I have only this week moved to Telstra after over 5 years with Vodafone....I have had a litany of problems over that time (reception, disconnection for no reason, a $23,000 phone bill by accident , the list goes on) ...late last year I rang (after many attempts to get through) and told them I wanted to cancel my account immediately...someone from their retention team called me back a few days later and offered me the world to stay...a new iphone 4 a $1000 credit on the data charges I incurred whilst OS on my honeymoon...I received the new handset but the $1000 credit never appeared on my account...so off I go again on the roller coaster that is trying to actually speak to someone at Vodafone....it took me about 10 calls and a lot of angst before I finally found someone who would actually deal with my issue...I finally received the credit 5 months later...I then spent the entire summer break with no reception due to bad coverage and I can no longer tolerate them...

I simply cannot believe how I have been treated by Vodafone. I only stayed with Vodafone for so long as I believed the alternatives were just as bad...I no longer think this is the case. I am sending my handset back to the CEO...the end.

As most people, sick and tired of drop outs, delays in receiving SMS (Up to 12 hours late) and many, MANY black spots with no reception. My children get msgs that say Voda's account update system is unavailable when they try to check how much of their cap they've used and, as a rtesult, often go over and cost me plenty. Try calling 1555 to discuss any problems or issues and wait... and wait... and wait... and this is supposed to be a 'Customer Service' number. What a joke!

I've been on voda prepay for years prior to this and never had a problem...UNTIL i decided to get an IPhone 3Gs on their 2 yr contract. I have my phone on 2G as their 3G coverage is rubbish. Calls don't come through on 3G, and I only find out about them hours/days later when I get a notification of VM. If i switch from 2G to 3G for internet usage, it's pointless..so slow to download even a google search page. Reception is terrible and I have friends on other networks who will have reception while i don't regardless of the fact that we're standing right next to each other. Have tried ringing Voda several times and have just given up. Once you get past that freak of a machine LARA, you're faced with idiots who cannot help you in any way. I once was put through to Vodafone customer service rep and when they couldn't help me, just hung up on me!!!! I have another year left on my contract but am thinking it's time to head to the telecoms ombudsman....

Purchased a Vodafone package at my local phone outlet, and immediately began having problems with reception mainly. After a number of phone calls to customer service, which led to no resolution, I discovered that even though they sell the phones locally, there is no coverage in my area at all. To use phone I have to travel to either Toowoomba or Ipswich.
Made a great fishing sinker in the end.

Tired of delayed messages, poor or no reception. This despite me asking the sales staff in the VF shop on several occasions about reception in my area where they assured the coverage was excellent. Very wrong indeed. I have 6 months to go on a two year contract and I will NEVER use VF again nor recommend it to anyone!

I have been with Voda for years now and when i first signed up to them they were great. Now I struggle to make calls, voicemails have come in 3-5days after they were left for me and calls drop out (and even dont connect often). I live near the CBD (not in between huge skyscrapers) and expect that there is great coverage in such an urban setting. I also go down to the country often (camden, picton, thirlmere etc.) and I understand down there why I would have poor coverage but in the city? I have been on the phone in my house and it has cut out requiring me to call the person back 5+ times. To make things even more frustrating often my phone won't connect and then will be 'searching' for reception. This is just ridiculous. I shouldnt need a GPS phone to make calls from a suburb in the city! Voda needs to fix this quick!! I often wonder too if my texts even were sent and received by my friends as their reply texts all come in a flurry. ding ding ding 7 texts all received in 1 second because of my coverage...this is just one huge voda fail.

oh my god vodafone have a big prob with network and if u want to call their coustmer care than u have to wait like 1 hour

Hi, i had few problems as many of u said
-Horrible waiting time to speak with Customer care-complained them several times.
-Worst coverage-can't get coverage in Melbourne and Brisbane out skirts-horrible
-Many issues Vodafone storm--had the problem for a year.

Even after many complaints, if they are not taking are necessary steps improve the service, then it is useless, but we cannot get away with this as we are bonded with the Contract.

I've been made redundant and I rely on my useless Vodafone service in a big way.
Delayed texts, dropped calls and poor coverage are not helping me. Can't wait to get out of the plan so I can change providers....

I used to be with Vodafone but recently changed to Virgin. The reception is horrible all the time and if you get sent a txt with no reception it delays and sometimes never comes. the only way to fix this is i found is to 'un-clog' the phone by sending a txt to myself... which used up more of my credit. In conclusion. I'm glad I made the change, I'd never go back to Vodafone. In short, they are shut.

Our company swapped from mix of Telstra and Optus and now I've got employee's going on stress leave due to the phone coverage. I have never come across this many dropouts and have had a phone since mobile phones were invented.
Didn't think it was possible, but I guess it is!

Well done Vodafone!!

I have both an Iphone and a 3G wi-fi dongle with Vodafone.

With the Iphone trying to access the internet, especially in the evenings, is pointless as it will just hang and time-out despite the fact that I am in a metropolitan area and I normally have 3 or 4 bars of network coverage. I frequently suffer from delayed or undelivered received texts and I am often told that any call made to me goes straight to voicemail, which I may only receive after a couple of days. When trying to send a text the phone will normally hang before displaying that the message couldn't be sent in which case I have to disconnect from the network (which can take a couple of minutes) and then re-connect. The same goes for placing phone calls, sometimes it will just hang and when you try to disconnect so that you can re-try it freezes the phone.

On the 3G internet side I am experiencing very similar issues. Particularly in the evenings my internet connection will give up. The software suggests that I am still connected but it will also show that the data transfer rate is 0 bits/s. Again the only way to get back on is to disconnect and then re-connect. I may have to do this every few minutes.

Out of metropolitan areas the coverage is woeful, my Telstra work mobile is far superior.

Like a lot of people here I didn't realise that my problem was so widespread. I'm glad that I'm not the only one as with more voices we should be able to get a suitable solution.

Receptions is bad, many of my calls just randomly drop off while in mid conversation. Especially 3G, I can't seem to load anything in most places!!!!..It's so frustrating when you pay decent amount of money for services that's not working.

I have a 12 months contract with Vodafone and I have a pre-paid too. I can seriously tell I am experiencing the worse coverage I have ever seen.
Inside my house I only have coverage in one room, and even in there calls are dropped making a phone conversation a hassle.
When I was in the hospital last year, I did not have coverage at all, having to walk outside and search for spots where I could get at least as much signal so I could send/receive text messages.
Not to mention the customer service which is really bad, I feel like an idiot when I have to talk to Lara!
Just my 2 cents ....

I'm a doctor and have a 24month iphone 4 contract with vodafone. There are no pagers available so the hospital is reliant on my mobile to contact me. The coverage inside the hospital fluctuates and so when I am in the centre of the hospital there is no signal. This week I had 2 calls from nurses 30min apart about an increasingly distressed patient. I was not notified of their call and received a voicemail alert 30min after the patient died from cardiorespiratory arrest. I have been troubled with dropped calls and delayed voicemail alerts since signing my contract in September 2010.

I am not reciving any calls at all I have no reseption, when I call vodaphone they dont do anything about the problem... After speaking to about 16 different staff members they still cant tell me what the problem is and wont fix my problem and Vodafone keep saying ohh hopefully it will fix it self, well it hasnt I had to go to the ombudsmanand and I have cancelled my contract and gone with Optus. Most of my frieds were with Vodafone but since all these problems they have all cancelled their contracts too... I would never go with Vodafone again they are the worst network in the world....

I have next to no reception now most places, i cant call or recieve calls from family and friends because reception is so poor the calls constanly disconnect - and despite emailing vodafone with my complaints and trying to call ive had no help - i was however told to get a new sim card - despite already being given 2 new ones......basically im paying for a service that doesnt exist. I have been with vodafone for many years but now i just wish i wasnt.

My wife and I have been with Vodafone since 2003 - loyal customers! But no more. Not only have we been experiencing the network problems but, having decided to stay with them after the last contract expired, range and requested a lower plan and insurance to be removed from the account. After spending hours (literally!) on the phone with them, we were told that their system was playing up at that time and the plan could not be altered and that someone would call back within 48 hours to make the plan change and confirm removal of the insurance charge (that was Jan 4). When we had still had no contact from them by Jan 17(!), we arranged BYO contracts with another network - only to then find that Vodafail want to charge us $25 to have the iPhone unlocked! All it would have taken is the promised return phone call and we would still be loyal Vodafone customers. Our experience is that VODAFONE ARE THEIR OWN WORST ENEMY! There obviously needs to be changes made within that organisation - starting at the top.

Am so angry about the constant fails to send simple text msgs, Unable to open a web page with max reception on the 3G network and with having to listen to a bloody computer with a female voice for half an hour while I try and ask a real person a simple question. I have never delt with such a hopless company before!

I have reducing phone coverage - coverage is dropping out in more places now than when we first signed up, continue to get my calls disconnected - how on earth can you ever put a figure on this when we use our mobiles for our business. It is frustrating and causes many arguments between my husband and myself. I am totally fed up with Vodaphone - and to top it all off they cancelled my business plan back in August and my bills were over $1000 per month - and it wasn't until I rang to find out why - no explanation was given why it was cancelled. They stuff up in all areas of our business arrangement.

My husband and I are both on Vodafone ....We live within 5km of Melbourne CBD and the reception bar is always on "No Service"
I rang vodafone and told me that it is our iPhone3Gs handsets that is the problem and that we need to update our software. We upgraded and still no reception. Problem not solved.
So when we are at home, we cannot receive calls or text or go on the internet (unless using our own wifi network at home).
Everytime I try to call Vodafone helpline I am on hold for no less than 15 minutes and to make matters worst I have to make this call outside the house because once we cannot get reception in our apartment!
I have friends who have come over and are on other network (Optus, Telstra) and their reception in our apartment is fine.
The other who are on 3(now part of Vodafone) also has the same problem.

I ALWAYS have poor reception and the the internet speeds are a joke. As a customer i did not sign up for such a poor service and get quite frustrated when i am on hold for so long i almost forget why i am calling them. I dont have a problem with the call centre being over seas but do sometimes find it hard to understand some reps. Nothing racist - its just the language barrier and i understand that. Whenever i leave my house to travel to my family/friends places etc i have no reception for the drive and no reception at their residence. I just think that it is greatly unfair that we are paying for a service and getting NOTHING. Its Disgusting how they are able to take our money without providing a decent service. I moved from Telstra to vodafone as i was sick of the hassles Telstra were giving me - BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER. When my contract is up in August i will be moving back to Telstra (i thought i hated telstra more than any other provider, boy was i wrong!)

Cant even get 3G in the middle of Sydney close to a phone tower. One bar reception. Shocking

When purchasing a new phone and plan, I was told by Three rep to change from Three to Vodafone and that my friends on the Three network could still call me for "free". They have since been charged for calls made to me. Impossible to get through on phone to discuss the issue.

Reception seems to be getting progressively worse. Should have gone to Telstra.

I can't get 3G reception in Newcastle. Even standing near the phone towers (Voda?) at Charlestown I still can't get reception.

Just signed up.

I have been overcharged $20 per month for two years! Minimum phone charge I was told by staff would be $20 per month on my phone so I thought I would keep it as backup when I was away from the farm (no vode coverage outside of Bendigo)but I kept getting charged $40 and they would not budge. I chopped it off end Nov 2010 and today had to pay $6.67 in admin fees for the last billing period even though I paid the account in full when I disconnected!

I was so sick of the poor reception and lack of customer support, and the fact that calls kept dropping out at my home in Hawker that I paid $850 to get out of my contract and join Telstra. Since then I've had no problems. Vodafone = FAIL

Vodafone has terrible reception. Unacceptable. I am a prepaid customer, but still think I deserve some respect from the company. I cannot get any reception in Healseville, for example. Healesville is a town of about 6000 people in the Yarra Valley, Victoria. My reception drops out soon after leaving Melbourne. I can only imagine what it must be like for the residents of that town.

I think the Minister for Communications should threaten to remove vodafone's license to practise as a telescommunications company in Australia.

I have experience problems with network coverage and drop outs and 3G network problems. I also have Vodafone wireless internet and that also drops out, when I signed up they said I will have good coverage at my home address but since, I've had it I have problems nearly daily. I only renewed my contract late last year.

Been using Vodafone for about 9 years I moved from Brisbane to just outside Toowoomba thought it was just my old phone because it was pre 3G bought a new phone last year on contract it has all bells and whistles ,still had problems so then thought it may just be because of where I lived but others on different networks had reception. I called vodafone a few months ago and was put on hold for ages as well. I complained about the constant drop outs and delayed SMS messages that remain in the outbox and are not sent unless I physically resend. Reception can be shocking, no service it comes and goes all the time. I make 1 call and then the network is unavailable. Its crazy. You call and you can't even talk to an Aussie. They told me the same as they have been telling everyone else. It was my phone. There is nothing wrong with my phone. I used to be proud of being with vodafone and now I am embarrassed. I have not bothered to call back because what is the point they don't give a damn about their customers anymore.

i upgraded my phone a couple of months ago and as i was with 3 the salesperson said that all 3 customers would eventually have to change to voda, worst thing i ever did have had constand problems with reception and have been put on hold for at least a minimum of 30 minutes every time am i going to get compensated for my time? i dont think so will they still want thier money probably, i am now advising people not to change to vodaphone

Disgruntled 9 year verten of Vodafail! (mind you only the last say... 2 years has been terrible)
*my sms's are delayed just yesterday one was delayed 6 hours, NOT cool
*A bucket load of "call failed" at least 10 a day!, NOT cool
*Consistently getting bull*#@! reception, NOT cool
*And dont even start me with the customer service. OMG after on average 30 minutes on hold everytime i get someone who not only cannot speak english very well, they dont understand me and its obvious they are not in the great land down under due to the silence when they are not talking, crackly sounds and massive delays when they are talking! I tried the 'go to the bloody store and talk to someone there' tactic and wow they apparently cannot help you at all ... out of the 7 different stores i have been to all but one told me to " call 1555 customer service" the other one asked if i'd like to know i could get out of my contract and in his words 'sign up to a better provider".... hmm EPIC VODAFAIL!

i have 2 services a USB modem and Blackberry Storm - I returned my Blackberry storm with in 2 weeks after it broke, (keys fell out). and for the last 12 months, both my services coverage has been beyond poor. I have had excess usage bills, due to the fact I have had to make so many additonal calls, because they keep dropping out.

when trying to ring the call centre - I tried for 15 times in a row, befor I actually got someone to talk to. when I spoek to the Tech guys. they simply said there is nothing they can do... I live with 25 klms from the CBD of Brisbane. and also work with in 10 klms of the CBD...

I will wait for my contracts to expire then take my business else where.

I had changed to Vodafone internet from another provider, they took all my details (at the shop) copy of my license checked that we had coverage in that area. All good. So for months I complained about having internet connection that was like using dial up. They checked to make sure there was no fault, and told me after I HAD TO CALL THEM BACK (they said "oh we were just about to call you) that there was no problems. So I kept calling for the next 3 months, same issue same outcome. I had had enough after a year and told them I wanted out of the contract as it wasn't good enough, the gentleman I spoke to agreed there was a problem and said he would cancel the contract. When I got another bill 2 months later I called back and asked why. I was told I hadn't cancelled my contract, after being on the phone for over an hour, I was finally put through to someone who could help and informed me it wasn't their problem and I'd have to pay out the contract....... BECAUSE THE HOME ADDRESS WAS DIFFERENT TO THE BILLING ADDRESS, even though I had changed my address with them, even though they took a photo copy of my license, even though they checked my new address on their system when I went in to see them......... I am still with them with my mobile, I have never had any problems with that (that's probably cause I have an old phone and can only use it as a phone, camera.

I live ~15km's out of brisbane city and i receive 0-2 BARS RECEPTION. This is absolutely disgusting. There are quite often times i look at my phone and it has 'no service'.

Postcode 4055

All our 3G dongles used for by our staff for remote access use Vodafone sims.
Reception is crap at the best of times.
The coverage map is a lie.
A LIE I tell you!!!
Don't believe anything a vodafone employee has to say as they either don't know and just make it up or they deliberately mislead in an attempt to turn the blame back on the customer.

I have recently signed new contract with Vodafone and I never had good reception. Most of the time i have got only one bar... Opponent person hardly hear me.. Poor customer service and Network coverage. But Vodafone is saying they are covering 95% of Australia which is a lie... very bad...

I have consistently faced dropped calls (Call Failed), data dropouts (need to restart the phone) and basically NO SERVICE for over 6 months now. I drive an 80km journey each way to work and have coverage for probably 15 minutes of it. I'm not in the bush, this is the F3 between Newcastle and the Central Coast. After growing tired of the 'network upgrade' story, I rang Customer support and left a message for them to call me back in 39 minutes. The automatic service did call me back, unfortunately I had three failed calls and gave up for the day. I tried again the following week and was escalated to the Network team.

Have been with Vodafone for my personal mobile since it was vodacall over 20 years ago. Since the inception of 3G and data devices my wife recently took over my account with Vodafone as I do not use it. I got her a new iPhone4 and the reception is just crap. Whether at home in Cairns or standing in the middle of Brisbane or Sydney CBD the data coverage is hopeless. My work iPhone4 on the big T is blistering and downloads pages etc in one tenth of the time it takes Vodafone if it loads at all! For the extra $10 per month to go with T it is well worth it...

The coverage maps of the central coast are a complete falsehood. They constitute misrepresentation of the product offered.(i.e. phone services)
There is no coverage whatsoever in Patonga and environs and yet on their maps shows a good coverage.
If i advertised a product that didn't exist the advertising council and consumer affairs would crucify me!

Since signing up with vodafone and switching from Optus, its been poor or no reception at my home. My friends always complain that you do not turn your phone on, or why is your phone off all the times.

I have tried to ring Vodafone customer service is the past few weeks for several times but never be successful.

Each day I called at least 5 times, either the voice machine said that they have the technical issues and require me to hang up, or I have been put on hold for at least 1 hour each time.

Even I am lucky enough to speak to a human, as soon as they knew I want to cancel my contract, they cut the line off straight away.

At work, there is no reception at all. I have to divert my phone everyday and cost my own money.

There email reply is saying they can't help me with anything.....

Unbelievable!!!!

Since signing up with vodafone and switching from Optus, its been poor or no reception at my home. My friends always complain that you do not turn your phone on, or why is your phone off all the times.

Thankfully my contract is due to finish in two weeks, however since November 2010, I have had nothing but issues. Poor reception, delayed text messages or not being notified of voicemail messages and being billed for a service I do not even use. I since found out that as I am on the "old" $79.00 cap it excludes alot services and I have received large phone bills in the past three months, when for two years my bill has never been anymore than the $79.00. After spending 42 minutes on hold waiting for a Vodafone customer service representative I was told the plans had changed and I would be billed for additional services. I thought any changes to a legally binding contract all parties had to be made aware not just change the contract and expect the customer to pay!

Thankyou Vodafone for nothing, after 7 years it will be easy to change providers.

My phone coverage is Shiattt!! .. i can not walk in between rooms in my house whilst on the phone without cutting out .. Damn it - there only walls!! .. Running my own part time business - u need to talk to customers but u cant when you dont have network coverage!! Vodacrap!!

Reception? I dont even know what good reception is anymore. having 3 txt messages come in all at once, but have different sending time periods is rediculous.

- Calls dropping out all the time........CHECK
- Rubbish 3G reception.......CHECK
- Hours on hold to customer service who usually have no idea what I'm trying to say so they just hang up.........MASSIVE CHECK
-Constantly trying to get through to customer service sometimes to get a generated message...."we are experiencing technical difficulties, please call back later.....CHECK
-Costs on my bills that shouldn't be there, query them to get nowhere even though supposed "investigation" raised into those suspect costs.....CHECK
-Promises to get phone calls back from Vodafone re: queries only to never get a phone call back.....CHECK
- FED UP WITH VODAFONE'S POOR SERVICE ALL ROUND.......BIGGEST CHECK OF ALL

As many of the other people on the forum I have been suffering issues with poor coverage and edlayed messages. While I have made do in the situation it is my partner that has suffered from this. The poor coverage has led to a number of important phone calls being missed. While voicemails were left they were not received for a number of days. There was not even a registration of a missed call for a full 24hrs after the call was released. The call was to notify him that his work related licence that he had been frantically trying to renew had not been processed and he was unable to work. During this time he continued to work with no knowledge that there was a problem. Consequently an $11k fine was narrowly missed on a technicality. As a young couple that is trying to get started in life it would have been debilitating.
I have a complaint lodged with the Telecommunications ombudsman (which I would reccomend all parties do) and the complaints unit has been most unhelpful. I work full time and am not able to answer my mobile in work hrs. A situation I would think would be very common. The call return details is an answering machine that is checked once a day so after phoning them 5 times to give a suitable time to call me back I have still not spoken to the complaints department regarding the dispute. I have reported this back to the Ombudsman and am awaiting a response and a resolution.
This site proves the need for an investigation by ACCC into Vodafone's service and customer relations.

As many of the other people on the forum I have been suffering issues with poor coverage and edlayed messages. While I have made do in the situation it is my partner that has suffered from this. The poor coverage has led to a number of important phone calls being missed. While voicemails were left they were not received for a number of days. There was not even a registration of a missed call for a full 24hrs after the call was released. The call was to notify him that his work related licence that he had been frantically trying to renew had not been processed and he was unable to work. During this time he continued to work with no knowledge that there was a problem. Consequently an $11k fine was narrowly missed on a technicality. As a young couple that is trying to get started in life it would have been debilitating.
I have a complaint lodged with the Telecommunications ombudsman (which I would reccomend all parties do) and the complaints unit has been most unhelpful. I work full time and am not able to answer my mobile in work hrs. A situation I would think would be very common. The call return details is an answering machine that is checked once a day so after phoning them 5 times to give a suitable time to call me back I have still not spoken to the complaints department regarding the dispute. I have reported this back to the Ombudsman and am awaiting a response and a resolution.
This site proves the need for an investigation by ACCC into Vodafone's service and customer relations.

I have been with vodafone for a while now and all i have had is problems. i even suggested to my dad to come on vodafone so it would be cheaper for the both of us to call. and nothing but problems. reception is pathetic, never ever ever have service.

I brought a new HTC on a 24 month plan in the hope that the issues that I'd previously been experiencing using my older prepaid Nokia would discontinue - I thought the issue was with having an older model phone and not the network. I also suspected if it was not the actual phone that it was my SIM so was happy at the time to replace it with a new one when I switched to the plan option.

Unfortunately it appears I was wrong. In fact it is actually safe to say that the issue is the same on a good day and worse in general. From what I gather my entire house is a blackspot of some variety (Moonee Ponds - which is hardly far from civilisation) as is my place of work (in the city centre). It can take four or five attempts to send an SMS and I very rarely receive photos that friends send or vice versa because the network drops out so frequently.

The plan I have means I am able to make up $400 worth of calls for the flat rate but it's almost completely useless given the network drops out more than reqularly while I'm on a call. Recently I had to call my bank to cancel a lost card and request a replacement and while on the call the network dropped out three times which meant speaking to three different people in order to get my request completed. Which is alarming given if I was to make a call for an emergency, would I be in danger of experiencing the same problem?

As soon as I leave the city limits I lose all coverage until I'm back within a certain zone. It was only about an hour out from Melbourne central that I lost all reception and was without it for the entire time I was away (three days). Which calls in to question: what is the point of having this phone if I am unable to use it?

It seems unfair that anyone should have to pay for this kind of service, especially when I have 20 months left of a contract to go!

I cant stand Lara, I get spammed all the time and there does not seem to be a way of opting out of this. Calls drop out all the time and coverage is shit

Have terrible reception in a lot of different places. The only place that I have reception at home for example is in the Lounge.

I have the same issues as well late vmail and sms and also a heap of drop out when making calls also the 3g coverage is very poor I have been a customer of vodafone for about 10 years and its so disgusting. I wish I didnt sign up on a new contract but now I'm stuck and with all the legal binding of this contract it's to costly to pull out and sign up a new one thanks vodafone for a shitty service and I he u guys fall on your ass just like Onetel did.

phone never has reception, can never call my partner as no one can never call me, i pay $130 a month to hold and ipod on me its crazy. and when i called they said every thing was fine and its my phone. why dont they just save themselves and just terminate our contracts. i feel sorry for those who are joining up now, not knowing what there in for.

Reason I picked up vodafone for me and my wife was because at the time they were the only providers offering Android on HTC Desire HD. Immediately after signing a 24 month contract, Telstra introduced their plan on HTC Mozart, and I would have gone with Telstra if the timing was right. Now I feel Vodafone's plan of 3 GB of data is a joke, we don't get any reception, and the only way to use it is with Wi Fi through our Telstra Bigpond - what's the use. Add to this that phone reception is very poor and drops off regularly. Rubbish. Then there's the Premium Service that we didn't know about until after the first bill arrived. It seems by default we were paying for 19.. advertisers who send us text messages. We didn't even know about this, and after a couple of hours waiting for their help line from India, we were able to block this stupid service. Shame on you Vodafone - we should have been told and given the option to disable this stupid service on signing the contract, not hush it under the carpet. 23 months left, cannot wait.

I've been having poor reception for a while now and the battery drains in 1 day. I believe that I rarely connect to the "local" tower as google maps shows me been 5km from my actual destination. When contacted vodafone said there were no issues with equipment in my area; got me to reboot my phone and discussed possible simcard issues. Now I see I'm not the only one.....

Where do I start: Signed up Aug 09 with a Blackberry 9500

Firstly moving to Adelaide city about 1 1/2 years ago, then moving only 20 minutes away from the city to the hills, I only get one bar and majority of the time SOS coverage. I have missed so many phone calls, had so many drop outs in conversations, delayed sms's, internet is not possible. Its ridiculous.

Secondly - back in October 10, I woke up with my phone screen 'App Err 523' and it didn't do anything. Went to the vodafone shop who told me that they will send it away for repairs and provide me a loan phone in the interim. The loan phone was not charged and was given a wall charger only, thus I had to go a day without a phone, as I was on the road driving. A week later I received an sms that my phone had come back. Went to the store to pick it up. It was a brand new phone. I questioned where my phone was, they had no answer. There was no note, no details, no information what had happened to my original phone. I still had important information left on my original phone - which was now gone. My new phone returned to me - had barely enough battery power and when I wanted to send an sms, it would open the internet. When I wanted to make a call, I couldn't dial any of the numbers correctly. When I pressed 0, it would press 3. I returned back to the store. They couldn't fix my phone and said 'we will send this away for repairs'. Another loan phone, another week later. The same new phone returned. This time they gave it to me with no battery power. This 'new' phone would not lock, I couldn't scroll on the screen and I was having the same problems as before. I decided to go into another vodafone store, with all my repair paperwork, they said 'we will have to send this away for repair's'. I said not again - this is the third time. I cant do this anymore. I cant use this phone to it's full capacity and same with the loan phones. I said I believe I shouldn't have to pay for my account this month. I want to cancel my account and I want to speak to a supervisor. She wasn't available and I was yet left with ANOTHER loan phone. A few days later, I received an sms to pick up my phone, yet again. They were unable to cancel my contract as it was still up until August 2011. In regards to my account I had to call a number. She then proceeded to open a brand new Blackberry 9500 box and give me another brand new mobile. They had no answers for me in regards to the previous phone.
I called the number for my account - 6 times. Lara is pathetic and I was on hold too long. I gave up. I still ended up paying my full amount. I was mentally tired by the end of this whole saga which ended up being the whole month of October 09. The amount of time I had wasted, still gets to me.

Thirdly - their set up in there stores is pathetic when you go in there for questions. You wait for a long time, there is hardly enough staff in the stores around Adelaide I have attended. And you stand where ever you can get a spot and risk having other customers who don't take notice of others who had been waiting, pushing in. It's poor service full stop.

Bring on Aug 11 - I cant wait till the end of my 2 year contract, I never will go with Vodafone again and I will be recommending to anyone who will listen - STAY AWAY FROM VODAFONE.

Text messages are always delayed and I keep missing phone calls. I have a virtual business number that forwards call to my mobile, so when I miss phone calls I am potentially loosing business.
3G reception is incredibly poor, makes it totally useless for me to have spent money on an iphone - again I need to check my email constantly when I'm away from the office, yet most of the times I'm unable to do that.
I'm so frustrated, my husband is with Telstra and he has none of these problems!!

CBD 3G reception in Sydney CBD drops out every 8-9 minutes for 3 minutes CONSISTANTLY all day. i use Gchat on my HTC desire and it disconnects ALL day and is bloody annoying.

I have had dropped calls, calls to me going directly to voicemail while my phone was on and all bars showing. There have been 4 dropped calls in two days (I think I made 6 in total!). No access to web services. I have complained twice to Vodafone, and have been given a months free "coverage" but have explained to them that I now have one month's free "non-coverage" and want the issue resolved. Sick of talking to people who can't resolve this issue.

My mobile broadband has not been available for over a month.

I joined Vodafone is December 2010. I live in south west and work in Parramatta CBD.I'm not able to get even 2 bars on 3G. I've got 150MB 3G data and has newer been able to use 3G internet on my phone.When I try to use 3G..it becomes GPRS. I can't even get incoming calls or make outgoing calls due to poor reception. Tried ringing customer service 6 times ....had to wait for over 30 mins ...so hung up. They promise they would call you but it newer happens.When I go to a store...they are not helpful as well.
The biggest mistake in my life was changing to Vodafone.

After being with 3 for two years, they were prefect. Never had a issue or anything, when my contract ran out, i was eager to sign up again with 3 only to find that they were changing over to vodafone, but was assured that everything would be the same, only billed through vodafone now. Since signing over to Vodafone in mid November 2010, I have had my phone replace twice already as problems with no service or wont call and constent freezing. And my partner is also with Vodafone, signing up from Telstra, on the same phone same plan four days after me, and has had the same problems - Having his phone replaced, he doesn't seem to get some messages from me or me from him. I don't know weather it just wont send to any other Vodafone customers, but the frustration, and the problems we go through thinking one of us is in trouble when no response, or ignoring the other is very frustrating. I never had this problem with 3 and he never had a problem with Telstra. If I could, I would cancel my contract and change to another network, as this is just appualing of a large network to be so slack like this. Get your act together Vodafone, and get these problems sorted as you are NOT holding up your end of the contract here by suppling me with me paid goods.!!

my fone shows i have full 3g coverage but I cant open any webpages or check facebook - I get text message 20min after people in the same room have sent them to me, up to 2 days for a picture message. The same goes when I send people messages. Calls going straight to voicemail regardless that I have full coverage.
I've spend 40 min on hold with vodafone only to be told there isn't anyhing wrong with the network & its my iphone.

Constantly have my iphone in the network searching mode and the only way to rectify it is to turn it off and then back on again. Means I am constantly missing calls and wasting my time & money having to listen to voice messages and then return the calls.

The network keeps dropping out!

I have been a vodafone user for over two years. I have experienced constant drop out of conversations over this time. Only recently have I become aware that not everyone experiences this. In my current area of operation (Airlie Beach) I find that my mobile phone has no coverage in areas that other provider's phones have full coverage. I also find that sms's tend to arrive at 3.00am regardless of when they have been sent. I attempted to get out of my contract but received no help from Crazy John's, we sign you up but do not support you, and after a protracted telephone wait (6 hours over two days)with Vodafone, I was offered a reduced tariff on my contract for two months but was told that I could not get out of my contract without suffering a penalty for the handpiece that I have. Although polite, Vodafone have left me in no doubt that I cannot get out of my contract. There were vague assertions that the coverage would improve in this area but have seen no evidence of this.

I swapped from 3 to Vodafone about 4 months ago.
Shortly after swapping i was getting call drop outs and non 3G coverage, in Erskineville in Sydney and also at paddington.
When going to Port stephens for Holidays for a week i got 0 coverage i complained and told there were no issues with the area, it was frustrating as at the time i was waiting to here back from some job interviews, I had told the recruitment firms i would be on holidays but would have coverage.
II recently moved to Bathurst were thar is a weak vodafone signal, there is a vodafone store and even the rep at the store said it is patchy all over bathurst.

I am living in Wentworthville and working in city, its take 45-50 minute by train. So, only thing i can do is mobile browsing, believe or not but by Vodafone network I can only access 3-4 pages !!!!! yes !!!! then I stop to use mobile network and start to play mobile games. But this website wake me up to do something about it.....

Poor Service!
I am over missing calls left right & centre because I have no coverage. What is the use of having a mobile phone if only to look at & wish it would pick up a signal?
Fail Vodafone.

I made the mistake of switching to Vodafone from Telstra about 18 months ago. I have never in my life had so many issues. Calls drop out all the time, I often have it go straight to voicemail when I could have answered it, and have had many cases of voicemails/texts being delivered hours after they arrived. My husband tries to run his business with his Vodafone phone and he has lost many job opportunities due to bad reception and missed calls he should have been able to answer.
And don't get me started on the lack of coverage!!! Terrible!

I sent back a Vodafone mobile broadband receiver to the Vodafone head office
when they were in Chatswood NSW. I requested a refund as the network coverage
was extremely poor. To date, I have received no refund, I called customer support and spoke to someone in India who told me they had no knowledge of my issue and to fax a letter off which I have done. This was over 6 months ago
and I have had no company rep call me. Once you have an issue they FAIL!

First of all, thank you for setting up this website!

I had heard that Vodafone is relatively poor in terms of national coverage. Yet, because they seemed to offer the best value for money and the fact that I live in central Sydney, I decided to at least give them a go. In June last year I went to a Crazy John's shop (only sells Vodafone deals) and enquired about Vodafone's coverage. I was shown a map (same map that is available on Vodafone's homepage), where it showed that there was 100% coverage of the area where I lived. Just in case, I asked what would happen if their map turned out to be "wrong" in terms of coverage. I was told that all I needed to do was to bring the phone back in store and it would be cancelled. As soon as I got near our house in Watsons Bay in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney the reception got worse and worse... eventually, there was NO reception at all. Disappointed I drove back to the shop but was told that the cancellation process was a bit complicated... They sent me home and asked me to call Vodafone's engineers from my landline and explain my situation to them and only then Crazy John's could refund me. I spoke to three or four different people and no one really had a desire to help out. In fact, they were adamant that I was wrong...For instance, one guy said "No, you must be wrong, our maps show that there is perfect reception where you are". I gave up, went back to the shop and told them that I was not keen on spending the rest of the day on hold with Vodafone's customer service or with their engineers who did not want to help out anyway. Eventually, we agreed that Crazy John's would make the calls for me. About two weeks later, I still had not heard anything and I checked with Crazy John's and was told that they had "forgotten" to make the call... They did make the call and Vodafone eventually sent out a satchel for me to return the phone to them in. In the instructions it said in bold text and capital letters: make sure you remove the battery before you return the phone. I had bought an iPhone and was a bit perplexed as getting the battery out is not that straightforward. I found some youtube videos on how to remove the battery but the whole process seemed a bit dodgy. By accident I happened to read the instruction booklet and in the small print I found that if you remove the battery you cannot return the phone. I phoned Vodafone again and asked them what I should do. I was told not to remove the battery after all. I went to Australia post the next day thinking that finally I could get this whole thing out of the way. They asked me if I had removed the battery from the phone that I was sending to Vodafone. I told them what I was told by Vodafone. Australia Post refused to accept the satchel as it is against their safety rules to send phones with batteries inside. I went back home, called Vodafone again but was told that I needed to use the satchel they had sent me if I wanted to cancel the contract. The next day I went to a (different) Australia Post office and I actually lied about the content of the satchel... It did not feel good, particularly as I had to put my signature on the paperwork. It was sent away to Vodafone and I was very relieved when, a few days later, I found out that Vodafone had received it. Then, about two weeks later, I received a bill for the full amount of a month's usage. I can see how things get wrong when everything is automated so I simply called them and asked what the bill was for. They apologised and were actually surprisingly helpful that time. They told me that I did not have to pay anything as it was cancelled and that they were going to send a new bill that stated that I owed them zero dollars. The next bill, however, showed a new amount which was even higher than the first one :-)...It took another two weeks before everything was sorted out.

This was a something that should have been a very simple process. I am convinced that a lot of people would have given up half way through, which I guess, is how Vodafone makes a fair bit of money at the end of the day. I spent so much time both on the phone, by e-mail and in the store that I have become completely turned off by Vodafone forever. I will never, ever go near Vodafone's products again and I will continue to recommend friends not to have anything to do with them.

1) They use false advertising by saying they have full coverage of areas where they clearly don't. This is a serious offence that ACCC should look into.

2) They advertise a simple cancellation process, which is nothing but an administrative headache, which you need to spend several hours on to get to the bottom with.

3) Some of their customer service reps were nice and helpful (including staff at Crazy John's) while others were completely uninterested in taking any accountability.

I find it amazing that Vodafone spends so much money on advertising and sponsorship (e.g. the Ashes) instead of spending it on a good product and customer services!? Word of mouth travels far.

i am also an unfortunate person lied to when sold vodafone/3 wireless braodband, working in Melbournes cbd, at best its at dial up speed, so how they can say this is broadband, evades me, the drop out are regular and consistent, and dont bother even trying during school holidays, the vodafone wireless network cant handle basic streaming media, unles you like a 5 minute show to take 25mins to watch, stop start, these peopjamale are selling a product they simply cant or are not prepared to deliver

I have little coverage on Vodafone with constant call drop out. MMS and Voice mails can take upto 3 days to come through which means I am missing out on important information. I have contacted Vodafone on a number of occasions and have been told that there is nothing wrong and this is not happening!

I ordered an iphone in October from them which still hasn't been received. Their customer service is so bad that in the 5 times I have rung I have been put on hold for over an hour - no joke - when you finally speak to someone they try to blame you then say someone will call to help and no one does. And they wont let me cancel the order. I feel so helpless as there is no other avenues of help to go down. Worst customer service ever and I have decided I will not accept the phone if it does turn up eventually. From the sounds of the coverage reports it probably a good idea.

I have noticed that over the last 6 months I have had very poor network coverage on my Vodafone mobile. I have noticed that when my phone uses 3G for reception it fails 90% of the time, although if it drops back to 2G I seem to have no problems.I have been with Vodafone for well over 10 years and the network coverage has decreased in that time by at least 40%. I also suffer from sudden drop outs as well but had put that down to me using a Nokia "Smart Phone" (N97), but surely Vodaphone can't blame it on every mobile phone on the market.

4 to 5 months ago i signed up for the mobile broadband internet with Vodafone, i have had nothing but crap service, bad coverage and don't get me started on the 3 hours i have spent on hold waiting to talk to someone.

I think Vodafone have a great marketing team which is a great success but the service, coverage and the genral product they offer to customers is very poor.

This happens consistently, especially to me between Erskineville and Redfern inclusive. 3G always drops out which is unacceptable, as this is a city location, not the outback! A lot of the time, even in the CBD, it can take a very long time to use the internet, while other times it is fast.

Hi what a great site. Well i was in a huge mess with Voda and i have gladly and finally changed networks, but it took me 2 weeks, of constant calling customer service with the phone cutting out/speaking with numerous cal assisants explaing my problem everytime. So i have no reception, couldnt make calls ever, no one could contact, phone would be on but saying it was switched off, no internet at all, message failing and the list goes on. I will happliy sign any petition against these guys. OH P.S i am still waiting for the return post bag from that so i can return my phone to them that way i wont get charged. Have i received the bag yet??... NO.
eerrr

The network coverage from Vodaphone is shocking......If I call my phone just sitting next to it from another phone I would not get thorough. None of my friends can get me and they always end up leaving messages.....

Inconsistent/poor coverage that constantly fluctuates. Poor data performance. Dropped calls, messages not sending, messages delayed, calls not coming through. Was lied to about my coverage upon signing contract. The usual tripe.

As sent to Vodafone complaints email- I am appalled, I used to be proud to be with Vodafone. We had been with 3 which has now merged with Vodafone, we then came to Vodafone to get Apple Iphones. We have had our accounts for almost 3 months now and have not gotten a bill- I recieved an SMS telling me to go to online billing and 2 days later my wife and I both had our phones blocked. I have spent over an hour on the phone to different departments. in this time I have put through 2 payments of $200 to both accounts, after much difficulty in speaking to a real person regarding making a payment for my wife's account to remove the call barring which would take 2 to 3 hours... or so I was told by one of your consultants "Sylvester". I then spoke with Chanduk who is supposedly Sylvester's supervisor who tried to assist me with your AVA LVR whatever automated phone billing system... after 4 attempts he could not access it properly. I tried again 15 minutes later ( approximately 4.20pm QLD time). My wife got an SMS advising her they had tried calling at 6.50pm QLD time- she called them back at 7.15pm QLD time and has not been able to speak to a human voice, or remove the call barring. To think a major international company like Vodafone has no after hours support and only runs it's support network to Sydney/Melbourne time is disgusting... I would hate to be a Vodafone customer in Perth which would lose an extra 2 hours on us in QLD. My frustration is compounded by the fact I finally got through to someone at 7.57pm QLD time to your business support number.... I spoke to a real person who in turn after my frustrated explanation put me on hold- I specifically said to him " if you put me on hold to transfer me please make sure you put me on to a real person" I type this at 8.15pm QLD time while I am still on hold.... what an absolute F$%king joke!!. You don't send bills and when I do pay the bills you still block my wife's phone service. The mobile coverage in our suburb is "erratic" at best and with this sort of customer support (or lack of) makes me wonder what the media would think after your recent negative publicity.
I would appreciate a full apology to my wife for the lack of service, and I should also send an invoice for 2 hours of my time and frustration that I have spent attempting to speak rationally to an AUSTRALIAN BASED VODAFONE CUSTOMER SUPPORT REPRESENTATIVE..

As sent to Vodafone customer complaints email-
I am appalled, I used to be proud to be with Vodafone. We had been with 3 which has now merged with Vodafone, we then came to Vodafone to get Apple Iphones. We have had our accounts for almost 3 months now and have not gotten a bill- I recieved an SMS telling me to go to online billing and 2 days later my wife and I both had our phones blocked. I have spent over an hour on the phone to different departments. in this time I have put through 2 payments of $200 to both accounts, after much difficulty in speaking to a real person regarding making a payment for my wife's account to remove the call barring which would take 2 to 3 hours... or so I was told by one of your consultants "Sylvester". I then spoke with Chanduk who is supposedly Sylvester's supervisor who tried to assist me with your AVA LVR whatever automated phone billing system... after 4 attempts he could not access it properly. I tried again 15 minutes later ( approximately 4.20pm QLD time). My wife got an SMS advising her they had tried calling at 6.50pm QLD time- she called them back at 7.15pm QLD time and has not been able to speak to a human voice, or remove the call barring. To think a major international company like Vodafone has no after hours support and only runs it's support network to Sydney/Melbourne time is disgusting... I would hate to be a Vodafone customer in Perth which would lose an extra 2 hours on us in QLD. My frustration is compounded by the fact I finally got through to someone at 7.57pm QLD time to your business support number.... I spoke to a real person who in turn after my frustrated explanation put me on hold- I specifically said to him " if you put me on hold to transfer me please make sure you put me on to a real person" I type this at 8.15pm QLD time while I am still on hold.... what an absolute F$%king joke!!. You don't send bills and when I do pay the bills you still block my wife's phone service. The mobile coverage in our suburb is "erratic" at best and with this sort of customer support (or lack of) makes me wonder what the media would think after your recent negative publicity.
I would appreciate a full apology to my wife for the lack of service, and I should also send an invoice for 2 hours of my time and frustration that I have spent attempting to speak rationally to an AUSTRALIAN BASED VODAFONE CUSTOMER SUPPORT REPRESENTATIVE..

I live 3km from the Sydney CBD and have significant coverage issues. The phone is either in searching mode or 1 bar and have to be outside to receive and make calls and texts. It's ridiculous!!! Customer service is non existent. Even Vodafone stores that have to call Customer Service are on hold for extremely long periods of time. If stores can't get through for assistance what hope does the general public have in getting through. Fix the problems Vodafone.

On our first bill, they charged us for our so called FREE wireless device - when i rang up and finally got through after being on hold for what seemed forever and passed to several different departments, they told me it was a once-off fee (but couldnt tell me what for), and that it wont happen again.
And to my amazement - there it was again on the second bill!!
I am still waiting on my credit to be returned for this as they cant seem to add it to my bill. This is just the minor issues we have with Vodafone. Dont even get me started on the coverage - cus apparently its MY computer that has a problem, and no reason why there isnt a coverage signal!
FAIL FAIL FAIL !!

ABSOLUTELY CRAP INTERNET RECEPTION, LARA YOU ARE A PAIN IN THE ASS. YOU CANT DIRECT ANYONE TO THE CORRECT DEPARTMENT. IF LUCKILY YOU GET TO ANY DEPT THAT YOU THINK COULD HELP YOU, THEY CANT EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH PROPERLY. HOLD TIME TO TALK TO SOMEONE IS FAR TOO LONG.

Every time i send a text, it get's sent 3-4 times.....and don't get me started on coverage.... if you travel to Gippsland, might as well leave your phone at home..... teriible coverage.

We've switched back to Telstra

Had no internet coverage at ALL for 3 and a half weeks in December. When it came back on its snails pace. Was out again for 3 days a couple of weeks ago. Now can't log onto net banking or anything because connection is too slow.

For the past year and a half I have had network coverage problems ie: calls dropping out; no reception (generally in the heart of the Sydney cbd and at Sydney airport; message and voicemail delays or not receiving messages at all; long waits for up to and over 1hr to customer support only to be hung up on and then have to call again and wait yet another hour; no 3g signal; takes up to 10 minutes+ to log onto any website including Vodafail and these are just some of the issues I have faced.

When I first received the phone I took it back to nokia on 4 different occasions because I thought it was the phone, however I continued to have these problems and now for the past 6 months I have tried periodically to contact Vodafail regarding my ongoing problems.

Recently I had, had enough and went in to 4 different Vodafail stores to get some help as I was getting nowhere trying to call. On all occasions I was told by Vodafail staff... "we can't help you, call customer support" and despite my protests about the poor service and not being able to get through to Vodafail, the Vodafail in store staff would walk off and talk to others; talk between themselves whilst I tried to voice my concerns; or completely ignore me and walk out into the store room.

When I realised I was not going to get any sort of response from the useless in store staff I resorted back to calling the Vodafail customer support line. On Tuesday 11th Jan 2011 I had to make 3 calls to Vodafail all for and waited approx 45-1hr each as each time before I had my call answered and each time I got in contact with a Vodafail rep the line would mysteriously drop out. When I finally got through I spoke with a so called "customer service rep" who was more like a rude cleaner who stated "I can't help you and won't help you because that is not part of my job, call us back tomorrow for the right department". I then demanded to be put through to the Manager.

The manager of customer support in India who I could barely understand with the accent and also because of the bad reception had to call me back twice because the call dropped out whilst I was making my complaint. When I finally got to speak with her she informed me that the Vodafail Cancellation team will be calling me back the next day and will be releasing me from my contract immediately due to all the problems I am facing and the poor service I have received.

I received a call 3 days later from a technical support person at 7pm. The technical support person then stated they would not help me and would not put me through to cancellations and stated I would have to do their investigations before Vodafail will let me talk to the cancellations dept. I did their investigations whilst also contacting the TIO for support. I was informed by the tech support team that I would receive a result by the 18th Jan. I did not hear back from them until the 20th of Jan 2011 informing me that their investigation had revealed I had poor signal coverage.

Finally I got to speak with the cancellations department and after having to call back twice due to bad reception and call drop out and yet and hour wait each time this is what finally happened.

The cancellations department then tried to sell me everything under the sun and give me offers to keep me as a customer... I informed that staff member that I do not want any of the offers and all I wanted was for Vodafail to released me from my contract as promised and also as Vodafail have been in breach of the contract for the past year and a half in the way of poor service as well as the above mentioned problems.

I was then informed that I would need to pay my next bill and a cancellation fee and send my phone back to Vodafail before I can be released from my contract. I then informed Vodafail that this is unacceptable and I would be taking Vodafail to the ACCC and TIO and I would not be paying any bills or cancellation fees. After trying to negotiate with yet another useless Vodafail staff member who I could barely understand and was continuously making mistakes and putting me on hold I asked to be put through to a manager.

I then negotiated with the cancellations manager and had my previous bill waived and my next bill waived. I then was then also told I had to send the phone back so they could waive the cancellation fee. I decided I would send the phone back, because it wasn't worth the pain of trying to keep it. No to mention it is the worse phone I have ever had.. (also suggested by useless Vodafail staff)

I am now currently waiting for this package so I can send my phone back and was assured as soon as they receive the phone I will be out of my contract and will receive a confirmation letter of this with nothing further to pay.

As a Vodafail customer of 12 years I feel very ripped off and completely unappreciated.
1. because there is no loyalty and during this whole process I was being fobbed off and passed around to different Vodafail staff to try and get me to just go away.
2. because I am loosing out.. I have not been compensated in any way for this time wasted out of my life and money wasted. Not to mention even though I have been paying for the phone for a year and a half I still need to send it back which leaves me with nothing but a big whole in my pocket and an empty wallet with nothing to show for it.

I know I'm not the only one having these problems.... and so to anyone else out there reading my story... the best advice I can give you is don't let them push you around and push them to do something about the problems your facing... don't stop until they release you from your contract. If after contacting Vodafail a few times you get nowhere contact the TIO and the ACCC immediately!!!

Good luck!!!

I have joined on 2 year contract couple of months back and have problems right from the first day. Call drop outs and poor reception, I called the service number and have been advised that they are building more towers and the problem should be resolved in few weeks(2-3), so far no change, still the calls drop off

i never EVER have full reception on my iphone and when i get 3 bars its still just as fail with how slow everything takes to load sooo stupid wish i didnt have another year or more left on my contract!!!!

I had been a Vodafone pre paid customer for years. Then when i got married then need roaming on my phone and was advised that I had to sign up to a contract to do this. The day i signed up to the contract I have had nothing but problems... The roaming didn't not work in Tassie. And the train station I had been using for the last 10 years all of a sudden i could not make or receive calls or message yet my phone should full reception. Rang Vodafone and was told that there wasn't any service outages in the area... Then was stupidly told that I should go back to the train station and ring them from there on my mobile so they could look into... aaaahhhh the is NO RECEPTION....
If I wasn't locked into a contract I would be out of there

Dont get me started on vodafail's wireless broadband coverage. I had to use it a couple of times when I moved house and honestly 28.8k dialup would have been faster and more reliable. The way it works is you give vodafail $100 and they give you a usb device that you honestly may as well stick up your a** (it wont improve the reception but it wont make it any worse either..).

With regards to their mobile phone network, Ive never experienced anything like it. I was with Telstra for years and never had ANY issues. With vodafail Ive experienced continual dropouts, poor call quality & calls that wont connect (I tried 2 numbers the other day that have been around for years and got a message they werent connected! (later they were hmm..). Trying to get thru to vodafail support is a joke (I once got the option to leave my number and someone did actually call me back an hour later). Their wireless and mobile networks are archaic as is their support network. Welcome to the land of the dinosaurs....

We are a small business with a fleet of mobile phones currently with Vodafone. We originally signed up with 3 but when we did not have coverage from our home office, we were transferred over to Vodafone with the assurance by the Business Sales Rep that we wouldn't have coverage issues. The coverage did improve marginally, but all of our phones have constant drop outs, no service, delayed messages and generally very poor reception. We have had customers tell us when they eventually get us on the phone that they couldn't contact us and it wasn't diverting to message bank! Unfortunately, we signed up for 2 years so I very concerned about how much our business is going to suffer financially in the next 2 years.
I believe that there have been some major misrepresentations made by the Vodafone Sales Rep about the coverage and quality of the service. Definite breaches of the Trade Practices Act!!!

no matter where i am i get bad reception i can only get full bars rarley even when im near a mobile phone tower

I've been a vodafone customer (3g mobile broadband only) for the last 3 years. I'm on my second 24 month contract now. I'm going to try and keep this succinct. I've had two main issues.

1) The intermittent failure of their online account system, making it difficult for me to check how much data I've used so I don't go over my 4GiB (then), or 6GiB (now) download quota. I documented situations where their website wouldn't load because of some internal network issue (I could load other websites just fine), and also explicit failures of their systems with errors from Apache's tomcat system being presented to me. The Vodafone Mobile Connect application for the Mac is extremely poorly implemented, recording download/upload for only a single session making it difficult to record total usage over a billing cycle. This culminated in my being charged $80 extra one month for going 300MiB over my quota. After at least 3 calls to them about the issues, I eventually got this charge reversed.

2) The second issue is more about network reliability. A bit of background first. Initially I used an expresscard HSDPA modem to connect using the Vodafone Mobile Connect software. As I found, this software is useless, and I eventually turned to the standard Apple interface for creating and using PPP connections. Anyway, during my first contract, I was plagued with disconnections, sometimes 5 times during an evening. This eventually got better, and the problem has now disappeared. The issue now is not disconnections, but simply dropouts. To me, it seems like it happens mostly in peak times, suggesting overloading of the router at the tower. I have a constant ping to google running while I'm connected so I can detect when these dropouts occur. When it happens, pings start to time out, and eventually some random amount of time (sometimes minutes) later, a huge succession of ping responses suddenly come back to me, and my connection becomes live again. Both of these issues are extremely annoying, because it stops me doing work at home that relies on having a working internet connection (e.g. remote ssh to my workplace)

The dropout issue still remains, and most evenings my internet connection is unreliable.

I have since signed up with Optus for an iPhone plan which comes with 2GiB of data quota. I'm very close to going down the path of cancelling my vodafone contract. The only thing stopping me is stories of hours on hold. I can confirm, along with everyone else, that Vodafone's customer support is lacking in many critical areas which I won't go into.

I hope this helps.

I just assumed that Vodafone, being a smaller telco, had less coverage and I just had to deal with it. I miss the days when I lived in New Zealand, where Telecom NZ let you dial a certain number so you could reconnect to a dropped call and get a minute free!!

I don't make lots of calls, but the calls I do make are mostly poor in quality, with people on the other end asking me to repeat a lot of things, or are unable to hear me well at all. It doesn't matter where I am; in the city, on the road, or at home. When people I talk to ask what carrier I'm with, I say Vodafone, which is invariably followed with, "Oh, I see", in an understanding, sympathetic tone. It's embarrassing sometimes.

TXT messages are rarely an issue, and I communicate mostly via that method, but I know I use txt's more that I would normally because I feel like making a call is just too painful if I'm worried about call quality when I'm calling a customer, for example. I'm only 6 months in business and I've been using pre-pay, but now I need to go on a plan due to pre-pay costing me the earth, and then some. I've delayed going on a plan purely due to concerns with being stuck in a 2 year contract and having rubbish service.

Since Vodafail came into existence, I've bee keeping an eye on quality issues and I can confidently say, there are two main issues for me. 3G internet can be slow to start and transfer a few kilobytes of data (I only check Gmail and my business mail), and call quality is mostly abysmal.

Thanks to the publicity surrounding Vodafail, I now know those issues are widespread and I assume I'm similar to many people in thinking those issues were symptomatic of not being with Telstra, or other larger telco.

I used to work in a call center for Telecom NZ, so I instinctively knew calling to complain would be a waste of breath and time as call centers and their staff are not set up to deal with such issues. Besides, the 45 minutes it took the last time I called Vodafone to sort out a simple roaming issue was an extremely painful 45 minutes of my life, so I rarely call Vodafone unless I have a really simplistic inquiry!