Vodafone incorrectly charged my bill, and it took 1 hour of calls and being placed on hold, only to have no resolution. I guess the Ombudsman is the next stop for me...

I always experience long waits when calling vodafone and due to my busy life I can not afford to be waiting on hold for over an hour

I just bought a phone. Agreed it was fir 12 month contract now it is in the billing as being a 24 month contract. Great!

2 hours on hold and then 20 mins on the phone to looser staff who can do nothing . O well tomorrow I will do battle again.

Vidafail!

Migrated from 3 to Vodafone in an effort to resolve reception issues ( live on top of a hill, line of sight to 3 towers...but hey ).
Migration for one phone took 4 days and about 3 hours on the phone
Migration of second (wifes) took nearly a month and another 8 hours on the phone to customer service.
Received first bill - all the agreed conditions were incorrect and overbilled - another 3 hours and 12 different parties to get that resolved.

Data is atrocious everywhere, and coverage ( original issue ) is marginally better but still not great.

And why is it that the helpdesk has to put you on hold for 3 minutes everytime they need to look up a detail? You spend more time on hold that resolving the issue.

I was trying to call my health fund and after more than 10 minutes on hold the operator can't hear me but I can hear them.

My phone works fine and has done voice calls ok, so I can only blame vodafone.

And the lag on the updating of usage information is pretty poor.

In an area which has 3G coverage (Wagga Wagga) that has all the bars and getting below dial-up speeds. Come on Vodafail, lift your game as this has gone on for too long.

My internet service doesnt work in Brisbane and Gold Coast CBD or anywhere inbetween. I have been sent a fone in the mail after cancelling it because I picked it up in the store and despite numerous attemps to call and get help to send it back they have hung up on me, then after being on hold for 15mins the 2nd time the new indian girl didnt understand my problem. She advised me a call back but never did. I have had 3 promises of call backs but have not recieved 1. This whole company needs some serious work. I want out of this contract now. If they havent got the skilled manpower or the services to facilitate this many customers then they shouldnt be taking on anymore new business. So frustrated Im going to the Ombudsman.

Vodafone have stopped doing automatic direct deductions to pay my bill. When I log onto their website to pay the bill manually it says that therre is an error and I should ring up.

As the only reception I can get at home is when I stand in the middle of my backyard in the cold and rain, I sent them an email. I received what appeared to be an automated reply which had nothing to do with my problem. I replied asking them to answer by question but no reply.

I recently sent them a second email via their customer support "contact us" websire but still no reply after two weeks.

I have tried ringing them but gave up after twenty minutes on hold.

I have now lodged a complaint with the TIO.

Yesterday Morning @ 4:13am mind, i recieved a SMS from Vodafone with the Tattslotto results drawn on 16th April 2011. Then another SMS @ 5:22am, 6:44am, 7:23am, 8:02am, 8:22am, 9:07am, 10:17am and the last one so far @ 11:11am. All the SMS's are showing Saturday Tattslotto Draw Results from 16th April to 11th June.

Fat load of good the draw results are to me now, and who has the time to call them and be on hold for a hour to complain and get no action! 4:13AM wake up SMS, thanks a lot Vodafone!!

Where do i begin? Each time i call Vodafone i am stuck talking to them for so long that the vodafone drops out (of course). They are useless! THINKING OF USING VODAFONE? WHY NOT ASK A VODAFONE CUSTOMER FIRST and save yourself a lot of frustration!!!!!!!! Ask me if you like, ive suffered their poor excuse for service for years. I hear other peoples private vodafone messages, I have been lied to for 2 years about a problem with my service and billing, only now they admit there has been a problem all along and they were just fobbing me off coz they didnt know how to rectify the billing problem. I am now on hold AGAIN waiting for the consultant to check with his supervisor...he is confused about my bill-if he cant understand it, how can the customer?? MANY MANY complaints about this mob. ISnt it a bit racist of them to have local Australian staff at call centres when you are buying a product or service, but offshore staff when you need any assistance after you r signed up.....hmmmm. check it out... call to the centre and press buttons thru to buy a contract- talk to an aussie. now call back and press buttons for billing or problems....presto-overseas cheap call centre! i think this is a poor and discriminatory process by vodafone.

Dear Vodafone, you lost your credibility when you decided to hire an indian call centre to deal with angry customers. If you have angry customers before they dial 1555, why on earth would you try piss them off even more by having untrained employees who speak english but don't understand it, do your dirty work...

After waiting two weeks to receive my Broadband modem that took several endless phone calls, that resulted in having to pick up my own parcel, I had to call yet again (there's a shocker!) I was charged during the whole two weeks of NOT having my modem let alone using it. I also asked for 6GB not 500MB (is that even a valid plan?) Have some commonsense what on earth will I do with half a GB, 'receive 2 emails' and I'm over my cap?!!! Let's not even mention my internet would not work until 10 minutes ago, and that's no thanks to Vodafone!

Lara: 'HI. I'm Lara, if you would like to talk to me using your keyboard please press #1, if you would like to talk to me like normal using a few words press #2'

Me: Fuck no! #1 it is...

(Please be patient while they transfer me to 5 different departments...)

Real name unknown: 'Hi, I'm Daniel...'

(Yea alright, that's just the name you've been given to disguise your indian name)

Real name unknown: 'Can you please read out your phone number and confirm your name and birthdate?'

(WTF for? I already typed it on my keyboard while getting through to you, and you have it on your screen in front of your face!)

...After delayed responses and asking me 'how my day is' not that I have time to respond, but still I'm polite and respond.

Me: '...I purchased a mobile broadband dongle over the phone from a Vodafone representative, I didn't get it until yesterday. It has informed me I only have 500MB of Data.. Why? I'm on a 6GB plan'

Name unknown: 'hmm, okay hold on I will check for you...'

(On hold for 5 minutes I kid you not.)

Name unknown: 'Your on the infinite plan, the $99 you only receive 3GB of data'

(Are you fucking shitting me right now?...)

Me: 'No, no, MOBILE BROADBAND not my phone plan a separate transaction under the same name!. I want to know why I only have 500MB of data and I should have 6GB, which would be around 6000MB not half a GB!!!'

Name unknown: 'One moment I will check that for you...'

(Ten minutes later...no joke, I'm willing to show my call history)

Name unknown: 'Yes 500MB is half a GB, and 6000MB is 6GB, that is correct anything else I can help you with?'

(WHAT A JOKE! I did not wait 20 minutes for some clown to confirm the difference between GB and MB, Google could have answered that within a second...)

***BEEP BEEP BEEP***

Have an amazing life 'Daniel', I hope the $3.20 per hour you receive will keep you intelligent.
Vodafone, enjoy your early retirement/grave, I hate Telstra for the same customer service reason, but god do they look like a diamond standing next to you.

Vodafone's network is a joke. Their intenet is so slow and doesnt work 95% of the time. Yet they are still happy to eat your data with their greedy fat mouths, watching the balence of your last reacharge drool out of their fat freaking mouths. They take money out of your and my childrens mouths and use it too feed their Indian call centres in Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata and laugh as Muhammed and his wife Naji sleep in their big pile of money and data you spent while leaving you on hold for hours until you give up or your ear rots out. Vodafone don't care about me or you, they care about their secret master plans that they are yet to reveal while proiding the worst service to you and your families. For SHAME! Won't somebody please think of the children, please!

Wow. I am in shock. I have spent the last 2 days chasing up vodafone. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Life sometimes throws you curve-balls I know, but this one has both blown my mind, and destroyed me emotionally and physically.

It all started 2 weeks ago when i was on a vodafone plan with my former employer. I as required submitted documents requesting access to make my number available to me once i retired my work handset, and simply switch it over to a pre-paid vodafone account.

Last 2 days of my life my friends. I took the days off work. Approximately 5 hours waiting around in a vodafone retail outlet. Approximately 6 hours on call (probably 5 hours of that on hold. I know their entire playlist of music. I also realised that the traveling wilburys were actually pretty good, after hearing 'Handle With Care' about 7 times today.) Add 2 hours of travel time.

I am still calling and trying to get my problem resolved, but it is past 6pm, and all my calls are going to India. 2 of them have hung up on me tonight. Not even God can help me now.

I can not express to you enough how harrowing this experience has been. The vodafone staff in my experience are good at their jobs. It's the company infrastructure that sucks, and clearly does not act to support the customer in a professional and respectable manner.

Thanks to the boys at Vodafail Broadway. Garfield and 'the skinny one'. I feel for you, but you did a the best you could. And a special shout out to Hannah from the pre-paid team. She tried, but as expected, the system failed her. Vodafailed her. Peace out.

Marko

I just changed carriers from Optus to Vodafone. WHAT A STUPID MISTAKE!!!
I called vodafone to activate my new sim card yesterday around 6pm and they said that there system was down and I would have to call back in an hour. An hour later called back, department was closed. Called in this morning at 8:15am, Same bloody excuse system is down, call back in an hour. Now I am left without being able to make any calls!!!! I asked the lady I spoke to this morning "Kivilta" to call me when the system was back up and she became aggresive and said "NO" as she doesnt know when the system will be back up. DOES THIS MEAN WHEN I CALL IN AN HOURS TIME AND SIT ON HOLD FOR ANOTHER 20-30 MINS I AM GONNA BE TOLD TO CALL BACK IN ANOTHER HOUR. WHAT A JOKE!!!!!!!

Vodafail sends an sms when your prepaid service needs recharging. Great. But why do they always send it in the middle of the night?? Considering we have Australian numbers, it is reasonable to assume we are asleep during the night hours.

Six months ago, I compained after three of my family each received reminder sms between 2am and 4am. Vodafail apologised profusely and said they had changed their ways. My father was woken by a reminder sms at 2.45am yesterday.

I emailed a complaint today on his behalf. Received a call tonight. The caller said I needed to speak to someone else and transferred me without passing any info to that person. Explained the issue. 'You need to speak to my manager'. After being on hold for 5 mins, I hung up. Received a call later to say someone would call me back within 48 hours.

I'm amazed this crowd actually manage to switch phone calls.

Having problems with my voicemail. It's not alerting me when I have voicemails, so I don't realise they are there til weeks later. And now the last couple of voicemails I've checked, are faint and I can't hear a thing.

Now I've been on hold for 90 minutes!! Absolutely ridiculous, and Vodafone wonder why everyone hates them, sort it out!

really? someone responds to my email complaint by calling me, asking me what the problem was (that was detailed in the email) and then putting me on hold until I give up. Really?? That's the solution??

My phone seems to fluctuate between barely there reception coverage to "Searching" and then there's the "No Network" message where the little bars ought to be.
Having a Smart Phone, the ability to access a data network has become increasingly necassary with the syncing of emails, etc and yet when the coverage is switched to "Roaming", often in the CBD or close surrounds of Brisban and Sydney, I am charged more for something I would consider a standard, not a privilege.
Representatives informed me that it's the fault of the phone, not the network yet this was never mentioned AT ALL when I renewed my contract over 12 months ago.
Besides, should they not be keeping up with the changing requirements of the industry and their customers, not belitlling us and telling us nothing can be done?!
I am now undertaking measures to get myself out of my contract which has several months left but one more week with these guys is far too long!

After months of poor network coverage and signal loss whilst working in Perths CBD I have spent endless hours on hold with no results at all. I had been into stores and the sales staff said they are unable to help and they even reccommended trying a different phone carrier. I think it's time for legal action against such a uncompitant company.

I signed up with vodafone 6 months ago and did not recieve one bill, after months of tryig to contact them with my calls being dropped or me being on hold for over 45 minutes I gave up, only to recieve a text saying were cutting off your services the following week unless I immediately pay the outstanding amount. Im a year 12 student who doesnt work as of the workload at school my only income is youth allowance. I rang up vodafone to resolve this issue and instead of cutting off my services the following week they cut me off straight after the phone call mind you the guy on the phone was laughing at me when I tried to make a payment plan. Now there handing my case over to debt collecters unless i pay the full $500+ amount in the next 24 hours. I asked to speak to an ombussman and they left me on the line and told me its my responsibility to chase up a bill. I cant afford to pay the current amount neither can I afford for this to go on my credit rating. I dont know what to do?? anyone??

I rang regarding my mobile broadband. I live right in the middle of Launceston so expect that the coverage would be reasonable. However takes forever for the net to loan and over an hr for a movie. After being on hold for 40mins i finally find out my internet is going a 88kpbs for a 512k download. this is 98% lower that the average. How can they potentially sell a product that barely works in middle of a city let alone if u left the cbd. poor advertising to even sell it to me.

I recently posted about been sold a phone charger that broke my phone.

After reading many posts from others experience constant hassle with Vodafone (all of which were helpful posts), I contacted the TIO. They emailed me back within hours and told me that because it wasn't a contract problem, I need to contact consumer affairs.
I did so and was told that because I had no receipts (the gentleman on the phone was very understanding and said that he too wouldn't have kept a receipt for a phone charger) there was nothing they could do, but it was worth lodging a complaint anyway.

I did so, then contacted Vodafone. I was on hold for a surprising 7 minutes. I was first put through to sales.. "Ohh you wish to purchase a new mobile?" My response "NO I would like the mobile phone that is damaged due to your sales teams POOR product knowledge replaced.." His response "We can't do that, you need to purchase a phone." I responded with "Why should I fork out extra money when I am without a phone because of your sales team that didn't know the product they were selling.." Their response "take it up with the store.." my response "I have numerous times, and I would again, however, the store is currently undergoing renovations and it doesn't state when it will re-open.." their response "so take it up with another store. They probably won't deal with it though, because it wasn't their mistake.." I continued to keep my cool and politely asked if I could speak to a supervisor.. The CSO responded with "they can't help you either.." again politely I said "please transfer me.." and eventually he agreed.
I was transferred, held for not even 2 minutes, somebody started to speak to me then suddenly, the line went down.
I called back and went through a similar thing, but this time was told to save my money, pay off my outstanding credit and the problem would be solved and I could sign up on a contract and get a new phone.
If I could pay out my outstanding credit, I would do so in a heartbeat, however, I am unemployed and don't have the money to do so. I am however on a payment plan, so it's not like I'm not trying or just ignoring it.
I couldn't get over the tone in the mans voice.
Eventually, I hung up.. I called again and asked to be transferred to the complaints department.
The lady on the other end was SO kind and actually made me feel bad for putting in a complaint. She asked what it was about, I told her and she said that she was able to take the complaint or I could be transferred to a supervisor and he could take it. I asked to be transferred.
The supervisor, also very polite, took my complaint, said he would pass it on and if anything could be done about this, they would contact me, if not, he was sorry.
I said I highly doubted anything would be done and didn't understand how Vodafone weren't willing to fix a mistake they mad. $50 added to my bonus bank to purchase a phone that DIDN'T Work from day (a phone that is now in a tip somewhere because when I contacted them about this, all they could say was pay $50 and send you're phone off).. And $50 loyal credit also doesn't cut it for me.
Not when I'm without a phone and missing god knows how many job opportunities.

I also emailed vodafone yesterday morning after all this was over to complain.. Surprise surprise, no response.

Does anyone know of anything else I could do? Consumer Affairs have said that they don't believe they can help as there are no receipts and even though I have emails from Vodafone and myself about this, it doesn't state where the emails come from..

PLEASE HELP ME! I am so close to ripping my hair out!

3g broadband inconsistent service, always bad ping, useless support team, put in complaint on net after being on hold for to long and sent me an automated reply telling me the reasons they think caused the problem not even related and said in problem statis as 'solved', slowest website on the net, particularly bad this week dialup speed almost, asked me to resign on the new 850mhz signal thats now in my area checked coverage on their website and im nowhere near the coverage area 5km plus away, only thing about them thats good is the price but you learn thats not the truth when you start using the service

I've been a loyal Vodafone customer for 12 years. During all the network difficulties, I stuck through Vodafone & not once complained.. I constantly told people how good Vodafone were.
I went into a Vodafone Store to purchase a new phone charger for my Nokia N97. The salesman told me that they didn't have the N97 in stock, however, a Motorolla charger was exactly the same.. I purchased the charger.. I mean, a sales person is supposed to know the product they're selling right?
The charger worked on my phone for a day & then completely pushed in my socket.
I went back to the store & they told me to contact customer care because there was nothing they could do. I listened & did so. After spending over an hour on hold, my call was finally handled. After half an hour of been transferred back & forth, I was told that I needed to take my receipt into the store & get my money back..
Now, 1- I didn't care about the $20. What I cared about was the fact that I would now be without a phone, which meant I couldn't be reached, which could have resulted in missing job opportunities.. I was unemployed & only receiving Centrelink payments, so I couldn't afford to purchase a phone.
2- When somebody is working in Sales, they are supposed to have an understanding of the product they're selling. Why should I have gone without when it was Vodafone's mistake?

After a week of trying to fix the mess, I was told I could have a Nokia E63 for free. I was happy with this BUT then.. The day I received my new phone, I instantly had nothing but trouble with it. It would constantly freeze, or turn off, or at times, delete everything, like it did a reformat of some sort.
I contacted Vodafone only to be told that I wasn't covered under warranty as it was a free phone & that it would cost me to send it away.

Again, why should I fork out for Vodafone's mistakes??

I have been a loyal customer for over 12 years now. I purchase credit on a fortnightly basis.. Unfortunately, I don't qualify for a contract due to a bad credit history, so I can't even go about getting a new phone that way.

Does anybody have ANY suggestions as to what I can do to actually get a phone that works?
I tried my luck with Vodafone & asked for an iphone, the refused.. I asked to go on a payment plan for an iphone, again, they refused..
So if anybody has any ideas, it would be much appreciated.

Oh & I left out the best part.. Originally, Vodafone offered to fix my N97.. Something I was satisfied with. When I explained I purchased it from a friend of a friend, they asked what Network the phone was originally locked to. When I answered with Optus, they wanted nothing more to do with it & said that it couldn't be done..
I thought Vodafone would appreciate the fact that I'd actually unlocked a phone so I could continue using my Vodafone simcare.. $80 down the drain..

Vodafone claim to be huge on Customer Loyalty, to care so highly.. Well Vodafone, where's the customer loyalty for someone who has been loyal to you for over 12 years & to somebody who is now left without due to YOUR mistakes..

Lara the automatic vodafone msg voice is so sensitive to noise my sister watching tv in the other room was confusing her and making her stutter and tell me who hadn't even said anything yet to say it again and more clearly. she was sending me in circles for 45 min until she finally put me on hold to talk to someone. i then had to wate for 35 min to talk to someone.

Tried to get an unlocking code for my vodafone phone. Rang and sat on hold for more than 15 minutes, was finally told that I had an unusual phone and that they would calculate the code and send an txt in the next few days. Needless to say, I never received the message and now have to start all over again. Probably cheaper to buy an unlocked phone as it is not in their interest to unlock mine.

I usually live in Medina WA 6167. My reception there is highly variable, and is at times completely non-existent.

I am currently on a 4-week placement up in Port Hedland WA 6721. Up here it is diabolical. I get a few bars reception in 30 second bursts. Phone calls are out of the question. I get by by writing SMSes and then waiting for at least 1 bar to come up before I press send. Sometimes it works, sometimes I have to resend. And how does Vodafail want me to complain? Give them a call on 1555 and wait on hold. Yeah right. That ain't gonna work.

As soon as I get back to Perth this 16 year relationship is coming to an end.

I have been avoiding Telstra for years as a protest to privatisation and later to the work practices of Sol Trujillo. However, Sol's gone now and my flatmates are with Telstra and have no issues at all. It's gonna be the Big T for me.

I'll try not to come across as racist because I am far from it and I'm sure it's been said many times before. The Vodafone call centre is beyond a joke. I have been in contract with the company for 2 years now and have called them for a range of issues as I understand many things cannot be done in a retail store. Almost every time it is as if I am speaking to somebody with zero knowledge of their own product and absolutely no care for their customers. I have been rudely told the words "bad luck" when one of the call centre staff obviously had no interest in helping me when I had been misinformed.

I make sure to speak clearly, slowly and explain my requests or issues in a way that cannot be misunderstood. I am faced with advisors trying to transfer me to other departments (often an incorrect department who then transfer me again and again whilst I have to re-explain everything each time), putting me on hold for upwards of 15 minutes and even disconnecting the call.

I have had staff listen to my entire issue, put me on hold, then come back onto the phone after a long period and ask "so what is it you would like me to do for you" or even come back with a resolution for something entirely different to what I had just explained. It is as if they are reading from a script. Aren't they supposed to be the experts? Even I seem to know more than they do as a consumer!

Then last week I upgraded my phone. I was going to do this in a store but they were out of stock so I had the unfortunate circumstance of having to do this over the phone. I was transferred to an Australian department. They were incredible! They understood everything and it was completed in minutes. They were friendly and didn't sound like robots.

So is the solution to move the call centres back to Australia? Not necessarily, but I think there needs to be a much higher level of training in India and the culture of caring for customers needs to be drilled into their heads. I don't know how they treat consumers in their own country but it certainly isn't the standard here.

IT Professional running a consultancy from my home office in MArmion, 6020.
Phone switches from No Service, to no bars, to a few, to 4 bars, to no service.
Calls drop out, fail, go silent, go staticy o noccaision and generally is not reliable at all. I find being outside has a slight improvement at best.

So my phone, which I run my business from, is not reliable and is unable to be used for long calls for anything that requires me to be on hold. Which between the ATO, my ISP, my service wholesalers, my equipment wholesalers, my clients, my employees, my subcontractors is actually rather often.

I pay $99 a month for an unlimited cap, with an iPhone 3GS 32gb. Not pleased.
Thinking of switching to Telstra. As an IT professional, I loathe dealign wiht Telstra. But their network is unbeatable.

$1billion in new towers and upgrades over the next few months. Checked their site. TWO out of 184 new towers are in WA. TWO. Beaconsfield and Midland, both over 75km from me.

I am sick of vodaphone. My calls are constantly doping out of reception and failing half way through calls. I was on hold for 1.5 hours to another company and my call just failed. Half of the time I can not send txts nor receive them, It takes forever to retrieve my voice mails and not to mention the personal info of its customers being leaked on the net in January including names, addresses and credit card details. This is an outrage. I currently have 18 months left on my contract and am desperately wanting to be released from it. I will even give my iphone 4 back. There has got to be a security breach from them. Is there anyone out there who has been released from there contract that can give me any info on how to get out of mine????

On Xmas Eve last year, Voda debited over $600.00 from my account for no reason. Took me 3 weeks to get it back over the holiday period. No explanation, no apology, no communication at all. Now, last week, they've taken $1049.00 from my account. No reason, I only owe them $23! Nobody can help me, they deny having received the money and insist I dont owe them that amount!! YES, I know I dont owe you the money so give it back! Nobody in India or Australia cares. I sent them my bank statement and guess what...they deny receiving it so I have to send it again. With 3 kids, a mortgage and about $100.00 left in my account I'm struggling. THEY DONT CARE!! If you are stuck in a contract with this hapless company, DO NOT SIGN A DIRECT DEBIT AUTHORITY! They've taken over $1600.00 from my account with no explanation. And yes, I'm still on hold!!

network outage in wa this morning and on hold for half an hour
rang vodafone they have noooo idea whatsover when itll be back on. i asked the guy so nobody in the entire company knows at all-his answer was no.
i think not....cannot stand them!!

I had been charged for services not asked for,charged for late fees on already paid bills which i had invoices for. Service was disconected for alledgedly unpaid bills,service unavailable after paying bill. Placed on hold for extended periods yada,yada,yada...Not porting number for 2 weeks when trying to escape, considering I wasn't even a vodafail customer to begin with !!
Didn't experience problems with "3" until they were consumed by these unethical bastards !!

On hold? My phone has been ringing for 22 minutes without even Lara picking it up. Aaarrgghhhh

I switched from telstra to vodafone, bad mistake!
everytime i make an international call there is a 3 second delay on the line. I have no problems receiving calls from international numbers. I have contacted vodafone on several occassions for which they have told me there is no delay, never has been, never had a complaint about this at all. They have told me it is my phone so we change some settings on my phone...i make an international call and nothing changes. truth is they use cheap lines (or whatever they are) to call overseas so you get the delay. They still manage to charge huge rates for this...better off with telstra.
i found their customer service EXTREMELY rude and patronising. I tried emailing them as i was on hold for too long as well, they replied by saying that my case was closed and to stop contacting them!!!!!
great
i never thought I would say telstra was good, but after being with vodafone i will gladly go back to telstra!

I live in Huntingdale, WA and my IPhone keeps loosing 3G signal and switching back to the Edge network every few min, sometimes all day i dont have any 3G signal, and when i do have it it is very slow! I have tryed callign there customer service to complain but gave up after 45 min on hold TWICE!, there web site says i should have excellent coverage and im only 14KM from the CBD in the middle of surburbia!! Now i cant change to Telstra because im locked in a stupid 24 month contract.... I will never go with vodafone again!!

1. Constant bad handling -delayed-of text or mms messaging, could result in life or death situation for certain people as unreliable service frustrates information handling. medical or emergency services cannot be contacted in many instances- disabled people need phones and access to!
2. Poor reception- inability to continue or make calls in my location- constant dropouts
3. Very poor wait time for customer service assistance (unbearably long)
4. Rubbish broadband on wireless modem.
5. No follow up for plan-holders with offers on replacement handsets- they do wear out!- what happened?
6. Constantly being badgered to sign again for plans just to get new handset- staff at shops do not understand- we already are customers, and simply want newer handsets not new numbers or plans! pre-pay or existing we only want access to current model handsets - is that too hard?
7. Wait time in most Voda-shops is ridiculous- am i invisible?

Just had another period of "wont send an SMS for no apparent reason". Sick and tired of constant issues with vodafail. Every day I get "unable to connect to network" messages, despite my reception indicator being mid to high. Most notable was having an issue where my voicemail was out by an hour during daylight savings, and despite me telling 3 different tech support agents exactly what setting they had to adjust for me (having worked for another telco provider earlier in my career I could tell them the Home MSA needed to be corrected from Sydney to Brisbane) they insisted that it was my iphone causing the issue, talking me through the settings twice (once again despite me advising this had already been done by the previous person and found to be useless). I submitted two complaints via the website, the second of which asked for a supervisor to contact me as I was getting nowhere, and had both closed asking me to call, despite there being wait times of over an hour on the helpdesk. Considering I am in the market to upgrade both my wifes and my phones at present, voda is doing everything in their power to push me to another carrier. Very Very disgruntled customer.

Vodafone has the worst customer service I have ever come accross. if you go into a store it takes forever to get served and half the time they cant help you anyway. Many, many times I rang vodafone for assistance only to be put on hold for ages at a time or transfered endlessly from one person to another, each time having to explain my problem and then be told "I cant help you, I'll just put you through to some one else." Another issue with vodafone's customer service is that 'Lara' freak you have to talk to at the start - what happened to having a real person?? Why would anyone want to speak to a machine??

I could go on forever about vodafone's terrible customer service, but it just makes me angry thinking about it. For the rest of my life I will never, ever use vodafone again - they are completely useless and a joke of a business

Vodafone used to send me email bills which I could pay online. When my credit card details changed their website never let me change the card details, when I logged on and filled out the information it would not go past the save details page. Then, when I tried to pay on their website it would do the same thing. This made it difficult to pay my bill as I had to do each one by Bpay instead of direct debit. When I got my final bill and tried to pay it via Bpay the payment was repeatedly rejected beacause I apparently no longer had an account with vodafone. I tried many times to pay the bill and in many different ways (credit, bpay etc). Whenever I called to get help I was put on hold for ever and when I went into the shops they were unable to help. In the end I managed to sort it out, but it took forever and I was never offered any help from vodafone to solve the problem. Now that that contract is finished I will never, ever, under any circumstances use vodafone again. They are a complete nightmare to deal with.

Dear Vodafone/3,
I would like to say I hate you and your staff at the 3 fountain gate stores which served me today. The first store told me the second had one on hold for me, the second had no idea what I was on about when I told them what the first said, and the third was downright rude. I also do love waiting in lines for 30 minutes and when visiting the third store I was told this store doesn't have that and then turning their back on me.
Then customer care releases my call twice! Third time I ring back, he offers me that I can buy the cheapest handset available and they will credit the amount to my account. I then said that does not make use of what I am paying for does it, and he had nothing to say. Fair to say Im angry.

calls drop out, takes ages to connect, mobile internet doesnot work properly very slow sometimes wont connect. have the wizbanging htc desire hd but cannot use it to its full potential due to the very substandard non existant vodafail service being provided. and dont think about ringing up and complaining you will run out of battery while on hold for the rest of your life. have now unlocked handset and running telstra sim when cannot acess network.

Trying to cancel my mobile Internet contract since it barely works (unless I stand with my computer near my upstairs window at 4am in the morning) and I basically haven't used it for a year as I'm overseas. The team that links to the international number can't cancel the contract - I have to get put through to special people. Been put on hold so long that I give up eventually, now I've gone over the date for closing the contract and will have to pay an extra month for not cancelling it early enough. Vodafail.

Well I can't talk in my house without the mobile dropping out. I was just on hold to my bank with a ten minute wait for service and it dropped out on me. So I had to use the landline phone - and presto! Another ten minute wait (plus I was now charged for the call!) Twice if you count the call coast Vodafone would take!

had 3 work mobiles and internet cut off (it took over 24 hours and far too long on the phone to sort it out) all through no fault of my own

Im stuck on a Vodafone plan for another 20 months and thanks to Vodafone's lack of coverage in the Metro Area I've now had to result to using payphones.
I continually post horrible messages about vodafone on facebook because I'm absolutely DISGUSTED with their ability to charge ontime, compensate no-one and keep customers like me on hold for EVERYTHING!
I urge you to do the same

DISGRACEUL SERVICE ONE HOUR TWENTY MINUTES ON HOLD THEN HUNG UP ON
VODAHONE SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN AND ALL EXCUTIVES JAILED FOR LIFE THREAT THEM AS THE CRIMINALS THEY ARE OUT RIGHT THIEVES FAILING TO PROVIDE A FAIR SERVICE VODAFAIL IS THE CORRECT NAME FOR SUCH A SHAMEFULL COMPANY

Stupidly I join vodafail for internet and phone service. I AM DISGUSTED with the substandard service and VERY ANGRY AT THE WAITING FOR VODAFAIL TO ANSWER THE PHONE ONE HOUR TWENTY MINUTES ON HOLD AT THE WORST DISGRACEFUL AND THE THIRD WORLD ANSWERING SERVICE THAT DISCONNECT U IF U GET ANGRY OR SAY THE SLIGHTEST THING THE INDIAN STAFF DON'T LIKE VODAFAIL SUCKS CAN'T BE TRUSTED OR RELIED UPON FOR A BASIC SERVICES. VODAPHONE SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN AND SUED BY CLASS ACTION DID I MENTION HOW MUCH VINAPHONE SUCKS. THE WORST BUSINESS IN AUSTRALIA IS VODAPHONE

What a debacle. I've been using Vodafone for ~8 years, and have weathered a few storms with them, however nothing as seriously bad as the last 6 months. Dropped calls, fluctuating reception, poor SMS performance. 3G internet performance is a joke; its so flaky regardless of how many bars are displayed on the phone. Being disgruntled, and then running into a non-functioning billing service is pretty much the last straw. I can't even pay my (quite excessive, given the lack of actual service) bill due to 1555 and their website both refusing to accept payment after long wait times and filling out tedious forms.

I will be moving over to Telstra. They might be more expensive, however at least I will be getting what I pay for.

Where do I begin...
When I got my phone upgraded I turned it on only to have photo's of someone posing in front of a mirror and text messages and call log and it was sold to me as a new phone, I took it back and they only replaced the phone, I asked about how do I know that the head phones havent been used and was told that they will only replace the phone with out an appolgy and more like tough **** now go away, then the next saga was about billing... I was getting charged for something that I had no idea what it was, after calling a few times and being on hold for over 1 hour I was advised the best they could do was reimburse me $50 the amount that they have charged me for is over $300 I could go on with so many other complaints but it would take up to many pages....

I sent a complaint via email to Vodaphone on Sunday afternoon regarding the issues that I was having with sending text messages. I tried calling as well but after being on hold for 40 mins I decided to give the web a shot.

Firstly, I did not have access to my laptop at the time so I logged on to Safari on my Iphone, typed in www.vodafone.com.au - this did not take me directly to their normal webpage but instead to some other vodafone site that I guess was made specifically for mobiles.... it was useless, at this point I didnt want to read about the latest football scores or what not, but there was nothing on this site about how to contact vodafone, there was also nothing on this site about the issue with the network... This was probably at around 4.00pm that I was looking at the site, an hour or something after the issue began. There was a small link down the bottom of the page that read 'full site' I clicked on it and it took me to the normal vodafone website. Whilst I was happy with this, I wasted a considerable amount of time trying to find the email function.

I sent an email asking what was happening and that I was sick of the constant issues that I was having with my network and asked for information about how to get out of my contract possibily without fees being incurred. I basically had a bit of a vent as well about how frustrating this company is to deal with.

I got an automated response that must have just picked out the part about wanting out of my contract. the information was useless to me and didn't really answer my enquiry, so I sent a response back saying that they had failed to answer my questions. About 5 mins later I received another email back that was basically from whoever the poor person was that was answering all of the emails that was basically a cut and paste spiel about yes, they have identified the issue and are in the process of resolving it..... Yet again they failed to answer my enquiries.... so I gave up.

When signing up my initial contract with Voda, I debated whether to go with $99 or $149 cap. Was told by phone staff - 'Go with the $149 cap as you can always make it lower if you would like.' 100% direct quote! Two months later, I go into my Voda store to have my cap lowered as $149 is proving WAY too much. Girl says "no worries" and I leave happy. Next bill arrives at just under $2000 - I clearly freak out and call Voda who tell me that is my payout fee. The girl at the store CANCELLED my contract, restarting me on the $99 one, rather than changing it. I am then told that you are NOT ALLOWED to change cap value within contract and there is "no chance you would have been told that by phone salesman," practically calling me a liar. Fortunately, much hassle and time on hold later, the cost of paying my contract out is waved, BUT they would not allow me to switch back down to $99, meaning I had to stay on the $149 cap, which was way too much for me, for another 24 months.

were to begin...
i have been with vodafone for almost 8 years now and i have never had a problem with my pre-paid account which i just top up every 3 or so months. but it was late last year when one of the 'brain dead idiots' at vodafone thought hmm we aren't making enough money so we will merge with 3 change everything on the computers make LARA 250% more annoying make all calls to customer care go to some indian guy who doesn't understand a thing make you wait on hold for at least an hour then hang up on you (yes hang up, i am one of the lucky ones in geelong who actually has reception 90% of the time) transfer you 101 times only to be transfered to the nokia support centre and finally back to lara who says "we are unable to help you with your call today please try calling your local vodafone store" *calls local vodafone store* sorry we don't have anyone here in store to help you at the moment call 1555 where lara can help you.
do i need to keep going.... ??? vodafone stop being gready and go back to the way you were 3/4 years ago where everything worked.

The single most worst mistake i have ever made in my life.I never should of left telstra. I can't stand VODAFONE. I hate my phone. My boss hates my phone, my family hates my phone & my friends hate my phone.Drop out, drop out again, drop out. I live 2 and a half minutes walk from the centre of town in the suberb Boronia in melbourne the 2nd biggest city in Australia and i have 0 to 1 bar of coverage all the ------- time on my phone.Pockit wifi just as bad. You have lied and fooled everyone with your faulty advertisements and are selling a product that is not even real and with not enough infustructure installed to supply what your selling and i no cause i install dishes and phone pannels around melbourne and i should have known better. Im a fool for not doing my homework, lesson lernt.I spent 1 and half hrs on hold from custumer service and still diddnt talk to a person had to hang up cause phone went flat and i was furious.All summer the adds were on tv every add break they could get on, selling the test cricket live on vodafone (vodafail) for just a coupple of dollars and had Micheal Johnson and some players on the add having a great time using there phones and i thought that would be a cool idea to watch cricket on my phone so i went and got one.It never happened cause of the scam. They used the australian cricket team to sell there product to the genuine and honest viewers of Australia and we feel RIPPED OFF!!!!!Spent 4 weeks without a phone at christmass in mildura, country victoria a town with 60,000 plus people.Hopeless, unless u sleep in the gutter in the main street in a certain place. Come on this is 2011 not the ice age.REFUND!!

so i have been with vodafone for just over year i sign up with them first with my phone and then with a internet contract so now since last year in OCT 2010 i have had nothing but problem first with not be able to call out then not being able to text then not getting my voicemall. Then in OCT 2010 i had to cancell my internet with them because i had nothing but trouble getting any range no i haven't move since i got the contracts i'm still in the same area but even after a number of calls to them they still don't do anything all they do is put me on hold. WELL VODOFAIL AGAINa

Was on hold at the call centre for an hour and a quarter

The hand set they gave me has had nothing but problems , internet only works when it wants to , have to reload some pages , calls drop out , most of the time doesnt let me call , poor reception all the time , emailed a few complaints and no replys back , was on hold for ages and they seem to diverted my calls to some other place , right now i cant get on the internet no pages will load , cant even clear privacy data , and my fiance phone wont even let him send text messages , and poor reception as well, so over it going to change when my contract is up

not in this mess anymore thankfully. Crazy Johns contract and once home with new phone could not get any reception in area that says on coverage map should have full coverage.
spent several hours on hold and talking to a brick wall (Call centre full of indians) and the final result.....you will have to pay full termination fees of about $900.
Tip: contact your crazy johns store and speak with the manager there. They were very helpful in the end and had contract terminated for me. Be assertive and request/demand things be done.

I don't know whether it has anything to do with Vodafone joining with 3 (which I left because of hopeless reception to go to Vodafone) but, where I used to receive reception at my house and at work, not any more. That's just the phone, internet is hopeless. I've never managed to speak to anyone at customer support because I've been on hold for so long and had other obligations that don't allow me to wait on a phone indefinitely. don't know what to do

i have a iphone on 3 prepaid and trhey are with vodafone
its always roming (when it gets reception i cant get it in my house
its really bad because they charge you for stuff you dont do
i have been on hold for 6 hours once
terrible
im moving when i get the chance

I recently complained about my service levels... Now I used to live in Bacchus Marsh and used to get OK 3G reception... I moved to Southbank 3 months ago and I have no more than 1 bar of reception in my apartment or at my work on Flinders Lane, Melbourne... Frustrating!!! When I spoke to customer care and was informed the following... That A - My last bill was going to be credited onto my account and B - I would receive 25% off my next 3 months bills... I was feeling good again.. Now a month later I received my bill and well firstly i was still being charged for the previous month, secondly the 25% had not been applied and thirdly I had been charged for international calls... Ummm as far as i know to make international calls you need to know people international... I was really annoyed so I called them back to speak to them... All they said to me was that because the notes on the system did not state the A option I was not entitled to this.. I said that I do not think that it was fair that I was paying for a service that I was not getting... The customer service team then said to me that because it was the technical team that I spoke to on the first call that they would need to call me back in 20 minutes after speaking to the tech team..... 7.5 hours later they called me back and said the same thing that because the notes did not state that I was having a bill waivered that i was not entitled to it... I also asked about the international calls and was advised that i would still have to pay for them... I asked to speak to the team leader and was told that was pointless as i would be told the same thing.. She also stated that the team leader was in a meeting.. I said i was willing to wait for them... She can back after 20 minutes on hold and said that the 25% discount was being applied and that the last months bill was being waivered but would still have to pay for international calls... I said fine I will call the TIC

my illiterate father signed a $49 a month 2 year contract with vodashit he has never used all of the monthly credit yet he has an apparent bill for $700 even though he has never missed his monthly payments once from his bank account, I have spend numerous hours on the phone to vodafone and after going through everything with one customer support and them pretending to sort out the bill they put me through to another section to have the phone unbarred it starts all over again and this is after being on hold with them for hours only to have to start all over again with another section and on top of that the reception is pathetic.
I have forwarded my complaint to the ombudsman they are a bad phone company

SHIT RECEPTION..they are a mobile phone company who fuck about with prices plans bundles and all that shit and they have a web based email which keeps on fucking up.............. been with these twats for too long now time to pull the plug as their customer service is crap too like so many companies these days fuck off vodafone the future is not bright with your cunts around! CUNTS!!!

Tomorrow I plan to buy the shittest phone I can find, a phone so shit that any would be mugger will laugh and hand it back.

I constantly have my phone dropping out. I can never ever get reception at uni (I go to the University of Wollongong so not a rural area or anything at all). I don't receive voicemails until DAYS after they were sent. Text messages are sometimes delayed by hours. When I call customer service, I am transfered to several different people, on hold for hours, and the phone usually cuts out several times. Reception disapears for no reason.

In short, Vodafone is the biggest joke of a company! They need to compensate their customers, but we all know they won't do that. As long as their CEO's have their money to roll around in, they don't care that they are ripping their customers off!

where to start, the whole thing is jsut a failure, shit phones, no reception and a call centre with no one who understands english... ohhhh not to mention vodafone and 3 stores who cant help you, they just ask you to call the customer care line to be put on hold so that your battery dies before they speak to you

I have been with Voda since 2000 and have experienced pretty much all of the issues suggested - dropped calls (often 3-4 times in the one conversation), wrong bills, on hold for an hour, hopeless customer service (I am meant to have an account manager - they keep quitting !) and don't get me started about Lara (who they don;t program to recognise "shut the F up").

How do I get out of the contract that is due to expire in Sept ? I think 11 years is enough loyalty to get an exit bonus (or is that bonus exit ?)! If I have to keep a log of all the issues from now on it will only make me worse.

Cheers

My Vodaphone mobile keeps dropping out within the first 2minutes of a phone call no madder who I'm calling or what network the other person is on and my location doesn't seem to be the problem either as is just started happening 1week ago. Was on hold to VHA's customerservice for 65min but then gave up, but realized latter that I need the problem fixed urgently as it's now affecting my job, still on hold again with VHA customerservice and it being 60min! I'm changing networks ASAP, not happy Vodaphone!

Had a problem in that Vodafone was repeatedly emailing to advise that the attempt to auto recharge my account failed. Twice a day, nearly every day for many months. They were trying to bill me for someone elses account on an old credit card number of mine that had been expired for nearly 2 years.

I rang them over a six month period at least twice a month. ON HOLD TIME was never less than 45 minutes.

Every time I spoke to them in their Malaysian call centre after getting on to someone whos accent was capabale of being understood, was promised that the problem was fixed.

So finally after MORE THAN 14 HOURS on hold and talking to people with a poor understanding of English, I got to speak to one of their supervisors, a lady named Magna, who helped finally fix it.

Yea!

Curiously enough I have never had a coverage problem with Vodafone, but vodafones customer service is pure crap.

Signed up Vodafone 24 month contract 5 months ago, reception at home is fine, however when out and mobile, have very unreliable connection and in particular with mobile interet access from my phone or when tethered. Have about 10 minutes connection at best whilst on 1 hour train trip to/from Brisbane CBD on caboolture line. Frustrating, also call drop out often when out and about and only about 70% coverage, often having to walk outside or move to higher ground to get reception. Currently on hold for over 75 minutes to Vodafone customer service and about to hang up.

Tried to contact customer care, on hold for 1 hour 45 minutes before my battery died.

Quite simple really,



Like ANY company you will get the good, the bad, the ugly and sadly like all call centers there will be customers falling through the cracks. This is a disgusting display of human hatred and lack of understanding. I am not going to say 'toughen up' I am going to instead say the simple logical process.


1. If it doesn't work investigate and DON'T expect to get an answer if YOU created the problem (e.g. installed harmful progs/applications on your system/experienced a power outage etc) They are NOT technicians for PC hardware in that sense.

2. If you haven't paid your bill THIS IS YOUR FAULT you signed the contract to pay so much and YOU asked for the service. Getting anrgy and upset it has been restricted or rarely CUT OFF will get you nowhere! Please accept responsibility.

3. If you can't speak english GET HELP or ASK AROUND. Simple if you live in New Zealand and Australia WHAT DO YOU EXPECT an international language center just for you NO this does not even apply in your own country

4. If you have a bad experience place feedback believe me it will get to the right person if you explain this LIKE A HUMAN

5. LISTEN to advice and try YOURSELF to create a contructive call flow simple aye ;/

6. To add above work WITH the agent not AGAINST think about how you would like to be treated and spoken to.

7. Understand things take time and like all business not every system is perfect hence some years are great and others are bad.

8. THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! PLEASE PREPARE YOUR INFORMATION!!! If it doesn't work why doesn't it work, what can you see, what did you do before the issue it's simple people. If you made a payment and it has NOT shown up then find out where you paid it to. If the service for broadband work but then stops suddenly what are the lights doing? What happened to you're computer? What did you do differently? THIS HELPS!

9. IS IT THE PROVIDERS FAULT YOU WILL LOOSE MONEY ON THE BUSINESS NO!!! Unless this is a BUSINESS account then you will not get any sympathy nor will this speed up ANY process. The only time something can be speed up is when their is a LEGIT MEDICAL REASON AND YES provide evidence! PEOPLE LIE to get what they want thats why they need it!!! Plus most Terms and Conditions will say it is NOT ALLOWED to have a business account on a residential account.


10. DO NOT call through and expect credit for something like an ENTIRE MONTH that is unfair especially if you have only had 1 issue that took a day to resolve. Any compensation is good compensation people.


11. Lastly posting experience that you have on this website is horrible to read and terrible to discuss. It great voice an opinion on a forum/chat blog but to go as far as coverage/how to guides/alternative/what you got/how long you were on hold is disgusting. Please take a look youself to see if you helped or made the situation WORSE in most cases because YOU were impatient you rushed a process that needed time to complete like MOST things in life.

If you have a good experience with someone please call through and ask for them again have you tried this?


I know I am going to get the hate speech after this post but hey I too have had terrible customer service but I don't make a website about it. I simply brush it off but also provide CONSTRUCTIVE feedback to the company providing the services.

Vodafone changed my voice mail security pin without my knowledge. I called the customer service line and was put on hold for 5 hours before being told that they where not sure as to what the problem was. I finally went to the vodafone store, where the best they could do after 2 hours was disable my voice mail completely.

So now instead of voice mail I cannot access, I simply have no voice mail.

Along with this issue, the signal is flakey at best. Trying to use the 3G connection on my phone to access online banking took 45 minutes. As everytime I passed the security pages, the signal would drop and I would have to start from step 1.

Have been with Vodafone since about 2003.

Almost on a daily basis i have no coverage, calls dropping out, not being able to send a text.

The internet coverage is so erratic that there is no way i can trust it. With no regards to how much coverage i have the internet either just doesn't work, has extremely low speeds or is brilliant. At work i sit in the same seat and throughout the day my coverage varies and my internet goes from super quick to non-existant.

I can not remember the last time i've had full coverage, usually two or three bars while others with the exact same phone but different network have perfect, full coverage.

My vodafone mobile broadband stick also has the same issues, works perfectly then just stops for no reason.

I have tried on many occassions to contact vodafone through their customer service phone number, but i have waited for over an hour on hold only to have my call drop out, and have not yet been contacted by Vodafone regardless of me using the 'call back' system.

I had a contract with Vodafone NZ, which i cancelled back in September 2010 (three months after i left NZ). I gave the operator my new address and phone numbers and asked that any remaining bills and fees please be forwarded to me and i would be happy to pay them as i was breaking contract. Last week i received an email from a NZ Debt Collector saying that despite many letters sent to me by both them and Vodafone NZ i haven't paid my overdue fee and if i didn't pay it within a week i would be listed as a debtor in N.Z. AND Australia!
If they had my email all along why didn't they contact me in regards to this earlier, now i have to pay $80 more fees and have a worse credit rating.

VODAFONE, I CAN NOT BE MORE UNHAPPY WITH YOUR SERVICE IN ALL ASPECTS, NOTHING YOU DO HAS MADE ME A HAPPY CUSTOMER AND I BELIEVE, THROUGH MY 8 YEARS OF BEING A CUSTOMER, I HAVE EARNED THE RIGHT TO HAVE MY CONTRACTS CANCELLED AND MY PHONE UNLOCKED

After recent issues with vodafone involving billing, coverage and service complaints I recently was persuaded to stay with vodafone due to a new contract and handset mistakenly I accepted. Since then I have spoken to vodafone on eight days out of the last thirteen from 1 hr 40 min a day to 4hrs 56 min trying to resolve billing issues. During this time I have been told that I owe various amounts of money have been severely charged for services that I have not used and been denied the ability to check my current usage. As I write this I have been on hold for 1 hr 31 mins.

I cant send sms 24/4/11 5.20pm
rang 1555 and was placed on hold-20 min then I gave up
not happy Jan

I wish Vodafone would let me send a message... just once. They suck completely. I hate being on hold for forever, I wish I could go to another service but I can't be bothered paying out the contract. Screw you, Vodafail...

24/04/2011: Started having issues with sending & receiving SMS at 3:30pm tried taking enable 3G off then turned my phone off & back on again. Still not able to send a message so i tried calling vodafone 2 times once at 3:58pm & 4:01 After being on hold too them for a few minutes a robot/IVR came on the phone asking me what my trouble was i then said sms issues, the robot then said to me oops looks like we have a technical problem ill have to hang up & proceeded to disconnect the call.... WFT? this happened on both calls i made!

I'm on the $49 cap and only getting the usage and data for the $39 cap, and have been for 3 months without me noticing. Called Vodafone and waited for THREE HOURS of being reassured by Lara that my call would be answered soon, and being told to 'hang in there', eventually got to talk to an arrogant representative that spoke very broken English and could not understand the issue, after which I asked to be transferred to his supervisor who then after another 20 minutes of being on hold eventually fixed the problem, and after I arguing with the man for 10 minutes he reluctantly gave me 5 months free.

Why can't Vodafone simply PUT MORE CUSTOMER service agents on the phones! Every time you call in with an issue (and there are many issues), the wait time is INSANE! I've been waiting for 1 hour 40 minutes and still on hold being told "won't be too much longer"....
Vodafone Managament, you are pathetic!
If you really want to improve customer service - PUT MORE AGENTS ON THE PHONES! It is not rocket science.

In the period of time that Vodafone had announced that they were having issues with coverage, mobile internet and over charging customers, I recieved a bill for $567. This is 5 times more than I had ever recieved before and I have been with Vodafail for roughly 30 months. I tried to get this sorted out as it was publically known that they were a complete shambles with their phone services. I recieved a... "$200" credit..? For a bill still 3 times more than it would normally been in the time vodafail had said they had issues? That was apparently the best they could do. I rang them back today and tried to organise a payment plan. I offered to pay $250 right then and there to keep my phone unbarred over easter. That apparently wasn't enough. I was supposed to pay $377 which was out of my means. I then asked to speak to her manager, a rather useful fellow that suggested I needed to speak with the relevant department regarding my reception and phone issues. He very nicely transferred me to the next department saying that he will advise the person as to the situation so we could get it sorted out. (I was a bit shocked at that point) After being transferred, I had to tell that person the SAME thing again. She said she would ring me back in an hour. I waited an hour, she got back to me and pretty much called me a liar saying that I hadn't spoken to anyone else before her EVEN THOUGH I was transferred to her by a supervisor. She then placed me on hold for about 10 minutes to find out more, after getting back from the hold, she transferred me to someone else that AGAIN asked me to tell them the same story. At that point I was beyond frustrated and gave the guy a piece of my mind. He repeatedly told me that there was -NO- notes made about this job and I had to explain it all to him because he didnt know what was going on. I explained it AGAIN, the option he gave me was to sort out a payment arrangement or a payment extension which wasn't what I rang them for. He then presented me the option with speaking to Customer Service if I believed that I was eligible for some kind of compensation. (I also brought up the public announcement of the problems with Vodafone and the buffoon I was talking to said he didn't know anything about it even though it's posted on Vodafail's website) I picked the option of being transferred to Customer Service to YET AGAIN explain my situation. And here it comes, the icing on the cake. I'm mid-way through explaining this all to the Customer "Service" representative, and I notice that the phone goes rather quite. AND TRUE TO AMAZING SERVICE BY VODAFONE, the call drops and they dont ring me back.

Called Vodafone a month ago. They formally agreed over the phone to my demand that 2 bills be waived and a 50% discount for 3 months of bills due to all of the issues..........NOW.....got a phone call saying that my account is overdue!

Called Vodafone to find out why, and they seem to have no record of it!!!!

Guess I'm going on hold for another hour.......

I signed up with vodafone because i in England (where i am from) they have a good reputation. The main reason i signed up with them was the free calls to 3 and voda, which was useful because my girlfriend and a few others are with them. 5 months later and many over charged bills, dropped out phonecalls, no or very very slow internet, 25 plus waits in the voda shop, long waits on hold followed by awful customer service and generally a great deal of stress, i have had enough.
There have been no benifits whatsoever to being with vodafone and with my latest bill being double what it should be from going over my cap on its last day by trying to talk to my bank about problem i had with bill payments which were not my fault has given me yet another reason to leave them.
Also charging us to listen to our voicemail because we dont have the signal to answer the original call? Its ridiculous!
I support vodafail 110% of the way.
Aaron

Have paid my bill via the internet, credit card has been charged but no receipt number has been forthcoming. Spoke to Lara who told me to call back tomorrow. Managed to get through to the call centre who put me on hold before informing me that they were unable to tell me if the bill had been paid and advised me to wait for 24 hours. Have now reached the point of no return.

Question - How do I get out of my mobile contract, billing problems and poor reception are a nightmare.

I have been on prepay for 7 years without much difficulty.
I changed to postpay because I thought I would get better value for data with my own (paid outright) iphone.

I went to North America for two weeks, barely used my phone (I am aware of avoiding data roaming charges etc), and instead used my hotel wifi and skype to make calls. I have previously traveled with prepay at very little cost.

On return I was informed I had a charge of close to $300.
I spent over an hour on hold to find out how these charges added up. I was told that they could not help me as the invoice had not been generated yet. I stated I wanted to go back to prepay as these charges were obscene.
They told me that if I stayed with postpay they would reduce the charges by half, and advised me to call back on a certain date once the invoice was generated to discuss the charges.

I am a doctor, and one day while on call, my phone just stopped working.
They had put a bar on it, and had not forewarned me or sent me any kind of text/correspondance that they would do this.
I had to leave my work on a very busy day to go to the vodophone shop across the street to get my phone unbarred. Again, being on hold for a very long time.
While I was on hold, I changed over to Virgin.

As a doctor on call, I needed my phone and was horrified that Vodophone had done this to my phone without warning.

Changing to post pay, this incident and moving to another carrier occured within only four weeks.
They have not provided any rational explanation for their actions, or apologised. And have just invoiced me for $290. I have never had to pay such a large cost for my mobile phone in all my years of usage.

Long story is long.

I only switched to Vodaphone around a month ago. I had started having problems with Three (bad data coverage, late SMS delivery - or no SMS delivery at all, a monthly bill that seemed to be a rip off in comparison to the mobile contracts of my peers etc etc) and after two ranty calls to Three customer care, a nice man from Three called me at seven am on a Saturday, apropos of nothing, to offer me A DEAL.

And because I am a sucker, I took it - despite a chorus of my well informed friends screeching "NO! NO! VODAPHONE IS THE DEVIL!" at me. And despite the fact that I knew, in my heart of hearts, that the problems I was experiencing with three (excluding the rip-off plan I was on) were probably linked to the merge with vodaphone.

They lulled me with their siren song of opting out of my contract, a brand new handset, and zero cancellation fees. And now they have me right where they want me: on a 24 month $45 infinite plan, with $10 handset repayments every bill.

At first it wasn't so bad. I did notice some patchy connectivity, especially with data coverage, but it didn't really cause me any major inconvinience. I am not -terribly- bothered if I can't check into the train station, on foursquare, on my way to work in the morning. Sure, it's a service I am technically paying for - a reliable internet connection of my smartphone - but hey, what's the very occasional outage, right?

Only in the last two weeks, it hasn't been the occasional outage. It's been 'no internet for you!' at least 50% of the time, despite the fact that I live ten minutes from Perth city, work in the CBD, and rarely venture farther afield than the inner suburbs.

And then there are the calls that people apparently made to me, that...I never got. Strangely this seems to mostly happen when other vodaphone customers are trying to call me.

And then yesterday, I experienced exactly the same problem that I was having with three last year. I had arranged to meet a friend for coffee, but a work meeting ran late and I had to text her to cancel (couldn't call as I was in a meeting). I sent her a message and received no reply, but figured maybe she just hadn't seen the need of a response. Around forty minutes later, I got a message from her saying "I'm here...where are you?". I sent her another text reiterating my first message, and adding "...did you not get my first text?".

No reply for awhile, then another twenty minutes later "...um, ok, well I've waited nearly an hour now so I guess we'll catch up another time. Bye."

Vodaphone. This is bad. When I tell my friend, later, "Oh shit I am sorry, I did send you a text! I don't know why you didn't get it!" it is going to sound like a crappy excuse. In fact, it IS a crappy excuse, because I've just wasted forty minutes of my friend's time because of your fucking fail telecommunications. You know the irony? Yup, SHE TOO IS A VODAPHONE CUSTOMER. So, basically, you can't even send text messages between users on your own damn network? Seriously?

Now obviously in this case, no greater tragedy befell either of us due to this telecommunications glitch. She got forty minutes of her time wasted, and I feel like a dickhead because of it. Nobody got hurt. Nobody died. But what if I'd been trying to make a call to emergency services? Or organise something more pressing and important than a coffee with a university colleague?

I'm not naturally a 'complain-y' kind of person, but I called vodaphone customer care today to chase up these issues (my data coverage, and this issue texting this friend of mine). I made it very clear to 'LARA' that I was making a complaint, and was put swiftly through to a customer service rep (points to vodafail for this one - at least I wasn't on hold forever).

The lady I spoke to was a very good listener, but did not offer me anything in the way of empathy or support. There were lengthy pauses after I'd spoken, and at length, the best she could do was offer to put me through to tech support. Now, to be honest, having called vodafail with a legit complaint, and having made it clear that I don't feel this is a problem on 'my end', and that I am very dissatisfied, I kind of expect to be offered some form of compensation. Obviously I am deluded, in that regard, but anyway...

She put me through to tech support, which seemed a bit pointless since I was pretty damn sure none of this was my problem, but I went along with it anyway, thinking perhaps tech support might enlighten me as to what sort of network issues they were experiencing that would mean someone ON THE SAME NETWORK was unable to receive my messages.

I reiterated the same story to the tech guy, who gave me the knee-jerk response of "Have you tried turning it off then on again". To which I replied "Yes" and reiterated (again) that this was a problem I had previously had when I was on three, that I knew other vodaphone customers had had problems with data coverage and messaging, that I was pretty sure it was an issue on their end, and that I was very displeased with it.

He then proceeded to ask "...what do you want me to do about it?"

Yes.

The customer service/tech guy at vodaphone sullenly demanded WHAT I WANTED HIM TO DO about my problem.

I was pretty dumbfounded by this, to be honest. I replied that I had really only called up to register a complaint, that I was fairly certan he, personally, could not 'fix' my issue, but that I was hoping that by registering it as a problem he could tell me a) whether other people had been experiencing the same issue and b) what VODAPHONE were going to do about fixing it and/or compensating me for a service that I was paying for and not getting the full use of.

He proceeded to ask me for the number that I was calling from. I should note that he had already taken this number down when he first answered my call, so quite why he needed it a second time, I don't know. Then he asked me for the number I was having problems texting (this is after me having to explain, repeatedly, that I was able to successfully call and text SOME numbers, just not this particular one - that I knew of). I had to go into my phonebook to get the number, but I managed to read it out to him.

After he had taken it down, he talked to me for a few more minutes, then said "...so what was the number that you were having problems texting?"

Um. Really? The number I gave you a minute and a half ago? The number you JUST WROTE DOWN (presumably?). THAT number?

When I informed him that it was the number I'd just given him, he mumbled something that I didn't quite catch. I then asked "Sorry, what was that, I didn't quite hear you?"

The line was silent.

"...sorry?" I asked again "I didn't quite hear what you said?"

Nothing.

".....hello?"

At this point I checked to see if the call was still connected. It was, but Mr Vodaphone didn't feel like talking anymore, apparently. I was so sick of the whole 25 minute conversation, at this point, that I just hung up.

I should also note that my first bill, which should (I thought) have been $55 (45 infinite + 10 for handset repayment) was $86. When I called about that, they informed me that as it was my first bill I was charged from the moment I began using the service, and for the subsequent billing period, but honestly I am a bit lost here. Does this mean I'm now paid up for a subsequent month? How does this work? Looking at my bill online, I certainly don't see that I've gone over my data or anything, so it shouldn't be additional fees for going over my cap - they've charged me for a month + the one or two weeks I was using the service before the billing period kicked in? I want to see a itemised explanation of this, but I assume I'm not going to get one...

10 hours on hold for helpdesk, this is rediculous... then send me a bill for the cost of the calls. How bout i send Vodafone a bill for 10 hours of my time. And the problem never even was sorted out!!!

Vodafone constantly gets my billing wrong. I have been unlucky enough to be with them since December. The first month was signed up on incorrect plan and given no plan credit. Result over charged 178 dollars. Second month over charged 1434 dollars third month over charged 576 dollars this month major improvement over charged 30 dollars. All this on infinite plan 45 dollars go figure that. I am at a loss at their billing system it is just pot luck. One major improvement is call wait times is low now.

I just remembered that recently I called vodafail customer service and was on hold for 57 minutes. I nearly screamed. I hung up, after losing an hor of my precious life, and called the telecomunications Industry Ombudsman instead. they are currently dealingwith a voda fail caseon my behalf, where i tried ti pay my bill on the phone and the 'person' at the other end couldn't get either of my credit cards to work.

Then when I got my bank statement, they had charged me TWICE for the same amount. 3 months later I am still waiting to be reimbursed for this 'double' charge.

Last week the TIO asked me what resolution would satisfy me with my case and I said I just want my money back. Then I added, "Actually, I also want to be awarded $100 million in punitive damages so that vodafail don't give me such grief ever again." The TIO guy just laughed. But I was serious!!!

It's a pain trying to get through to Vodafone. They kept me on hold for over an hour and all I wanted was to speak to someone regarding my bills and setup direct debit. I have tried serveral times to set it up myself in my Vodafone log in, but everytime is the same result: "Sorry an error has occurred, please call Vodafone on....."
Grr...

The internet takes at least 1 minute to open a page and sometimes never opens at all. Calls drop out and the service provided is just appalling.

I have spoken to 2 x different people and have now been on hold been on hold for 20 minutes plus.

Parents flight is delayed and i have to wait for their call to know when to make the trip out to the airport.
BUT GUESS WHAT! they cant call me because the network is congested, on a SUNDAY morning. After being told by the chick on hold id be served right away, an hour later im still waiting. So all i have to do now is drive to the airport and keep doing laps and parking in 5 minute bays until the plane lands. pfft

Apart from the constant disappointments mentioned above, I made an insurance claim some months ago to replace a 6 gig iPhone, as the new model iphone was released at the time of the claim they could not supply one. Three months later I was finally told why it was that they could not supply me with a 6gig phone and asked me to pay extra for the 12 gig phone.I refused and asked for a replacement phone and they told me that the replacement phone would be sent to me with in a week, a flat out lie. Two weeks later I was again waiting on the phone for how many hours I can't remember cut of multiple times and transferred to the wrong people multiple times only to be placed on hold again for hours on end.

Finally I managed to speak to to a floor manager he looked at my file and told me that my claim had not been processed and I would receive a new phone in a week, during the conversation I had my address changed to forward the phone to.

Two weeks later I am on the phone again for hours on end being transferred to the wrong people only to be told that the phone was sent to my previouse address. You would think I am joking but I happened again two weeks later.

The hole time was being charged a monthly bill plus insurance including the premimum for the claim at this time I told the floor manager that I was in the process of launching action with the ombudsman and they had two days to get the phone to me.

For my trouble vodafone gave me three months credit and up graded my phone to a 16gig phone
And removed the insurance premium but could not supply me with an adjusted bill.

Close to six month later I received my replacement phone, I asked them to remove the insurance coverage yet it is still on my bill. My contract is now finished so I tried to cancel the pan to day during my lunch break but I only have an hour on my lunch break and it wasn't enough time to get through I had to go back to work.

Rubbish.

they sent my bill out recently and it was $300 and i rang asking how, as the plans on my bill are a $45 infinite and a $69 with $10 a month extra for insurance, and because we dont call 13 numbers and i had only used $100 of my cap credit that it wasnt possible for my bill to be that high. At first she said well you must have made the 13 calls and i said NO i dont think so now look i have a level 2 complaint with the TIO against you and i want answers as to how my bill was so high, next thing i know she put me on hold comes back and says oh sorry there have been some wrong to charges on your account. Makes me think how many "wrong charges" have been on my account of the years and how much money ive potentially lost to their dodgy billing system.

I have to count myself lucky here are Vodafone agreed to release myself and my partner from our contracts with no penalty and it only took me a month of calling them! Argh... We had to move back to Telstra and pay extra to get new phones but at least we now have excellent coverage, 3G and our txts don't go missing.
Three months into our brand new iPhone contracts (about October last year) we suddenly dropped from adequate to almost non existent. It took 3 weeks of calling them every couple of days and spending ridiculous amounts of time on hold and being transferred all over the place. They finally conceded that they were at fault. The reason I was given was that they were upgrading their services and that meant some low priority areas lost some signal!!!
I wont ever use Vodafone again.

Tried to get Voda dongle unlocked to move to another carrier - said in store it was done. It wasnt.

Called up and 'transferred'. proved my identity twice, on hold for 20 MINUTES! Couldnt hear operator. Then the call just dropped! and i had to do it again.

No joke - this whole process happened more or less exactly like this, FOUR TIMES.

So so so enraged with Vodafone!! Boycott!!

Loyal customer for 15 years,in the past 6 months Ive had numerous calls drop out, Ive had problems trying to call people in Summer Hill and Parramatta and on the train line in between and I put in a claim for insurance on a defective phone last October that has still not been resolved even after the insurance company said they would send a new phone. Between October last year and 2 days ago Ive spent an eternity on hold having made about 20 -30 calls many many store visits (Vodafone employees are the dumbest on this planet) , mainly spoken to Lara who I want to throw off a cliff! trying to get through to Marsh insurance and get claim approved is still going on 6 months after it began- Spend maybe 6 hours on hold or trying to get through too Marsh Insurance and then being sent from piller to post between Eygpt, South Africa and India trying to explain for the hundreth time my issues only to be told we are sorry but we dont know what is your problem and well get somebody to call you back. I can write a book on the problems or nightmares i have had in the past year or so with faulty smart phones, very very very poor customer service and trying to get my many issues resolved. As soon as my contract expires - Vodafone and Marsh will be losing a very valuable customer and Im going to make sure a lot of my customers know about it when I leave and warn them to steer clear of vodafone!!!!!!!! Congratulations on getting the choice award well done Vodafail. Lets put this company under and all leave!!!