where do I start. Firstly the many sms messages that people send me and I don't receive till the next day. Continued phone drop outs. The most painful is when I try to ring up and complain I like obviously many other people are put on hold for at least half an hour at which point I hang up and try again. Once Lara stuffing understands what the heck I am ringing up about and gets me through to the correct department I am on hold again for at least half hour at which point I give up or if I do get on I get an operator that can't understand what I am talking about and that tells me there is no problem with the network. The last straw for me is my daughter has just changed her mobile over to telstra. And, what a surprise I can't ring her anymore because I am with vodaphone. She can't receive any calls or txts from, you guessed it! Anyone on vodaphone. But of course when I finally got on to vodaphone about it after an hour, it was teltra's problem. As soon as my contract is up Im moving over to another provider for good.

I live on the Central Coast and in parts of my home i just simply cant get reception. I work as a driver in the Hunter Valley and 90% of the time i cant get reception. That means my clients have to leave messages for me, then when i get a few bars of reception i then have to call them back..... That cost me money! I am stuck in this contract until September 2011. I have been told by Vodafone that they are improving signals now for over 12 months and still nothing has changed. I've given up trying to call and complain because i can never tell "LARA" what exactly i want and i always get put onto the wrong department anyway. I cant wait until September 2011, i will be dropping Vodafone like a hot potato. In the last 12 months many of my friends have told me that they are looking at updating their phones and every time my advise to them has been... No matter what, stay away from Vodafone, they are totally Useless and thankfully, they have all listened. Anyway, thanks for the means for the "steam blow off" You guys are doing a good thing. Kind Regards Joe

I have a tower across the road, Full bars most of the time, random hours with full reception, I can't call out, people can't call me, CONNECTION ERROR, BUT MIRACULOUSLY, I can call 1555 wait on hold for 2 hours and have some lady ask me how the weather is in Australia, then tell me there is no problem with the network it must be a problem with my phone and my other phone and my wifes phone and my sisters phone and my cousins phone and my mates phone, maybe we should all try turning our phones off and cleaning the sim card and turning the phones back on.

I was a happy Three Mobile Internet customer. Vodaphone offered me a good deal to transfer to them. My troubles then started!! I activated my Vodaphone service. However, the USB modem would not connect.I went through all the headaches with Lara and the 40 minute waits for the Data Support Service for three days. One of the technical advisers finally came to the conclusion that the USB modem was faulty. This was exchanged at a local Vodaphone Sales Office. However, it still would not work. I then took my three week old computer to the supplier that I had bought it from. My operating system was Windows XP Service Pack 3. Apparently there was an "Issue" between Windows XP and the Vodaphone USB Modem. After about three days of trying to resolve this Issue, my computer supplier advised me to uninstall XP and install Windows 7. I did this at a cost of $149.00 and the Vodaphone service connected and works OK now.

been overcharged constantly...when i contact them 'lara' puts me through to india where i am told its wrong and i only have to pay a third of the amount...what if i never called then wat??? an extra $130 for vodaphone... no apology... pathetic voda and lara.

I run a plumbing business where I rely on my phone as I do emergency service work. I'm either getting, not getting or eventually getting my voicemails.
Drop outs are driving me crazy. Doesn't matter where I am. Sometimes sorry alot of times I can't even connect to network. Solution by Vodaphone shop ? He put me on the 2G network from 3G ! Great !!!

When u call vodafone Lara should say " Hi i'm Lara i'm going 2 make your phone call a nitemare and give u the shits so u hang up" .... that'll be more realistic!!

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CALL VODAFONE ???????????????????

There is a slut who introduces herself as Lara ( Like i give a fuck about her) After more than three rounds of automated menus you are offered "if you are thinking of leaving Vodafone" strangely its option "4". When you eventually get through there is silence on the line as the unnamed operator waits for you to say something. If you dont say something they dont either.Theres no 'Hello welcome to vodafone,how may we help you' ... its just silence.Maybe them hoping you will go away.

I never find out the person im speaking to.


It appears (and I still struggle to believe this is true) that the sole purpose of option 4 at Vodafone is to tell the customer they can't leave for reason a, b or c or indeed to explain they may leave but must first pay an exhorbitant sum of money for the priviledge.

The service is crap because im sure they have worked out a tolerance threshold and have calculated the likely impact of churn on revenue ,and has worked out that if you keep your shit below this threshold you make more money by ignoring and abusing your customers.

Their customer service and plans have gotten worse. Vodafone has no landline infrastructure to maintain so they should be able to offer far better prices than Telstra.

I used to have Vodafone for my mobile, now i'm with Virgin, guess what? I went on a road trip to Adelaide, Ballarat and back to Brisbane in the week before Christmas. On Virgin i was without cover for about 4 hours for the whole trip!! Not bad considering at home in suburban Brisbane I get that every day!! And let's not forget the mobile broadband debacle a few weeks ago. I couldn'e get online to submit my BAS statement, so now I have proof that I couldn't, for the ATO thanks to vodafail.com. Oh and of course, i tried to buy a new phone using bonus bank, but hey, guess what they don't accept Commonwealth Bank mastercard debit, so my bonus bank $ are useless, gotta be a legal precedent there!!

I also am experiencing the phone drop outs. Normally its about 1 minute in. I also go to call people and it doesn't connect. I also fail to receive messages on time. After calling vodafone and waiting on hold for half an hour the lady eventually said that i have call barrings activated (yes, I personally chose to block messages to my phone). For everyone out there who are having this problem dial #330*0000# and then it will say call barrings canceled.

I also had a problem paying my bill online, i called customer service and eventually managed to contact a vodafone phone answerer. I say it like this because I couldn't understand a word she was saying and visa versa. She told me that I could pay my bill over the phone but she couldn't guarantee that it would register as paid. She gave me a three day extension. I then since managed to pay it but three weeks on it still hasn't registered that ive payed even though its been taken out of my account. I went into the vodafone shop and told them about it and they said there was nothing they could do and I would have to contact customer care. What is the point of having a shop if you cant get help from them? Just there to make sales and faulty promises.

Also, my bill this month has miraculously gained a couple of dollars. From them sending me your bill is now due message, it now says after texting 1512 that its extra few dollars. Of course i cant get through to customer "care". Although I did email them. However i received an automated response listing nothing more then what was available on the internet. It then changed the status of my communication to "Solved" which meant no further action would be taken. I then replied to that response and got another email saying that it would be up to a couple of months due to "holiday" period before I would get a response.

I also fail to get reception for most of the day at work. I work in a well populated metropolitan area and still have no reception. Its pathetic.

My boyfriend took his phone into the store to get fixed, after telling him that it would be fixed withing 2 weeks and no phone replacement phone could be offered he contacted them 3 months later to find out what was going on. They said they had been trying to contact him. He found out they were ringing his mobile number (after he had requested they ring his work phone). How helpful. Little did they know he had borrowed an old phone from a friend and had no miss calls over the period of that 3 months.

Lara, the automated phone answering service is pathetic. Its ridiculous and it takes over 5 minutes to get transferred to a help department who then put you on hold.

Their bill checking service also conveniently is unavailable towards the end of the billing period so you can not check your balance and adjust usage accordingly .One day, you've got $100 left, the next day your minus $20 when only 10 messages were sent.

In summary, I'm am so unsatisfied with the service Vodafone provide and cannot wait to get out of my contract! Kudos for bringing this lack of service to the public's attention and getting the majority to unite to force Vodafone to act.

Went to check my account balance the other day and "Lara" the auto-matic phone message told me they w ere un-able to give me my information, she then said I can send a blank text message and they will text my account balance to me, so I did that and ofcourse never got my account balance. I called back again 2 days later to find out I was then over my pre-paid balance... that would never have happend if I got the account balance when I first called up.... thanks for the extra $25 on my phone bill vodafone!

I have been with Voda for over 10 years and actually started with them in I think their first year. Over the last two years my service has been very bad. But over the last 10 months it has nearly became nil in valid. they said they would send someone out to test the service in my area but never showed. Over christmas my friends and family recieved messages over 6 times each when I had only sent them once. I have had enough of sitting on hold or talking to Lara the computer every time I have a problem!The last time was over 1 hour waiting. I hope this some how helps our cause. Well done!

I have been a Vodafone customer for many years. Last December I signed up for a 2 year contract for mobile broadband as I was moving houses & didn't want to pay the $200 transfer fee for my then current cable internet provider. After installing the device I immediately began having problems with connection, speed, drop outs and unable to connect. The plan was for $20/month for the first 6 months & $40/month for the balance of the contract & thereafter. After at least 100 hours on my mobile to vodafone's 1555 I still had no resolve,except to be told that the USB device appeared to be faulty USB device. A replacement was sent & still had the same problems. At least another 200 hours of calls to vodafone I some how managed to speak to an Aussie woman who was extremely sympathetic to my problems who said that I didn't need to have to go through with all this which also included an account for over $200 of excess usage. She then credited my account with the excessive usage amount plus lowered the monthly charges to $20/month for the balance of the contract & thereafter. This didn't alleviate the problems that I was enduring, however it eased the financial pain. Next my email bills failed to arrive although I had received texts to say that they had been sent. The straw that broke the camel's back came when all vodafone services in my area went down for 3 days, for the 4 vodafone phones & internet in my household. After getting out of my immediate are I managed to connect to 1555 where I was kept on hold for almost 3 hours whilst "lara" kept on telling me to "hold on, we'll be with you shortly" which was announced every few minutes much to the annoyance of my bus passengers as the phone was on bluetooth. The woman I finally spoke to was as ignorant as most of the call centre people seem to be and blamed the problems on either my phone or my computer.
When I demanded to be put through to someone in Australia the response was that there was no-one in Aust. to speak to as everyone was in Mumbai India. My latest problems now is that I still do not have 3G coverage although the drop outs etc., are far & few between, but the coverage goes from 3G to HSDPA to GPRS and finally at times to Edge which is as good as not having a connection at all. I have been promised monthly credits which haven't come through. After so many months of pain,agony, frustration and anger my email bilss have finally arrived with the message..."congratulations, your first email bill is attached". Get your bloody act together Vodafone and give us real people in Australia we can speak to and know what they are talking about. I'd go back to cable even at a higher price, but sadly it's not available in my area through satellite.

This is a copy of a recent complaint sent to Vodafone: This is not so much a question as a complaint, however seeing as the on-hold time on Vodafone for my husband last time we called was 1 hour I have opted not to call. By the way, if I hear that Vodafone apologise for the wait and will be with me 'really soon' (stop lying to me 'Lara') I will literally throw my phone across the road (that's right, we have to walk up the road to make a phonecall, even though we live in Eastwood; the middle of Sydney!).
Basically I am completely sick & tired of the fact that I simply cannot make a phonecall from my mobile while at home, nor can I use my Vodafone internet. This means that I cannot call anyone, cannot contact my husband or my mother or numerous friends who are also on Vodafone (and also SICK to death of the bad network coverage in Sydney CBD). To compound the problem, whenever I try to call vodafone to complain, (which is rare, as I rarely have enough coverage to do so) I am put on hold for an immeasurable ammount of time.
Thankyou Vodafone for living up to your new nick-name of VodaFAIL & completely failing me & my friends & family.

I randomly lost credit and was charged to send FREE texts. I was also told I had free Facebook and Twitter on my phone, yet I was charged when I went on Facebook and Twitter. I tried to take matters into my own hands and call 1555 to speak to an operator, I was on hold for an hour and a half the first time and fours hours the next time that I tried on a different day. I sent them a complaint email, and to their credit, they replied in 2 days but it still does not erase the fact that they put me on hold for six and half hours total. IN the email reply they stated, "Vodafone regrets any inconvenience you have experienced due to the delays you have encountered. Vodafone are attempting to address the longer queues by investigating our current rosters, we are also currently training new staff that shall be available to take calls in the near future." Please train people faster and so they actually know what they are doing.
When I tried calling previously to ask a question about my faulty phone, I was put on hold for a lengthy amount of time and was then forwarded somewhere that was of no help.
I also had no coverage for half of Christmas day.
I am sick of talking to 'Lara' and I want REAL customer service, or I'm moving companies. Sorry Vodafone, I've been with you for at least 5 years and now you've completely lost the plot. Hmm.. What company should I choose? Optus? Telstra??

I don't get any coverage in my office building in Pyrmont (unless I walk to one of the windows and hold my phone a certain way while standing on one foot!). I have been receiving voicemail messages days after they have been left. All up, I have wasted at least 6 hours of my life on hold and with these jokers and after finally getting through I was told they couldn't process my cancellation as they would need to open an investigation. The investigation took another 2 weeks and didn't improve my service so I called again to cancel but got my bestie (Lara) instead. She asked for the reason for my call and then told me the wait was more than 30mins so I decided to take her up on her kind offer of returning my call as she assured me I would not lose my place in the queue... I left my message at 5:55pm on 22/12/10 and they were nice enough to call me back at 12:10am on 23/12/10. But not before having a recorded message telling me someone would be able to assist in MY CALL in a moment!?! FAIL!!!
When someone finally got on the line, they told me their cancellation dept was closed and I would need to call them back...I then may have become a little frustrated and yelled...I mean asked whether they knew what time it was in Australia? ..They didn't but when I told them, they thoughtfully explained "at least you will be able to sleep well after this call"????? WTF????
Suffice to say, I am now with Telstra...Vodafone can chase me for once...

Vodafone about 3-4 years ago was better than Telstra - Optus = NO COVERAGE - so we are limited with telco choice. Heck I can LIVE with poor coverage in certain areas, but if I pay for a phone and it DID work in my home, then I expect that it should continue - what REALLY peeves me if the way that you CANNOT contact them at all - the 'contact us' on their website is not active - you wait for hours on hold and THEN if you happen to hit the jackpot and actually get through to a real person - they can't help you anyway and just offer rubbish platitudes than make you feel like you have wasted your time!!
As for LARA - she should be fired from a nuclear missile to hell and beyond

drop out during important business call and emails. Losing catering deals due to drop outs and no reception to call back and through emails.extra charges to retrieve voicemails whilst the mobile has not rung.costs lost are at least $1500 over the last 2 months to my business due to their poor and no service.
When I ve call on a number of times their service is rediculous especially the recorded voice of LARA it drops out, she doesnot understand what you really need and you are put on hold for hours and get nowhere which in the mea time you run a business and your customers see you on the phone and walk out.
Once i left my number and yes they call me back at around 7-8 pm and after explaining the situation to them they stated that they would get technical support to call me back which they never have till date. And to top it off the people you do talk to over the customer care line are not from Australia and have an accent which they do not understand your needs. Pathetic poor service!!!

Purchased a blackberry and had nothing but trouble with it, phone freezed and would have to remove the battery and reboot(15 mins) finally after months of pain i sent it off to vodafone. I received a new blackberry same model. It worked for two weeks then started freezing. I swapped to a friends iphone and received huge excess charges due to internet downloads being different for the blackberry. I have had dozens of phone calls and had to endure LARA and enter my details in many times only to have to repeat them when you finnaly get through to an incompetent call centre. I have been forced to pay all costs and told i would have to pay out all costs in order to end my contract.

In short Lousy phone, pathetic reception(throughout NSW and QLD) Dropped calls, delayed messages, internet slower than dial up internet...

Vodafone is a huge company focusing on their profits and bottom line and could not really care about the consumers.. Do not use Vodafone!!

Constant drop outs, have multiple phones with Vodafone. They all have a tendency to drop out at the same time. Poor coverage in high density areas, including Central Sydney, and Parramatta of all places. Vodafone are getting worse. Have had signal drop out during inportant calls, and then not able to call back due to no service. Sick of seeing the "your cellular network is no longer available" message on my iPhone. No longer available? Where'd they go? Could also do without LARA. How about a real person and a little respect for paying customers.

i orignaly bought my Vodafone phone in Adelaide, but thten moved to mildura victoria and had no reception in the main part of town but i have reception down the bush.. whenever i really needed to make a phone call it always came up with call failed, and no internet coverage anywhere.. i once drove from mildura to ballarat victoria and had no reception the WHOLE FRICKIN way and was driving on my own... i have to make calls from pay phones to let my family no that i am okay... i am on a $69 dollar cap but i do not have the reception to use the money assigned to me.. i also had wireless internet with them and it was so slow like slower then dail up..when my contract ran out i rang vodafone to cancel my internet as i didnt need it anymore... and it took me 2 weeks to get through.. just to leave a msg for them to ring me back then they put me on hold for 2 hours then when im off hold it either runs out of reception or they hang up on me... i so sick of their shit.. i cant wait till my contract is over so i can go back to telstra!!!!!!!!

No service, calls drop out, no connection, no reception. Calling support numerous times and after going through "Lara's" voice commands and waiting for 10-15 minutes having "Lara" tell me that "we seem to be having technical difficulties, please call back later" and being disconnected - 6 times in a row!!!

Why should I have to take my sim out then replace it every time I want to make a call!!!! And I couldn't even dream of receiving a call if I havent done it once or twice a day.
SOOO Annoying when I get to talk to my husband for the first time in a week when he's on deployment!
And if I do have a problem I feel like I get further yelling at my phone than I do speaking to "Lara".Of the many times I've called for customer service, I've only spoken to a person on the other end of the line twice! Literally!

Not receiving messages and it just drops out whenever it wants. Real nice during a medical emergency. The complaints department are just plain out rude!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm being so overcharged for data and messages even tho it was advertised that calls AND text should be free!!! Waiting for hours and hours and don't get me started on LARA. The staff cannot be understood and are downright rude. I've complained to the ombudsman but haven't received a response! What's going on??? How do I join the class action?

Although i live in the middle of Belconnen, i am continually experiencing drop-outs.
To make a call i have to retry dialing the number are least three times before it will connect, even then, once it has connected, the other party either can't hear me or i can't hear them.
The majority of the time my calls will go straight to voicemail without ringing.

Customer service (if it could even be called that) is worse than the last company i was with!
The reason why i made the change to vodafone was because of the crappy customer service from my previous carrier, and i assumed that having the shopftonts would be a convenience, how wrong i was.
The shopfronts are only good to convince you to purchase a new handset.
Whenever i go in for help, they tell me to call customer care(less) and that annoying LARA makes me want to rip my hair out trying to get onto someone to help me with my phone.
Then once i get past her, I'm on hold for the next 15-25 minutes, and if that's not enough, the person on the other end tells me to go in to my local store.
Upon reading some of these posts i am beginning to see a trend. 'Pass the buck till the customer gets so annoyed that the give up & deal with it'.
I gave up because i thought it was the norm, I've only ever had crappy service & even worse customer service, so i did give up.

Now that i know there is 'light at the end of the tunnel', i will join in with all you unhappy consumers & help defeat this corporate monster, taking our hard earned money and failing to deliver what's promised.

Good luck everyone

Everytime I call, I wait atleast 40-50mins to speak to someone, once I get through they hang up on me. I have asked for many calls back from the customer service team I have dealt with, no responses. Lara needs to be disconnected, you can never say what you want. If you dial through on the line for signing up with Vodafone, you get through straight away. Your willing to take new business but you cant even support these new customers.Get you act together...

Lara is so annoying and my bill is incorrect . since when do i have an $99 internet cap? please explain................ thanks

NO RECEPTION/ NO CUSTOMER SERVICE/ NO LARA :(

Nothing to add concerning the problems I am experiencing with Vodafone performance, they've been mentioned here numerous times already. However, after waiting on hold for hours this morning without getting through to so called 'customer care' I told lara 'complaint' and got through straight away. This happened twice this morning. So I suggest responding to lara with the one word - complaint and you may not need to be kept on hold for hours. Both Indian call centre operators (Sarah and Dexter) were helpful and courteous, cosidering the constraints and no doubt adversity they are being subject to. I wish you all the best of luck in resolving your issues.
regards, Tyrone

I love vodaphone great service good communication 1 hr wait cool nothing else better to do even better get important text messages if i'm lucky 2 days maybe if I'm extra lucky never and voice mails wow a week later and call drop outs love that hello hello hello love it, what about trying to ring someone and it just pauses up now that is way cool, and what's even better it doesn't ring goes strait to voice mail how cool is that finnaly when you get to talk to some one after 1 hr wait they don't really understand they blame the phone and not listen to you at all now that is customer service ahh yeah and those people in tassie do you drink heaps before you come to work love how helpful and rude you guys are and thanks for send me a phone that is the same as an iPhone called a nokia from 2001 very up to date with other peoples pics and doesn't even work just what I wanted thanks then offered to send it back and no reply how cool is that love you vodaphone why complaine when service is so good can't wait to sign up again when contract finnished ahh yeah if I want an early up grade after being on contract for 1 year and 3 months I have to pay them awesome can't wait to do that once again love you vodaphone what next Going to change lara's voice

After being a loyal vodafone customer for many years, i have finally "had enough" with the constant call drop outs, lack of reception, deylayed sms and mms (if i got them at all that is) and in general very very poor customer service (call centre)
So i have gone to another major network now, and am much happier with them, although when i had my number ported from vodafone to the new network, 4days later i recieved a letter from a debt collector with a 72hr demand for $400, thanks vodafone...

Thats just the begining, i also had mobile broardband with vodafone, again had very very limited reception, the connection would constantly drop out, very slow to load pages etc so once my 2year contract was up (i still used it month to month) i decided to cancel my account as i couldnt use the service as desired and wasnt happy paying for something i cant use, so on the phone i got to cancel, after speaking to "lara" and sitting on hold for 45mins i get told that the department i would need to speak to has just closed, so the lady on the phone took my details and claimed she would arrange a call back the next day, well late afternoon the next day and still no call back i get back on the phone, 58mins on hold (i timed it) i speak to someone, telling them im not happy with the service an my contract was up and to cancel the account, i was then placed on hold for a few seconds and was then disconnected!!! I couldnt believe it, i got straight back on the phone and after another 45min wait i spoke to someone, who tried and tried and tried to talk me out of ending my service, eventually they did cancel the service and made the sim card from my broardband stick a prepaid mobile phone sim card and put $20 credit on it as a "good will gusture"

Anothe quick rant about the call centre wich the tellco uses, i personally found it very very hard to understand most of the operators due to very thick accents.

Im so glad im no longer a customer of vodafone and would never go back or recomend it to anyone!

I have some issues with the service from Vodafone as well, but not only with the coverage and calls dropping out but with the level of reagrd and treatment from customer service itself.

Vodafone called me to se if I wanted to renew my contract as mine was coming to an end. The middle eastern sounding lady told me about the new infinite cap which was fine, and then she asked me about my phone and how that was going I said it had a few issues so she offered me a new one I said that I wanted to get the iphone 4 but was advised that they were out of stock and there was a wait of up to 4 weeks so she said that I should get this other phone called the Nokia N8 I quizzed her about the specifics of the phone and told her that if it wasn't exactly like the iphone 4 in looks and capalbility then I wsn't interested in that phone at all. She told me it looks exactly like the iphone and does all the same things but the only difference was the camera it being a 12megapixel as the iphone4 has only a 5megapixel. Had I of known that this camera is nothing like the iphone 4 I wouldn't have even considered getting this phone especailly wehn I got it, the phone was faulty as broken calculator. At first when I got it I was super hessitant since it wasn't what I was expecting at all but decided to give it a go anyway. Once I charged the battery I stuck my sim card in and began my using it, my relationship with my new phone lasted for not even 2 days. Turns out the phone was faulty, the battery didn't even last a day, and it would take a really long time to respond to any commands that I would give it or just not respond at all or if I managed to get to the applications screen and try to open one the wole phone would just go black. So began my calling to vodafone, or should I say VODAFAIL.. I called them every day for nearly 2 weeks sometimes several times a day and each time I'd be left on hold for over an hour waiting and then when I FINALLY GOT THROUGH and explained my situation about how the phone was faulty and misled into getting it the first place, they would only say that I have come through to the wrong department and that would have to transfer me to the correct one, this happened at least 6 times everytime I would call customer service! I have been a customer loyal to vodafone for nearly 8 years and I think I think I deserve better than this! They sent me the phone by courier from an Allphones store and said that if the phone came form them then I would have to take it up with them. So I did they told me it Vodafone's probelm, Vodafone sent me back and forth like a tennis ball wi this faulty phone cos niether of them wanted to take responsibilty of a faulty phone. In the end I finally got through after another 1 and half or so of having to listen to the annoying Lara, to an Australian guy who explained that despite the circumstances of being misled in getting the Nokia N8 I had signed a verbal contract with that phone and that the only thing that they could do was send me out another one. I explained that I wasn't interested in getting another one of this handset and asked that my upgrade to the 49 infinite plan be reversed and I send back the faulty handset to vodafone, and start over. After being told that this was possible by someone else (another middle eastern person) the Australian guy said that the only thin that he could do for me was send me out a replacement of the same handset of the Nokia N8, and if the second handset turned out to be faulty as well only then would they look at reversing my upgrade and sending me out a different phone all together, being the iphone 4 which is what I wanted to start with. The lady that initially did the upgrade was only trying to give me the hard sell on that phone as they would commissions on every phone sold. So now I have to wait for this other Nokia N8 and find out if it faulty and go through the entire process AGAIN! I'm not racist, but it makes me so mad that for a company thats based in Australia, they would have a call centres in places like the middle east, you call them expecting to talk to someone who can understand what they are saying and you can understnad what they are saying but half the time you can't, its total bullox! If people can't speack english properly and clearly then they should be employed in call centres PERIOD. VODAFONE YOU TOTALLY BITE! Your name definately be should be VODAFAIL, you have definately failed me.

I've been a vodafone customer for 10yrs... Never hav I once had a problem with them, that was until a few months ago when my service only works when it wants to, can't make calls or receive calls, can't send of receive txt messages, can't get any signal whatsoever.... Bit stupid when I do alot of work by my mobile phone... Even using the internet I can't connect or it can take a whole day to connect.... I also hav a small child in which I need to be contactable or be able to contact people when she is not with me or if I get stuck.... Twre is not excuse for this terrible service...and when I do call vodafone im sick of listening to "Lara".... All I can say is vodafone is about to lose a loyal customer of 10yrs if they don't shape up and come to the party and sort this out...

Im sick of calling LARA, im sick of waiting on hold for 30-40 minutes, im sick of listening to customer service telling me there are no network problems in my area, and to turn off my phone, clean the sim, delete my sms inbox.... If a call is over 5 minutes it drops out, on Christmas Eve there were network problems all day. Im surprised that on the Vodafone website, where their apology is, that they have a blog going that is scathing of their service, they couldn't even get their network feedback email address right. Vodafone couldn't organise a root in a brothel with a fist full of fiftys.

customer for 12 years service worse than ever no reception dropped calls network busy and service not available and dont forget loooooooong delays to speak to someone who does not resolve your problems after 35 min of being on hold which is after a painstaking argument with bloody LARA

My husband and I are both with Vodafone, we never have reception and when we do our calls are always dropping out or disconecting. I am apauled at Vodafone I think the money has got to there head and they dont care about there customers. When I have tried calling them to explain my problem I have been cut off several times and when I do get through I am transfered to at least three different people who all can't speak English. Except for LARA, even then she doesn't understand...!!! vodafone spends millions and millions on advertising for the Cricket and V8 Motor Racing but they cant get there products right. Fix the bloody problems or you will loose alot of customers...............

My VF supplied Iphone broke down one day so I returned it to the store for warranty repair. After 8 weeks of returning the store every tuesday to get the same rubbish about waiting for parts my phone finaly comes back. The store operators told me that VF would not repair because there was water in the unit. I was a little confused at this because the phone does not go anywhere near water. I asked them if there was anywhere in town that would fix the phone for me and the guy gave me the name of a local dealer. This new guy fixed the phone for $130 and then told me that there was no water in the screen at all and VF should have fixed it for me in the first place. I went back to the VF store to complain and ask for a refund of my $130. Apparantly the dealer who I had been sent to was not on the official list of people who VF deal with so now the warranty is void! While all this was going on, I had not received any communication from VF themselves (i.e. Bills/letters in paper or electronically). I tried to ring them but got seriously bored after an hour on hold. When I finaly got my phone back and tried to use it there was call barring on the unit. After waiting out the hold and talking to Lara for several hours I finally got through to some one who explained to me in broken english that there was an upaid bill of $549 on my account. Even though I explained everything that had happened I still had to pay the bill and I am still suffering call drop outs, bad signal and so on

I have been. Vodafone Pocket WiFi customer for about four months. I signed up for a casual monthly plan and surprisingly, in light of general complaints I see here, performance has been acceptable, but service is another matter. I have had no success whatsoever using My Vodafone to check on usage. Every time I log in I am told my password is incorrect and after three failures, the account is locked, and I have to call the dreaded Lara. While waiting for an hour or more to talk to India, I'm continuously told how customer focussed Vodafone is. Then the password is reset, and I'm ok until the next time I log in.
Then there are the payment arrangements. I chose to pay by direct bank debit, but I'm emailed that my account is overdue, so I email back, only to be advised that I MUST call Lara. I just won't do it.
The silly thing is that for me the service I have is OK, but dealing with Vodafone over simple matters is just too hard.

Puzzled

Customer service is out the window for Vodafone. Lara is so stupid, she does not understand what i say and frustrates me further. When i eventually get somewhere the person is so hard to understand. The issue i had was not able to download Vodafones free monthly pics and tones. You would not believe how hard that was to explain. And in the end after being transferred many times, the woman said she could not help me anymore and disconnected the phone!!!!! I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT

No coverage in my home town have to manually select Telstra network to have any service therefore I cant use my 2G of data I pay for per month. Worst customer service I have ever heard in my life transferred from one dept. to another by people who don't know what they are talking about, hate that stupid LARA!!
One received a bill over $1000 Collections were extremely rude saying it was all my fault for making to many calls making me cry, then next time I rang the lady investigated my account and said there had been a mistake credited me $500!!!!

I was with Vodafail for over 6 years on prepaid then contract, getting no service, moved from Brisbane to Wide Bay having service when we first moved then got progressively worse, got sick and tired of being on hold, get drop outs while trying to ring them having to go through the process with lara sometime up to ten time before you got to speak with some one, not being able understand them when you finally get through to a human, let alone if you got the right department in the first place, getting transfer to the right department then dropping out and having to start the whole process again, my longest call to nowhere took over 2 hours. Every time you had a problem it would not get resolved, finally contract finish and moved to telstra, i moved 4 phones away from vodafail to telstra, cost a little more however i can actually use my phone. now I have left I get text messages to tell me that my email address to send my bill is not available, [which is a Bigpond email address and is still active] telling me to log on to my account [which I don't have anymore] and change email address, trying to email them is about it is still on going for a month now, receive the bill with a credit of $70+ trying to get it credited to my credit card which use to pay the bill, still waiting for a reply on that one, I am not even with them and still having issues.

my daughter is with 3 since vodafail took over she gets no service from just north of central Brisbane past wide bay previously she got service all the way.

to think that Vodafail forced the government to get rid of the analogue system or they would not bring there digital network in.

frustrated ex customer

constantly have only 1 bar, constantly calls dropping out. Have recently changed to unlimited which costs $99 a month, only to find i cant make calls i loose calls after spending lengthy time giving information for insurance quotes etc and have to start all over again with a new person at call centres. Having spent 60 min waiting on for complaints they offered me $10 off my next mth, big deal, then the call dropped out( funny about that) not to mention the call centre is in India and although very polite i cant understand them . mmmm but they are less frustrating than LARA, will never go to Vodafone again but what are the options ? Is there any better?

Lara sounds very much like my beloved adopted daughter. Why do I want to strangle her? Beautiful voice, abysmal programming.
Rapidly degrading service in my region, and most places I visit. Curiously, city centres seem great - except that I don't often visit them. Call drop-outs, erratic 3G data connection.

Its a terrible network:
- Boxing Day @ the MCG, the Ashes series sponsored by VODAFONE, I had 'No Service' for about 4 hours
- Inbound calls go straight to voicemail when I appear to have full reception
- Voicemail messages taking hours to appear. At least that is better than 6 months ago when you didn't get any notification at all about voicemails
- Overseas - I've been to the UK, Singapore, Mauritius and Argentina in the past 16 months (with International roaming confirmed prior to departure) and each time my phone either hasn't worked properly or I've had 'No Service' despite my partners Telstra phone having no issues. Costly landline calls to "Lara" to resolve or lengthy email correspondence with sometimes no resolution.
- Internet access often not working as 'can't connect to server'
If I wasn't locked in for two years I would have left a long time ago.

Can we start with a protest against LARA. By the time I have listened to her 'lollypop' voice for half an hour I just wasnt to scream at whomever the poor sod is that picks up the line.

I vote to get rid of LARA - anyone agree???

Very weak reception, random drop out,minimum time to talk someone in customer service 45minutes. Even I tried to contact at 2 AM but I waited for 85 minutes and Lara was saying you'll be connected very soon!!!

I purchased a plan that included music downloads etc.I tried everything to get music onto the phone that was supplied to me. I spent endless hours on the phone mostly because "Lara" couldn't work out where to send my calls. My calls were diverted to Malaysia where the operator told me to 'Just go with another server" and HUNG UP ON!

I finally had some luck when I rang a store in Sydney and the helpful chap told me that my phone was not one that I could use the plan on. I took it back to my local store where I bought it and was told "Not My Fault". At the same time I pointed out that I was supposed to be having free Vodafone to Vodafone calls. They informed me that I was supposed to ring up and start this up myself. How the hell was I supposed to know. In all I had paid for 4 months worth of calls that were supposed to be free. I told the storeperson I was not happy and he said "you're free to go with someone else" - bullocks, I still contract.

I hate Vodafone, I hate LARA and I let everyone I know not to go with Vodafone.

just how many times do I have to restart my friggin phone before they'll believe it's their friggin system, not the handset? about 50 it seems, that's 50 friggin calls to these cnuts at at least 40 minutes a call (on hold). Lara can get f^(#ed lieing bitch! I can't wait for my contract to expire.
I've missed some very important calls, thank you vodafail!

Who the hell is Lara???????????? Where is the option "press -- if you wish to speak to a consultant"...why do you have to go thru a series of crap, press or say the wrong thing just to hear "ok I'll put you through to someone who can help you" ??....Give us this option upfront..and make the hell sure someone is there..not 83 minutes later!!!

I think Lara Croft should take out Lara!!
voice system is really shit, maybe if signal quality was better she maybe be able to actually help, rather than customers wishing this to put virtual bullets in Lara's virtual head. Virtual Lara Croft should kick her Virtual butt.

I have been with Vodafone for over 10 years and up until 12 months ago had great coverage, good customer service (although getting through to the right area with "Lara" was always painful), no problems with either my mobile or internet connections. Then my internet started having connection problems, dropping out repeatedly and generally not performing to the standard I expected for what I was paying for. I made call after call after call to complain to be told it was my computer, the network was busy, etc - all complete nonsense. After 4 months of calls to fix the problem, I finally reached a gem of a man called Alain who was at a call centre in San Francisco, he listened patiently to my rants, actually apologised and then proceeded to find out what the real problem was and although this took him a few days he called me back when he had gathered the information - in short there were major network problems in my area and I was never going to have good connection. I can honestly say this man was way too good and professional to be working for Vodafone as he actually cared about his customer and had the integrity to be honest. Not one person in any of the Australian call centres could be bothered to help me or provide any honest information about the network other than to lay blame elsewhere (ie. my equipment). Unfortunately it was too little too late and I severed my internet and mobile accounts with them. I still have a prepaid with them (which when the credit runs out this month I am changing to another providor) and I called my parents this morning to tell them about this website as I'd seen it on the news last night and guess what? - that's right - my call didn't connect as the network was busy! What rubbish - it's 8am on Public Holiday, everyone's still asleep!!

i've been a customer since 2000 and the reception in the last 3 or so years has been bad. even when i'm calling from city to city, i have dropouts. even within seconds of the receiver answering the call. personally, i think they want to make money from connection fees. sometimes i have to call 4 times just to have a conversation.

the other issue is MMS. i sent a picture of my new puppy to some friends and i got messages from some people - one person received the message SIX times! others 2, others 4, the lucky ones got it once.
i tried to complain and called 1511 and after battling it out with voice activated lara, i got to talk to someone in a call centre overseas. she pretended not to hear me when i starting making the complaint and get this - she said that she can't hear me and the connection must be faulty (tell me how can a telecommunications multinational be allowed to have poor connection to the phone help desk??????) - then started reciting "please call back during the business hours of ..." to which i was appalled and tried to get her to 'hear' me, she repeated herself again.

then i said - "you're lying"
to which she replied (with perfect timing as if she'd heard me) - "goodbye"
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so i decided to call again and after waiting for 30 minutes, gave up.

so i emailed complaints. they gave me the run around. eventually after being passed through 2 people, i was advised to call yet another stupid number. i give up!

i have decided to pay for the MMS's and switch telcos as soon as my blasted contract is over.

i don't normally get riled up but this multinational is really giving me the expletive.

They have been sending me a credit note for the past 3 years for $15! Must have cost them more than that in postage. Ive tried ringing to let them know but that LARA is so annoying so I keep giving up

I would like to complain about the poor reception and no service I am receiving from Vodafone since I signed up with Vodafone in March. I got my new iphone in March and also got one for my wife and I am very unhappy with them. We get no reception even when we are in St Leonards or anywhere. I cant ring Vodafone from my phone as the calls drop out or the quality is very very poor. IThe messages come through days after they are sent. Calls do not show up. I am unable to get the net on it as It tells me there is no 3g or Wi fi available message or no interent connection available. If I ring Vodafone Lara I am unable to even speak to someone as the calls drop out or the person on the line does not understand me or I am told to turn the phone on and off .I went to the store at Blacktown and the staff are so rude I dont even bother to go anymore.Very unhelpful.
I have emailed before but of course there is no response.. I am paying for two so called smart phones and the only thing I can do successfully is listen to my music on it!!!!Should have stayed with Optus.

I use the 'net for email and occasional research. I can never get more than 15 or so minutes very slow connection and that b****y "Lara" on their Help line really should be consigned to the recycle bin. Is this an issue for the Dept of Fair Trading? I'm being forced (after signing a 2 year contract) to pay for a practically non existent service (like many others). I'm going to pursue this when the world returns to normal after New Year.

No service on my Vodafone Mobile Broadband Card. When there WAS service it dropped out every 5 seconds and i had to log back in. OVER AND OVER AND OVER!! No response when I called to complain. Felt like the complaints line was purposely ignored in hopes that I'd GO AWAY! Left on hold for ages, costing me $1/minute on a prepaid mobile card. Second class customer, because I have NO Vodafone Mobile #(My PHONE is with Virgin, Thank God) and their service number demands your Vodafone Mobile # BEFORE they'll attempt to help you. Answered by this smarmy 'LARA' voice that drops you out without satisfaction to your problem. I had to GO to a Vodafone store for help... even THEY spent 30 minutes on the phone to their OWN headquarters before someone answered! Demanded a payout figure for my (non contracted) service... PAID it on the spot and got an invoice three weeks later insisting I OWED them the $16 CREDIT that THEY owed me. Received additional invoices and SMS's DEMANDING payment of a $16 CREDIT! Had to call AGAIN to get the $16 refunded to me... HAVEN"T SEEN it YET! THEY SUCK! THEY SUCK! THEY SUCK! I HATE THEM! I'D RATHER STICK PINS IN MY EYES THAN TO EVER HAVE TO DEAL WITH THEM AGAIN. I WOULDN'T P**S IN THEIR EAR IF THEIR BRAIN WAS ON FIRE!

For around three to four weeks, continuously 'searching' or 'no signal' I live in the CBD of Sydney and work about 4 km away, doesn't matter, doesn't work. Cant be bothered calling 'Lara' pathetic response. I hear they are merging or updating, surely they could of forseen it would be a failure.

I have had 6 mobile phones on business plan. I have no covrage after years of promising the world. Even if you ring the business help line you will wait a minimum of an our and the big thing is over those 14 years of loyalty....Lara still does not understand what I say!
I'm out, don't care because I have no coverage at my own house...it's crap.

I was one of those noisy customers who complained to the ombudsman. And was released from my 24 month contract with 23 months remaining. Still, this was no easy task. Initally my phone was set up incorrectly and the number only 1/2 ported. Not being the phone guru I can't supply full detail but I was left with no phone for about 48 hours. I did buy a telstra prepaid card to call "Lara" who told me too many times int he 45 min average on hold that I was important and my call would be answered shortly. Eventually that issue was sorted. - then my usb inter. net and phone reception went - same time, same day. More chats with Lara - only to be told eventually it must be my sim. Funny - 2 at once! More trips to the store where the staff just get to ring Lara.
This is a super abreviated version - It was too long and boring and orderal - but NEVER AGAIN VODAFONE. Note that my reception issues were in Port Melbourne. under 5 km from Melbourne CBD. At least I escaped!

1)Constant drop outs, often running into double digits PER HOUR!! 2)Periods where the phone is "locked out" ie no one can call me (goes straight to voicemail) and I cant call out, despite full reception - I shudder to think what I would do if that occurred during an emergency! 3)Catastrophically delayed relay of voicemail messages, sometimes by as much as 24 hours! 4)Constantly slow or completely ineffectual 3G services. 5)I have lost business, looked unprofessional in front of clients & been extremely inconvenienced by all this. All I get is ineptitude and the infuriatingly ineffectual Lara when I call to complain. What am I paying in excess of $100 a month for? I will leave and NEVER come back once my contract is done, and I am telling every client, associate, friend and family member just how pathetic and woeful Vodafone have become.

Depending on the weather conditions... We have either no or very limited vodafone reception when at home. If we need to use our mobiles we have to walk up the street 500mtrs to higher ground and away from the trees in order to use them. On a good day the mobile will ring when at home but to answer we have to run around outside to find a 1 bar only strength reception.
ALSO
Recently travelled to country Vic and Vodafone failed 20 klms north of Ballarat, no reception whatsoever for the week... Total crap and most frustrating.

It has all heppen to me......Vodafail i have been with for maybe 8 years same number.They convinced me to go on a plan from pre-paid i was only using $49pre-paid per month some months i couldnt even use it all. Once on a plan my largest bill without making any more calls was neary 650.00 for the month when contacting Vodafail i was told that oh the call connection is more the per min rate is more all things they never told me when some random contracting company Vodafail shop which Vodafail dont own told me i had to contact Vodafail to complain. Well god dam Vodafail didnt put me on the contract some random company did and they dont give a rats once they have signed you up. IM TELLING ALL OF YOU TO GO INTO THE SHOPS COMPLAIN AND IF THEY TELL YOU TO CALL VODAFAIL SAY YOU SIGNED ME UP YOU FIX IT NOW OR I WONT LEAVE!!!!!!!
By doing this my contract was cancelled....I have had days when i send a single text and it sends it over five times when ive not sent it more than once i recieved messages back from friends saying ok ok i got it ok!!! This used my credit and i want it back! Also calls that seem to drop out Voda to Voda after 20 mins or so this is a very common one i gues Vodafail wants us to call back again and again and pay the reconnection fee.... AS for Lara we cant talk to anyone Lara now forces us to listen to advertising when we are trying to call for customer service or recharge i have a life and am sick of Lara using it up without my consent get rid of her and the dam call centre in some foriegn country i would like to talk to someone that has been primmed to fake the Aussie lingo and pretend they are around the corner what ever happen to the truth. Vodafail tell us the truth and we may not have gotten thhis angry.And i have a computer i dont want part of my phone credit taken in downloads i dont use my phone to surf or go on the net i want full phone credit avaliable again as there is now no pre-paid wihout it!I hope this can make a difference cause i aint listening to the lip service BS that Vodafail CEO or other corp gooses are saying cause i have had these issues ever since starting with them it aint new Vodafail stop lieing you have always provided the same bad service from the beginning....Ash

When u call vodafone Lara should say " Hi i'm Lara i'm going 2 make ur fone call a nitemare and give u the shits so u hang up" .... that'll be more realistic!!

When u call vodafone Lara should say " Hi i'm Lara i'm going 2 make ur fone call a nitemare and give u the shits so u hang up" .... that'll be more realistic!!

Here is the break through I had... 6 months ago I asked Lara to put me through to Cancellations and Upgrades. Funnily enough I actually spoke to an Australian. I registered my complaint and followed up on a weekly basis for 4 weeks. My complaints were related to network coverage, continuous dropouts and poor data services. After the 1st call I was actually told by the rep that vodafone were experiencing network issues for a number of weeks prior to my call. After the 4th call I threatened to go to the TIO. Vodafone waived all early termination charges and let me keep my services on the condition I pay any outstanding charges incurred by me to date. In all I got out of paying $3500 including the cost of a new iPhone. I have since moved to the slightly dearer carrier starting with the letter T but I don't care as their coverage and data services are without fail the best and is vital to my business. Persistence pays off just be patient and follow what I did in how I got out!! Good Luck!!

i trust again them, because they told me the coverage is better now with 3,lie is terrible,lost opportunity for job because call drop,argument couple time with my husband because of the drop call. my familly from oversea was in australia and use my kids phone. i was so corried for them every time my call failled. customer service are anoying with her bloody LARA, and u can't hear her b3ecause the call drop again. so you need to try again and loose time-

I joined Vodaphone's mobile broadband service earlier this year. Big mistake. Terrible service constantly with drop outs almost every 10 minutes. I was given the option of breaking my contract without any costs, because of the 'lack of service' in my area (I live in central Melbourne-go figure!!). I agreed to this, except when they tried to organize a return pack for the USB stick, they couldn't find my address! Even though I have received bills from them! After a painful 20 minutes, I was told I would need to go to my local council to 'verify' my address, even though I have lived here for more than 4 years and have no issues with any other company sending me mail. Eventually I asked to speak to a supervisor, who was still adamant my address didn't exist (despite also being a Vodaphone mobile customer). My address didn't exist when they did a google search, even though when I do a google search, remarkable it shows up!! My anger was huge by this point and I was screaming down the phone at how incompetent the company are and how it wasn't my problem their systems are crap. Bare in mind that this call had been going for 40 minutes, plus 20 minutes wait on hold, plus around another 20 minutes of hold time trying to get through on previous attempts, where the call had cut out before I had spoken to someone.

Eventually the supervisor put me through to a different department, for unknown reasons, where I had to explain the situation to some poor guy. He was perhaps the most useful and pleasant person I have ever dealt with at Vodaphone and man, there have been alot of calls. He checked my address and found it within seconds and the situation was rectified. I asked him, indeed pleaded with to tell me why he was able to do something, that two other people, including a 'supervisor' couldn't do!! He was at a loss for words and I think felt genuinely embarrassed.

This is a short hand 'family' version of the WORST interaction I have EVER had with a company. It took me hours to calm down after this. And don't get me started about the 80 minute long phonecall I had when I wanted to get an iphone or about the 50 minute phonecall where no-one could work out my wrongly charged bill, where I spoke to no less then 4 people. And then there's that god forsaken Lara voice automated service.

The worst customer service ever in the history of bad customer service.

I was with Vodafone, but the problem I had was with Lara VRS as even talking clearly didn't work.

But why did CEO say sorry AFTER the problems was mentioned in the media, why didn't Vodafone sort the problem before it came to this?

And maybe there should be class action against all Phone Companies, as they are just as bad as Vodafone for example Virgin, after talking to different sections and many in a overseas call centre, the problem was not fixed.

i used to have vodafone wireless broadband... i thought i had a faulty unit because it never worked... after i called them and was put on hold for about 45 minutes... i finally got through!! i was handballed to another person whose english was terrible... and when i told them i couldn't understand them they hung up on me!! i finally managed to get throught to them again and told them i wanted out of my contract... i had to pay to do so and in the end i didn't care... i just wanted out!!
i also have an iphone with vodafone... i have shared in most of the same problems as other people on this site... calls drop out, no service, messages that have been sent but not recieved, trying to contact the fault line and having to talk to that useless bloody answering machine 'lara', getting hand balled to some indian call centre where the people are barely understandable!!
but when i rang the new contracts number... i was put straight through!! who would have guessed!! the MOST SHOCKING CUSTOMER SERVICE I HAVE EVER HAD!! shame on you vodafone... you deserve to lose business!!

Bought 2 x$2 SIM cards. Both would not activate online. Tried with the worlds most annoying and useless phone system - LARA - and still wouldnt work. Spent over 5 hours over 2 days on hold waiting for someone from Vodafone to answer their help line (this included getting cut off 2x when I was 'transferred'to another line). 1 SIM up and running. The other still not working 4 weeks later.

I've been with Vodafone nearly 10 years and always happy untill last few years. We went on a plan 3 months ago with my husband and ever since then, all calls were constantly droppong out and you couldnt hear the other person. i spent most my time walking around trying to get reception, we live in melbourne not in the country. Worst off all internet was so slow and past 4 days i've had no internet at all. we mainly got it as we have no internet in our new place and so we can do internet banling ect now i cant even pay bills... Constant errors appear and no internet coverage. my parents are really frustrated with the calls as well... We know a number of people who have had enough and i dont even wanna call customer service- its 2 hours waiting time plus transfered to the right dept and more waiting and in the end all i get is their having some dificulties and will be fixed soon... All load of crap- Most annoying LARA - half the time i have to call back cause she cant put me through the right people...

i have wireless broadband and live 10min from cbd
i have full bars 4 reception but can
only connect via gprs which is very slow!
tried calling customer care they were helpful
but hard to understand(indians) refered my complaint
somewere else and got a phone call 1 week l8er saying low signal
in the area. wat a waste of time and also F*&k You Lara!
been like this 4 3 weeks now VERY FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Lara.

If you are reading this than there is something I have been wanting to tell you for sometime now. It has been really difficult for me to come up with the right words to express how I feel. We've known each other for awhile now, and I think its pretty obvious that we have started to drift our separate ways. Its been a long hard road and I think its about time to call this thing quits. I don't think we could ever been friends again. I mean, after all I can never actually reach you. I'm always on hold & that annoying music you play drives me up the wall. So, I guess this is it. I think its best if we don't talk anymore. I have found someone else.

Sincerely,
J

p.s: I have cut up my sim card. You wont be able to reach me. Ha!.. I guess now you will know what it feels like to be barred, disconnected and kept on 'hold'.

This was the worst experience I've ever had.

I decided I wanted a new Iphone 4.
So I go to a store in elsternwick because I wanted to make sure that the plan I signed up for would include the bonus data as advertised. After I saw the representative use the website to place an internet order, I realise going to the store was a giant waste of time and I should have done it at home. I notice the guy enter my details twice, apparently a double deal they had going. I questioned him asking "I think doing that will order me 2 phones, I only want one", He assured me only one was getting ordered. I left the store, completely in doubt. So I call the Online Orders line, and after a 40 minute hold, get through. I ask to confirm that my order was for only 1 phone. Of course, it was for 2, and I had to go through the process of explaining to the online rep that it was the store rep's fault for stuffing it up.

The store rep told me it would take a maximum of 2 weeks for me to receive my iphone, 2 months later, I receive a card in the mail telling me it is ready to be picked up at Melbourne Airport. One lengthy roadtrip later, I am holding my Iphone.

When I turn it one, the Sim isn't recognized. So I attempt to call Customer service on my then current optus prepaid. 70 minutes later, I run out of credit and the call drops.

At this point I'd like to mention that ever customer service call followed the SAME LARA prompts/answers. What would you like to do? "Activate my SIM". Please provide your mobile number? "I don't have a mobile number because you haven't given me one". I'm sorry, please repeat that.
In the end, I just yelled CONNECT ME THROUGH TO AN OPERATOR until it eventually did.
And then the Operator would ask what my mobile number is, and all I could answer was "I don't know because you haven't given me one yet". Always greeted with stunned silence.

The next day, I go to a Vodafone store centre telling them of my problem. They let me use their phone to call customer service. After talking to lara, I finally get through to rep, only to have the call drop after I answered their initial "what is your name" question.

So I call back, after another 50 minutes on hold, the same thing happens.
I ask the store rep what is going on, He shrugs and says "They are having trouble with the phone lines, I should just try again later"

Optimistic, I go home, to look up the next nearest store to me. I make my way there and ask to use their phone to sort out this mess. Another 2 tries later, a total of 60 minutes on hold, and 2 dropped calls as soon as I was connected to a representative. Again, I ask the store assistants what is going wrong and they quite rudely tell me to go home and try it later.

The next day, I decided to buy more credit for my prepaid phone, hoping they had sorted their phone issues out. After half an hour on hold, and then being dropped as soon as I got through. I gave up for the rest of the day.

The next day (friday), I went to my parent's house (as they have a phone line - I didn't), and at 0930, nice and early, I call up tech support. This time (after 20 minutes on hold of course), I don't get dropped. And tell the representative what is happening. After a lengthy explanation that they haven't given me a mobile number yet and I need my SIM activated (which at this point I find out, isn't usually needed), I am told it will be operational in 20 minutes.

At 3pm, I call back, same deal, it will be ready in an hour.
At 4pm, I call back, again, it will be ready in half an hour (Support closed at 5pm).
At 4:30pm, I call back, and am on hold until 4:59, At which point, I am answered, and then hung up on due to closing time.

That monday, I go back to a store, and tell em my problem, and that they should ring up as a staff member to sort this problem out. (I was assuming they had some sort of priority line to skip the customer service queue - this is untrue). Eventually, I am told that my Credit check failed and that I would not be able to get an Iphone.

You mean this Iphone right here? - as I showed him what I was holding.
A mate of mine applied for the same plan + iphone, and was rejected on credit check (for some bizarre reason, his credit was fine).

So now I'm confused as to why I have been rejected, and yet still sent this iphone. I'm just about fed up and ready to leave (can you blame me?) - resolving to keep the iphone, unlock it, and go with a better telco, when the store rep rings up again, and this time tells me...

That my driver's licence number was input wrong.
He inputs it, and in 5 minutes, I'm connected.

It only took 2 months overdue, and a week of hassling to get my new iphone working and operational.
But now I get to experience the constant call dropouts, Data interruptions, crappy reception and horrible customer service Vodafone has to offer!

When my contract is up, NEVER AGAIN VODAFONE. NEVER AGAIN.

Txts take days to arrive..drops out..no signal... Not long ago i spent hours of time over a few days trying to get through by phone for service when the online top-up facility wouldn't work. Numerous times after waiting for around half an hour on the line i just got cut off and then had to go through the whole Lara thing again. I sent a complaint using the web form for complaints but go no reply. After persevering with waiting i finally got through but then the line dropped out even while i was being assisted. In defense of the operator he was very helpful - not his fault he works for a terrible company. I imagine they treat their staff no better than their customers.

HI iv been with Vodafone for 6 years iv never had an issue with reception and my phone is a t630 10 year old my boys have the same carrier and there phones are fine ,mind u soon as i go to the country eg wallan or Kilmore reception isn't there. and when i call them i am so over lara any way for 20$ a year what do u expect if ur not happy change carrier.

DIE VODAFONE DIE
DIE LARA DIE, YOU PATRONIZING BITCH

i have wireless broadband and live 10min from cbd
i have full bars 4 reception but can
only connect via gprs which is very slow!
tried calling customer care they were helpful
but hard to understand(indians) refered my complaint
somewere else and got a phone call 1 week l8er saying low signal
in the area. wat a waste of time and also F*&k You Lara!
been like this 4 3 weeks now VERY FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!!!!

I signed with Vodafone almost 3 years ago and in that time have had limited reception or no reception at all. I now live 20km from Melbourne CBD and cant get reception at the rear of my house so to use my phone i must stand out the front of my house or else it will drop out. I was promised with my $79 cap oner $550 worth of credit im still only getting $550, as a result earlier in the year i ran over my cap as i was not getting the correct value. I received a bill of over $250 3 or 4 times, it took months of hounding Vodafone through their stupid customer service menu (with the stupid automated LARA) to get them to acknowledge their wrong, it then took another month or so of arguing with people that told me i was wrong before i got them to admit their wrong again and then to get compensated for the bill that i had gone over. No coverage, No Customer Service, Stuff ups on their behalf that cost customers money, im going to Optus and advising anyone i know not to even consider Vodafone

I work for vodaphone. and do you know what. FUCK YOU ALL. We dont care. Lara is a sick bitch. We want your money for shit service. You pay for what you get cock suckers.

HI iv been with Vodafone for 6 years iv never had an issue with reception and my phone is a t630 10 year old my boys have the same carrier and there phones are fine ,mind u soon as i go to the country eg wallan or Kilmore reception isn't there. and when i call them i am so over lara any way for 20$ a year what do u expect if ur not happy change carrier.

I cant make any calls and LARA is an absolute waste of time!!

Get rid of LARA

I live about 5km from hobart cbd. Reception is so poor that moving one step to the left will give me maybe two bars then another step no bars. When i need to make a phone call i end up doing the Time Warp. I contacted the complaints department which was amazingly hard as Lara,bless her soul, cant make out my yes or no's as my reception was so bad. After getting through to India i was told that vodafone would be sending someone to test the areas signal and i would hear from them within a few working days. weeks later i get a text telling me to ring 1555 to find out more information. I rang this number and could not work out how to get the information. Only 20 months of pain to go.

I cant make any calls and LARA is an absolute waste of time!!

Get rid of LARA

So over delayed voicemail and can never get through to the custom care!! shit service vodaphone...!

Ok cannot use Vodafone out near Brisbane Airport, have to stand on the roof of my mates house in the middle of Toowoomba, an forget any sort of internet coverage in Noosa (where by you pay per minute on roaming!!) Lara is STUPID and does not listen and frustrates the hell out of me, but with all that the only decent thing they've dont is add 500mb to their $29 Cap (IF YOU CAN USE IT!!) Oh and for some reason they don't allow you to use your mobile as a modem where as OPTUS did.....

For the last few months I have had nothing but headaches with Vodafone..

Where do I begin?

Constant call fail.. I can be trying to make a phone call and it can take me up to 10-15 attempts to actually make a call

Phone drop outs.. Most annoying when I have been on hold to Vodafone for 45 minutes and then it drops out.. Then I have to battle Lara again..

Text messages not going through.. I can send a picture message at 3pm in the afternoon and it will get delivered at 3am the next morning.. Friends think I cant sleep!

Voicemail messages.. No missed calls then a week later I get a massive back log of voicemails messages.. Great when you boss is leaving messages on your phone and I ignore them..

The person you have called can not be reached.. my mother inlaw actually called my phone (which had full service) and it said I wasnt available!

Icing on the cake is when they put call barring on my phone and said I hadnt paid my last 2 bills.. I had paid the 2 bills and they had a glitch in the system which meant the payments didnt get put with the bill paid..

After spending at least 6 hrs on the phone to Vodafone.. They said it was my iphones problem, not them! After seeing todays story... I am not the only one.

They should be gving us credits on out bills!

Grrrr!

I have had enough of Vodafone, and I don't even want to try to contact them anymore. The stupid Lara machine and the automatic responses for the email, are just making sure that no human, ever needs to respond to any communication from clients. I'm looking forward to start my new year with new mobile phone and internet service provider. I wish had never heard of Vodafone!

I use Vodafone for internet. The connection speed is very poor all the time. I am unable to connect to the internet at most times. They include data uploaded/sent as part of the usage amount. They only should include data we download as part of our usage. A month ago there was no coverage for internet for 2 days.

When I call customer service, I end up speaking to an Automatic Lara who can't understand my voice no matter how clearly I speak. After having to deal with Lara, I then have to put up with a service representative at a call centre in India who is worse than Lara.

Reception = Crap - cant get texts let alone make calls that don drop out!
Handset = had 3 mobiles, 2 faulty!
Customer Service = "Lara" has a hearing problem, anything more that 10 mins wait time is unacceptable, the service is Indian, Malaysian or other. Rarely spoken with Aussie in an Aussie call centre!

NOT HAPPY JAN!

Thrilled about this website! Awesome idea........ now will they get this message!!!!

:(

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Is all i can say!
I am over Vodafone!!!!! I have had so many drop outs and unable to connect. More recently. I have not been received lots of messages from friends n family - various networks. Some arrived days later. Ive missed important info and had a blue with a friend for a misunderstnding re not receiving a text message. Tried ringing up almost every day in the past month - "Lara" (who I also HATE) tells me its at least a 40 - 45 min wait time! Who has that kinda time to waste???????? And IF I did get through, an overseas person answered and cant understand my accent or what I am trying to say!!


I also have been trying to get a new iphone 4 - been waiting over 2 months!
I HATE VOADFONE! If I could quit my contract without penalties I would.

THANK YOU TAHNK YOU for thid s website!

I am going to cancel my contract tomorrow.
Vodafone constantly dropps out with network error connection.
No 3g at my house.
Lara drives me to the point insanity and you cant talk to a real person.
Plus i think they overcharged me on my last bill, which is so hard to understand.
Not hAppy!..

I have a Vod broadband and for 1.5 months I was not able to use it due to broken modem and I was stuck with " Lara" who wasted about 5-6 hours of my time over the phone. They were still sending me bills! Finally had to resort to threatening emails to make them sort my internet

I'm amazed at the decline in standards from Vodafone over the years. I joined 7 years ago on the old 'No Plans' and was always really happy - great customer service, reasonable coverage, good deals, competitive prices, and I used to get a present from them every year for my loyalty. I've since gone on to have capped plans for my phone and mobile broadband in the last 3 years, and don't have too many good things to say about the company anymore.

I get reasonable service on my mobile, but mobile broadband is a bit of a joke. Coverage is VERY limited - I've never had more than 2 bars or 'Poor' service. Not to mention it recently dropped out completely for about a fortnight. Right before exams. Thanks. The same thing happened to several of my friends at the same time.

The worst thing though is the customer service. I've never gotten through to the right person/department straight away when calling, and I've often had to call multiple numbers. Setting up my mobile broadband, I kept getting told the number I had called wasn't correct - despite using the number that was in the setup instruction booklet, or calling the number that the previous operator had told me to call.
Recently trying to upgrade my plan, I actually yelled at an operator. Not intentionally, but I let out a loud, stern "NO!" when the person that I had been transferred to to change the plan attempted to transfer me back to the department I had just been transferred from.
In another instance, when trying to find out what was going on with a mobile broadband error, I spent 20mins on the phone, just to have the operator repeat my problem back at me and tell me that myvodafone.com wasn't working. Which I had also mentioned to him (and which it pretty much never is anyway...)
These things are frustrating, inconvenient, and a waste of all of our time. I don't mind being put on hold or transferred if my problems are going to be fixed! I think vodafone customer service suffers from a severe case of micro-management - no one person ever seems to think the customer's problem or issue is their responsibility!

Grrr vodafone. Grrr.

i have been using vodafone mobile since i arrived in australia 3 years ago, the first two were on contract...except, i had continually dropped offline, once my contract was up i went to prepay (you'd think i would have learnt by now huh)...only to find vodafone were still charging me for a service i wasn't using or satisfied with, tried to contact them to express my disgust..guess what...that was a no go too...Lara irks me something chronic to say the least, short of throwing my phone against a brick wall repeatedly, i finally get thru only to be frustrated even more by the human i speak with. Aaarrrgghh, quite often you will see an occassional status update from me regarding vodafone to get their sh*t together. thanks for the opportunity to vent.

Call drop outs, late message sending and recieving and most of all, F*&% YOU Lara. I can not handle that computer generated talking system. I end up finally getting through to customer service and i am so pissed off just from that bloody lara chick. RAH!!!!!

I keep getting the switched off message EVERYTIME I call my friends (who are also on vodafone!!) and vice versa. I have to SMS someone first, THEN call them, otherwise I will get that dreaded switched off message (vice versa for my friends as well). It's so frustrating cause when i tried to call "LARA" (don't get me started on her) to report this issue, again I was greeted with a switched off message. For Fuzz sakes, its not even a mobile i'm calling!!!! So pissed off right now!