Lara asks me what I would like, I say a real person, she says, would you like to make a credit card payment? I say no, operator. She repeats would I like to make a credit card payment.. etc etc etc. Until I hang up because lara is useless.

Went to the customer service centre in Milton. Their feedback system is 8 questions to which answers are electronically input on a scale of 1 to 10.. After driving all the way to Milton to get service and then be confronted with another lifeless careless machine was completely insulting and infuriating!

My husband called Vodafone yesterday after 30 mins on hold to cancel our month to month broadband... the overseas call centre verified my husbands details then asked what he could be helped with.. He told Voda that he wanted to cancel as the service is less than average, drops out and is slower than dial up.. you would not believe what the customer service assistant then said.... Im sorry our computers are down at the moment try and call back in the next 24-48hrs WTF? How can they check details of a customer then say their computers are down???

No reception - if by some slim chance I get reception it always drops out I have to repeatedly call the person back to say the reception dropped out!
I am on a $79 per month post paid cap but can only really use my phone to send sms/texts as calls and internet continually drop out. I have no reception at all on the train or at home.
Cannot use 3G data or if I can internet connection always drops out and will not come back
1 bar or no reception at all in Deception Bay
Quite often no reception at all at big shopping centres

Spent last 3 days on hold to customer service for over an hour every time but couldn't speak to anybody

Poor customer service, confusing bills, calls dropping out and the whining voice of 'Lara' make my blood boil.....Something should be done about these crooks!

No data usage
No reception
Cannot use 3G data
1 bar or no reception at all in cranbourne north

Spent last 3 days on hold to customer service for over an hour every time but couldn't speak to anybody

everywhere inside small building carparks , southside brisbane area etc , called customer service numrous times no resoultion

I have very limited coverage 90% of the time where ever I go throughout Victoria. I am also annoyed that it is very hard to speak to a real person when you call customer service.....

they were supposed to direct debit and now are threating to cut me off, if i don't pay them.. and when i try and sort out with customer service.. i get "conveniently" disconnected... grrrrr and humbug !

Have been waiting for my upgraded handset for more than 3 days now. Keep being told that they can guarantee that it isbeing delivered.
Still no sign of it. Have had to miss the days work to stay home to accept it
Worst thing yet is that I was kept on line holding to get answer about it for a period of 4.5 hours last evening (holdng/ connecting/ having network fail/calling back an being put on hold again) FOUR AND A HALF HOURS TRYING TO GET TROUGH TO VODAPHONE!!!!!!
I have been told that someone would call me back about my customer service issues - I have now been waiting since Friday for this call (today is Tuesday)

I have been trying to get my Iphone4 for almost 3 months now. My 1st Gen Iphone is all but completely broken (won't call or recieve calls). After calling their customer service centre every week for 8 weeks I got fed up and went into a store. The staff were the rudest, most unhelpful customer service people I had ever come across. Once again I was told to "come back next week". What kind of person has the time to make a pilgrimage to a Vodafone/3 store every week to see if they have stock. I was told there was no way to put my name down to reserve my phone and I would just have to wait.

The week of Christmas I went into a store and I was told I had to call a number now to order my phone and that they were now taking names. I am two weeks out from the end of my contract, and have been in upgrade period for 2.5 months. I still don't have my phone. It was supposed to arrive on the 6th of Jan. Then the 7th of Jan. I have called Vodafone twice and have been told that it is a problem with the Air mail that it has been sent by. It is now the 11th of Jan and I still don't have my phone.

Add to this the news of the privacy breaches and I think I'm out. I can firmly say, if that phone isn't here by this afternoon. Optus will get themselves a shiny new customer.

I've been trying to resolve a faulty handset with Vodafone for over a year now with no success. After a lengthy email dispute i finally took the issue up with the Ombudsman and over night i got an email from Vodafone admitting that they did not cover my area (i live twenty minutes from the CBD of Sydney!) and that my contract was wiped. I thought this was all to good to be true so i rang customer service and asked when / how i cancelled my account and they denied any such email had been sent. I've cancelled my payments to them and told them that if my phone is not unlocked i will take it up with Ombudsman ASAP.

DONT BE NICE WITH VODAFONE PLAY HARD BALL. AFTER THREE EMAILS IF YOUR PROBLEMS NOT FIXED GO TO THE OMBUDSMAN.

1)95% of the time, everyday now, I cannot make ph calls! I'll dial the no, only to be in limbo, waiting for ANYTHING to happen, before it just drops out. Never mind if I even wanted to call Vodafone to get help - it won't connect to anyone! Or it'll drop out while on a ph call. 2)I've often been kept waiting for 30mins+ when contacting Vodafone. Even when they've started 'helping' me, I've been transferred on to another 'customer service rep' only to wait longer each time! One time I was buck-passed onto about 7 ppl! 3)My voicemail, smss & pxts have consistently been delayed. 4)Don't get me started on 'Lara', or Vodafone staff for whom I have to simplify everything. Very unhappy.

The network is pathetic! I get one bar on the network almost everywhere, and there are frequent call drops as well. Sometime the call goes blank and I end up talking to myself for a couple of seconds before it comes back. The 3G is painfully slow at times. My phone remains unreachable at home because I get no signal unless the phone is kept on a high table. Don't even get me started on their customer service; I've been kept on hold from an annoying 30 minutes to a frustrating 80 minutes before someone answers the call, and even then they are incompetent in their handling. They promise to call back but never do. What have I gotten myself into?

Again, in another important business dealing over the phone, and out of the blue the line dropped out and seconds later I realised I was talking to myself. The mobile broadband is pain in the neck, in Strawberry Hills (Australian Post HQ) next to Surry Hills, the speed is a few bytes per second.

Called for disconnection, was put on hold for over 1 hour, gave up and pissed off, they literally don't give you the chance to speak to network connection team or the network connection team simply put everyone on hold to avoid resolution.

In 34 days, tried to contact customer service 14 times, and only 1 successful chat with a human, whom kindly directed to another department only to be put on hold until I gave up again.

It seems that TELSTRA is now the best amongst the 3, all phone calls are attended promptly, and yes HUMAN not put on hold with machine!!!!!

Current 3 customer, moving to VF with DHD + infinite plan. Seemed like a good idea at the time! I don't even have a service yet.
Delivery date I was given came and went. Called Customer Service. Told I was given wrong info and expect to wait up to another 2 weeks.
Handset arrived. Called their 1300 number to activate. Told 24 hours for porting to complete.24 hours came and went.
I called CS. 20 minutes on hold. They couldn't find out what the
problem was. Advised they'd call back within 30 minutes.
30 minutes came and went. They didn't call.
A couple of hours later I called again. On hold for 37 minutes before being
cut off. Called again. Cut off after 13 minutes. Looked at complaints
area on website. It reads "Apologies, but our email form is temporarily out of order." They suggest calling instead. Called again. Call dropped out again after over 30 minutes on hold. For what it's worth I emailed a complaint.

I'm not sure how they can call this Customer Service.

Poor customer service, even worse phone receptionand Text messages are very delayed on a few occasions

I am a new vodafone customer not even a month has passed but am not at all happy with vodafone. i thought vodafone is better than 3G so i transfered my nbr to vodafone on 12th dec 2010 n was told my fone will activate in 48hrs but it did not. so i kept calling vodafone customer care 14th dec2010 but was on hold for minimum of 2hrs n got disconnected so i went on calling but always was on hold for so long. so i called 3 and asked, so they said to call vodafone n request to import my nbr from 3 to vodafone i did that too n was told by vodafone IVR that my fone will get activated in an hour but it did not happen so i again kept callin vodafone customer care but on hold n nothing else till 17th dec2010. so i went to the 3dealer on 18thdec2010 from whom i had taken my fone n after one hour my fone was activated. but i started facing problem with my handset so again i called vodafone customer care {VCSR}but again on hold for hrs together again n again n no answer at all. by luck i got some live person n i was asked to go to the dealer n change the handset . but no use. again i called many times but always was given different answer by VCSR.at the end i went to the dealer they said they cant change the handset but will repair so i gave it to repair. so i am using my sim on my old handset. am facing coverage problem, calls drop out, also wanted to chk my balance so logged on to vodafone.com.au but failed in all the above problems the website isnt working i cant login plus no answer on thw fone it gets disconnected wenever i call csr saying that they have some technical issues how many times should i call csr? am fed up not even a month n so many problems with vodafone. its jopeless also i have complaint to the customer care ppl i got to speak to abt the long hold they gave an answer its due christmas n new year they have such a long hold. i dont believe this. i want to end my contract with vodafone n go back to 3 am happy n also want compensation for wasting my time n energy

I had a new contract begin Jan 6- this was for an iphone4 that I ordered on 16th Dec (3 weeks ago). I received a phone call to confirm delivery on Fri Jan 7 and had to confirm someone over the age of 18 would be at the delivery destination. I waited home all day-NO IPHONE. I then called customer service and after waiting online for 115minutes was promised it would come on Monday 10th. Guess what-NO IPHONE. I then called customer service, was on hold 45mins before the line dropped out. I then called again straight after, waited another 45mins before the line dropped out. I called back 4 more times and after getting to the menu and pushing the options i needed, it said "I'm sorry there has been a technical error. Please try again later". This is utter rubbish. I haven't mentioned when I called 3 weeks ago to order my iphone, I called 17 times and was disconnected immediately every time. I am aiming to terminate my new contract and also my partners contract if possible. FAIL.

I can never make calls or recieve text messages, my phone switches on and off when it likes, people try to ring me and it goes directly to message bank even though my phone is visably usable to me. I've tried ringing, I've gone into stores, its useless. I dont have the patients to deal with their lack of customer service, though I cant get out of my plan because whenever I go into the store the always say to come back when your phone starts playing up or to update your software. There are no more god dam updates! I've given up.

I made 3 attempts at calling 1555 to upgrade my handset (I dont know why) arghhhh! Due to 'technical difficulties' my call was disconnected.

The 4th time i finally connected to 'lara'. With my enquiry issued, i was placed on hold for 57minutes before I reached a 'real' person.

Only to find that the department I wanted was closed for the day!!!!! I was then placed on hold AGAIN while the operator found me the right place to complain (at my request)

TOTAL time with a phone stuck to my ear listening to bad elevator music - 1 hour 3 mins. PRICELESS!

Whats with calling another country to get customer service in Australia. I cant stand your operators, they are worse than your voice recognition software. Im moving to telstra and guess what, im cancelling my contract, keeping my phone and not paying my bills. My bank account was cancelled today. Ill just assume its compensation for all the crap ive been through to make a phone call. Good bye Vodafail.

A few days ago I contacted Vodafone customer/technical support about the constant drop outs and an investigation resulted in no action. Today I find I no longer have a mobile connection and have just spent over an hour trying to talk to someone and once again no success, still on hold. Something must be done about it. So much for customer service.

New phone was supposed to be delivered last Friday, no one called to say it would be not delivered, my partner waited at home for 8 hours, called customer care was on hold for 2 hours, couldn't stand it any longer, hung up, went to email them via there customer complaints link, it wasn't working...found the complaints dept email address elsewhere, emailed them got a response back today that is computer generated and does not address any of my complaints in the email, now on hold for just over an hour and no one in India has answered the phone....I want to cancel the new contract and move to Telstra after receiving such poor service and reviewing others comments here, being on hold this long is outrageous!

poor reception, shocking customer service, poor 3g. PATHETIC

after the news story about stolen info and such i go to check my account only to find it LOCKED try to call customer service enter pin ...after that i get OOPS we have encountered a technical difficulty Hang up and call again then it auto hung up 15 times IM tired of vodafone doing this they need to get it together fast

This is my second complain on here and vodafone are more useless then ever. It start all on friday 7th jan i rang cause i was having no coverage it took 45 min to talk someone and when i did speak to someone i got told theres no problems i explain to them that where ever i stood inside or outside my house i could not coverage they hang up on me. Saturday i was upset by being hang up on i rang again and got it would take 10-15 before they could talk one and a half hours later i complain about the Privacy RUDE USELESS service they gave all the person could say is sorry sir sorry sir this is NOT how you should of been treated. Today is the 10 jan and i still no Bad coverage and STILL waiting for snr supervision to get to me. If vodafone do wake up soon i hope the 7 millions aussie wake and leave this sorry useless dumbass company. Please understand i dont blame the works i blame there boss who sit a nice pretty office who make the rules.

Hi,
I was a Microwave satellite communications technician and an Austel licenced telecommunications technician.
When I assisted Vodafone to put their mobile networks together around 15 years ago, they were the place to be.

Telstra had reliable coverage, but at great expense. They never seemed to be there when you really needed the coverage or the customer service.

Optus had lousy coverage with excellent customer service. But in direct competition with LIFELINE, they could counsel the customer to the point of curing mental illness...(if the line didn't drop out first...)

The end result of all this was that about half of all mobile calls were connected, completed and subsequently charged exorbitantly by Telstra.
At least when the other half of calls dropped out, you had someone who you could whinge to at Optus who would say "Yes" quite a lot.

Out of this came the shining beacon that was Vodafone. With their reasonable call rates, customer service and coverage!!! Once the news was out, all the technicians switched to vodafone in a flash.

Yes coverage! Vodafone had their own equipment! Without even resorting to network rental arrangements like all the other carriers had to do - 3, boost, dodo etc.
Because of this I used Vodafone for mobile telephone service for over 10 years, still do unfortunately.
Not for much longer!

Then I bought a prepaid broadband USB modem through Vodafone. After going to numerous Vodafone stores to wait AN HOUR to be served, only to find that the USB unit had "sold out" or was "out of stock". I then arrived at 2 separate Vodafone shop locations actively listed on the Vodafone website that were out of business.

I could have had the USB modem delivered by carrier pigeon by then, or made one myself with a broken digimon and a stick. As a tech I have installed (or failed) 4 of these units now, no two are alike. PC compatibility issues are rife.
The $49 USB modem does not even work in most netbooks, effectively making them underpowered miniature desktops.

Reception is appalling. I can see the tower from my house, it is 30 metres away. Line of sight!
As for the install - It would have taken less time to write the prepaid broadband USB software myself than to install it.
Registering, connecting and doing the initial install was the single most slow, painful and emotionally harrowing process I have had to endure in 20 years of software installation. It must be illegal under some convention somewhere...

Vodafone must have their website powered by underfed anorexic dyslexic hamsters.
These Hamsters are multitasking as the overworked software engineers...
The dead Hamsters in the bottom of the cage used to work customer service...

Mobile Broadband reception still drops out in the slightest breeze like UHF used to. I have tried USB extension cords (with some minor increase in signal strength) and modified broadband antennas. I am now blasting myself with enough RF to create my own personal cancer cluster or reheat a meat pie in three minutes...
At least it keeps my coffee warm while I sit through the install program - AGAIN!!!

Short of putting my PC in a Faraday cage and raising my own antenna mast or installing a parabolic dish on my head I cannot see Vodafone providing anyone with a usable mobile broadband connection.

Let's face it Vodafone, these towers were never designed to carry this amount of data traffic at this bandwidth.
The equipment is 15 years old, outdated, superseded and needs to be able to provide a continuous, consistent, reliable and strong signal. Roaming from tower to tower, 3G to GPRS and back again is painful, costly and disruptive.

Retailers should install "Vodafone" recycling bins at the front of retail premises. The junior work experience kid's arse has been turned into a thrashed USB port by the sheer number of returns this Christmas.

It's only 30 metres from my place to the tower. Hmmm... Maybe if I get a long piece of coax and climb up there and hard wire the bastard myself....
Oh sorry! That's called ADSL - YOU MORONS!!!!

I switched to Voda for a cheaper Iphone plan. I did not know that Voda have bad network and bad 3G data connection. 1st month I'm with Voda, GPRS keeps being disconnected. Downloading video shows format is not recognized once every two times trying. 40mins waiting time to speak with customer service and then the call dropped out. And the data quota shows less than what I signed up for. Customer service even had a long response from their own system and promised to call me back but no call yet. The signal is ok at home or at work but really bad once I go to lower ground while my wife's phone still have some signal. I found all of those in less than 1 month. Can I still cancel the contract?

- Extremely Poor Reception in inner metro suburbs

- Most pathetic customer service, waiting times and YES - the phone drops out after waiting for half an hour on 1555 for operator to attend my call.
It has sent me madddddd, brain cells have officially fried !!!!

In January last year I signed a contract with vodafone for the iphone 3 on a $49.00 per month contract with insurance for theft, loss etc, as per the sales clerk in the vf store - or so I was lead to believe. In July last year my phone was stolen from my parents house and when I went to arrange a new phone was told my contract did not have insurance included, the sales clerk should not have told me it was and there is nothing they can do except shut the phone down and give me a new sim card, oh but I can get another contract for the same phone if I wanted to - pay 2 contracts for 1 phone???? I chose nt to get cuaght in another contract and now I'm lucky to be able to make a call off the new sim card due to reception issues, line cuts out, no service etc. All I want is out of this contract with no penalties against my credit history and to NEVER have to give vodafone another cent EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!! Customer service provides me with no response to this request other than "you can end your contract in January 2012", um, that's when the contract ends, very cleaver voda-ripp, not happy at all.

Can't access my current bill details. They want me to pay my account but I can't get a copy of my current bill for the last 3 days. Tried to call the customer service number and call drops out "due to a technical problem" This company needs a good wake up call!!

At this very moment I have attempted to contact customer service 1555 from both my mobile and the 1300 number on my home phone so I can finalise my final bill to switch to another carrier as my contract has ended. Attempt 1, 2 & 3 saw the call drop out after about a minute and each call back resulted in me having to sit through a 30 second spiel about how Vodafone takes customer infomation security seriously etc. The 4th time had me on hold for 25 mins, finally got through to someone and spoke half a paragraph only to have the call drop out. The rest of the frustrating calls resulted in a message from Lara saying ' We are experiencing technical difficulties, please hang up and call again'. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???????!!!!!!! THE ONLY DIFFICULTY VODAFAIL IS HAVING IS THE LARGE AMOUNT OF COMPLAINTS THAT ARE COMING THROUGH.
I have been with Vodafone for many years, both pre-paid and contract on numerous occasions - I WILL NEVER GO BACK. VODAFONE GO TO HELL.

I was with three before never had prob now Im with vodafone for last 6 months having a lot of prob i have made the wrong decision poor service whenever you try to call them its an hour waiting time I dont know what to do I still have more than 1 year left in my contract very frustrated I Ddont wanna stay with vodafone anymore

I don't understand why I'm paying for a service that I'm not getting! Internet keeps dropping out, phonecalls keep dropping out! What a joke! I understand there's technical glitches but for months on end???
The thing is you can't even get a hold of customer service? WHAT SERVICE! Spent over 2hrs on hold with absolutely no results/acknowledgement/return call... VODAFAIL!
Can't wait til the end of the month when my contract is up! GONESKIESSSSS! Hello Telstra!

I currently Live in Casey my partner and i get very little to no reception in our own home, we do not have a home phone. I have just got off the phone to Vodafone (after a 2 hour phone call, including being "disconnected" twice! Finally speaking to a helpful Customer service officer, aftyer running through all my settings on my Iphone 3GS and realising all my settings are correct and it is just their crap network they have now launched an investigation into the coverage at our house. If it comes back that it can't be fixed straight away they will be cancelling our contracts we send our phones back etc. So for all you people out there that don't get reception or get little reception at your own house call VOdafone and go through the steps, it may take a couple of hours, but be patient and you maybe able to get out of your contract! Next stop Telstra...

Service drop outs. Data drop outs. Poor customer service.
Looking after 60+ Vodafail services Australia wide and they have all had drop outs, changing to edge or gsm networks, rebooting at random - I am sick of being told that "it must just be your handset/battery/user"

Well she is the only person you get to speak with and sadly Lara's propensity to make errors is at least better than network reception.

I use vodafone on a 3G dondgle for one remote destktop. The connection drops 2-3 times a day on average, some days 10 times sometimes just 1 time.

Vodafail's helpful technical support deny any problems, suggested using 2g, and well generally leave you hold.

For my company mobiles I particularly lved their admin stuff ups. We had 2 personal and 1 corporate account. I tried to transfer 1 phone from a personal to the business account. Far too complex for Vodafail's dynamic team. Instead they opened another corporate account...in an identical company name. But the geniuses staffing vodafail decided that perhaps I needed a different type of company a small home based one. So called 'soho' for this whobdnt know small businesses get to enjoy Lara bigger ones get a different customer service phone number and (marginally) better customer service...to keep riff raff out (that would be all the other people stupid enough to use vodafail) they block normal customers phone numbers. So if you inadvertently call the (very marginally) better team it says number not available. So as the business owner the only way I could call the dynamic duffers staffing vodafail was to dial 1831 To hide my number then call customer "service" (lol.) of course the two dynamic teams don't talk to each other and after nearly an hour more of time attempting to add the soho account to my corporate one u gave up. I moved to Optus. ..... And Wow! I can get reception!!!! My calls drop about 90% less often!!!

Buy vodafail weren't finished with me. Oh no, even after moving to Optus vodafail still kept skewing up. How? Well they keep a special list of vodafone customers (ie gullible folks) so anyone calling from a vodafone sees this list, well they kept my number of the vodafone customer list but moved the account. Result anyone calling from a vodafone got 'number not available' ah can thus company get ANYTHING right. What a bunch of f-wits.

F-wits who are sooooo quick to screw customers over. Anyone travel on vodafail? Beware!!!!!! they have 2 tariffs "f^% you over" and "just really expensive". I think they call them world traveller and traveller plus. Anyway the screw you over tariff is the default and it's incredably expensive for just about everywhere you want To go, new Zealand, us, europe, Asia etc . Screw you over tariff is cheaper on popular detonations like Zimbabwe and somalia etc....get the picture. You know how thus ends a call to vodafail customer service sets you up to travel and after 2 days in new Zealand I get back with an 800 dollar bill !!! Oh and I was using vodafail nz there too. And the network is just as bad. Anyway watch out for it, their customer service folks are trained to pit you onto screw you over tariff.

Can you believe these cheaky a$$$ holes actually call me up as each of my contracts comea up to expirey. After years of f%^#*ing me over they seriously expect us to re-sign.

It's NOT just reception. The entire organization is rotten to the core with a culture of pulling the wool over customers eyes.

THANK YOU VODAFAIL

At last a place where we can tell the world the reality of being a vodafone customer.

Like so many, I have experienced the same things, lost calls, lost texts, calls going straight to voicemail even though I had full reception at the time...

I've had periods (lasting for up 2 days) when my email and internet will not work... full stop.

I have had issues since approx August, but didn't complain as they were pretty rare and they weren't interfering too much.

It was only in late November that the issues turned annoying and more frequent.

I visited 3 stores in 2 cities, I did sim checks but they seemed more interested in fixing the handset (in spite of my putting my sim into a different phone for 24 hours and having the same result) or getting me to pay for a new iPhone...

So I called VF for the first time on Dec 2, reported the issues... then again when I wasn't called back on Dec 6, then Dec 12, 16, and 31. I called on Jan 4 to speak to tech people to launch an investigation... I was told that I would be called the next day... then when they didn't call back by 9am on the 6th, I made a complaint with the TIO.

I then called VF again and told them that I wanted this settled quickly and painlessly for everyone, and after being on the phone for 2 hours with tech support I refused to talk to them again. They then said, and I quote "someone will call you within 24 hours to sort out how this can be settled"... no phone call on 7 Jan...

Then today, 10 Jan, after pestering the customer service person, I was put through to the cancellations area... probably not who I should have been put through to... I got a bit of a shock when told that the only record they had of my complaining about coverage was on Dec 2... so they considered this to be 'out of the blue, and just complaining about it now', then suggested that I shouldn't be listening to 'media hype'... I was then told to give three specific events of problems - as if I keep all my records?

I didn't appreciate the tone or attitude, I was told I could leave my contract but the exit fees of $495 would not be waived.

I spoke to the TIO to add this information...

I'm tired of this, wasting my time... I just want to leave...

My phone reception has been ridiculous the last few months. Everytime someone tries to called me it says my phone is off or out of range.
Everytime i try to call Vodafone i get a person overseas and then get cut off when they supposedly transfer me back to Australia.
I didn't sign up to deal with people overseas.. i may need to find a carrier who provides customer service in Australia.

I expressed my concern about lack of coverage in Tasmania when Vodafone approached me about renewing my contract 16 months ago. I was assured by the customer service representative that a new tower would be installed by April last year. The coverage in the state is still appalling. We also have a holiday home in Kiama, NSW south coast. I can only get coverage if standing on a stool in the kitchen. In this 21st century its just NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Speaking to a consultant in Egypt with time delay and language barrier is hopeless. I've vowed to change to Testra as soon as my contract has expried - and I hate Testra - but it has to be better than this!! I wish Apple would start up a mobile phone service provider - their after sales support is fantastic!!

No customer service. When I rang the wait was 40 minutes and growing. Sent email, still no reply from before Christmas. Call dropouts frequent with "connection error" showing and some messages not received till next day. What a joke of a provider. Am going to Vodafone shop to try and get out of contract today.

I have Just resigned with vodafone for the 3rd time for another 24mth contract as i have always been a happy customer. UNfortunately since having the new n97mini I have had nothing but trouble with the phone, reception and trying to get any customer service in regards to either of these issue in particular from the tea tree plaza vodafone went in there 3 times waiting over 20min and couldn't even get a staff member to acknowledge me. I live at modbury heights in adelaide and i can't even get reception at my home> i don't have a home phone so this is very inconvient. regardless i am looking at changing companies.

I've had to deal with terrible customer service via phone and in store from Vodafone. Plus I have not been receiving phone calls and when I do my phone doesn't ring it just comes up with a missed call message. Text messages are not being sent out...one friend got a text from me a day after I sent it.

The first bill they sent me was 120 overcharged in three days as somehow I didn't receive any included cap. It took 5 hours with various cut outs from customer service to finally get to speak too someone. I am now in a battle to find out what happened to my purchase of the new Iphone 4 which was signed up over the phone some 5 weeks ago. I attempted to speak to vodafone last night and was disconnected 3 times whilst on hold to customer service at 29 mins, 36 minutes and the best was at 42.32 minutes. I actually got to speak to someone briefly. The conservation went welcome to Vodafone can I have your name please. I stated Paul then the call went dead. Not hung up just silence I waited a couple of minutes but got nothing. I have been on hold today for 47 minutes so far but at least haven't dropped out yet. I am a new customer only attempting to find out where the purchase of my phone is. I am lucky I live in Geelong and so far the network has been fairly good. At least better then 3. I am shocked that Vodafone is allowed to operate and is given a telecommunications licence in this country when their service is appalling. Our toothless tiger the TIO should be jumping up and down at the shoddy wait times and pathetic network problems. The only other company I have had this service with was the defunct One Tel which was around in the late 90's. Well done on the creator of this site.

I am a medical doctor & am on call 2 to 3 times a week, very unreliabe service Calls dropping out, reception issues, poor data performance are the issues I deal with since i have moved to vodafone. Not very good as people can not contact me from the hospital becos of poor service.

I have too signed up for vodafone thinking it would be a better dealer and coverage and reception wise was good as they tell me. Using my 3G to connect at times is shocking and takes long to load or even not load at all. Fase advertisement and if i knew any better i wouldnt have gone with vodafone. Customer service is shocking too, long waits and you get handball around to get a problem solve and you have to repeat yourself 20 times what the issue is and still it doesnt get solved.

I changed to Vodafone prepaid mobile & wireless internet in Jume 2010 being told by one of the sdalespeople that the coverage for both will be strong. I live in Melbourne my suburb is a very established area and can never get a clear reception on either. Both services are always dropping out and I use both for personal & business reasons. They treat customers with disrespect as well when trying to talk with a customer service rep. They would have to be without any doubt the worst company I have ever dealt with. James

f*&K me where do I start??? well I will point out the obvious first, their data is seriously so fucked up that dail up internet is faster then this bullshit!!! 2nd, their customer service all based in india and most of the time they dont know what they are talking about and dont give a shit about your problem because I am sure 100's and even 1000's per day call their fuckin call centre in Mumbai, India...
3rd, this recent issue with Vodafone in the news about some security breach, seriously WTF?
I am sure there is a shit load more issues, if I list all of them I am sure I will be typing all fuckin day! fuck I hate vodafone right now....
I am currently on hold at the moment YAY! I swear those fuckers owes me approx 40hrs of my time which I have spent on hold with those sons of bitches!!!

I switched to Vodafone about 3 months ago... huge mistake... I rarely get reception at home (live in suburbia), calls constantly drop out... I work in real estate so phone reception is critical to my liveliehood... Sent emails to Vodafone customer service, no one replies... obviously they dont care and just want to continue to take my money!

I spent most of yesterday on the phone to customer service only to be told my details were stored in a secure area and the passwords are now changed every 24 hours meaning it was impossible for anyone to now gain access to my personal details on file. (which include my credit card number, address, phone number car rego and so on)

My big issue is:

Everyone at Vodafone is telling me that the problem is "fixed" and my information is "now" secure.

Well it obviously was NOT secure beforehand, which is a damn big breach of the Privacy Policy which states my rights on the contract I signed. Meaning they have broken their end of the contract. However after numerous attempts to explain this to the foreign customer call operators I have been told that I am not entitled to be let out of the contract. (A contract which has been broken by its own operators)

This isn't my only problem though.

Not long ago my credit card details were stolen and used on online gambling websites across the globe. Now I use my credit card to pay for everyday expenses such as petrol, food and the occasional movie or product from Kmart. The thing is though, none of these places actually store my credit card number or details. They simply accept and process the payment.

I also used my credit card to make payments to Vodafone most months for my bill. For some time I was set up on automatic payment for the bill also. Meaning my credit card details were stored with Vodafone. Since I am still a customer, that means somewhere my credit card details are still stored on their system. I cannot think of any other place my details would be stored other than their system.

Process of elimination points the leaked credit card details straight at Vodafone.

I explained to the Customer Care operator this morning that I have bank statements showing unauthorised transactions, I also had my bank investigate the case who confirmed the credit card had been breached. I also explained that Vodafone is the only company who stores my credit card number.

All I want it my contract terminated and my details erased from their system; weather or not it is now secured.

I got myself an iPhone mid 2010 - Vodafone shop in World Square forgot to transfer me to new contract so got slugged big time for data - over $300 for first bill which was only for 10 days - tried to fix over and over and over again - customer service were not only useless but extremely rude - kept refusing to help because I would not send my password through email - was concerned about security when now know there is no security anyway lol - each month they would tell me it would be fixed for the next month and was not - long story short after literally hours waiting on hold and being transferred to Mumbai etc ended up paying approx $100 more than should have due to running out of energy trying to fight. Am considering joining the class action but who has the time? This is what big companies rely on - most people cannot spare the hours needed to rectify the situation. Time is money and my time is worth something I believe - maybe I can claim by the hour for the amount of time I have spent trying to get somebody from Vodafone to take some responsibility. I had to explain to Vodafone that as where I purchased my phone were agents of the company they were acting on behalf of the company and the company was responsible for the error - how can customer service not know the basics of consumer law? Also what's the point of having phone with internet when connection drops out constantly!

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

Im over their poor service, there lies, there shit reasons on why they cant "DO" anything to help me, them leaking our details over the internet. There crap. I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THEM TO ANYONE!

I had a Vodafone broadband bundle with usb on a 24 month contract, was only able to use it about 8 times. Rarely got signal both here and down south where the networks are supposedly 'better'. When i eventually did get some form of connection it was at Dial-Up speed!! and then after 5 minutes the signal was just dropped anyway. Contacted Vodafone on many occasions to try and get a solution but they just told me it was a problem with the area i was in (even tho i have a notebook and am in all sorts of areas all the time!!!) When my plan was finally over and i could finally stop wasting money on something that was useless, i had to ring them and deal with almost an hour of a customer service rep trying to sell me the 'new wifi' thing that will make reception 'so much better' NO THANKS!!!! Would love my money back for the 24 months of unused internet at $49.95 a month!!! Ha a 5gb Limit that i was never going to reach because i would never be able to connect to the internet!!!
SO BUYER BEWARE DON'T GET ANY VODAFONE INTERNET PLANS!!!

Not receiving info texts when I request them, phone dropouts, bad coverage, unable to contact customer service via phone or email...why am I paying for this???

Should of stuck with Telstra prepaid, or even Optus prepaid.
Thought I'd get my value for money on the infinte plans. Still waiting for customer service to fix the fact that my brandnew phone can't get 3G signal with Vodafone, but it's fine if i put in a Telstra or Optus sim. Oh did i mention the number of times calls drop out, sms not sent or received... *sigh*

Vodafail has given me probs with data connection, customer service waiting times excessive, and sms taking to long to recieve.

I heard Vodafail has released priv info about its customers, i have experienced data connection probs, customer service (failure 2 serve) waiting times excessive, and reception probs. I will be buying a new fone 1st thing 2morrow morn, never 2 return 2 vodafail.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I phoned customer service only to be put on hold for nearly 3 hours ( which i took photography evidence ) I explained this to the spokesperson only to be told " you will get 25 % of your currant bill " I then asked how much is my " new " bill ? Um sir I have taken of $ 15 .00 that's right fifteen dollars !! Now you do the math - a bill of $ 225.00 at 25 % discount does not equate to $ 15.00 off my total bill , I then asked him again ? his reply -please sir can you tell me how much this total would be ? That is nothing to proud of Vodafail.... Ohhh Vodafail you're done it again

I phoned customer service only to be put on hold for nearly 3 hours ( which i took photography evidence ) I explained this to the spokesperson only to be told " you will get 25 % of your currant bill " I then asked how much is my " new " bill ? Um sir I have taken of $ 15 .00 that's right fifteen dollars !! Now you do the math - a bill of $ 225.00 at 25 % discount does not equate to $ 15.00 off my total bill , I then asked him again ? his reply -please sir can you tell me how much this total would be ? That is nothing to proud of Vodafail.... Ohhh Vodafail you're done it again

I have an iphone 3GS and here are the problems experienced with VODAFONE:

1. Internet - constant problems: always states that it is "searching". Connection always drops out.

2. Reception - calls constantly dropping out no matter what suburb I am in (city or country). Also, when trying to make calls it constantly says "FAIL". I sometimes have to dial a number 20 times before it connects.

3. Delayed text messages and voicesmail - I receive SMS's / Voicemails 2 or 3 days after they were sent to me.

4. Phone freezing all the time - especially when the phone is ringing and I'm not able to answer the phone as the phone functions have frozen.

5. Changes / updates made on the Vodafone website and then being incorrectly charged because the systen did not recognise/confirm my updates.

6. Customer service is appalling, being on hold for too long, calls being disconnected whilst on the phone is a vodaphone customer service rep.

I am EXTREMELY unhappy with VODAFONE and will support this site and do my part in order for VODAFONE to pull their heads in and get their act together.

I have plenty of more stories to list but I will be here all night.

Thank you,

Belinda

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

Just joined September last year and thought could bare the bad service but with today's privacy breach, this is the last straw for me.
I am glad a website has been set up and i am going ahead to loge complaint and action against Vodafone.

I have been a customer of Vodafone since 1999. For approximately the last two years, the customer service has been appalling. I have one year remaining on my current contract and I am looking to cancel this contract. I travel a lot to see my family in New South Wales. A majority of my trip, I do not have coverage, despite being told by Vodafone for several years that "it will be up and running by....". I had an incident with a snake this week on my return trip home. Had anyone been bitten, one of us would be dead. I spoke with Vodafone about this on Friday and they apologised for the "issues I have in my life". I now have to speak with the "Network Team" for them to confirm that there is no coverage in the area where I travel before I can cancel my contract without incurring any cancellation fee - funny that, considering I can't get through to this Network Team. I have today attempted to send an email but the "email form is currently out of order".

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

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

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

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

I have been with vodafone for about five years, I am just back from holidays (Canberra to Toowoomba up the East Coast and back again by car). Largely no reception, no data, messages coming through anything up to a day late, emails coming through anything up to a day late. This includes many of the towns I passed through or stayed in, not just between towns.

Customer service is a joke and having to deal with Lara is a nightmare and more than enough reason to change carriers. I will be going in to speak with a real person at a vodafone outlet and working out how much time I have left on my contract on Monday.

Come on guys, you are quite happy to charge me 89 bucks a month for this, lift your game. Telstra is starting to look good again...

Further to my post below (11409) the reason why I rang Vodafone customer service in the first place was because I would send a text and the recipient would get about half a dozen duplicates and I would get charged for every single one. I would also get up to 30 'reminder' texts a day to recharge. When I complained about that, the person said that 'it was the system there was nothing they could do.' Jesus Christ, well who designed the system? Robots from another planet?

Hello everyone,
I was a vodafone pre-paid customer for years until about 3 months ago when I switched to Optus. At one point with Vodafone, I spent over three hours a week (at over an hour each) on hold with 'customer service.' In one week, I was booted out of the queue by failed reception three times after being on hold for an hour. After that horror week I said 'F THIS' and switched to Optus. I haven't looked back. When you ring Optus, you actually get a person to talk to and I have never spent more than 2 minutes on hold. They also take the time (even up to 30-45min) to talk you through your issues and ring you back when they say they will. Vodafone is the biggest fail in history and I hope they go bankrupt NOW. God, they fail so hard.

Vodafone had been great for me until they merged with Three. I had just left Three, but joined cause I had heard of the great customer service at Vodafone. At the start, even though there were some glitches (ie: Blackberry Storm), I was looked after and had ready access to a customer service rep who could help me.

My contract ends soon and that impression has steadily decreased. I lose reception in town, I leave a city and completely lose coverage, I spent 2 hours on hold recently, only to get transferred again.

I know where I won't be signing up with soon when my plan renews.

NEVER SIGN TO VODAFONE I was called on tues to confirm that I would be home for a ph delivery friday and only to be told friday afternoon that the handset will not arrive until mon/tues. 4hours in total on hold to find out what was going on only to be offered a $30 credit and told they understand. BULLSH!T you work until 530am only to get up at 9am to wait for a handset that never arrives and then you will understand. i have had trouble time and time again with vodafone... recontracting, customer service, instore problems... NEVER AGAIN!!

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

After getting an i-phone 4 on a plan from vodafone I have had non-stop problems with it ranging from no reception to dead battery life, when I took it to the store that I purchased it from as its battery would no longer stand up for more than 3 hours when charged to 100% the woman informed me that it will take at the minimum 5 days for a new phone or my repaired phone to be returned to the store. This means that I will lose all of the information gained on my phone and I have only had this phone for less than a month. Until this is repaired I will not be paying my bill as I am not using the phone, I don't even have the phone! Vodafone's customer service is ridiculous and after being with another phone service provider I thought that service could not get much worse, apparently I was wrong.

My husband signed a contract for 24 months in April 2009 for a Blackberry Storm paying $79/month. The phone had to go back a few times for fixing. Until the last time, in middle 2010, it stopped texting. He called Vodafone many times and they always gave him the same procedure, after waiting for a long time. The customer service attendants could speak/understand proper English. One of the shops sent the phone to the repair service and wanted to charge him, even though the mobile was still under warranty. After many calls and weeks without texting, he finally got a new phone after saying he was going to put a formal complaint with RIO. These were like magical words. The new phone given to him was not a Blackberry Storm, it was a very cheap model on a $19/month plan, while he still has to pay $79/month. If it is not enough during the last months his phone has been unable to make or receive calls when he is at home due to the poor service (we leave in the Eastern suburbs where should be good service according to Vodafone coverage area). I have found Vodafone extremely frustating! Never again!

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

I want out of my contract. Poor service, and now my personal details on the web. I am sorry Vodafone, you do not deserve to operate in Australia.
http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=562010&vId=

I was a loyal Vodafone customer for 14 years, even rung by them on numerous ocassions and told they considered me a 'VIP Customer' (what a joke), when late last year my automatic direct debit payment failed for the first time. I was away on holiday at the time and within 2 days they had completely barred my service. Even their Customer Service admitted I had an excellent payment record. It was the last straw for me and I finally gave up and have since switched carriers.

I also just couldn't stand 'Lara' anymore who could never understand what I wanted. And what security is it when you have to speak out loud all your private security PINs and codes for others around you to hear ? Management decisions by idiots. I won't even start on the endless unproductive calls I had to their Customer Service centre over the years.

Bye bye Vodafone, you deserve all the pain you're getting.

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

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

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

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

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

I have had the same Service problems as Most- Delayed text send and recieve, dropped called ,etc. i decided to complain via email. The Alarm Flags in my head were raised when on the Vodafone Site i was required to enter my PIN NUMBER on a Non Secured Site (ie: the Secure Icon Was Missing from Vodafone Page). I hesitated about this but i guess becauase of anger at poor service i continued.
Now i read of a MASS distribution of Vodafone Client Details on the internet. NOW I AM VERY CONCERNED. Be Careful Dealing with Vodafone. YOUR PRIVATE INFORMATION IS NOT SAFE.

I went on their website to get my phone unlocked so I could use it overseas with an American sim card. I paid the fee, went through the steps to the letter and the website said that a customer service representive will ring me within 7 days to confirm. On the evening of the 7th day I went into a Vodafone store just to check that it had been unlocked. His repsone "connect and sync it with itunes". Didn't even look at the phone, ask for my details or call anyone to check. Assured me this would work and said that he'd taken 100 Australian iPhones over to the USA and they'd all worked with AT&T sims. So when I get there, I purchase an AT&T sim, low and behold, it won't connect. I then had to purchase a temporary phone over there just so I could contact people. When arriving back in Australia I called Vodafone to tell them the problem and they refused to refund the unlocking fee claiming that there is no guarantee that it will allow American sim cards and this should have been explained to me by the customet service consultant who never bothered to ring.

We purchased a broadband modem today to use the internet wireless whilst on our holiday leaving tomorrow. My parents require a constant connection for business purposes, and unfortunently this is required whilst on holidays.

We attempted to add credit to it, but Vodaphone tells us via their website that the number is invalid!

To make matters worse, my father had to speak to a representitive from a call centre in India who didnt have any concept of Customer service.

Poor effort.

I was put through to so many different people and my problem was never resolved, I spoke to people with incredibly impenetrable accents who could barley understand me and my problem of no reception was never solved. I went into the stores and rang and rang and I swear to god was on hold for an entire week! I lost work and they are in no way going to compensate me. They have however cancelled my contract. At least!
I am now not sure which company to go through?

This complaint has to do with their customer service. After buying the new Desire HD I wanted to use my old phone number from Optus(L) and the Vodafone employee said no worries. So we went through all the form etc, no worries. I leave the store and after the expected change over time of an hour my new phone still has no reception. To cut a long story short, I have no visited this store 5 times in 4 days and still can't use my phone. Thats ok Vodafone, I didn't want to call my family anyway...

We were with 3 and have no issues with them, with Vodafone taking over 3 we decided to upgrade our phones and move to Vodaphone. We have been with them for about three weeks now and have yet to have a time where our phones can actualy ring each other ( even in the same room we cannot connect at times). Our young son just got his first pre paid with Vodaphone and we cannot even ring or get a text fro him ( worried parents). From our view we have been ripped off with lousy network coverage, dropouts and lousy customer service, if we had known how bad they were we would have stayed with 3 or gone to Optus or another telco. Vodaphone are shocking.

Running a business is already a lot of work.
After spending tens of thousands of dollars on advertising to increase the number of calls to our business, it is embarrassing and frustrating when the call drops out before we have a chance to take the customer's details. I thought this was something to do with the iPhone, however, after speaking with others with the same phone on different networks, this is not the case.
Vodafone is the only cause for concern. This is not what we signed up for.

I've had years of struggle and hair pulling despair with vodafone, because they offer no customer service or coverage on areas they claim to have coverage.
Now I have new name for my pain VIRGIN MOBILE!
I wanted to start my new year with new service provider, so I went to the Virgin Mobile on-line store, because on this website somebody said that they have good customer service. I bought prepaid mobile phone, sim and Wi-Fi modem. Seemed simple enough, but they took the payment twice from my visa debit card.
I have spent the whole week begging them to return thee other payment, but they claim that they never took it. My bank tells me that they can see that Virgin mobile took two payments of $197.
I haven't been able to pay my rent or some of my bills, because they hold on to that $197 and refuse to let it go. I told Virgin Mobile that I cancel my order and have sent back all the items, hoping to get back the other $197 they admit taking.
Yes, they do have people eventually answering their phones at the end, but they can take ten days after receiving the goods back, before returning the first payment. The second payment may have been lost forever.
My bank and VIRGIN MOBILE MANAGER told me that it's my own fault to lose the money, because I went to make the purchase on-line! How stupid of me to use their official website, and Visa Debit card, for on-line shopping!
And I'm still stuck with Vodafone, because until I get my money back, I can't go shopping for new phone or modem.

I was already on a prepay service with Vodafone before i signed up to a contract. When i went to sign up for a 24 months contract, i had a bit of credit left on my prepay service already and i was advised by the sales rep that although he is signing me up on that day, i will be given a full month to use my existing prepaid credits, and he agreed not to date the contract. I also have a copy of the contract and it is not dated. Guess what? As soon as i left the store, he dated the contract and my first bill sent included the first month even though i had prepaid credits on my phone. I went back to the store, phone customer service but to no avail. I was told i am being unrealistic! Anyway i am glad vodafail is set up so customers including large corporations can make up their mind whether they want to associate themselves with such an arrogant company. I wont go any further about recent network issues i have been having in Nov & Dec...i have read too many on this website already.

Thank you VODAFAIL, good idea...

I have Cover Me mobile insurance and have had to make a claim. I did everything by the book; made a claim via telephone armed with IMEI numbers etc.. everything good so far, good customer service and helpful advice.

Then I'm directed to hand my handset in to a Vodafone store - let the fail begin:

The store is Queen St Mall in Brisbane, QLD. I have to wait for 30 minutes before I finally get served by a young rep. He's not apologetic, more annoyed by the fact I want to make a claim because all he says is "why what's wrong with it?". Two things here: 1. I've already made an approved claim so just get on with it and 2. That's hardly the response I want to hear after waiting so long to be serviced.

He starts filling out the necessary forms to no avail - the store PC is taking too long, a problem apparently solved by going 'out back to the office'. So he slinks out of sight into a back office and leaves me waiting. This is when my attitude goes from 'lol what can you do' to boiling point. While he's out there reps keep moving in and out of the back office to get handsets for new customers. Through the thin gap the ajar door makes I see about 4 reps all sitting around fax machines, PCs and the lunch table laughing away. They may well be on their lunch break but when the guy who's filling out my app is among them it just makes it look like he doesn't give a fuck.

So I finally get to leave the store, my poor excuse of a temporary replace phone in tow (a Vodafone 736). But whatever, it's a replacement and nice to have a phone again. I make the journey home, plug the phone into the charger since it wouldn't turn on earlier due to flat battery - oh no wait it's not a flat battery, the replacement phone is faulty. Another adventure to the Vodafone store tomorrow. Yay :/

On hold for a simple enquiry for 84 minutes. No longer wanting to hold, i googled vodafone complaints and found this site. So much for customer service!!

I know that mine and my mums contracts are supposed to end this month sometime so I go into a vodafone store to find out the date and what we needed to do to leave after the plan finishes. My mum and I signed up for blackberry storms 2 years ago on the same day but apparently vodafone have just decided go add an extra 3 months to my contract without notifying me but couldn't give me an explanation as to why. I called the TIO and they've now lodged a complaint and said vodafone have no right to do that. Where do they get off doing this kind of crap? I've been with vodafone since 2005 and this is how they treat their customers? It's disgusting and their customer service really sucks.

I have now been on hold with Vodafone Customer service for 3 HOURS AND 10 MINUTES!

FOLLOWING IS THE CONTENT OF AN EMAIL JUST SENT TO EVERY VODAFONE EMAIL ADDRESS I COULD FIND FOR COMPLAINTS, PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MANAGEMENT:

"MY VODAFONE NUMBER: (0410) XXX XXX

Sirs

I dialled 1555 from my mobile in order to have a member of the Customer Support Team reset the password to enable me to log on to My Vodafone.

I HAVE BEEN ON HOLD FOR 3 HOURS and 15 MINUTES and just get a voice periodically telling me to "hang in there. We'll be with you very soon!"

When I did speak to Customer Service yesterday afternoon I was told the Vodafone Systems were down and inaccessible to carry out my request and that I should "call back in 24 hours".

It is out of frustration and desperation that I now send you this email.

I ask that you note my utter disgust and contempt at the poor level of service that Vodafone is providing to its customers and should I not have received a text message containing a temporary password allowing me access to Vodafone on line self-service features, I will cancel my subscription and forward the email to all national press agencies., It is with regret that I contemplate this step and also ask that you note that I herewith reserve my rights

Yours faithfully"

Just found out that I couldn't make outgoing calls or receive incoming calls(all diverted to the voicemail). No wonder my phone has been stayed silenced for a few days. But strangely the signal strength shown on the fone is with full bars.

Called the customer service, waited for about 35 mins, and hung up the call - srsly I got a life, I wont be able to stay over the fone for that much that that I could do loads of stuff.

There are heaps of onging issues with my fone, slow internet browsing (could not load a complete webpage at all, always stuck at 60%. and then fone died), low battery life (I assume this is with the fone manufacturer, but still, the fone sucks, why were they in the market at the first place anyway, QA check must have failed). And no flexible option (I asked to upgrade my existing plan to a more expansive one 6 days after I signed up this one, but they refused saying I either pay out the 23 months before i start a new contract or have my fone for a service).

I will never sign up vodafone again. This is the biggest mistake ever I made (stayed with 3 for 6 years never had a single issue.)

DONT EVER SIGN UP WITH VODAFONE THEY ARE EVIL!
DONT EVER SIGN UP WITH VODAFONE THEY ARE EVIL!

I CANT SEEM TO GET THRU CUSTOMER SERVICE AT ALL LONGEST WAITING TIME B4 I HUNG UP WAS 35 MINS AND MANY NUMEROUS AMOUNT OF CALLING 1555 .... GO TO A VODASTORE AND THEY CANT HELP ME THERE EITHER!!!! WATS GOIN ON??? THEY ARE THE WORST EVER MOBILE PHONE COMPANY IVE BEEN SUCKED IN WITH! IM STUCK IN CONTRACT FOR 23 MONTHS, MY NEW PHONE STUFFED UP ALREADY AFTER 4 WEEKS GOT IT BACK AND ITS MORE STUFFED! I GIVE UP!! MY BLOOD IS BOILING!

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