why Vodafone stops staff mentioning the TIO to customers:

The TIO can investigate complaints by small business users of telephone and internet services about loss of business arising from events that relate to the provision or supply of telephone and internet services.

A claim for compensation must be based on actual monetary losses suffered that are a direct result of the actions or inaction of a telephone company or ISP.

The TIO will only consider claims for losses that a reasonable person would anticipate in all the circumstances. Ideally, a claim should be presented as Total Lost Profit; that is, 'lost revenue' plus 'costs incurred in reducing loss' minus 'expenses normally incurred'. As further guidance:

'Lost revenue' is calculated by subtracting the actual revenue earned in the claim period from the revenue the customer would have expected to earn if the disputed event had not occurred.

'Costs incurred in reducing loss' are costs incurred as a result of measures taken to minimise losses, e.g. extraordinary use of a mobile phone or additional advertising.

'Expenses normally incurred' are expenses the customer would normally have incurred in conducting their business, e.g. commission for sales that would have been made, packaging for goods that would otherwise have been sold, cost of labour that would have been needed if business was able to function as normal.
Compensation claims considered by the TIO usually relate to businesses rather than residential customers. This is because any claims for loss must be substantiated. For most residential complaints, any losses as a result of a member's action or inaction are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to substantiate.

The sorts of substantive documentation the TIO might consider when investigating a compensation claim include:

records such as bank statements (proof of cash payments), monthly income figures, profit & loss statements, sales journals, cashbooks or receipts. (i.e. records for the claim period and for comparable periods in the past);

figures that show actual income or profit fell short of amounts predicted in forecasts or budgets compiled before the claim period. (i.e. forecasts or budgets in addition to the figures for the claim period);

any data that shows the number of incoming calls received during the claim period was less than the number received in the preceding and following months, e.g. business bookings taken over the telephone;

proposals for contracts that were lost as a direct result of the action (or inaction) of the provider;

statements (preferably statutory declarations) from customers who state they did not spend money with the business as a result of the circumstances in question;

receipts or invoices for claims for reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses, where these expenses were costs incurred in reducing or mitigating losses.
Where relevant and appropriate, information provided must be independently verifiable, e.g. in the form of tax returns or audited accounts.

In assessing a claim for compensation, the TIO will consider whether a complainant took reasonable steps to protect their interests or to mitigate their potential losses. In the case of a lost job opportunity, for example, the TIO will consider whether the complainant had access to a mobile phone or could have borrowed a friend or neighbour's phone to make a call to a prospective employer.

To assist complainants present their claim for compensation, the TIO has a fact sheet, which it sends to those wishing to submit a claim. In particular, the fact sheet outlines the TIO's expectations regarding any claim, and how complainants may go about substantiating their claim.

In the absence of documentary evidence to support a claim, the TIO may exercise its discretion not to investigate further.

For information on the TIO's general approach to compensation, see Compensation claims and the TIO.

these are not my words, full credit goes to the TIO reproduced in full from http://www.tio.com.au/POLICIES/Compensation/Compensationforbusinessloss.htm updated: 11 August 2005

Because I started midway into cycle in November, December charge was added to the 1st bill. However, I still got charged for December in the 2nd bill. Vodafone were notified by numerous reply email and more than 60 minutes on phone. I still have no response at end of January.

I am unfortunately locked into a contract for my internet service paying $25 a month - I have at the best, internet service around 20% of the times I try and use it, bear in mind I will at most only check once a day and only need it for 20 minutes it is unavailable for 80% of the time. Often it tells me its connnected when in fact I am staring at a white screen.

I complained when I was getting reminders to pay my bill - except I hadn't received the email bill - as I cant get online to view them. When I am lucky enough to access my email, it is highly unlikely I can stay logged on long enough to access my online bank account so I gave up one month. The advice from the customer care centre was to phone their help line.

Ongoing problems with service since I originally contracted with them and service has deteriorated ever since.

1. Calls going straight to voicemail without ringing despite bars being present to indicate signal.
2. Delays in voicemail and SMS messages sometimes by 1/2 day / 1 day despite bars being present.
3. Calls dropping.
4. Calls unable to get through.
5. No signal / dropped signal on a regular basis.
6. Botched connection for overseas and 10 day response means missed calls and service for 10 days.
7. 3G network often not working, replaced by a 'o' or 'E' symbol.
8. Data packets not downloading.
9. No reception in most of my residence, and the parts with better reception aren't strong enough to hold a call, or hear the caller.
10. Entire Western Australian network down for several hours.

All of the technical issues are present regularly between Sydney and Illawarra, in my regular travels to Melbourne and also during travel in throughout Western Australia. They are equally present in metro and regional.

These have cost me lost business, lost reputation and most importantly, inability to deal with 2 family emergencies while traveling.


What appears to be deliberate stalling, and passing the buck, hours on hold, no offer of resolution or compensation.

I informed them of their potential breaches of contract, Trade Practices and Privacy Act. They were ill informed, and unable to escalate to anyone with the authority to do anything other than waste my time.

I told them to let me out of their contract because they were in breach of contract by not providing service and they told me that I would be charged if I changed providers without their technical dept getting involved. They promised to have their technical dept call me and they did not do so. I have been unable to get through since.

They have admitted fault, come up with every excuse under the sun, never apologised, offered compensation or even a token remedy.


Refund the full amount of charges since the inception of my contract and enable me to transfer my number to another provider without penalty. I am happy to return the handset upon transferring my number to another provider, provided Voda supplies a pre-paid envelope.

$xxx in wasted time which could have been spent billing clients instead of on hold to Voda.

$xxx in damages for lost business, missed opportunities and trauma caused by not being contactable by my family.

---

Looks like they've got 10 days to respond under TIO rules. Will be interested to see outcomes.

Moved to Australia from NZ about 18 months ago - had Vodafone in NZ so stuck with it here. Two basic complaints:

(1) Coverage - For 2 weeks prior to the New Year, my girlfriend & I were campervaning around Gippland. For those 2 weeks for about 98% of the time we had no service. We should have just left the phones at home.

(2) I am on a pay-as-you-go plan and really resent the fact that if I do not use my credit (which I have paid for) by some certain date, the Vodafone just takes the balance. To me, this is like the bank saying if you do not spend everything in your cheque account by X date, the money is ours - how would that go down? Also, I find it really irritating that the way you find out you have no more credit is when you try to txt or make a call. Surely they know when you are getting low and could give you a heads up so you might me able to do something about it. I recently had that happen to me after I got on a tram & was trying to call my girlfriend - if I had been sent a txt that I was low I could of topped up at hundreds of places in central Melbourne. But what can you do on a tram???????

They drive me nuts. After renewing my contract for 2 years, I asked, double checked and triple checked that the 'EXTRA' services that I once paid for were removed as they are now included in my plan. They assured me they would not be billed again. month 1, they billed me. I rang and was told is was leftover from the previous month. Dont worry, all good. month 2 - There it is again. Try explaining this to how many people every time is a joke. I cant get the service taken off and refunded. I am going to go and see the girl who sold me the phone next.

Changed to Vodafone for a "better deal" from another provider with whom I never had a problem in 6 years. Firstly, I wait almost 3 weeks to receive my new phone in the mail. There are no instructions included in the package regarding the account activation process. I call customer service for help only to be hung up on 3 times. I try to call the mobile number given to me by the girl who offered me the deal ("just call me directly if you have any problems...") but she's on holidays for the next 3 weeks. Perfect. Finally get through and activate the phone except they haven't transferred my old number over and have given me a new one which I had specifically asked them not to do. Rather than attempt to call them, I go to the store. Two staff behind the desk say it's impossible to transfer my old number over when luckily, the young guy stacking the shelves overhears the conversation and says "just type in the number you want transferred and click 'transfer'". I get minimal reception at home with frequent drop-outs (never had this before) and the touch-screen handset is a disaster to use even with my skinny fingers. Lucky last, they've started billing me from the day they posted my phone out so now I'm paying the bill to Vodafone and to my old provider this month. Whatever saving I was going to make this year is gone in the first bill. Stuck in the contract for another 23 months.

I asked for vodafone to cancel international, internet and also premium sms
they only cancelled the internet, and three week later my phone was stolen and $1400 on international call were made before I relized my phone was missing and they claim that it is my problem that there staff did dont complete there task correctly

I got charged $75 three times in one day on my debit card by "Vodafone Chatswood" and I am not even a Vodafone customer!

After 2 hours on the telephone merry go round I have had to ask my bank to lodge a dispute with Vodafone which they say may take up to 45 days to resolve.

When I rang Vodafone Chatswood store the lady said they get 3 or 4 calls a week like that but it is not the store involved but rather their Billing Department located in Chatswood.

HAd issues with data roaming on 3. Was offered by 3 a move to Vodafone for duration of my contract. On porting 2 numbers one went OK, the second number still has not ported in 7 days. 3 account is closed, number has not ported due to "technical issues". Every day I call Vodafone and get, this issues has been escalated and will be resolved in 24 to 48 hrs. It is now over 168 Hrs and counting.

I changed my billing address to a po box from residential. I received billing at both addresses for up to 2 years even though I called them 7 TIMES!!!! regarding this issue. I was told it was a system gltich. I no longer lived at that address and the people we nice enough to redirect my bills. This issue amongst others is the reason I'm looking elsewhere for service.


Very disappointed.

Signed up with Vodafone 4 months ago and have had no end of issues beginning with overcharging on the first bill and having to fight to review, which they did not. vodafone also argued with me about bringing my existing pre-pay number to the account, of which I also had to fight to keep my excisting number.
This is on top of initially not being able to get internet access and havingmy phone drop off during calls and having no recption even though live in middle of city.
vodafone has been nothing but painful and I still have shy of 1.5years left of contract.

Consistent drop outs are my biggest issue and finding difficulty to get coverage most of the time. I contacted Vodafone this morning and waited on hold for only 1 min before i was connected to a staff member in Mumbai. He was friendly, sympathetic, and very helpful. He has organised for my enquiry to be escalated which i know is what most say and never get results, but we will see, he said a report will be filed and i will be contacted once complete which he said should take no longer than 5 days. He credited $75 to my account for the inconvenience of the poor service over the past couple of months which doesn't sound like much, but i was honestly expecting nothing. We discussed the option of me being able to withdraw my contract if the issues with the network aren't resolved in 2 months which is when he advised it should be back to working properly. The report that will be completed will assist me in gaining the desired result, is how he worded it so will wait and see what happens from here. Just wanted to let you know my story as i am a very frustrated customer aswell but feel a little better after having spoken to them.

In 15 years of owning mobile phones I have NEVER experienced such ridiculous reception problems and incompetent service. I have to stand in one corner of my workshop to get 2 bars of reception while I talk on my MOBILE phone. Go outside.. and guess what no reception. Vodafone you should convert your business to a circus from whatever it is now.

I wonder how Vodafone would like it if their current customers made their way into their stores and discussed the problems and stress Vodafone is causing in their lives while still billing us.

I was wrongly billed a monthly handset payment for my contract where in fact in the order details it said that the handset was $0 (free). Went through the regular hassle (waited for half and hour to get to customer service). But good thing is that the person on the other line said he'd investigate and was offered a call-back and I agreed. So after 30 mins, I had a call-back and was told they had an error and they will rectify my bill. This is very frustrating because if I hadn't gone in and looked at the billing details, I wouldn't have known I was charged more than I owe. And I have the account set to auto-debit on my credit card. Vodafone should really get their act together.

i got a text from VF alerting me to the fact that my bill was $282 in excess of it usual $79 cap. Not unusual for me to have gone over by $20-$50 given its christmas etc, however the problem arises when i call VF "customer Service" to ask for details. Apparently it isn't possible to tell me any details other than the amount it is currently over. They say they can 't see the call list and i won't know until the bill is generated. When it is, it is something like $500 over! So upon further enquiry i get a man willing to tell me that all he can tell me is it is over and it is calculated and i must pay. On further investigation he hangs up apparently having told me enough i guess. There was no further call back and of course this after three times waiting longer than 15 minutes to talk and then submitting my number for them to call me back which took longer than they said it would. My problem is if they can generate a detailed account of how much I over-used my plan then how come they can't tell me the details or at least offer an alternative there and then to avoid the massive overcharge that they know is coming.

Why do vodafail refuse to cancel several mobile and data services under our corporate account - they've been (voda)failing to do so now for over 12 months. I've had every excuse under the sun - "your request not signed by the correct authority", "needs to be on official company letterhead" (when it was), etc. I've escalated this to Fair Trading NSW (suggest you all do the same) for action.

When i was signed in a contract with Vodafone, I was told that I will get 1st month free for two connections which I took. While I was overseas during Christmas and New Year break, I received my first bill. I opened it and found instead of 2 connections I have been charged for 3 connections. Since I was overseas, so I didn't contact customer care.

On my return I tried to access that bill but I could not. The link in email does not work and there is no copy on my account over vodafone website. I tried to contact customer care and could not talk to any one and put me on hold for several hours.

Then I received a threatening sms that if I did not pay my invoice my phones will be disconnected. So I had make the payment to keep my phone active.

I am still trying to talk to someone at vodafone to resolve the issue but no luck so far.

So I have a $49.00 cap, 1 day before the end of my billing cycle I checked my account and had $7.00 remaining credit.The next day I did my usual checking emails and light internet browsing,couple of calls(no videos or downloads) and then I get whacked with a $265.00 bill for excess data!!!
I'm in shock, how can they do this. charge per kb!! Don't know what to do now as that's a big bill for us to pay. definately not renewing my contract with vodafone. It's pure corporate robbery in my book.

the store i re-signed my new contract at took my id (debit card, license and medicare) and gave my debit card details to vodafail and started a direct debit i did ask for and after noticing $400+ taken from my account thats when the complaint to the telecommunications ombudsmen escalated.

Oh yes Vodafone, so you are sorting things out directly with your customers, try going back over your emails to see how many customers have asked for anybody from vodafone to do just that, and recived no response or got fobbed off.

I have phoned and emaild for months try may, june, july, august, september, october november, then give up, some emails just beg for someone to ring me back, you know my number ( but it doesn't work, so email me I will give you a land line to ring.

I have had to work in Central Queensland for the past few months, and I have no idea how Vodafone is allowed to market phones or Broadband in the Rockhampton area.

I cannot count on my phone working when I need it and my broadband would be best described as not working at all.

But get on the Vodafone website and it Shows the whole area of rockhampton as being a good coverage area. Ask the locals and they tell you that they have a lot of contractors from Brisbane and Sydney come up to work and all complain that they can't get coverage. Why are they able to sell the product as claiming it works.

I am talking about no coverage at the major shopping centre on the north side of rocky, no coverage at Frenchville, no coverage at Central Queensland University or Capricornia College, except for a few minutes here or ther in certain spots you might walk into and message bank fires up to deliver the messages for the day or two, but don't think you can ring the message bank or person back, only if you are very lucky will you get more than a minute or two.

On top of that they double billed me for my old broadband and my new one from march last year to about October, eventually responded to one of my many emails and phone calls, to say they may have stuffed up and would refund me some money, have had no response since (months), they seem to be making adjustments in my account. But despite many requests by email and attempts by phone have not been able to discuss with a real person who sounds half interested.

Have also lodged complaint with ombudsman,spoke to ACCC and Fairtrade, all seem to be unable to do anything much

where do i begin?
i've been overcharged (i pay a $79 cap, was charged $150 for absolutely no reason), i wasn't notified when they decided to switch billing info from hard copies to email, i rarely get coverage unless i'm in the most inconvenient place, and quite frankly, if i ever encounter Lara, imma punch her in the face.

Having learn't that vodaphone has bought ot 3 Mobile broardban, I now understand why my internet keeps dropping out. I have just signed with another carrier and am in the process of cancelling my 3 account.It they ever answer.....after two hours waiting for my very important phone call to be answered........

I just want to share my experience of Vodafone in Auckland, NZ.
For two years (2007-2008) I found as a Half Moon Bay resident, paying on an annual plan, reception had continual dropouts on account of transmitter clashes according to two of their technicians. Receipt could be coming from Glendowie, St Johns, Highland Park and other points of the compass.

Now back in the area in 2010, on a prepay I find that:
1) I get through to Vodafone to be able to select the options for adding funds without problem, but although the 12 digit prepay numbers are dialled correctly, they do not necessarily get heard correctly. Today (23.1.11) on entering the correct number for a new prepay voucher, although this number was only entered once, Vodafone automatic voice advised me that I had exceeded my attempts (only one) to enter the voucher number.
2) Yesterday, although a V8 card enabled me to dial an Australian Vodafone mobile number correctly twice, on the third attempt, I was informed by the automatic message system, that calls to that network number were not permitted!
3) Worse, on 29 November, I was speaking to a landline source a few minutes before midday. Yet a critical text message, lack of receipt of which has potentially affected my longevity, sent at 12.01 by the same source, did not arrive until two hours later! Thanks, Vodafone!

I have been trying to cancel my out of contract phone for a week now. Everytime I contact Vodafone, they tell me it has been done but the phone is still active and now they have billed me another month in advance. Problems also with my daughter trying to set up voice mail. Called customer service and they couldnt help, said (from Mumbai) to call back in four hours to try again. Who has time to be talking to Vodafone and being passed around different departments?

same as others dropped call, bad coverage and the worst thing is that now my email account and some other private account got hacked knowing that vodafone publicised private details on the net... THanks Vodafone !!!

I have all the same complaints as the rest of you. Ask Vodafone to stop charging you and place you account on hold. I have asked Vodafone to stop charging me until they fix the problem. So far I have not paid a bill in 3 months. Best of luck.

I can only access my account balance through 1555 which means I have to wait a min. of 30 min and then talk to a customer service operator I can barely understand. Brought issue forward and was told it would be fixed within a week that was 4 weeks ago. Anyone else experiencing a similar problem?

I was a customer of Vodafone continuously for over 18 years , at first when the network was 100% Ericsson it was clearly the best network, it work everywhere i went and worked well. Since they started installing non Ericsson equipment in the last 5 to 7 years the quality fell, due to giving contracts to the lowest bidder. having spent most of my life in communications it is well known that there is some equipment out there that just does not communicate with others on a signalling level and therein lies the problem, you have to introduce interface equipmet that translates signals, introducing delays. The last three or four years the network became so hopeless and my bills grew so big that i had prepaid accounts on other telco providers to reduce costs, i was solidly loyal to vodafone in spite of this. in 2009 when my most recent contract fell due i was offered a new phone and new plan and because i had so many problems i extracted a verbal guarantee from the telephone salesperson that the problems were over if i took the new handset or i could cancel my contract. two days with the new phone and nothing had changed so i called in the promise, i got several new handsets sent to me over three weeks proposing to solve the problem but in the end they had to honour the agreement and cancel my contract. i moved to telstra and service was vastly differnt, it took vodafone 7 months to send me a refund cheque after calling them week in week out for my refund, alas i read they have bought huawei equipment, all i can say is good luck vodafone you made your bed now lie in it.

Vodafone is the worst company i have ever dealt with. i ordered a htc desire hd 2.5 months ago and still havent recieved it, despite calling 6 times.
im currently on hold trying to cancel my order but have been passed around on hold to three different departments already.
oh, they also had no trouble in billing me each month for the phone which i havent received, depite me ringing them and telling them not to.

I just got my iphone 4 as upgrading. HOwever, they wrongly charged me for around $750 as the purchase of the handset. I realised this issue right after i saw this ebill. same old story. aftetr tried over 20 times of the custmer service line. I went to the store at the wynyard. 3/vodafone one. I told the female assistant about my story. She explained that she could not do anything to fix it (which is acceptable to me). and added that I should be billed like that ...that is nonsense. Even if u open the website, you will clear see this particular iphone 4 plan is free charge for upgrading.

I AM SO DISAPPOINTED AS SHE IS ' PROFESSIONA'--SHE knows better than me.

BUT laterly i called line, finally, got through. The call centre staff admited the issue, remove the debt.


Assume ppl in my situation believe in THAT assistant 's HELP and do nothing. Then they have to pay the 750 for someone else's fault.

terrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the wynyard 3/vodafone store!! terrible !!

First, let me explain about my case

i left Australia, Melbourne on 2007, i signed up with Three (now Vodafone) around 2005 and i cancelled my contract in 2007 when i left melbourne that time.

but for some dumb reason Vodafone/Three suddenly sent a debt notice saying that i owe them over AUD 3000...since i havent been paying my phone bill since 2008 which is kinda stupid since i left australia in 2007.

the thing that pissing me off is that i called vodafone/three customer service all they responded is that the account 042-179-3290 has been blocked by the aus debt collector so they cant do anything until my business with the debt collector finished, so i called the debt collector but they said that i have to finished the problem with vodafone/three since they are the one who said that i have the debt and all ausdebt do is to collect the debt from me. so they keep passing me around for about 10 times FUCKIN DUMB!!! it cost HELL A LOT OF MONEY TO CALL FROM OVERSEAS yet they didnt clear up anything.

and the weird thing that i found out after i investigate this matter, the account is actually under my name, but all the details that are on it is soo wrong e.g. my address, and etc. but yet...vodafone/three saying that the reason that the address is change because i moved out from my old address......what the fuck are they on about.....i left australia on 2007 and how am i suppose to moved out from my old address if im not in australia during that time....what an idiot.....

I have been on vodafone for nearly 2 years and have also shared the usual pain of contant dropouts and no reception. Ever since i started my service with vodafone i have experienced these problems, recently i called vodafone customer service to upgrade my plan and was on hold for a total of one hour and a half and in that hour and a half i spoke to 3 different departments. Customer Service put me on hold for 45 minutes and then I was informed that I was put through to the wrong department which was Sales and was then put on hold for a further 45 minutes to have the phone answered and to be told to please hold whilst he checked my account. All this only to be hung up on.... What a waste of my time. This is not good enough Vodafone, YOU ARE A JOKE!

I am an ex Vodafone customer. I had difficulties in closing our account...for a months after we did so via the Vodafone customer service number we kept getting bills. Vodafone told us they had no record of the call to customer service. Eventually we contacted the telecommunications ombudsman. They called Vodafone and finally convinced them that we didn't want to be customers anymore. So it's even difficult to quit the company.

I have been with Vodafone for quite sometime now. They ar so dodgy in their billing . Here's how.

I am on a Cap plan with XXX$ amount of credit given to me each month. It is supposed to get updated at 9 pm everyday so that the customer gets to know how much more credit is remaining. By the end of my each month vodafone stops updating the call credit, in this way they keep you under an impressions that we have still much of the credit left and we still keep using it. once the bill cycle is done we realize that its already above the cap limit and vodafone puts you a huge bill. I tried contacting the customer service they say its a system error only for one month ......now this has bee4n happening for close to 12 months. Its absolutely Dodgy

They switched my plan to include data (where it didn't have data capability) without telling me and then started charging me huge amounts for the data my phone started using while out and about (mail was configured to work around my home wi-fi). Then they gave me a hard time when I called to get a credit, which took two billing cycles to sort out.

I had a vodafail broadband connection that worked for 2 weeks over a 4 month period. When I contacted vodafail they advised me that I was in a poor reception area... I live in the middle of the sydney cbd...whhaat? They then told me that there was no complaints department for their support area, only for billing disputes. I pointed out to them that this was a breach of telco law in this country and they completely ignored me and said that they would pass my complaint onto the relevant area... what area would that be if there is no complaints department for the support area? After months of no data connection i finally told them to cancel my broadband at no charge to me and they agreed as (in their words) "We are in breach of your contract as we could not supply you with a good internet connection". I have retained my mobile phone with them but I am sure it will only be for a limited time as I expect that their connectivity issues are only going to get worse not better unless enough people complain. Good on you Adam for setting this up. The power of the people will succeed!

Bad connect and billing problem bad customer se
Rvice

i signed up to get vodafone mobile broadband (The USB dongle thingy) it took 2 months for it turn up, I was billed for the first month. After much complaining the refunded the months charges and then gave me 3 months free, which never happened. I gave up on that over time.

For the past 2 months, the internet drops out every 2-3 mins but never disconnects. However the green light disappears and then comes back again.

I live in the Knox region in east Melb, yet signal strength is always between 2 and 3 bars. I upgraded the firmware and the software. The problem still persists.

I'm using Windows 7 on a dell mini.

Also, my mobile is with Vodafone, and it regularly drops out in several places if I'm talking while on the train. Black spots are at Heathmont, Nunawading, Blackburn, Box Hill, Surrey Hills and Canterbury. I used to have a Telstra mobile and it worked perfectly fine the whole way through.

The coverage maps shows strong signal for the whole area where I live and work etc. There's a even a black spot walking down Auburn Rd, Hawthorn.

I hope I can cancel the plan in Feb/March (about 6 months early) with no cost, so that I can get ADSL again and get a much more reliable mobile carrier.

Never have I been so disgruntled before. And I'm someone who has a very high threshold for this sort of stuff. Generally I can live with it and it won't bother me, but this is so frustrating. I can't use the internet yet they'll still charge me for it.

1. My wife is on vodaphone. Coverage in Launceston coverage is pathetic and non existent on the east coast.
2. I am on telstra and I get a monthy text reminding me to pay my vodaphone account!!! I have never been with vodaphone and never will be.
3. Last year we spent three months travelling around SA, VIc and NSW ...mostly inland regions. Telstra coverage was excellent while vodaphone was virtually non-existant. This was a huge eye-opener for us. The wife has only 5 months left on the contract and cannot wait!

Too many reception black spots around Melbourne and outer suburbs.

1 Example: Since approx 1998 same 500m-1km radius on Camberwell Rd
Camberwell Rd Just near where it meets Glen Iris road, you will drop
you call without fail...that's if you can get reception.
(Telstra/Optus no issue whatsoever)


Too many country/rural area's no reception at all.

1 Example: Tarwin Lower / Venus Bay (Gippsland Vic)
You cannot get reception! Has been like this as
long as i can remember... circa 1994-1996.
As soon as you go past Inverloch forget it.
Have to drive to beach 5 carpark at Venus Bay,
jump fence walk to highest sand dune or stand up on
the park bench to get reception across the inlet back
to Inverloch/Wonthaggi (line of sight/weather dependent).
(Telstra/Optus, no issue all areas)

Billing.

When I was on contract with vodafone, invoices were never correct, seemed
to be always a month behind.

Customer Service.

A long time ago, before Lara also, used to very good.
I used to call them about my inaccurate invoices and staff would
be very helpful/knew the systems and products, or who to transfer
to if they could not help.

Now with that hindrance of Lara and when you get a staff member,
it can be really difficult, some need more training.

OMG The staff at vodafone stores, dont ask them for help, they have to use Lara!
How stoopid is that.

As a customer service representative and sales person at the store you should have full access to assist customers.

Where to start? I live in Dunedin NZ, actually in a village just 25Km south of the city centre. For 14 YEARS I have been trying to get coverage improved by VF! The latest generation of phones are worse than ever, coverage is now less than 25% of what it used to be and yet I still have to pay full monthly rates. Multiple calls, letters, pleadings, letters to the papers. NOTHING but broken promises! Aside from no coverage or the multiple dropped calls the international roaming charging is nothing short of a rip off. My latest bill of $500+ following two weeks in OZ is case in point. I even turned OFF all data roaming services and made or received hardly any calls as I was using Skype over a WiFi connection. There are charges for data on the account that don't even conform to their own reported charging plans. Go figure?

Now even when I log on to pay and view my bills, I can't even do that. It tells me twice that my password is incorrect, then on the third attempt with the same password it works. The entire system is garbage. Really obscenely bad customer service. INternet that won't work. No replys to emails, no joy on the phone, website that won't allow bills viewed or account status viewed. These guys should be out of business.

We were contacted by a vodafone agent a few months ago and offered a new phone on a 2 year plan. The wife said yes and received the phone. The paper work contained fraudulant details, including phone numbers that were supposed to be our home number but was an interstate number, false email addresses and other details. For the month that she had it she was unable to make phone calls the majority of the time. The free 3 months and $10 off per month was not provided as promised and we spent hours on the phone getting this added to our account. That took many phone calls to finally sort out. We also spent hours on the phone on our weekend trying to contact customer service in regards to not been able to make phone calls. On one phone call to customer service they hung up on us after they were unable to resolve our complaint. That was very rude! In the end we went to the ombudsman. So then vodafone called us (I dont know how they managed to get through with their rubbish network), the guy on the phone blamed my wife for the network issues and said that he would send her a simpler phone if she couldnt work out how to use the one she had. In the end we had the contract cancelled thanks to the ombudsman. Stay away from vodaphone!

Hey Everyone, this is my first and last visit to Vodafail, being both a Telstra and Optus customer I thought I would see what all the media is about and I must say i have had a number of issues with both my Telstra and Optus services, including slow data speeds, billing issues, waiting on hold for customer service for in excess of an hour, customer service and stores recommending the wrong plan to get the sale and it keeps on going.

No matter what service you are on I think that you will have issues of some sort and that is just life, nothing is perfect, as no one is perfect. I can't believe that Vodafone is the only company that seems to be vindicated like this website has. Maybe all carriers should have a fail site, and maybe someone should independently start a "WIN" site for all companies too.

Thinking of that why is there no "Woolworthsfail" or "juliagillardfail" site, then everyone can whinge about everything.

Reading some of the messages on here really make me feel like Australians are becoming more like the Whinging Poms, be Australian and pat those who do well on the back and help things get better in a constructive way.

I constantly recieve the following error message when i try to retrieve my call/usage details from the Vodafone website, My Account section. Not happy...

"An error has occurred.

warningSorry for the inconvenience

- An unexpected error has occurred. Please close your browser and try again later or call 1555 to complete your request. "

have been trying for 3 years to close my account was $2.48 in credit
then they started charging me $2 for a paper statement.now they send via email to avoid the charge on a closed account

I am on a pre-paid plan and suspect I'm being charged for calls which should be free using V2V free credits. Received text message advising low credit. This surprised me because I had made very few calls. Tried to log into My Vodafone on-line account to check call history/account details etc but received error message re incorrect username/password.
First call to Vodafone Customer Service (VCS) - Was told my number wasn't on their system and I would need to re-register but can't re-register because my number doesn't exist!! Couldn't contact Vodafone by their email link as they were having 'technical problems'.
Second call to VCS - Told I'd have a temporary password texted to me - didn't happen.
Third call to VCS - Operator logged job with their technical people and advised I would hear back in 72 hours. That was over nine days ago and I'm still waiting.
Fourth call to VCS - Waited on hold for 90 mins before call answered. Operator then put me on hold while he contacted his technical people but after another 80 mins the connection dropped out.
So after four phone calls (that's the ones that actually connected to a real person) countless non-connects and many hours on hold I still cannot access my account on line, can't cancel my automatic recharge authority or even raise the issue of the phone charges.
I have been a Vodafone customer for around three years using the same phone number and the same pre-paid plan but now I don't exist - funny thing is they still charge me for the calls I make!!
Vodafone is a disgrace and their customer service is hopeless.
I'm lodging a complaint with the Telecommunications Ombudsman.

Bad coverage, drop outs & hopeless Internet connection.
Lara does not understand anything u tell her even after having 3 Aussie people talking to her.
Their billing system sux, not to mention the customer service or lack of.

I had recently my online access to my account blocked. When I called Vodafone's customer service, the poor machine, Lara, prompted. Asking me a few questions, Lara transferred my call to someone else. As usual the music got on, while keeping me waiting. I did wait over 4 hours and 20 minutes before loosing all sorts of respect and trust for Vodafone. Wondering what a poor, low ripper vodafone is!!

recently i have receieved my bill online, saying i have to pay for a handset which i never received including home delivery.when i speak to customer service it has taken three days to contact to customer care even and again it takes to solve the problem one hour over phone.

I have experienced dropped calls and messages that never went through both to me and by me. My bills have been huge, I have never just had to pay the cap amount. I am beginning to think that they have ripped me off big time. I rarely use the internet and have stopped making calls due to the high cost of my bills. I have complained many times to the outlet where I was sold the phone and others, only to be told "bad luck you are stuck with it until your contrat finishes". I have spent hours on the phone waiting for customer service (what a joke!!). Vodaphone are innept, incompetent and downright rude. They are morally bankrupt and should be held to account for the grief they cause people.

Extremely unhappy customer!!

They keep billing me every month, even though I've closed my contract with them and destoryed my SIM card AND notified them of this fact 4 months ago.

After reading a lot of comments and hearing a lot I have restrained up until now not to post anything here, but the time has come as now, am extremely frustrated and disgusted with the poor service and customer service for that matter given to us. Like a lot of people we have had the constant call drop outs, not able to call anyone even with full coverage shown on our phone's, constant call failed and the list can keep going as am sure you are all too aware. After several atempts with Vodafone and being on hold for up to 4 hours at one time we too have received the base answer of no its not us its your phone or it's your sim card, only after long persistance did they then say to us that "yes we are in a process of upgrading our system and yes we do seem to have a few teething problems". It was only after I contaced the Onbudsmen did they start to listen. Even after speaking with the resolution team we still seem to have issues with communication in what they offered us to do with our account. Promises, promises, it is getting beyond a joke. Now we have been offered to get out of our contract on the basis of us sending our phones back of which we have has just shy of 12 months. We currently use these for business although at this point we have had our own disgruntled customers as they have not been able to get hold of us with the current situation. Not too sure if I am being harsh or unfair but don't you think they would release you from your contract and let you keep the phone that you have been paying off for this period of time due to the anguish they have caused. If that they case and they want us to return the phones do you think they should give us a cheque for the difference of 1/2 the price of the phone. If it was Vodafone chasing one of their suppliers I am sure they would ask the same and persue until they got what they wanted.

Disgusted & Disgruntled

Was with '3' Mobile.

Ordered a Iphone4 with vodaphone once my plan ended. Did this online, but was 'denied' due to lack of identity proof.

So order one on phone. Order confirmed, but told with take 4 weeks.

I go to store, who give me a phone straight away.

I then call vodaphone (several hours later) and cancel (with confirmation number e.t.c) the order for my Iphone 4.

4 Weeks later, I receive TWO iPhones in the mail (one from the internet request that was denied, and one from the phone request that was cancelled - I have proof of all this).

I immediately (that day) call vodaphone. Wait several hours. Get them to send me a return envelope for BOTH phones. I stress that I have two, and I need two return envelopes.

One envolope appears, 2-3 weeks later.

I call again, tell them to send another envelope, tell them that if they charge me for these phones im gonna be furious.

Anyway, they promise 2-3 days. Week passes - nothing.

4 weeks after recieving the phone, spending hours trying to sort it out, NOT being sent the correct return, not being able to return these to the store...

I get charged...around $2100, taken straight out my account.

I RAGE. Go to a store, rage at the staff, who tell me they can't get me a refund immediately. I rage some more, and they agree to call their state manager - who organises a refund in two days. They also organise a courier to return phones, and confirm that phones have been returned.

I'm disgruntled but let it slide.

Two weeks after - ANOTHER F(*&ING $2100 out my account. This time I go into a blinding rage and storm into vodaphone, I tell them I want my money NOW or I'm going to the ACC and whoever else will listen to this.

I'm a student, I can't afford $2100, let alone $21 to be unexpectedly taken out my phone account.

Anyway, I get overcharge fees from my bank, I can't pay rent, can't eat, have no $$$ for several days. Money gets refunded. I'm assured that I will get some sort of compensation.

I get ONE months free bill. One months, after spending at a minimum, 10-15 hours trying to sort this out.

Anyway,

Anyone think I should follow up? Complain more? Will this get anything done?

feel free to e-mail suggestions on what to do to - (PERSONAL DETAILS REMOVED)

I rarely can use mobile internet at home, i have to move my handset (iPhone 3GS) around sometimes hold my arm in the air. But more importantly, there is a confirmed problem with the Vodafone network that does not allow it to connect to Optusnet mail servers. I cannot send mail at all from my phone, and rarely can I receive mail. Error message "Cannot get Mail The mail server mail.optusnet.com.au is not responding. verify that you have entered the correct account info in mail settings." You can see this problem recorded on whirlpool forums. It has been going for months. I want out of my contract, my iPhone is useless with vodafone. I have reported this issue and continually told they are working on it and I will be informed when fixed.

I had a Vodaphone account that was stolen by another person and closed without my knowledge or consent. I complained to the Telco Ombudisman and finally got it sorted but at one stage I was looking at a bill of several thousand dollars. Top tip - don't get the Communications Minister involved, absolutely no interest in helping.

My partner and I are with Crazy John's who deal for Vodafone. We have had internet issues for almost a year now and have gotten as far with tech support as replacing our sim cards and having our service disconnected then reconnected. Upon reconnection we received a call asking if the net was working and we told them it was working but still not well. They just said ok and hung up. Ring back 2 weeks later to find out why we have had no further tech support and they had put in the notes that we had told them the internet was working fine.

The notes they have on our account are nothing but lies they have made up to get out of actually having to do anything. Instore can't help because they just have to ring tech support like us. Tech support has also lied to the store staff trying to help us just to get rid of them. Tech support has also hung up on me because I told them to shut up when they kept talking over me. I didn't even swear I just told him he needs to shut up..

Still have no internet and still haven't gotten more tech support months later

I signed a 12 month contract for mobile USB for my laptop on the website it states that service is good in Churchill Victoria but when I try to use it no service is what I get I have tried since the 22nd October 2010 to get it resolved but no-one wants to help me I am not paying the accounts and i have sent to the Crows Nest address all my emails regarding this matter as I have been threaten with legal action for a balance on my account we will see what happens when they get my letters next week

Vodafone is so fail that when your bill is overdue and they activate call baring you can't even use your vodafail mobile to call vodafail and pay your bill!! If you had reception that is...

Having used to work for Vodafone in Geelong, I had an incentive to put up with their terrible coverage because they were paying half my bill for me. Even still, I made complaints to their customer care line with no luck. Now, I live in Melbourne and work in the CBD and my coverage is worse than ever! Driving down Russell Street the other day, my phone was SEARCHING... this is unacceptable! I never have internet coverage (always having to use WIFI) and at my house the phone drops in and out of coverage constantly. I have checked with retail staff and the online coverage maps and I should have FULL 3G reception everywhere.
I rang Vodafone to complain AGAIN about this on Tuesday. After sitting on hold for 30 minutes, I was told I needed to be transferred to a different department. After 30 minutes on hold for the second time, my service dropped out before I could speak to someone. I called back again, asked to be put through the the Network department, and after 30 minutes on hold AGAIN finally got to speak to someone. I explained all my issues and they said "you need to speak to the network department". I said "Didn't I come through to them?" they said "no, this is the billing department and the network department closed at 8 so you will call them tomorrow." You can imagine how annoyed I was with this situation! This was at 8.10. If they had answered my call in the first place and put me through to the right department, it may have been sorted. SO! I call back on Wednesday, speak to someone from Network and they say they can't do anything about canceling contracts so I'm out through to the Collections department. I'm getting more and more pissed every second with this! I tell them my story AGAIN and they say that because I've moved addresses, they will not cancel my contract without a fee because my network is checked to the address where the phone is provisioned. I told them that it was a MOBILE phone and should work everywhere. If I wanted a home phone, I would've got a landline! They then said they would do me a deal because I used to work for them and let me cancel the contract without a fee however I have to pay for the phone. Good work Vodafone! We all know why you do that! Because the phones are where you make your money! Not only that but what good is a iPhone 4 to me that is locked to Vodafone?! Last time I checked you couldn't unlock the iPhones because it voided your warranty! So you now want me to PAY for I phone I don't even want to use on your network when I'm getting it for free! I told them I would send them back the phone (because they just refurbish them and give them to you when you're phone is replaced under repair anyway) and they told me that was not an option and I was given my option and if I didn't like it, to take it to the Ombudsman. Thanks for the advice, that is exactly what I did! They say that the success rates for mergers are only at about 30%... well, look out! I'm pretty sure that unless they pull their fingers out, this one with 3 is SURE to fail!

I signed up on 2year plan about 2yrs ago but due to crap service n stupid Lara n every other problem, worked out cheaper for me to cancel plan 3months on, since I was always been over billed. So I paid $800+ to cancel rather than $100+ for another 21months!

For 2 years my calls dropped out and that was if I was lucky to even be able to make any calls!! It got to the stage where the only solution was for me to buy out my current plan and take on a new phone and plan...how stupid of me...I should have just changed to a different phone company. For the last year at least I have not been able to log into "myvodafone" online account and can never access my usage details. I rang Customer Care (which is an oxy moron) and was on hold for 1 Hour and 27 mins before getting through and was just told the issue was a network issue which would be fixed in 24 hours. What a crock ...They clearly have no idea because this issue has been happening for over 12 months!!!!!!! I have now escalated the issue via a complaint - so lets see if this ever gets sorted.

Vodafone called me today with regards to a email I left on 30 Dec 2010. Kudos to them responding after close to a month (Punk intended). Over the last 2 weeks, I have managed to call them stating network coverage issues and initiating investigations. They have confirm poor coverage at my home (NSW 2137) and will be upgraded by Feb. Now, NSW 2137 is not even on the list of upgrade sites on their media report. Are they kidding me?

Both my wife and myself are on Vodafone, so chances of call dropping is x2. How did we manage to survive this for the last 2 months?

I'm still waiting for the billing team to contact me to offer alternatives. Get me out of my contracts please.

3G Internet bill is always a shock for me... Each second month is inflated, even if I check my data consumption using my Vodafone account and through SMS. I tried to explain these issues to Vodafone Customer Care guys, but they know their lesson - it's my liability to make sure that I DO NOT go over my quota. When I asked them how should I do that if their data metering is so far off, they started to BLA, BLA, BLA....not really interested to help, more interested to get rid of me. SO, what's the solution - found it. Don't bother calling VODAFONE - bunch of idi**s - CALL TIO and they will register your claim as 'inadequate data metering' or similar and give you a claim number. With the claim number, it's coming also a special Vodafone number - which is not always busy and the person answering this number can offer something without transferring you X times between various VODAFAIL departments.
CALL TIO, forget about normal VODAFONE customer service number and LARA.

I have been a Vodafone customer for 10 years. For the overwelming majority of that time, I have been a prepaid account holder to avoid the problems associated with Vodafone customer service.

When I upgraded my telephone in 2006, a sales representative at a Vodafone store convinced me that the best option for me was to sign up on a plan. Needless to say, the best option for me was not to sign up to a plan. After only 4 months I had spent in excess of $600 of my usual spend because of the geared phone charges under the contract. I later learnt that performance indicators for sales staff largely revolved around 'signing people up' because Vodafone found it was the most profitable means of retaining customers.

I rang Vodafone Customer Service and after an hour of waiting and talking to different people I was able to agree that my contract would be cancelled and that I would only have to pay half the payout figure $150 to go back onto prepaid.

While the outcome was unsatisfactory in light of the misleading statements made by Vodafone's sales rep, I was eager to get out their customer system and back onto the prepaid plan. Accordingly, I followed the instructions provided to me by Vodafone's customer representative and purchased a new prepaid pack. However, the next correspondence I received from Vodafone was a letter demanding $350 in termination fees, followed by a threat to default me with Baycorp and letters from debt collectors. In response, I rang Vodafone and explained that I had entered into an agreement, I wouldn't be paying the amount demanded, and that I would be very upset if they defaulted me for a debt that I didn't owe. I also asked for an invoice for the agreed exit fee of $150. The operator said that the money was owing and that he would default me if I didn't pay immediately. I refused and he added a default listing with Baycorp as soon as our telephone conversation ended.

I then started receiving telephone calls from debt collectors, who I told not to call me. The matter was only resolved when I made a complaint to the Telecommuncations Ombudsman. The Ombudsman found that Vodafone should never have added the default listing and that I was entitled to a refund of amounts charged by Vodafone to remove it. However, despite agreeing to the refund, Vodafone never paid me, so I had to make a second complaint requesting payment. After the second complaint, I received a refund from Vodafone.

Needless to say, I would never again sign up to be a Vodafone contract customer.

I have been a Vodafone customer for 10 years. For the overwelming majority of that time, I have been a prepaid account holder to avoid the problems associated with Vodafone customer service.

When I upgraded my telephone in 2006, a sales representative at a Vodafone store convinced me that the best option for me was to sign up on a plan. Needless to say, the best option for me was not to sign up to a plan. After only 4 months I had spent in excess of $600 of my usual spend because of the geared phone charges under the contract. I later learnt that performance indicators for sales staff largely revolved around 'signing people up' because Vodafone found it was the most profitable means of retaining customers.

I rang Vodafone Customer Service and after an hour of waiting and talking to different people I was able to agree that my contract would be cancelled and that I would only have to pay half the payout figure $150 to go back onto prepaid.

While the outcome was unsatisfactory in light of the misleading statements made by Vodafone's sales rep, I was eager to get out their customer system and back onto the prepaid plan. Accordingly, I followed the instructions provided to me by Vodafone's customer representative and purchased a new prepaid pack. However, the next correspondence I received from Vodafone was a letter demanding $350 in termination fees, followed by a threat to default me with Baycorp and letters from debt collectors. In response, I rang Vodafone and explained that I had entered into an agreement, I wouldn't be paying the amount demanded, and that I would be very upset if they defaulted me for a debt that I didn't owe. I also asked for an invoice for the agreed exit fee of $150. The operator said that the money was owing and that he would default me if I didn't pay immediately. I refused and he added a default listing with Baycorp as soon as our telephone conversation ended.

I then started receiving telephone calls from debt collectors, who I told not to call me. The matter was only resolved when I made a complaint to the Telecommuncations Ombudsman. The Ombudsman found that Vodafone should never have added the default listing and that I was entitled to a refund of amounts charged by Vodafone to remove it. However, despite agreeing to the refund, Vodafone never paid me, so I had to make a second complaint requesting payment. After the second complaint, I received a refund from Vodafone.

Needless to say, I would never again sign up to be a Vodafone contract customer.

Been a Vodafone customer for over 10 years. Used to work for them in fact. Never had a problem with coverage or my bill and actually believed in the product until 2008. Full spectrum 3G comes in and I live 5 minutes out of Adelaide, can only get "poor" on my modem. My new iphone then loses signal and I get call fail more often than I get calls. I can learn to live with slow internet for a cheap plan UNTIL ALL of the customer care and upgrades is outsourced to India causing a number of problems that only become evident when you are involved in them.
The one I am in now- got the new Iphone 4, it has a giant display fault, (fair enough some of them are duds) Call Customer care. After a 20 minute wait they tell me that I have to talk to another department, another 20 minute wait. This guy tells me that I have to go into a store (the reason I got it over the phone in the first place was so I didn't have to go into a store) and they can send it off for repair for me. I HAVE HAD THE PHONE ON LITERALLY TEN MINUTES and he wants me to send it off for repair. I said no I would like the DOA phone replaced instore once they verify the fault. He says they can't cause store stock comes from a different warehouse than online stock. What a logistical idiocy having a singular company with different warehouses that can't communicate. I tell the guy I am willing to go in to a store for them to verify the fault but I want another one sent out to me.
The after mush of me repeating " I am not happy" they guy says if I get the store guy to put a note on the account he will call me back at 1pm today (adelaide time) and organise a new phone to be sent to me.
It is 2:18pm and I'm sill waiting.
Over the past year I have had hundreds of dollars credited to my bill for overcharges and misdirection of payments to OTHER PEOPLES BILLS. I was disconnected for a month while I had to prove I had made a payment and each person I sent the details to lost them or didn't receive them.
I am glad I left working for a company that I no longer believe in

In 2007 I joined $79 Vodafone contract. After about 6 months on the contract I had apparently gone over the cap and got slammed with a $2,300.00 phone bill. I rang them and said there was no way in hell I was going to pay that amount. After many back and forth conversations they cancelled my contract and sent me a bill for $3,103.00. After many back and forth coversations regarding the new amount we finally came to an agreement to work out a price. They then referred my matter to Dunn & Bradhurst Debt Collectors finally in 2009 we agreed that I would pay back $1,183.00 because I still had the mobile phone that came with my cap. Two weeks ago I went to the bank to get a personal loan and got rejected. I make really good money. I have no credit cards. Never had a bad debit. So I requested a copy of my credit file from Veda Advantage which says "It was advised that a Telecommunication account was overdue due to payment default". Because of the negotiations I got a bad credit which gets cleared in 2012. Now I am in the middle of a big arguement to have Vodafone amend this so I can get a personal loan.

I ended my contract with Vodafone late last year, and switched to another telco who paid part of my unexpired contract with Vodadone. I waited and waited until I had to part with vodafone, with 200 dollar payment to them, I was so desperate to get out.
When vodafone called me in Australia 22 months prior to resign my contract with them, they gave me the Nokia E71. I set my phone up to use with my WIFI network at home, so I would not be downloading from Vodafone data and being charged for this. While I did use some of the data from Vodafone when I was away from home, doing internet banking and such, this was very very minimal. Everything was fine after a few bills, until one day they sent me an extra large bill of 1500 approx.

I rang around was told that I had downloaded a large amount of data, and after going back and forth, back and forth was told that the Nokia E71 would auto switch to gprs vodafone data when my wifi signal dropped out. I was always within range of my wifi at home and had a strong signal, so i explained that this could not be the case.
They told me that I my wifes phone also had been doing this as well, and thats why it had been such a large bill. But here is the thing, my wifes phone, had never never been connected at anytime. They told me that the htc phone my wife had, "automatically" updated "things" I still dont know what they are. They thought I came down in the last shower.
I am not stupid and know exactly how to work the phones i told them, and that my wifes htc phone had never auto downloaded before this contract, because this was my old phone, and never had anything like this happened before.

No matter what I said, I could not reason with the call centre in Egypt. I spoke to the manager in the Call Centre Eddie. He could not answer any of my questions regarding the issue. They could not even tell me what kind of data had been downloaded. He kept repeating himself, "you should had gotten a package that had capped downloading costs. He would not listen to anything I had to say. He cut my phone bill in half, but that was not the point, I wanted someone to make sense, someone to tell me what all the charges were about.
I tried to call someone in Australia. I called my local vodafone shop, and was told, you will have to call the centre in Egypt. We cant do anything. I emailed the Australia Sydney office and was told basically yeah yeah we know your upset, we cant do a thing, call the centre in Egypt.
So even though someone called me in Australia to resign the contract with me, they now could not call me to answer some of my questions.

sorry are you still with me???

When I called just before I ended my contract with Vodafone, the guy in Egypt told me he could not tell me the finalized amount owing on my account if I were to leave at that moment. It makes me wonder if this true, if, what do kind of computer systems are they running.

we could always sms a number to see how much of our cap, or what was owing on my bill at anytime, so why couldn't they.

After I left, I kept getting phone calls from them, and their market researches, and asking me personal details as to why I left....what was I paying now, why this why that. I was scared they were going to make up some more charges and send them to me.
I still am living in fear....the phones ringing....is that them??

We are a small business with 26 connections. I am not able to speak to my account manager to sort the billing issues for the last one year, services issues as well. If i send him 10 emails he sends me one email saying that they are working on it. But it is more than a year and still working on it. I am not sure how this company is still operating. We have to 24 months contract and 12 months have gone. We will never go back to them again.

When i try to log on to my account on the vodafone website it will never just log me in the first time i try. I have to keep retrying and close the window and re open it because it says they are experiencing problems and cant access my information right now.... what the hell vodafone, if you were a person id punch you in the face

I ended my contract on 08 November 2010 due to:
Incorrect overcharged bills ($500 on $49.00 cap) and phone hadnt been used!!!
An incessant hate of the stupid half baked sl*t of a thing called LARA
having to call some cluster in India to resolve my billing issues.
Took my case to the TIO (Dont wait - just do it) and ended my contract.
Switched to OPTUS BUT WAIT.

I still get Bills from Vodafone, even though I've confirmed with INDIA, that I DONT HAVE AN ACCOUNT WITH VODAFONE!!!!

on top of every other issue ive had with vodafone (a whole other story with netowrk issues like everyone else), this takes the cake. i didnt want my bill direct debited anymore , firstly due to their privacy issues, secondly as im planning on leaving them asap, so i logged onto myvodafone and cancelled my direct debit. to my surprise, they direct debited me today, overdrawing my account (i didnt have the money in there as wasnt expecting any direct debits). Just as a test, i went back into myvodafone, which showed the direct debit still active. i deactivated it, it told me the direct debit was removed, i logged out, logged back in, and SURPRISE! the direct debit is still active!,i informed them of this today, they didnt really seem to care that their website has such a flaw, didnt offer any compensation for the inconveniance, and unless i send them my private bank statement showing overdrawn fee i wont get any compensation for that (like hell, considering their record with my private information , they aint seein nothin!)

To make a long story short, my daughter ordered an IPhone 4 without my permission on my account. Made her cancel it the same day. Next bill comes in and im charged for the IPhone. Called and sorted out the bill and was told everythings okay we can see that the phone wasn't sent out. Bingo!! 2 weeks later an IPhone 4 arrives. Not to my address but my daughters boyfriends address. Left the phone and did nothing for about 2 months thinking they would chase it up. (High Hopes) I have rung twice and explained that I have an IPhone that im not paying for. Do they want to do anything about it? NO!!!
They told me to send it back by express post. Told them that they sent it they can pick it up. No one wants to do anything about it. Still have the IPhone. I bet there just waiting for it to be connected so they can charge me for it. Wont happen though. I already have an IPhone 4. No one could answer the question of how can they send a phone to a different address then is on my account. Wouldn't that ring alarm bells. If I was ordering a phone I would want it to my own address.

When I signed up for this deal I had to give them my license number, and after that they send me an email confirming my details including the plan I signed up to....etc. In the email they send me the name In that email was correct, however the next 3 billing emails that they send me my name was mis-spelled!! One Letter only but it made a big difference!! So I called up and ask them to change it, and even tho they looked at the my details and admitted that they were wrong, they said, sorry cant do it here, you gotta go to a store with you photo ID to change it.. What I dont understand is that if they can sign you up on a plan over the phone or on the internet without looking at your photo ID, why cant they just change the name even tho they know that its their fault for entering the wrong letter. Because of their fault they require their customer to get out of their way to correct their mistake for them??

My father passed away in September and my mother contacted Vodafone to inform them of this and to close the account. I faxed through the death certificate and a letter informing them of his passing hoping that this would be it. No, the very next month my mother received a bill for $23. Again I faxed through the death certificate after they told us that there was a discrpancy on it as on the account my father's initials were JL instead of LJ. Fair enought I thought, but that fax sat on someone's desk with the account and contact details on it yet nobody bothered to contact us regarding any discrepancy. My mother's stress soared again when yet another letter arrived saying that there was $23 on the account accrued after his death and after she informed them of his passing. I rang Vodafone only to be left on hold for ages before speaking to an Indian call centre operator. She informed me that she could not access his account without his pin number. I did not know it, neither did my elderly mother, why would we? She persisted in asking me again and again only for me to demand to speak to a supervisor. Finally after me losing my temper and telling her short of exhuming him and raising him from the dead there was no way to provide a pin number. I then spoke to a supervisor who lo and behold unlocked the account details without me knowing the pin! After much berating from me and threatening to contact the ombudsman and A Current Affair he told me it would be rectified. Thankfully this was the end of it, but it was a lot of emotional stress and needless pain for my mother to endure. A local call centre or point of contact could have saved my mother and me the stress of dealing with such incompetent staff.

After being reassured I would be refunded $1000 (I was wrongly billed far more than this)on my credit card and my plan fixed to what I originally told it was serposed to be.......I waited....and waited.I contacted the TIO again and they said they would fix it.....Vodafone still havn't resolved any of the problems I have raised, nor held up thier end of the solution promised in Nov 10.....I HATE YOU VODAFONE YOU GO TO HELL... YOU GO TO HELL AND YOU DIE

I am a 3 customer and as far as i am aware vodafone and 3 merged. Since this merger has occured i have had the worst coverage on my phone and my wireless internet. Most of the time i'm either in roaming or at 1 bar in 3g, and it continues to drop out in calls. I go to my mothers house to visit and i have no coverage, but her partner has a telstra account and his is full coverage.
My wireless net access loads up in 3g and automatically goes to HSDPA, and in that mode a simple webpage can take up to 5mins or more to load, let alone a smallish sized app on itunes takes me 3 days to get.

Once my plan is up......i'm gone.

tried to order an andoid phone on the vodafone online store back in sept/2010. after waiting 4 days got a message to say couldn't process my order as insufficient indentification was produced??. I then cancelled the order with a customer service person. But wait there's more....about 7 working days after cancelling the order, abracadabra! the phone suddenly appeared on my desk at work (courier dropped it there without even a signature!) By this time i had already ordered a new android handset from Optus online, which was delivered to me within 48 hours!.
Anyhow, another call to vodafone customer service to organise returning the handset, and what a pain that was. I think i was on hold for periods of up to 1 hour or more!! just to speak to someone. By the way, it took me about 6 attempts and over 3-4 days to actually speak to someone who could organise for the handset to be collected. Finally about another week later the return satchel arrived and i sent back the handset. You thought that was going to be the end of the story..didnt you! Oh no, Xmas eve 2010, i received a Final Notice letter for about $133.00 demanding payment. I called their account dept and just went right off my rocker!!
touch wood havent heard anymore from Vodafail, and hope i never will.

i have rang numerous times bout service issues with vodafone. to the point where i wanted out of my contract. im sick of talking to bombay when i ring. they struggle to comprehend what im talkin about. all ive been give is $20 credit towards my account (mind you, im still waiting for that. its been 2 months)

It's getting really frustrating when i can't access how much money is left on my cap. Every single time i SMS the number, or call through.. the service is temporarily down, try again later - how convenient?! This happens every single time I try to check it, so I will refuse to pay any fees that im billed if by accident i do go over! I won't even start on the lack of reception..

The Age newspaper January 21, 2011 - 12:41PM

Article-"Revealed: how Vodafone dealers bend the rules posing as customers"

"A Vodafone dealer's staff have been caught posing as customers to cancel the customers' original accounts in order to sign them up for new contracts with higher commissions"

Webpage:

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/revealed-how-vodafone-dealers-bend-the-rules-posing-as-customers-20110121-19yn3.html

I have been with Vodafone for over ten years and have been on a pre paid account I purchased a new I Phone on plan several months ago now. however from the time i recieved the phone i have had limmited service drop out calls all causing no end of greef in business and in personal my wife thinks im having an afiar as i dont answer her calls or hang up on her ... my work cannot contact me or my clients this is carzy now I just want to pay off my contract and find another provider .. dissapointed in how they treat a loyal customer ..

On Sunday the 17th October i was burgled and my phone and wallet stolen. I rang vodafone as soon as i realised my phone was stolen to cancel the sim so it could not be used. I rang at around 2pm and my call was finally answered at 3.30pm. The operator told me that the phone could not be stopped on weekends and that i would have to ring back during business hours. I told him how ridiculous that was and that i wanted to block the sim so i would not be charged with calls the thief decided to make. The operator said he would transfer me to some other department and maybe they could do it. So i was put on hold again and after another 90mins, at 5pm somebody else answered and eventually blocked my sim card.

Its quite humerous how it took 3hrs to get through to vodafone, whilst it took the police 15min to arrive at my house and 45min for forensic police to arrive and take fingerprints. It was quite annoying trying to talk to police whilst having 1 ear listening to vodafone on hold music.

Since then i have gone into a vodafone shop and got a new sim with my old number and i purchased a phone from the shop (after waiting 40min in a queue).

Yesterday i thought i better ring vodafone to update my billing details due to my credit card being stolen and i have now been issued with a new credit card number. I rang vodafone at 4pm and at 5pm i gave up and i decided to look in the web site to see if i could find a way to do it without wasting my time on hold to vodafone. I eventually worked out how to change my direct debit details on the web site so they are now up to date.

Today i received an SMS from vodafone telling me my last bill was unsuccessful in being paid and that i must pay it ASAP to "prevent restrictions to your service".

I have just paid the bill by credit card, it would be good if Vodafone could answer there customer hotline as quick as they let you know your bill is overdue.

After all this occuring i decided to switch to telstra. In doing this i knew i would be up for a bill for about $600 for cancelling contract. SO i went ahead with it and a few weeks later i received my final bill for about $600 so i rang up and paid it on my credit card.

The next week i noticed they had debitted it the $600 again from my credit card. SO i rang them up again, usual on hold for ever. The lady told me that she would have a look, first she said it was not an error and i did owe $1200. i said that cannot be right, so she decided to look into and ring me back. 2 days later she called back and said i was right and my credit card would be credited.
2 weeks later still no credit on my credit card, so i rang them again to see whatwas happening, on hold again for ages and finally get through to someone and he tells me it hasnt been "processed yet" and that he was going to do now and i should get in few days.
Finally about 4 weeks after being double charged i got my money back and hopefully my last dealings with Vodafone

We are a small business with 26 connections. I am not able to speak to my account manager to sort the billing issues for the last one year, services issues as well. If i send him 10 emails he sends me one email saying that they are workign on it. But it is more than a year and still working on it. I am not sure how this company is still operating we have to 24 months contract and 12 months have gone. We will never go back to them again.

Every couple of months I discover that my auto payment is cancelled by vodafone. I usually find out when I'm told I don't have credit for a call rather than any notification from Vodafone. In Dec 2010 I did get a text stating my account was overdue and when I rang to find out why they aren't debiting money for i each month, I discovered that it had not been paid for 3 months and I was in fact now liable for late payment fees. After liaising with a customer service rep & her manager in India, the overdue charges where dropped. However I find this constant failure on Vodafone part to keep their payment system operational tedious and an serious contemplating changing suppliers.

I have been a Vodafone customer for 9 years but was pre-paid until 15 months ago when I signed a post-paid contract. Had no issues at all and thought they were great until September when my phone was disconnected apparently due to an upaid bill from April was supposedly direct debited from my account but failed to go through and it 'didn't show up in their system until September. This bill was paid and I had the bank statement and reciept from Vodafone to prove it but even if it wasn't paid, my phone was disconnected without any warning - no email, no text, no letter - I simply couldn't make outgoing calls or send texts one morning. Poor form. I had to call Vodafone and waited on hold for 1hr and 23mins before being connected to someone only to be chastised by an Indian gentleman who I stuggled to understand but was clearly annoyed at me for being annoyed when according their system the bill hadn't been paid. After my 1hr 23min hold, I spoke to this guy for 15mins before being told I was speaking to the wrong department anyway and that he would put me through to someone else. I waited a further 48mins on hold before being connected to an Indian woman who was of no use. By this stage I was VERY frustrated and after 12mins of discussions with her I asked to speak to the cancellations department and was put through (strangsly no hold time that time). I finally spoke to someone who was helpful but it still took 31mins to clear up the mess and get an apology for the mistake and a credit added to my account as was required to re-active my phone. Then of course you have to hang up and wait 20mins, turn your phone on and off and then it should be working. And I was then advised to call them back if I had any further issues - yeah right! I'm totally keen to waste another I spent 3hrs and 15mins on the phone in order to get them to fix THEIR MISTAKE. Not happy at all. After 9 years and what is definately more than $14,000 in expenses with theme, I am not impressed. That's what you get for customer loyalty. I will be terminating my relationship with them this year as soon as my contract ends.

Have been on $49 cap for over 1 year, and never exceed the cap limit. The last 2 billing periods have been $172 and $96!!! with no significant changes to the calling. Large number of dropping out events have been noted on the bills. Dropped into a Vodafone stall, and they refused to help. Unable to get through on customer care line. In the meantime I refuse to pay the bill - guess I will just wait to they cut off the phone!!! (Can I still keep my mobile # if I sign up with another carrier?)

After a 2 year contract with vodafone for mobile internet they sent me a deal to go in anew contract with a new usb modem.i called thm to discuss the deal and told the of the problem i was having ith reception etc vodafone assured me that the ne usb didnt have these isues it wuld be fine so i signed back up had the same issues but worse this time so i called back up had a hell of fight to get out of the contract(which they assured me wouldnt happen) but after i got out of the contract i recieved a bill that said i had gone over my allocated amountof usage by 5 gig and they were charging me $100 per gig??? after many attempts to sort this out with many promises of the right section calling me back(which never happened) i now have a credit default and & $2000 bill because they wouldnt seperate my phone and internet account, they disconnected my phone and want to charge me $1500 for the 6 months that were let on the contract..Bad customer service Vodafone!!Shame on you!!

Terrible reception, using an iPhone. Phone is constantly on 'E' service - at work in West Perth, driving up the Freeway north and pretty much everywhere except for home where we have a Wi Fi set up for the internet. Also holiday in Moore River - 1 hr north, out of 10 friends, every single one gets reception from other providers - Telstra, Optus, 3 etc, on various phones - iPhones, Nokia, Android etc BUT me - I got NOTHING! My 2 year contract is nearly over & I WILL BE TAKING MY ACCOUNT ELSEWHERE.

Usual story - locked out of my vodafone, sent a new password which didn't work. Phoned customer service and gave up after waiting for 35minutes. Sorted by email after 3 days. Still haven't received $50 credit as advertised when I started my new plan in spite of being told it had been applied to my account a month ago.

Hi,
My main issue with Vodafone is the difficulty I had trying to set up direct debit facilities to pay my bills automatically. I advised Vodafone of my credit card details and was assured that direct debit had been set up on my account. Approx 2 months later I noticed that I had not been billed. I rang up Vodafone again and again gave them my credit card details. They assured me that on the next billing date my credit card would be charged for the 'overdue' amount and the next bill.

Next month I experienced the same problem. Vodafone did not bill me the outstanding amount nor the current bill. I again rang Vodafone to again give them my credit card details.

Next month I had the same problem, except the way I learnt about it was because Vodafone had disabled my account - due to non-payment.

I again rang Vodafone (please not that EACH time I rang Vodafone I was on hold for an average of 30 mins)and complained. After much back and forth with an extremely unhelpful foreign call centre operator (I do not blame them, they are the frontline to Vodafone's issues and don't deserve the anger they receive). In the end they gave me a $50 credit on my account and assured me that they reversed all 'late payment' fees - I had been charged 1 per month.

The next month I get a rather nasty automated sms from Vodafone telling me that my account wasn't paid and to please pay it or my account would be disabled. I range them back (another long wait on hold) and paid my bill over the phone. At the same time I decided to remove my credit card details from my account and I would pay my bills manually from now on.

I got online some time after this to check and see if my credit card details had been removed from my account. They had not.

For the next 3 months I went to their website and manually removed my credit card details. None of these attempts worked. Finally (last month) I rang them again (another long wait on hold) and had the call centre operator remove my credit card details. They have now been removed.

At the same time I told them that I had had enough of Vodafone and told them that I wanted to break my contract and move to another provider. They told me that they could arrange that for me, however I would be charged an early cancellation fee. I decided to stay as my contract expires on 24 April 2011.

My other issues with Vodafone are the same as those I hear in the media. I have poor coverage, even in my home and I live 5km from Sydney City, delayed SMS's and call drop outs.

I am completely over Vodafone and will NEVER sign up with them again.

we have 14 phones and 1 internet sim all with vodafone. we joined on a corporate plan with promises like conference calling, call transfers between users etc. all of which is useless because of the constant drop outs and lack of useable service.

In one conference call a few weeks ago we took over an hour to have a 10 minute discussion and had to add people back in to the conversation dozens of times as they constantly dropped off the conference.

the time it takes for text messages and voicemails to be delivered renders them completely useless as the topic of them is usually over before we even get the messages.

The internet connection connects as HSUPA or GSM which is much slower than 3G most of the time despite all phones showing 3G coverage.

Vodafone customer service is unable to offer us any useable assistance other than to blame us, whiile their billing department is perfectly competent and charges us a flagfall for every reconnection call, every SMS and voicemail and charges us for 3G internet that is not being delivered.

Can't wait to get out of this SCAM!

Is locking customers out of their own web login some sort of ridiculous attempt at 'fixing' Voda's security issues? Or are they keeping people out of their account logins so that they can't see what sort of mess may have been made of their billing history? On 14-01-2011 discovered that my well memorized password had mysteriously changed, considerable time on hold later Voda managed to (temporarily) restore my password and I was able to login to myvodafone.com.au, but NOT see my account usage details. On 20-01-2001 discovered that my password had stopped working again. Still unable to log in, and see calling them again to resolve prob as a waste of my time.

Suffered long term poor network reception in inner Sydney suburbs and I'm hardly ever more than 6km from Sydney CBD and wonder how many people think I intentionally gave them a wrong number when they've tried to call only to receive a 'not in service' message? :(

So glad I'm only a pre-pay customer (or I'd be seriously worried about what is happening to my account!) it's going to be easy to jump this sinking ship as soon as my credit expires. My commiseration to those who have suffered more than me through Voda's lack of performance, especially those on contracts - good luck in seeking fair compensation!

Hi I can't wait till both our contract's run out in 2 months, for the past nearly 2 years, it has been constant drop outs, and lack of coverage. When visiting Lancefield/Romsey there is no coverage. When I complained to some locals, they said "you aren't with Vodafone are you? It doesn't work here"
As I'm going to be visiting there regularly this year I can't wait until I can go with someone else who offers a decent service for the $$ we pay. Also had problems with late voicemails & texts, and when signing up got a 10% discount on the contract, with 2 months free, this has never happened, gave up being on hold and talking to several different people who all promised to fix our account, never have got the 2 free months, and no 10% discount. Absolutely hopeless. Think we might have to go back to Telstra, they are rip offs but at least you get the service you expect.