Both my internet and phone are with vodafone, and im having major reception issues. People try to ring me when i am at home and cant get through to me as i am "unavailable or phone is switched off" Which i know is not the case.

Yesterday afternoon, I made 4 calls to Vodafone customer care (1555) to raise my concern over my mobile phone reception coverage.
1st call - I used the key pad prompts but failed to find one that satisfied my complaint and so chose my account. I was then advised I would have to call back later as Lara had experienced a problem....
2nd call - I was on hold for over 30 minutes when my call was answered however my reception cut out and the call ended. I have really bad coverage in inner Sydney...
3rd call - I went through the options again and when I was placed on hold, the reception cut out again and my call ended.... steaming mad...
4th call - I am now home. I began calling Vodafone when I left work, One hour ago exactly. I have hung up the call at 18 minutes on hold.
I tried to go to thewebsite to ask someone to call ME and had sooo much trouble trying to find a way to contact vodafone directly! It seems they have put everything in place so that we solve our own problems instead of bothering THEM!
Their service levels have dropped, phone coverage has dropped, but my call charges haven't... I think it's a breach of contract.. LET ME OUT!!!

I'll keep this short because I'm fairly hot headed right now. Been having trouble with ALL vodafone services (sales, upgrades, instore staff, connections, data, phones, you name it) for the past 2 years. I've been patient. When NO texts that I sent over Christmas were received I calmly put it down to networks being over-run. 11 days later they still haven't been received. Neither have the v/mails I have left or apparently recieved. and NOW my future wife will not talk to me because I am an"uncaring and un-emotional (insert expletive)". Why??? Because I don't return her missed calls - that don't come through, and I don't reply to her texts - I do, they just aren't received. Oh and apparently I'm having an affair because I get texts from total strangers at all hours of the night. Really frustrated and really want Vodafone to sort itself out so I can go back to living a normal life.

there isn't actually a tel-co in the world that doesn't have customers experiencing issues with coverage, usually about 3%-5% of customers, a small percentage, and would make sense nothing works perfect, in Vodafone's case 5% would equate to over 400 thousand people! Much more than registered for the class action and 400 x the amount of complaints here!

Think it needs to be put into perspective!

its the same thing that happens all the time i get constent messages from vodafone saying thati hav insufficient funs wen i hav ova $50 credit, also i cant seem 2 hav enough reception wen i need it.

I had no reception for 2 days. I went back to the store 4 times and they just kept changing my sim card, still it didn't work. In the end I got fed up and just waited it out. Im in the middle of the city for work, you think vodafone would at least get there City coverage sorted!....and lets not get into the work calls I missed during these two days! Also; I still had had to pay the full amount of my CAP plan even theough I had no phone service. Way to go with your customer care Vodafone.

the network coverage is shit im only 100 meters away from a vodafone store where i got my new phone and i can't get coverage... not to mention my new phone is now not working and had to be sent away for repairs.... and i paid my first bill... after that i have not recived another bill it has been 4 months they have not called not texted not cut me off they don't want my money...
i left telstra because of there bad service now im with vodafone i get BAD SERVICE AND BAD COVERAGE is there a telco out there that will look after its customers??????? mabye we should all donate money and build owe own!!!!!!

I have a two year mobile internet contract with TRANSACT which uses vodafone network. In the past few months, the drop out rate is sometimes every few minutes and when it is on it's so slow that it's practically useless. Hello TRANSACT, are you going to do something about it or do I have to go outside the ACT to get a decent service???
5 Jan 2011 10:29:52 AM: transact do need to life their game a bit, i went in the transact store and they just wanted to blame Vodafone and wouldn't help me with my bill saying i need to speak to them!

But they cant help me i'm not with Vodafone i'm with transact, if i have a problem with my OPTUS home phone i don't go to TELSTRA just cause OPTUS use their lines!

Transact Fail! when are transact customers gonna get their on website for problems, or are we just being ignored by Adam!
Reply

I'm trying to run a bussiness and it doesn't help that phone calls are not being received or phone calls keep dropping out. My phone reception constantly says 'searching' and the only way to get recption back is to turn the phone off and turn it back on again. I am not receiving texts to say that I have received a voicemail and have to constantly check my voicemail to see if there are any messages. So frustrating! I went to see Telstra about changing over but I am currently on a contract plan which will cost a ridiculous amount to break the contract!

I have recently moved to Tweed Heads and I have never had such a drama with vodafone. I am on a contractand it seems at 6pm everynight I lose all reception for about 3 hours I cant get any calls and then the next day at about 9am I receive voicemail messages form the night before. I tried to call customer service using the 1511 number and it wont connect. So I have to call the 1300 number and they said there is no service in my area to call the 1511 number. But when I tried calling from a pre paid number it works fine. Then when I get my bill at the end of the month there is a $20 call on it to them because I was on hold for 20 minutes at a time. I have been with vodafone for 10 years and it seems they only want to reward new customers and give nothing to customers that have been loyal to them.

Also they have stopped taking the money out by direct debit without my knowledge and sending me reminder bills in the mail demanding I pay the bill.

They really need to sort themselves out

We have been with vodafone for 16months now, and i have had nothing but problems from day one. Problems from vodafone billing us incorrectly, charging us for calls which are part of our cap, right up to the last 3-4 months of rediculous service.
Vodafone have said to adjust a couple of phone settings to try to help the service, Yeah right.... still in same situation. we even went as far as getting our new phone serviced to make sure i even resorted back to using my older phones to see which one makes a difference. nothing....

we operate our business from a home office, and i cannot believe the amount of times my phone will search for a network, or i can be working away and not realising that i have had not reception for half the day, until a call will come through and say where have you been?

we were promised a good deal without affecting our service. i am so over Vodafone and their rubbish promises. they can shove it where it fits.
if you can't deliver what you promise, an international company like vodafone, then you should release your customers, not suck anyone else into your pathetic company and shut your doors!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hae had a number of people tell me they have rung me and my phone is off or out of reception. My phone uis always on, I did an experiment, every night at home I get my wife to ring my phone whilst we are both home. My phone always says it has reception, in the last month about 40% of the time she has gotten the message that my phone is off out of reception. Depsite me sitting next to here with my phone on and with it displaying that it has reception. I have forwarde these results to vodafone, as yeat no response.

Little or no reception in an area that had reasonable coverage (being my reason to switch to VodaF for the better coverage) until a 'network outage' one week. Then no more reasonable coverage, actually no coverage basically. Calls dropping out out constantly, not being able to make calls due to poor reception. The big thing here was before the outage it was good and was never a problem.

I travelled to mid north coast for two days and had absolutely no coverage! Not even Coffs harbour..now I am back on the Gold Coast and a day later the reception has not returned Website wont accept my details either

I only signed up for vodafone a couple of months ago because they seemed to be able to offer 'cheap' dataplans without a contract. Now wish I hadn't ...

Even though I live and work in Metropolitan Sydney where coverage should be OK if you believe their map, the service is dismal.

- Receiving Calls: I keep on 'missing' calls. I can reproduce this: Even when my phone says it is on 3G with full coverage bars, sometimes when I call it with another phone, it just goes straight to the 'blablabla unavailable' message. I don't get a missed call on my phone nor do I get a text or anything about a call being missed

- Making calls: Even right in the center of town I need to almost stand still to successfully complete a call without being dropped. Entering a building or walking through an arcade or something will drop the call almost every time.

- Data coverage: With full 3G and all coverage bars I regularly get timeouts on opening webpages. Even when it doesn't time out, a speedtest shows my internet to be a dismal 150Kbit (about 25 times slower than my other Telstra SIM on the same phone). I have given up relying on my emails coming in on my vodafail SIM as they often don't arrive until half a day after they are actually in my mailbox.

- Coverage: This is what baffled me most. I drove over the blue mountains to Orange the other day. Only an hour out of Sydney, I lost complete reception never to get it back. In Orange I could not get any reception yet shops on the high street were still selling Vodafone plans - How do they do it ?

All the above didn't seem to deter from Vodafone sending me a $270 bill on my $39 cap for my first month. I have blocked my direct debit and will do everything I can not to pay this bill.

I guess I am luckier than most of you guys as I am not on a contract so I can (and will) just port my number to a decent provider.

All the best for people fighting to get out of their contracts - No consumer this day and age should put up with this sort of service !

I just want to cancel my month to month mobile broadband contract due to rubbish reception and it dropping out all the time and I was on hold for 1 hour and then the operator told me he did not have the authority to cancel the contract and a member of the 'cancellation team' had to call me back. How ridiculous. Im still waiting for the call. Looks like another hour or so on the phone.

I live just outside liverpool in Sydneys west and there isn't a bar of reception at all!! I'm on a $79 cap and i'd be lucky to use $20 of it. If I'm lucky I might get one bar for 5 minutes and thats it. My contract ends in March and when it does i'll never go with Vodafone again they suck!!

We own 3 businesses and in all three business locations there is no Vodaphone reception. The vodaphone technical department has acknoweldged that it is a problem and said we should cancel our plan which involves 10 phones. The trouble is we can not get in contact with the business cancellations department to cancel. Good-one Vodaphone.

There 3G is now working again (morning of 5th of Jan) in the Ryde area after being slow since 23rd of dec, NSW. Download speeds are back to normal of around 300KB/s (3Mbps) on USB sticks and iPhone 4. It is annoying that you cant get a straight story from the call centre, they must have no access to any network monitoring or status, or Vodafone itself have no way of monitoring their network.

going to telstra today. might be a bit expensive, but at least have full coverage at my place, and NO DROP OUTS.
bye bye vodafail...

my calls seem to drop out all the time now and my service seems to have weakend a shit load since they got into bed with 3g Hutchison, u would think that by growing larger that the network would grow big and better but we guess wrong fucken stubid i say, oh and u ring up vodafone and u get the run around and then for them to turn around and say i guess u need to up grade u your mobile fone but in fact i have the last Ifone so what the fuck is going on there

Vodaphone's arm, 3G, has been out of service for a week or so, cannot connect to mobile broadband, and even if u can, it is so slow it is unworkable. Call Centre people cannot tell u wot is happening, all they can say is something about network problems with outages. This should have been fixed in a day or two, not over a week, and problem is still occuring. Imagine all the businesses, and people on 3G who can't connect for over a week already !!!!!

Hey Vodafone,

You know the amount of advertising your pumping into the cricket? Well bugger that and use that money to fix your f@!#%$ network!

Want Poor Service? Want Bad Mobile Broadband? Want Horrible Customer Support? Want a Terrible Experience over-all?

Switch to Vodafone!

You got it! (Insert that music from the advertisement)

vodafone what are you doing!!
i try to recharge and have to call 11 times because the connection fails,
i try to send a message which in many cases has failed on several occassions or continues to defer sending.
I have reception but cannot make calls, i wouldnt want to be in an emergency being connected to vodafone.
That is all.

I Live on the gold coast and I have been using vodafone for the past 8years.
I have never had so many problems with these guys since the last few years .
Phone has no reception at hame have to go outside and use it and we have a little baby which means we have to take her outside while on the phone n ot good.
Phone sometimes calls other times just sit's and does nothing.
This is getting worse everyday
I use my phone for work Well when it wants to work which i would say is about 30% of the time.
Not good enough vodafone.....

Am at the airport and have just noticed how much advertising vodafone has done here. Every trolley and sign have the vodafone name and logo on it and the thought occurred to me, if vodafone spent just half of what they do on advertising on fixing the problems with the sad sad network life would be so much better. As this thought occurred to me I reached for my dads relates iPhone to share it on vodafail as I have no service in the airport.

My data connection either times out, says it can't connect to server or won't get online. Wasting my money and time. Not Impressed Vodafail! (This was in the city too!) Had numerous calls drop out on the F3 and crappy reception on Mona Vale Rd. Not to mention poor Data reception from the City to Pennant Hills Rd via M2/LCT!!! Doing my head in!!!

I got 0 reception in Halls Gap, which, mind you is in the heart of the Grampians and attracts thousands of tourists a year. When I first went onto my plan the lady assured me that Vodafone gets 96% reception and would only drop out in the most obscure places. Hmmm well it doesn't seem that way to me.

This company is a joke, coverage on the mornington peninsula is a disgrace!!
Get 10 drop outs a day, anywhere between, frankston, mount eliza and mornington.
Don't get reception down towards sorrento much.

Telstra here we come!!

After 6 months of persisting with a third-world phone service with vodafone (calls going straight to voicemail even with full reception, constant dropouts especially that little bastard of a black spot in the eastern distributor in Sydney, non-existent or primitive internet speeds on 3G, text and picture messages arriving days late, almost constant "call failed" messages) and complaining about it with them and having nothing done, today after 6 hours of perseverence and threats of legal action, I finally had my contract cancelled and moved across to optus. this is after I lodged a complaint with the TIO.

My first attempt to cancel the contract at 9.30am this morning ended in an hour wait, and after finally getting through to someone and them transferring me to the disconnections department, the call dropping out. I then got a text message saying "we have tried calling you but cannot get through" which was the pinnacle of irony right there. My second attempt was a call that ended with "we are experiencing technical issues, try again later" and the call being disconnected. Called straight back, and left my number for a callback "within 30 mins". That callback happened several hours later.

When I finally did get put through to disconnections, originally I was told "we need to investigate the fault and you need to provide 3 examples of proof where these errors have happened, and this will take 7 days". when i turned around and threatened legal action on the basis that I run a restaurant business off my phone and every customer who attempts to book a table with me and cant will be documented and I would sue for loss of income, the rep yielded and said he would cancel my contract, however I would need to return my phone for them to cancel the contract! my plan had 6 months left, I replied by saying I would do no such thing and that given all the issues I had been having, the least vodafone could do was cut me loose and let me keep the phone for my troubles. After more insistence, he turned around and said "we will cancel your contract and you can keep the phone, however you will not be able to port your number across" which completely smacked of slash and burn. Again I told him he will do no such thing as my number was the business number that I use. Finally he said "ok, contract is cancelled, port across and when you get your final bill we will waive all charges once you call me and talk to me."

I was absolutely disgusted with their entire level of conduct over the whole thing. Never was an apology forthcoming, never would he listen to me unless I threatened legal action on Vodafone. I dont see a rosy future for Vodafone, they are as bad as 3 were when I wanted to cancel my service with them years ago when I was out of contract (the guy at 3 tried every trick to keep me on board even telling me that blackberry phones were "crap" to get me to use the motorola equivalent and stay with 3).

Never again will I use Vodafone, and I suggest to people having issues to lodge a complaint with the TIO and FIGHT HARD for having your contract cancelled. Dont take no for an answer, the people in cancellations have the authority to cancel contracts on the spot, DONT be abusive but DO threaten legal action and recovery of all costs and monies lost due to their failed excuse for a telecommunications service, and again DONT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER!.

No reception though my phone will display full coverage, was told they would investigate and even received sms confirming this, was told they would call me back in 5 days time and that was 15/12/10 and still nothing, worst mistake I ever did was go to vodafone and I will NEVER use any of there products again

I have two iPhone's with VF and pay over $200 a month for the service. To call it a service is a joke. More than 60% of the time my phone simply reads NO NETWORK!! I have spend hours on the phone with them and their response to transfer me to the network team to see how the coverage can be improved in my area. VF customer support will tell you they are working on it on an individual basis... but does seeing how coverage can be improved in an entire area seem 'individual' to you? One iPhone had to go in for repair and I was told it had to be tested at a store so the nearest VF or 3 store is over 500km's from my home. When at the store they told me it didn't have to be tested and I could have sent it in...hmmm. I was promised 3G but then told I will only ever get Edge where I live and coverage in this area, which is a major regional area is horrible. The hospital, downtown, the schools, supermarkets are all dead zones. I have an iPhone 3GS and an iPhone 4 and I have given up trying to make a call. When on a call now it drops every minute or so and I am constantly trying to call the person back only to have the call fail for the next 10 minutes...good thing it isn't an emergency. The ironic thing is many of the people I can't call are also on the VF network. I have gone to the TIO because I am paying for a service that is not close to being acceptable. VF have another week to contact me regarding my TIO complaint but I bet if I didn't pay my bill I would hear from them quickly. I will pay my bill but I am headed to Telstra (Im afraid to go to Optus in case I have similar problems) even though it is more expensive it will work out cheaper in the long run since I will actually be able to make a call. I am beyond frustrated with them and I will accept nothing less than to be free of my commitment to them since they have seen fit to free themselves of their commitment (providing service) to me. They can have my iPhones, and whatever else I have to send back but I am done playing this one sided game with them where I do all the work.

I have been a vodafone customer for years. never been really happy but the cap was cheap. recently signed onto a contract, and a new phone. I now seem to never have reception and never receive messages and calls on time. I called vodafone several times regarding this and was put through to the call centre in india. there were many issues with this as communication was an issue. when i finally got my poin across they performed an investigation in which i never heard the result of after being told they will call me in a weeks times. now it seems i cant get onto people who understand my issue once again. ARGH its so frustrating!!

Have been with Vodafone for years. I have to stand in the middle of the street, literally, to be able to get mobile reception. When I look down my street and see some other poor soul there talking on their mobile - I KNOW they are with Vodafone. Pathetic coverage - Australia wide. Should have their licence withdrawn.

I paid $79.00 for a mobile broadband starter pack. The browsing speed is slower than the original dial up speed from years ago. It is a waste of time trying to use the net. Bye bye $79.00.
I have a friend who joined Vodaphone mobile two weeks ago and he is yet to make a call that hasn't dropped out.
My daughter joined vodaphone mobile about 6 weeks ago and says the coverage is hopeless'
This is outright theft under another name.
The problems are still happening today, 4th January. Nothing has been fixed.

We have signed up for Vodafone mobile broadband service and some days can not connect - error message stating no service available yet their coverage map well and truely covers the areas we have tried. When we do connect we are often connected at dial up modem speeds, very frustrating. Vodafone are taking our money yet not providing the service we have paid for. Don't bother contacting their call centre, you'll only get the run around and more frustrated. Appears to be a deliberate ploy by Vodafone to use over seas call centres where english is spoken poorly. The govt should take action against Vodafone.

I've come to the conclusion they dont give a damn! Been using Vodafone for over 2 years and it has been consistently crap. Their ideal modus operandi is to churn out their $2 sim cards and phone credits while leaving a couple of answering machines as their only form of customer service. Burn in hell Vodafone!!

5 days into a 2 year contract,no reception,drop outs etc etc 4 hrs on to customer care for 3 hangups and a transfer to a hangup.I suggest no one pay bills, port numbers to serious companies and let the court decide who broke the contract.

All three of my daughters and myself have vodaphone. We loved the prices and the service. But we cannot use our phones at our home. The only way to stop the drop outs is to put the phone on a surface and use speaker to talk. You only have to touch the phone to lose reception. We are in a major town in north Qld and should not have these problems. We can see the tower from our house.

wELL its simple i have no reception at Tuggerah NSW 2261. i run a Detailing business and have had to buy a prepaid number with optus so i can recieve calls and gain business. Has something gone wrong with thier coverage cause it was alot better than this. its just dropped off all of a sudden. Im over it wish i was Telstra or is it better the devil you know?? Please sought your issue out its costing me money!!! rant done!

i signed up to vodafone and after 3 days of no reception i cancelled they took 6 days to port my number to optus and have now billed me for $1000 early dissconnection fee i have rang vodafone 5 times and was on hold for over an hour each time and no one answered the call at all so i gave up and will now go to ombudsman

Can't pay my bill online ( error msg everytime!) or through the 1555 no. As it keeps dropping out every 5 seconds!! This network is useless! ACMA, release the spectrum, so other networks can work!

I rang Vodafone, about 2 months ago to make a complaint and I all they gave me was a $20 discount off my monthly plan. I'm on a $69 per month plan and I'm not even able to use the internet 50% of the time as it's just so slow. The worst part of the service are call drop outs and no coverage around my area which is 15ks to Sydney. I went for a bushwalk in Lane Cove national park and couldn't even get coverage and by the way the M2 was just above me while I was walking and also got lost, google map would not work of course as there was no coverage. I've had it with them, I need HELP, what is my next step?

I live in Sydney, like 15mins from the CBD - you would think that'd mean reasonable coverage!! But my calls are constantly dropping out! I assume it's just me, and i'm complaining too much, so I ignore it, and get internet thru them as well. CONSTANTLY disconnecting!! Have to keep turning the "pocket wi-fi" modem off, and then reconnect, as it seems to just drop out!
Thanks voda!! I have been a loyal customer for 5 yrs, even convincing friends to join the network...never again will I be recommending voda to someone!!

Lack of reception. Live in Brisbane, 10 minutes from the city - Lack of reception, call drop outs - Not happy. Went to west Sydney over the New Year weekend - No reception - Not happy.

when I tried to ask for the disconnections team the customer care rep told me all about the network congestion caused by three merger. But it would be all fixed ASAP. I asked when ASAP was and he said the end of the month. He then said that I was a valued customer and they would hate to see me leave and all that rubbish. He have me a $30.00 account credit. When I said that I am not interested in an account credit he said he would transfer me through. Put me on hold for 5 mins the came back and said due to a technical problem he cant transfer me and I would have to try again later.

I have been with vodafone for the last 8 years and all was good till i upgraded my phone and renwed my plan the troubles started to show with no network reception so i went i finally convinced them to swap the phone and after 3 phones and trys i have chosen to get another type which worked good for the first 2 months and then i found my self loosing the network signal everywhere even in wide open spaces i never thougt that it might be vodafones problem,i thought it was the LG mobile,but now i know that it is their problem i dont know what to do,i have been paying my bills on regular basis,

Please do not come into a Vodafone store and harass staff!
We understand that there are network issues atm and instore we can try and help our customers as much as we can. But at the same time our only point of contact is sometimes also our customer care team and we have limited resources to help try and fix coverage problems.
Customers need to understand that for example many areas require newer or more towers in order to improve congested network, which is then an issue faced by VHA when there are council petitions to stop their construction from residents. With a growing populations, increase of data use, and the merging of two hugh australian telecommunication companies, there is always going to issues.
The merging of two hugh australian networks will ultimately be of benefit to consumers. VHA are investing literally millions of dollars and increasing the teams of people to try and improve these issues.
But please do not come into a store taking your anger out on employees. There have been several scary instances where i have wanted to walk out on my job because of the pressure customers are putting on staff instore. Employees will be as understanding as possible but we won't tolerate abuse or harrassment.

Went in store today and told the girl, i couldnt go on facebook anymore it just wont load the site or let me log in when it does (which is rarely) internet is as slow as a snail. i cant get reception anywhere, i used to be able to get it in my house up until like a month ago, every call drops out, etc etc and what was her response? "its the sim i'll give you a new one"
WOW THANKS. didnt help.

the network not cover and no data down load and cut off on the phone call, I have make many complated but no response to me the not work make me lost a lots of business phone call I lost a lots of customers on this few months my business drops more the 50% I called vodaphone and complanted many time they never fix the problem

Severe lack of network coverage in Brighton Vic, Newcastle NSW, Regents Park QLD and Albany creek QLD.... what am i paying for??? Have spent 3 weeks and a total of 7 hours trying to get through to customer service on 1555 and 1300 650 410 only to be stuck on hold for over an hour then cut off before my call is answered or constant recorded announcements advising "We seem to have experienced a technical difficulty and you will have to call back"..... HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!!!!!! I will be released from my contract if they dont want be sued black and blue!!!!!!!!!!

no reception, drop outs when u do get reception, late texts and voicemail, phone on and appartently with reception calls go straight to voicemail. oh and for 12mths with voda have never received a bill even tho i have requsted several times and confirmed it is set up. and as far as their call centre forget it unless u got 2hrs to spare and even then u prob get nowhere. and cant change voicemail settings. 3g virtually non existant.

no reception and drop outs sick of it. cant wait to go back to telstra. yeah they cost more but u get what u pay for. 12 more months stuck on contract grrrrrr !

Ok first let me say this:

I am a vodafone Customer AND Employee (no - not one of the ones that can fix ur issues or give u discounts) Im not trying to pretend that vodafone has the best reception but god damn its cheap!! You want the best reception? go to telstra and pay $149 a month for what vodafone will include for $79. How come all these complaints only started on that saturday when the phones dropped off. If service is as bad as you all say it is why not complain earlier? Why not try to exit the contract within the first month? Im quite confident in saying that 90% of these complaints are just people trying to get out of thier contracts and get a new phone because they heard it was possible.

Flame me if you want but someone needed to say it.

i switched from telstra to vodafone about 6 months ago and have regreted it every day. I may have a full bar of reception and be on a phone call with someone on a land line but half way though our conversation it drops out. This happenes at least twice a day. It ends up costing me because i need to call back when every this happens. I to have contacted vodafone several times, once i was onhold for an hour, and nothing has worked. I get the same notification saying that my network has been lost and i have to search for this which takes time. Its extremly frusting as my job requires me to be contactable. People have complained about trying to call me and apparently my phone is off when i know for a fact hat it has been on! As soon as my contract is up, i am changing from vodafone and i am never coming back!!!!

I was recently given the IPhone 4 as a gift but it's on a Vodafone plan which is cheaper than the other phone providers and now I know why. The signal is terrible, the phone breaks up everywhere, and I live in the Gold Coast - it's not as though its the outback! I am unfortunately locked into this plan for 24 months and don't want to pay for 2 years of bad coverage; very slow internet (when it works) and delayed voicemail. The chances of getting out of this plan seem very slim. I would be willing to pay higher phone bills for a better service. Thanks for setting this up - it's scary to see how many disgruntled customers there are.

PLEASE SEE BELOW MY RECENT E-MAIL TO VODAFONE:

I have already made calls regarding the extremely bad network coverage I am experiencing from Vodafone! Some of the problems include constant call drop outs, Messages taking 5+ days to be received if the come through at all ( this includes Voicemail, Text and MMS), Poor Customer Service etc.

I am loosing thousands of dollars in Business due to clients not being able to contact me, or if they leave a message I am not receiving it on time. I have been into the Vodafone stores and no one can help. I had previously tried contacting technical support but do not have the time to be sitting on the phone for hours, until Friday the 31st of December 2010. On this date I first tried calling 1555, from my mobile after waiting on the phone 15mins the call dropped out I tried a further 10 times, only to face the same issue! I then used a landline and selected the callback option, the woman that eventually called me back asked for my reason for calling and I explained the situation, she was going to transfer me through to Technical Support, but she too had Technical difficulties and offered to call me back, I am still awaiting the Call!!!

I then rang and waited on the phone to be put through and finally got through to technical support after over an hour and a half on the phone, to be asked to switch my phone on and off, place the sim in another unlocked handset, which still had the same results poor service only 1-2 bars as measured by the handsets but call failures if calls are attempted!

I then rang again this morning and spoke to an arrogant gentleman, who when I explained that I now wish to terminate the Vodafone contract because of the poor customer service and Poor Network Coverage etc etc etc, he decided that rather than talking to me and trying to resolve the problem he would terminate the call.

I rang back again and after 25mins on hold spoke to another gentleman, he said he could see that I had called on Friday etc I explained I need something done about it sooner rather than later as I return to work tomorrow and need a phone! He said he would try chasing it up and call back within half an hour I am still waiting on the edge of my seat for this call as well!

I have kept my side of the contract agreement, as I have every month paid the $100-$150. As I am not able to use the phone due to extremely bad network coverage I will be terminating my contract and I will NOT be paying any further monies, as I am not getting what I paid for now! I have tried going through the right channels i.e. Technical support, however after talking to some of the belligerent, arrogant staff that you call service technicians, not to mention the unhelpful staff in the Vodafone stores, I wish to terminate the contract! Due to the poor dealing of this situation by Vodafone I have contacted the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, and will be contacting the ACCC.

If someone would like to contact me regarding the Issues I have outlined, please feel free.

Several times a day i go without service! i always get a notification on my phone saying 'network lost' and then i have to spend around 5 mins each time searching for my network. As im doing this i go without receptions. Sometimes i will look at my phone for the time or something and i will have no service! ive contacted vodafone so many times and i always end up being on hold for 30 mins or so and to make it worse, most of the time, my service drops out half way through the conversation. They never call me back and then i just have to waste another half an hour of my work time on hold to vodafone!


Saturday the 11th of December when I had no service at all for a few hours, were they gave us free calls as an apology.

Very poor signal Calls drop out. 3Gnetwork is so slow. Phone is on but calls are getting diverted to voicemail which is frustrating as I think my phone is on and why no is calling me. And the list goes on.

very poor customer service , but most off all the worst network coverage i have ever had to deal with, places like my office desk are now drop out zones ,its like going back it time, way back !

NO reception in Forest Lake! Totally unacceptable!!

those working for vodafone must find the 'receiving text messages hours after they'd been sent' game such an entertaining one, as they just continue to play. same with the 'lets take several minutes to load a simple webpage' game and the 'complete reception dropout in the most metropolitan and central of locations' game.
it must be time for this disgrace of a telco company to realise that us consumers aren't so entertained.

I've gone by for 3 months putting up with bad reception and multiple missing texts. Yes, I've tried to call them numerous times, got nowhere like most people and have given up bothering. I'm now just waiting to go use Telstra the second this contract ends.

I just went to the Hunter Valley for a few days break. I don't expect excellent coverage when I go 'rural' but I didn't have reception for about 95% of the entire trip.

At one point during the trip I got a call from a private number, I answered immediately then it just cut out the second I picked up. Then I get a text saying that Vodafone had just tried to call me re: my complaint (from a few weeks back) and to give them a call back.

I wondered if it cut out because of the bad reception or if that is their tactic to call you back then hang up the second you answer so they can say "Well we tried!"

Over the last few months, I just feel like they have used every single trick in the book to avoid talking to me.

Completely unacceptable.

I live in the outer part of the Perth Metro (no more then 30 minutes from the CBD and according to vodafone its a covered area) and for the last few months i'm lucky to get reception; it drops out all the time. I can be sitting in my room and at one end of my bed get perfect reception and then move to the other end of my bed (so no more then a 1 meter away) and lose reception! Same thing happens at my work as well and if I want to use contact in the swan valley/the vines area I have to borrow a friends phone cause these area don't have reception even though they as well are "covered coverage" areas!
Then again it doesn't matter where I am, I can be in subi and i'll have no reception, while my friend who has the exact same phone but with a different carrier has perfect reception, so I know its not a phone problem, its Vodafone!
So glad that my plan runs out in a few months time, already found the company and plan that i'm changing to and going to complain like mad to vodafone to be let out of the contract early and for free!

This is becoming a joke recieving txt messages the day after or not at all. Calls going straight into voicemail. Calls dropping out and then not being able to call again due to no reception.

I miss out on important calls all the time because of vodafone's bad reception
and instead of getting texts when I should they come like 3 hours later because it is always roaming!!!!

Delayed voice and text messages. Calls drops out. Calls go straight to voicemail without ringing. Phone often has no service whatsoever. Slow internet, or no internet coverage at all.

Called many times, explained my situation many times, only to be put on hold for ages. (am on hold now, have been waiting for over an hour)

Want to end my contract with Vodafone. Looking for a way out but can't get through!!!

We have 2 mobiles connected to Vodafone, one on an unlimited plan as it is used for business and we didn't have a home phone or internet connection - until now! I was forced to connect a home phone and internet service due to Vodafone being totally unreliable with their service. Vodafone's response to my emails of complaint were blase about the coverage problems and slow data - so I was forced to complain to the TIO.

customer service waiting 66mins no answer.3 have transferred me over to vodafail as there reception was terrible now i have none at all as both opertations and technicians have no idea,i call on all to cancel there direct debit cards and payments to them and let them fight for there money which surely they should be intitled to none.call the ombusdman.4 days on phone and driving in circles and nothing resoloved

I run my business through my mobile! The vodaphone rep explained to me that 3 and vodaphone are merging and therefore the reception would be the same. What a joke! How do I get out of this contract after being misled? No one seems to care or be willing to help!!

No coverage for my phone or internet. Have recieved a $160 bill for a phone I havn't been able to use for a month and I am on a $65 cap so would like to know how they work that one out!! have sent several emails and tried to call numerous times and no reply!!!

Have emailed to Vodafone dealer re account and coverage isues, still waiting for response two weeks on

realy lousy coverage and late delivery of messages, both text and voice. Also acciunts do not seem to add up all the time with bills stated as overdue, when amount paid shows as credit for the following bill.

I have to turn my phone off and off again for it to get any kind of reception if i've been in a 'No Service' area. Funnily enough, that happens to be my house, where people who are on other providers have no problems at all. Grrrr.

Rang them to complain of no reception in an area, which there website clearly shows as covered, only to be told by vodafone staff that it's not covered according to "their" maps. And so to cancel my contract I need to pay a cancellation fee... bs to that.

Changed from 3 to Vodafone a month ago so as to get an iphone 4 and have had absolutely no problems at all it has been fantastic. No dropped calls, no missed txt msgs, excellent reception and download speeds, immediate reply from txts sent locally and to family in Europe and the UAE. Spoke to the customer service section once as the guy at the store entered my email address incorrectly in my account details and they were friendly, helpful and efficient. Seems very strange after reading all the problems others seem to be having. Feeling quite put out that my experience has been excellent!

HD DESIRE - 65 unlimited plan.

Vodaphone discovered a new way to limit my unlimited plan - give crap coverage, call dropouts, delayed voicemail, delayed sms, patchy internet speeds.

My bars go from 3 down to 2 down to 1 and then no service - wihtout changing postion in a matter of 4 seconds - WTF.

I do not have a home phone or internet so i rely 100% on my Vodafone mobile. I have been with them for over 13 years and am so disappointed. I live by myself with a young baby and i am constantly having to run to the backyard to get any sort of reception. Not to mention that no one can call me as the phone has to be left out there!!! Surely there's a solution, this is really unacceptable!

i live in Thornlie, WA. Approx 18kms from the CBD. i have one spot on my property where i can go to and make and recieve calls on my mobile phone. Even in this one spot my phone still gets cut off, or it does not connect or reception just drops out for not reason at all. I only have one bar out of 5 for reception, i could understand if i was living in Dalwallinu (250kms north of Perth) but not when i live in a capital city. We go to Mandurah about once a month to visit my wife's parents, who live in Dawesville, again little to no reception there either. Bad, bad, bad, and very frustrating.

I have been with vodafone for 12 years and have been with the mobile broadband service for 9 months. I've been on the phone to them 5 times now at 30 minute call rate and they have done nothing to resolve my problems with my Internet not working for the past month and my phone calls dropping out and the poor coverage. It's an absolute disgrace and I can't understand how they can hold me in contract that is not providing it's contract services. NOT HAPPY JAN

No network coverage in Sydney 3:30 on a Tuesday ok again after about 30 mins
SMS's not arriving or arriving late/delayed
SMS voicemail function not working.

I never get my voicemail on time. my reception cuts from full bars to no bars to no service. i cant use the internet as much as it keeps cutting out. I cant make calls all the time as it wont go through even with full reception. My SMS's come days later and when i sent a txt it gets to the other person days later or never!! So frustrating!

Standing in the middle of Redcliffe I can only get 2-3 bars of reception at the most. Even when it says I have 3 bars of 3G reception, a simple web page takes many minutes to load. It's ridiculous. Also ridiculous is the fact that nobody can call me at night when my phone is right next to my bed!! The reception goes from 1 bar to nothing. It is So frustrating, especially when Vodafone USED to be very reliable.

Hi I have moved to South Australia in October and I have no coverage for my Phone, I have tried calling many times, but I was put on hold for hours and I once happened to speak to someone in India and he said if there is no coverage they will cancel the account, but they also asked me a exit fee.I have 2 mobile number with Vodafone and the other number is with one of family member who leaves in ACT and we signed up with Vodafone as it was free call between us. Vodafone coudn't provide any solution to me and I have lost lot of my business contacts as they were calling on my Mobile and also I am unable to speak to my family member which is very important for me daily. I have been trying to find a solution for more than 2 months nothing much has happened. I had go with another provide and transfer my number.

Customer service and service coverage is a disgrace. I urge customer not to pay their bills till they have brought service up to the standard they say they deliver.

I paid many many many many many months of UNUSED mobile broadband because I could NOT use it. Not because I didnt want to use it.

Many attempted calls, went in circles at call centres - they make it too hard so you just give up.

They just kept taking my direct debit each month. 24 months of DEAD MONEY gifted to vodafone.

As soon as my phone contract finishes this month I will go to another provider. Im not even going to start on the reception of my phone. Somewhat usable however compared to unable to be used internet for 2 years.

Our small business was told by the Vodafone sales guy that their coverage was 98% of the country's population and Telstra's was 99%. We went with Vodafone because they were cheaper. We soon found out that they were literally cheaper. In the last 12 months or so the dropouts and poor service has been a complete and utter nightmare and it is even worse for our Victorian manager. Dropouts in inner suburban areas is just not on. We have complained several times but like everybody else you just get nowhere. Now we find ourselves stuck in a contract with them for another 12 months and another 12 months of sheer frustration. Any suggestions for a solution to our predicament would be greatly appreciated.
PW. Gold Coast

I have a two year mobile internet contract with TRANSACT which uses vodafone network. In the past few months, the drop out rate is sometimes every few minutes and when it is on it's so slow that it's practically useless. Hello TRANSACT, are you going to do something about it or do I have to go outside the ACT to get a decent service???

Recently I went on a trip with some mates around Victoria. We were all with different providers.

Friend1 was with Telstra and had reception most of the time.
Friend2 was with Virgin and reception was not much different to Telstra
Friend3 was with Three and when '3' reception was unavailable it would go to the next available provider (e.g.Telstra)

Me - Vodafone had extremely poor reception. Why can't Vodafone set up there network to go to another available network when theirs is unavailable or unreachable? This would then probably provide regular logs for issues as they would have to pay the other providers when connections occur.

Another interesting point was that when I returned from traveling I checked the Vodafone coverage map and most of the areas that I had reception issues were apparently supposed to have coverage. It would appear that someone is not telling the truth about coverage and maybe it is time the TIO or the Federal Communications Minister stepped in to Audit Vodafone and ensure that they are telling the truth. The fact that a CEO can claim in the Apology that 'recent intermittent network issues that have impacted some of our Vodafone customers' indicates to me that they have no idea what lack of service has really been provided to their customers over a long period of time.

An observation about Vodafone (VF) coverage and peformance - we have been with VF for nearly 4 years and during that time we have observed that coverage has unquestionably and noticeably degraded. This despite the promises made by the staff when we re-signed after the 1st 2yr contract period. We are a business with 12 phones and we work throughout Victoria so we often experience no service/dropped calls and have several Telstra pre-paids which we use when working in these "no-go" areas. These "No-Go" zones are not diminishing - we still have the same problems today we had 4 years ago - what's worse is that we are experiencing more drop outs in local areas where we work and live - not to mention the 1 and 2 day old messages which lead to unhappy clients who you fear are thinking you might be fibbing when you tell them you didn't get their message for 2 days. We left Telstra after 10 years because they were incapable of stringing the words customer and service into the one sentence and were completely infexible to small business - we voted with our feet. Its nearing the time to vote again and we warming up the running shoes to make a fast getaway from VF - but where to go? The thought of going back to Telstra (despite their superior network) really chaps my hide and it seems from other peoples feedback that Optus is no better - Yuk!

Every so often I look at my phone and there is no metwork reception. I am in a known area (my home) that has worked without any issues for years. Lately I don't know why but the network keeps dropping out.

I phoned today to recieve some help in regards to International SMS. I am unable to send or recieve International SMS from my BB. I rang at 10:00am to wait for 1hr and be diverted to 3 different departments. When i FINALLY got to the last one - it cut out. Now i intially thought this was my fault. So i phone back and was made to wait 2hrs and be diverted to 3 departments again to be HUNG UP on a 2nd time. What is this pathetic level of customer service? I'd like to not only speak to someone from Australia, but i'd like them to actually HELP!! And to add to this, i sent a message to my brother yesterday and he did not recieve it until 2hrs later!! This is clearly not acceptable and is making me HIGHLY consider changing networks!!

I use my mobile for work and If anyone tries to call my phone it says it has reception but my phone doesnt ring. and i never receive my messages until hours later.

I WANT MY ACCOUNT TO BE CANCELLED SO I DONT HAVE ANY PROBLEMS AND HAVE NO CHARGES SO I CAN MOVE TO ANOTHER NETWORK WHO CAN EFFECTIVELY SERVICE MY NEEDS

Vodafone/3 network coverage map says that my new home is in an area with a full service. I'm lucky if I get to use the internet for 10 mins. My mobile phone drops out almost as regularly. I have just been to see the people in the shop and the assistant who dealt with me was super supportive and really fought on my behalf. As opposed to their technical help who told me that I needed a new pc operating system! I'm prepared to keep my mobile but I would like to have an internet connection. They have refused to cancel my 2 year contract which is only 10 months elapsed. Now I have to go through the hoops of switching to Vodafone to prove that that doesn't work, spend more money on monthly fees and getting more and more frustrated that I have no internet. Why can't they see that if I were getting a decent service, I wouldn't be in there complaining in the first place.

There is no 'best' network. A good network to one person may be the worst for another. It depends on where you live and the type of service you demand.

It's a good thing we live in a civilised country other most of the people here would be locked up.

Time for some balance to the discussion.

I have been on Vodafone pretty much since they started in Australia, using both voice and data, travelled overseas, and used vodafone in my business, as well for my family - (corporate and private).

Overall - i find them good - but not great - but honestly are the others any better??

So - first -The good.

1. 99% of the time i can make a call or use data when i need to.

2. Vodafone Business Support (and we only have six handsets - so we are not corporate by any stretch) - has never let me down. 'Consumer' assistance - 'Lara' is useful, but the rest is - in a word - a frustration.

I will also assume for the best part that Vodafone in Australia - unlike Telstra - have been able to optimally locate their Cell tower locations, unlike Telstra who needed to make use of their analog locations - which where sub-optimal for GSM.


But the not so Good.

1. i don't think i have ever - in more than 15 years - had good reception in any of the homes i have lived in - and others have shared similar stories - conclusion: Vodafone need to increase their output power somewhat.

2. Cell handover issues - as a regular - hands free whilst driving - user I can say that Vodafone have issues (and other may also) when a cell handover occurrs from 2G to 3G - with the result - dropped call.

3. Data on my phone - in some situations has been - just like the Telstra advert describes for 'other' networks.... hopeless.

Of late:

4. i have experienced the - delayed time to start call issues - that other have described.

5. Bitsy data - with my phone switching from HSDPA to 3G and back constantly - for some reason, and in most cases no traffic on 3G, only on the HSDPA - ??? Why did it need to change!


So in balance, i am not entirely happy with Vodafone, but choosing to stay with them out of loyalty, and better the devil you know that the one you don't. The comments of other Vodafail respondents having ill considered rants - are not helping - unless they are fact based, and constructive (having said that, i understand and relate to the frustration - but then changing providers is probably what you need to do.)

So, this has only made me less loyal, but not enough to change - yet! Who knows once everyone leaves vodafone, and they fix the network - they'll be the best network in Australia with very few using it.... food for thought.

I work for a retailer and am expected to be able to sell Vodafone along with other networks and have been having all sorts of bizarre issues like calling to activate a sim card and even after 3 days it not being activated.
I find it hard to even get decent service myself I have been with Vodafone and about 3 years ago switched to Virgin and their service is almost as bad, random outages, customer service treating me like the issues are my fault, not being able to send or receive SMS.

I see this happening with every one of the networks.
What the hell is going on with the Telco's in Australia I pay my bill every month how hard is it to provide me the service to send messages and to be able to make calls.

Not only did it take me four days to receive a picture via txt, even though I was in the same house as the person who sent it to me but the coverage continually drops and my phone can take up to 30 mins when playing a 'share game' to send the update. I NEVER had any of this trouble with 3. I hope when Vodaphone and 3 merge that we get 3's coverage.

I live in Berwick and on the train not only does data drop out but also voice recepetion several times. Every second call i make they can't here me and I need to redial. So 2 connection fees. Thanks! And why, when I ring Customer Service, do I feel that they either don't get it or just don't care!