Dear Nigel,

I hope you don't mind me calling you Nigel, but seeing as you addressed me by my Christian name, I thought I'd pay you the same discourtesy. I'm sure we have never met personally. But then, Vodafone has always had a somewhat cavalier attitude to customer service, and not only in my experience. The letter of apology (3/3/2011) you sent to me and thousands of other customers was a kind of hilarious insult, and I think even the type of people that subscribe to bestiality websites collectively scoffed at your vapid excuses. I'd have thought it was a risky career move to apologise to your customers in the Telco business, seeing as it's an admission of guilt, which for my money makes you liable to compensate people for legitimate grievances-but that's an unpleasant topic to bring up at this fledgling stage, so we'll come back to that, but for now, I'll say this: apologies don't put dollars back in our pockets, Nigel. If you really wanted to apologise by 'snail-mail,' (which is apparently faster than your connection to 3G) you would have to bulldoze about 500 000 hectares of Tasmanian old growth if you wanted to be comprehensive about it. You say, in the second paragraph of the introduction, that you 'aim to provide our customers with an excellent customer experience and the best possible value, but recently our network and customer service performance, particularly in December and January, fell well below the standards we set for ourselves.' Fuck me, Nigel. That statement alone starts my mind spinning like a one-armed bandit. There's so many goddamn dirty questions (or confirmations of my suspicions) that you've thrown up for all to see that I don't know where to begin. I'll get to most of them in due course though. Pour yourself a Scotch.

Firstly, if the network coverage and customer service had only fallen below par in the months you mentioned, I might not be writing this note, but the fact is the service - both network and customer - has always been an abomination in the face of value for money and basic, honest, human decency and conduct. Secondly, I was amazed to discover that you have standards that you set for yourselves. What, pray tell, might these 'standards' be? It strikes me as standard practise in the Telco industry to yank customers around by their contracts like a choke chain without ever revealing what kind of obligations the service provider has to them, the paying customers. Let me stress that: PAYING CUSTOMER. That's right, old son, you work for me, for all intents and purposes or at least, that's what you should be doing. But all you do is take my money while alleging that you are providing me with something in return. In shabby reality, you're not. I am routinely overcharged for a service that I cannot even use in my own home or suburb. And it's patchy at best throughout the region. You might think we're a bunch of parochial morons out here in the sticks, but cellular technology has been available to us for at least ten years, believe it or not. Word is we'll even be getting the internet soon. Does Vodafone offer internet connections? I'm thinking of getting 56K dial-up. I don't have a landline yet, but I'll get one, because I'll be damned if I'm going to put up with your bullshit any longer.

Yes, a landline. I guess that way if I have to call the police or any other kind of emergency service, the phone connection is less likely to DROP OUT like it does when I use my mobile phone to call them I hate to have to sue you over some grievous, long term injury that I could sustain on my property. Did I mention that I'm a young woman living alone in a relatively isolated area? Yeah, that's right, I live a whole twenty minutes north of the largest regional centre in the Illawarra, and about twenty minutes south of a phone tower at Maddens Plains. In fact, I believe there is a phone tower in Thirroul, which is five minutes away from me. It's built between an Anglican church and a primary school, though the primary school is for Catholics so, I wonder why I can't call a friend on a lonely night, let alone the police or an ambulance? To the best of my knowledge, emergency services are not equipped to receive Morse code, or read smoke signals, which is about all I have at my disposal if something terrible happened. That was the first lie one of your sales reps told me - that Vodafone has 98% network coverage in Australia. Evidently, while the girl in the shop looked me in my good eye and said that, she neglected to mention that the 2% not covered includes a good deal of the Illawarra. Seeing as this was happening at a store in Wollongong, I don't see any excuse for it whatsoever, though I understand that honesty is not the best policy when you're in the snake-oil business. This brings me to a proposition - no - directive that I have for you:

Seeing as you were foolish enough to admit what a monumental balls-up your engineer gimps and sullen service reps made of December and January, I think it's only fair to expect some kind of compensation. I wonder if you would feel the same? It strikes me that you probably didn't become a CEO by lying down like a smack-whore on the nod and getting fucked by every ruthless exploiter that stepped over your body. Well, I don't intend to let that happen to me, so if you've got a problem with this strong suggestion, try and put yourself in my shoes. I bet you can. You don't get to be the boss just because you've got a smooth complexion or do you? Anyway, how's this? You pay me back the two bills I paid during December and January. By the way, nice timing on your Egyptian-style destruction of the communications system, dude. Right smack bang on the summer holidays. So - the bills amount to $84.89 (Dec) and $81.00 (Jan). If I hadn't somehow mysteriously exceeded my cap ($79), which always seems to happen, the sum total would be $158 for the pair, but seeing as your corrupt and/or terminally stupid Nazi debt-collector types like to overcharge me, it amounts to $165.89. There was no way for me to investigate this apparent skimming, because I have a couple of things going on in my life. Like commuting, working and sleeping. Having been on the phone to Vodafone for eight hours (total) one day, I don't feel particularly inspired to deal with your maniacal rhetoric on a monthly basis over a couple of dollars. But goddamn it, you know you take your cut well as I do, and I think that's a lousy way to make money. It's for bums. You grift people who give you their bank details like idiot tourists buying imitation Rolexes in third world countries. You're nothing but a bunch of hawkers, con-men and scabs. Your marketing department is run by pimps. The whole operation appears to be based - almost completely - on deceit and subterfuge. It's as if your organisation is run by an army of street thugs, and the call-centre workers are on the front line but I'm not saying the others are any better. I don't want you to feel singled out here, Nigel, but as the CEO, I would imagine you should be held responsible for the conduct of a major corporate entity whose moral compass has apparently been hurled into a snowdrift in the Arctic Circle.

Anyway, a few more stipulations regarding the money I am invoicing you for. I would, obviously, like to be released from this 'contract' I'm allegedly bound to. Seeing as you don't appear to take the contract seriously, I don't see why I should. When you show me your policies, codes of conduct etc, (which I was told were internal documents' when I asked to see them) I might entertain the idea that this contract' is in any way legally binding. You want to hope it is, because it's sure as hell not based on good will, is it? Telcos in this country have been getting away with treating people like shit and charging them for it for years. That is not going to happen to me anymore. So, I'll take the $165.89 - every cent, thanks - and be released from the contract without severance fees or string attachments of any kind. That deal goes a damnsight further than fair, Nigel, and you know it. We're talking about real money here, not that Monopoly-fantasy-call credit horseshit you use to dupe the rubes out of their shiny pennies. And I know that $165.89 ain't much to either of us, really, but I'm asking for it because it's money you admitted you don't deserve. Billing cycle begins on the first of the month. Failure to pay within the first 12 days of the new month will result in a $25 penalty fee!. If you are indeed 'working as hard and fast as [you] can to show [the customer] the changes and improvements [Vodafone is] making,' I want to see the evidence. In the form of cash, old mate. Money talks a hell of a lot louder than second-rate apologies beefed-up with pointless technical details. I hope I'm not being presumptuous, but I'm sure you are aware of this.

Explanations don't come easy in your business, do they? It was easier to get an apology out of you than it is to contend with the unmitigated stream of bullshit that I get from both automatons and humans that man your call-centres, which I imagine resemble some kind of third world sweatshop. Believe it or not, I am a professional - a civil servant, no less - and that is how I am able to pay these inexplicably inflated bills you keep hitting me with. Unfortunately, it also means that after a day of dealing with the disabled that I do not have the patience or inclination to deal with your half-bright service reps when I get home. Not that I can call you from my home, because, as I may have mentioned earlier MY PHONE DOES NOT HAVE SUFFICIENT NETWORK COVERAGE. I hope I'm being plain enough for you to follow me here, Nigel- in fact, it's quite pleasant writing to you, because I haven't been transferred to five different trainee phone monkeys who are pretending that the manager is out to lunch. I suppose you have a harem of PAs to screen your mail, but I pray to the heathen gods one of them hates you enough to pass this letter on to you.

Yours Sincerely,

Ms (SURNAME REMOVED)

I got out of my vodafone contract on the 31/12/10. We agreed to cancel the contract, but i will pay $300 for my new iphone, to be paid over 3 months.

I have now recieved an invoice for the full $300 due a few days ago.
Ive been told by someone in accounts that no payment plan has been arranged,
and as it stands, if i dont make the payment, debt collection process will start.
2 working days ago i finally got through to the tio resolutions team to only get the
option of leaving a voicemail. and i will receive a call back within 2 working days as per vodafone/tio guidelines.

i have received no call. i call through again today,told that the team are busy but a call back
has been logged, and i will receive a call in another 48 hours. currently on hold.

This was meant to be resolved 3 MONTHS AGO. I'm so sick of this shit

I have an account with three/vodaphone with e billing. Today I received my bill through the e mail erver. When I wanted to watch and print the bill as I always do the 3 customer care the answer was "wrong pin" so I tried again.Same result . I didn't give up, entering my pin very carefully. Same result and a message stated that the account was blocked. It gave a phone number to call and guess what. After several tries with accessing the right connections I waspromised to speak to a customer care person. after a few garbled noise the call disconnected.
This happened 4 times and I still cannot find out how big the bill is. Stinks!

I was a 3 customer, who called them to change my rate plan. They referred me to vodafone to get a better deal as they are the same company now. Huge Mistake! Took them 1 month to activate my SIM! Ever since I have had problems trying to sort out being put on a 24 month contract when I was on no contract with 3 and have my own handset. Who in their right mind would want a 24month contract when they have their own handset! Trying to sort that out at the moment. Have had issues with them not being effective in activating my services, so I have had to call seperatley for call waiting, voicemail, no of rings on my phone, all things that should be dealt with at the time of connection. I called them today, as I have no coverage on my phone, called from a landline and GOT DISCONNECTED! Normally when I call on my mobile, I can accept that but calling on a LANDLINE AND GET DISCONNECTED???? Their service is atrocious. Not to mention I had a shitty wireless modem with them for 2yrs in contract, thank god that ran out, the coverage was shocking, and the billing, I had to monitor and record month to month, as at times, I would receive bills in excess of $500 for one month, luckily I took print screens from my document that proved the increase in GB usage from one day to the next, which was a discrepancy of about 30gb, when my plan was for justr5 at the time. They suck, anyone thinking of using their service, save your pain. Last week I was actually in tears emotionally wrecked from the grief I have had in trying to sort it all out. I have been ringing 3 to get them to sort for me as they led me to that path. They gave me the name of a supervisor who called me saturday to say that I needed to call the welcome team to sort out the 24month contract issue. Am dumbfounded that I keep getting to the front of the queue in terms of resolving this. Today I awake to no service on my handset, so can't sort out the other issue until this is resolved. IT IS EXHAUSTING!

repeated incorrect billing charges, constant loss & interuption of service, constant failing of myvodafone website so cannot access my billing details....

incorrect billing charges

Can't sort out my service issues (unusable slow data, inconsistent reception and call drop outs) cause tech team says nothing is wrong... even though i have screenshot evidence which they don't take into account... only their own investigation. Basically vodafone customer service thinks I'm full of s*** cause tech team investigation says nothing is wrong... and no point trying to argue with tech team guys... they are always right! Been getting ripped off for months and they want me to pay cancellation fees to get out of the contract. I've had enough... I just hope I can resolve matter by going through ombudsman and or ACCC.

Vodafone changed the cap plans in July last year and they are available to all customers - if you know about it, and if you know they are available to all customers.
Was told that it would be too hard to tell customers...
Since I am two days past my billing date, my change can of course only be made in a month...
Just complained and spoke to an ultra rude staff person (who i could barely understand). I was told that my complaint would be put in my account notes...wicked.
I was going to complain about the fact that i don't get internet, and often don't get mobile coverage in Bondi, but there is no point. Vodafone just sucks, plain and simple...every little aspect of vodafone can derilict my balls.
Never again.

I recently posted a notice re pro-rata billing carried out by Voda. Well after lodging matter with TIO they rang back ... turns out they claim they arrived at the amount billed for 6 days of a billing cycle by dividing the monthly amount by 28!!! Why I asked? No answer!! Standard business practice is to multiply monthly rates by 12 (to get annual rate) then divide by 365 to get a daily rate...but not these kings of rip-off and spin. When pressed I asked why they chose 28 and not 31 (as the pro-rata days occurred in March which has 31 days) ... well we just use 28 was the answer. Please point me to where it notifies me of that in your Terms and Conditions "I can't" and then "It doesn't".
This bunch of cowboys are SIMPLY DISHONEST. So ... how many millions are they stealing each year through millions of subs via this slight-of-hand????

For 3 months now I have been trying to transfer my mobile number from the vodaphone account of my former employer to my own personal vodaphone account. All paperwork was filled out and copies of driver's licences etc all attached and faxed to vodaphone. almost a week later, nothing had been done. the paperwork was faxed an additional 10 times and emailed twice before someone at vodaphone finally had the document in their hands. I signed up for a month to month sim only contract and almost 3 months later, i hadn't received a bill. I checked with vodaphone and I they cannot give me any info because I don't have a PIN for my former employer's account.
Out of desperation, I went back to the vodaphone shop which originally signed me up and they told me the account hadn't been created and the transfer period had expired. They re-enstated the transfer and signed me up for a new account promising me that all would be taken care of. Now five days later, nothing has changed. I don't have an account, and I can't get any information out of the brain dead simpleton's on the other end of the phone.
Honestly, how hard is it to do a simple transfer of title from one vodaphone account to another. It's not even an intercarrier transfer.
I need to keep my number, otherwise I would just cut my losses and change carrier's. As it stands, I'm going to see this through and once the transfer is finally complete, start the just as painful process of porting my number to a new carrier.
I will never use vodaphone again, and I definetely won't be recommending vodaphone to either an individual or a business.
How can a company this broken be allowed to trade.

My work has mobile phones with Vodafail (aka Vodafone)...tomorrow it will be 2 weeks since Telstra started trying to port the numbers across. First it was because the account number was incorrect when in fact it wasnt. Vodafail eventually admitted that error to be theirs...now they are saying the primary account holders DOB does not match. After calling Vodafail and putting in all the correct information (PIN etc) I was told that there was no DOB on the account (So why take a copy of a Driver's Licence!!) and that my boss would have to call back on the exact same number and even talk to possibly the same person and then the DOB could be added, even though it should have been in there from the start. Well done Vodafail! You just cost yourself a few $$$ by being reported to the TIO!

ok so they replied to the tio enquiry cancelled my account and i returned the phone and was refunded for 2 months,now 3 months later im still getting bills from vodafucked telling me i owe money for the last 3 months this is the second time i rung after i got a bill a month ago they said no problem it will be fixed and i will get no more bills yet they keep coming even though im not a customer of that shithouse company any more

Yesterday after waiting 30 minutes to get through to customer care as soon as they answered trading hours were up so they just hung up mid conversation. When I tried calling back I got the answering machine. :( My wife and I both want new handsets & my contract has been finished for many months but my wife has 4 months left on her contract. I would like to negotiate to get her contract finished early so we can both be billed at the same time, but cant even get through to the right people. However, I do get annoying phone calls in the middle of the work day trying to sell me new contracts, and when I suggest my proposal, they put me on hold to a different department... NEVER TO TAKE ME OFF HOLD!

I was assured by Vodafone that my number would be ported in 3 hours, midday last Thursday. Getting this set up took 2 hours on the phone.

Later that evening, I checked, and my number hadn't been ported. So, I waited a few days (mostly because I'm too busy to set aside time during the day to call customer support).

Today, I called again to ask what was happening. The port, they said, had failed, although they never contacted me to let me know why. It turns out that, despite being assured that my name would be used for the port so that it would match the one on file at Virgin, the primary account holder's name (a family member) was used instead. They didn't match, so the port failed.

According to several representatives and their supervisors at the call centres, Vodafone is *incapable* of rectifying this situation from their end. First they tried to insist that they couldn't due to the terms of the TIO (utter crap), and then admitted that they simply hadn't built the capability into their systems.

So, Vodafone can't handle the idea of one billing account shared by several customers.

Their proposed solution? Call Virgin and get them to change the details on my account over there. Because that makes sense, right?

-- a very frustrated new customer, who wishes he'd signed a contract with anyone else right now.

And it's now 10pm...do we know what that means? Goodbye all customers currently on hold! I've been on hold for over 2 hours now in my attempt to speak to billing due to a duplicate payment (their fault, not mine). TWO HOURS of my life that I'll never get back, and every time I get the automated 'Hang in there, we'll be with you really soon', it makes me even angrier. I plan on heading into a store tomorrow to unleash my wrath on a human being. And to inform any customers to get out while they still can. I intend on dropping the 'O' bomb many, many times. That's right, OMBUDSMAN. Beware Voda-f-ing-fone, I'm coming to waste your time the same way you waste mine! And I plan on ensuring that you never meet your sales targets ever again. My passive aggressiveness will be visiting your stores shortly, hang on to your hats and say goodbye to your bonuses.

My account has been cancelled after 3 months even though it is fully paid up contract (LOOONG story). This is the second time. Plus they have charged for the 3 months I've been with them even though the first 3 months is meant to be free!

got bill for two service and two mobile set which i dont even have any idea about and its been three days already that i am ringing them to fix this problem

I called up for a wrong billing enquiry and was took 40 mins to get through to someone and another 20 mins on hold

Vodafone has been billing me incorrectly over the last 4 months for calls to another mobile. When i reviewed my bill i can say a consolidated amount of $1000 wrongly billed to my account as my plan states that vodafone call is free.

2 weeks ago after 40 minutes wait for customer support the person told me that he the database department in NSW is close right now so he will send my request and they will get back to me by 5 working days.

12 working days now and not a single phone call. i have to basically waste more time and calls for them to try to fix this situation. this is horrendous.

After making numerous phone calls and going between the store and the phone centre, I thought I had finally resolved my problem. Just received my latest bill and I have been overcharged again. This is the 4th month running.

On a business account, and calls are dropping out, and client e-mails taking an age to download (sometimes up to 15mins). Rang Vodafail while out on lunch, in the MLC Center in Sydney, almost no reception in the center of our biggest city. Returned to work, and had three dropped calls while waiting, and in total spent 2 hours waiting to get to a lady who said they would not release me from my contract as my residential address is in an area that will be upgraded next month and that is my "nominated area of usage". I never nominated any area, and the whole idea of being mobile is exactly that, otherwise I'd be working with a land line all day.

My second issue was one where I had a broadband USB key plan. Zero reception in Crows Nest, Sydney. Got out of that contract and signed up for a new plan and an iPhone as a solution for mobile e-mail access. Vodafail said they would send a box for the USB key to be packed in to be returned. They never sent the box. A year later when I was with my phone provider checking sometyhing else, he looked at my account, adn they were still charging me for the USB key and full plan, even though he had notified them to cancel the plan 12 months earlier. They had this noted on the system, but wouldn't give me a refund as they said it was my fault for not checking my bills. I work for myself, so have a direct debit set up, all paper work goes to my accountant. After a lot of arguing, they agreed to refund 50%, through a credit on the account.

This company are a joke, and I cannot wait to be free of them.

Somehow (gee I wonder how after it's come out that Vodafone do not store sensitive client information to an adequate standard) the credit card which was linked to my Vodafail plan was accessed by a third party. This third party proceeded to unlock 3 vodafail handsets (why anyone would want to be on this network is beyond me), since alerting vodafail they have made no attempt to rectify this matter, regardless of the phone calls and investigations into the deduction which we have launched. Today I discovered that my phone has been bared, as I have not paid my previous bill. The reason this bill went unpaid was due to the fact that the credit card previously linked to the account was destroyed after the fraud by vodafail (or as we suspect a vodafail employee), further more I viewed payment of any bill as affirming a contract which under contract law I should have cause to repudiate. How on earth can they be allowed to operate in such a manner?!

I have had to contact Vodaphone every month since they changed me to email bill bc I don't get a bill. They have checked my email address dozens of times and still I don't receive my bill. They say they will post a hard copy instead and I haven't receive these either. Every time I call It takes 15 mins for someone to answer. I paid my bill at the post office so I have been back to poffice twice to fix it. And Vodaphone still say it's missing. One person I at Vodaphone says it wasn't allocated to my account and was going to fix it now I call back and they say again they didn't get it at all. They sent me a message saying they are going to bar my phone bc I haven't given my new address but I haven't changed it or my email!!!!!! Once again this month I didn't get my bill so back on the phone for the same conversations same questions blah blah nothing gets fixed . I'm suck of wasting my time and effort !!!!!

I contacted Vodafone about a faulty handset.
I jumped through their hoops, and they decided that it was my iphone 3gs, and offered to replace it. I called about the replacement, and they refused, so I contacted the TIO.
Vodafone picked up the ball and followed through with a new Samsung Galaxy S.
Problem solved right? WRONG!
Fast forward 7 weeks, and I receive an email from someone within the customer satisfaction team. Releasing me from my contract, and giving me the new handset.
Great, right? Wrong. I have 2 phone numbers linked to my account. I don't WANT to cancel. I rang. They transferred me to another indian, who then released the second number. Then promptly hung up on me.
I rang back again. I don't want to leave. I'm happy. But can I change to the infinite plans on both numbers.
Yes. on a new 24 month contract.
I tell him I don't want phones, just to be transferred to the infinite.
No can do. He advised me he was sending me 2 new handsets (Nokia n97 mini's) and to just give them away if I didn't want them. I argued, he ignored me, processed 2 new contracts and hung up on me.
I'm shaking my head by this stage.
I ring back AGAIN, talk to someone else, who leaves a message for resolutions to call me.
2 days later, resolutions call. I explain everything. Even the person I spoke to is dumbfounded.
2 * phones arrive while on the phone to resolutions. I advise I will keep one for the secondary contract. BUT I don't want the Nokia, and will send it back, and choose another handset of my choosing on a different plan.
The resolutions person agrees.
I refuse delivery of one, set up the second, and move on.
Call today checking status of return. They check on aae.com.au and nothing else.
They can't find it. it says it was delivered to me. I'm screwed. Called Post office. No record of return. Just delivery. I signed for one.. not both??
At this point I'm fkn sick of Vodafones fuckups.
Highly incompetent. No communication between departments. And as much as resolutions attempted to help, I'm now stuck. I can't change plans. I can't get a handset I want, and one handset has completely disappeared off the face of the earth.
:(

Vodaphone receptoin is rediculous, when i need to make a call i cant. When i need to send messages i cant. Text messages come to me couple of hours delayed or when i make a phone call i get all my messages delivered.

Trying to change plans and complain about the poor network coverage and I get bounced round 6 different people, including technical assistance! What the hell is going on? I'm on the $114 business plan and I had to buy another phone on another provider to keep my business going. Their response to the poor coverage is" we are installing another 300+ towers in the next financial year.) Great.. But that's not helping me now is it???

I just want to drop my plan, and get a non business plan-$45 plan and go from there... I've been on the phone with Vodafone for 47 mins now, and I've only just started to speak to an accounts person!

I left my optus account early because the antena in my Iphone 3g failed. Voda offered me the best price but having the new Iphone 4 with vodafone is pointless as the 3g network is useless rendering the iphone to an expspensive phone that now struggles to send an sms in the CBD.

Well, I cancelled my 12 month contract in September last year, switching to Optus and keeping the same number. Since then I've receive a text from Vodafone every month telling me that I owe them -$0.32 and it will be debited from my account on the 30th of the month.

Three main issues here:
1. I turned off direct debit THREE times and they still took money out.
2. This wasn't for my account, the account number was totally different to the one I had, had.
3. After almost six months, surely they'd have figured out that it was 32c they owed me and they could just drop it and leave me alone.

So I called them, after being on hold for 10 minutes I spoke to someone I could barely understand. I gave her my mobile number and the account number in the account number in the messages. Her response "This isn't your account number" "I know that, that's why I'm calling you to complain." "Oh, well I'll cancel this service for you and you shouldn't receive any more texts. Are you happy with the resolution today?" I hung up.

Now I'm wondering if they do this to many people. How can a company be so poorly managed?

I called the TIO six times on them in 12 months! It took 2 weeks of back and forth between stores and call centre, 2 calls to the TIO and one two hour phone call to get the account changed from my mother's name into mine. I constantly had issues as stupid and easily fixed as that.

Immediately after switching from 3 to Vodafone I started having reception issues, I'd kept the same phone just a new sim. When I asked Vodafone they told me it was a fault with my phone and I would have to buy a new one and see if the problem resolved and if it didn't I would have to purchase a new sim. Great solution.

One month they took money from my bank account AFTER I'd paid at Australia post (and asked them to turn off direct debit... three times). This meant that there was a double up in payments so it appeared on my next bill that I didn't owe anything and they told me not to pay it. So I didn't. In the meantime they refunded money into my bank account and then sent me a dishonour fee. It took three phone calls to sort that one out and a TIO complaint.

The list is endless. Needless to I haven't experienced any of these issues with Optus.

On several occasions over the past week, my husband and I have experienced lengthy service drop outs where we are unable to use our phones for internet, messaging or calls. We have had problems before, but it seems to be getting much worse. I have a pre-paid account and find it very annoying that each month I am being 'ripped off' a couple of days worth of phone use.

I have been a loyal customer with vodafone for over 7 years now, having multiple phone contracts and mobile broadband accounts over the years.

My account number is 218955903

I have recently recieved a new iphone 4 and renewed my contract for another 12 months.. hoping this would fix the multitude of problems ive been facing over the last 6 months. These include dropped calls, no service, customer service won't help with the complaint,and worst of all the potential loss of business due to poor reception and dropped calls.

I run my own electrical contracting bussiness in the sydney cbd and metro area but am finding it EXTREMELY DIFFICULT! to do so as every second call drops out to prospective clients, and more often then not i get voicemails from clients that have been unable to get through. This being due to poor service in the middle of sydney!!

The internet speeds make it pretty much useless to complete anything on the phone, as now i dont even bother.

The Phone i am using cannot be the problem as it is brand new with a new sim card and i have friends on the same plan who have full reception and not a problem.

I have contacted customer support numerous times only to be put on hold and transfered over and over again for an hour each time.. with no success!! I have logged a complaint with vodafone and am unfortunatly looking to cancel my contract with them and switch to a new service provider.

This is costing me a fortune in lost bussines!

Please see below emails to customer service just over the last two days...

And now the ULTIMATE insult...

I get a text advising me you can't reach me on my mobile... and to call you back on the 1300 number.


NO SH!T. FARK CHU.


VODAFAIL!

10/03/2011 12:36
To
Network Feedback <Network.Feedback@vodafone.com.au>
cc

Subject
Re: Network Feedback Response




For the third day in a row - I have been unable to make a phone call , send or receive text messages or access the internet from my phone. The problem starts when i wake up in Penrith and persists thru the day at Parramatta.

About the only time my network works is for periods of about 15 seconds after i make a call if i can get thru after seven attempts or at around 2:30 for about 4 minutes.

This is my third email in 2 days to customer service. Please do not email me your unable to reach me on my mobile number... when i have given you the details as well as three landlines.

Getting them 5 hours after you sent them make me so cross, its insulting.

I wrote yesterday and was emailed this morning that the problem could not be fixed as i didn't include my phone number.

I popped out for lunch and received 4 text messages three hours late, these were people I was trying to arrange to meet for lunch that i had texted at 9 am.

I have checked on your website for network disruptions... supposedly none in my area today. my phone shows full service, and 3G.

I am two metres away from a person who is having no difficulty whatsoever.

I tried to call 1555. My phone wouldn't connect.

I called your 1300 number where it wouldn't accept my voice commands from a landline at my work. Then after putting in the options via keypad - i was put thru to someone who had such a thick Indian accent - not only could they not understand what I was saying... Ironically What i was asking for was an English speaking person as i couldn't understand them.

After several minutes of being asked for all the details i had already entered, I was told there is no problems with coverage.

Yet i can still not send a text or access the net and have to make 7 attempt's before i can put thru a local phone call.

Vodafail - you are a Joke.

Please don't say it is an issue with my handset - I put in another carriers sim and i have full service.

MY PHONE NUMBER IS XXXXXXXXXX.

As soon as my credit runs out this month I'm going to another carrier and reporting vodaphone to the telecommunications ombudsman.

Another ANGRY ANGRY ANGRY vodaphone customer loyal for 10 years and seriously over it.




Network Feedback <Network.Feedback@vodafone.com.au>
09/03/2011 22:33
To

cc

Subject
Network Feedback Response





Dear Customer,







Thank you for contacting the network feedback team. We have received your email feedback. We were unable to find your account details as the contact details were missing in the email. Kindly provide your mobile number where you would like to receive a call and we will get in touch with you at the earliest.







Regards,



Vodafone


----- Forwarded by 09/03/2011 15:21
To
network.feedback@vodafone.com.au
cc

Subject
Giving up.




I am so sick of my vodaphone constantly dropping out.

I will be

a) joining the class action against Vodaphone

b) informing the Telecommunications ombudsman

c) Changing networks ASAP when my credit expires.

I'm over it. I'm standing next to people in a foyer who have full service. I'm in an urban centre location which has supposedly already been upgraded.

I look on your "reported problems" site and it says that 3G was down for 20 mins in my area.

I get voicemail messages two days late, half the phonecalls I get don't even register, and now i can't even send a txt! I have called customer support now on 28 occasions in the last 3 months and am told - they don't have a complaint section to take down my concerns.

I have been a loyal vodaphone customer for 10 years, however I have not been able to make the most basic phonecall or text message or access the internet for 4.5 hours now and this has become a daily occurrence. My Mobile No is XXXXXXXXXXXX

Over it... you want my custom - you have 2 hours before i finish work and get myself to optus or Telstra to tell me what you are going to offer me to stay.

Constant call drop outs
Billing an absolute mess
Customer service in India means well - but are absolutely useless

After 15 years with Vodafone - it is Goodbye, farewell and Amen

I have had the same issues as many others. I live in Central Met Sydney and was having my phone drop out or only one bar. Texts coming late and just not receiving calls etc. Poor service and phone drop out were the main issue.

I called up to get out of contract. I had just put up with the crap service etc and hadn't reported so they did ask me about that. I just said just because I hadn't called them or documented every time it happened it didn't mean I hadn't been having issues. I was bounced around a bunch of times. First I got told if I wanted to know anything about my account they couldn't help as their computer wasn't working and got told to call back in an hour. Second time I said hello to them and that I wanted to cancel and the call dropped/they hung up. Third time they said they would charge me 12 x $79 as cancellation fee (remaining time on 24month contract). I said this is unacceptable and asked to speak to supervisor. They said none were on and that they would get a supervisor to call in next three to four hours. Didn't receive call.
I called back next day (today) and spoke to them again and they consulted with their supervisor. They said they would waive three months and I said that does not assist me if they coverage is crap etc and due to my work (in emergency services) I require my mobile to work at all times as a matter of urgency/priority. More discussions and then they finally agreed to let me cancel my contract and waive the $1000 fee. If i wanted to keep my phone I would have had to pay for it. I said no, so I need to send it back. They said I can port to telstra anytime now. They said they will send me an envelope and instructions to send back my phone. Once they have the phone back in their warehouse they will waive the fees.
Job done.
Good luck everyone.
Just remember to document if you can (take photo of the screen if possible when phone drops out, times dates etc), call them and complain if you are having issues so they have a log, and if you want to cancel explain how phone use for you is a needed as a matter of priority (eg if you in emergency services and need phone to save lives etc). Good luck!

I changed from pre paid to post paid on 27 December 2010 - I was supposed to be on a 12 month 45 infinate plan with $25 per month for Nokia n8. I was promised a three month waiver of the $45 and a discount of 10% for the 12 months on the $25 amount.
This has then been my experience:
1. First three days (including my birthday unable to receive calls
2. Rang vodaphone 6 times to get message bank set up over a weeks period
3. Spent between 45 - 1 hour on hold each time I tried to contact.
4. Phone "bricked" itself and I had to return it
5. First bill - no discount for $45 charge - contact call centre took 3 attempts as over 1 hours hold time
6. Finally got on to consultant who cant help, finally get a supervisor who says she has fixed it and sends an email (10 Jan) assuring me the $45 discount and 10% will be applied from now on.
7. Next bill - no discount - hours again getting on to consultant who said it was fixed and would show on next bill
8. Next Bill - no $45 discount caled again and spoke to supervisor who assures me it is fixed and I will not have to call again
9.Called TIO and lodged complaint
10. Try to use vodaphone music stre on N8 tracks do not download - contact vodafhone and get told nokia n8 not compatable with the vodaphone store, consultant checks account and says I wont be charged for tracks.
11. Called by vodafone in response to TIO complaint 2 days ago, woman quite snappy and says it has been fixed and I will not have to call again
12. Today - get new bill and 45 credit has been applied however now 10% discount has fallen off. Also have been charged for vodaphone music store tracks that did not download
13 Call vodaphone and speak to supervisor who tells me he is in melbourne billing - looks at account and agrees the 10% has not been applied and says it will happen next month as will music refund- I ask for something in writing as this has been promised so many times before and he refuses. ask to speak to someone higher up and get transfered without warning or introduction to a customer complaints electronic service
14. Call back and request to get back to supervisor I was speaking to and get told they cannot transfer calls internally and also tells me there is no billing department in melbourne. Also says there is no internal staff directory for vodaphone
15. burst into tears of frustration and Go back to TIO

HOW RIDICULOUS IS VODAFONE!!! I JUST GOT SMACKED WIF A 400$ OWING BILL WHEN I HAD ALREDY PAID ALL MY BILLS THEY EVEN HAD RECORDS OF ME DOING SO, THEY HADNT EVEN SENT ME OUT A BILL FOR FEB NOR MARCH AND THEN THEY HAVE THE HIDE TO SAY I OWE THEM MONEY AND THAT IF I DIDNT GET A BILL I SHUD OF RANG THEM, LAST TIM EI CHECKED IT ISNT MY JOB TO SEND BILLS AND WHAT NOT THATS VODAFONES JOB! THEY THEN OVER CHARGE ME WHICH WASNT IN MY CONTRACT! SHIT SERVICE AND RECPETION, THE STUPID A*****E I JUST DEALT WITH LESS THAN 5 MINITS AGO THOUGHT IT WAS HILAROUIS TO MAKE A GIRL CRY AND THEN HANG UP ONE ME! WAY TO TREAT YUR CUSTOMEERS VODAFONE, I HAVE LESS THEN 6 MONTHS TO GO WIF VODA AND I CANT WAIT TO LEAVE THEM! I TELL THEM ALL THE TIME I AM NEVER COMMING BACK TO THEM AND THEY DONT EVEN GIVE A SHIT. AND ALSO ANOTHER COMPLAINT LAST YEAR IN SEPTEMBER TIME THEY HAD TAKEN OVER $350 WORTH OF MONEY OUT OF MY ACCOUNT WIF OUT MY CONSENT AND THEN TOOK 3 MONTHS FOR THEM TO PUT IT BACK!

signal drop outs, call drop outs, delayed voicemail & sms for months. finally cracked it yesterday when on internet banking the sms from my bank to pay a bill took 2.5hrs to come through. then tried logging onto vodafone.com.au to check my account to see what options i have to get out of the last 12 months, and their website failed....

We live at Ocean Grove on the bellarine peninsula near Geelong Victoria
Our Vodafone signal is always low and we experience constant drop outs at home and on the local roads for our mobile phone service. I had a Vodafone modem for my laptop and the service was so unpredictable I cancelled the service at the end of the contract. Amazingly i still get monthly accounts for this service - even though its then credited off - seems they cant delete the account from their system???
I lost emails to my Blackberry storm in Jan 2011 and still havent been able to get them back on the mobile - with or without the help of vodafone customer support. My phone contract is due to expire soon and i cant wait to get away from Vodafone and this mongrel Blackberry phone
Warren Gibbs Account 213545543 - but not for much longer

I’m sick of Vodafone, I never receive messages until 4 hours later, my coverage is shit in Cairns, I am for ever losing signal, 1/2 through phone calls, and have to phone people back all the time, I can’t even use my phone inside, my house or at work, I have to go outside all the time for clear signal, majority of the time I barely even get 1 bar of signal on my phone, when I try and use the neton my phone it takes forever and then the server stops, there’s no transparency with their billing, I.E no itemized bill, I can’t wait to get out of my contract, 2 more months to go, I would never use them again, and I have been a loyal customer over 14 years, so you can spend all of those millionswith the cricket team trying to get me back, but I will never go back to you.

So I entered a simple complaint about coverage issues I am still currently experiencing sometime ago and since the coverage has still not improved and Vodafone have STILL failed to respond to my concern (ever after saying they would) I thought I should share it here.

Email conversation appears below - in date order.

-----------------------

Response (Emil) 28/05/2010 11:02 AM
Hi XXXX,

Thank you for your email.

I regret to hear of the difficulties you are experiencing with network coverage in the areas you have specified. Vodafone endeavours to provide quality service to our customers where possible. To enable me to submit a service request for our technicians to investigate the coverage issues you have outlined, please supply the following information.

筆obile number and alternate contact number
菱andset make/model (if using an iPhone please insure that you are using the latest software as this can effect coverage in most cases)
姫rovide address including postcode where problem is experienced with the nearest cross road as the street directory does not always cover these locations.
髭xplain the coverage issue - is there no/low signal strength, quality problems, bad audio or frequent dropouts? Please provide three specific examples including date/times this has occurred?
肘s the problem a degradation or has it always been present? If degradation, provide approximate date and time that the problem began.
疋oes the phone work in other locations?
疋oes the problem occur when receiving or making calls, or both?
疋oes problem only occur to/from a specific number, landline, specific mobile carrier or all numbers?
疋oes the problem occur inside, outside or both? If inside is this a multi storey building and what level are you on?
菱ow many bars of signal strength are on the phone?
姫lease advise whether your phone indicates reception on the 3G or 2G network?
肘f 3G, please advise whether the issue continues when manually selecting service with the 2G network?
姫lease check and confirm the coverage received with your SIM card in another handset? Please also supply the handset type.
姫lease check and confirm the coverage received with another Vodafone SIM in your handset?

Please add any additional information that may assist in resolving your issue.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind regards,

Emil
Correspondence Team

---------------------

Customer (XXXXXX) 29/05/2010 12:13 AM

Dear Vodafone,

Thank you for your kind reply.

Please find following the answers to the many questions you surely could have investigated and answered yourself instead of making me (the customer) do all the running around.

> 筆obile number and alternate contact number: XXXX XXX XXX is the vodafone mobile number, XXXX XXX XXX is an alternative number (telstra)
>
> 菱andset make/model (if using an iPhone please insure that you are using the latest software as this can effect coverage in most cases): I am using an iphone with XXXXXXXXXX the Vodafone number.
>
> 姫rovide address including postcode where problem is experienced with the nearest cross road as the street directory does not always cover these locations. As per my initial coverage complaint the area affected by coverage issues includes; XXXXXXXXXXXXXX, Richlands QLD, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX, Richlands QLD, Logan Motorway at the Centenary Highway exit. General Postcode for this area is 4077.
>
> 髭xplain the coverage issue - is there no/low signal strength, quality problems, bad audio or frequent dropouts? Please provide three specific examples including date/times this has occurred?
> 1. Monday 24/05/2010 - low signal strength dropping to read "NO SIGNAL" on regular occasions both outside and inside building NO 3G coverage at all.
> 2. Tuesday 25/05/2010 - low signal strength dropping to read "NO SIGNAL" on regular occasions both outside and inside building NO 3G coverage at all.
> 3. Wednesday 26/05/2010 - same as above
> 4. Thursday 27/05/2010 - same as above
> 5. Friday 28/05/2010 - same as above
>
> 肘s the problem a degradation or has it always been present? If degradation, provide approximate date and time that the problem began: I have spoken to other persons in the area and they advised that coverage in the area had always been pathetic and a bit hit and miss.
>
> 疋oes the phone work in other locations: Yes, the phone works in other locations, but the fact I work in the area it means I spend a large part of my day in the area with no Vodafone coverage.
>
> 疋oes the problem occur when receiving or making calls, or both: Both - the problem seems to exist all day.
>
> 疋oes problem only occur to/from a specific number, landline, specific mobile carrier or all numbers: Yes, Vodafone - Telstra coverage in the area is 100%, Vodafone coverage in the area sucks.
>
> 疋oes the problem occur inside, outside or both? If inside is this a multi storey building and what level are you on? Occurs inside and out of building, inside on ground level and on first floor - no coverage, outside in the open - no coverage, driving in my car along the roads listed above - no coverage
>
> 菱ow many bars of signal strength are on the phone? Generally none, however will occasionally display 1 bar - NO 3G
>
> 姫lease advise whether your phone indicates reception on the 3G or 2G network? Does not indicate reception of 3G at all in the area
>
> 肘f 3G, please advise whether the issue continues when manually selecting service with the 2G network? N/A
>
> 姫lease check and confirm the coverage received with your SIM card in another handset? Please also supply the handset type. - Nokia still crap Vodafone coverage in the area.
>
> 姫lease check and confirm the coverage received with another Vodafone SIM in your handset? Will you send me another Vodafone SIM to trail? I'm not going out to purchase another SIM only to find out it doesn't work either and then I'm stuck with it.
>
> Thank you again for actioning my coverage concern. I look forward to hearing how you intend to resolve this issue in order to retain me as a loyal Vodafone customer. If this issue is not resolved promptly I will be transferring to Telstra who appear to have perfect coverage in the area.
>
> Regards,
XXXXXXXXXX

------------------------------

Response (Emil) 31/05/2010 09:43 AM
Hi XXXXX,

Thank you for your email.

Please be advised you will need to provide your residential address as the coverage can only be investigated based on the address that you contracted with.

Can you also please provide the nearest cross street to your residential address.

You will also need to provide three specific coverage issues within the past 72 hours.

Kind regards,

Emil
Correspondence Team

--------------------

Customer (XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX) 31/05/2010 06:42 PM
To whom it concerns,


I think you fail to understand the actual coverage concern I have raised - it has nothing to do with my residential address (therefore I will not be providing it for you) - my phone works fine at home, along with many other areas. The purpose of my original email was to highlight that you have a coverage blackspot in the area in which I work. I have next to no reception on my iphone when I am in XXXXXXXXXXXX, Richlands Queensland.

This really is a simple matter that could easily be resolved by:
a) Vodafone sending a technician to XXXXXXXXXXXX, Richlands to test coverage
b) identifying a lack of coverage in the area
c) admitting there is a coverage issue and updating your "coverage map" to suit
d) rectifying the issue and improving coverage in this area.

As I have said in previous correspondence (but I will repeat myself incase you didn't read the first time - Telstra mobile coverage is 100% in XXXXXXXXXXXX - both indoors and out side. Vodafone coverage in XXXXXXXXXXXXXX is pathetic to say the least.

I have been a Vodafone customer for many years, and quite frankly if Vodafone continue to send me emails making this a drawn out process and making silly excuses I will sooner transfer my account to Telstra and encourage all within my networks to change from Vodafone too.

Vodafone - I am giving you the opportunity to value your customer and retain me. If coverage in the area is improved I will have no problems continuing to be a Vodafone customer. If coverage is not improved in the region I will no longer be your customer. Therefore the outcome is in your hands.

What I fail to understand is why Telstra coverage can be perfect! And after all these years Vodafone coverage isn't on par.

Your speedy response is greatly appreciated,

XXXXXXXXX

---------------------------

Response (Emil) 01/06/2010 08:26 AM
Hi XXXXXX,

Please be advised in order for me to be able to raise a Service Request for our technicians to investigate I will require you to provide the specific addresses that the coverage issues are experienced along with three examples over the past 72 hours for each of the addresses as without this information the Service Request will be declined.

Kind regards,

Emil
Correspondence Team

------------------------

Customer (XXXXXXXXXXXXX) 01/06/2010 09:43 PM
> Dear Vodafone,

Thank you for your response. The specific address is XXXXXXXXXX Richlands Queensland - thats pretty specific to me. The entire street! But if you really require a pin pointed located a good place to start is XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Richlands.

Secondly - three examples have been provided previously with the coverage complaint - but for your reference I have copied them below -
> 1. Monday 24/05/2010 - low signal strength dropping to read "NO SIGNAL" on regular occasions both outside and inside building NO 3G coverage at all.
> 2. Tuesday 25/05/2010 - low signal strength dropping to read "NO SIGNAL" on regular occasions both outside and inside building NO 3G coverage at all.
> 3. Wednesday 26/05/2010 - same as above
> 4. Thursday 27/05/2010 - same as above
> 5. Friday 28/05/2010 - same as above

Look forward to hearing your response this time - as I have said this is your opportunity to retain me as a valued customer of Vodafone. This process of emailing back and forth having me answer countless questions that could easily be obtained if you sent a technician out to the location specified to investigate signal strength is not a very good example of the efficiencies of Vodafone, nor is it a good reflection on the value that Vodafone place on their Customers.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

------------------------------

Response (Emil) 02/06/2010 07:12 AM
Hi XXXXXXX,

As previously requested I require 3 coverage issue examples within the last 72 hours.

I advise that a technician is sent through the area once a Service Request has been raised however as the information requested is yet to be provided a Service Request has not been submitted.

Kind regards,

Emil
Correspondence Team

-------------------------------

Customer (XXXXXXXXXXX) 02/06/2010 07:28 AM

> This is ridiculous. Shall I bold the FIVE examples of coverage issues below so that you understand that I have provided them now on 3 occasions!

1. Monday 24/05/2010 - low signal strength dropping to read "NO SIGNAL" on regular occasions both outside and inside building NO 3G coverage at all.
> 2. Tuesday 25/05/2010 - low signal strength dropping to read "NO SIGNAL" on regular occasions both outside and inside building NO 3G coverage at all.
> 3. Wednesday 26/05/2010 - same as above
> 4. Thursday 27/05/2010 - same as above
> 5. Friday 28/05/2010 - same as above

Obviously all the above mean there is no COVERAGE on a regular basis which means I cannot use the phone nor receive emails etc... because the COVERAGE is so inconsistent in Richlands Queensland.

Hopefully this meets your needs to raise a request now. Where are you based to not understand what I have written?

Regards,

XXXXXXXXXXX

----------------------

Customer (XXXXXXXX) 02/06/2010 07:59 AM
> Emil,

Within the previous 72 hours the dates on the initial examples provided could simply be changed.

1. Monday 31/06/2010 - low signal strength dropping to read "NO SIGNAL" on regular occasions both outside and inside building NO 3G coverage at all.
> 2. Tuesday 01/06/2010 - low signal strength dropping to read "NO SIGNAL" on regular occasions both outside and inside building NO 3G coverage at all.
> 3. Wednesday 02/06/2010 - same as above


Hope this helps,

Please let me know the outcome.

Regards,

XXXXXXXXX

----------------------------

Response (Emil) 02/06/2010 01:36 PM
Hi XXXXXXXXX,

Please be advised that a Service Request has been raised with our technicians outlining the issues regarding Network coverage in the area/s you have specified.

Your reference number is XXXXXXXXXXXXXX. Please quote this number when making reference to your report.

I will contact you upon the outcome of your CPD report.

Kind regards,

Emil
Correspondence Team

------------------

Still NO response!

Finally thought I was free of Vodaphone only to find that they have not acknowledge the recipt of my phone at their Tasmania depot and are trying to bill me another month. I am sick of this company!

where do I start... the ever helpful call centre, the over charging, not being able to see my bills on line (if my number is not registered for myvodafone then how have I got e-mail billing!!!) or the stupid bitch lara! I've been with vodafone for over 10yrs. As soon as you could port your number I changed. I used to get regular calls to see if I wanted upgrades or when a better plan came along. Now you have to fight to disconnect a mobile broadband service you don't use (No i don't want to transfer it to another number!!!) My last few bills I've gone slightly over my cap, for the first time in a year and the charges are over the top. As soon as I pay my bill I will be going to optus, who regularly call me to offer fantastic plans as I am with them on my home and net... bit like vodafone used to. It seems in the past 3-5 year vodafail has consistantly gotten worse. They promised the world to get us all to swap then thought we've got them now we can rest on our laurels. Guess what - YOU CAN'T! Oh and I can't wait to never have to here Lara's voice again!

First of all I experienced calls dropping out which was bad enough. Now I have just found out that Vodafail have been trying to debit my bank account to pay my brothers bill. What the fuck??!! I only found out because my brothers phone was disconnected as the bill was not paid. The reason it was not paid is because Vodafail debited my bill from my account (the account they debit from is only used to pay my phone bill so will only have enough in it for the bill)Then a few days later they would try and debit my brothers bill but were unable to because they had alrady taken the money out to pay my bill. Every time I call them i speak with some Indian I can hardly understand. Just called them again today and actually spoke with someone from Australia. She tells me everything is fixed and i have been given 3 free months. I have requested an email and sms confirming my free months. I am still waiting

I had been using my iPhone as a wireless modem while on holiday in Sydney, and it worked a little better than in Brisbane (that is, it worked some of the time instead of hardly working at all). Over the month, I had downloaded about 100 MB on average per day for about a week and a half (coming close to my 1.5GB limit). Around the end of the billing cycle, I came back home and had a few days when I wasn't tethering, and hardly used my data at all (since I knew I was close to my limit).

So I was pretty shocked when they sent my bill, and said that I had downloaded 980 MB on the second last day of my billing period, and other data that I could not have possibly downloaded - my service is so terrible that 3G in Brisbane tends to just time out and you have to refresh up to 10 times before you can get anything to load, and VHA alleges that I downloaded so much in Brisbane where 3G doesn't work! The amount was more than three times bigger than the most I had been able to download in a day in Sydney, where I was in an area where the 3G sort of worked...

The total charge was $550, which was a massive shock when my bill is $54 usually ($49 + iPhone payment).

I emailed them, and even though it said that they would get back in five working days, it was more like eight working days (and a weekend in-between) so it was almost two weeks before I got the response. Even though it was impossible that I had used the data in question, and they were clearly in error, the best I could get them to do was to reduce the bill by 50%, which is ridiculous.

I want to file a complaint with the TIO, but the problem is that really only Vodafone are the ones who can prove that they made the error, and I doubt they would be happy to help - they are probably pretty happy to be able to charge ridiculous amounts for data that they aren't providing, and there being absolutely nothing the user can do...

What's more, the people at the store seem to have set up my account to automatically charge my credit card when the bill is due, against my will (I pay my bills by B-pay, usually as soon as I get them) and I told the people in the store that was how I was going to pay. So it tried to take $550 out of the card account and when that was declined they decided to charge me an extra $15 dishonor fee on the next bill. Again, totally their fault and totally nothing I can do about it.

Vodafone are nothing but criminals if you ask me. Not only did they happily sign me up when their network has been over-capacity for at least a year, but they gouge me for services they're not providing and that I didn't use.

SMS'd me that i have credit of $xxx in account xxx and another sms saying I have debit of xxx in account yyy. I tell them to just balance it. TOO DIFFICULT.
Their sms has NO REPLY function. Why not????? Too dumb to expect an answer to your problem? Cant handle simple mathematics? cant handle customers? YES they can't handle customers!!! All they want to do is sms, call, harass, ignore you and no attempt to fix the problem. Typical ass holes. I'd be ashamed if I worked for them. I used to be a dealer and told them where they could take their business! All they used to do is say oh! go and see your local dealer, they will fix our problems for you. Poor bloody dealers!

Callback receiced from dude who insisted first thing he informed me was he was a "floor manager".
Advised him I had 6 different complaints- call drop outs, customer service, mobile broadband, missing notes they were meant to email to me 4 different times, technical support, billing
Like any other person there he could only help me with one issue- the bill of over 300 for my 79 plan- 1300 and 1800 numbers are charged at a higher rate- so next time there is a flood and cyclone in Queensland dont be ringing for help from the flood appeal or centrelink when you cant get to work and your house floods- they will take any support you get and suck it into their next bill.
Lodge a complaint with the TIO and contact Vodafone as per TIO to advise not paying bill as is part of the dispute.
Next morning, at work desk...receive text message....ah! Vodafone....."You have an outstanding bill."
Phone Vodafone...numbnuts tells me there is no note of my call yesterday to advise of TIO reference number."
Ring back - customer service- 2nd person suddenly can see the note and will stop further contact.

What is going on there? Vodafone all I want after 7 years is out- can you please get that right for me? Please???

Have requested my account notes 4 times now, each time with the 5-7 working days spiel. Months on still no notes to support my TIO dispute. Conspiracy??

Was also informed via email that my calls arent 'dropping out' and look like they only have minimal reception so I cant hear the other person and to ensure I don't get billed on a quiet line "make sure you hang up your phone properly."

Seriously?!?! Hope to be released on parole from my Vodafone contract. Thinking of going Virgin Mobile for mobile broadband and mobile phone service- anyone got any horrors there I should know about?

Does anyone have the contact details for Nigel the CEO of Vodafone? Wondering if he can help me without being flicked around 5 times?

Was a custoner of Vodafone since October 2007.
August 2009 received advice that my contract was due to expire and was offered a new contract and a new handset. I had been happy with the service I had received from Vodfone so (ominously) agreed to renew my contract. I advised I was moving to Perth from Adelaide and advised my new address details so that they could deliver my new handset.
September 2009 discovered that reception at my new home in Perth was virtually non-existant and that I had to travel 5kms to get decent coverage. Contacted Vodafone to advise them of this and to follow-up the wherabouts of my new handset that I had not received. I was advised that Vodafone would complete tests to measure reception near my home and that it would take 2 weeks. I was also advised that I should have received my handset by now as it was delivered to my address in Adelaide. I told them I had advised them I was moving and had given my new address details but these changes had not been made on my account. Vodafone advised they would resend my handset to my Perth address.
Given the poor reception I had at home I signed up to a Telstra contract and redirected my Vodafone number to the Telstra number so that I could receive calls - I was looking for work at the time and had provided potential employers with my Vodafone number some weeks before.
In November I received an account addressed to my Adelaide address via mail redirection. I AGAIN contacted Vodafone to update my address details and to enquire about the tests regarding poor reception. I was advised they would contact me in this regard as soon as they could. I then, rather stupidly it would seem, paid the account in full.
In February 2010 I received another bill addressed to my Adelaide address. I had not received any further contact from Vodafone regarding the poor reception or the handset and had not received any calls from Vodafone despite the diversion to my Telstra number still being active. I (erroneously it seems) assumed that the contract was null and void as i had not received any service of any reasonable level since the renewal of the contract in August 2009.
I had not contact from Vodafone for 10 months until...
December 2010 my sister has a chance encounter with the new tenants living at my old address in Adelaide who provide her with 2 letters - 1 is an account from Vodafone. The other is advice that they have passed the matter on to a Debt Collection Agency. Fed up of the poor service I had received using the Customer Service Line I decided to email Vodafone. This also allowed me to keep a written record of my contact with them. I sent the email on 24/12/2010. I received no response.
On 25/2/2011 I sent another email to Vodafone seeking a response to my email of 24/12/2010.
On 1/3/2011 I received an account from Vodafone for $638 being the outstanding amount for "service" and a cancellation of contract fee chharged to my account in December 2010. Absolutely fed up I called the Customer Service Line and speak to a CSO. He was perfectly polite and listened very patiently as I relayed the whole story to him. He advised I needed to call the PDR department on 2/3/2011 so that they could resolve the issue. I asked if he could update my address details to show my Perth address (the 4th time I had asked Vodafone staff to do so) and he told me he couldn't do that!!
Today I call Vodafone again. The first time I got through the call was disconnected mid-sentence. The second time i got through I spent 1 hour speaking to 4 different people before I finally got to speak to a manager. He advised me that, as I had "failed to advise my new address details" I was liable for the full amount. I told him I had advised my details on numerous occasions but that they continued to send accounts to Adelaide instead of Perth. He then told me that it was my fault for assuming that I didn't have a contract with Vodafone anymore. My argument is, if I never received a handset, was not receiving accounts and had no reception, why wouldn't I assume my contract had been cancelled! He went on to tell me that Vodafone's records are accurate and that he can see no record of me contacting Vodafone to advise them of the issues I was experiencing. I asked if he had any record of the contactmade my Vodafone to me in August 2009 when my contract was renewed...he said he DIDN'T!!! I asked if there was any record to show that I had never received the handset. He advised he would have to look in to that and asked if he could call me back in 5 minutes. I waited 2 hours for him to call me back and when he did he told me he would have to call back again on 3/3 as he had meetings to attend.
I have since lodged a complaint with the TIO.
Unbelievable!!!

Hi,

I recently called up Three mobile to discuss my options and I was told by the rep that Vodafone owns three and had a great $45 plan and that switching would make sense. Anyways, I paid my outstanding Three account off and got transferred to Vodafone - all good. Anyways, I call up Vodafone in order to unlock my phone (I called Three up and got service regarding Vodafone so thought all good to call and sort it) - they said that they could not assist, and that I had to call Three customer to sort it out - I called Three and was put on hold a number of times (waited 20 mins before getting cut out) and the time I finally got through, I was put through to ten different people and put on hold for a collective period of an hour and a half (this is with Three) - Anyways, I got my bill for the 14 days I have used Vodafone, and on the bill is an amount of $70 for all the time I spent waiting for Three after being told to call them by Vodafone - anyways,Vodafone don't just provide bad service, they charge you for making calls to a subsiduary company - poor service so far, and bad billing practices - what am I in for... connection sucks...

I have been a customer of vodafone for over 3 years, constantly putting up with receotion issues, and customer service is apauling!! I obtained work 13 kms from a queensland Towm called Clermont, as the vodafone would not work there I had to open a Telstra account, I now refuse to pay vodafone the remainder of my contract until may 2011!! Off course Vodafone blame me for working to far from a major city!!! what a joke!!!

Over the last 10 years I have used half a dozen carriers across 100+ locations across 4 continents and 10+ countries. Vodafone is the drag of the drags. My service is often unavailable across sydney metropolitan area. On occasions I have had no service for hours where I work in the Sydney Darlinghurst area - which is one of the most densly populated in Australia, so shoudl ahve *outstanding* coverage; after 1h+ trying to get through to somebody vaguely informed at Vodafone I was told that they knew nothing, that nothing could be done and my call got dropped!!! I find the customer service to be slow, monumentally incompetent, usually passing me from one person to another, virtually always loosing my call. The use of off-shore slave labour as call center solutions is nothing new, and I have certainly had many competent/pleasant experiences, but the Vodafone staff are totally clue-less every single time (my good experience in this area was, surprisingly, Telstra, whom I use for my Internet - their call centre staff in the Phillipines were excellent - and *no, I do not work for Telstra, or own shares etc...*).

Bottom line. Vodafone is in abysmal state. The responsibility rests squarely with the top-level management, including the CEO. The only way this company is going to change is if the management team is replaced with people who get the fact that they have *serious* problems, and bring some new ideas. If I was a Vodafone shareholder, I would be asking why the CEO has not been replaced by now - nothing personal, I don't know the guy - it's just basic accountability!

Mobile Broadband drops out when I am checking My Vodafone!
The Usage Details do not match what is remaining on my account.
Just told by Call Centre that Usage Details do NOT include GST, so the amount remaining on my account is not a true reflection of my actual bill. The Usage Details do not actually show what I am being charged for! Hopeless
As I am talking to the Call Centre, the Vodafone connection also fails.

Tried use myvodafone to check my account. After one attempt my account was locked.
When I called for password reset, they told me that they have problem with their system and it would be reset only in 24 hours! It seems that they have constant problems with their system!

During last 3 weeks I am trying to solve the problem with my iPhone internet connection, still waiting for answers from their "investigation team".

Well, where do I start.....................I have a car somewhere in San Diego mind you I don't have a passport so how the crap does that work?
Secondly, just received a phone call from my credit union advising me of suspicious fraud on my account (surprisingly it is my account that I provided my card for proof of identification) My card has been frozen & my card reported as stolen.

crappy coverage in melbourne cbd, have to stand on one leg out my balcony to get a signal at home.

Billing - apparently I made a call every 14 seconds last month, exhausted my plan and now have a $250 bill to thank for it.

Vodafoney's answer - you must have made those calls. yet, when queried cannot provide originating base station details

Call centre operator didn't help, just transferred me somewhere else.
More than 1 hour wait for technical support.
Operator at other end could not speak English clearly.
Numerous call dropouts and mobile broadband problems
Billing problems - automated SMS service not functioning for 1 week - unacceptable.
Can't understand why remaining credit is decreasing faster than the actual calls I'm making.

After numerous problems with coverage and service, I called VF early in February to ask them how I go about cancelling my account. They said that they would do an investigation on my address (home) and if they couldn't offer me a better coverage, they would let me out of my contract. They promised to call me back within 5 working days to advise. 2 weeks later, no call back. I called again (after switching my phone off and on again 3 times as it wouldn;t work) and spoke to a woman who was very rude, she told me that VF Tech Support had called me on 11th February and explained everything to me. I told her that I had received no calls from VF to which she continually told me I was incorrect and repeated the same thing over and over. She then told me that they have coverage problems in Freshwater (despite the fact I usually have 5 bars and 3G) and would be fixing within a month. When asking her again "how do I go about cancelling" she transferred me to another department for which I spent 50 minutes on hold before my phone dropped out. What do you do? Frustrating Coverage, woeful irreverant service, continual LIES.

Ok, The 3G is laughable, doesn't work 8/10 times. So I don't even think it would be possible to use my 2 gig allocation. Lucky the phone thethers to my wifi.. At home at least.

When I went to the chermside store to buy a phone I got stuffed around by this guy that had no idea how to use their own software. I had to continually tell him which fields to fill out and how and he had to et the other store person to help on 4 occassions as well. It's not rocket science! It says first name, one would think it obvious this is where your first name goes? So after 70 minutes! Just trying to complete the application with this guy it failed my credit check on 50 dollar a month plan when I had plenty of supporting payslips and bank statements. Oddly my bank gave me a 5k credit card (which I was forced to get in order to submit my application online and avoid the shop assistants). I completed the form by myself on the net, put in all my info and details in the right boxes and got approved...

The store people can be very inept, the call centre people are about as bad. If you ever get through to the right department withou your phone battery going flat from being on hold.

Got a message warning me I hadn't paid my bill and must immediately do so! Weird because my bill gets direct debited from my credit card. Check the credit card and nothing. Called them back to inform them they had forgot to debit my account. They claim the debit was denied.. Weird no sign of any attempt on my bank account, credit card with plenty of credit. So they tell me to bpay it. I do, and phone to confirm this. three days later (on the correct billing date) they debit me the full amount again!!

I think you know the rest...
Al

I still have a 3G iPhone but still considered a reasonable smart phone and noticed tolwards the end of last year 2010 my data and smtp pop email from personal and work email accounts
started to drop the sync and missed important emails.I did speed tests with speed test apps
and it showed some good days and bad days when I tested.I decided to do a test on my Vodafone iPhone contract phone aaaand....results below....
Type 'vodafail' into safari google and see how it almost fails to load?Then type Vodafone into it and see how quick it seems to load (quickest I've seen this phone run online).
Type 'Vodafone vodafail' and it seemed to trick what looks like the port scanners at
Vodafone central.then back to Vodafail and it loaded.I am soon to be out of contract and have been a customer who has paid by direct debit for 13 years .WTF happened to such a great company that used to defy fault and took it to (rip-off telstra and optus) now they seem
to be picking up the wounded ex Voda customers.just going to wait a while after contract expires
and maybe buy a medium quality android phone to eliminate hardware obsolescence and see if
The big V can make a come back after they get a thumping from the blue chip boys.hmmmm in the
IT world business customers would be rope-able .Its like buy a Mercedes AmG car and it having a Hyundai excel 1.5 motor in it.

1. last year my husband was in UK for a couple of weeks. THREE DAYS after he got home, I finally received a text message he had sent from Heathrow. As it turned out he made it home (roughly!) on time, but if this had been a message to say his flight was cancelled or whatever, then not receiving it would have been a serious problem.

2. I am a senior doctor in a major public hospital and when I am on call (usually 24/7 for 2 weeks at a stretch) I have to be available at any time, for emergencies. Given how often I look at my phone and see "no service", this is a significant risk to patients.

3. My husband and I both have vodafail accounts and until a few months ago I would send one cheque to cover both payments each month. Recently and without any warning or notification, their finance dept became incapable of dealing with this complex and intellectually challenging task of crediting two bills from one payment. So without any communication they simply paid the full amount onto my account, which therefore ended up in credit, and sent my husband a rude message to say they would suspend his account if he didn't pay up. When after dealing with several people at some call centre somewhere offshore I finally managed to speak to someone who could understand what my problem was, she was unable to do anything about it, couldn't transfer my credit balance to my husband's account, couldn't send me a new statement showing that mine was in credit (because they can only send one bill a month!), etc etc. She did however offer to credit $25 to my husband's account to compensate for the inconvenience - but having just now received our next lot of bills, that hasn't happened.
For one thing it is PATHETIC that they can't deal with this anyway, and for another thing, if it HAS to change after EIGHT YEARS, why the hell didn't they notify us before actually changing it?

4. and now to add insult to injury, I just got an SMS message telling me I have to pay $133 - which is in fact the amount my account is in CREDIT due to their previous cockup!!

We are asking around for "word-of-mouth" as to who to change to - assuming we can get out of our contracts with Vodafail - but it certainly won't be Telstra, as we're looking to find an alternative to THEM for our landline and internet!

I'm trying to get my usage details from the vodafone website, as my monthly rollover date is tomorrow.

"Please note: Due to continuing delays, this information is only current as at approximately 72 hours ago.
We hope to have this reduced to normal by Friday 25 February.
For more up-to-date information, some customers are able to:
- Call 1512 for your current months remaining entitlements, or
- Call 1555 and selecting option 1 for touch tone, option 1 for accounts then option 2 for amount owing.

We apologise for any inconvenience."

Vodafone is completely useless.

I have also been trying unsuccessfully for 3 weeks to get the date that my 24 month contract is up.

Ok, So back in the beginning of December I was lucky enough to get out of my 3 vodafone contacts only 10 months In. I made the decision to port to Telstra and have had trouble free mobile since then (thus proving it was their network and nothing to do with the handset) Voda agreed that to waive all termination fees if I sent back the handsets. They made a note of this in the customer notes (which I now have a copy of thanks to a helpful Vodafone store). They sent me bags and I sent back the handsets the same day - that was more than a month ago.

However... I then received a bill for just under $3000.00 for contract termination fees and two subsequent overdue notices. I have called Vodafone three times so far in regards to this (at my expense being on hold now that I cant call 1555 free). All times they have acknowledged that there are notes saying that I have been given authority to cancel for free but for some reason they cant seem to translate this into their billing system. I keep getting told to just ignoor it. And that someone will sort it out.

Once customer service rep actually told me that my service had been suspended for unpaid bills!! HUH!!! Seriously how stupid are they - I am not with voda anymore!!!!!

Now I am seriously worried that they are gonna say sell the debt to a debt collecting agency or put a black mark on my credit rating.

I have just raised this with the TIO - hopefully they sort it out. But has anyone else had this problem after they were told their contracts would be terminated without exit fees?

Got told by their crappy customer service team that i was given free minutes and texts because they stuffed up my login account to their website.

IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!!!!

I called back and said they were a disappointment and that alot of people had complaints towards them. The customer service rep said "whose been complaining, he hasn't heard of anyone complaining against vadafone. - WHAT AN IDIOT!!!!!!!

Don't know where to begin - long term problems with both customer service and coverage. Latest problem? Noticed that I had a direct debit coming out of my bank account from vodafone which I never permitted - I have never given any company permission to regularly direct debit my bank a/c. Vodafone had my credit card details after I made a one off direct debit last year. Phoned up to complain and request that my contract (due to end june) be cancelled due to this issue and other extensive problems and instead of honouring my request to cancel the contract, they offer me a 'free handset upgrade' and suggested an iphone. However I find later that the 'free' upgrade was only if I agreed to another 12 or 24 month contract - so not really 'free'! During this phonecall I had to speak to numerous different departments and each time I was transferred to the next department, the phonecall was disconnected. I would wait for a cbk just in case but after waiting for a bit, I would phone back and be told I would have to wait or get a cbk. I would select the cbk option and when somebody would finally call me back, the call was disconnected again. I was getting so freakin annoyed. I was on the phone to vodafone on and off for around 3 hours and I had to phone them around half a dozen times during this time due to dropped calls. I am constantly having businesses, friends and family claim that they have been trying to phone me with no success, however no missed calls appear on my phone - occasionally a voicemail comes through hours or days later. The internet coverage is crap. I'm so sick of the vodafone pain...........................there are real staff working for vodafone - they just appear to work in another country, NOT australia.

Well, I was with Vodaphone and a pre-paid customer. Called up adnd signed up for a 24 month contract. All was going well. Phone arrived, number transfered and then - 'your credit is low'? Why I ask myself as I'm on post-paid???


Called voadphone - spoke to four people who ask me the same questions then transferred me then the last person didn't wnat to help and cut me off!! Lovely. So, I've either got a free iPhone out of vodaafail or sometime soon I hope to be connected to the service I have paid for. Eihter way - I suggest Vodafone spend less money on the Aus cricket team and more on customer service!

Whe I tried to cancel my vodafone account they asked why and I said poor coverage and not getting sms alerts.

The lady told me that I would have to speak to technical services before I could cancel.

I told her I did not need to do that and I am not helping them troubleshoot their network issues (which are clearly documented).

After 3 more transfers a guy cancelled my account.

I can't believe how much the telemarketers are in my opinion are deliberately misleading customers into thinking they have to speak to tech support before cancelling.

Looks like to combat the mass exodus they are making it harder for people to cancel.

This is dishonest and in my opinion immoral.

What a disgrace. Sad to see a company I liked so much revert to dishonest tactics like this.

Shame vodafone, shame..

I had an account enquiry for broadband and I wanted to speak with a customer service representative, but each time I called, I got those terrible recorded messages and those same songs repeated over and over again. I'm beginning to think that there aren't any staff working at Vodafone. I've been on hold several times for over 1 hour and still not spoken with a real person.

After being with Voda since 1999, and in all that time only had 2 issues.

Now, since resigning with them in November, I've already called them twice, both with billing issues - one for charging me a month in advance, which wasn't in the contract, or advised by the shop staff who were too busy trying to find music they wanted to listen to in the store ... The other for not emailing the bill to me, and then wanting to charge me $5 to click a button to reissue it - i then received the bill once a day for the next 3 days, lets see if they charge me for it ...

Add to that calls dropping out, slow if any data flow i'm starting to think a piece of string tied to a can would work better ...

I signed up with them after being reassured that I would have network coverage.
Not the case and after several attempts at contact via phone, email and a visit to a Vodaphone store I was not given any solutions or reasons. Being on hold for no less than 45 minutes each time and told via email that the case I put to them would have to be dealt with by customer service. Still waiting for a technician to cal and that was over 3 months ago
I have since transferred to another carrier and am now getting billed by Vodaphone with the threat of legal action

I just purchased a pre-pay recharge card from Vodafone (I know, I know, glutton for punishment!) and when I went to call 1511 to activate the credit to my account, I got the recorded message that Vodafone are unable to automatically process pre-pay re-charges and that their operators are unable to do so either.
But fear not!! The message assured me they're working on the problem!

Where to start?? Firstly they cannot spell my name right - apparently "Elizabeth" was too out of the ordinary. They cannot get my phone number right - I sent it off because it needed to be replaced. 2 months and after numerous calls to Vodafone and the insurance company - They finally realised it wasnt MY fault and that they had written down my number wrong. And the worst FAIL of all - they cannot get my credit card number right, so each month when I get debited, the next month I also get an overdue notice. Ive contacted them so many times I cant remember, wasted numerous hours of my life on hold, as well as many trips in store. Each time I was told that they have updated my details on the system, yet the problem still occurs, even though I always have money in my account. I have given up, and simply pay it as a normal bill. So my credit rating is probably screwed thanks to them and their incompetence. And yes my network coverage is non existent.

Vodaphone repeatedly take the ammount owing for my phone bill out of my bank account MULTIPLE times and leave me overdrawn, with overdrawn fees. When I tell them what they have done, they don't give my money back, they just credit my account...then the next month they harrass me saying my bill is overdue...when my account is in credit !!

Got absolutely no coverage at my place of residence.
Recently I had to reset my password for my online acount. To do this they send a SMS. Only problem is with no signal I don't recieve the SMS with the temporary new password to change my account. Tried explaining this to customer service. They were unable to to send me an e-mail with a new password,they were unable to reset the password for me over the (landline) phone and they were unable yo send it to another mobile number because that number was not a Vodaphone account.
Over the last 3 days I'm still waiting for 6 new passwords to change my account.
Bring on February 2012 so I can transfer to another carrier.

I'm trying to call customer service, but my calls keep getting dropped. I get errors when I try to use their website for my account. This has been happening since yesterday (14 Feb.). This is in addition to the dreadful phone reception and on-off again internet reception.

For the past 6months I have had on and off reception, where I call people and my calls drop out straight away or in the best scenario the call lats 2mins and then drops out. Also when I was overseas Vodafone would deliver x100 msgs and calls from me, when I would either have a failed call or a msg that did not go through. My troubles do not stop there for months they have been charging me for voicemail, which had been turned off since Septer 2010! (i only found this out today, when I FINALLY got to speak to someone). Vodafone's failures also come to their stores and customer service teams, who constantly hang up during transferral or ping pong you around from department to department. In the last 6months TODAY 16/02/2011 was the 3rd time only in this period that I got to speak to someone, and not only one person but 7!!! I have gotten their names, and some of their extension numbers, which is a joke that there is no 1 department, which can deal with problems. Also only a miniscule part of my issue - the overbilling for phanthom Voicemailcalls (I have voicemail deactivated) we removed from my bill. My biggest problem of network was not solved, and by checking on a computer whether an area has coverage is not an investigation! They also kindly pointed out that I would be liable for every penny (direct speech from Arun) if I chose to sever my contract, yet not much could be done for a customer paying in excess of $1200 a year.

I just called 1512 to get my account balance. You used to be able to control it on the keypad. Now the moronic thing expects you to speak to it. I resent speaking to a moronic robot. In an office or a train you do not want to be disturbing others shouting yes or no.

Charged hundreds of dollars incorrectly due to a 'systems error'. The back office staff are attempting to fix the contract issue and the money will be credited to my future accounts. Not much use to me as I'm now stuck with the interest on hundreds of dollars that was taken out of my credit account due to a stuff up on their part.

This on top of the usual useless reception and service.

Pathetic.

sms to 1512 to get balance but balance never changed for past 7 days. Everyday i use around 3-5MB usage. How do I know how much left in my account?? I dont want to get nasty surprise when I receive my bill.

There is a payment credit on my Vodafone account. I have attempted via various help desks over the past 12 months to have this applied to current bills, and for the balance to be repaid to me. In this process I have contacted Vodafone at least six times and on each occasion I have been promised a return call with a solution. This has never eventuated. The information I have received during these calls has been incomplete/variable. I have spent I would estimate around ten hours either on my mobile or landline waiting either for a pick-up, or "further information".

in addition to poor coverage, drop-outs and failure to receive vcoice messages for sometimes days, sending email from iPhones on the Vodafone network has not been possible for Bigpond email accounts for several months. this has bene known to Vodafone, but did they contact customers to let them know THEY had the problem? No. After 40 minutes on the phone with a helpful yojng man to set u pa gmail account form which to send mail, I now find I receive all emails twice (once from the incoming mail acocunt and once from Gmail, and can only send from the Gmail account, hence now confusing senders even more with additional addresses. Do they stil lcharge the same for email services? Yes. Do they still charge the same for data that often doesn't download? Yes. Sorry, Vodafone, after years of being a loyal and happy customer, you have lost me. I'm looking for another non-Vodafone alternative. And i won't pay out my contract.

DZ

Upgraded to a I phone 4 07/02/2011 after my 24 months contract ended in Dec 10
Local Vodafone dealer rang to activate micro sim card advised should be ready in about 2 hrs.
Well Tuesday 08/02/2011 afternoon rang Vodafone to ask what is happening,was told should be ready in 24 hrs no explanation as to what the issue is, sorry for the inconveince.
Wednesday 09/02/2011 still nothing rang Vodafone again was told that there is a back office issue with swapping sims need to wait 24 hrs to be rectified.
Thursday 10/02/2011 spoke with floor supervisor was told that its a back office issue and that they will need 24-48 hrs to rectify, after much persistance was told that my old sim was not deactivating properly and that the new micro sim would not activate because of this, supervisor said that he will call (still waiting).
Tuesday 15/02/2010 more than enough time to rectify the issue was told that my account details have been suspended and to rectify the issue will take 24hrs - 10 days,
Tried different avenue by calling the Sydney head office was told that they will put me through to a senior Australian supervisor lol straight to customer care service in India
My question to Vodafone do you care that your long term customers are being treated in this way?
Not impressed at all Vodafone get your act together

Further to my last posting, last night. This morning i am in the same boat i was in at the beginning of the last billing cycle. No information avaiable as to my current usage. So, whatever may have been left of my last months allowance has been swallowed yet again. I may have had enough to download a tv show etc, but who would know???? Certainly not this disgruntled customer. Do they save my mb's for someone else or something.According to the last information i had i still had 3333.33 mb's remaining.......but when i realised that figure wasn't moving at all, was too scared to do anyothing ajor online in case i went over the limit, But ow would i ever know wheni wasn't able to view my usage for 5 days running????

At the beginning of this billing cycle, for many days i had NO WAY of checking my usage, i tried everything and then magically, after a phone call, it reappeared. At the end of the billing cycle, i have been stuck on 3333.33 mb, left out of my 8GB...so, i have used it with great trepidation for days, for fear of going over my limit. Now, as the billing cycle changes over again, i lose whatever it was i had left, that i wasn't able to check on, and it seems i will have no way of seeing what my usage is, AGAIN, as the system is down. Thankyou MYVODAFONE, you ain't no friend of mine.

I drew a cheque in payment of 2 bills. The cheque was received and banked by vodafone however they only allocated part of the cheque to one of my bills and the other bill was not paid. The amount of the bill was $199.70 which they continuously chasing me for payment. I advised Vodafone of this in December 2010 and have provided them with bank evidence of the payment and still no reply. I have spoken to 5 different people and all have failed to fix it. It has now been over 2 months with no result. To miss allocate $200 is just ridculous how hard is to to look at their receivables ledger and see where the payment was alloacted to. Seriously fed up and I am taking this to consumer affairs. Can't wait till I finish my contract just to transfer to another provider!

A cancelled contract by returning the iPhone unopend then billed over 1k,tried 3times to ring and cut off,then promised a call back and as usual ,nothing

Well, almost two and a half years ago I signed up for Vodafails mobile "broadband" in Hobart, Tasmania. I was on a $39 / month for 5gb plan. (I Think).
Once I set up I discovered that there was no reception at my house, and even when I connected in the CBD it would only ever connect via 2g. No 3g towers had been switched on apparently. Anyway I rang customer service telling them that without 3g they can't possibly class it as broadband and it was even too slow to log on to my account to pay any bills.
Vodafail agreed to cancel the contract and said they'd send me a mail sachet to post the modem back to them. No sachet ever came and no phone calls etc so I left it at that. I wasn't going to sit on hold for hours just to ask why they didn't want their modem back.
Anyhow, over two years of hearing nothing, and much wonderful service with Virgin and Telstra I receive a text message stating that my bill of $1009.50 was due. I couldn't beleive it and went straight into a Vodafail store (calling is useless) and find out that they hadn't actually cancelled my account and just left it building up a debt.
After explaining everything to a very helpful employee he contacted 'someone' whom organised to post out another sachet and said my account would be cancelled straight away. This time the sachet actually came. I posted it away and hoped that was the end of my dealings with this rubbish company.
Anyway....less than a month later I receive a text message saying that my bill of $39.43 is ready. The following month I get another one.
I then went back into the store, a different employee looked up the details and said he couldn't see anything on the system and it appeared my account was cancelled with $0.00 owing. Maybe this was the end of my dealings with them now?
NOPE. Today I checked my phone and had a message left by a Vodafail rep stating that I am owing $119.30 on my account and to give her a call back. Called back and no-one answered. This was at 6pm though. I will call tomorrow and if a supervisor can't sort it I will lodge a complaint through the TIO.
CRAZY, CRAZY, CRAZY.

Just a side note, I have read a few times on Whirlpool forum that people have posted their USB Dongle back to Vodafail in their supplied postage bag and it had gone "missing". Is this just a scam / convenient way for them to leave the account active? I honestly do smell a rat!

Just received an email from them in reply to my complaint a month ago. Apparently my billing problem has been "resolved". I have news for them, NO IT HASN'T. TIO has been contacted.

I have broadband with vodafone and its terrible. Sometimes it runs in bps not even kbps. I find the more reception bars it shows the worse it is. Also have vodafone for my iphone 4. Completely pointless to have internet on your phone when it takes over 20 mins just to load google. Calls constantly drop out and always loses coverage. Especially in the city or at home (Derrimut). Most frustrating thing is the delay the website shows your usage. I check my usage often on the website. Last month for example, checked the website 4 days before the end of the billing month. Said another 800mb left. I did not use the internet again for 2 days and checked - still saying 800mb. I checked my banking and stayed at my friends house for 2 days. Receive my bill for $30 more than my plan. Apparently I went over my usage. A delay of 4 days are you serious. Its really ripping people on contract off. If you are on prepay it would show your remaining balance immediately and stop the second it run out. Seems ridiculous

So a couple of months ago my Oct/Nov bill came to 320 bucks! Every other bill has always been in line with my $79 cap and never over and I definitely didn't use it more that month than any other... It was however the month that my phone started dropping calls, losing signal and generally being totally unreliable.
I've contacted customer services a number of times about the billing issues - which they say are not their issue but mine and clearly that's what I spent... It's ridiculous.
Anyway yesterday I finally had enough and rang customer services to cancel my contract because of that and the constant drop outs - they basically tried to say that it was obviously that I lived in a poor coverage area! Paddington in Sydney - I tried to make the point that the drop outs are TOTALLY RANDOM and occur for no apparent reason, I can be with other Vodafail customers and they'll have signal or vice versa but they didn't really believe it.
Anyway they're now doing an investigation - which I think is a total waste of time. they need to admit that there's a problem with individual phones dropping off the network not just the network coverage.
They also need to sort out my ridiculous bill and stop denying that also!!!
I totally agree with complaint 15280:
In short: Billing problem; dropped calls; incorrect advice/ promise by vodafone staff; on-hold for too long; overcharged; poor customer services....

Have a credit report issue and VF can't access their accounts from 4yrs ago to resolve it.

Have been with 3 for a number of years, and off contract for a few months. Just moved house and 3 reception was consistently poor to non-existent. Tested a friend's Vodafone sim and got much better reception, and despite my better judgement (being well aware of Vodafone's "issues"), went into a 3 store to migrate to Vodafone. I signed up for a SIM only $35 cap with 500MB data (month-to-month, not a contract). The salesman tried to select this plan which appears on the current brochure and the Vodafone website, but could only see one called "SIM Only $35 Cap 6Mths". He checked the details and it said 0 month term, but said to come into the store if there was a problem.

First problem, I tried to register for the My Vodafone online portal. Entered my phone number and was told a temporary password had been sent by SMS to my phone to confirm my identity. The password SMS arrived sure enough... 32 hours later. Obviously it had expired by then. I tried about 5-6 times before I finally got it within a minute and successfully registered.

Once logged into My Vodafone, I checked my data usage, and was surprised to see that I had 250MB data quota on the account. I assumed it was a pro rata amount based on my remaining quota from 3 and waited for the billing cycle to roll over. Nope, 250MB again. I rang VF Customer Care, told a very bored sounding woman my details and the problem twice, and was then told that the call centre did not have access to the plan and that I was on a 6 month contract plan with 250MB data.

So I went back to the store, and spoke to a very helpful staff member. He said the call centre have more access then them so being told to go back to the store was rubbish, but he called Customer Care on my behalf. He actually had to scan the brochure to show the call centre that 500MB was part of the plan. After being on hold for ages, he was told that the "6Mths" on the plan name was part of a "promotion", where I pay half-price for six months. That's the good news. The bad news is for those six months my data quota is also halved. I said, "That's a pretty shithouse "promotion". If I wanted to pay less for less data, I would have gone on a lower plan, don't you think? And also, for a "promotion", it wasn't actually promoted any where!" He reckoned the plan shouldn't have been on the system, and I shouldn't have been put on it. Luckily I'm not on contract so I can cancel this plan or change to a different one if needed (or go to a decent carrier), but seriously, what is the point of advertising a particular plan and then putting users on a lesser plan than the one they asked for? How is that in any way an incentive? Nice to pay less but if I want 500MB I wanted 500MB, not to arbitrarily halve it and charge me less!

I got fed up with no signal in the centre of Perth CBD which has been ongoing for me for the last six months. I took my complaint to Vodafail and they told me to change SIM, didnt work. Change handset, didnt work, report anytime that I didnt get a signal and where, did that for three weeks. Only to be told, yes we do seem to have a problem dont we!
I then started losing my patience and trying to get out of my contract. I was told on Monday that they have recognised a problem in Perth and they are planning to fix this by June (didnt specify which June btw). I then decided to take the initative. I ported my number to Telstra after complaining to the TIO (ombudsman). Informed Voda... only to be told that I hadnt spokent to the contracts team (which I have, a Sunil and also a Lionel). They then informed me (BTW it was Lionel) that I would have to pay 300 dollars to cancel. I informed that I had a complaint with TIO and that while this was in play the account was in dispute and that they cannot charge me until any resolution. At this point they then said OK we will half the amount to 150 bucks. I said nope as I was aware of other customers who broke there contract for free.
Sorry this is a long post and I will see what happens now but I am going to refuse to pay

OK, so I've been trying off and on for the last 2 weeks to look up my account details on My Vodafone at vodafone.com.au. I've tried several times and used Firefox, Chrome and Safari and for most of the options in My Account (usage details, payment history, etc) I get "An error has occurred. Sorry for the inconvenience - There has been a communication problem and your request has not been processed. Please try again later." It's really incompetent to have such a long term outage.

tried logging onto my account. takes ages to load then says incorrect username or password epic fail vodafone

I like to login to the Vodafone webpage and view my bills etc. I hate it when the survey popup appears and even if I cancel it I can't get into my account details. Try as I might the survey popup keeps coming back no matter how many times I cancel it. The only way I can get further is to either complete the survey or close all windows and try again several times until the survey window does not come back

I have been with 3 (now part of Vodafone) for several years and had no problems, until I moved to Melbourne ... before applying for a rental property I went into the 3/Vodafone store to ask about coverage and was informed there was full coverage (for mobile and mobile broadband) where I wanted to move to. Of course, when I actually arrived in my new city, alone and overwhelmed, I found that I had next to no coverage for either my phone or internet. Going back into the store was no help and I then spent many phone calls backwards and forwards with 3 "Customer Care", being transferred from one department to the next with long hold periods between.

Finally they agreed to release me from my 3 contracts if I agreed to try Vodafone first. I stated that I did not want to do this as I had been a Vodafone customer several years ago and had been very dissatisfied with the service and reception - Only to be told that the network had been 'significantly' improved. I was given a credit on my account of $30 to enable me to purchase Vodafone prepaid SIMs to trial.

It took 1 hour instore to get signed up for the SIMs which ended up costing over $50 (once any data allowance was included) - for which I refused to pay and made the staff call 3 Customer Care to sort it out themselves.

In short, the Vodafone reception was, as I knew it would be, even worse than 3's! So I rang Vodafone to ask for this to be recorded on my account so that I would have all the documentation required to be released from my 3 account. The person I talked to kept telling me that there should be adequate reception where I lived and that it must be a handset fault (despite it working perfectly prior to my move) - he kept insisting that the only way he could help me was if I called back on an alternate number. No matter how many times I explained that I was alone in a new city with only a mobile phone and no alternate to use, he kept telling me the same thing. I ended up in tears on the phone and even when I told him that I couldn't even have a conversation with my mum without it dropping out, and that I was worried that if I needed to call an ambulance or the police that I wouldn't be able to, he just kept telling me to call back on an alternate number. In the end, I hung up in tears.

3 had also tried the 'alternate number' sham for the purposes of running 'handset checks' but had at least understood when I told them (for the 10th time) that there was no alternate number.

So, 3 finally agreed to let me out of my contract for the mobile and internet, without the cancellation fees. But they were unable to stop the cancellation fees from appearing and told me I would have to call back after my bill arrived to get the cancellation fees removed. I am also told that I am required to pay out the remaining handset installments on my phone (some $450).

A bill arrived and I rang 3 today to confirm if my direct debit was still active (given that they've cancelled my online access to my account details) and in the process found that they had NOT cancelled my internet account in January as I had asked, and been told had occurred. And they were expecting me to pay whatever pro-rata charges there were since this time.

I refused and spent quite some time outlining to the representative I spoke with that it was not my fault the previous person I had spoken to was obviously incompetent and had not done the job they said they would or made notes that this is what had been discussed. And highlighting that I intended to take this matter (and the overall completely horrific service received from 3 and Vodafone) to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman - at which point they agreed to 'make an exception' for me and waive the pro-rata fees on my internet account.

The distress this has caused me - in terms of having to justify myself and make my position clear to people who keep reinterpreting it and choosing to only focus on one aspect of my story, as well as having to repeat the whole, convoluted tale each and every time I have been transferred to a new department - the isolation I have felt all alone in a new city - and the waste of time this has all been has convinced me to make a complaint to the TIO and to never trust Vodafone again (Optus wasn't much better either - their reception was also substandard and the 3 hours I spent standing in their store on hold to their customer care team left me in tears and with a migraine - all to access their 30 day reception guarantee a mere 3 days after signing up).

My bills have gone from $68.00 per month to $150-200 per month. Only happened with the last two bills and i am close to going over my cap this month AGAIN. Cant undertsand how this has happened as i do not use my phone that often. Called up vodafone and spoke to someone who didnt really seem to care nore did she understand what i was talking about. Does anyone have any suggestions?