Thankfully my contract is due to finish in two weeks, however since November 2010, I have had nothing but issues. Poor reception, delayed text messages or not being notified of voicemail messages and being billed for a service I do not even use. I since found out that as I am on the "old" $79.00 cap it excludes alot services and I have received large phone bills in the past three months, when for two years my bill has never been anymore than the $79.00. After spending 42 minutes on hold waiting for a Vodafone customer service representative I was told the plans had changed and I would be billed for additional services. I thought any changes to a legally binding contract all parties had to be made aware not just change the contract and expect the customer to pay!

Thankyou Vodafone for nothing, after 7 years it will be easy to change providers.

- Calls dropping out all the time........CHECK
- Rubbish 3G reception.......CHECK
- Hours on hold to customer service who usually have no idea what I'm trying to say so they just hang up.........MASSIVE CHECK
-Constantly trying to get through to customer service sometimes to get a generated message...."we are experiencing technical difficulties, please call back later.....CHECK
-Costs on my bills that shouldn't be there, query them to get nowhere even though supposed "investigation" raised into those suspect costs.....CHECK
-Promises to get phone calls back from Vodafone re: queries only to never get a phone call back.....CHECK
- FED UP WITH VODAFONE'S POOR SERVICE ALL ROUND.......BIGGEST CHECK OF ALL

Last week I upgraded my contract with Vodafone (24 months) I received a new iPhone 4. My old iPhone has been sooooo slow for the last 6 months. Prob due to the new OS software.

Anyway in the last week i have been on hold with Vodafone for over 3 hours trying to:

Upgrade
Activate my new sim card
Carry over my handset insurance

Yesterday I was on hold foe 60 mins alone...just trying to provide voda with my imei number of my new phone for insurance...i was transfered 7 times as nobody seemed to no how to update my records.

Im now thinking i made a BIG mistake in signing up again for another 2 years.

:(

Was on hold for 35 minutes the other day before I managed to speak to a dude for about 30 seconds before getting put back on hold. Total call duration 1hour 12 minutes. Total time spent talking to person approximately 12 minutes.

Was billed incorrectly for the first month, then recieved another bill dated for the same period. Now I'm no maths genius, but being charged for 3 months in the space of 2 is wrong, particularly when the bill does not match my deal, including incorrect dates, incorrect charges, incorrect contract amounts, etc etc.

It wouldn't be a HUGE problem if I could get through to VF and sort it out, but I'm not gonna spend 40 minutes on the phone every month trying to sort it out. And the online complaints form is farked at the moment too.

I'm sure it is a massive pain in the butt to get out of the contract but to be honest this was not the level of service I was expecting when I signed up to Vodafone. My partner has had good service for a long time but for me it's been a bit of a headache with the billing department.

Where do I start: Signed up Aug 09 with a Blackberry 9500

Firstly moving to Adelaide city about 1 1/2 years ago, then moving only 20 minutes away from the city to the hills, I only get one bar and majority of the time SOS coverage. I have missed so many phone calls, had so many drop outs in conversations, delayed sms's, internet is not possible. Its ridiculous.

Secondly - back in October 10, I woke up with my phone screen 'App Err 523' and it didn't do anything. Went to the vodafone shop who told me that they will send it away for repairs and provide me a loan phone in the interim. The loan phone was not charged and was given a wall charger only, thus I had to go a day without a phone, as I was on the road driving. A week later I received an sms that my phone had come back. Went to the store to pick it up. It was a brand new phone. I questioned where my phone was, they had no answer. There was no note, no details, no information what had happened to my original phone. I still had important information left on my original phone - which was now gone. My new phone returned to me - had barely enough battery power and when I wanted to send an sms, it would open the internet. When I wanted to make a call, I couldn't dial any of the numbers correctly. When I pressed 0, it would press 3. I returned back to the store. They couldn't fix my phone and said 'we will send this away for repairs'. Another loan phone, another week later. The same new phone returned. This time they gave it to me with no battery power. This 'new' phone would not lock, I couldn't scroll on the screen and I was having the same problems as before. I decided to go into another vodafone store, with all my repair paperwork, they said 'we will have to send this away for repair's'. I said not again - this is the third time. I cant do this anymore. I cant use this phone to it's full capacity and same with the loan phones. I said I believe I shouldn't have to pay for my account this month. I want to cancel my account and I want to speak to a supervisor. She wasn't available and I was yet left with ANOTHER loan phone. A few days later, I received an sms to pick up my phone, yet again. They were unable to cancel my contract as it was still up until August 2011. In regards to my account I had to call a number. She then proceeded to open a brand new Blackberry 9500 box and give me another brand new mobile. They had no answers for me in regards to the previous phone.
I called the number for my account - 6 times. Lara is pathetic and I was on hold too long. I gave up. I still ended up paying my full amount. I was mentally tired by the end of this whole saga which ended up being the whole month of October 09. The amount of time I had wasted, still gets to me.

Thirdly - their set up in there stores is pathetic when you go in there for questions. You wait for a long time, there is hardly enough staff in the stores around Adelaide I have attended. And you stand where ever you can get a spot and risk having other customers who don't take notice of others who had been waiting, pushing in. It's poor service full stop.

Bring on Aug 11 - I cant wait till the end of my 2 year contract, I never will go with Vodafone again and I will be recommending to anyone who will listen - STAY AWAY FROM VODAFONE.

I finished my plan and wanted to upgrade to the new iPhone (partly because I thought my connectivity problems were caused by my iPhone and not Vodafone!). I won't even go into the part where I was on the waiting list at 4 different stores for three months ... But finally Vodafone gave me a number I could call to get my new iPhone sorted out. I had to call the 1300 number to sort out delivery and was on hold for TWO HOURS.
Then, to top it off, I got my bill this month and I have to pay extra on top of my "infinite" cap, BECAUSE OF THE TWO HOUR CALL TO VODAFONE!!
Epic fail.

my fone shows i have full 3g coverage but I cant open any webpages or check facebook - I get text message 20min after people in the same room have sent them to me, up to 2 days for a picture message. The same goes when I send people messages. Calls going straight to voicemail regardless that I have full coverage.
I've spend 40 min on hold with vodafone only to be told there isn't anyhing wrong with the network & its my iphone.

COnstantly having calls missed or going straight to voice mail. text messages and voicemails taking over 1 week to arrive. on hold to vodaphone for an hour and a half and then being told its my handset and there is no problem with the phone. I have been give a few dollars credit on my phone account however was asked to please be patient as they are aware of the issue and it will be rectified. NOT HAPPY JAN!!

First of all, thank you for setting up this website!

I had heard that Vodafone is relatively poor in terms of national coverage. Yet, because they seemed to offer the best value for money and the fact that I live in central Sydney, I decided to at least give them a go. In June last year I went to a Crazy John's shop (only sells Vodafone deals) and enquired about Vodafone's coverage. I was shown a map (same map that is available on Vodafone's homepage), where it showed that there was 100% coverage of the area where I lived. Just in case, I asked what would happen if their map turned out to be "wrong" in terms of coverage. I was told that all I needed to do was to bring the phone back in store and it would be cancelled. As soon as I got near our house in Watsons Bay in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney the reception got worse and worse... eventually, there was NO reception at all. Disappointed I drove back to the shop but was told that the cancellation process was a bit complicated... They sent me home and asked me to call Vodafone's engineers from my landline and explain my situation to them and only then Crazy John's could refund me. I spoke to three or four different people and no one really had a desire to help out. In fact, they were adamant that I was wrong...For instance, one guy said "No, you must be wrong, our maps show that there is perfect reception where you are". I gave up, went back to the shop and told them that I was not keen on spending the rest of the day on hold with Vodafone's customer service or with their engineers who did not want to help out anyway. Eventually, we agreed that Crazy John's would make the calls for me. About two weeks later, I still had not heard anything and I checked with Crazy John's and was told that they had "forgotten" to make the call... They did make the call and Vodafone eventually sent out a satchel for me to return the phone to them in. In the instructions it said in bold text and capital letters: make sure you remove the battery before you return the phone. I had bought an iPhone and was a bit perplexed as getting the battery out is not that straightforward. I found some youtube videos on how to remove the battery but the whole process seemed a bit dodgy. By accident I happened to read the instruction booklet and in the small print I found that if you remove the battery you cannot return the phone. I phoned Vodafone again and asked them what I should do. I was told not to remove the battery after all. I went to Australia post the next day thinking that finally I could get this whole thing out of the way. They asked me if I had removed the battery from the phone that I was sending to Vodafone. I told them what I was told by Vodafone. Australia Post refused to accept the satchel as it is against their safety rules to send phones with batteries inside. I went back home, called Vodafone again but was told that I needed to use the satchel they had sent me if I wanted to cancel the contract. The next day I went to a (different) Australia Post office and I actually lied about the content of the satchel... It did not feel good, particularly as I had to put my signature on the paperwork. It was sent away to Vodafone and I was very relieved when, a few days later, I found out that Vodafone had received it. Then, about two weeks later, I received a bill for the full amount of a month's usage. I can see how things get wrong when everything is automated so I simply called them and asked what the bill was for. They apologised and were actually surprisingly helpful that time. They told me that I did not have to pay anything as it was cancelled and that they were going to send a new bill that stated that I owed them zero dollars. The next bill, however, showed a new amount which was even higher than the first one :-)...It took another two weeks before everything was sorted out.

This was a something that should have been a very simple process. I am convinced that a lot of people would have given up half way through, which I guess, is how Vodafone makes a fair bit of money at the end of the day. I spent so much time both on the phone, by e-mail and in the store that I have become completely turned off by Vodafone forever. I will never, ever go near Vodafone's products again and I will continue to recommend friends not to have anything to do with them.

1) They use false advertising by saying they have full coverage of areas where they clearly don't. This is a serious offence that ACCC should look into.

2) They advertise a simple cancellation process, which is nothing but an administrative headache, which you need to spend several hours on to get to the bottom with.

3) Some of their customer service reps were nice and helpful (including staff at Crazy John's) while others were completely uninterested in taking any accountability.

I find it amazing that Vodafone spends so much money on advertising and sponsorship (e.g. the Ashes) instead of spending it on a good product and customer services!? Word of mouth travels far.

I ordered an iphone in October from them which still hasn't been received. Their customer service is so bad that in the 5 times I have rung I have been put on hold for over an hour - no joke - when you finally speak to someone they try to blame you then say someone will call to help and no one does. And they wont let me cancel the order. I feel so helpless as there is no other avenues of help to go down. Worst customer service ever and I have decided I will not accept the phone if it does turn up eventually. From the sounds of the coverage reports it probably a good idea.

4 to 5 months ago i signed up for the mobile broadband internet with Vodafone, i have had nothing but crap service, bad coverage and don't get me started on the 3 hours i have spent on hold waiting to talk to someone.

I think Vodafone have a great marketing team which is a great success but the service, coverage and the genral product they offer to customers is very poor.

As sent to Vodafone complaints email- I am appalled, I used to be proud to be with Vodafone. We had been with 3 which has now merged with Vodafone, we then came to Vodafone to get Apple Iphones. We have had our accounts for almost 3 months now and have not gotten a bill- I recieved an SMS telling me to go to online billing and 2 days later my wife and I both had our phones blocked. I have spent over an hour on the phone to different departments. in this time I have put through 2 payments of $200 to both accounts, after much difficulty in speaking to a real person regarding making a payment for my wife's account to remove the call barring which would take 2 to 3 hours... or so I was told by one of your consultants "Sylvester". I then spoke with Chanduk who is supposedly Sylvester's supervisor who tried to assist me with your AVA LVR whatever automated phone billing system... after 4 attempts he could not access it properly. I tried again 15 minutes later ( approximately 4.20pm QLD time). My wife got an SMS advising her they had tried calling at 6.50pm QLD time- she called them back at 7.15pm QLD time and has not been able to speak to a human voice, or remove the call barring. To think a major international company like Vodafone has no after hours support and only runs it's support network to Sydney/Melbourne time is disgusting... I would hate to be a Vodafone customer in Perth which would lose an extra 2 hours on us in QLD. My frustration is compounded by the fact I finally got through to someone at 7.57pm QLD time to your business support number.... I spoke to a real person who in turn after my frustrated explanation put me on hold- I specifically said to him " if you put me on hold to transfer me please make sure you put me on to a real person" I type this at 8.15pm QLD time while I am still on hold.... what an absolute F$%king joke!!. You don't send bills and when I do pay the bills you still block my wife's phone service. The mobile coverage in our suburb is "erratic" at best and with this sort of customer support (or lack of) makes me wonder what the media would think after your recent negative publicity.
I would appreciate a full apology to my wife for the lack of service, and I should also send an invoice for 2 hours of my time and frustration that I have spent attempting to speak rationally to an AUSTRALIAN BASED VODAFONE CUSTOMER SUPPORT REPRESENTATIVE..

As sent to Vodafone customer complaints email-
I am appalled, I used to be proud to be with Vodafone. We had been with 3 which has now merged with Vodafone, we then came to Vodafone to get Apple Iphones. We have had our accounts for almost 3 months now and have not gotten a bill- I recieved an SMS telling me to go to online billing and 2 days later my wife and I both had our phones blocked. I have spent over an hour on the phone to different departments. in this time I have put through 2 payments of $200 to both accounts, after much difficulty in speaking to a real person regarding making a payment for my wife's account to remove the call barring which would take 2 to 3 hours... or so I was told by one of your consultants "Sylvester". I then spoke with Chanduk who is supposedly Sylvester's supervisor who tried to assist me with your AVA LVR whatever automated phone billing system... after 4 attempts he could not access it properly. I tried again 15 minutes later ( approximately 4.20pm QLD time). My wife got an SMS advising her they had tried calling at 6.50pm QLD time- she called them back at 7.15pm QLD time and has not been able to speak to a human voice, or remove the call barring. To think a major international company like Vodafone has no after hours support and only runs it's support network to Sydney/Melbourne time is disgusting... I would hate to be a Vodafone customer in Perth which would lose an extra 2 hours on us in QLD. My frustration is compounded by the fact I finally got through to someone at 7.57pm QLD time to your business support number.... I spoke to a real person who in turn after my frustrated explanation put me on hold- I specifically said to him " if you put me on hold to transfer me please make sure you put me on to a real person" I type this at 8.15pm QLD time while I am still on hold.... what an absolute F$%king joke!!. You don't send bills and when I do pay the bills you still block my wife's phone service. The mobile coverage in our suburb is "erratic" at best and with this sort of customer support (or lack of) makes me wonder what the media would think after your recent negative publicity.
I would appreciate a full apology to my wife for the lack of service, and I should also send an invoice for 2 hours of my time and frustration that I have spent attempting to speak rationally to an AUSTRALIAN BASED VODAFONE CUSTOMER SUPPORT REPRESENTATIVE..

I live 3km from the Sydney CBD and have significant coverage issues. The phone is either in searching mode or 1 bar and have to be outside to receive and make calls and texts. It's ridiculous!!! Customer service is non existent. Even Vodafone stores that have to call Customer Service are on hold for extremely long periods of time. If stores can't get through for assistance what hope does the general public have in getting through. Fix the problems Vodafone.

On our first bill, they charged us for our so called FREE wireless device - when i rang up and finally got through after being on hold for what seemed forever and passed to several different departments, they told me it was a once-off fee (but couldnt tell me what for), and that it wont happen again.
And to my amazement - there it was again on the second bill!!
I am still waiting on my credit to be returned for this as they cant seem to add it to my bill. This is just the minor issues we have with Vodafone. Dont even get me started on the coverage - cus apparently its MY computer that has a problem, and no reason why there isnt a coverage signal!
FAIL FAIL FAIL !!

ABSOLUTELY CRAP INTERNET RECEPTION, LARA YOU ARE A PAIN IN THE ASS. YOU CANT DIRECT ANYONE TO THE CORRECT DEPARTMENT. IF LUCKILY YOU GET TO ANY DEPT THAT YOU THINK COULD HELP YOU, THEY CANT EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH PROPERLY. HOLD TIME TO TALK TO SOMEONE IS FAR TOO LONG.

I shut down my data on my phone prior to going overseas, since returning I have spent the last 6 weeks trying to get it re installed. I have been given a new sim card and re set my phone and have spent about 12 hours either on hold, re telling my story again and again or in the stores.

For the past year and a half I have had network coverage problems ie: calls dropping out; no reception (generally in the heart of the Sydney cbd and at Sydney airport; message and voicemail delays or not receiving messages at all; long waits for up to and over 1hr to customer support only to be hung up on and then have to call again and wait yet another hour; no 3g signal; takes up to 10 minutes+ to log onto any website including Vodafail and these are just some of the issues I have faced.

When I first received the phone I took it back to nokia on 4 different occasions because I thought it was the phone, however I continued to have these problems and now for the past 6 months I have tried periodically to contact Vodafail regarding my ongoing problems.

Recently I had, had enough and went in to 4 different Vodafail stores to get some help as I was getting nowhere trying to call. On all occasions I was told by Vodafail staff... "we can't help you, call customer support" and despite my protests about the poor service and not being able to get through to Vodafail, the Vodafail in store staff would walk off and talk to others; talk between themselves whilst I tried to voice my concerns; or completely ignore me and walk out into the store room.

When I realised I was not going to get any sort of response from the useless in store staff I resorted back to calling the Vodafail customer support line. On Tuesday 11th Jan 2011 I had to make 3 calls to Vodafail all for and waited approx 45-1hr each as each time before I had my call answered and each time I got in contact with a Vodafail rep the line would mysteriously drop out. When I finally got through I spoke with a so called "customer service rep" who was more like a rude cleaner who stated "I can't help you and won't help you because that is not part of my job, call us back tomorrow for the right department". I then demanded to be put through to the Manager.

The manager of customer support in India who I could barely understand with the accent and also because of the bad reception had to call me back twice because the call dropped out whilst I was making my complaint. When I finally got to speak with her she informed me that the Vodafail Cancellation team will be calling me back the next day and will be releasing me from my contract immediately due to all the problems I am facing and the poor service I have received.

I received a call 3 days later from a technical support person at 7pm. The technical support person then stated they would not help me and would not put me through to cancellations and stated I would have to do their investigations before Vodafail will let me talk to the cancellations dept. I did their investigations whilst also contacting the TIO for support. I was informed by the tech support team that I would receive a result by the 18th Jan. I did not hear back from them until the 20th of Jan 2011 informing me that their investigation had revealed I had poor signal coverage.

Finally I got to speak with the cancellations department and after having to call back twice due to bad reception and call drop out and yet and hour wait each time this is what finally happened.

The cancellations department then tried to sell me everything under the sun and give me offers to keep me as a customer... I informed that staff member that I do not want any of the offers and all I wanted was for Vodafail to released me from my contract as promised and also as Vodafail have been in breach of the contract for the past year and a half in the way of poor service as well as the above mentioned problems.

I was then informed that I would need to pay my next bill and a cancellation fee and send my phone back to Vodafail before I can be released from my contract. I then informed Vodafail that this is unacceptable and I would be taking Vodafail to the ACCC and TIO and I would not be paying any bills or cancellation fees. After trying to negotiate with yet another useless Vodafail staff member who I could barely understand and was continuously making mistakes and putting me on hold I asked to be put through to a manager.

I then negotiated with the cancellations manager and had my previous bill waived and my next bill waived. I then was then also told I had to send the phone back so they could waive the cancellation fee. I decided I would send the phone back, because it wasn't worth the pain of trying to keep it. No to mention it is the worse phone I have ever had.. (also suggested by useless Vodafail staff)

I am now currently waiting for this package so I can send my phone back and was assured as soon as they receive the phone I will be out of my contract and will receive a confirmation letter of this with nothing further to pay.

As a Vodafail customer of 12 years I feel very ripped off and completely unappreciated.
1. because there is no loyalty and during this whole process I was being fobbed off and passed around to different Vodafail staff to try and get me to just go away.
2. because I am loosing out.. I have not been compensated in any way for this time wasted out of my life and money wasted. Not to mention even though I have been paying for the phone for a year and a half I still need to send it back which leaves me with nothing but a big whole in my pocket and an empty wallet with nothing to show for it.

I know I'm not the only one having these problems.... and so to anyone else out there reading my story... the best advice I can give you is don't let them push you around and push them to do something about the problems your facing... don't stop until they release you from your contract. If after contacting Vodafail a few times you get nowhere contact the TIO and the ACCC immediately!!!

Good luck!!!

Several times over the past few years, the Vodafone billing website has refused to accept my previously operational passwords, despite them remaining unchanged. After being finding myself locked out again, I was on hold for 27 minutes without being answered on 29/12/10. I logged an incident email immediately, in which I advised that I couldn't pay my overdue bill until they called me to instate my password. Apart from the initial auto reply, as of today (21/1/11), I still haven't had a response...and soon my next bill will be due. Maybe they don't want my money???

I've been a vodafone customer (3g mobile broadband only) for the last 3 years. I'm on my second 24 month contract now. I'm going to try and keep this succinct. I've had two main issues.

1) The intermittent failure of their online account system, making it difficult for me to check how much data I've used so I don't go over my 4GiB (then), or 6GiB (now) download quota. I documented situations where their website wouldn't load because of some internal network issue (I could load other websites just fine), and also explicit failures of their systems with errors from Apache's tomcat system being presented to me. The Vodafone Mobile Connect application for the Mac is extremely poorly implemented, recording download/upload for only a single session making it difficult to record total usage over a billing cycle. This culminated in my being charged $80 extra one month for going 300MiB over my quota. After at least 3 calls to them about the issues, I eventually got this charge reversed.

2) The second issue is more about network reliability. A bit of background first. Initially I used an expresscard HSDPA modem to connect using the Vodafone Mobile Connect software. As I found, this software is useless, and I eventually turned to the standard Apple interface for creating and using PPP connections. Anyway, during my first contract, I was plagued with disconnections, sometimes 5 times during an evening. This eventually got better, and the problem has now disappeared. The issue now is not disconnections, but simply dropouts. To me, it seems like it happens mostly in peak times, suggesting overloading of the router at the tower. I have a constant ping to google running while I'm connected so I can detect when these dropouts occur. When it happens, pings start to time out, and eventually some random amount of time (sometimes minutes) later, a huge succession of ping responses suddenly come back to me, and my connection becomes live again. Both of these issues are extremely annoying, because it stops me doing work at home that relies on having a working internet connection (e.g. remote ssh to my workplace)

The dropout issue still remains, and most evenings my internet connection is unreliable.

I have since signed up with Optus for an iPhone plan which comes with 2GiB of data quota. I'm very close to going down the path of cancelling my vodafone contract. The only thing stopping me is stories of hours on hold. I can confirm, along with everyone else, that Vodafone's customer support is lacking in many critical areas which I won't go into.

I hope this helps.

FYI My Complaint below - I lodged this complaint approx 10-12 days ago - I also refered the matter to the TIO - Now My Wife and I have been approved to leave our contracts with 18 months to go with no termination fees - I told V I was going to the TIO and they didnt care - Made me get a new sim / do a so called investigation - during this process they called and said you can leave your contract at no cost -

Date of complaint: 12/01/2011 9:02:34 AM
Complaint: ONLINE ENTRY BY COMPLAINANT

Complaint Type: A telephone service
The complainant is the account holder
Member Name: Vodafone
Date of complaint: quite some time
Disputed Amount:
$
COMP CLAIMS:
n short I am a disgruntled Vodafone customer after using the service for more than 6 years. After my relentless attempts to contact Vodafone customer support to resolve my issues (the usual dropped calls, no reception, no 3G and delayed voicemail & text messages)

everytime i ring wait for min of 45 min on hold then i expalinmy story - they transfer me between departments and each time im on hold any where up to 25 minutes.

Where I live in my local area I have NO coverage what so ever on my phone - at home my i-phone 3G sits in no service or searching. Any where I travel in my local arera nothing changes - Im a account manager and rely heavily on my phone - i can travel to a number of locations in newcastl;e and get NO COVERAGE - also i have a young family and expecting a baby - i can not go with out a phone
MEMBER'S RESPONSE:
My 1st call to vodafone being on hold for 1 hour - telling my story to customer service - they transfered me to techincal support - i waited 25 minutes to get to them and they had no idea why i was transferedc to them - so i had to explain my whole story again - They said to termoinate contract would cost $460 S I HAVE 8 MONTHS LEFT ON contract - Why should I pay for a service carrier to which im not getting any service for what Im paying for?? They toild me to go to a store and do a sim swap and credit 1 month bill - big deal $70... I attended a store swapped my sim and NOTHING Has chanGED - IT ALL STALL TATICS - they in struct me to check setting on my phone - turn it on / off - nothing has improved
RESOLUTION SOUGHT:
I can not go Any longer with out a phone - I want the provider to rescind my termination fee - allow me to change carriers ASAP and NOT PAY a termination fee. I want to port my phone number to the new carrier. At the time I signed this contract I paid $200 extra for the 32 gig 3g i-phone - I want to take this phone to my new carrier - Also I want vodafone to do the same for my wife who is A VODAFONE CUSTOMER in the exact same situation - wave her termination fees. I dont want to dealh vodafone

I have been a vodafone customer for almost 15 years, and in the last 6 or so weeks my service has been terrible.

My phone calls drop out, or do not connect, and my internet performance is almost useless.

Upon ringing Vodafone, I was sent through to technical support (after 20 minutes on hold) and was told to re-set my factory settings (which of course blew away all my cache and book marks). Did it resolve the issue, no.

Next, 32 minutes to Customer Support, who wanted to transfer me to technical support (another 20 minute wait). After requesting a call back, I am still yet to receive one, and have now logged a complain with the TIO.

What do I want? The network fixed in the next 2-4 weeks as my phone is part of my work. If not, to be released from my contract to join another carrier. Will I come back to Vodafone? of course, if they release me from my contract, then fix their network.

We have bought 2 phones from Voda i DEcember 2010.. 1 prepaid, and 1 on contract.
On their website it shows my suburb has full coverage.
We have ZERO coverage.
I have called them, and with the usual wait times.. (one day 2 hours on hold with no call back option.)
They have admitted fault by letting us out of the contract, although i am still trying to get the prepaid unlocked free of charge.
It is pure false advertising, their service does not work in my area.

got a lap top plus internet on a 24 month plan, special promotion at the time, lap top hasnt worked for 5 months, cant get through to anyone on customer service, am put through to all differant depts, holding on for ever with each one, then eventually cut off, or left on hold (for over 40 mins last time!) The vodaphone shops deny that we got the lap top from them and said to take it back to the shop we got it from, 700 kms away!

called vodafone to enquire about iphone 4 that had been orded and was put on hold for 40 mins then told we had not paid last months bill when we had a reciept for the payment. they then put us on hold again for 1 hour while chasing confirmation of payment. finaly they say yes payment has been recieved but the main reason i called was to find out how my iphone 4 order was going. guess what they hang up!!!. why is it that vodafone are happy to take our money and offer a premium service but all they can give you is some third world country to answer any questions and then at the best of times 1 5 calls may speak good english or if you are real lucky even understand what you are calling about. we are paying for a service not a penalty.
VODAFONE you are wearing my patience very thin and i am thinking of taking my family's 7 phones to another carrier you dont offer what you promise.

Lots of black spots where I get no reception, including the beach (a big wide open space right next to the Newcastle CBD). Delayed SMS and voicemail, up to a day. Very slow data speeds in most areas, I usually don't bother. Haven't had many calls dropped, but quite often I can't understand the user on the other end and vice versa. Hate calling customer service, they don't seem to give a rats. Can't wait to leave if I can't get out of my contract before it ends. I've complained through the facebook page as I'm not wasting MY time on hold for over an hour, I've had a response and am now waiting for more info. I don't know what they'll suggest next but I only have one option for me, I want out!!!

I called re: leaking of info and after being on hold for 10 mins finally got through to someone who said that there had been no leak although I advised him that Mr Nigel Dews of Vodafone had been on the 7pm Project and said that the most likely thing that had happened was that someone had passed on their password to someone else, I was again put on hold "for only 2 mins" while he "discussed" it with his mamanger. During this time that ended up being a further 10 mins the phone cut out. I then spent another 20 mins trying to get back through to someone and again was put on hold to talk to a manager who assured me again that there had been no leak when I again mentioned that Mr Dews had been on TV admitting guilt without saying guilty she promised that someone would look further in to the matter and that I would have a call back. This was over a week ago now and still no call. Oh, and don't even get me started on waiting on hold to talk to technical support...all I want to do is have call waiting set up on my phone due to a new sim card and I call, am on hold for 30 mins and end up having to hang up as I can't wait on the phone all day with kids!!!! One more thing (seems to be a lot of them) During November 2010 my family and I went to Sussex Inlet NSW with my in-laws....the entire time we stayed in this particular house we had very little coverage, after someone injuring themselves we tried to call home to advise other family members what had happened and out of 4 mobiles, all with Vodafone, we spent over 2 hours calling, hanging up, calling, hanging up DUE TO NO NETWORK COVERAGE until finally only ONE of us managed to get through! Thanks for setting this site up! Job well done!

I am constantly being overcharged for games and other downloads. I do not download games or movies or anything else. I only use my phone to make calls and texting. I then have to call Vodafone every time I get my bill, taking time out of my day, usually put on hold for up to 45mins if not more and have to explain over and over again to somebody in India who generally cannot speak English properly only to have it all happen again when the next bill arrives.PLEASE HELP US DO SOMETHING.

I find it amusing that when I visited my Vodafone store the staff just looked at me as if here we go again. Trying to fix a multitude of problems when I finally get through to customer service I have to be transferred to 3 different call centre departments (after being on hold for ages or waiting for a callback which never comes. I have now switched to another telco and will cancel my contract if i can ever get in contact with them.
P.S what does "How fail is Vodafone?" mean?

I was receiving extremely poor coverage for a good 5 months. This resulted in useless 3G, calls dropping out, not being able to make any calls, text not coming through, voicemails not coming through and constant drop outs. All this and I live on Sydney's lower north shore! Took me over 4 months to finally resolve it which I noted I had to speak to vodafone's "customer support" which i spent over 18 hours on the phone which most of them was on hold. Thank god I contacted the TIO and got out of my contract

Purchased phone accepts top up money and is supposedly registered but account balance remains nil and cannot send or receive calls or SMS. Numerous attempts via phone and sms and email have not succeeded in resolving problem. Have been on hold for more than 40 mins on at least 2 occasions and yet to speak to a human. I Hate LARA. She is so annoyingly JOLLY and she is so crap.

Vodafail, please just shut up business in Australia and go else where -
I can even be bothered typing my little story here...
Anyway Im on hold right now trying to exit my contract & Ive lodged with the TIO cause lets face it you cant even get through to vodafail. I got 2 months free cap plan before but now I just want out so I can move to a PROPER service provider that actually provides A service. I am a young professional working in Sydney CBD, was looking for GPS directions on maps the other day - No 3G, maps wouldnt even load - right in the centre of town. I threw my iphone on the floor in disgust.

no reception, text messages not being received, internet not loading, minimum of 40 minute wait times no matter what department you call and the consultants are impossible to understand

I was calling to get information and help on changing my plan. The website did not answer my questions. How is it that whenever I ring, the robot's voice is infuriating, it says that it will connect me to an operator, then doesn't, says you need to answer a few questions first, or even enter your mobile number to continue, continues to ask me questions, talking to this machine for 10 minutes just to get an operator when it finally cannot help me any further, then i'm on hold for 43 minutes. It transfers me to the wrong department, and i'm on hold for another 13 minutes before my call is answered. It cannot help me, most services will at least let you connect to a real person if you say 'operator' enough times, but vodafail is so incredibly infuriating, i'd rather be on hold than talking to Lara anyday. Vodafail has epic fail customer service.

yeah my calls dont connect or come through sometimes, but my real concern is im getting spam SMS's from scammers saying ive won BILLIONS of dollars.

Bit strange how this has just happened after the release of the security breach?.....still currently on hold to see if it can be sorted.....

I had 4 phones with Vodafone used by family members. Luckily one was out of contract and I could get rid of it quickly. Called Customer Care and got the contract expiry dates for the other 3 phones and was told I would need to speak to the Loyalty Team to discuss getting out of my other contracts. I was put through - almost - then waited on line for over an hour listening to the phone ringing - didn't even get a recorded message that I was in a call que. I hung up after spending a total of 1hr and 28 minutes on the line. Called again the next day and logged a complaint and am still on hold waiting to speak to the Loyalty Team as I type - at least this time I have on hold music so am more confident that I will actually get answered.

I am on a $49 / month plan and have NEVER gone over $50 in the whole time I have been with Vodafone (basically since they started) and this month I get a bill for $170 - not only is this ridiculous as I have not made 4 x as many calls as I usually do in a 4 week period, but I CANNOT get onto Vodafone. I am typing this while my phone sits at 38 minutes still not answered!!!!! This is the 3rd time I have called, but as a working mother with 2 children, I don't really have time to spend an hour on hold only to have to hang up and try again at a later date. If I do ever get through and I am told I have supposedly made this many calls, it is only because nearly every time I am on the phone, the line drops out and I have to call again!!!!!

my phone has been dropping out for months! I have called vodafone and spoken the the "fantastic" Laura 4 times today and guess what, every time i was put on hold my phone cut out!
My girlfriend is with optus, she called last friday because she doesn't have great reception at home (zetland sydney NSW) she spoke to a real person and they let her straight out of her contract with 19 months to go because they recognise that that area is a bit of a black spot for them... Congratulations Optus - great customer service and HONEST!
Im so over the headache this is causing me and everybody else!

WOW...I lodged an online complaint with TIO, and within 5days I was out of my contract. There was no argument, there was nothing except 'we are prepare to let you out of the contract 15 months early'. I was beginning to think 2 cans and a piece of string was going to be better than the rubbish coverage I was getting. I highly recommend this option to all instead of waiting on hold for hours and hours and hours!

I have just been on hold for over an hour to try to have my iphone 4 unlocked (as they've switched me from three to vodaphone due to service coverage issues). I complained about the 3 days that my phone has not had any service, and was put back on hold to customer service to have financial compensation, which I agreed to as long as I wasn't on hold for another hour. The call centre guy claims that my long wait on hold was "due to the floods in Qld" ??! great excuse!

After one month of NO SERVICE and losing alot of business due to being uncontactable and trying daily 3-4 times on hold for hours trying to speak to someone i have finally managed to be released from my contract!!! Am so happy and relieved. Apparently i have to send my handset back, they will send me a satchel. Ive had the contract for 12 months and have surely paid for half this handset. Not to mention the dollars i have lost in business due to vodafones lack of service. Does anyone know where i stand in regards to keeping the handsets?(without having to pay more money)

6 bars of signal strength and still cannot make a call.
Vodafone will not answer phones in a timley manner ,1.45 hrs is unacceptable.
LARA the so-called intelligent answering machine does not understand plain English.
When calling Vodafone after an excessive wait time you are often hungup on.

WHAT IS WRONG????
VODAFONE IS SUPPOSED TO BE A MAJOR PROVIDER OF COMMUNICATION. IT IS OBVIOUS THAT THEY HAVE MAJOR COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS.

It is likley that they are desparately trying to run and hide and not address these issues.

VODAPHONE HAS REMOVED IT,S PHONE BOOK LISTING FORM TELSTRA DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE ONLY A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO. WHY???

was moved across from 3 to vodafone last week after being promised better mobile broadband coverage on my iphone 4...wat a MISTAKE i made!!!
the sppeds are 20 times slower than 3, the webpages never load up or always fail....my calls go through to message bnk even if i have 4 bars

VODAFONE = EPIC FAIL

Mr Ombudsman here i come!!! this network has to seriously get its act together or SHUT DOWN coz there are thousands of customers out there suffering!!!

been on hold for over an hour now to 1555 and the phone just keeps ringing!! anybody not getting through???

I have been on vf for about 6 weeks. Since I first activated I have been unable to get reception in my house. If I force my phone to GSM i can get a few bars from one corner of my house. Almost every call I make or receive drops out and i can forget about data completely. The coverage maps show full 3G coverage. I wish i could invoice this mob for the time that I have spent in store and on hold trying to resolve this issue. I could pay their cancellation fee and they would still owe me money.

i am constantly having to call vodafone relating to billing issues of being overcharged and paying for a non existent broadband service. i have raised these issues on a constant basis yet i still have not received word from a tech support person as i was promised. that was three weeks ago and counting. I am currently on hold trying to speak to a representative and i think it is going to longer than the three weeks i have been waiting for the callback. just putting it out there, i have been on hold for 3 hours and 40 min. this truly is a joke and the government is to blame for how corporations treat the general public. coming from Canada people have a fair say in how they are treated by corporations who just don't give a damn, but in all honesty this is my opinion Aussies are just to lazy to get off their laurels and complain. they piss and moan, yet they do nothing about it. if it wasn't for your site the majority of these people wouldn't do a darn thing. don't mean to offend anyone. the truth must be told and that is the reason the reason for poor customer service across the board with a wide variety of services through out private and government. "why complain, she'll be 'right" attitude, allow corporations to have their with you as does the government, but that is a different story.

Have been on hold for 32mins and still waiting to speak to a real person...

And worthwhile mentioning the fact that the first call I made to 1555 dropped out!
Was previously told my billing cycle ended on the 14th and they still cannot tell me the details of what I am liable for, for the past month.
Firstly I was told I would need to wait until the 15th to find out my bill amount, rang yesterday after waiting 42 minutes was told they can't see the bill until the 17th. Correct me if I'm wrong, but today is the 17th.
Ashish told me he would call me back and run through the details of each call. STILL WAITING for that call!
Ridiculous customer service...can anyone recommend a decent iphone 4 service in Sydney??
Optus looks good to me...whoever recommended to the ACCC that the merger with 3 and Voda would increase competition in the Telco industry were sadly mistaken. Nigel, was that you???

I feel like I have spent half my life on the phone waiting for some customer service...It's now been 44 mins of waiting to speak to someone. What a waste of my time, esp given I have been calling daily given that fact that Voda do not honour their promises to return phonecalls!

I live in Brisbane and was recently caught in rain with my iphone in my handbag. I did not take the phone out during the rain, and when I got home to recharge the phone it did not switch on and heated up. I wasn't too concerned as I have insurance and have been a customer of Vodafone for 4 years. The next day I went to my local store to tell them what had happened and to make a claim. Firstly, the employer told me to go to the police, lie, and get a police report stating my phone had been stolen. He told me this would be easier to make a claim. I told them I wouldn't lie to the police. I then called vodafone from the store to make a claim, as the employers did not know what to do and said they have nothing to do with insurance. Whilst I was on hold, the employer told me not to say that I had been caught in rain. Assuming he would know best, I made my claim and said the phone had stopped workin. When they asked me whether it had been wet, I told them it was in my handbag when I was caught in rain, but I did not take the phone out. They then said it would be a three week wait. On getting off the phone, I asked about a loan phone, in which the store told me they didn't have any, and did not try to get me one. As a result, I went to another store which told me the same thing and advised me I would have to buy a new cheaper phone in the meantime, despite still paying my contract for this month. I eventually tracked one down at Crazy Johns. After all of this, the Vodafone employers guaranteed me that if the claim was dismissed my phone would be returned to me.

This afternoon I received a letter from the insurance company stating that my claim had been rejected as I did not provide sufficient reason for why the phone stopped working. To make matters worse, they have not returned my phone, nor offered any type of replacement phone or options of leaving my contract. I want to leave Vodafone as the service I have been dealt with has been dishonest, inconsistent and unhelpful. I feel that employers of the company advised me to lie (even to police!) and as a result, have hampered my chances of getting my phone repaired. At the moment I stand without a phone, and a $90 plan to pay off for the next 12 months. Disgusting.

Hi, I'm just here to advise all our Vodafone customers who are upset with our fantastic products and services to stay with us. Please give us another chance, we are taking our time attempting to somewhat resolve the national UMTS network issues via adding more GSM towers. That will alleviate capacity, since Vodafone has an strong client base of about 4.5 million highly satisfied customers and counting. Our merge with 3 has boosted our client base even further to about 7.5 million+, proving that Vodafone Australia is clearly the best option for a provider. If you all are still not satisfied with your current network service, then you should gently contact our wonderful foreign call centre. The adept technical support team will resolve the issues you are experiencing as fast as possible by offering unlimited escalations, language barriers, and misinterpretations. How great is that? You shouldn't be unhappy about our state-of-the-art Lara voice menu because she will provide you with all the transfers you need, including a bonus of up to 3 hour wait times, countless hours of exclusive music on hold, and the typical call cut off when you need it. We even conveniently provide no call back option since we don't want you calling back about how fantastic we are. Not only that, we have specifically poured our vast investment into Lara's voice recognition option so you all can enjoy a aggravating experience. We hope you believe she is a human, complete with our finishing touch of fake keyboard typing noises when she handles your account recharge or status. Vodafone is proud to announce the Infinite Plans. Not only do we want you calling and messaging as much as possible, we want every new or loyal customer to benchmark our network beyond the limit, leaving it unusable for other angry customers here. Included with the plans are super generous offers. You get frequent call dropouts points, almost no reception across the nation, exclusive sent messages arriving ages later, special barring of sending messages, lucky jackpot of erratic working calls, guaranteed lightning fast 3G speeds of 10Kbps average, and even limited access to your My Vodafone account. That's just unbelievable! If you are still not convinced to stay with Vodafone, then we'll let you in on a VIP offer. Your customer details will be accessed by criminals via our respectful employees. Don't worry, nothing is wrong, we'll reset the passwords every 24 hours and you won't be able to login to your My Vodafone account because we locked it down. If you are still concerned with that great offer, then just gently contact customer care, we'll offer you a special limited time 50% discount on your plan for 3 months. If you are going to leave Vodafone, then we'll give you another incredible offer of 3 months credit to your plan, so that you're stuck with us. Please stay, we don't want to face the TIO. Visit your local Vodafone store, the excellent caring staff will troubleshoot your mobile device or offer you another plan. This is Vodafone's primetime, please if you do leave, refer us to another potential customer because we need a big market share. Don't worry, Vodafone will take respectful and honest care with their customers. As you can see, there is no reason to leave. We offer the best products and services compared to other competitors. If you have any further inquiries, please gently contact our helpful customer care. If they can't get to you, try turning your phone on and off many times, otherwise find the ultra elusive call back option and we'll get back to you shortly as we are always so busy handling countless appraisals from our caring customers. If we don't get back to you, then wait 5 business days. If we get back to you and you're issue is not resolved, then it's not our problem. So please, we beg you not to abuse our sensitive compassionate staff in store. They are trying their absolute hardest to help you while serving under the company's oppressive commands. If your issues are still not resolved then give us a year to fix it, otherwise just leave with the help of TIO. All I can say is that those who leave are missing out on our famous marvellous products and services. We have the Infinite Plans, what more could you want? We are proud to be an Australian registered company with a call centre overseas. We hope you enjoyed reading this and are reconsidering your complaints. We hope you are convinced by what is stated here, to stay with us because you chose us for the best possible network in the first place. Thank you for choosing Vodafone. Power to you. - "An abused Vodafone Employee" P.S. - If you are having bad service for extended periods, please cancel your Vodafone plan as soon as possible, with the help of TIO for no penalty if you have to! They are so terrible recently. Rest assured.

I'm another disgruntled customer putting up with almost no signal and slow data speeds. I'm in the process of leaving Vodafone, which we all should do, should we have these pathetic problems for weeks unfixed. The TIO will need to help us get out of Vodafone's illegal contracts. - @ Vodafail.com/mod: As suggestive feedback for extra useful statistics on Vodafail.com, I think there should be a rating bar of 0-100%, in a section known as 'Rate Your Pain', on this site so we can rate how angry or upset we are. That section should include check boxes for if we are still angry and if the problem remains unresolved. It should also include a dropdown box for choosing how long we have been having this pain (days, months, weeks, etc) and how long it took us to cancel our contracts, accounts, etc. A rudenessmeter may be necessary for us to rate how rude Vodafone has been depending on the situation. The 'On Hold Again?' section should include a dropdown box for us to choose the number of times the call centre has cut us off per day, the number of times our calls dropped per day when we call other people, the speed rate we are currently experiencing for 3G (0-1500+ Kbits per sec, for 3G anything below 300 Kbits per sec or about 38 KBytes per sec is just pathetic), and a textbox for us to briefly note the lame responses the call centre employees give us (for eg. 'We have technicians at the site and the network issues will be fixed by the end of this week.' These comments can be placed into categorised list, like the topic categories in Share Your Pain. It would be amusing to see which responses are most often heard from the call centres daily). A voluntary textbox for noting down the suburb where the customers are currently experiencing network issues may be necessary for further informative feedback, so we can see where the problems are and perhaps avoid those areas. A lyingmeter may be necessary for us to flag how many times the call centre or VHA staff lied based on us reporting their usual responses as is, in both the textbox for sharing call centre employee responses and the Share Your Pain section. All this may seem like we are doing an audit for Vodafone's network problems (which I strongly think Vodafone should be doing themselves), but if we actually provide enough information here, we can better inform eachother as well as other people about these issues. I believe the Share Your Pain is an excellent section for us to express our complaintful opinions and experiences of the Vodafone issues. The call centre is like a brick wall. At least here, there ARE Australian multicultural human species that can understand our problems. Cheers.

I bought an iphone, internet didnt work, over six hours on phone to India over a two day period. On hold for 20mins then line drops out. Ring Lara go through same procedures, do teh same routine with the operator, reset settings, reset everything, sim swap then transferred to another dept. On hold for 10 mins, then line drops out, ring Lara, speak operator then again through same procedure, over and over again. I ended up crying on the phone in frustration, was promised it would be fixed- nada. Into shop same procedure finally agreed to replace phone, new phone- internet didnt work again, third phone lucky. This was a business account and it cost me dearly.

check out the VHA call centre in hobart, looks like they do more sitting around, playing ping pong or pool. When were sitting on hold for hours waiting to speak to someone in Mumbi.
"WHAT A RIP SHIT COMPANY"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c1j61MvUNM&feature=related

p.s.
they've probably already been made redundant.

We are having numerous problems.
1) Receiving sms messages days late sometimes don't get them at all, also mms messages have not been received at all.
2) Phone will constantly cut out during a phone call. Also when dialling a number it will connect then instantly disconnect.
3) 10 minutes into a phone call it will disconnect,when we call them back it will do it again at 10 mins.
4) One minute wew will have reception and then the next we will have nothing even at home where we should have reception.
5) When we contact customer service we are put on hold for more than an hour, or if we get them to call us back they don't at all we end up trying to call them back.

We have been a loyal vodafone customer for years and have never had a problem until now and we have not had the response we should be getting. They are not being loyal to us at all.

STUPID VODAFONE i dont have reception and you could not care less THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH MY SIM CARD stop making excuses for your lack of service and shit network. no i dont want a new sim, there is nothing wrong with my phone so fix the bloody problem or allow me to cancel without paying a 500$ cancellation fee its fu*cking ridiculous. AND STOP PUTTING ME ON HOLD FOR more than 2 hours at a time. OH and you think after waiting that long i would be able to speak to someone that understands propper english or even speaks it. NOT MY PROBLEM IF YOUR PHONES ARE TOO BUSY OF PEOPLE with prolems from your shit service.
my vodafone experience
*1 hour wait
explain my problem or shit service
told its my sim card or perfectly fine phone
told to hold
*25 minutes later
sorry there are too many important calls right now i will need to call you back later
then hung up on

I HATE YOU VODAFONE :@

Been on hold for over 10 minutes. Want to Log in to My Vodafone but it says my username has been disabled. Nothing has changed since last time I logged in a few days ago (it can't be flood related!). I also want to find out when my contract finishes and how much it will cost me. While I am with Vodafone I will continue to post my painfull experience with Vodafone. Vodafone never again.

I live in Eltham, North East Melbourne. One Month ago my service simply disappeared from my and husbands phone. All trouble shooting was tried to no avail.One month of hours and hours a day on hold, never being called back, trips to vodafone stores, no one has a clue or are able to help, no one able to cancel my contract, we will call you back..............nothing. TIO complaint response was useless, they said if its not resolved with vodafone in 10 days call us back! Im loosing business big time as calls dont even register or go to message bank! I emailed the CEO of Vodafone yesterday (PERSONAL DETAILS REMOVED) and was contacted immediately to be told we will have this problem resolved within 2 days. They bloody better, how much patience must one possess!!

i'm in swan hill victoria for my grandmothers funeral and i have had no reception scince 3pm 13/1/2011 but my mother and others have maximum or limited reception?! i called vodafone today and was put on hold for an hour then the opperator i spoke to messed me around for 30 minutes before hanging up on me!! any other circumstance i wouldn't care i'd go into the stor but as im busy planning and handeling things with my fmaily as i explained to the opperator who had nothing more to say than "that's too bad" i'm furious!! i need my phone to be in contact with my family in such times !!

I have been having problems with my bills for months, i was using my phone last month and the customer care free text message to get your balance was stuffing up it wasnt giving me a proper balance, so come to get my bill they said i owed them $130 but before this i was $122 in credit on my account so they have wipped my credit and said i owe them, so once I argued with them they realised it was there mistake they have only credited me the money they over charged me and now I am on hold for over 30 minutes to speak to someone to get back 63 dollars as the next bill has come in on my 49 cap with $9 insurance.

After they finally got me off my contract I decided to go prepaid I must have rocks in my head, Went to the vodafone shop waiting in Line to get a pre paid sim the guy said wont be long while another sales rep just looking probably on face book staring at me, the guy walks off serving another customer that just walked in then asked me if I was ok the lady that walked in said that guy was before me the other sales rep kept looking on face book and then the other guy walked strait out the back I thought wow cool and walked strait out good customer service there wankers,ended up getting it from coles they were more helpful, Went online to try to activate the Sim, Doesn't work tried 5 times now on hold for 40mins and still counting as I am writing this I must have nothing in my head far out only got myself to blame on this one should of learnt the fist time least they changed there hold music to Spanish or something vodafone wake up to yourself I should really same the same for myself too still waiting

I'm trying to contact customer care today and already tried twice today.
Kept me on hold for 45 minutes so I hung up.

I sent my wife an sms at lunch, she gets it at dinner. She sent me a text on Monday, I got 3 copies of it on Wednesday. Some texts don't even get through. I was texted by a mate not to pick him up cos he found a ride home. I never got hte text and after driving 30 minutes each way, then I get the text. Would Vodafone reimburse me some petrol money? Not likely. What if I had an urgent situation? Maybe I should put my life on hold to catch up with their carrier pigeon powered text message services. Quite ridiculous - It's as if I need to plan ahead to text my mates and family. By the way, I sent this a week ago on my mobile using Vodafone 3G. You beauty Vodafone.

As I am writing this I have been on hold for 2hrs exactly. Just wanted to share my pain. Will be canceling my contract.

been with voda 2 years and they offered an upgrade, silly me agreed. got my new phone in mail, havent used, havent activated new sim.. changed mind due to lack of reception, poor service and long hold times.. called to canx literally when received phone (on hold for 40 mins) as assumed there was a cooling off period.. went through one dep where i explained i wanted to canx and send back phone main reason being no reception was told "well why didnt you call the network department" she then trans me through to "cancellations" where i was again on hold for about 30 mins, the rep then asked everything i had jus explained.. then said canx fee would be $1657 as there was no cooling off period

As I am writing this its coming up to 50 minutes on hold, all I want is for vodafone to cancel my monthly insurance on my phone since I am out of contract and no longer see the point. This is the third time I have requested for this to happen however Lara and friends keep telling me to hang in there because they are super busy and such. On the bright side my call has not been dropped and its nearly 51 minutes!!! a new record I think

Bad reception .constant drop outs = frustration services not working, lengthy periods on hold 45m-to 1 hour .Staff arent clued in as for example Vodafone 1555 had me on the phone for two days to resolve email issues and it turned out that it was an Optus-Vodafone issue nothing to with phone meanwhile email worked 2 days before not working for nearly two months -it just worked for a week and they are down again.Vodafone reception is extremely apalling in my area there is only one area -spot it works in up the road so I have to drive to this spot every day.
I have lived in Peakhurst and Lugarno for 13 years and its bad and getting worse cant download either as the reception is shocking.
I have been with them since day 1 and have received no loyalty acknowledgement from them or help just bullshit after bullshit .I am certain they owe me $4000 in recalls etc

Can anyone tell me how to activate the call back option when you ring customer service? I don't want to spend the next hour of my life on hold!

I average 11 out of 15 calls I make dropout. The most frustrating of them was after spending 57 mins on hold to the Australian Tax Office that as soon as the customer service rep says her name the line drops out! I call back only to be on hold for another 83 mins...

5.5 hours total time on hold to speak to vodafone customer service in 1 week plus call dropped out twice during this time. Have to stand in corner of back garden just to get 1 bar of signal! Absolute crap service, coverage and communication. Have decided to give optus a go!

vodafone sent me a bill for around $1000 saying i've over used my data plan of 1.5 GB and have used 3GB from my phone.I've a HTC legend that came with my $49 CAP Plan. Now, i never used those data on my phone. I've got naked dsl 100GB at home, i've got internet access at work. There is no way i would used that 3GB from my phone.This is an ongoing issue since the date(nearly 4 months ago) i joined vodafone. Everymonth they keep overcharging me on my data plans. And every month call them,be on hold for hours.They keep insisting the date and time of the data usage is showing in the system.But they not willing to investigate any further, what if the system got a glitch?? i already had enough so frustrated and wish to cancel my service with them and will send the phone back.

LADIES AND GENTLEMAN,

PLEASE IF YOU NEED TO CALL VODAFONE:

WHEN YOU GET ONTO LARA JUST SAY "ACCOUNT ACTIVATION". FOLLOWING THIS JUST SAY "COMPLETE REGISTRATION".

The average wait time is between 30-45 seconds. Longest I've ever waited was 2 minutes. Now for the tricky party...

In order to get your problem addressed, make a fuss, be annoying, create problems, be demanding, don't take no for an answer, demand supervisors etc... I'm sure by now you've all had lots of practice with this. Following this, demand that the relevant department call you back or they put you straight across. It'll save you the average wait time of 30-45 minutes for any other department. Don't let them dictate how we should get customer care. Screw their inept policies, procedures and simplistic problem solving/delegation.

Adelaide, signal for 3G is bad on my mobile. I live south of the city and have experienced slow 3G internet for my mobile broadband. Called Vodafone but been on hold for an hour and dropped. The CEO's 'email' is probably flooded as worse as QLD with complaints, but at least people report that it is working. I never knew it takes all that to get some action. The employees of the call centres are probably too busy focusing on getting rid of customers from the bogged up complaint line, cutting calls to improve their key performance indicators (KPIs) and times. :roll eyes: This telco needs to get a grip because their services have gone downhill in these past few months. At this rate it'll probably take them 'til the end of this year to fix this. People would have left by then. I don't know how many chances we have to give this telco. But enough is enough. By the way, you know how the media are reporting that the world may end in 2012? It actually wont. You are all mistaken. The media were actually refering to Vodafone Australia's impending doom in 2012. Hopefully 3 will survive. I can feel your pain.

I'm on hold for 72 minutes after "Lara" informing me of an "over 30 minute wait" when I first jumped in queue. After being on hold I get a CSO who can hardly string a sentence together and is so quiet that I have to keep asking him to repeat himself. After nicely (after all it's not the CSO's problem that my handset keeps crashing) explaining my issue he ends up grunting and then hanging up on me. Sadly this is what I've come to expect from their Tech Support.

I have no gripes with Vodafone support being offshore but I do expect civility and prompt service when I'm on a 24mth contract with them. If you don't have a good disposition, don't work in such a heavily customer focused role.

i signed up for a 24 month contract with vodafone 3 days ago. trying to port my previous number across. i was told initially it would take 2-3 hours. then i was told 24 hours after it was escalated to management for some reason i could not understand. so after 3 days and approx 4 hours on hold and going around in circles with lara (and calls dropping) i currently am still paying two providers and no closer to having my number ported. what have i got myself in to???

with my blackberry. Calls drop out constantly, data dropping in and out on a daily basis. everytime i call customer service (mind you takes forever to get through to a person, and they happen to be overseas and dont know what i am talking about) all they say is what area are you in? and check 'apparently' check the signal in that area. no matter how many times i say it happens all over sydney not just one specific area. then i happen to be left on hold for 15 mins, no one wants to speak to me??
same spot same time use my work phone which is optus and is crystal clear, doesnt drop out full reception.
texts delayed, blackberry messenger DELAYED. internet not reliable AT ALL. whats the point of having internet on your phone if you cannot use it??
ALSO. calling other vodafone users and saying their number is switched off,(even though when tested right next to me and apparently HAS some bars of reception) THEN TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE - trying to call voicemail and cannot get through or hear the the message clear enough... What if it were an emergency? ive had enough of Vodafone and would like to change. How did you change to another provider?

I signed up for 2 iphone 4's about 2 months ago and since then I have had major issues when we try to call people (it wont connect or drops out). When people try to call us (our phones are apparently off or out of servcie?)When sending sms's(they can take up to 24 hours to reach there destination and even longer if it's an mms)thats if the network lets you send it. When we try to use the internet it is either extremely slow or doesnt even connect! I have tried to call voda numerous times but have not been able to speak to anyone as i am left haning on hold for periods of 30 minutes and longer.......I did manage to complain via email but even then the process is lengthy. they did offer me 2 months free access though, not sure if the probelms will be resolved in that time?

Something I forgot. Tried to pay my bill on email received bill, sorry cannot accept at this time please call 1555. Tried that on hold for 10 minutes, gave up and waited 3 weeks until I paid them.

After a 90min wait the numskulls at Voda provisioned my blackberry for consumer use , even though I stated the blackberry was an enterprise unit working thru the BES. The second call was over 120 min dropped out and i called agian , waited 67min before call droped. my third call lasted 73min. In fact while on hold the third time i drove to the nearest store and used thier land line while waiting on my mobile. The phone droped out and the land line continued i finlly spoke to the guy in india and agian they failed to provide the right config. Finally after another 120 min wait i got thru and got the right config ...

My saga has lasted 2 months!! i work for the railways in melbourne and am a safety critical worker.
No coverage and no messages passed on 1 night and 3 of my crew were nearly killed by a out of hours train!!
# times after i sent back my hand set i have been told all charges have been waived, complete crap!!
just spent another 45min on hold with another promise

This is my Vodafone story...

I received a call from Vodafone('s computer) 2 days ago saying that 2 months of bills were overdue and they would cut me off next week if i didn't pay them. Fair enough. So i logged in to my email to see my bills, but they had not sent either of them to me. They did however send me an email that said my bills were overdue. In this email there was a link to view my bills. I clicked on the link but, of course, that just lead to an error saying they were unable to open that bill.

So, I tried logging into my MyVodafone account online. Not ever really using this before I did not know my password so I answered the secret question instead, which was my father middle name. They told me the answer to the question was wrong 3 times before they locked me out for 24hours. I know my fathers middle name.

I decided to try and call them instead, but found that even though they had told me only a few hours earlier that my service would not be cut until at least next week, they had cut my service.

I walked into a Vodafone store yesterday and asked the sales rep to bring up my bills for me. After looking at the overdue bills, I decided it was fair enough to just pay the money.

On my way home from work (before I was able to pay the bills) my phone was reconnected and a million messages came through, one from Vodafone. The message told me that for the current month (not the overdue ones) I owed almost $100 over my cap for services that the cap does not cover. I am 100% sure that I did not use any such services.

I went home and called them again from my recently usable mobile phone. After dialing 3 times to 3 different Vodafone customer service numbers which all quite literally hung up on me every time I tried to get through to a customer service representative, I was finally put on hold the forth time.

After over an hour on hold, someone finally answered. To compensate for their shitty service, he is (apparently) giving me $20 off my next phone bill - which may I add, does still not even nearly equal the amount of money they are trying to overcharge me for for my current bill.

He put me through to the billing service to assist me with my issues and told me there will be a 7-10 minute wait on hold. 2 hours later, some one finally picked up. He said that Vodafone cant even view my bills and that they have to investigate which will take up to 5 business days, however they assured me that my service would not be cut before that time and he would personally call me on the 21st of January.

Today my service was cut again...

Like all here=problems with my phone service so... tried to phone customer "care"and was put on hold and then was constantly cut off. After hours of trying i gave up.As our monthly bills tell us- we are paying good money for this "service"
vote with your feet people

Poor coverage, poor reception, lack on english when speaking to customer service rep.
On hold for upto 60 minutes WITHOUT FAIL.

was on hold for an hour today and got transferred 3 times to 3 different people where I had to re-explain my problem each time.

I had to call vodafone 3 times and had to wait on hold for over 45 minutes each time. then the automatic system called me to send me my phone and i was on hold for over 30 minutes and it told me to call them and hung up on me. then the service is terrrible when you get ahold of them!!!

No service in center of Brisbane for about 3 hours. 3G internet slower than dial up takes 5min to load page even with fill reception. Trying to ring to complain been on hold for 1 hour.

Well I was on hold for 20 mins then it suddenly said "Number busy" WTF??!?!

apparently vodafone thinks it is approrpiate to keep their customers on hold for over half an hour... then to only do it again AND AGAIN... and then when you finally do get to speak to someone about the isues you can barely understand a word they are saying. THANKS VODAFONE!!

The other day I called Customer Care to speak to them about my handset issues (after they'd given me a broken phone via insurance).
The Indian woman on the other end of the line didn't understand me, so I asked to speak to her supervisor, to which she replied 'There are no Australians working here.' When I repeated my request, she put me on hold for ten minutes and then came back on the line, no mention of the supervisor. She was probably taking another call.

While I was expressing my frustrations with Vodafone's bad service and explaining that this was just another thing that was going to make me leave if it wasn't resolved, she became personally insulted (because she didn't speak English, so took offence at what I was saying) and threatened to hang up on me if I continued to 'use profanities'.

I had to explain to her that 'It's not about you, I don't know you, you just work for a multinational corporation. I have a problem with that corporation, like millions of other Australians do right now.'

She kept putting me on hold over and over again and threatening to cut me off if I was rude to her (wtf!!!!!!!!) and then put me on hold to some other department where 'Lara' said the wait time would be 40 minutes. After my incredibly frustrating experience, I just hung up. I submitted my request to be released from my contract to the TIO immediately.

Was overcharged on my bill over a period of 4 months to a total of $900. Tried ringing them on numerous occasions to try and retrieve the credit that was sitting in my account. finally get through and 2.5hrs on hold and the bloke tries to convince me to leave it in my account so I won't have to worry about paying future bills. After it was clear that I wanted my money back I was told that I would receive a check within 10 working days. Waited just over 4 weeks before I reachieved it in the mail + another couple of days for the check to clear. All this and not to mention the crap service and constant lose of reception.

I accidently made 3 payments via online banking to an old, closed account BPAY Customer ID.
After months of making seemingly double payments, I finally worked out where the extra $160 had gone.
When I explained this to Vodafone after hours and hours of phone calls and sitting on hold, they could not locat the money and would not credit my current account.
They basically stole that money and made it so difficult for me to get a refund that I gave up and paid out my plan.
Stupidly I went to Crazy Johns and when I recently updated my phone to iPhone I was moved back to the vodafone.
I havent had problems with calls but web browsing and email barely works.
I'm in Sydneys North.

sign up with vodafone on 12/12/10 and have had nothing but poor reception and 3g network and miss text messages and friend have said they have try to ring but it said phone off or no service,went to werribee in Melbourne Victoria and had no service which for this day and age is just not on.have been on the phone to vodafone more than 6+ time and are tired of waiting and been on hold.l just about had enough and if they can not give me service i hope they will release me from my contract.
p.s even in oakleigh east

Receiving text messages days later, no service, phone dropping out. I have rung customer service three times trying to get my contract cancelled. Each time I have been on the phone for over 1 1/2 hours and most of the time on hold. The customer service people are rude and don't listen. They are saying its my handset and has nothing to do with the coverage. They never return calls when they say they will. This has happened on two occasions.

I signed up with vodafone over 2 years ago. I was told my contract included $1000 worth of calls a month only to be hit by bills of 200+ saying that I exceeded the $900 included in my plan. I was never told about the tax I would have to pay on every bill. When I called up about my issue I was told that it was my fault for not double checking before i signed up and staff would never say $1000 worth of included calls even though that's what I was told. After many calls, call centers hanging up I thought what's the point. Then vodafone released the "check your remaining balance by text" this originally never mentioned tax again so I thought I could use the remaining value without exceeding my cap. I was mislead again. Again calling to complain lead to long holds that were over 2 hours in some cases, being transferred and hung up on. When I heard of a new $100 unlimited plan I thought they would let me swap over due to how I was mislead.. Only to be told I would have to pay over $1600 outright for breaking contract. Funny how they can lie but I'm stuck with them for two years. So I put up with the lack of customer service and faulty phone I had to replace myself (I could only afford a $27 phone from kmart) only to find that I had over a year until my contract expired.... Around Two months before my contract expired I was told by the people in my closest vodafone store I could upgrade. Not having what I thought was a reliable phone I had no other choice but to try and upgrade. I was told I had to call up to upgrade, so I did being placed on hold only to be promised contracts that either didn't exist or being hung up on and nobody could honor the promises made. I was on hold one of the weeks for easily over 5 hours. I gave up thinking that what's the point of upgrading if they treat me like shit. Again I had no other option as I thought my phone was the issue to my reception problems. I was told by another phone brand to call the ombudsmen about what was going on and I would find a result quickly. Funnily enough vodafone assigned a person to my case and they contacted me. The promises made to me about my new contract were kept and i verbally argreed to what I was told, however I asked for a fine print of my contract, and my insurance which still hasn't come. On top of that about a week after getting my new phone I had poor and no reception for 3 days making getting home a struggle as I couldn't transfer money on my phone. When I told my "specially appointed vodafone service operator" I was never given any reason for the reception issues and still today I struggle with many areas near my house and work with reception. Signing up again in the hopes of getting a good phone so I could have better reception was a waste, i had a $27 phone and now an iPhone and the reception issues are still the same.

stupid Indians from the shit Vodafone call centers are now getting paid to sit on vodafail reading comments and commenting and defending this shit company. I think this has become more of a priority for them instead of answering customers with service difficulties that have been on hold for more then 2 hours during a time of emergency and hardship. Showing no compassion at all for the victims of this disaster. YOUR JUST STUPID IDIOTS THAT READ OFF SCRIPTS & THINK YOU CAN SPEAK ENGLISH!!!!!

I waited on hold for an hour and 10 mins before vodafail hanging up on me. I then ring back again wait for another 58 minutes, to finally get through to someone who spoke over the top of me, told me I was not listening and would not understand. Once I had finally got through to him to tell me exactly what was wrong, he said that yes they had been over billing me because my phone was not sending text messages properly so were sending more than once so I went over my cap....

So how is this MY fault?

Then i explain i am not receiving texts or phone calls - his response "yes well i have given you back that credit. - REALLY?! what about the calls and texts?

Not only was i on hold to wait for the "great" customer service but i also had to listen to them promoting their non-exsistant "great" plans and deals!

I have not received ANY texts from them in regards to my bills not to mention in regards to the lack of service i have received, and now they have barred my phone. So i have called them i have to wait on hold for longer than 30 minutes and have to listen to adverts on how amazing their deals are.... I DONT THINK SO!

Reception is poor, calls drop out all the time, down load speed is pathetic most of the time. I have endured this from this carrier for many months. I try to complain, they put me on hold, transfer me from dept. to dept. They operators that I speak to have fractured english, are rude and abrupt. Hours and hours of my life lost, what am I paying for? I am not a masochist yet it feels like I'm paying for a domination service, red ball in mouth bent over a table being flogged by a dominatrix using an iPhone charger. I am going to the ombudsman. I am iRate.