I have for four days tried to reach Customer Service with regard to a Billing enquiry. The auomatic system is the only one that can provide details of amounts due in a previous bill - how to clarify anything such as regular payments or to set up automatic payment, the wai was quoted by the on hold message as being up to 50 minutes on each of the four days I tried and on each occasion i the four days I tried to contact the company. I an PISSED OFF !

I am only a VF mobile broadband internet user; i don't have a phone account with them. Yet everything I want to do - like close the account - can only be done, first off, by entering your Mobile number! So if you click on their link (only a popup, anyway, disappearing from one second to the next) to "Manage" your "Prepaid Mobile Broadband", you get straightaway asked to enter your VF mobile phone number before anything else can happen! Plain crazy and arrogant! So it seems like I have to phone them to get anywhere - which, by the sounds of it, is only a dive into a gelatinous hell.

First off, I signed up for a HTC legend on a $29 cap, and it was supposed to come with monthly 1GB free internet but this didn't happen. I was only getting 50mb a month, which led to my bills being way more than it should be. This was never resolved.

Secondly, upon purchasing and signing up I tried to log onto the vodafone website to manage my account online. It didn't work, and it seemed as if my number had already been registered. This took about a week to resolve after visits to vodafone stores and phone calls and online help.

Thirdly, I keep getting messages and calls looking for people who I presume; used to have this number.

Fourthly, just recently, reception has been nothing but fail. It started a couple of weeks ago where I had no reception for a couple of hours on a saturday. Now my messages struggle to get sent, people cannot seem to call me even when my reception bar is almost full, etc etc.

Lastly, I hear my information is very readily available to others due to Vodafone's poor security.

I feel that we deserve at least some sort of compensation, or termination of my plan.

Vodafone cut off my phone and gave my number to someone else in September. Someone at a senior level went into my account, cut off my number (ie disabled my account) and gave my number to a customer they were signing up. It took DAYS on hold - one day I was on hold for SIX hours to get through to some operator in India who then handballed me to various departments, and no one could help me. I couldn't call from my Vodafone - they'd cut my service. So had to tie up (And pay for) my landline to contact them about the mess they'd created.
Eventually I went into the local Vodafone shop - three days in a row - to use their phone. They were very helpful and they USED THEIR OWN PHONES AND PHONE CREDIT to get my number back.

I got my number back. They Vodafone billed me $460 for service cancellation!

I got the disconnection/contract cancellation charge reversed and I was told, as compensation, that I would get the following month free. The bill came in for that 'free' month at $463.00! I'm on a $29 cap!
I called again - only two hours on hold this time. I was told that the person who had authorised the month's free credit had left the company and left no notes. I pointed out that had been billed incorrectly ($7 to retrieve voicemail? Hello?) and after a few more hours on hold came back with an offer of $463 phone credit - but not get my money refunded nor would they agree to release me from my contract (I was over it by this stage) .
I agreed to the credit - about 15months worth.
The next day they debited $29 from my account - my monthly charge.
Added to this was an overseas trip when my roaming failed. I was unable to receive calls, conduct business or receive necessary text messages to do banking/book flights etc.

Vodafone has since agreed to refund ALL the money they've incorrectly taken from me - $463 plus $29 =$492. They said they could do this in 10 working days, which, after negotiation, I got down to five. The money hasn't come through yet - stay tuned. I asked again to be released from my contract but they refused.
I have yet to discuss with Vodafone compensation for distress, loss of income (I run my own business and spent days away from it at a crucial time trying to get my phone number back - which by the way was on all my business materials). The people on the front line - the ONLY human beings I was able to talk to face to face were at the retail outlet and did what they could to help... - what about their distress? I wasn't the first customer to come in with a service complaint.
If I could get out of my contract I would, and I if there's a class action happening, I'm in: (PERSONAL DETAILS REMOVED - Vodafail.com Team).

Jinny, NT

Omg I thought I was the only one but I'm not!
I'm in a situation where they want me to pay, get this, 500 odd dollars on usage which I "supposedly" used...like fuck that, I'm not paying half a grand! Who do they think they're fooling? I'm on a $29 cap for fuck's sake, honestly...I cannot comprehend how I could have used THAT much! It infuriates me, because when I went into a Vodafail outlet to get some help, all they could do was show me my bill and tell me that I've "evidently" gone over my cap. Yeah right, like $500 over, seriously? I don't even make international calls!
Now they've barred my phone from making outgoing calls/txts...bastards. They tell me that the only way the issue can be resolved is if I pay up...I refuse to. No way is my money going towards something which I didn't even pay for.

my details were accessed by a voda employee; phone number and password changed. when investigation was done by the Vodafone, apparently staff did not know that they could not do whatever they feel like to people's contracts and accounts. NOT ACCEPTABLE! SIMPLE COMMON SENSE ?!? I spent 3 days in the vodafone trying to figure ou what on earth was happening to my business number. + the usual monthly network fall out and data service often drops out in the CBD area.

My vodafone bill that was sent via email is completely different from what is states when I log in!!!! I wont be resigning with Vodafone and I have been a customer for nearly 10years!!!! I have had numerous amounts of trouble with my phone dropping out during mid conversation, I have not received texts and also I cant call during certain times. Its not good enough, I have currently been stuck on hold for 10mins to discuss these issues and I predict I will be on hold for a much longer time!!!!!

ok all carriers have issues...but heres my point from being someone who used to work in the industry.
one yes the call centre support number is crap simce it moved from tassie some years ago.
the systems they use siebel is crap constantly failing. it failed for months when first released.
previous systems were so easy to use

Staff in the telco industry hate calling dealer support as they are hard to hear and yes they dont speak english well....
please remember the staff in the telco industry dont make the issues it usually is the network as a issue we understand and share your pain.

accessing personal info yes it has a web portal and only vodafone store have full access to billing calls ecetera.

VHA as they want to be known have people who dont know vodafones systems trying to help stores as they are brought from three (hutch)
The amount of information from vodafone and training is rubbish there training material is incomplete and has a massive issue with too much unecessary information.
other carriers have very easy to follow and easy to see any issues when processing conections.

words of advice
go through the confirmation with the staff and get all the relevant brochures regarding you plan and make sure the staff know what they are talking about they are the professional and should know this information inside and out.
a easy way is to ask them if they are on the ball ask them call rates and flagfall and txt and pxt msg costs if they know this then you have staff who are knowledgeable with the plans and network.
(confirmation of understanding is something you sign to say you understand all the terms call rates and what you have applied for make sure the copy is given to you)

2nd buy a prepaid sim to check coverage or get a month by month account one you can cancel at anytime to check the reliability of the network

3 if you cant check on you current providers phone select network select manual search and see what names come up

4 ask about what happens if i get no coverage as you are signing up.
as other carriers have a satisfaction guarantee.

Got over charged $600 dollars saying my bill was over the cap when i hardly use the phone. Called bloody vodafone and spoke to some rude dude in india saying i needed to pay it, or else, so i didnt pay it as mark of distcust and called back, got to a different section and they said "oh sorry, it was a glitch in the system and we'll wip that for you.
How can i cancel my contract as this keeps on happening..

Cheers

Ev

The mess that I am in is how disgusting customers are to us when majority of the employees that work for VHA truly have the best interests of the customer at heart. I don't understand why people think that we live to make our own lives harder by purposely trying to sabotage a customer's experience, when 9 times out of 10, we'd rather not see you again - this demonstrates great customer service, we served all your needs at the initial point of sale.

Yesterday I had a frightening confrontation with a customer that refused to follow company policy with a pre-paid mobile. Instead of complying with company rules, he continued to argue with me and wanted me to prove the policy of which states that I was right in saying that I had to sell him a pre-paid sim with a pre-paid phone REGARDLESS if he was already a Vodafone user. The reason why we do this is so an account is created for the phone in which covers warranty for two years for the handset and when the account is created, it generates an Australian Gov't form in which states that the ID you have given us is correct and current, and to make sure criminal activity with the use of pre-paid sim cards is controlled as much as possible. I had the customer's best interests at heart, yet the customer thought he was right.

He continued to swear at me, raise his fists and threaten me personally all because I wanted to secure an account for the phone incase it was faulty - it was a Nokia after all. He persisted to yell and started to come around the counter to scare me into complying to what he wished. I made the customer by the sim card anyway and strongly advised him to come back into the store when he had calmed down to set up the account or to call pre-paid care. He continued to yell at me and call me offensive names so I left it up to him. I was shaking at that stage because his wife then proceeded to come around the counter also.

If you refuse to read the disclaimer or refuse us the patience for us to explain the disclaimer and you sign it anyway- that's your fault. If you chose to refuse such service which I offered this customer and you lose your receipt - don't come ranting and raving about how you weren't able to gain a proof of purchase of our database because you didn't want to comply. If you still chose to go with a handset even though I have explained its faults that are world known - go right ahead. I am so tired of customers thinking that they know better us when they don't even give the time to consider what they're getting themselves into half the time.

When there is a piece on Vodafone headlining the news reports, the next day is just hell. I'm really getting tired of customers who are trying to use the network problems as a way of getting out of their contracts with a full waiver. Please leave customer care to deal with the customers that have REAL and unfortunate network problems. I'm tired of morons wasting our time and just jumping on the band wagon where there are certain postcodes that are dealing with no network - not just one or two calls that disconnect every few days. No wonder these customers with horrible service can't get through to customer care - some people are just trying to get compensation with no particular newtwork problem.

Sim cards become faulty and corrupt, phones become faulty or are faulty at point of sale without our knowledge and sometimes the traffic is too high to have full signal or recommended speeds. These are out of Vodafone's 'control' and most certainly retail staff.

Honestly, customers have to start taking responsibility for their actions and show a bit more compassion to retail staff. Don't take us saying "I'm sorry but you'll have to call customer care to resolve this issue" as us not caring - this is what we've been told to do. Also, if we tell you that our database is down - it's down okay! It's not that we can't be bothered, it's because we actually can't login to our systems which is just as frustrating for us because we're bored out of our minds. Two weeks ago our database was on fallback for 24 hours and a customer came in that needed a sim swap for a lost sim card. I began to apologise for our database being down and he told me to f off and that I was hopeless before I had time to finish my sentence. I was going to give him a sim card, take his details and perform the sim swap for him when the database was up and running the next morning. Customers don't even give us a chance anymore which is really upsetting.

I have ordered that many customers to leave our stores because of the aggression and disgusting manner in which customers are treating retail staff. Honestly, don't bother telling us at the end of a long rant that it's not "our fault" when you point in our faces and call us hopeless. Remember that we all have phones too and that we're contacted to all different telcos in which we have received poor customer service as well.

This is just as shattering to us as it is to you. I adore working for this company and it's such a shame that this has happened. We don't want customers to be unsatisfied because we're the ones that have to deal with the repercussions. I hope this goes away sooner than later so I can enjoy my job again and give customers great customer service. The same day I was threatened by a customer, I was told by five other customers that they've never received customer service like I gave them. We're not all bad you know. Please remember the more respectful you are to staff, the greater lengths we will go to resolve your issues the best we can.

Also, customers need to realise that 3 and Telstra share networks, as well as Vodafone and Optus share networks. At one point or another, I am certain that you will have poor service at one point or another regardless of what telco you go with.

It started in October 2010. I was overseas, with international roaming enabled. 2 big problems:

1. Pre-paid ran out. I went to my online account and tried to top up. I repeatedly got the error "technical problem with the payment system". I tried calling Customer Care to make the payment and complain, but I couldn't: the number was blocked and I got a text saying I couldn't call international numbers.

2. Unable to make international calls while overseas - but I could send international texts! Every time I tried to call an Australian or US number, I got numerous texts of two kinds: "Transaction failed - Insufficient funds" and "Yo'ure not allowed to call this number".

I complained via their extremely unhelpful online enquiry service. Trying to work out which problem I should categorise both complaints under was difficult.

I sent off the complaint on 17 October 2010. I got a reply on 21 October:

Hi Madeleine,

Thank you for your patience.

Vodafone apologises for the delay in responding to your enquiry within our normal time frames, and regret any inconvenience this may have caused. We understand that due to this delay, you may have utilised other avenues to resolve your query.

Please note that Vodafone are unable to assist with handset upgrade or mobile internet technical issues via email. For assistance with these queries, please call Vodafone on 1555 from your Vodafone handset or 1300 650 410 from a landline.

If you still require assistance via email, please advise us within 72 hours, and we will respond as soon as possible. Alternatively the answer to your enquiry may be found by registering and accessing the My Vodafone website.

Not helpful at all. So I responded, advising that no, they had not fixed my complaint. On 27 October, I got another email from them:

We have not heard from you concerning your request for support in the 120 hours since we sent you a response. Consequently, we have changed the status of your question to SOLVED.

At this point, I gave up. Being overseas and completely unable to get help via phone or email, I ended up relying on pay phones.

In December 2010, I had numerous problems - my phone dropping out of service for no reason; not receiving calls or messages; being charged for messages sent, but the recipients not receiving them.

Now in January 2011, I find out that maybe my privacy has been breached. Maybe, unauthorised people have my details. But maybe not. How would I know - Vodafone hasn't advised me whether or not I'm affected. Instead, they've buried a dismissive blog post on their website.

I've had enough. Are you actively trying to destroy your business?

Reception dropping out, calls dropping out, no reception, calls not connecting, SMS & MMS delayed massively - 3 DAYS! Seriously Vodafone what is the problem? I have a new credit card number, so what did I do - register it with VF to direct debit my Internet Bill and to have it for my prepaid account, just like the old card. Now, I get a nasty bill saying that I haven't paid my Internet for two months! Enough is enough. I'm getting out of Vodafone.

I had an Internet connection, which I cancelled due to coverage issues but still have three mobile phone accounts with Vodafone (one still under contract). As of three days ago we have had no coverage what so ever and are unable to use our mobile phones to make or receive calls or send and receive text messages. I spent just over two hours on the phone to customer care who told me that they had a software problem and were unable to tell me when we would be able to use our phones again... They did have one solution, go for a drive and see if our phones worked in a different area and they would call me on the landline to see if this worked. I did this and they still have not returned my call!

My son moved from the gold coast to karratha W.A. in October 2010 with his 3/vodafone phone - he was told he would get reception there. Drop outs were huge and he had no alternative but change to Telsra because he was chasing work and could not be contacted. He was told by 3/vodafone they would only take out his repayments monthly because he was still under contract for the phone and no charges would apply for phone calls. He has just been slugged almost $600 from his bank account which now leaves him with almost nothing. He had no prior warning this would happen and has only worked 3 weeks since 9/10. On contacting vodafone, they were no help. Their website shows you get cover in Karratha but that is untrue. That is the reason he had to change.

Reading reports online about how Vodaphone has breached its privacy policy with the access of customer personal and financial details outside of authorised personnel. As a Three mobile customer (using Vodafone network) I contacted both Three and Vodafone. Both state that Three accounts and Vodafone accounts are different (although reports on whirlpool suggest it is planned to merge them in future). Does this mean Three mobile customers are unaffected?

same problems as everyone else. constant drop outs in calls, text messages taking ages to send through, and i'm better off getting a mobile dial-up account cos it's faster than my current internet speeds. i'm lucky if i can talk for 2 minutes on the phone. and customer service is a joke. i cancelled my contract after days of talking on the phone to vodafone and am now with optus' $59 cap. it might be more than $45 and i don't have unlimited (aside from text) but at least i have a solid, constant 3G reception (emphasis on the 3G). i'm pretty happy and i hope it stays that way.

I can't believe I am reading the security breach news. My first reaction was "... you've got to be kidding me ...".

I will simply not complain.

Can anyone who is knowledgeable please explain what symptoms shall we seek to figure out if a personal account has been broke into?

If I realise that my account has been breached, I will simply demand cease of contract with reimbursement of any monetary damage.
Moreover, I will simply NOT RETURN THE MOBILE DEVICE as a measure of punishment...

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!...

after I came back from overseas I took over my grandmother's prepaid account as she didn't want to use it anymore but we never got the account changed into my name. vodafone called me a couple of years ago (after my grandmother had passed away) as part of a random 'customer satisfaction' survey. I told them about my wish to change the account into my name but I was told my grandmother would need to write to them approving this. when I explained that she was - er - dead, the response was still the same. so now I shall forever have a prepay account in my grandmother's name all because she won't return from the grave to write a letter to vodafone. how unreasonable of her.

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

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

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

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

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

I loved 3... It had it's moments, but for the most part gave me great coverage and phone service... not particularly brilliant customer service, but most things were available online.. so not particularly worrysome... Then VodaFail takes over, and my calls drop out, my text messages don't send, or send multiple times. My voicemail costs go through the roof, because the phone never rings when someone calls me, and when I go in to see about getting a phone repair, I'm told that it's not under warranty... despite the fact I was told it would be for the contract term by 3.

The Vodaphone guy I spoke to said that "vodaphone is the only provider who provides a warranty that coveres the full contract term"... lot of rubbish that is. I'm sure everyone does that now.. something to do with a decision of the ombudsman..

But he said something else interesting... apparently there is a difference in how you ROAM depending on whether you are with 3 or with Vodaphone. If you are with 3, your phone will only roam from 3G Vodaphone, to 2G Vodaphone, and to 2g optus if that fails... Vodaphone customers will roam onto 3G optus...

So why the difference. I'm a paying customer - your company bought my company... so why am I treated differently... you're not billing me any differently!!!

to my disgust I just stumbled across this link: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8193871/vodafone-mobile-records-leaked

It reads:
"Vodafone is investigating an alleged security breach but denies customers' personal details are publicly available on the internet.

The mobile phone company has reset all passwords for its web portal, used by employees and dealers.

Details including names, home addresses, driver's licence numbers and credit card details have been available on the web in what has been described as an "unbelievable" lapse in security, Fairfax newspapers reported.

The report said criminal groups have paid for the private details of some Vodafone customers to blackmail them and other people have obtained logins to check their spouse's communications.

It said the full extent of the privacy breach is unknown but it is possible that thousands of people have logins that can be passed around and used to gain access to the accounts of about four million Vodafone clients.

A Vodafone spokesman said the company was concerned to hear of the alleged breach.

"Vodafone's customer details are not 'publicly available on the internet'," he said in a statement on Sunday.

Customer information is stored on Vodafone's internal systems and accessed through a secure web portal, accessible to authorised employees and dealers via a secure login and password.

"Any unauthorised access to the portal will be taken very seriously, and would constitute a breach of employment or dealer agreement and possibly a criminal offence."

The company would investigate the allegations and refer the matter to the Australian Federal Police if appropriate, the statement said.

The spokesman added that all passwords had been reset and a review is being undertaken of the training and systems procedures.

Michael Fraser, head of the Australian Communications Law Centre at the University of Technology, Sydney, told Fairfax it seemed to be a major breach of the company's privacy obligations and "unbelievably slack security".

NOT ENOUGH TO SCREW US OVER BUT NOW RELEASING OUR PRIVATE DETAILS, WELL DONE VODAFAIL

i have been with vodafail for over 3 yrs now, and had nothing but problems with my internet and phone coverage!!! when i call them its the usual, there is nothing wrong with your service blah blah blah... i have also had 2 bills in a row with an extra $200 added to it, when i called up to see why i was told i used to much internet, after speaking to 4 different idiots there i was then informed it was a billing issue and they were aware of it, but yet neglected to inform all that had been affected! after arguing with a manager the 2nd time who basically told me t suck it up and pay the money i asked for a pay out figure and was put through a guy who told me the price, then proceeded to tell me that he had wiped my bill and gave me 8gb extra free of charge, YEAH GREAT, still beats the fact that i cannot use to internet in my own house when told "the new modem you are using is more compatible to the towers in your area" LIES LIES LIES, i have a tower 800m away from me and i get connection then lose after several mintues, i have to go outside and down the back corner of my yard to make a phone call... im sick of wasting my money monthly on a service i cant even use, and i pay 114 + 40 a month!!! after all the phone calls with complaints to them they still refuse to cancel my internet and phone without me owing anything, i deserve more then this voda and so does everyone else!!!

I ordered a phone from the online store on the 16th NOVEMBER, they said they were in stock and I would receive it in 4 days. I never received the phone. I called Vodafone, waited on hold for an hour, and had a lady tell me "she didn't know, and maybe it will be there on Friday" I called again a week later and was given a consignment number for Australian Air Express, I called them the next day and was told that the phone was marked as "return to sender" on the computer and it never left the airport. I called Vodafone again, to be told that they didn't know why (after trying to prove that I never received the phone, that is), but he promised me it would be in my hands in no more than 5 business days. Those 5 days came and went, I called again, waited on hold again, told my story to 3 people again, and was again "Promised" that he would call me back in 48 hours with an answer as to where my phone had gone. Again, those hours came and went, I called again to be told that I would have to cancel my order and then re-order the phone.
I thought stuff that, I won't do anything....but a week later I got a f&*king bill from them, for $90!...I had opted for a direct debit option as payment! So of course I ring them up and again wait on hold for over 90 minutes, got passed on to 6 different people, and got talked into giving them one more chance,and my phone will come to me in a week, and that he had canceled the bill and direct debit order..... Its now been 2 weeks. My account is due to be debited on the 12th Jan, and I just know it will be.....
I cannot believe how they have f*&ked this up so many times. I find it very hard to keep cool everytime I ring, I know its not their personal fault, but they have no clue as to what you have been through, and to repeat your story to so many people. And them to have something go wrong EVERY time! It is somebodies fault....
I just want my contract terminated. I want to know that money isn't going to be taken out of my account, and I will stick with Optus.
This has been a balls up of epic proportions. I find it hard to figure out how ANYONE manages to get a vodafone phone, when they have screwed me over
about 8 times... F&#k you vodafone!

I bought a new galaxy tab from vodafail website with an online exclusive plan, but I got billed $800 which was supposed to be in my cap. I called them and was on hold for atleast 3 hours and They promised me to call me back and its been three days but no calls yet.
The network is shit as. Never get more then 1 bar on my tab.
I want to kill myself for contracting with vodafone

FROM SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:

Mobile security outrage: private details accessible on net Natalie O'Brien
January 9, 2011

The personal details of millions of Vodafone customers, including their names, home addresses, driver's licence numbers and credit card details, have been publicly available on the internet in what is being described as an ''unbelievable'' lapse in security by the mobile phone giant.

This website is aware of criminal groups paying for the private information of some Vodafone customers to stand over them.

Other people have apparently obtained logins to check their spouses' communications.

Advertisement: Story continues below Personal details, accessible from any computer because they are kept on an internet site rather than on Vodafone's internal system, include which numbers a person has dialled or texted, plus from where and when.

The full extent of the privacy breach is unknown but this website has learnt that possibly thousands of people have logins that can be passed around and used by anyone to gain full access to the accounts of about 4 million Vodafone customers.

Professor Michael Fraser, the head of the Australian Communications Law Centre at the University of Technology, Sydney, said that it appeared to be a major breach of the company's privacy obligations and ''unbelievably slack security''.

''The fact you can look up anybody as easily as that seems to be a gross breach of privacy and resulting in an almost negligent exposure to criminal activity,'' said Professor Fraser, who also heads the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.

A spokesman for Vodafone said yesterday the company had ordered an immediate investigation and review of security procedures.

''Customer information is accessed through a secure web portal, accessible to authorised employees and dealers via a secure login and password,'' he said.

''Any unauthorised access to the portal will be taken very seriously, and would constitute a breach of employment or dealer agreement and possibly a criminal offence.

''We will be conducting a thorough investigation of the matter with our internal security experts and will refer the matter to the Australian Federal Police if appropriate.''

He said all passwords would be reset, and training and other procedures would be reviewed.

The revelations come as Vodafone is facing potential lawsuits and widespread customer dissatisfaction with network access.

More than 9000 customers have joined a class action and the company has set up a number of taskforces to try to fix the problems.

In this new saga for Vodafone, dealers have revealed that they are frequently asked to do ''favours'' and to pass on their login details.

Because the customer database is not an intranet (internal company system) and instead on the internet, users with a password can log in to the portal from anywhere, then access any customer's information.

Vodafone retailers have said each store has a user name and password for the system. That access is shared by staff and every three months it is changed. Other mobile dealers who sell Vodafone products also get full access to the database.

Anyone with full access can look up a customer's bills and make changes to accounts. Limited access allows searching by name, which takes much longer and is more involved but can be just as effective when done correctly. ''It's scary stuff in the wrong hands,'' one dealer told this website.

Australian Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim said all organisations should take appropriate steps to secure the personal information of their customers or they risked breaching the Privacy Act.

''If an individual believes their privacy has been interfered with they should first contact the organisation responsible and if they are not satisfied with their response they can make a complaint to our office,'' Mr Pilgrim said.

He has backed the federal government's intention to give his office extra powers to impose penalties should he find a breach of the act.

I used to be a Voda Store Manager and when I worked for voda we used to get txt on our phones about stystems being down etc etc. I left the company 3 months ago and I am still receiving these txts. I know when the systems aren't working. This means that i could tell all my mates who have bad credit to go into a store when the systems are down and tell them to get a phone on a plan because voda will do that if they cant credit check you, give you a phone on a plan and then manually create the account if you decline. This info is for you guys so you know how shit their privacy is.

I recently upgraded my contract with vodafone to include a new nokia N8, being a place that doesn't have a vodafone store I upgarded over the phone, I was really impressed by the service...until I recieved my phone. As soon as it arrived I opened the box and tried to charge it, it wouldn't charge, so checked nokia website and found that the phone is faulty.
Next day I ring Vodafone @8am, after trying to explain what was happening, they transfer me to nokia, who say that vodafone needs to replace the phone, so I get transferred back to vodafone, after beiing on hold for 45 minutes, they then tell me that I have to take the phone into the vodafone store I brought it from, affter repeatly being told that there was NO vodafone store where I lived and the closest one was an 18 hour drive...they had to check before believing me...then they said I had to send the phone back first and they would chack it thenif it is faulty they would send a new one out...which would take 6 to 8 weeks????? What was i suppose to do during that time...not their problem.
Once I explained that what they wanted was not going to happen, and they needed to put me through to tech support so they could put a note on my account to send a new one out...2 1/2 hours on hold and the tech support guy tells me to turn the N8 off, remove the sim card and remove the battery...since my sim card was in my old phone and you can't remove the battery from the N8 I told him that this was impossible to do...another 45mins on hold while he checked that I was right and then told me to contact nokia, already done, and then he said that he couldn't help me and I would have to take it to a vodafone store....Finally after much discussion, he finally put a note on my account to send a replace phone and put me through to the account department to ensure everything was right to go...another 1hr on hold and then had to reexplain everything to the person on the other end.
So after three hours on the phone the problem was sorted...until having to wait another 3 weeks for my replacement phone to be sent out...because they don't process and orders for up to a week after it's been placed.
Even with the new phone, my calls still drop out, my voicemails are usually 3 to 4 days later and I'm lucky to get text messgaes within the week they are sent.

Hi I came to vodafone 5 months ago from telstra, what a mistake. Reception is pathetic and costs me business. At Dinner a few nights ago with friends sitting outside at Darling Harbour five people at the table on vodafone and not one of us could get a signal.VODAFAIL!!! After years with telstra on a $79 cap and never exceeding my usage, my vodafone bills are always over $100 up to $300. Admitedly I did add data to the package but only check a few emails each month and was assured by the ever so helpfull sales boy that I would never exceed my usage. yeah thanks mate.But maybe you should of told me up front that I'm billed in 1 minute blocks compared with 30 second blocks at Telstra
I am currently considering paying out the $1500 left on the contract and going back to Telstra,I will probably save money and have reception when I need it. Td

paid for a pre paid top up online through there website , it directed me to a pay pal account , never received the top up , took 2 trips to there store 4 phone calls to customer service with no help at all, ended up getting a refund thru pay pal 4 weeks later & cost me $1 to withdraw from pay pal , GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE VODAFONE, have since disconnected my internet connection, next will be my phone

I had billing errors, which were obvious as it was directly debited from an account that always had enough funds - yet the bills would show that there are overdue bills that 'rolled over'. I rang and waited for about 45 minutes before i spoke to someone who admitted it was an error - but said it was rlated to the billing cycle so it will always appear on my paper bills that there are overdue bills, even though there werent. This was worrying because it looks bad on my future credut history. I visited my local VODAFONE store in Campbelltown MacArthur Square and an attitude laden guy offered no help to rectify the issue. Then a female took over the conversation and started yelling at me in front of all the customers. I couldnt believe i was being abused by a staff member!! I told her that ill be making a formal complaint about her yelling and she said "go ahead". I got home and made a complaint. This was recieved very empathically - but they never got back to me. In fact, they never got back to me after >1 month, despite telling me they will. Eventually, i decided to change to OPTUS (and they are much much better btw) and when i rang VODAFONE to cancel, they apologied and offered a $20 gift voucher! Really - you have to threaten to leave for them to take your complaint seriously. I took the $20 and left them anyway. They are deadbeat. There is a reason why their prices are lower - its because their service is inferior. Simple!

My husband who lives in country Queensland where there is no Vodaphone coverage asked me to disconnect his service. This was back at the end of September 2010. On Monday 27th September 2010 I tried phoning Vodaphone and spent half an hour just hanging on hold. I then got on line and the only place I could find to contact Vodaphone was their technical support team. So I sent them an email and they sent me an email back telling me that someone would get back to me with reference to my "enquiry". So far no one has contacted me over this. A few weeks later I rang another number which connected me to Vodaphones call centre in India. The Indian man I spoke to said they could not help me because they needed my husband to ring them which he is unable to do. Before he left to go to Queensland we rang Vodaphone and he put me on the account so that I could be his voice as it were. I have the password and the accounts were paid by cheque with my name on them. For this organisation to flatly refuse to cancel the service because they cannot speak to my husband is ridiculous in light of the aforementioned intentions of my husband. I have not paid the last three bills and have no intention of doing so. I do not see why I should pay for something that is not needed anymore.

I constantly experience dropouts, failed calls, "can you hear me" calls, the need to reset my phone to get a signal, prompts that my network has disconnected and if I leave Sydney - I can't really use my phone at all. Combined with the recent article in the Sun Herald about user's personal information, including driver's license numbers and credit card details, being available over the internet to anyone with a Vodafone store password - I've had my fill of Vodafone.

I'm on an unlimited call plan, which is cheap for unlimited calls and is why I went on it, but it isn't cheap if you account for the fact I'm not receiving the service I contracted Vodafone to provide. I've lost numerous business calls, but thanks to other forms of technology have been able to get back in contact with clients and therefore probably haven't lost any business or suppliers as a result - just annoyed a few people. But I would like to cancel my contract without having to pay the cancellation fees. Which I think is only fair if they can't provide the contracted service or guarantee my personal information will remain secure.

In May I signed a contract for $29 a month which gave me $150 calls and mobile broadband of 1GB. After several months of being under my usage capacity (I was only using 350-600mb of data and around $120 of phone, I received a bill for $220 stating that I had used 11GB of data although data usage on my laptop was saying only 350mb had been used. I rang to complain about this and after extensive wait times I was told that I must have used it or someone else has used it and that I must be downloading movies and music which I had not. I live by myself and am the sole user of my laptop. I got an itemised account and noticed the download times were when I was at work and that the downloads of up to 2GB at a time were being taken of my usage and that the computer was online for up to 5 hours at a time. After repeatedly telling my complaint to many different people at vodafone they took off the excess charge for that month and they told me to get my computer checked which I did and as I suspected my computer was fine and no downloads had occurred. I called them to tell them to check that my bill was not being combined with somebody elses bill and they said it hadnt. I stopped using my computer for a couple of weeks as I was scared this would happen again. Guess what? It happened again. The next month I was charged $227 with another 11GB of downloads! I checked the times of these domnload and again they occurred when I was at work and during the 2 weeks I didnt use my computer. Again I called to complain and they took the excess charge off the bill and gave me 1GB for free to use to monitor what was happening. Of course this was all used up and not by me. I was sent another excessive bill and by this stage I had had enough. I was sick of being put on hold, it interfered with my work, it caused me a lot of stress and sleepless nights. I finally called them and to told them I would call the TIO and consumer affairs and that I wanted my contract cancelled free of charge! Finally they cancelled my contract free of charge. The next month I got another bill texted to my mobile saying I owed -$11.00! Due on 15 January! It took me 3 days to get through as I kept getting a message saying too busy and to call back. Ridiculous! When I did get through I told them how can I be billed for a credit that they owe me $11.00! The customer service guy said that this was a goodwill gesture but I would not be getting the money as they had to put my account in credit to cancel the contract! How is this a goodwill gesture after what they put me through! I now have prepaid mobile broadband with another provider and have been using my computer a lot more than when I was with vodafone and am still going nowhere near 1GB a month! I do not use vodafone any more and never will again.

Since I signed a contract in Nov 09 I have been getting nothing but utterless and poor aspects out of my service. My account is heavily screwed up with over $5000 of credits issued for Vodafone's billing issues where I have been billed incorrectly and billed by there internal system generating charges irralevant. Today is my billing cycle and I have just logged into my account and found a $742 bill - (totally incorrectly billed) as I am on the $99 unlimited plan. I cancelled a contract about 2 months ago and last months bill included DOUBLE the cancellation charge and now they are trying to bill me again. This is utterless as now I have to waste my time calling them - (being on hold, transferred between departments and explaining my frustration and then probably being promised by them that this will not happpen next month and seeing it reappear. I am sick and tired of Vodafone, I've always kept on my best impression to always be positive when issues do happen to my account and services but this is just getting out of control.

My bill summary for since Nov-09: http://i52.tinypic.com/2z70ccx.png
My payment summary since Nov-09: http://i54.tinypic.com/2my45rr.png

As for reception wise I get one bar at work and then my phone will go to 'searching' then 'roaming' then followed by 3G and so on. As I am on call this is just super frustration and being informed by them that my work location has full 3G reception, I don't see this as the case. I've spoken to the iPhone team, replacted sim cards and tired different handsets but I still get the same old same old. Trying to use the internet on the train (Melbourne Metro) is also just disgusting just trying to update my Facebook status or check for notifications will just time out because my phone is constantely switching to roaming, 3G, searching and no service. Sometimes I need to put my phone into airplane mode just so I can get it to search for a 3G network.

I've contacted the TIO, I've contacted Vodafone and done everything to troubleshoot the issues they admit they didn't have until this site was open. I'm getting in loop holes and waste my time.

spent hours trying to get through to customers service, then they billed me $700 for the pleasure of calling their number.
Also went on a road trip from Darwin to Adelaide, only had reception till 20km outside darwin, just within the town circle of Alic springs and Port Augusta and the same for Adelaide on Kangaroo Island there was none. Two other people one with Telstra and the other optus were more in reception than out of it and had reception on the island too. I was absolutly sickened, my partner alos has vodafone and she was also without reception so it definaltly was not the handsets

I have just FINALLY spoken with someone about disconnecting my service - having gone elsewhere already. I'm told I still have to pay the full penalty nless I allow them to investigate whether I live in a low reception area. That would tip me into yet anotehr billing cycle - it takes about 72hrs - and then they will only waive the fee if my billing address is low. What about the rest of the state, including the neighbouring suburbs where I can't get recpetion in my brother's house? And what about the country areas I need to travel to for work where there is no reception? Apparaently they can't use any of those postcodes.
As for the news reports today about personal details being accessed - the fee is perhaps a small price to pay in the long run?
Now to switch my daughter's prepaid and we're completely FREEEEEEE.......

Have been trying to figure out why my "My Vodafone' online account username has been disabled... Have been trying to sort out the problem for about 2 months now. It happened in September but somehow resolved itself in a few days without me having to do anything. Have sent through an email but keep getting automatic replies. The last one wanted information to make sure that it was my account. Decided that I didn't want to give my passport number, driver's licence details or 4 digit pin to an automated reply. Trying to contact customer care resulted in a minimum wait of 45min over 3 phone calls. Gave up and tried to go in store in Geelong. The staff huffed and puffed when I asked for help (I was the only one in the store at the time) then with a minimum amount of help told me it wasn't there area and they couldn't do anything.
Going to try to contact customer service again tomorrow as I'm still not able to get online as all...

I have been a loyal Vodafone customer for nearly 8 years, and I can still remember when Vodafone had fantastic customer service and great reception. I actually used to get calls from Vodafone to check up and see if everything was OK. Of late, you'd be lucky to get through to an operator in less than an hour of waiting on hold!

Now let's not get started with the reception! I have noticed a steady decline in coverage since around 2 years ago. I run an IT company and travel all around Sydney. I have zero reception in a high apartment in Homebush, and zero reception in Alexandria in my office. This means any time I'm at home or work, I have zero reception! Home/Office would account for around 70% of my time so that means missed calls and lost revenue from jobs I could have taken on! Even out and about, I call 20 times in a row and kept getting the dreaded 'Call Failed' message! This is with full reception!

Vodafone's 'broadband' speed is a friggen joke! It's seriously slower than dialup when it works, and that's probably only half the time.

Vodafone get your shit together, as a mobile phone company we as your customers expect our phones to work when we need it, not when it suits you! Not much of a 'contract' when Vodafone doesn't fulfill its end of the bargain!

1. First a positive note. Vodafails primary DNS server listed in many connection software programs HASN'T WORKED FOR MONTHS AND DOESN'T RESPOND TO PINGS. Shows you what a pathetic ISP Vodafone is! Now the better bit. If possible change your DNS servers to another ISP's or OpenDNS. The combination of Google's DNS 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 works well with Googles Chrome, probably because they are on the same network [Googles]. But don't everyone do this or the servers could be overloaded leading to similar problems as VFail's. Ping iinet's servers for instance or other ISP's and pick the fastest. Chrome is a leaner faster browser than M$ IE.

Now to the dishonest deceitful part.

Vodafone urged customers to take up online billing a while back and I did. BUT
any payments other than my regular monthly payment were not transferred across.
So payments due to excess usage were not credited. Even when I went into their store at Westfield Carindale (ground floor), the Manager tried to bully me and didn't think there was anything wrong with the fact that ON THEIR SYSTEM one screen showed I owed ~$59 while another showed I owed ZERO, [which was what the situation should be]. Now you can't access your bill history and they are going on the online accounting system, meaning that they will assume I haven't paid when I had. Fortunately I have bank records and printscreens to back up my case.

Geez, even the 'Salami' scammer only took a 1c from everyone's bank account, not $60!!

Any professionals out there I suggest you ask for compensation with the lawyers for the HOURS, DAYS you have spent WASTED ON THIS USELESS ORGANISATION ESPECIALLY THE CE0 AND MARKETING LOT! AT THE HOURLY RATE FOR YOUR PROFESSION.

From the time I got a Vodafone internet account, Vodafone continually overcharged on data download amounts compared to the that which the download monitoring software it provided was recording (Huawei).

Spent hours on hold trying to get through to resolve this over many months, and hours when eventually getting through, arguing the toss. Eventually spoke to a (name known) Vodafone person who admitted to KNOWING VODAFONE BILLING AND THE VODAPHONE-PROVIDED HUAWEI ACCOUNT SOFTWARE RECORDED DIFFERENT DATA THROUGHPUTS.

Service person said that it had been a known fault "forever" and that anyone relying on the Vodafone provided self-monitoring software to monitor their data throughput was bound to be upset when a much higher bill came in, as it always did (about 25-30% higher, always with Excess Charges as the data throughput, under on the provided monitoring software, had been "Exceeded" according to Vodafone head office accounting).

Ended up terminating the service in disgust. Had been on a 12 month contract which had passed, but then Vodafone started arguing it was a three year contract, based on their THEN standard at the time I ended it (not the one I signed on to earlier, which had been 12 months). Spent months arguing that toss.

Was then chased for the better part of a year by a debt collection agency (aggressively for months after I ended the deal) threatening all sorts of credit history black-balling and credit character assassination unless I fulfilled a three year contract.

Vodafone did not fulfill its obligations as a service provider under the contract during the 12 months it ran. Vodafone-employed (or sub-contracted staff) made full admission that the fault lay in the the Vodaphone provided modem/software, that Vodafone had always been aware of the fault.

Vodafone subsequently employed (or contracted) a debt collection agency to attempt to extend the contract under threat of credit history assassination.

Over to the Ombudsman.

In December after having countless problems and issues with 3 and never having a working phone or sim i opted to start over (well as over as i could having 3 months left of my contract I migrated to vodafone).
After calling up the designated number 4 days in a row (because their system was down) i finally migrated across and was told that i should keep my 3 sim working until i got my new iphone 4 delivered in the first week of January.
Over the next 2 weeks EVERYDAY i got a nice new sim card in the mail...so as you can imagine after recieving 13 standard sims (not micro sims for the iphone 4) i was getting a little worried about their services.
6 days after putting up with this-and of course smack bang over christmas my 3 service was disconnected and none of my vodafone sims would work- for all those who have suffered over christmas you will know the lovely answering machine you get when you call your desired help section of vodafone customer care- did you know they close over christmas.
SO after spending 2 days being transfered from one person to the next- being told so-and-so would call me back and never did i went into a vodafone store.
They i have to say did not vodafail at the time but helped me out issuing me a new sim stating that my number would be carried over within the next couple of hours.
4 hours later...sim was still not activated.
I go all the way back to the store and to my surprise I see someone carrying out an iphone. After a few more unimportant hours I finally left the store with a new iphone and a sim (working)- very happy might i add too.
However, 2 hours later phone wasn't working.
I went back to the store-the girl i spoke to was no longer there so the guy that was their said 'ok leave it with me and i will sort it out' (and as you can imagine goodbye iphone).
After 3 more days-no phone, no working sim and being on hold, transfered, hung up on or 'disconnected'-as they like to call it, oh and my personal favourite: 'i am sorry but this is not our issue you will have to take it up with 3/ Vodafone' I finally went into a 3 store and poured my anger into what turned out to be a really nice guy at 3 who said he would look into it for me. 2 hours later i was back in the store and a further 3 hours later i had my iphone on a whole new vodafone account- you can imagine to my relief thinking it was all over.
Got home iphone plugged in-set up all fine, activated all fine. Working all night..then....dum dum dum..the next day strikes and no service.
Having already taken multiple days off work to deal with this issue (sorry work) i went to work without a phone. In my lunch break i called the 3 store and told them what had happened 2 minutes later i am told that 'someone' (not me i assure you) activated ANOTHER sim on my account and my micro sim would no longer work.
Options given:
a) i can cut the sim that vodafone has activated-to a size that will fit into my iphone
OR
b) come in and get another sim OR find someone else to come in and get one for me...
OR
c) come in tomorrow (when i am meant to be at work) and get a new sim
OR
d) which i am thinking is the only option: suffer in my jocks without a phone until i can get another day off work.

4 hours later- i get home from work, find the sim (double checking the sim code) and put it into my old phone hey presto it works..with a catch though-no signal

I have to say being a vodafone customer for only a month and having dealt with this much s*** i don't know how people can last their contract. I will let you know this- on the way home i purchased a prepaid optus sim (and guess what i got full bars of service when it was activated- hows that for service)

I ordered a phone from the online store on the 16th NOVEMBER, they said they were in stock and I would receive it in 4 days. I never received the phone. I called Vodafone, waited on hold for an hour, and had a lady tell me "she didn't know, and maybe it will be there on Friday" I called again a week later and was given a consignment number for Australian Air Express, I called them the next day and was told that the phone was marked as "return to sender" on the computer and it never left the airport. I called Vodafone again, to be told that they didn't know why (after trying to prove that I never received the phone, that is), but he promised me it would be in my hands in no more than 5 business days. Those 5 days came and went, I called again, waited on hold again, told my story to 3 people again, and was again "Promised" that he would call me back in 48 hours with an answer as to where my phone had gone. Again, those hours came and went, I called again to be told that I would have to cancel my order and then re-order the phone.
I thought stuff that, I won't do anything....but a week later I got a f&*king bill from them, for $90!...I had opted for a direct debit option as payment! So of course I ring them up and again wait on hold for over 90 minutes, got passed on to 6 different people, and got talked into giving them one more chance,and my phone will come to me in a week, and that he had canceled the bill and direct debit order..... Its now been 2 weeks. My account is due to be debited on the 12th Jan, and I just know it will be.....
I cannot believe how they have f*&ked this up so many times. I find it very hard to keep cool everytime I ring, I know its not their personal fault, but they have no clue as to what you have been through, and to repeat your story to so many people. And them to have something go wrong EVERY time! It is somebodies fault....
I just want my contract terminated. I want to know that money isn't going to be taken out of my account, and I will stick with Optus.
This has been a balls up of epic proportions. I find it hard to figure out how ANYONE manages to get a vodafone phone, when they have screwed me over
about 8 times... F&#k you vodafone!

Have the iphone about 6 weeks and have not been able to have a single successful phone call, never able to send or deceive an SMS on time and never have enough coverage to download data. Yet still billed!! Major problem for me is I am a Doctor who does call from home- No calls can get through => can only use landline so can't leave home like in the 80s!! I need to get off this network and fast before something terrible happens to a patient.

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

After reading some stories on this site, my problems with Vodafone are all too familiar with mainstream complaints. Call dropouts after a few seconds, meaning another call cost charge/connection fee a few times in one conversation; hardly any reception where I live (Bunbury area, south of Perth); trouble sending smsand pxt as most times pxt not even send!!; on hold for extremely long periods of time and when I finally reach customer support are then re-routed to same number to dial or even back to original person,have trouble understanding non-english support teams!!; no satisfaction when trying to quiz my account and they cover up inadequate esponse with 'fake' niceness; cut off my service without prior warning and generally...a great desire to cancel contract ASAP!!
Not happy.

Won't update payments made on Web page, and now without paper billing this is all I've got to use against them. Mysterious $25 charge this month while still having ~2G left on usage. Clicking on 'Bill history' 'Payment history' 'Usage' etc ALWAYS brings me back to the inaccurate 'Acount Summary' page.

I wish Mr Nigel Dews all the worst for the New Year, and that someone screws him over, and treats him with the utter contempt he has shown to customers since September last year.

[Actually want to do worse things, starting with kicking him VERY HARD in his googlies, rest can't say online or in public].

I have had all of the problems on this site, dropped calls, texts that would have been faster sent by pigeon post. So bing a good chipmonk i complained on the vodafone website and THEY CALLED ME - it was so unpected I wondered if it was a hoax. Some poor bozo on a chain read the script telling me that they had taken note of my problems and would TAKE THIS INTO ACCOUNT WHEN PLANNING improvements in the area. They had now idea when this would be. Rather than say I would take this into account when planning to pay my account, i went to Telstra and signed up. See you in 10 years vodafone.... that is if the company still exists. I have a new word for Vodafone's board to learn - NOW!

Back on Sept30 (And for 4 consecutive days) my 4 phones (Mine, wife and 2 x daughters) phones were sending multiple texts to every recipient. The least was 6 and the most was 14. When I spoke with Vodafone I was told they were aware of the 'Glitch' in there service and offered me $10 free credit. I explained that I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE to have a glitch in my business that invoiced clients 14times and I only had to reimburse $10 per complaint. Complaint ongoing. (While they still hang onto the massive profits they made from all clients over that 4 days)Check your own accounts people!!!

Ive been trying for close to 1.5 hours to get my issue resolved. I keep getting transferred from one area to anotheer. All I want is my phone fixed. I cant make calls and cant receive calls and text messages are delayed by approx 15mins. Billing says my account is fine. Iphone area says the phone should have been fixed. I've got some news for you Vodafone, if it was I wouldn't be calling you!!! All I want is for mt phone to be fixed!!!

- incorrectly billed (while still being debated but told an amount was still outstanding).
- spent up to 2 hours on hold on a single day calling vodafone.
- Getting the phone unlock can not be done over the phone and online requires up to 14 days before they will get back the customer.
- Unlocking a phone requires a fee after not being provided the instructions.
- No conformation when you request to unlock your phone online

I am (was) a very long term Vodafone Customer who up until approximately 12 months ago was reasonably content with their service. I accepted poor coverage in regional areas and was constantly assured every time I took out another contract that 'the network was undergoing upgrades and would continue to improve'. It has since got progressively worse and is now completely unreliable and for the most part, unusable.
Living near the Brisbane CBD I now suffer continuous dropped calls, 1 bar of 3G (if I'm lucky), sporadic and poor data downloads, late SMS or voicemails, poor battery life due to continual network searching and an Iphone that works wonderfully as an Ipod and media device. It certainly doesn't run up a huge phone bill as it is spectacularly useless as a phone.
I also have a 3G mobile broadband USB device that has failed to work at all in terms of receiving my supposed 3Gig of free data per month. After numerous complaints and the standard 'technical investigations' Vodafone agreed to reduce my account by $10 per month after it admitted I lived in a poor reception area (7 kms from the CBD on a hill????).
So now I have a 3G USB device that serves nicely as a paperweight and an Iphone that I can listen to music on.
I now have to rely on a Telstra prepaid (a common theme from others on your website) to make calls. My constant complaints to Vodafone in relation to my phone reception was constantly met with the advice 'Switch your phone to 2G'.
If I wanted a 2G phone I would have damn well bought one. I paid for a 3G service and I don't have it. However their complaints system is so poor, wait times are so long, and requests are met with vague and generic 'investigations' or 'transfers to another team' that their expertise in bureacracy and spin rivals that of 'Yes Minister'or a team of spin doctors on Red Bull.
I contacted Vodafone last night (3 separate calls with an average 40 minute wait time) and advised I was cancelling my service. I was offered the same...wait for it...'technical investigation' (read stalling tactic)and advised I would have to pay the rest of my 18 months of payments (nearly $1200) to be released.
I am now working in direct support of the Queensland Floods in a senior planning position and my phone is critical to my work. I now have the phone switched off and transferred to another phone in order to ensure I am contactable.
I intend to pay the full amount as I am sick to death of dealing with customer service and their mythical 'technical investigations' (you don't need to be a communications engineer to determine that the network simply can't cope with so many smartphones competing for bandwidth)and leave in absolute disgust. Evidence will suggest that a bad customer experience generally results in advising at least ten of your friends of your experience. I intend to tell as many as I can to steer clear of this network as it continues to offer cheap deals and handsets with minimal or no reception.
I have contacted Australia's largest Telco who are very happy to match Vodafones price and guarantee the quality of their network. They also offered an incentive to transfer (they must be doing a roaring trade) and expressed they are dealing with many Vodafone customers who have given up in sheer frustration.
I am now nearly $1200 out of pocket and disgruntled with exceptionally poor serice and coverage. Quite simply I have had enough and will never go back to Vodafone.
I sincerely hope many others are released from their contracts, I have chosen to give up rather than spend my valuable time battling a huge corporation.
Incidentally I am more than happy for anyone from Vodafone to assess the veracity of my complaints and view for themselves the poor state of reception in and around Brisbane (not forgetting the national highway system, regional areas, inside buildings and in full view of Vodafone towers). I doubt however, that they will and fully expect the customer service offer of a 'callback; in 24 to 48 hrs (again a familiar theme on your website)will fail to eventuate, as will my 3G reception.

continued billing and threatening letters for a cancelled service - cancellation fee paid

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

I pay for a third generation data service W-CDMA (UTMS) which Vodafoney started to introduce as far back as 2004. I have a great Google Nexus One (not from Vodafoney)and to get it to send and receive SMS/MMS I have to set it to GSM/CDMA. Okay, it is Google's programming blunders that mean standard messaging tries to send too big an image file and so I have to use CHOMP or HANDCENT (prefer the latter) which automatically reduces the file size to 300kb which Vodafoney will send/receive.

I complained to Vodafoney from my account page with them, and have yet to receive a reply. In anger I complained to the Telecommunications Ombudsman who is taking up with the carrier. See the back two pages of The Australian Financial Review concerning the company and the lack of action by the ACCC. It makes interesting reading.

This is not spam. Vodafone have literally lost job prospects for me. I am with a certain solicitors regarding unfair bank fees class action. I have asked them to have a look at this "vodafone" issue and told them there may be potentially thousands of people interested in a law suit against vodafone. I will have to contact the creator of this site to ask certain permissions, but vodafone is costing people real money and grief and I believe this should be brought to a legal level for vodafone to actually take action instead of making excuses. Should the creator of this site read this I would like to communicate with you on this issue. I am working on the solicitor to the effect of a "no charge" to people on this, as these solicitors actually countersue for their fees. As I said, this is not spam, it is a desperate need to strike vodafone where it hurts .... their bank account!

I live in Kangaroo Point on the river, a stones throw from the CBD and am constantly out of service. I live on the top story of our unit complex and have calls dropping out mid conversation. The internet on my iPhone is constantly dropping out and I am often unable to send text messages. The service sits on one bar even in the CBD and whenever I go into a vodafone store they tell me that there is nothing they can do and I should call the 1555 number which I am on hold on for hours. I was also using a USB Internet stick which never worked. When I complained about this, the vodafone store gave me another stick which didnt work either. I am sick of this poor reception and consistently poor service in store. I don't like dealing with people over the phone. Whenever I have a question about my contract or account I am also referred to the service number. Also make sure you are all checking your bills thoroughly as I have been charged for sending texts to the same number that I was having a phone call with at the exact same time. My room mate is also with vodafone and has the exact same issues.

Vodafone decided to lock my online account for no reason. I was able to log on to the website last night and tried again today and it wouldnt work, kept telling me my number is locked. I couldnt have used a wrong password as my passwords are automated through firefox and i doubled checked to make sure it was the same.
Customer care couldnt explain to me why it got unlocked.
My bill is due on the 27th Jan and i wanted a break down as to why its showing $128 and she couldnt explain to me that either and said i would have to wait till the 11th !!

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

Been experiencing drop outs for 12 months now. Soooo pissed off. Want to cancel my account but disconnections is not available, been on hold for over 30 minutes.

Vodafone sucks.

I have been with Vodafone for 9 years. I used to live in regional QLD, and reception was never any problems. However, in the past 6 months, reception even in the heart of Brisbane has been intermittent (in particular, data connections are terrible).

Over Christmas I drove north for 4 hours, and actually visited the house I used to live in. Both my wife and my phone had no service, and a friend of mine who used to work for Vodafone who lives nearby told me that he changed back to Telstra (who he hated with a passion) for that very reason. I had two pockets of reception in the town, and nothing during the 4 hours travel time between.

I am glad our car hasn't broken down on the highway, we wouldn't have been able to call for assistance.

I also have a problem with their billing. Quite often the bills I receive are for different amounts, with confusing explanations provided if I call.

Recently I got rid of my N97 mini (Voda's flagship phone for a while, which turned out to be a god-awful piece of rubbish... couldn't even make calls on it most of the time) and moved to a Desire HD. Voda tried to hit me for the early termination, but I complained and they 'lessened' it somewhat. When it came time for the direct debit, this amount exceeded my credit card limit -- I couldn't get through to anyone on the phone, and to this day I am still unable to sign up to MyVodafone, it sends me a temporary password which does not work (Voda tell me "We're having problems, please try again next week" every time). So I was unable to change my direct debit details -- so they sent me a text saying that my debit failed and to call them. I finally got through to someone that same morning, and arranged to have the amount deducted from my bank account. It seems they have no problems helping you out when you owe them money. Anyway, lo-and-behold I get my next bill and they slug me with a $20 'dishonour fee'. *Sigh*

I hope they get their act together very quickly, since my family all use Vodafone.

24 month contract for internet. Connection drops out for no reason all the time, often won't connect at all. Disconnected us for not paying a bill they never sent to us in the first place then they tried to charge us overdue fees on that bill. My boyfriend rang up and got given a different number to ring then that one gave him a different number to ring cause none of those people were of any use to us. Third number lied to us and said they have EMAILED (when we elected for paper bills) us the bill weeks ago, boyfriend gets shirty and makes a smart comment about the fact we have no internet so can't actually get our emailed bill. Check emails at parents place... magically no bill is there. Call AGAIN on hold for 1hour 40 mins to be put through somewhere else to be on hold for 18 mins to be put though to someone who is finally a nice helpful person and informs us that they don't even have an email adress for our account in their system so they never sent us a bill in any form then tried to charge us overdue fees. Also internet stick/dongle broke after like 2 months and they won't replace it we either had to pay 100 bucks for a new one or they would send ours away for ages to be "looked at" and offered us no replacement for that time so we would be paying for nothing basically. Just rubbish all round VERY fed up and trying to get out of contract early!!

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

Signed up for Vodafone bundle package mid last year when I first arrived in Melbourne from NZ. I have had problems with the mobile broadband connection from the start!! No one was able to help me over the phone and no one was willing to help me when I visited their retail store!!
I have made numerous phone calls to discuss the billing issue I have had ever since my first ever bill from Vodafone! It took me over 4 months to resolve the issue and had to go through different people in different department to get this sorted!! I still triple check my bills today just to make sure they didnt bill me wrong!!

Till date, I am still experiencing connection problem with my mobile internet (very low speed, drops out from time to time on a regular basis!) I have rang Vodafone wanting to get off my contract but they want me to pay over $1500 if I was to drop off when really they are the ones who are not honoring what they have advertised/promised from the start!!!

I have not yet seen anyone speak about the monumental breach VF has made of a number of sections of the Trade Practices Act. No-one can issue a contract and then execute it knowing they cannot deliver their contractual commitment. Every corporate officer in Australia is aware of this requirement. VF have breached their commitment to every subscriber. Under these circumstances and due to the denial over many months I see potential for the Directors and Management to be held accountable and VF forced to abstain from taking on any new subscribers until the network issues (and corporate conscience) are verified as resolved. I suppose we should be thankful VF only handle communications, not health, police, education, utilities - wait a minute, is VF part of the excuse we have for a NSW Government??

In it's infinite stupidity, I've been left without Service for over a week, and now, after arranging an extention to pay an account which they incorrectly added in the first place, they have now withdrawn money from my account 17 days before the agreed extension leaving me with nothing to pay rent, bills and gain food not to mention the bank fee for an overdrawn account!!!!! Vodafone can go jump. They've lost me as a customer for good!!!!

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

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

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

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

Looks like a bit of a vodafail communication breakdown to me

I switched from Vodafone prepaid to 24-month contract. I still had $20 on my prepaid sim card but when I asked Vodafone if that money can be credited to my account, they replied that I need to contact the store (who promised me the refund). The store, of course insisted I need to call the main Vofdafone line and after being on hold 3 or 4 times for 30 min + each time, I decided to give up.

Been with Vodafony since their entry into Australian Market. have over 10 phones, 2 data cards, USB modem etc. Account manager wont return calls. calls keep dropping out for no reason, have to switch phone off and then on to get reception.

i first had problems with service in march 2010. when i rang them and reported the problem i was connected to an overseas operator that had no comprehension of the problem and told me that vodafone were experiencing problems with an under sea(water) cable that had been cut. I was baffled with how an undersea cable had anything to do with a domestic mobile service. I am now quite irrate as i have been on the phone for approx 50 minutes and was paying wages for someone to cover for me while i am trying to sort out this mess, My phone is used for business and because i have no reception i have to ring vodafone from a land line, i demand to speak with a supervisor. this is not granted and i am told that the problem would be solved in a couple of weeks. with this i now ring and put in a formal complaint with the telecommunication ombudsman's office. The girl there was in disbelief when i told her the excuse made by vodafone. and recorded the complaint. within an hour i had vodafone call me and confirm that they were over loaded and had to reroute calls through different towers to keep up with demand. I told them that this is not acceptable with terms of the contract that i had signed and that they were in breach of contract and would seek legal advise over the matter. instantly i was told i would not be billed for the previous month or the current month.
now for payback. my business sells phone credit and i had informed them that i was sick of customers complaining about poor reception so i did what i thought any person would do and started handing out the ombudsman's number and encouraging people to register formal complaints

was in Avalon last week (not in the usual black spot)tried to call, several times several numbers yet in spite of full reception could not get through to anyone-tried to SMS, same. email from 2 accounts ditto. took over 1 hour to get anyone on another ph.This has now become the norm

I have been with Vodafone since getting a phone years ago. After returning from overseas i again went back to vodafone, what a mistake!!!! My phone is forever telling me it has a 'connection error' when trying to call out - it generally takes 4-7 attempts to call someone before it dials through. Too bad if its an emergency!!! I have the text missed calls option - when people attempt to phone me it states that the phone is unavailable (mind you this is while im at work in the CBD). Text messages are sent with a delay and I will recieve picture messgages sent to me days later - upto 4 is the longest currently and thats if they are recieved at all.
I travel regularly to Coffs Harbour - according the the Vodafone website and newtwork coverage zones there is a great deal of service - i cannot recieve calls or send text while there. I travel southward and get on the highway returning to Sydney only to have texts come through while i'm in the middle of nowhere! Go figure!!!
Billing!! After making payments to my monthly bill I will still recieve texts saying I owe money and my phone will be disconnected, when calling 1555 it will say my outstanding balance is still the amount with no credit. When calling I wait 20mins then request a call back 'to my surprise 4 hours later they call me only to advise that yes my payment was recieved.
For such a large network company I dont understand how things can go so wrong. Vodafone was once a great provider but now ' bring on my contract coming to an end!!'
Lets all hope Vodafone listens to its customers and does something about it before 'Vodawhat'

Yesterday I was telemarketed by a Vodafone Direct employee (02 8061 8120) who said he was looking at my account usage and he commented that I "made a lot of calls". I told him he would have seen that over the last year about 80% of my calls are consecutive repeats to the same number at the same time due to Vodafone system failure and that their actual bill should be about a quarter of what it is. About a second later the call was terminated by him (maybe the phone dropped out?) BUT HE NEVER CALLED BACK!!!!! He had hit his complaint kill switch - HAHAHAHAHAHA - it proves the point doesn't it.

Yesterday I was telemarketed by a Vodafone Direct employee (02 8061 8120) who said he was looking at my account usage and he commented that I "made a lot of calls". I told him he would have seen that over the last year about 80% of my calls are consecutive repeats to the same number at the same time due to Vodafone system failure and that their actual bill should be about a quarter of what it is. About a second later the call was terminated by him (maybe the phone dropped out?) BUT HE NEVER CALLED BACK!!!!! He had hit his complaint kill switch - HAHAHAHAHAHA - it proves the point doesn't it.

Sending picture messages is a joke. I sent one to a friend 4 days ago. He has never received it. I was sent picture messages on Christmas Day - they arrived 4 days later. Spent almost 5 hrs (on various occasions over the last week) on hold. Was promised someone would call back. On the occasion that a girl (who mumbled her message on my voicemail - the call, of course, went straight to voicemail) did call back, was not to be found anywhere. She asked me to call the help line - I did. No one knew who she was and there were no notes on my account. I spent 50 min on hold trying to get through. The chap who did take my call said there were no known issues with Vodafone. I laughed and hung up. I finally got through to someone in the business accounts area. he has promised a mth free, and pending the result of an enquiry by the technical dept, release from my contract. They promised to call me back on Jan 6 - but I'm not holding my breath.

Does anyone know the billing details that I can put on an invoice for my time?

I'm thinking send it in and see what happens.

Why, oh why do they alway have billing mistakes! Overcharging for a service, but then popping overdue amounts out of no where? When do auto debit be late for a payment?

A question I wanted to raise on this site is... has anyone experienced calls regularly dropping out at intervals such as 5 mins 2 seconds... 10 mins 2 seconds etc?

This occurred in various areas of sydney for me and another person I know also using vodafone from mid 2009 to early 2010. I would check my phone at the time, there would be reception and I would be abe to call back or others would call back immediately. This would happen consistantly for about a week then it would be back to "normal" for 2-3 weeks then it would reoccur!! At times I can remember having literally dozens of dropped calls per day and it would regularly happen 2 seconds into the minute of a call... most of them at 5 mins 2 seconds.

Interestingly enough this just happens to add up to extra $$$ for Vodafone, as we are billed for that entire minute or 30 sec block, of which we only used 2 seconds. Then, we are also left with little option but to call again so we incur 2,3 or more flagfall charges for the one call. If this was intentional its an interesting way of increasing their income from calls by 10 - 15% at 5 minute drop outs. Considering Vodafones honesty and "ways" it appears they were INTENTIONALLY dropping calls in certain areas for a given period then moving to another area to minimise customer complaints. One thing they would have banked on for this "scheme" to work (if it was that).. is that their customers would not unite against their ways.

So... Anyone else with a similar experience?

Hello, Firstly thank you for starting this website. Its a sad fact that Vodafone (and some other companies operating in Australia) are so out of touch with their customers and arrogant, that a national campaign has to be started in order for proper customer service to be delivered.
My complaints....
1. Unbelievably Bad Reception: I live in Clayton Victoria and suburb of Melbourne, also by the by where Telstra and others telecom companies have their national telecommunication control centers. We're not talking about rural Australia here, and yet I consistently can't get reception in my living room or walking down the main street. Seriously, not being able to get reception in Clayton is like not being able to get Sushi in Tokyo ..... during a sushi festival.
2. Long Loooong time left on hold: I had to sort out a billing problem ($3500 dollar bill for overseas roaming, thanks very much) and with time on hold, bounced between this department and that, it took over 2.5 HOURS!
Hopefully this information helps in improving the situation
Regards
Damien Lacey

Vodafone has debited 2 unknown payments from my credit card from an account which I had no idea of! That's a total of $160+ over 2 months! How weird is this!

Another 2 payments were made to VODAFONE INTERNET, which again Vodafone Pty Ltd has no idea where this comes from... checking out with my bank... but this doesn't look good at all!!!

Trying check my balance through MyVodafone online.

But have tried a few times using but fail and now the account is locked. When called the customer number 1 300 650 410 there were no response.

Well where do I start!!!!! I had been happily using 3 mobile broadband for almost 2 years and then I got an email from Vodafone to say "hey change to us at no cost on a month by month plan with a free wifi modem and get extra download for no extra cost" well this was the lure for me as I just purchased my daughter a laptop for Christmas, so I signed on the dotted line on 17th December - FIRST MISTAKE! After receiving all the goodies in the mail on 20th December I quickly rang them and asked them to activate the sim to get me off and running. Well 23 phone calls later and about as many different stories I am still not connected. I reported them to the TIO and rang the sales people (and spoke to somebody in Australia!!!) and begged them to help me which I admit they did and promised - once again it will be resolved in 24 hours crap...well then I thought why am I doing this? Rang them back (was on hold 30 minutes) then got cut off!!!!!!! The rang back again was on hold 40 minutes and then the phone at the other end rang for 3 minutes before somebody picked up. Told her to cancel my account and DO NOT DARE SEND ME A BILL. Went to my local 3 shop signed up again and was connected in 30 minutes!!!

Signed 2 year Contract with Vodafone August 2010. Phone HTC Legend and am experiencing ongoing BAD reception. Calls fail while speaking, phone doesn't ring because of bad reception therefore up for extra cost to retrieve messages, 50% of time can't ring from home office. Customer Care in 'Mumbai' tested local towers and say they're not faulty. Also early confusion with accounts. Regret leaving 3. I have missed business because of the reception problem; am registered on Vodafone data base as having problems since signing contract and I want to CANCEL contract. Even replaced HTC Legend thinking it was the problem with the phone. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Two mobile internet and two iphone 4 on two year contract.

After having to call every second week regarding billing issues and network coverage, we sent a very formal and stern notification of disconnection to the Vodafone feedback line. We get a call back from the 'Escalations department', who aren't willing to assist with monetary value (as promised 10 times previously due to multiple services). My husband told them specifically, "Do not call back until you have a manager willing to release me from all contracts". We get a call back half an hour later, informing us we are being put through to the 'Cancellations department' and fees will be incurred. We then requested to speak to his manager, or obtain his manager's details, the answer we got: "I am only willing to put you through to the 'Cancellations department'. Call was terminated!!! We spend over $500 a month with Vodafail, and the best they can give us is a free transfer to the 'Cancellations department' where fees will be incurred!!! What a joke!!!

Our company has about 50 phones with the muppets at vodaphone. We are I'm retail, and the december fiasco withmthem dropping out, has caused huge problems in what should a a simple process. Just phones dropping out, urgent phone calls straight to message bank. No idea you have a message until you ring 121. Just a bloody joke, we have decided to move our business to the big t. Just a joke, and best yet no one to complain to, there all on holiday or our account manager is until the 10th. Md globalize pty ltd

I ordered an E17 on a $29 plan in July with Vodafone. They "attempted" to deliver the phone to me twice, but the courier "couldn't find me". I work in a large regional hospital.

After 6 weeks waiting for the phone and now receiving bills for a service I hadn't accessed I eventually got them to cancel the contract and call it quits. This took 4 hours of work, of which 90% I was on hold.

Then today I get a call from nrg-gs.com, which is a debt collection mob that Vodafone have apparently sold "my debt" too. Turns out they reckon I owe $702 for the phone I never received!!!!!

So now I'm on hold, fingers crossed with Vodafone, hoping to talk to their billing. I had to call sales and the guy there put me through on his "direct line". Not surprisingly I'm now in the 59th minute on hold.

I'm not even a customer but these guys are screwing with my life. What a joke of a company!!!!!!

Cheers,

Pedro.

I describe my contract with vodafone as similar to that of Kafka's "The Trial", only this is far worse as i have now had to endure over two hours of old John Mayer songs in the process.
I am constantly unable to access a connection not only from my phone where i am located in inner city Sydney, but I also find that over the weekend I am often without any internet connection.
Not only this, but I have been billed upwards of $700 in the past two months apparently accounting for usage that I could not have run up as my wifi device so often reads "SMS ONLY".
Having worked in call centres - inbound and outbound - I try to be reasonable with the person that I am speaking with. However, in a single call, i get passed around and around the departments until I am finally promised a call back and I still have not received any response from anyone. I am not only completely frustrated, I am seriously concerned that I will not be able to sort anything out with anyone and that every month I will have to fear a bill upwards of $250 for a $39 plan. Thanks so much for allowing me this cathartic moment, the words "I understand" truly meant!! Ta

due to the loss of network last month - dec14 i think... i thought it was my actual handset as i didnt know there was a network issue so i stuffed around with my iphone.. threw it a few times .. screwed the sim card tray trying to see if it was the handset ... and when i found out it was the network..omg...i rang and spent forever on hold. i told them i wouldnt be paying my next account. they told me ok and to call back. haha - yeah right...
so here i have tried... so far been on hold now for 52mins and counting (thats after waiting 1 hour to get hold of someone to talk to.
i want out...
where is the class action so i can sign up!

Logged on for the first time in 2 months to check usage before holiday. Took a few minutes to load the website. Tried to sign in. "Account locked" - all bills have been paid. So I contacted support and was told account would be reset and I would receive an sms with password reset - never got them. Tried to log in "No such account exists" - called support, took 2 hours for them to sort it out with support blaming me for not signing up when my voda logs state I called them.

Stuck the USB in, connected. Website timed out. Gave up and haven't used it since. Time to cancel me-thinks.

I havent been able to use my USB wireless at home for over two months and was promised a sharing dock early in December to possibly rectify the problem, silly me I assumed it was december 2010 and as 2011 kicks in and I still havent received anything but reminders to pay my account which is due 21.1.2011..... I think there may be a problem there somewhere..And "Neil" is a guy who works for a telecommunications company with all the technology under the sun but cant call people back to discuss or rectify our complaints.

I've been with Vodafone since 1998...

My iPhone reception is pretty crap... I have to wait around 30sec for it to actually start calling the number... And normaly I have to restart to just get a signal.

But the worst customer service was when my mobile broadband account was up for renewal. The 'customer service' (used lightly) person upgraded me to a better mobile broadband deal if I signed an extension to my contract. I did, and found the next month I received two bills for two separate mobile broadband plans... When I rang to question this, they asked for which account was I wanting to discuss... to my knowledge I had only ever had the one.

They never cancelled the old account.

When I had to explain what had happened (as they had no record)... They then told me I would incur a disconnection fee for the old account.

After I threatened to leave Vodafone for my internet and terrible mobile phone account they decided it best to wave the fee...

how nice of them.

where should i start....
oh last easter is the beginning of this tale.
vodafone mobile broadband from my nanna was a godsend as we didnt have ADSL at the time... so mobile internet came into my life, and i thought it was the bees knees... until i got home. i live 700 kilometes from the nearest city and vodafone have recently put 3g broadband in my town so i was thinking i had hit a jackpot, then the speed issue came.
Dial-up speeds or slower.... rarely got the quoted 1.5mbps speed and now.... it has gotten so slow, i now regret topping up my account. i should have gotten a telstra mobile broadband stick instead of buying a $49 4GB data allowance.....

sorry vodafone, when i get paid next, you are getting your hardware sent to your main office, EXPRESS POST!

I have been a customer of Vodafone for the entire time I have had a mobile phone (14 years). When the company was smaller with less customers it was cool and reliable. Now that its a behemoth with millions of customers it is collapsing under its own weight.
My main complaints are the terrible data reliability. Works one minute for a few hundred kb and then stalls and won't work again for the next hour. It would be better if it didn't work at all. The other major problem I have is the useless Vodafone website. Half the time this isn't working and wont take credit card payments or display account details. It can't be that hard to get this right? Oh and how about an Iphone account app? You have enough customers with Iphones?

Uers on infinite cap plan be aware! -
I am on a $65 plan and this should entitle me to all of $65 value. Apparently not according to vodafone. I only noticed this as im in the habit of constantly checking all my plans(home internet/mobile) on my iphone app. The app said i had $2.00 left on the cap when i know i still had around $10.00. So i double checked the calls and calculated that i still have $10.00 credit but vodafone site still said i have $2.00. So i decided to call customer care and was on hold for more that 20 min (No Surprise there!!). I finally get to speak to the operator and got her to double check all the calls. Had to ask her to calculate it 3 times before she got the amount right. You would think these guys are good in maths. Anyway she confirmed the right amount after the 3rd time and said that the remaining amount was all going to gst(gst is extra) and that didnt sit right with me. She then went on to say that this would have been mentioned in the terms and conditions. I then told her that no mention of this in the terms and conditions. If you advertise $65 plan you are entitled to all of it. She then wanted to know if i signed it online or at the store which i thought was stupid as to why would the contracts differ if you signed it online or at the store. I then asked her to go through the contract and if she did find where its mentioned that gst is not included then i was happy to let this go. She then put me on hold for another 25 mins and came back to confirm that i was right and i was entitled to the whole $65 and that although the online site was showing i had $2.00 owing i would not be billed extra (as i still had $10.00 owing). I also got her to send me a msg from 1555 number stating that I will get the full amount of $65 which includes gst.
So people, if you are on a cap plan please check regularly as you could be paying more than you have too.

I ordered an iphone over the website on a plan, i received it 2 weeks late. that was fine. I had the phone for a week, was working excellent. I went to sign onto the vodafone website and noticed my name wasnt correct on my account page, all of the information was wrong.
I rang vodafone and was onhold for an hr, finally got through to them and they couldnt help me, because my name was wrong on the account.
I hang up rang again, same reply, so i asked to speak to someone higher.
They said, they would change the details, no problem, it may take 48 hrs to change.
I checked every day for 2 weeks and still no change, so i rang them again.
I was then told my bill was due, and it was exceeding $2000, (and still under another name) I explained that i hardly used it, and no way it could be that much, and that it was still showing up under another name, address, phone number the lot.
I go annoyed at the person i was talking too because they kept saying to come in and show id and they'll fix it - which i couldnt do because i live 5 hrs away from a vodafone store.
they said email your details and ID and they'll fix it up and ring back within 2 days.
I did. They didnt. (SHOCK HORROR!!)
I went to call them after the 2 days and i couldnt make a call.
I had no service, nothing.
I got someone too call my number, and it said it was not connected.
I was furious!
I rang vodafone back from a different phone, and they said politly - Sorry theres nothing i can do. Bring your phone into a store and we'll take it from there.
Almost 'doing my block in' i explained once again i couldnt do it living so far away from a store.
I was asked several times during the same phonecall to bring it into the closest store.
by this stage i was so annoyed, and was ready to hit the closest person.
I asked to speak to her superviser. She said sorry, but theres nothing she can do, and the superviser wouldnt be able to help. I said put the superviser on now.
Spoke to the superviser, she was helpful - well so it seemed.
She said that there had been a mix up with the account and she'll contact me in a weeks time when it will be sorted out.
I waited 3 weeks! in that time i brought a new phone NOT FROM VODAFONE!
I finally got the call, and i went off my head at the poor women.
She said well theres nothing we can do without your ID.
I said, my id is on file, ive sent it in. i will do it again.
i was emailed from the fraud people and was told to send my id into them and they'll get back to me with 2 weeks.
At least they were on time.
I was then told, there was a mix up with the accounts, and i was still under contract for 12 months and on a plan.
finally my iphone was up and running again.
it worked well for a couple months, then i had an accident, apparently water and phones dont work together real well. I am still waiting to hear back from vodafone - though i wont hold my breath.
I put my sim into a different phone.
hopefully they get back to me before my contract is up.