .. it is rediculous!

At this very moment I have attempted to contact customer service 1555 from both my mobile and the 1300 number on my home phone so I can finalise my final bill to switch to another carrier as my contract has ended. Attempt 1, 2 & 3 saw the call drop out after about a minute and each call back resulted in me having to sit through a 30 second spiel about how Vodafone takes customer infomation security seriously etc. The 4th time had me on hold for 25 mins, finally got through to someone and spoke half a paragraph only to have the call drop out. The rest of the frustrating calls resulted in a message from Lara saying ' We are experiencing technical difficulties, please hang up and call again'. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???????!!!!!!! THE ONLY DIFFICULTY VODAFAIL IS HAVING IS THE LARGE AMOUNT OF COMPLAINTS THAT ARE COMING THROUGH.
I have been with Vodafone for many years, both pre-paid and contract on numerous occasions - I WILL NEVER GO BACK. VODAFONE GO TO HELL.

In short: for the last month (and for some time before that but not to
the same extent), I have experienced terrible service from Vodafone.
Calls dropping out repeatedly, text and voicemail messages not arriving
or being very delayed, network dropping out completely and needing
repeated reboots of the phone, and extremely slow data. This is in every
location, not just at my home.

My experience of calling Vodafone has been:
1. The network team telling me it's a problem with my phone (iphone 3GS)
2. The iphone team telling me it's a problem with the network
3. The network team telling me that it is a problem with the network at
my house but that I then needed to talk to the iphone team
4. The iphone team telling me that is incorrect and I have to deal with
the network team to troubleshoot
5. Call dropped out
6. Spoke to the technical department who told me there was no problem
with the network at my house
7. Asked to speak to the disconnections department after being sick of
waiting and getting shuffled around
8. Disconnections department telling me that there is a well documented
issue with the vodafone network in Melbourne due to the 3 merger but
they could only disconnect me without a fee if I spoke to the network
team
9. I informed her I didn't want to wait another 45 min on hold so could
she have network call me back
10. Waited for call back, never happened
11. Called back and spoke to technical team who said they could only
escalate me to network if I troubleshooted with them which I couldn't at
the time as only phone around was my mobile which I was using
12. Called back later on my partner's phone, kept waiting over 45 min
only for the call to cut out
13. Next day spoke to technical team again, troubleshooted but this did
not help
14. Advised that could only escalate further if I could document 3 drop
outs at my house over 72 hour period, and if claiming a widespread
problem it must be 3 drop outs in each of 3 different documented
locations
15. Over weekend have had repeated delayed texts, call drop outs and
ridiculously slow data but in widespread locations including my home.


I emailled this to Vodafone customer help because i couldn't bear to deal with Lara and her mega wait time and this is the reply I received:

"RESPONSE:
Question: Why is there an unusual or unexpected charge on my current bill?
Answer:
View our online Bill Explainer here

If you notice unusual or unexpected charges on your bill, this may be due to the following reasons:

1. If this is your first bill since connecting to Vodafone, all standard charges for new accounts are charged from the date of connection until the start of the next bill cycle, plus one month of access charged in advance. This monthly fee charged in advanced will cover the next billing period. On your second bill, there will only be one monthly access charge. This is for your next billing period and is paid in advance. If you change plans, part of the monthly access charge that you have paid in advance wil be credited on a pro-rata basis................" etc. etc.

What the...?

Well she is the only person you get to speak with and sadly Lara's propensity to make errors is at least better than network reception.

I use vodafone on a 3G dondgle for one remote destktop. The connection drops 2-3 times a day on average, some days 10 times sometimes just 1 time.

Vodafail's helpful technical support deny any problems, suggested using 2g, and well generally leave you hold.

For my company mobiles I particularly lved their admin stuff ups. We had 2 personal and 1 corporate account. I tried to transfer 1 phone from a personal to the business account. Far too complex for Vodafail's dynamic team. Instead they opened another corporate account...in an identical company name. But the geniuses staffing vodafail decided that perhaps I needed a different type of company a small home based one. So called 'soho' for this whobdnt know small businesses get to enjoy Lara bigger ones get a different customer service phone number and (marginally) better customer service...to keep riff raff out (that would be all the other people stupid enough to use vodafail) they block normal customers phone numbers. So if you inadvertently call the (very marginally) better team it says number not available. So as the business owner the only way I could call the dynamic duffers staffing vodafail was to dial 1831 To hide my number then call customer "service" (lol.) of course the two dynamic teams don't talk to each other and after nearly an hour more of time attempting to add the soho account to my corporate one u gave up. I moved to Optus. ..... And Wow! I can get reception!!!! My calls drop about 90% less often!!!

Buy vodafail weren't finished with me. Oh no, even after moving to Optus vodafail still kept skewing up. How? Well they keep a special list of vodafone customers (ie gullible folks) so anyone calling from a vodafone sees this list, well they kept my number of the vodafone customer list but moved the account. Result anyone calling from a vodafone got 'number not available' ah can thus company get ANYTHING right. What a bunch of f-wits.

F-wits who are sooooo quick to screw customers over. Anyone travel on vodafail? Beware!!!!!! they have 2 tariffs "f^% you over" and "just really expensive". I think they call them world traveller and traveller plus. Anyway the screw you over tariff is the default and it's incredably expensive for just about everywhere you want To go, new Zealand, us, europe, Asia etc . Screw you over tariff is cheaper on popular detonations like Zimbabwe and somalia etc....get the picture. You know how thus ends a call to vodafail customer service sets you up to travel and after 2 days in new Zealand I get back with an 800 dollar bill !!! Oh and I was using vodafail nz there too. And the network is just as bad. Anyway watch out for it, their customer service folks are trained to pit you onto screw you over tariff.

Can you believe these cheaky a$$$ holes actually call me up as each of my contracts comea up to expirey. After years of f%^#*ing me over they seriously expect us to re-sign.

It's NOT just reception. The entire organization is rotten to the core with a culture of pulling the wool over customers eyes.

THANK YOU VODAFAIL

At last a place where we can tell the world the reality of being a vodafone customer.

my husband five months ago renewed his plan and got a new phone, since then he has had countless dropouts, no reception, it is a business phone which makes it even more of a problem. my pre paid phone also suffers the same problems as my husbands phone. oh and that dumb lara they have, i spent an hour with her last month trying to tell her "bill payment" and she goes off track, so you have to start agaian and again etc etc

I had a prepay phone for awhile in Melbourne - when calling Vodafail I was often on hold to speak to a human (which took an eternity)only for the call to drop out when I was being transferred to the appropriate person. Since moving to Sydney both my partner and I have post paid accounts to get the new Iphone 4. My partner works in the CBD and coverage is a frequent problem - great way to impress his customers hang up on them mid-sentence?? Coverage is an even bigger problem in our unit. I had the fun job of doing the change of address calls including being on hold for many minutes to utility companies. Once again at a crucial time in the call it would drop - very frustrating.

I have been on the phone to a friend this morning and during a 20 minute conversation, the phone dropped out three times. This happens on a regular basis! Also the 3g keeps disappearing and my internet connection is getting slower and slower. The free text to 1512 to check my account balance and the amount owing regularly comes back saying "this service is temporarily unavailable". I have had countless issues with logging on to the 'myvodafone' website. My password (the same one I have used for two years) suddenly stopped working, so I reset my password, this password worked for one day and then the next did not. This has happened regularly over the past month and Vodafone informs me that I have to re-register with myvodafone, which I have done 4 times in the past month and still no luck!! Every time my password does not work, I have to re-register again, the new password works for the first or second log-in then it fails the next time... and vodafone assures me each time that they have fixed the problem. My voicemail has failed to work on and off over the past year. I sometimes get my messages 3 days after they were left or not at all. Don't get me started on LARA!!! She gets me so worked up it is not funny..."Was that a yes or a no?" NO "sorry I didn't quite get that? Please say yes or no" NO "Sorry I didn't quite get that" - it drives me insane!!!! I have complained about Lara to Vodafone on numerous occasions. I am now concerned regarding this latest news of personal details being leaked. How do I sign up for the class action against Vodafone?

I am so disgusted by the whole Voda media atm... get your act together Voda...
I still can't get in contact with customer care after i waited more than 1 hour (5 attempts) on the phone... ****** bull**** "hangin' there - I'll be with you shortly!" - as STUPID Lara says! I am hangin.... where's the answer???????

Firstly, who the f*ck names an automated answering service, and equips it with smug casual phrases and a 1-900 phone-sex voice? "HI. I'M LARA... I'M SORRY, I DIDN'T QUITE CATCH THAT. YOU'LL HAVE TO SPEAK MORE CLEARLY...." Am I the only person who wants to find this *Lara* machine and take a sledge hammer to it? Catch THIS, Lara.

Their have been countless fails, but the standouts are:
using a loophole in my story of how my phone broke to tell me that those specific circumstance meant it couldn't be replaced even though I was still under (a ridiculous) contract.

I almost never use my phone, and they conned me into a contract that had a $30 base charge, calls and texts charged on top of that. I'd been led to believe I was signing up for a $30 cap plan.

Oh, and I called them before heading overseas, after wrestling with their useless website. They assured me I was signed up to use my phone o/s. When I got over there, my phone didn't work no matter what I tried. When I rang them, they confirmed both that it wasn't working, and that according to them it should be working. That was the extent of their help. I was in the US for two weeks and they didn't fix the prob in that time.

Their call centre is absolutely hopeless - no way of getting through. Was on hold for 3 hours the other day (had phone on speaker whilst working) and in the end got a message saying sorry our lines have now closed for the day and you will need to call back tomorrow. I think I could call at 9am and be on hold till 6pm and get the closed message! Then if they do answer you will be in the wrong section (because Lara never has the right option) and you go to the back of the hold queue in the supposed right section. Am expecting a delivery of a replacement phone and was told it would arrive by courier on Friday. Waited around all day for it and guess what - yep it never arrived! So now i've decided we'll just see what Monday brings as given up trying to get in contact.

I have been on a contract with vodafail since may 2010 and the issues have been endless. to start i live in metro ACT and the coverage is useless, i don't even have service at my house... second my number keeps getting called from different locations all over Australia, a wire cross over or something and forget talking to someone about it they just kept handing me off to the next useless person. The internet is painful to use and they wont cover anything under the extended warranty i took out and pay extra for various stupid reasons Even know the sales person told me it covered everything)and now this confidence breach, you have to be kidding me. We are people not just $$$ i think even pathetic 'Lara' could even understand that.
Not impressed! I want out!

Thank goodness i got out of my vodafail contract by pretending i already had it approved and was told to send the phone back! I was in Melbourne and reception was ok but then moved to Bendigo and it was hopeless even though they told me it was fine the calls would drop out constantantly and using the internet was painful. You may be cheap vodafail but its not worth it when you caant make a call and you cant even talk to a real person - Lara needs to be put to rest. The vodafail shops in Bendigo and Shepparton have both closed down - a sign of things to come...........

I hope the woman who supplied Lara's voice hangs her head in shame.

calls dropping... not your average once a month but l mean it will happen once a day. l thought the merger with 3 would improve their coverage and network. Of course on their end... all is good.
Plus try to get through LARA... what a joke. l don't want to talk to a stupid machine to tell me it's going to be 45- 60 min wait.

Id like to meet Lara and tell her her services are no longer required.

I'll skip my sad sorry details because it will just be more of the same complaints already experienced by 1000s of unhappy vodafail customers.

This company is too arrogant by far. They are only interested in ripping people off as much as possible without caring for their customers or delivering anything like their advertised services.

To try & fix the complete f------g mess they caused with my wireless internet I went to get help from their stores & was fobbed off totally by 2 of them. Tried various " service" "help" (vodafail's key word for we don't give a shit) numbers & reached India, which was no help just more frustration with an Indian accent, after waiting in queue for hours being bombarded with recorded vodafail lies about their so called services. Called their robot Lara, the most frustrating experience of my life & finally was transferred after 45 minutes to an Aussie accented young man who unfortunately copped my whole torrent of abuse regarding the shit company he worked for. Turns out he had only just joined them & was thinking of quitting. This young guy assured me that he would sort out the mess for me, make sure I wasn't charged (for services not provided) & cancel my account. He ended the conversation by saying that if by chance I did receive a bill (for the non services) I should take it to a vodafail store & they would sort it out for me.

If I have to go back to a store & start my battle with vodafail again I will make sure I'm carrying a baseball bat & if I get the same runaround as I did before I'll use the bat to smash anything with vodafail written on it in sight.

These people must be sent by aliens from outer space to wipe out the human race by getting us so frustrated we will self destruct from the stress.

I have been with vodafone for about five years, I am just back from holidays (Canberra to Toowoomba up the East Coast and back again by car). Largely no reception, no data, messages coming through anything up to a day late, emails coming through anything up to a day late. This includes many of the towns I passed through or stayed in, not just between towns.

Customer service is a joke and having to deal with Lara is a nightmare and more than enough reason to change carriers. I will be going in to speak with a real person at a vodafone outlet and working out how much time I have left on my contract on Monday.

Come on guys, you are quite happy to charge me 89 bucks a month for this, lift your game. Telstra is starting to look good again...

When I signed up to Vodafone I was told I would get coverage in country Victoria (4 hours west of Melbourne). To my surprise when I got back to my home town in the country, I had no service, infact the service was non-existent just 40 minutes out of Ballarat. This is so frustrating considering I'm always going into the country for work.

I would say that generally my past involvement with Vodafone has been good.
This appears to have changed in the last little while.
I've noticed that some calls drop out and some never come through at all.
I have friends who ask why I'm not taking their calls and then I check the missed call log on my phone to see that there are no missed calls.
I've also noticed in the last month or so that I'm being charged twice for sending the same message. I check the call details on Vodafone's website and it shows a message being sent at 11:38:40 & then at 11:38:42. I'm on a capped plan so EVERY duplicated message charge is coming off my call allowance.
It is a pity that Vodafone seems to have dropped the ball in some ways, my experience until now has been reasonable, or at the very least on par with the other carriers.
One last comment, please, please, please, send Lara on extended leave to a far away island, bring back a person who can answer the phone and who can help you.

this privacy breach....
it explains why i was receiving up to 5 calls a day from a dubai number who wanted to 'be my friend'.
wanting to know how the fuck they got my number. called day in day out for weeks it was only until my husband threatened to hunt them down that they stopped calling.

i researched the number on the internet and it is people trying to scam money and stealing phone numbers from such breaches like this.

going into the vodafone store tomorrow cause we all know if i call LARA will tell me as per usual its a 50 minute wait to speak to someone who doesnt even understand in fucken INDIA!!! hoping they will null and void my contract because of this major major fuck up.

hello optus...done telstra and now i have definitely done with vodafail.

I cant even login to My Vodaphone with 3 attempts with 3 different temporary passwords.
Even gave Lara a gobful but couldn't even phase her.
What a bunch of DROPKICKS !!!
This is my 2nd VODAFAIL whinge and i'm sure it won't be my last.
Can't wait to get out of this joke companies contract.

I was a loyal Vodafone customer for 14 years, even rung by them on numerous ocassions and told they considered me a 'VIP Customer' (what a joke), when late last year my automatic direct debit payment failed for the first time. I was away on holiday at the time and within 2 days they had completely barred my service. Even their Customer Service admitted I had an excellent payment record. It was the last straw for me and I finally gave up and have since switched carriers.

I also just couldn't stand 'Lara' anymore who could never understand what I wanted. And what security is it when you have to speak out loud all your private security PINs and codes for others around you to hear ? Management decisions by idiots. I won't even start on the endless unproductive calls I had to their Customer Service centre over the years.

Bye bye Vodafone, you deserve all the pain you're getting.

8/01/2011 rang 1555 3.35pm Lara told me to wait BUSY AGAIN, was on hold for some 1.35 mins THEN it rang thought yeh, But it rang rang rang rang no one one pick it up (MAYBE THEY NO ME) still ringing so ended call what a waste of energy. still waiting totoal time on phone is 33.27 hours since 11/12 2010 spoke to 123 people to solve this Hey LARA still waiting (hope they payed you for this voice over cause you earned it.....pete

I cant begin to discribe the mess vodafone has put me through!!! Seriously got the bill and they have charged me an extra 40$ for a phone call tht should have been on the new cap!! I keep dropping in and out of reception oh oh and to top it all off im on hold ATM been on it for over 2 hours and whats the bet I get some person who cant even speck English "try" help me!!! Ive had ENOUGH!!! I need to get off this plan asap before Lara gets an ear full!!

Since 11/12/2010 have no internet connection, have spoken to 12 people ( have names) on 1555, since this date & have been on the 1555 for 29 hours 35 mins and still counting as late as 7/01/2011 5.30pm Not only can they not seem to help me solve this problem they continue to cut me off, sed me to different operators who cannot help OR promise to call back to solve this problem, NOW they have create a problem for which I cannot use my Mobile phone as the billing account has been changed, so no phone as of the 7/01/2011. only on 1555 can you get assistance & no answer or no help until weekday so Voda phone can take a leap as NO HAPPY LARA you cant help me.....if any one has a suggestion PLEASE let me know. pete

For my birthday I thought i'd upgrade my phone and go on contract after being on prepay with vodaphone NZ and vodafone australia for over 10 combined years. Anywho this is how it it panned out.

1st step: I apply for the contract online and was approved and had my phone delivered to me etc, however because the phone was very expensive I called Vodafone and requested to have incurance added.

2nd step: As advised by a vodaphone rep who "Fucken Lara" the machine eventually transferred me to and took over an hour to I was then advised that insurance cannot be approved over the phone and I must take the phone in to a store so they can view and confirm that insurance was applied before the package was opened.

3rd Step: A lady fills out the insurance form we both sign and she says it will be sent away and I will be charged $10p/month. I was not given a copy of the insurance forms.

All sounds easy right???? WWWWWRRRRROONNNNNNNGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!

My phone breaks so I take it in and was advised will not be warranty. Fine I advised is under insurance only to be told the is no way I can have insurance if i signed up over the phone..... like WTF "What The Fuck" Yep I was told insurance cannot be applied when contracts have been organised via direct deals over the net. Ok now this is crazy but its true so i decided FUCK that im gonna get something in writing.

I then go online and chat some spastic who also said the same thing so i said to her "I was told to take the phone in still sealed and have the insurance forms filled out, signed and sent away" so she replies back saying i am right so then I email her back and say "Please read your email below confirming that insurance cannot be added" so the dumb bitch emails me back and says "I am just going off what you said previously" I mean come on who works for vodaphone the spastic or me.

In the end I couldnt be fucked dealing with vodafone...... I pay my bill late every month and I wait for a collections call unfortunately for the person on the other end they cop a ear bashing!!!! And now that they have disconnected my phone I have called them to update my details and they are now calling me on another mobile number to collect funds.

Yes I am still paying it as I do not want bad credit but guranteed I will leave $100 or less at the end of my contract and call them back to request a credit.

Vodafone is shit!!!! I recommend you get rid of it, start using your work phone if you can or get a landline. If that does not suit you then go anywhere but vodafone..... Hate them with a passion.

also again wanted to complain about LARA oh my friggen god i just want to slap her so hard if i see her, boy does she get me wound up. she doesn't understand anything i say, if i say what i want she gives me all these other stupid options that have nothing to do with what i want, it's only when i start talking in jibberish that i actually get somewhere! and now they have this press 1 press 2 carry on, so you follow the prompts and press the keys only to end up with a dead end hang up please try again. that's it this website has wound me up i'm canelling vodafone phone and internet tomorrow and telling my boyfriend to cancel too and we are going telsta. EF YOU VODAFONE

I remember when Lara was created and voted on within my company. Yes, she was outsourced. It was between her and a blonde girl and a guy. Caricatures I am talking about. Lara is hot. I'd go her. LOL

I had a one night stand with Voda and now I'm pregnant. He doesn't answer when I call, I just get his wife Lara. I feel so ashamed. FML

Trying to cancel my contract early last year, was told they would wave the cancelation fee with approx 3 months to go on 24mth plan. But, 13 days to go (yes, i waited this long!) now tell me, at Loganholme store "The're unable to help me with anything like that." Phone "LARA", then spoke to Lester in India, then put on hold for an hour, the handset goes flat!!!! Phone 1555 on mob. Speak to "LARA" again on hold for 20 mins, then tells me "Line fail, please call back." Then hangs up on me?!?! HUH!!!!!!!

from the sales desk to lara to voicemail the service is rubbish, if i dont pay my bill im in breach of contract but for vodafone to charge for a service that is substandard at best is in my opinion (im not a lawyer) a breach of contract how can we as a group take this on and get out of the contract that is tailored to vodafone, not the customer???

1
cancelled service still being billed complete with threatening letters despite 3x40min waiting time and then 40 min conversation with a person with a fairly good grasp of English but insufficient for the problem
2
sms arriving 6 hours late
3
despite assurances to the contrary my phone keeps dropping out (with four bars signal strength) in Richmond such that it is common to redial three times during a conversation with a customer
4
Lara is no help and seems to only transfer me to a human when I shout obscenities at her
5
often when i follow the help menu i finish up in a dead end where i have to hang up and start again
6
have been with Voda for ten years. Initially the customer service was so good that I didnt mind the coverage but i did not expect both would ge worse

Perky LARA is beginning to get on my nerves

Just called "customer care" and when Lara went to put me through she had a "technical problem" you will need to hang up and call again. - FFS!

adding to my previous gripe about "costing me jobs", now I cannot even speak to customer support. All I get is "Hello, this is Punjabi, how can I help you?", then when I speak, nothing. A few seconds later I hear "There is too much background noise, please call us from a quieter location, thankyou." All this time I am sitting in my lounge room in perfect silence. Problem - NOT at my end. STOP with the outsourcing Vodafone, this obvious greed is impacting on your customers. "Lara" sounds clear, but nothing else does .... hmm how convenient! If the CEO of Vodafone reads this, you are about to lose a 12 year customer. FIX the issues at postcode 2213. PATHETIC!!

TO START..
I can't even speak to an australian customer rep! so i have to spend a painful 20 minutes trying to disypher what the rep has just said..

Then I went on a holiday for over a week in a 'vodafone coverage area' with NO reception! So i had missed voicemails (as nobody could contact me)from another job of mine asking to work!

I recieved christmas messages and pictures a WEEK late.

Today 06/01/2011 i tried calling vodafone 3 times and was left on hold with no assistants for over 25 minutes when they asked me to call them regarding a new plan and phone! So i called the 1-5 number at 4.30 and in an automated message from Lara they ask if they can call me back in 10 minutes. My phone is yet to ring..it is now 9.29PM

I have signed up online with the autoclub membership for a $29 cap over a 12 month period. As an NRMA member I am supposed to receive 10% the total cap and also am entitled to the first three months free. I also purchased the Mobile Cover Me insurance for $10 a month.
After receiving my first bill, I found that I am connected to a $29 cap over a 24 month period and did not receive the 10% off nor the first month free, and I was not cover by the mobile insurance.
I have waited on the phone twice for 45 minutes and then the call hangs up. The first call that manages to reach account enquiries result in the phone being transferred to sales because apparently the information was incorrectly entered when I purchased my phone and plan. When the operator in sales finally answered she laughed at my problem and said that she was sorry but had to transfer me back to account enquiries however she would put a big note explaining what to do. So she re-transferred me to account enquiries and after 1 hour the reception died.
So I decided to try the next day. After getting through to account enquiries she was ready to transfer me, this time to account activations. 24 minutes later, my new BFF Lara says there's a technical difficulty and will have to call again later, and abruptly hangs up.
For the rest of the day I tried again and again. Numerous times getting the option for Vodafone to return my call 'in about more than 30 minutes' but 2 hours later, still no call back and so I try again.
The final call of the day began at 7pm but this time Lara did not ask if I'd like a call back, so I waited.. had dinner.. waited.. fed my dog dinner.. waited.. watched some tv.. and am still waiting. It has now been 3.5hrs (10.30pm) and I am surprise surprise, still on hold.
My brother decides to try to call customer care and finds that pretty much every enquiry service is only open between 8am-8pm.
I guess they weren't planning to tell me that they were closed and not intending to answer my call, even though Lara says 'hang on, we'll be with you really soon'.

ITS DRIVING ME CRAZYYY!! EVEN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY MY MOBILE DROPS OUT AFTER 2 MINS, HAS ONLY 1 BAR OF RECEPTION - AND I AM NOT EVEN GOING TO TRY AND CALL LARA BECAUSE I KNNNOOOWWW I AM GOING TO BE ON THE PHONE FOR 45 MINS ONLY TO BE TOLD I AM IN CONTRACT!! I FEEL LIKE SMASHING MY PHONE!

Just spent the past 2 hours on the phone to India, where no one could understand a word i said. Useless, unbelieveable.

One text i sent took 12 hours to be delievered (I was on the phone to the person when i heard the mobile in the background "Beep")

Where do i sign up for the class action ????


I Have been on hold now for over an hour, Lara hung up on me 3 times, B!tch



TIO are the only answer. I will never give Vodafone another cent - Useless

I have been with Vodafone for 15 years and never really had a problem. However, I have received moved to Kellyville - a highly delveoped metro area and we can not get clear mobile reception in our home. Calls are bearly audiable and they drop out frequently.

In June, I also had an issue with "mistaken identity" - where by we were being told to pay a bill that wasn't ours. Took days and spoke to call centres in India and Egypt with no resolution. The matter is with their "legal team". has been seven months and have not heard a response.

Ironically, with faith to Vodafone I tried to resign my contract with them yesterday... spoke to "Lara" 6 times and each time as I was being transfered the call would say "There has been a technical error. You must hang up and try again". I tried various options on their menu's with no success. I am trying to give them business and they can't even get it right!

Vodafone have made a ridiculous mess of my last 3 bills. when I have tried to call them from my vodafone mobile and from a landline I have reached a recorded message that states "We are currently experiencing technical issues, You'll have to call back later" Then it hangs up on me. Atrocious. I had not paid these ridiculous bills and could not reach vodafone to discuss. I then received an automated call from Lara informing me that my service would be cut off if I didn't pay. I commenced part payment whilst trying to confirm the bill online through myvodafone website. I could not log in as the site would not recognise my password. I then asked for a new password and the site could not accept my answer to my secret question. I know my own Father's middle name... I have now paid over $1000 for the past 2 months bills that are drastically incorrect. My service has been deactivated and I of the 3 calls to 1555 that I have made today I have spent 25 minutes on hold only to have the call answered and my name asked then as I responded I was dropped inot limbo then cut off 3 minutes later. I tried again and this time was given an option for Vodafone to call me back ststing that I would not loose my place in the queue and that it would be more than 30 minutes before the call was returned. 3 hours have now passed with no call back. I am now on call 3 for the day and have been on hold for 10 minutes so far. I have cleared my account and can't even get through to them to get my service reactivated. I then need to contest 3 months worth of incorrect billing. FAIL VODAFAIL. I'm going to Telstra...

Frustration with hold times going through Lara often resulting in being disconnected after an hour or more on hold. Complete network outage in December for nearly 2 days but the on-line outages were showing no problem. Most annoying currently is delay of several hours in voicemail. I have lost a contract as a result of this delay & it seems to be getting worse rather than better. Finally no coverage in the underground in Perth where all other networks seem fine. Regards Chris

Lara, who apparently is supposed to recognise speech, has a vocabulary of about 10 words. And on top of that, when you finally get to an "English-speaking" person, it is usually the wrong department!

I am using a vodafone usb stick for internet access and to send txts and have had no end of trouble with coverage,after being advised that I could not get a usb stick that could be connected to an aeriel for better coverage(and offering to pay for it myself) , I discovered thru a friend that this was possible and have since purchased one- the coverage is not much better though!!! Also after getting bloody Lara on the fone every time I called no matter what the time ,I finally got onto a customer service person , to find out why I could not get reception in Townsville-North Queensland,which is the 2nd largest city in Queensland, they advised me to go to a different suburb , as the one I was in wasn't covered by their network, which I duly did and surprise , surprise - still no coverage,I have since bought a usb stick with an aerial connection and aerial and have tried nearly every suburb in Townsville and got no coverage at all !!! I am very disappointed in their coverage , as this was not mentioned to me when I purchased the plan , and what is even more frustrating is that it is nearly impossible to get thru to Vodafone to speak to a person, without getting stuck with bloody Lara for at least 1/2 an hour.

So i spoke to Vdafail in regards to reception issues again at in my suburb (as i was at home and getting txt message that were like 2-4 days old and dropping out of calls) got stupid Lara the first three times but selected to use keypad option in which once selected the option i needed got:

"looks like were having technical difficulties, I am sorry, you will need to hang up and call back"

In which 4th time was lucky!! after some changes being made to my iPhone, i asked to be put through to billing in which the adviser said he would do so, but put me through to another dep as i was 0.24cents over my last bill and was owed, then told to ring back and speak to billing the usual way.

Did that, got put through to the same dept and eventually got where I needed to be to only have the guy try and upsell me to a different plan which would have reduced what i got on my current plan. After saying no i didn't want that, adviser spoke to supervisor and got half knocked off my bill. Still had to pay under $50 (which i didn't mind really) but for all the stuff around I got, you have got to be kidding me!

Looks like a bit of a vodafail communication breakdown to me

Ive woken up today to call barring on my phone. 2 weeks ago i recieved a reminder text from Vodafail advising that my bill was over due and paid the full amount requested. After 6 attempts with 'Lara' to contact a person ( no matter what option I chose after saying call barring I was referred to making a payment ) I spoke with another inept Indian who informed me that the payment had been recieved but that the amount that vodafone originally requested was incorrect and that their is currently $118.64 overdue. This number sounded familiar so while on the line I checked my current bill - $118.64 and due in 5 DAYS! When I tried to explain to this to the call centre operator he just could not grasp the concept. When I asked him to explain why, when he can confirm that the amount that was overdue he agrees has been paid, my phone still has barring activated the only response i can get out of him was that ' the 118.64 must be paid in full before the barring can be lifted.' When I asked to speak to a supevisor he informed me that there was no need as he was equipped to handle my query. When I explained to him that he wasnt he told me that I could either pay the bill or call back and speak to customer service - and wait in line again. I will not be paying this bill and I will certainly be trying to recoup some of the money I have paid over the last month for access to a network that barely has coverage and even then rarely makes it through a call. Screww you Vodafone, I really hope someone blows you up!

Trying to determine remaining contract. So I attempt to use myvodafone (lost password - my bad). However it the tells me I have forgotten my mothers maiden name in my secret question. Im 44 for *%$# sake, I know my mothers maiden name. After Lara (IVR) informed me that she had technical problems and couldnt help me (3 times). I finally got through to india to get a temp password. When I did access my Vodafone I discovered that my mothers maiden name was replaced with a string of java script code (my mums maiden name wasnt java script). But alas my vodafone wont tell me my remaining contract, so back to Lara and she still hanging up on me more because she has problems. So 1 and a half hours later I am still trying find how long i've got before I can dump them...I feel her pain.

Vodafone's customer service computer: "Lara".

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET THROUGH TO A REAL PERSON, BLOODY LARA WON'T SHUT UP