It's Easter, I have not been able to send SMS for over 3 hours now & when calling relatives, reception is so poor the call drops out... I'm sick of this. Regardless of whether I'm prepay or contract I'm paying for a product that is not working. Not happy Jan. I also have broadband service which is mediocre at best.

I tried sending an sms from my phone at 3pm today and got a message telling me that the message could not be sent. (in area with good reception)My wife then tried sending a sms from her phone and received the same message. Thams for the shitty service vodafone

Unable to send or receive text messages

I use my phone for work, and have been unable to send SMS for the last 3 hours. And the only response I can get from Vodafone is a weak message on its network status page, basically saying, It Doesnt Work...oops. How do I get in on this class action I keep hearing about?

Bills do not download
Receive phone call messages 3 hours after phone call. Never recieved phone call.
Recieve sms 2.5 hours after sent. Son was out and needed me.
Constantly overcharge.
Rude person when trying to get overcharge dealt with.
4 weeks to set up new plan, 5 visits to store, 4 attemmpts online, abused twice.
Phone not ring and then get missed call.
Constantly 'No network' or 'connection error'

I joined Vodafone about 5 years ago. Back then the price was good and the service was passable. I stuck with the "You get what you pay for" adage, and thought the price per service was a fair arrangement.

A couple of years ago on new years eve, I thought it would be cool to send some of my friends a "Happy new year" message. It took three quarters of an hour to send. A friend of mine who is with Telstra took 5 minutes to send his. But I passed it off as being an unusual situation and thought no more about it.

Since then, every so often, a call would disconnect or I would find that the person I was talking to just could not hear me half way through a sentence.

Still, "You get what you pay for"...

But now I think about it, in the last few months, I cannot remember one single call that was either not cut off or did not go dead at least once during a conversation.

Once in a while for the price you think "Fair enough" after all the service is cheap, but every call????

I thought it was just me, but after seeing this site I realise that is just not the case.

And the "Vodafail The Musical / Telephone - A Tribute to 3 & Vodafone Australia" just hits the nail on the head. The fact that a group put time and effort into such a production indicates something in itself.

I intend to upgrade my phone in a few days and when I do I will be moving lock stock and barrel to Telstra. I was going to upgrade to the "Google Nexus S" but it seems that Vodafone have exclusive rights to this phone. Big mistake Google. As good as this phone looks, there is no point connecting anything to a dead network. I will therefore go for a lesser phone on a network that works.

My problems with Vodafone have only ever increased day by day. A while back I thought I was in luck compared to other users who were experiencing so many vodafail problems but now I am in the same boat as them - I am paying at least $99 per mth for service I am getting only around 25% of the time?!!! I have NO PHONE RECEPTION FOR CALLS, INTERNET USAGE for around 75% of the day - NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!! It can take me about 30 calls to get in contact with my husband with every call attempt saying "CALL FAILED". Once I can finally get in contact with him, the call will drop out within a minute or less. THis is our only way of contacting eachother when we have a toddler and I'm pregnant with twins! We rely on reliable mobile service which we are not getting!!! I have people claim that they try to contact me on a daily basis with NO LUCK - my mother states she can try phoning me a million times before she finally gets thru to me. I receive delayed msgs all of the time. When I have tried phoning vodafone to complain, I have chosen the option for them to call me back but once they have phoned me back, the call has dropped out due to no reception and they don't even bother to phone me back again!!!! WHAT THE?! So I have to start again! And this happened around 3 times in a row before I finally had a phonecall that lasted more than a couple of minutes. Could not believe they didn't have the taste to phone me back after the call dropped out thanks to vodafone. Surely they are all aware of the problems. I am sick of paying so much for a service I am not getting. I am really starting to lose it emotionally due to the continual frustration with the daily problems with vodafone. I will be contacting them again shortly and enquiring about my options - one of being NOT being charged for a service I'm not getting until their issues are resolved!!!

lousy reception, phone drop out

It is impossible to do business on the mobile using Vodafone. I live within 10 Km of the Sydney CBD. I can phone a number when I see 2-3 bars and then the reception frequently cuts even before the phone starts to ring. I need then to use the landline and this becomes expensive, with long distance calls. Even standing stock still with what starts as some reception, the call REPEATEDLY drops out. I went on the Vodafone unlimited plan to be able to use it, not to throw away money. It is the same problem inside or outside my property.
When I renewed contact with a firm in Queensland just today, I apologised stating the mobile problem Immediately the receptionist said 'Vodafone' - she has the same problem. What is Vodafone planning to do to rectify this??? Their image is at an all time low.

Since I upgrade my service from 3 to vodafone. I got very limited reception. while my husband using the 3 network and call perfectly fine inside my house, the vodafone does not have any reception. I have to use optus homephone to call out. Its really inconvenience. I believe they should put some signal booster in lidcombe Area

I have been a vodaphone customer since 1993. I have showen loyalty to a company who has, up until recently given me good service. No longer, my coverage drops out an average of 10 times a day no matter wher I am in Perth, ability to send and recieve SMS is sporadic and voicmail often is unavailable. I struggle to rationalise why I am still with Vodaphone.
Loyalty is important to me so i have stuck with the company for this year, but what I find very difficult to understand is why i have not been gioven an honest explanation as to why I am experiencing such a sub standard service. I have no idea how long these network problems are going to continue.Do they contact me, give me anything that can help me rationalise why I am still a customer? No

Coverage in my area (part of Queens Park, WA) is nearly nonexistent - just bad enough to prevent the phone from roaming onto another network that works. Calls drop all the time, voicemail takes up to an hour to come through. Every phone company has these issues somewhere, though. The amazing thing is: Vodafone are upgrading their coverage. The new rollout in my area is on 850MHz. My *BRAND* *NEW* HTC Desire HD, a *VODAFONE* *EXCLUSIVE* phone, doesn't support 850MHz. Vodafone are rolling out new coverage users of their exclusive phones won't be able to use!

In the period of time that Vodafone had announced that they were having issues with coverage, mobile internet and over charging customers, I recieved a bill for $567. This is 5 times more than I had ever recieved before and I have been with Vodafail for roughly 30 months. I tried to get this sorted out as it was publically known that they were a complete shambles with their phone services. I recieved a... "$200" credit..? For a bill still 3 times more than it would normally been in the time vodafail had said they had issues? That was apparently the best they could do. I rang them back today and tried to organise a payment plan. I offered to pay $250 right then and there to keep my phone unbarred over easter. That apparently wasn't enough. I was supposed to pay $377 which was out of my means. I then asked to speak to her manager, a rather useful fellow that suggested I needed to speak with the relevant department regarding my reception and phone issues. He very nicely transferred me to the next department saying that he will advise the person as to the situation so we could get it sorted out. (I was a bit shocked at that point) After being transferred, I had to tell that person the SAME thing again. She said she would ring me back in an hour. I waited an hour, she got back to me and pretty much called me a liar saying that I hadn't spoken to anyone else before her EVEN THOUGH I was transferred to her by a supervisor. She then placed me on hold for about 10 minutes to find out more, after getting back from the hold, she transferred me to someone else that AGAIN asked me to tell them the same story. At that point I was beyond frustrated and gave the guy a piece of my mind. He repeatedly told me that there was -NO- notes made about this job and I had to explain it all to him because he didnt know what was going on. I explained it AGAIN, the option he gave me was to sort out a payment arrangement or a payment extension which wasn't what I rang them for. He then presented me the option with speaking to Customer Service if I believed that I was eligible for some kind of compensation. (I also brought up the public announcement of the problems with Vodafone and the buffoon I was talking to said he didn't know anything about it even though it's posted on Vodafail's website) I picked the option of being transferred to Customer Service to YET AGAIN explain my situation. And here it comes, the icing on the cake. I'm mid-way through explaining this all to the Customer "Service" representative, and I notice that the phone goes rather quite. AND TRUE TO AMAZING SERVICE BY VODAFONE, the call drops and they dont ring me back.

I was aware of all the stories so when my coverage went from patchy to nil I was not surprised. I filled in the support form to ask what had changed. The reply email included the standard text about coverage and closed my call. I then phoned to complain as my question had not been answered and was advised my account was overdue. A simple banking error which was camoflaged by all the current issues and over zealous closure of my call.

Im currently with Three ( who are equally deserving of the title "epic fail" as vodafone), and im right in the middle of a large Three 3g zone on their coverage map. However I am constantly disconnected from their and the Roaming charges are ALWAYS READY TO PUNCE ON ALL OF US UNSUSPECTING CUSTOMERS. What a bloody rip-off, giving 2GB of net for Iphone customers so that when they try to use it at least 100-200mb will be roaming = 50-100 dollars of free cash for them!

After having constant connection problems with Vodafone, they blamed my iphone so i rolled over my contract and paid a fee to get a new iphone. Surprise surprise, i'm constantly uncontactable, receive voicemails days later, texts either never arrive or days late and constantly unable to make a call even though it says full reception. Have contacted vodafone and ripped into them countless times and get the same response "I understand your frustrated" or "We understand you are having network difficulties" or "we understand you need to be contactible" The last straw was when all my calls went straight to voicemail (of which I still havnt got those voicemails a week later) for hours and hours and as a result, my kid was stuck on the other side of town for hours. NOT FRIKKEN HAPPY! so once again, on the phone to 'We understand India' and after a half hour convo that got no where, she promised to call me back, and never did. I called them back and they hung up on me while trying to transfer. THEN!!! this is good... another Indian calls to make sure i was happy with the customer service! So i vent YET AGAIN. Hang up with no resolution. Get another call in an hour from... wait for it... AN AUSSIE! Wanting to check if I was happy. VENT AGAIN! She agreed that Vodafone was bull shit and understood why I was p*ssed off. Also found out that all calls go over seas too which is terrific cause there is a massive communication problem there and nothing ever gets resolved. I have had to go and buy a pre paid sim card and phone now to use when vodafone fails. in the past couple days, that has been 3 times. What a crock of sh*t. BAH!!!!!

I live on a hill, next to one of the busiest roads in Sydney, Pennant Hills Road and I can't get reception for long enough to have a call without it dropping out or incoming calls going to voice mail. At work, On a hill in Watson's Bay and you struggle to get it there either. 24 hour customer support gives a recorded message that the service is not available.

I really need to get out of this 2 year contract.

I have been putting up with shocking reception with both my iphone 3G and mobile broadband connections. Not what you'd expect in a fairly central suburb of Canberra. It's driving me crazy, and I'm going to ditch vodafail tomorrow.

EVERYTHING! CONTRACT LOCK IN, RECEPTION SERVICE! BUT CHECK THIS OUT PPL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=306OsChFw0A&feature=player_embedded

HILARIOUS AND VERY ACCURATE

I have been with Vodafone since they came to Australia and have enjoyed great service until recent times. Reception has become a major issue, which I have never experienced before. What has happened to coverage???

I have been sticking with Vodafone thinking they are going to improve their coverage. I pay my bill like clockwork but the lack of coverage has made me an irate customer. I cannot believe the ACCC has not interjected and frozen new signups for vodafone until they fix their problems. This is simply highway robbery.

Great news! Vodafone accepted to terminate my contract at no fee but the handset "If you are a looking at closing your account the early termination fee would be $1421.84. But due to the coverage issues you have been experiencing I am able to reduce this to $499 to cover the costs of the handset."

I switched to Telstra yesterday, and wow, it's so much better now, day and night!!!!

Just glad Vodafone made it easy for me to switch to Telstra despite having a 2y contract expiring in November 2012.

basically, vodafones service is crap. Telstra's connection speed on 3G networks is at least three times faster and they also have this amazing thing called reception?! maybe vodafone might think about getting that sometime soon?

After many attempt at trying to resolve both mobile phone reception issues, mobile broadband reception issues and being told lots of times by customer service staff that "there is no problem", I have decided to abandon them as a service provider. Yesterday I took my USB stick to the Canberra store after over two hours and several people in customer services being unable to help me. In store the staff were unprofessional, serving several people at once and fooling around with each other. After 2 hours in the store trying to sort the same problem the manager eventually offered a months free mobile broadband. When it came to authorise it customer care services were down and they were not processing anything till today. I was promised someone would call me today. The young man I dealt with mainly yesterday had not followed it up, seemed surprised to see me today and had lost my phone number he did not seem too bothered that he had not tried to resolve my issue. I left with promises that it would be sorted today,only to get a phone call an hour ago to say that customer services have refused to give me the free month. Not surprisingly I got a bit annoyed. He has now agreed to call his manager to escalate it to him to get sorted. I am not sur that I have ever came across or heard of a service as bad as this.

I'm in Qld. Really bad reception in highly populated areas. Constant drop outs. Phone jamming. Voice mails days late. No internet. I just want the phone to work. I don't want to have to restart the phone several times per day or not get my calls.

I am sitting in my office on Level 15 in the middle of the Melbourne city near Collins and Elizabeth St and I cannot get any reception. I tried turning my iphone off and back on but this only works temporarily. Internet on the phone does not work at all.

Just signed a bundle of services with ActewAGL and Transmobile, including a month to month $39 CAP mobile plan. Ported from Optus (very good coverage) and now I have no service with Transmobile who use the vodafone network. Drive around Wanniassa, Erindale and Greenway - no service! They say it could be the handset, even though with Optus an hour earlier my 3GS iphone was perfect. Im about to port over to Telstra on a pre paid mobile plan and get away from Transmobile and vodafone...talk about breech of contract! I feel for long term vodafone contractees...never use transmobile or vodafone...only Optus and Telstra...they are the better of the evils (and they are all evils!)

Was sent a "MEGA MODeM" for free in the mail. Hasn't changed a thing. Am sitting here typing this knowing it will take 30 mins to chug through the airwaves, if at all.NOTHING on the network coverage page i managed to get open. PATHETIC as usual

All day I've had absolutely NO data coverage inspite of me being right in Launceston's CBD. Even voice coverage (2G) is next to non-existant!
A message was left with vodaphone at least 4 hours ago and still nothing, not even a response or so much as an automated message!

How does one go from having full reception in a nokia on vodaphone prepaid... to a brand new iPhone4... that is always "searching" for reception... even when I'm less than 200m from a mobile phone tower... is vodaphone blind or something? get a friggen guide dog then!!!

trying to run a buisness and all i get is drop outs no coverage and it is pissing me off and i am off to telstra

I travel from Penrith each morning by train and each morning (on my 3GS Iphone with latest software upgrade) I try to listen to radio only to have my connection drop out just outside Mt Druitt then it won't pick up till after Parra then drops out before Strathfield all the way to central with no ability to pick up the radio signals. Whats confusing is for most of the journey I have enough signal strength. On top of this in last few days my iphone has been stuck on "searching" for the vodafone network, each time I have to restart for the network to be found. I'm not sure if these issue are a vodafone issue or an iphone issue.

Pay $69 per month for the following: 99% of the time no reception/ coverage, reception drop out, text messages and voice mail that arrives days later if they arrive at all. Resending text messages frequently as the reception drops out halfway through sending the text. Have to use the mobile phone which doesn't have reception to contact the Vodafone customer care as Vodafone doesn't have a local phone number anymore, to complain about the poor reception. Vodafone gave me 3 months free, great I cant use my bloody phone anyway.

The Vodafone network is a disgrace and it's "robbing" it's customers of benefiting from a decent network. I switched over to Telstra this past weekend. All I can say is "why didn't I do this way earlier?". Fantastic signal strength from Telstra, as well as way faster internet '3G' connectivity. No more dropped calls, text messages fly through - to name but a few. Vadafone better do something about their terrible network soon, or else they are going to lose many customers. Thank you to Telstra for making my mobile experience more pleasurable! DO NOT SIGN UP WITH VODAFONE!!! Support the other networks.

I sit at work, look down and my coverage has dropped out. I have no idea whether it has been 1 hour or three hours. Given I work in Sales, having my mobile coverage cut out is not acceptable.

I recently requested a new fone and to be upgraded to a nokia C7 without charge. They have now billed me a not even a month into the contract with a due date 6 days before the month ends??? Requesting $81 for a $45 unlimited plan. I rang them up and requested them ; to change this ; to talk to an Australian vodafone rep ; why the hell Im being billed before the month is even over ; why I am being charged a $9 freight fee and $0.72 for paying my bill last month ; why I was told I would not be charged any extra and now am before I have even gotten through the first month. I told them to fix it or im not paying the bill, so they can carry on as long as they like, looks like free mobile service for me, as Im not paying till they recitify the situation. Im over their ridiclious crap.

I have been overcharged, simply they lied about their free phone on the contract and charged me $5 extra on every bill + their extraordinary poor customer service
promising they'll fix it with next bill every time I called. All this with their poor network coverage and never working internet and 3rd grade handsets. After paying them 4 months on their false commitments, I have decided not to pay anymore...

I am on Crazy Johns Network. Last Thursday, Stopped getting EDGE network completely!!!

Useless!!!!

I just recently finished a 24 month contract with 3 mobile migrated my service to Vodafone, under another 24 month contact with HTC desire HD. Around my house with 3 mobile reception was more than acceptable, very rarely had dropouts and coverage levels fine throughout the house.
I was a bit concerned about vodaphones reception issues, but the sales rep performed a "coverage check" for me and ensured me that I would actually get better coverage with vodaphone.
I get no reception at all anywhere in the house using my htc desire hd, I can't even send or receive text messages. I have to drive about 1km to get even 1-2 bars of reception using my desire HD. Using my old nokia E71 I can get usually get enough reception out the front of my house to send/receive a text, but calls would drop out.

I was with Telstra for more than 10 years and during that time did not have to call customer service, not even once. I have been with Vodafone for 5 months and have called their customer service 4 times.

I am in the same boat as alot of people. Calls drop out or go straight to voicemail, text messages delayed or just never received & poor network coverage in general.

The last instance with customer service was that "most likely" have a faulty sim card. So i jumped through their hoop this time and replaced the sim card on the weekend but expect to have the same problems.

I was never able to conntect to the Internet on my mobile phone although it is in my plan. When seeing staff in their stores they were able to restore it momentarily but that was it. I reported it numerous times and was advised a week ago that it was escelated to their network people but I'm not getting any feedback so I put in a complaint to the TIO. I hope something can be done. I'm extremely disappointed.

Joined vodafone 2 months ago alright reception in Sydney not great moved to Cairns and there is no reception at all, your lucky if you can pick up 1 out of every 4 words and if the phonecall doesn't drop out under 3 minutes. Impossible to make a phone call or receive a phonecall. Was put on the Infinite plan with an IPhone and there is no 3G reception up here so impossible to get on the net and there is no normal reception so it's impossible to make or receive a phonecall! Don't go near Vodafail!

I work in Labrador on the Gold Coast and there is NO RECEPTION/ no phone coverage.

Have paid my bill via the internet, credit card has been charged but no receipt number has been forthcoming. Spoke to Lara who told me to call back tomorrow. Managed to get through to the call centre who put me on hold before informing me that they were unable to tell me if the bill had been paid and advised me to wait for 24 hours. Have now reached the point of no return.

Question - How do I get out of my mobile contract, billing problems and poor reception are a nightmare.

no reception between central & redfern! Emergency calls only!

Either no coverage or drop out even tho close to CBD.

No network coverage in my house at all, and sketchy coverage around Mt Lawley. Been like this one week now, and I've pissed off alot of people & business associates who think I'm ignoring them!

I have been reading lots about Vodafone's poor coverage and I know that in regional NSW it can be difficult out of town areas. IS VIRGIN and OPTUS any better? I don't want to go near Telstra. I am thinking of changing my service from Vodafone but am concerned that the coverage may not be any better with Virgin. I live just out of Cowra. Does anyone know what the data and call coverage is like?

I can't get reception 99% of the time no matter where i am. Can't send texts or make calls, have to keep trying and most of the time i give up and not bother. My phone calls ALWAYS drop out and wont let me call them back. Have never had such a slow internet connection with any other company, except vodaphone. Biggest mistake i made!

there seems to be no 3g data at the moment, I am in Glenorchy with no 3g data on mobile and my partner in Oakdowns also no 3g data on modem. EDGE data is fine though.

Looking at Vodafones website for network issues there says that there is no outages at the moment...

Send in to voda feedback ---> this afternoon at work, a colleague who's not as technical as I or has a firm of a grasp on the English language asked me to assist with this phone. After setting up internet access on his phone a few days before, he asked if I could assist once again because internet had stopped working.
As the correct APN was selected and a reboot did not resolve the issue, I contacted mobile customer care. All I asked for was the APN settings for mobile internet, I didn't request to discuss specific account information or anything else that would violate privacy act stipulations. However I was told that you needed to verify the account before these details could be given, dumbfounded by this ridiculousness I requested to speak with a supervisor who sang the same tune, however did advise that the information was available on Vodafone's website. I kindly asked that he read the details from the website, this request was refused.

I thought you as organisation were aiming to lift your customer service standards, not perpetuate the bad reputation that you already have. A customer who is on the phone, who cannot access the internet is told that we cannot provide the information that is not protected by law and is openly available to the world, and you won't help out a customer by giving that information over the phone.

Well I may not be able to move my colleague off your network, but I can and do request that my service be terminated at the end of the current billing cycle.
Account number 70xxxxxxx is to be disconnected at the end of the current billing cycle. You may call me on 0416xxxxxx to confirm this if you wish.

I moved houses about 4 months ago. I moved about 8 mins drive from where I was living before (I live in a large suburb of Melbourne). You'd think that there would be no difference in reception barely 10 mins drive away - but I barely have one bar of reception on my phone! Sure, dropouts were a big problem before I moved, but at least I had pretty much full reception at my other place... now i get both dropouts AND crap reception IN THE MIDDLE OF F@&KING SUBURBIA!!! Thanks Vodafail - been with you for over 5 years, Telstra - here I come!

I have come back to Aus to apply for a new UK visa and before leaving, I got my Wonderful wife a BlackBerry, so we could keep in touch without the high text charges. I sorry to see that no one other than Crazy Johns, had a prepaid BB package. SO with my $29 in hand, I bought it and then inserted it into the Phone. I later discovered, that I have edge network from hom (Maroubra) to about Randwick Race Course, and then have to reboot my phone as It crashes when the signal stops. The CBD and North Sydney are useless. No Data Coverage, and now this morning, When I walked out and tell my Wife "Good Night", it failed to send. Maroubra this morning had no data coverage. I now use BB services on my flatmates ADSL modem... Will I ever be able to have normal connection to the BB services on the Vodafone network?

Long story is long.

I only switched to Vodaphone around a month ago. I had started having problems with Three (bad data coverage, late SMS delivery - or no SMS delivery at all, a monthly bill that seemed to be a rip off in comparison to the mobile contracts of my peers etc etc) and after two ranty calls to Three customer care, a nice man from Three called me at seven am on a Saturday, apropos of nothing, to offer me A DEAL.

And because I am a sucker, I took it - despite a chorus of my well informed friends screeching "NO! NO! VODAPHONE IS THE DEVIL!" at me. And despite the fact that I knew, in my heart of hearts, that the problems I was experiencing with three (excluding the rip-off plan I was on) were probably linked to the merge with vodaphone.

They lulled me with their siren song of opting out of my contract, a brand new handset, and zero cancellation fees. And now they have me right where they want me: on a 24 month $45 infinite plan, with $10 handset repayments every bill.

At first it wasn't so bad. I did notice some patchy connectivity, especially with data coverage, but it didn't really cause me any major inconvinience. I am not -terribly- bothered if I can't check into the train station, on foursquare, on my way to work in the morning. Sure, it's a service I am technically paying for - a reliable internet connection of my smartphone - but hey, what's the very occasional outage, right?

Only in the last two weeks, it hasn't been the occasional outage. It's been 'no internet for you!' at least 50% of the time, despite the fact that I live ten minutes from Perth city, work in the CBD, and rarely venture farther afield than the inner suburbs.

And then there are the calls that people apparently made to me, that...I never got. Strangely this seems to mostly happen when other vodaphone customers are trying to call me.

And then yesterday, I experienced exactly the same problem that I was having with three last year. I had arranged to meet a friend for coffee, but a work meeting ran late and I had to text her to cancel (couldn't call as I was in a meeting). I sent her a message and received no reply, but figured maybe she just hadn't seen the need of a response. Around forty minutes later, I got a message from her saying "I'm here...where are you?". I sent her another text reiterating my first message, and adding "...did you not get my first text?".

No reply for awhile, then another twenty minutes later "...um, ok, well I've waited nearly an hour now so I guess we'll catch up another time. Bye."

Vodaphone. This is bad. When I tell my friend, later, "Oh shit I am sorry, I did send you a text! I don't know why you didn't get it!" it is going to sound like a crappy excuse. In fact, it IS a crappy excuse, because I've just wasted forty minutes of my friend's time because of your fucking fail telecommunications. You know the irony? Yup, SHE TOO IS A VODAPHONE CUSTOMER. So, basically, you can't even send text messages between users on your own damn network? Seriously?

Now obviously in this case, no greater tragedy befell either of us due to this telecommunications glitch. She got forty minutes of her time wasted, and I feel like a dickhead because of it. Nobody got hurt. Nobody died. But what if I'd been trying to make a call to emergency services? Or organise something more pressing and important than a coffee with a university colleague?

I'm not naturally a 'complain-y' kind of person, but I called vodaphone customer care today to chase up these issues (my data coverage, and this issue texting this friend of mine). I made it very clear to 'LARA' that I was making a complaint, and was put swiftly through to a customer service rep (points to vodafail for this one - at least I wasn't on hold forever).

The lady I spoke to was a very good listener, but did not offer me anything in the way of empathy or support. There were lengthy pauses after I'd spoken, and at length, the best she could do was offer to put me through to tech support. Now, to be honest, having called vodafail with a legit complaint, and having made it clear that I don't feel this is a problem on 'my end', and that I am very dissatisfied, I kind of expect to be offered some form of compensation. Obviously I am deluded, in that regard, but anyway...

She put me through to tech support, which seemed a bit pointless since I was pretty damn sure none of this was my problem, but I went along with it anyway, thinking perhaps tech support might enlighten me as to what sort of network issues they were experiencing that would mean someone ON THE SAME NETWORK was unable to receive my messages.

I reiterated the same story to the tech guy, who gave me the knee-jerk response of "Have you tried turning it off then on again". To which I replied "Yes" and reiterated (again) that this was a problem I had previously had when I was on three, that I knew other vodaphone customers had had problems with data coverage and messaging, that I was pretty sure it was an issue on their end, and that I was very displeased with it.

He then proceeded to ask "...what do you want me to do about it?"

Yes.

The customer service/tech guy at vodaphone sullenly demanded WHAT I WANTED HIM TO DO about my problem.

I was pretty dumbfounded by this, to be honest. I replied that I had really only called up to register a complaint, that I was fairly certan he, personally, could not 'fix' my issue, but that I was hoping that by registering it as a problem he could tell me a) whether other people had been experiencing the same issue and b) what VODAPHONE were going to do about fixing it and/or compensating me for a service that I was paying for and not getting the full use of.

He proceeded to ask me for the number that I was calling from. I should note that he had already taken this number down when he first answered my call, so quite why he needed it a second time, I don't know. Then he asked me for the number I was having problems texting (this is after me having to explain, repeatedly, that I was able to successfully call and text SOME numbers, just not this particular one - that I knew of). I had to go into my phonebook to get the number, but I managed to read it out to him.

After he had taken it down, he talked to me for a few more minutes, then said "...so what was the number that you were having problems texting?"

Um. Really? The number I gave you a minute and a half ago? The number you JUST WROTE DOWN (presumably?). THAT number?

When I informed him that it was the number I'd just given him, he mumbled something that I didn't quite catch. I then asked "Sorry, what was that, I didn't quite hear you?"

The line was silent.

"...sorry?" I asked again "I didn't quite hear what you said?"

Nothing.

".....hello?"

At this point I checked to see if the call was still connected. It was, but Mr Vodaphone didn't feel like talking anymore, apparently. I was so sick of the whole 25 minute conversation, at this point, that I just hung up.

I should also note that my first bill, which should (I thought) have been $55 (45 infinite + 10 for handset repayment) was $86. When I called about that, they informed me that as it was my first bill I was charged from the moment I began using the service, and for the subsequent billing period, but honestly I am a bit lost here. Does this mean I'm now paid up for a subsequent month? How does this work? Looking at my bill online, I certainly don't see that I've gone over my data or anything, so it shouldn't be additional fees for going over my cap - they've charged me for a month + the one or two weeks I was using the service before the billing period kicked in? I want to see a itemised explanation of this, but I assume I'm not going to get one...

I've been with Vodafone for about 3 months now and its only taken me that long to have had enough of their ridiculous crap they call service.
My phone calls continuously drop out, I've had to call people back about 3 times to actually be able to finish the conversation we were having. Not to mention the thousands of times when it doesn't even ring, and just says 'call failed.' I've had bad reception before, but Vodafone takes the cake by a loooong shot.
The last few days i've had people tell me they've called me multiple times and left messages on my voicemail. I have not received any missed calls and no voicemails. So either, all these people are lying to me, or Vodafone has something to answer to.
This is ridiculous, when we pay for a phone service, we should get a phone service. If I knew this would be a feature of their 'infinite cap' I would never have signed up for it. I'd rather pay for service I actually GET.

So angry!

I have no network coverage, a phone that wont even send text messages, and Vodafone can only put me through to Indians who can't understand my issues and can't willing to let me exit my contract without any fees incured. I have paid thousands of dollars to vodafone for a service in which I have never received.

we have two broadband modems in the house one is vodafone and one is optus the vodafone one always loads pages even if the signal is very low and it dose it quite fast as for the optus one it has full coverage and is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo slow some times dosent load pages some time dosent even connect it always has problems it's crap OPTUS IS CRAP!!!!!!!!!!

We have been with Vodafone for over 5 years now. We are in regional NSW and can only get reception in the three rooms in the house. However, friends also have problems with reception with other carriers. We feel that we have had value for money. The free vodafone to vodafone option has been amazing. Such a great way to have long and frequent chats with children. Up until now our mobiles have been our secondary phone service with our landline being our Primary Service. I am now considering using the mobile service as the primary service because we are out and about more. I find myself in a very hard place. Telstra has great reception out here but I signed up for a 24mth contract with them for the home phone 6 months ago and have been gobsmacked at all the hidden cost and the impossible service, they never answer a question or resolve issues - can't wait for the contract to end. I have found Vodafone service and personal excellent and always honest but the reception in regional areas in not the best. They also have amazing plans. I am now having a look at the other contender - Optus/Virgin and their plans are not quite as good andin our area that their reception may only be marginally better.

I've been with vodafail for about 6 months, just hoping the reception would improve(EPIC FAIL)... The whole 6 months i've not been able to make or answer a phone call, or connect to the net from home.(except with my TELSTRA WiFi.)I've spoke to the Crazy Johns Rep and he says yeh! sorry about that;but vodaFAIL is more for people that live around the city! Absolute Horseshit! I was with TELSTRA B4 vodafail and it is awesome; almost everywhere! Wish i was still with them!!!

virtually no phone reception in metro sydney (west). used to have excellent coverage with previous carrier.. now all my calls when at home go to voicemail as ppl are unable to get thru...

no network coverage

After having weeks of reception trouble, I decided to call VodafoneAU. When I finaly got onto them I was advised that the towers are being upgraded. This really pissed me off seeing as though I received a random msg from them only weeks into signing up for my plan to tell me that I could get my plan for $15 cheaper than what I had just locked onto for 24 months. A random msg that I was not interested in............... how hard would it be to send a txt to all the customers telling of the problems we were about to face....... Vodafail I reckon

Reception always drops out.. only had the phone for 2 months of a 24 month contract!! :(

Sick of not having coverage and bloody calls dropping out! Then to get guarentee from service dep that coverage would be fixed by start of this month, only to find that is not the case!

I got so frustrated at being told I was making my voicemail automatically turn off,especially after the call centre operator told me he would turn on 121 and it would never turn off - and this was after I kept telling him I didn't want 121 I wanted 1219 ring alert deliver, that I said don't worry I'll sort it myself and think I'll change networks and contact the ombudsman. I hung up then my phone rang. I ignored it because I was so upset and didn't want to swear at the person. Then I turned the phone off. When I turned it on THE PIN DIDN'T WORK ANYMORE! I had to call from a landline to get the PUK and reset it. Two hours of my day wasted today on vodafone!!!

No reception in Avalon.

Two Rocks and Yanchep networks dropping out more often. No outages listed on vodafone's website. Says to contact them on 1555 about network outages....very funny...how? the network is out!

ALSO my voicemail and ring-alert-deliver keep being automatically turned off, but the call centre operator says I am doing it....I'm NOT! Too bad if there's an emergency and my kids or the school can't reach me. Does anyone know of a good mobile phone network that works in the Two Rocks and Yanchep area? KAS

I spent an hour and a half in a vodafone store (there was no wait, it just took them that long to deal with my enquiry). I had to get out of my plan because it was not working properly (no reception). Ended up getting a parking fine while I was in the store (nevr imagined it could take so long!). I noticed the store attendants had to call the same help desk that I was calling for weeks beforehand - and they couldn't understand them either lol.. plus, they got transferred no less than 4 times (that I happened to hear!)... I actually feel sorry for the workers in the stores and even the (rather rude) helpdesk people. I blame the CEO entirely for this - 18 and 19 year old store workers really have no control over network quality, but the CEO should done his job and got it up to scratch. You can't sell 100 movie tickets if the cinema only has 50 seats.. so who are they to sell too many phone/data contracts to people when their network only supports so many... how is this behaviour not penalised by ACMA or something??

I am sick and tired of seeing Vodafone advertising in print, television and radio. The costs associated with this need to be put into urgent network upgrades. And I don't see any warnings in their advertisements to potential new cutomers about their service issues...come on Vodafone get your act together and fix the network...vodafail!

I'm currently in the middle of a two year corporate voice and data plan, and I've been a Vodafone customer for several years. After continuous network issues since Nov. 2010 in the Melbourne CBD, suburbs, home and interstate I called Vodafone in Jan. 2011 and was given a vague assurance that a software update was in progress and would address my issues.

I've seen NO improvement after several months, so I'm trying to exit my plan with no penalties. Of course Vodafone's customer service matches the quality of service of their communications network - APPALLING. After calling them in early April to cancel my contract, I was not provided with a reference number even though I requested one, and then I received an email from Vodafone stating that they had not heard from me since I renewed my contract in Oct. 2010 and they could not terminate my contract without any evidence of problems.

Have they not seen the video their CEO posted on YouTube? Have their short memories erased all the recent and very bad media publicity? This company is UNBELIEVABLE.

I've since lodged a complaint with the TIO, but still there is no improvement from Vodafone's customer service (in fact it is getting worse). I'm continously asked to provide specific examples of VOICE drop outs (they seem to have forgotten that I've been paying them to also provide a DATA service over the last six months and it has been unreliable). Vodafone is also oblivious to the fact that I'm busy and don't have time to track details of call drop outs.

According to Vodafone I got it wrong somewhere, but I thought when you signed up for a telecommunications service you should get reliable service, and the provider could track and monitor coverage!

Interrogate and frustrate the paying customer even futher, what a great approach to customer service in the middle of a BIG PR disaster that is disseminating the Vodafone brand - this company is absolutely beyond belief.

Vodafone has obviously not learnt anything in the last several months. Can someone send Vodafone's executive team of clowns back to the circus?

Looking forward to getting off my plan at some point (my complaint is with the 'resolutions' team) and being able to contact friends, family, clients and colleagues when I WANT to, access the internet, check email and update my calendar when I NEED to - not when Vodafone's joke of a network decides to work.

My advice: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER sign up with Vodafone no matter how cheap or attractive their deals or plans are. This is not even a case of 'you get what you pay for' - it is 'you get a whole lot less than what you pay for'.

Can't wait to switch to Telstra. More expensive maybe, but at least I'll have reliable coverage.

With all the talking Vodafone is doing about how they are fixing their network they have forgotten about one group of customers, the rural and country customers. Vodafone says they are either building or upgrading 2500 sites but NOT one of these new sites (as posted on their website) are going in country or rural areas. Everyone of them are for city areas. What makes things worse is when you question Vodafone about this they ask, Which country" are you asking about. Which country, bloody hell Vodafone, AUSTRALIA, that's what country. FFS if this is all you get from them then there is no way they are going to fix and improve their network in the country areas. Vodafone don't give a shit about you if you don't live in the cities. Well I think it's time that customers of Vodafone that live in rural and country areas give Vodafone the flick. When I talk about country areas I'm talking about the main highways contacting Melbourne to Mildura and many more around the country where Vodafone don't seem to care about. I've been with Vodafone since 2003 and this is how they thank you from sticking with them through other network issues over the years.

I have signed up for a $29 cap plan for 24 month. As in the sales agreement I am entitled to $10 credit for the first 12 months. However, from the third months on, there is no $10 credit in my phone bill. I went to Vodafone's store, one of the staff made a long phone call to confirm my plan and promised me in the next 10 months $10 credit will be deducted from my monthly bill. For certain reasons, they could not adjust the amount on the already issued invoice.

I trusted them. I was so disappointed to see the same mistake on this month's phone bill. There is no improvement at all. I have to go back to the store and see what excuse the staff can come up with!

I hate Vodafone! I will definately switch to other network service providers once this miserable 24 month plan is over.

By the way, I am not the only suffering from such poor service. While I was waiting at the store, I saw a couple complaining the ridiculously high phone bill and wanted to cancel the plan with Vodafone. But they were informed that it was impossible as they had signed the CONTRACT!

It has been 6 months since my last post on Vodafail and my service has NOT IMPROVED AT ALL!!!!! I watched a video recently on the vodafone website by the CEO saying how they were fixing the problems with more towers and capacity but I don't think there is anything of substance happening to rectify the SERIOUS NETWORK PROBLEMS!!!! I believe Vodafone is nothing but a Marketing company that is exactly the most it can out of a sub-par network and providing minimal service to customers. The BOTTOM LINE IS: THEY DON'T CARE!!!!!

I have no choice to switch providers. It looks like Telstra Next G is my own option. Competition in this country sux. We are forced to pay higher prices to another thuggish company like telstra (partly govt owned) just because they have a monopoly on network infrastructure. Disgust and appalling situation in a supposedly technologically advanced society!!! Lift your game - all of you!!!

cant send texts, dont recieve texts, dont get calls, no coverage and service drops out. disgusting! and so i joined OPTUS and couldnt be happier with FULL reception, texts that are sent immedietly and i now recieve texts! good by vodasux you lost my business FOR EVER and many people i know are bailing too. thats what happens when you rip off customers.

since being sold out by 3 to vodafone the reception on my phone is nothing less than appalling, cant wait for my cotract to end. pick up you act vodafone

Their plans are over the top on the amount they charge. $1.14 for a call that last 1 second and their pre-paid customers get a rate which is 50% less. It's actually good value to use pay phones to make a call. Their MMS system took 2 hours to deliver a message from a family member. Don't worry though, I got charged for receiving it even though I have a data plan. Horrible reception on the trains down from Illawara to Wollongong. Optus at least gets enough reception for a SMS.

I regret signing up to a new Vodafone contract. When this one runs out, I am going back to pre-paid and switching companies to find a better plan. I don't want the phone and a large bill. I want the average phone and cheap call rates.

My problems are now escalating. After going through the complaints system, I was promised a reduction in my bill and an offer to extract myself from the contract. Guess what? No change. Latest bill, business as usual.
The service is disastrous and this company really does not care. Coverage has got worse not better for me.
I'm a $10,000 a customer, probably closer to $15,000. I'm going back the the Telecommunications Ombudsman.

In Bonner ACT I hardly got any signal. To place a call need to hold mobile on some particular angle. If some time lucky enough to got some signal than calls are missed or drop out.
In office at Tuggeranong it works bit batter if you are sitting next to window.

I live about 3km from the CBD in Waterloo, Sydney - we have a mobile broadband 3g plan and both our iphones on Vodafone. As for using the phones to make calls - not too bad - although we don't make many calls. Other than that the 3g network internet coverage is unreliable and slow, and the mobile broadband is too frustrating to use. Terrible speeds, constant dropouts - I have just tried twice to download the newest iphone software and the connection dropped out twice halfway through, using up lots of data allowance with nothing to show for it. I thought that being in the middle of a major city the speeds and coverage should be fairly reliable here if nowhere else - unfortunately they are crap!

Switching to a new service provider as soon as the contracts have expired - until vodafone fixes it's coverage and network speeds I'm not wasting my money on them again.

I use vodafone wireless internet.on over 24 hours alway no single.just show searching for network......
Vodafone is real rubbish.

Hi Maree,

Thank you for your response but I'm very disappointed in your answer. I was under the impression that National Roaming represented a sharing of networks throughout Victoria so that if one network has no coverage in a particular area it could utilise other networks to expand their coverage. I work in the Dandenong ranges in Melb. I cannot get any signal in Olinda , Sassafras, Kalorama, Silvan and all surrounding areas. Vodafone 's coverage stops at Upper Ferntree Gully as I approach the Dandenongs..What really frustrates and annoys me is that my wife who is with the 3 network and friends who are with Telstra or Optus have perfect coverage in all the aforementioned areas. Vodafone recently merged with 3 so why on earth can't you share their signal? My mobile says "No Signal" yet when I search for other networks I invariably get Telstra or Optus but I can't use them. I have been stranded in the hills on two occasions and have had to walk for kilometers because I had no means of communication. I am unable to contact my employer or fellow employees aaaarrrrr!!!!! I am stuck with a 2 year contract which I never would have entered into if I had been aware of Vodafones poor coverage.

I find it outrageous to see Vodafone constantly spending thousands of dollars on promoting sales with new plans and new mobiles and seemingly doing very little to improve their quality of service. How about siphoning off some of that sales promotion money into technical improvements such as expanding your coverage.What's the point of gaining all those new customers when they end up becoming disgruntled and deserting Vodafone in droves because of poor service. It's a revolving door situation. The aim should be not only to gain new customers but to keep them as well

Please pass this on to your technical team in the slender hope that they may act on the information I have provided you.

Regards

Andrew

I am with Three and have reported 6 instances of delayed "missed-call" notifications to Three Support. The last instance was on Saturday 2 April 2011. The support person informed me that their network people do not work 24*7 to resolve networking issues and that I will receive a call either on Monday or Tuesday with their findings. Todate, I have not received ANY feedback as to why I receive delayed "missed-call" notifications and neither been contacted by the networking team. The Three support person advised me last night that he does not have direct contact with the networking team and therefore does not know what they have found. He agreed their lack of response is "unreasonable" however he also has done nothing to seek feedback. He is the front person I have to deal with and in my view, Three Support is totally useless, incapable and do not care. As long as they can "close" their support calls in 24 hours, thats all that matters, regardless a resolution has not been found!!! I for one will be leaving Three - since they have merged with Vodafone their service has taken a nose-dive.... I certainly won't join Voda....was their customer many years ago and vowed never to rejoin them - unfortunately, Vods & Three have merged - not a good move for Three as they have now inherited Voda's useless services!!!
I think its about time Voda & Three issues are reported to the news media and publicised nationally.

want to know why everything is so hard with vodafone?
You have said that I'am able to unlock my handset in order to be with another service provider because you have openly admitted your service "is lacking." You have also mentioned that you have had a large number of people with this same issue, the issues include:
-The phone not connecting to the network to use internet or even to call.
-Taking 3 or 4 times to actually get through to a number, at the best of times
-Missing texts and calls nearly 80% of the time.
These misadventures eventuate with the extremely painful experience of missing calls from work, The fact that i'm risking my job for this incompetent, company who continues to advertise it's great packages and deals, what you should be doing is hiding in shame that you have ripped off your customers who have been loyal to you since they first owned a phone, and chose you as their service provider.
The best you can suggest is unlocking the handset and letting your customers use another service provider that could potentially take that customer away from you, I don't even think YOU understand the amount of 'multicultural' spoken languages in your call centres so how the hell are we supposed to? The inconvenience of having to swap company's when you have only been with vodafone your whole life:
-Not having the same number
-Spending more money on sim
-Spending more money on expensive call and -messaging rates on a prepaid service.
-The inconvenience of having to constantly top up with credit, due to these expensive call and messaging rates.
Just to name a few.
Just letting you know I have never complained about anything before in my life, and am usually quite patient with people, but the fact that now the discussions between my friends and I isn't about boys and partying rather we chat about how we couldn't party or talk to boys because vodafone screwed us over. I find this sad. Don't you think.
Take a bow VODAFONE, Well done!
You can count on me for expressing my love for you, to ALL my friends!
Thanks again for all your hard work. NOT.
P.s You can trust that i will be posting this on Facebook!
xx

I have a Vodafone contract and a phone that is sim-locked to Vodafone. On the 20th of March 2011, Telstra was able to put a block on my phone saying that it was reported stolen by one of their customers.
Vodafone would not help me with this issue, and insisted that I contact Telstra to get it unlocked.
On thet 21th of March 2011 after hours of talking to customer support representatives, I was able to convince Telstra to lift the block/stolen status.
However despite this, my phone still remains blocked on the Vodafone network. I have called Vodafone customer support numerous times, and they keep saying that the issue should resolve itself within 24-60 hours, and keep asking me to restart, reset or restore my phone to default settings.
It has been two and a half weeks and my phone is still blocked on their network and they will not allow me to escalate the complaint to management.
I am extremely frustrated with their lack of customer support and the fact that I cannot use my service despite paying them 80 dollars a month.

The coverage is woeful , i'm sitting in my office at home with no service on the phone or signal on the usb wireless internet they provided.
I went to northern nsw the other week ,bugger all coverage there , its not like its that far from civilisation.
various places on the sunshine coast calls are missed or drop out.
NOT HAPPY AT ALL!

on a contract til the end of this year and i will be going to telstra. i lose service just siiting in my lounge rrom, call drop outs, call fauilures wont dial the number. my wife would ring my phone it would go straight to voiuce mail no call or notification she now sends a TEXT if this happens cant wait to go to telstra, all this seems to have happened or gotten worse since vodafone took over the 3 network. just hopeless if you ask me. Come late november bye bye vodafail.....ggggrrrrr

Using Vodafail .3G Mobile Slowband from Sydney CBD

Been using for a couple of days on a business trip thinking that Vodafail Slowband would be better than the rip off hotel rates - big mistake.

Packet loss rate of about 35% continually causing web sites and company VPN to lockup.

Service latency is double that of satellite services (which you expect to be sluggish).

The packet loss rate clearly indicates oversubscribed service (too many people using too little network resources).

Graph of trace to City of Syndey Web Site shows a decrease in latency after the packets leave the Vodafail equipment and move to Optus. Weird usually latency increases.

There is absolutely no way I can use the pre-paid volume I purchased and infact I am being ripped off as it looks like 35% of the data I send is lost by Vodafail.

Thanks for the Web Site and accepting my rant - evidence follows:

Stats for 100 pings at 15 sec interval...
Target Name: www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
IP: 203.147.135.212
Date/Time: 7/04/2011 7:19:25 PM to 7/04/2011 7:44:10 PM

Hop Sent Err PL% Min Max Avg Host Name / [IP]
1 100 6 6.0 68 2643 1160 [10.103.49.71]
2 100 100 100.0 0 0 0 [-]
3 100 100 100.0 0 0 0 [-]
4 99 32 32.3 75 2558 1361 [202.81.69.131] Vodafail
5 99 37 37.4 74 2536 1336 [119.225.37.5] Optus
6 100 100 100.0 0 0 0 [-]
7 99 36 36.4 81 2474 1288 verizon.sd42.optus.net.au [202.139.39.250]
8 99 36 36.4 81 2443 1261 0.ge-6-2-0.XT4.SYD2.Alter.Net [210.80.34.53]
9 100 32 32.0 89 2442 1253 0.so-2-0-0.XL4.BNE1.Alter.Net [210.80.33.74]
10 100 32 32.0 96 2411 1233 so-6-0-0.GW4.BNE1.ALTER.NET [210.80.33.138]
11 100 30 30.0 86 2359 1183 webcentral1-bne-gw.customer.alter.net [203.166.92.74]
12 100 33 33.0 95 2470 1172 gi2-48.core2.bne3.server-noc.com [203.147.255.217]
13 100 34 34.0 113 2307 1120 te1-4.core2.wic.server-noc.com [203.147.255.25]
14 100 34 34.0 92 2285 1097 po94.mls1.wic.server-noc.com [210.247.140.74]
15 100 29 29.0 81 2234 1057 svc005.wic141d.server-web.com [203.147.135.212]

Vodafone NZ bought out the Internet provider ihug a while back simply to get their greedy fingers into New Zealand landline phones and since then Internet "service" (which was already quite shoddy towards the end of the lazy previous owners reign) has plummeted to abysmal levels. They don't bother listening when you say there is a problem via either email or the "Help" Desk and try to tell you it's the settings on your computer. The servers are constanlty having problems, especially the Usenet newsgroup server, which as of today has been offline for a week! The so-called Network Status page is worthless - you're lucky if it tells you that there was a problem after it's been fixed (or supposedly fixed, but fails again a few days / weeks later). I refuse to use Vodafone NZ for anything else and actively discourage other people form using them, but unfortunately I'm stuck with the fools for my Internet access for the foreseeable future. Vodafone has become the laughing stock of New Zealand Internet providers, easily taking that crown from Telecom NZ / Xtra! Xo(

I have zero reception in my area, and am locked into a contract i can not get out of. calls are constantly dropping out, which is very unproffessional when speaking to clients. I have a landline (and another bill!) purely because i can not use my phone to call anyone.

They wanted me to extend rather than cancel a contract that has no coverage.

I will keep the company that I work for annonomous but we have been through so much pain last year with Vodafone. ( we are one of australia's leading companies in the auto sector ) We moved our entire mobile fleet of 60+ mobiles and 50+ wireless modems to vodafone in an attempt to save some dollars during the GFC. before we did this we spent months working with VF who assured us there coverage was upto speed and they had spent over 35 million in the last year upgarding there network. The biggest concern for us was coverage in rural area's as many of our staff travel into rural areas across the country.

As soon as we migrated to Vodafone the problems began. We went from recieveing maybe one or two related mobile helpdesk calls a week, to roughly 30 or 40 requests a day. Our staff after a few days were so fed up, that we had recieved some of the most abusive calls and emails from staff. The problems ranged from ridicously poor coverage. ( even all staff in our office in the CBD had limited coverage ), handsets breaking down, wireless modem software constantly crashing, billing errors, numbers churned incorrectly, Vodafone support having no expertise in mobile sector and so on. We even had some of our major events crippled when we had staff with no communications. We cannot put a price on how much that simply effected our events, canmpains and lines with customers.

As far as vodafone were aware they were meeting there SLA's but they had no idea of how to record when there devices had no coverage. After 1 year of abserloute pain we have finally moved our fleet back to telstra and our telco problems have disapeered.

basically we ended up loosing a lot of money to move back to Telstra but it was worth every cent. seeing the back of vodafone is the best news all year.

My advice. Stay away from Vodafone, Stay very far away.
If you are a home consumer looking for cheap rates and not to concerened about coverage then vodafone may be a good option, otherwise stay away.

From Friday 1st April till now I have had the slowest connection speed ever, pages will not load as the connection will time out. After re connecting every 2 minutes (if I'm lucky) I may get 10 mins of full speed before connection drops out again.If this is one long April fools joke then I've had enough as I have contacted vodafone everyday regarding these this matter and I'm told connection in my area REDCLIFFE, QLD 4020 is fine and no problems reported!!! Funny that when I have reported a problem with network speed for the past 5 days......
Just wish TELSTRA would have better data plans and I would jump ship ASAP.

I'm in the Geebung area of Brisbane and have both vodaphone mobile broadband and vodaphone prepaid mobile telephone accounts. Regrettably I recently renewed my broadband account for 12 months, as vodaphone appeared to be lifting its game. Unfortunately, and in hindsight predictably, this perceived improvement in service delivery was short lived. I'm tired of waiting several minutes for a webpage to connect, only to have the search time out. If vodaphone are going to continue to sell mobile broadband accounts in this area they have an obligation to customers to ensure their mobile towers have capacity to service the number of customers in the area. Presently I'm lucky to get 5bps upload and this figure regulary fluctuates down to 0bps, which is why I can never get access. I relation to the vodaphone mobile telephone service, its coverage is poor compared to other mobile services, with most call connections dropping in and out. Calls are regularly terminated mid sentence due to the poor coverage. Vodaphone if you're going to sell a service please first ensure there is a service to be sold!

I called Vodafone to get my Message Mate Pack cancelled. The message I got when I called was that Vodafone was experiencing system issues (as usual) and may not be able to assist me. When someone finally took my call, the Vodafone receiption was so bad (as usual), that I couldn't hear anything after the initial few words spoken and then the call dropped (as usual). I called again the next day as got the message that Vodafone was experiencing system issues and then it automatically ended my call. Twice. Because I tried calling back. Again. I then got pretty fed up and sent them an e-mail instead requesting that my Message Mate Pack be cancelled. I advised them of all the difficulties I had been facing trying to reach customer service and also the fact that I am using their mobile broadband which also drops out every few minutes. I have to repeatedly refresh pages, disconnect, reconnect, just to get a connection that works for a few minutes/seconds. Although, it is stated that Vodafone will respond to my e-mail within 2 business days, they responded nowhere near within 2 business days. I actually sent a follow up e-mail asking if anybody was even going to respond. To which I got an abrupt and highly dissatisfying "Your Message Mate Pack has been cancelled". And that was it! Is that all Vodafone has to offer? Failed network reception, failed mobile broadband connectivity, failed customer service, failed systems, EVERYTHING FAILS! I would like nothing more than to have my contract cancelled so that I can switch to a network provider who actually provides me with something! I spent the whole of last Sunday on the phone firstly being transferred from department to department trying to get the right person to attend to my mobile broadband issues.. and even when they finally got me to the right department.. it didn't help because Vodafone's network is so bad that my call to customer service kept dropping out! What is the point when I can't even hold a call with customer service long enough to get help!? That is.. when they even bother to respond to my requests for help! I have sent a further 2 e-mails and heard absolutely nothing back from bloody Vodafone.

Well, I live in Wellington NZ. But rest assured, Vodafone here sucks more than Vodafone in Aus.

My first pain point is their coverage. I live 10 mins drive from the CBD, yet my phone drops calls on a regular basis. Many calls to customer service have done nothing to remedy the problem, so now I (sadly) accept it as part and parcel of the Vodafone experience. Next pain point is around mobile data - Jesus, I have an old 14.4kbps modem that could download data faster than the Vodafone 3G network. Not to mention the overinflated price ($0.10 per kb!)

My last gripe is the iPhone plans here in NZ. I mean, holy shit, $250 a month for 600 mins, 600 texts, and 1GB of data? They are having a laugh at the expense of their customer base!!! Who in their right mind is stupid enough to pay that much per month in phone bills?

You Australians should consider yourselves lucky to have several mobile providers who not only give you a variety of plans/mobiles to choose from, but also keep the marketplace relatively competitive. Here in NZ, we have 2 Degrees, Telecom and Vodasuck, all of whom have perfected the art of gouging their customers.

That is all I have to say... Peace out!

No longer in a mess .....I returned to Telstra! Savvy mobile phone deals were praised on a 6.30pm TV show as being the cheapest and better deal, and that they use the Vodafone network. The website stated that my postcode (10km 'as the crow flies' from the Gold Coast) was suitable for this service. Unfortunately, the mobile phone had no reception inside my home, and only sometimes had reception outside the home. The staff also 'ported' the same phone number. Several phone calls to Vodafone and 2 weeks later, it still hadn't been ported, even though I was told over the phone that it had been.

Since signing up for a 24 month contract with Vodafone I have received a poor level of service. In particular, I have experienced poor reception and slow internet. If I had known this is the quality of service I would receive from Vodafone I would have joined a different network.