Originally had a vodafone contract about 4 years ago, but changed to another carrier as they had poor reception in the Bungendore area (a small semi-rural village abut 1/2 an hour from Canberra). May 2009 resigned with Vodafone because the store advised me that full coverage is now available in the area. Very quickly realised that the coverage was not as great as promised.
Conacted the store who advised me o contact the customer service department. Vodafone refused to believe that the coverage was a problem, they said they would test the tower and my phone. They wanted me to put my sim card in another phone - which I had done and it showd that ht ecoverage was the problem and not the sim card. I haven't heard any more.
I am still paying ffor a contract that I have not used since 2009 (and connot use).

I'm really dissapointed as I have been with Vodafone for 12 years! I don't get voicemails until week later, my reception is poor, calls drop out all the time & I've attempted calling help lines to discuss issues & have been on hold for longer than 30mins- just to be cut off! Poor service! Very annoying & I rely on my phone for work out of hours!

To dear vodaphone if you were talking to someone on the phone and your phone constantly drops out after 1 minute on a number of occasions what would you do? Your friends had something very important to tell you but you got there message a few days later and even there voice mail ? Don't receive text messages when the person next to you sends you one ? Your phone has full service but goes strait to voice mail ? Yes the settings are all correct. Ring the customer service line and wait for a rediculas amount of time and not being racist have not much knowledge that people do work and can't go to the apple store to get phone checked I don't see what for but anyway problem not solved as you can cleary see it's a network problem not the phone, anyway vodaphone how would you deal with all this ? How would you feel? What would you do ? Do you feel as though your not a satisfied paying customer that signed a contract your following but the other party is not providing to the satisfaction of the customer ? Isn't the customer always right ? Just wondering vodaphone how would you feel regards to all this? This is just my inquiry and I can see and read the rest of complaints I beleave somewhere in your customer service policy you have a duty of care please voda could you answer me on how you have done this ? Thanks for your time vodaphone as you have wasted allot of mine

I signed up on a contract back in feb knowing that I was moving in the next few weeks to another area, I asked if there was service in the new area I was moving to, and was told yes, so I agreed to sign. From the moment I moved to new address, I have had no service or very little, missing important calls both work and family related. In the early stages of this problem, I contact vodafone and was told the issues would be sorted within the next month or so, that was 10 months ago. Still with an un-acceptable level of service I contacted vodafone again in December, 1st call appeox 1hr 12 mins problem un-resolved, 2nd call 1hr 40mins problem still unresolved and cut off during being tranferred, 3rd call 1hr 20 mins problem still un-resolved. I went to vodafone shop where they connected me through to cancellations promptly, cancellations offered me a $20 deduction of my last bill and a free exit when I return the handset. They havent taken into account the calls to there 1300 number as I couldn't use there mobile to access free call. When I asked where they were, as I wanted someone local ( thinking Sydney ) to deal with this issue i was told Mumbai (India), I asked to be transferred to someone local and was told they could not. As a vodafone customer for over 5 years i am thoroughly appalled by Vodafones customer service and network coverage ( both are non exsistent ). Vodafail is a very suiting name for the company and I will with out reserve point potential customers into reading this sites complaints before they sign with on the dotted line, Vodafone you have lost this loyal customer for ever, no matter how good your service may become in the future. It is your present service that has destroyed your reputation for years to come. Regards Simon

have never seen such a poor network as Vodafon- their voice & data services simply do not work. I signing a Vodafone contract six months ago. I have not been able to cancel my Optus or Telstra home phone plan, as the Vodafone network is not reliable enough to rely on. It is humiliating when calls to clients/friends drop out, or I dont get their calls/messages as your network is failing. I use my Optus phone for business and my Vodafone service for personal and other non-essential services. Using Vodafone, I have had many reliability and performance issues. These include over 100 voice drop outs, poor quality voice calls, unable to connect, poor data performance, data drop outs, unable to fine network etc, As it stands, I need to carry two phone (the reliable Optus one and the dodgy Vodafone one). I believe that Vodafone is in breach of contract as they are not providing the service I signed up for. At no time over the last six month have they provided a network that is fit for purpose or that meets the reliability I would expect of a major carrier. Their system for managing customer service is a joke. Their poorly trained service desk tells me it is a user issue - I am an IT architect of 25 year experience, ex military telecomms engineer and a IT Masters. They have no system for problem, incident, change controls or service level management. How can Govt allow them to market/sell a service that does not work?

Our broadband service constantly drops out. We have to reconnect on average 5-10 times per day. The signal is pathetic with it constantly allowing just a dribble of information through - so painful. Complaints to Vodaphone have been of little help. Poor customer service.

i purchased a $50 prepaid internet stick which worked fine for the first month, once i recharged though, thats when the problems began with vodafone's reception, i could not link to the internet and calling customer service was futile, i ended up taking it back to the store and getting a refund. i lost the whole 2gig recharge and over a week worth of productivity. they gave me back the purchase price of the stick but not the recharge value. im on a pension and cant afford to be RIPPED OFF FOR $30 BY A COMPANY THAT HAS MILLIONS

Car broke down near a major road at North Ryde: couldn't phone the NRMA!!
Went to their store the next day and was fobbed off with no reason for the lack of signal so I wrote to them. No reply in a month.

After 3 months of poor data speeds, very limited reception (lower north shore of Sydney)and call drop outs, I finally pulled the plug on Vodafone after a formal complaint to the TIO. Even after I cancelled my contract and ported to another carrier, I received a call from Vodafone advising the network issues had been resolved! Yeah right!!! The rest of my family are on Vodafone and needless to say I know they are having the same issues...All I can say is Vodafone really need to lift their game, and please, please, please, move your customer service team back to Australia!!!

I have been with this company for a number of years first with pre paid now on a cap I have been on a Cap now for about 1 and a half years since voda merge with 3 it has been nothing but frustrating timewasting stressful , first of all I singed a contract for a service strongly pushing my points as mentioned frustrating - calls droping out after 1 minute not just once on a number of occasions, getting text messages a day or even a week later, getting voice mail messages a day or even a week later, phone not ringing when has full service and goes strait to voice mail mmm. Time wasting- ringing up voda - explaing my problems waiting over 1 hr sometimes to speak to someone that does not understand and blames apple iPhone when I have tried another phone whipped the sim card and other people are experiencing same problems being transfered to supervisors and team leaders, contacting the tio and also Tasmania that gave me another phone that does exactly the same thing hours of my time emails what happen to customer service ? Stressing - paying for a service that your not getting telling me to go the the apple shop to check my phone what a joke voda supplied it my time once again , vodaphone this is beyond a joke as a loyal person pays bills on time you sure know how to loose my buisness once was a good company now I have lost respect, and can't even get out of my contract I have tried many of times just basicaly put up with it shame on you vodaphone

I am experiencing issues both on my internet and my phone. Sometimes I can access internet from both pc and phone, other times neither. Very intermittent. Calls to customer service leave me frustrated and angry as they cannot help me and one rep even suggested it was my browser and with my phone, said it was my handset (which it wasn't). I am amazed that I can actually get onto the internet today to get onto this website which I heard about on the radio this morning. To say I am dissatisfied is an understatement. I want out Vodafone!

My sister and I have our business with Vodapone. We are amazed at the excuses given by this company for non performance and the lies that they give over the phone regarding their "poor telecommunication service" as well as their "poor customer service". We even tried calling each other standing next to each other "call failed", or our classic "fail" is when dealing with our clients the call drops out anywhere between 3-12 mins.
The best excuse that the Vodapone customer service team have given is you are in the wrong area to make the call or you are standing too close to the person to make the call. For me am moving to another provider as I cannot bear anymore lies from this service.

I was on a pay as you go plan with vodafone. Over a 3 day period I was charged for data usage on my phone which I was not aware of. For some reason my phone had downloaded 54 megabytes of data over this 3 day period. To my surprise vodafone had charged me for this data $1,003.00 which I was shocked to find out. I have tried calling there customer service and got the same service, long waiting times. When I finally got through to someone I explained the complaint and why they do not notify there customers of unusual activity which on an account which was th case in my instance as I never use my phone for internet access. I also asked them how they charge people for data access, what the exact rate they use as I think $1,000.00 for 54 megabytes does not look correct. The person I spoke had no clue and said they would call me back. This was over 2 weeks ago and no one has called me from vodafone to explain this. I now have a bill they sent which they expect me to pay and still have had no respone from vodafone to my complaint. I have now cancelled my account with for a number of reasons but will be taking this further.

Irecently joined up with vodafone not knowing they were the worst business EVER! I have 2 phones with them now one for me and one for my partner, my phone is forver telling me i have no service even though before i joined up i asked if there was 3g service where i live! PFFFT no 3g service in my house nor at my work or even in my driveway. I have to drive a few km's to get some service and even than it cuts out. i cant count how many times ive rang vodafone to complain, the customer service is disgusting and they put you on hold a 1000 times. My phone isnt the problem, the crappy vodafone service is!!! i want out of my contract but i cant get through to anyone! Should of stayed with optus prepaid!!!

I have been having problems with vodafone coverage on my iPhone for over two years.

In Sept (2010) I became aware that I was unable to send email from my phone. Since then I have spent literally hours waiting to get through to so called customer service. The wait was never less than 50 minutes and on one occasion I held out for one hour and fifty. The excuse was always the same - external ISP's were blocking the vodafone outgoing server because of a spam issue! A vodafone technical rep told me on one occasion that the problem was affecting approx 40% of the vodafone customer base. (Wouldn't you think that would be sufficient enough to go public on the matter and let people know there was an issue - if for no other reason than to put additional pressure on the alleged ISP's?) But not vodafone. Sweep it under the carpet and tell people all will be fixed up in a 'few days'! What a joke!

After weeks of this 'service' and leaving messages for someone from Customer Service to call me I contacted the TIO. At least that got a response but (irony or ironies) due to poor coverage everytime someone called me the call dropped out! However, when I did manage to call back immediately on the number that came up on my mobile I got a message to the effect of 'this person is not taking voice messages' or we cannot take your call right now please call back later'. As I said, 'customer service'!!!

In the midst of all this I got a letter from the vodafone Resolutions Team saying they had tried to contact me and if I didn't contact them by the 18th Dec they would consider my complaint resolved. Rich or what. I promptly replied saying if I hadn't heard from them by the 18th Dec I would take it they were accepting my position that they were in breach of their contractual duties and they were accepting that I was released from my contract with no further payments required.

LAst week I finally managed to get a call from a gentleman at their Resolutions Team who offered to release me from my contract but asked me to pay $600 in order to be able to keep the iPhone. I refused and put the proposition that as a good will gesture for the disgraceful service, time lost, disruption etc they should cancel the contract and offer the phone as a good will gesture. The person I spoke to was talk to his supervisor and get back to me. I'm still waiting.

In short, vodafone is a disgrace as a national carrier, an embarassment to the telecommunications industry and an insult to its customers.

I will be contacting the legal firm considering the class action and making all my records - dates, times, mobile numbers for vodafone staff as well as copies of all my correspondence with both vodafone and the TIO available to support the action.

It is great to see this web site and congratulations to those involved. I considered setting one up myself at one point but opted instead to try and raise the issue through some other channels, including Talk Back radio but without any success.

I am happy to be involved in any future activities on this matter and vodafone in general because 'service' of this 'quality' should not be kept a secret!

Rgds

Jordan

Since Vodafone and 3 merged I have constant no service on my 3 handset until on the 22nd of December I had no service for the next 4 days. After speaking with customer service people in call centres overseas I was told that maybe the sim card or the phone was faulty. There is nothing wrong with the sim card or the phone. Read the paper the other day and saw the light Vodafail. My wife is with Telstra and have had excellent coverage and 3G.

Apart from the usual complaints about drop-outs, poor coverage etc, I left Vodafone for Virgin because of the treatment I recieved from customer service. I have been a Vodafone customer for nearly 10yrs on a $79 a month cap, and I have been wanting to up-grade to a Iphone for about 3 months. Everywhere I went customer service told me I couldn't up-grade at the moment, they were only dealing with new connections! Well vodafone,because of your attitude towards loyal customers, I have now cancelled my membership with you and gone elsewhere, and got myself a new Iphone to boot! P.S My wife wil be joining me in about two months when her contract concludes!

Not only does my calls drop out continuously, but their customer service is non existent.

I bought a $200 Vodafone touch screen from a Vodafone shop in Eastgardens Mall. I had to send it back three times to be repaired. The customer service, said they would only send me a phone through the post, they would not give me a fone to the same value, nor would they refund the balance, and the shop said they didn't exchange phones. I had no place to turn except to Department of Fair Trading.
snowyblue71@unwired.com.au

My sister was with 3 and moved to Vodafone around 3 weeks ago. Man, it's difficult to have a conversation on the phone when it KEEPS DROPPING OUT or her voice is totally unable to be understood. She has tried calling Vodafone with continual frustration when speaking to customer service - discussion keeps going around in circles - "we will investigate". She wants to get out of the contract but has been told it will cost her over $1k.

We just left voda phone (three) because of poor coverage for over 10 years only it seemed to get worse not better particularly in the last few months.

We also more recently had major issues with multiple text sending. The same text would be received by the one person several times. Each time would be charged. We complained for several months and the process was terrible. Not only did voda phone (three) fail to fix the problem, but communication was horrendous. On hold each time for nearly an hour, English as a second language issues, patronizing frustrating customer service methods and receiving a bill for cancellation after been told we wouldn't. Never again.

Charlesgreen66

After many painful experiences with Indian call centres I only deal with companies who have Australian customer service. I speak on a clear line and with people that have accents I can understand that live in Australia. Vodafone is un-Australian

I have 3mobilebroadband - got it when it first came out more than 2 years ago - worked OK until a couple of months ago ... something to do with the Vodafone/3 merger/acquisition ? Now I have fairly frequent dropouts, including in the middle of important business. 3Customer Service have been pretty good all along - including during this 2 month period... but I didn't realise the 2/Vodafone connection until last week as it wasn't mentioned by 3.

Well in total, I have called Vodafone over 5 times, in which all calls lasted atleast half an hour. Firstly the reception on my phone. I am in an area where there is 100% reception, I should be able to use 3G right, however I can only use 2G and there is no cure according to Vodafone Technical Support. I own a blackberry so I use my phone for my business also, and I have actually lost out in profit because people are unable to contact me when i am in this frequent area where there should be reception but isnt. I've got a bill for over $1000, and half of the time, I couldn't even use the phone. I also get random texts that are telling me to pay my bill, when I already have. One day i actually spent 3 hours on the phone to someone, i couldnt even understand that well, who wouldnt let me talk to a supervisor. This is just a glimpse. But as of late Vodafone is a FAIL, and I'm NOT happy!! I'm glad that I'm not the only one in this situation, there really is a problem, and im not going to accept the slight apology from Vodafone Customer service officers as enough anymore!

continuing drop outs
i have the bit rates visible whilst surfing the net and the drop outs are regular almost as if deliberate and sometimes for up to five minutes or no connection at all !!! But the software is telling me i am connected "very good"
speeds are rarely in to the arena of double digit
the only good thing is portability when moving house
but that is a lousy reason to be happy
customer service is nil because it costs too much to be on hold so long!!!

Vodafone is now a 3rd rate network. They used to be great but they seem to have lost the plot. They went from atrocious in the early nineties to somewhat reasonable in later years but they seem to have gone back to their old appalling
Ways. Frequent drop-outs, slow internet or no internet. Supposed to be 3G area but phone switches to EDGE or GPRS frequently. On 3G signal is mostly very low - 1 bar on signal meter. Contacting customer service is torturous. This is a Brisbane inner north suburb in close proximity to the airport.

I am not a big user of mobile phones and mostly use an IPhone for emails, Safari, checking on stocks, weather etc.
My observation over last year is a decline in Customer Service via phone and Instore where a problem or query arises. I was at Chadstone Shopping Centre on Boxing Day when there were thousands shopping the Vodafone Store had two, maybe three people attending to customers.
The same thing happened a few weeks earlier when I was at Chadstone at end of November 2010 on Black Friday. Many people trying to connect newly bought phones, only two attending to customers.

on holidays and can't keep in touch with anyone nor they with me. Endless hours are spent walking around trying to get reception...vodafone.....i hate u! now lets see if this fails just like everthing else vodafone offers!!

In total I made over 12-13 phone calls to customer care in 3 days... Due to a high number of dropped calls I got to talk to a few operators. Their excuses ranged from something being wrong with my phone to their company merging and that I should understand this because I run a business!!!

Question is does my customer understand that they can't contact me because Vodafone is merging?!

Needless to say Vodafone is still direct debiting my account every month, at will!

Reasons for my frustration: Phone calls dropping, people complaining that they can't reach me, slow internet speed on my mobile broadband and endless wait on customer service. Once you do get through, you find your self talking to a person who apears not to care or not understand what you are talking about.

Signed up contract 2 months ago (end of October 2010) and:

- Almost no signal in the house.
- 50% of the times calls goes straight to voice mail. My girlfriend had serious arguments with me on this, thinking I turned off my phone. Also missed many important calls from other parties.
- Bills in advance. I am on a $79 iPhone plan and already got billed 3 times (3x$79). Why do they do this? I don't even know how it works!
- Mobile internet is often a disgrace.
- Waited 1 hour on customer service line.
- Could not be bothered to contact them again.

Money much better spent elsewhere.

3G Service (Coverage/Connection): Connection ALWAYS drops out... I always have to disconnect and reconnect repeatedly... time-consuming and very frustrating...

Customer Service: A CALL TO VODAFONE TAKES A WHOLE HOUR!! HOLD TIME TO GET ANYONE IS ALWAYS 20+ MINUTES!! Then you have to wait another 10-20 minutes in order to get the RIGHT someone!! I have problems but don't have the time to sit on the phone 20 minutes to finally get someone!

Billing: I ordered the service in September 2010 and never received a bill. In 3 months, NOTHING... I kept trying to view my statement online, but the feature wasn't working. I wanted to wait for something from Vodafone because I didn't want to pay for a call and sit there for an hour waiting for resolution - I just don't have that kind of time. I had begun to assume that bills came out quarterly UNTIL THE SERVICE WAS DISCONNECTED for seemingly no reason. Then I tried to call for 4 days in a row to find out what was going on and connection to the call center from Adelaide was down... I had assumed that the lack of service was because of a massive network failure. I then got through, after a week, paid the balance I was told over the phone with the late charges waved, to have a bill FINALLY COME THREE WEEKS THAT INCLUDED $50 of LATE FEES!!! I don't agree with it, but I paid it... who would I call and what would it solve?

Vodafone,
Your network is in serious need of an overhaul, your customer service is abysmally disgusting and your excuses and apologies are offensive. This should have been fixed months ago.

You need to get off your metaphorical backsides and do all you can to fix it. You need to come clean with exactly what is wrong with your network, how you intend to fix it and how long it will actually take to fix it (none of this 'we think it will take...' banter, we've already had enough of that).

It's clear that the problems you are having with your network are not software problems. Before anything is rolled out to a production system, it should be tested and tested and tested, then tested again for good measure. I find it hilarious, but at the same time frighteningly disturbing that a 'software fault' was able to cause these problems. I find it disturbing that it has taken so long for it to be fixed, and even when you claim the problem has been fixed, a large number of your customers still say it has not been fixed.

You need to dump any off-shore customer call centres you have and start employing Australian people in Australian based call centres. The customer service you are currently providing (or lack there of) is pitiful. You knew that there was a problem, yet the customer service 'representatives' that you employ off-shore still read from the script they have been provided and really didn't give a rodent's backside whether the issue was known or not. "Yes, I have turned my phone on and off. Yes, I have reset my phone. Yes, I have tried another SIM card. Yes, I have tried another phone." Sound familiar? They were retroactive and not proactive, which has destroyed your image. Customer Service is everything. I don't own a business and yet I know this basic principle, something which you need to be educated on. There is no point in selling a product if you can't even back it up.

You need to stop making excuses and claims that you're "working on it". We are sick and tired of it. These excuses and lies are inflicting untold and widespread damage to your brand, image and reputation: all of the media coverage, social networking coverage and this website on this issue are undeniable examples of this fact.

I was once in high regard of Vodafone but after witnessing and being subject to your disregard with your customers and service, you are not even an after-thought, I actively discourage anyone from signing with you because of these problems, even on a pre-paid based service, you're just not worth it. Customers will pay more for a service that works! I can tell you now, your current behaviour and attitude will not fix things, you will only exacerbate the vast damage that is being inflicted to your image (and later on down the track, profits, as that all that seems to matter to Vodafone).

Case-in-point, despite all of the customer complaints of poor service and poor customer service (because of capacity issues, one would assume considering the problems described by others are further reaching than a 'software fault'), you still decided to go ahead and aggressively market your 'Infinite cap' plans. Now, if you're suffering from capacity issues (that is not enough hose for the water you're trying to deliver, so to speak, since it seems you need to be educated on this), won't the rolling out of these plans make the problem worse?

Use logic, Vodafone, seriously! Fix your network first! Like I said, there is no point in selling a product if you can't support it. In fact, it's driving your customers away, and placing you in bad stead with the ACCC, the TIO and future customers because they're seeing all of this negative publicity.

I've had enough. I'm off to Telstra. Paying more for a service that works is a bloody sight better than what a joke of a service you are offering. I gather many feel the same.

And that is putting it nicely.

been with vodaphone for five years on a114 dollars amonth plan what ajoke this service is terrible been having service problems for over 12 months decided enough is enough im still waiting for my refund cause i was in credit on my plan everytime i rang customer service was in india there english was very bad and they were uninterested in my problems shame vodaphone shame i demand a refund through services and contract you broke this will fall on deaf ears im only the little guy but they still took my 114 dollars amonth never again unhappy ex customer

Like to tell you of Vodafones pathetic customer service!
I ring them, go through so much anger speaking to their stupid answering
service, only then to be transferred to the philipines to speak to a customer
service representative who either cannot speak proper english, or l cannot
hear because of seriously bad transmission!
I have on many ocassions nearly had nervous breakdowns!
I truly believe these telco companies do this to get rid of us ringing them!
It is an absolute evil!
Put people here in the unemployment cues into jobs Vodafone!
Instead of pocketing it all, and, NO maintenance on your system!

6 months ago I paid $150 for a Vodafail prepaid wireless broadband dongle (12GB of data/12 months to use). I have never seen the reception meter showing more than 3 out of five 'bars' of service while my prepaid mobile sits beside my computer with full service coverage. I have been on xmas holidays since 17-12-10 and have managed to connect to the net during my holiday perhaps once per every 50 attempts, but when I do finally connect the service drops out before I can open a web page (using a friend's Optus broadband to write this). Of course I contacted customer support and spoke to some arrogant guy sitting in a call centre in India who informs me that the service has suffered some congestion over the xmas period and I should try to be patient. Customer service? I would love to join a class action against Vodafone, WHERE THE HELL DO I SIGN?

Data never loads, calls drop out like hell esp happen during my phone interview...Never successfully complaint as the customer service is forever lined up... and waiting...

This is not what I sign up for! If there is a class action, I am in it.

i have a lot of call drops off with no reason have to call again . very badfor my bussiness work my girlfriend accuses me not responding to her meaasges quickley but her messages alaways comw few hours late . customer service could not help at the store level to change my number waited one hour at the store the staff were useless . told to speak to customer service on the phone called six times with an average wait of 45 mins . no good i am paying my money to get a proper service not to wait 45 mins my problem is not fixed yet

Being a 3 customer I have the Vodafail pains too... woeful reception that seems as though it has been de-tuned down to 2-3 bars of reception which were once full at 5 all the time. Significant data issues where there is just no coverage at all, worst of all my phone keeps slipping into "No Service" mode constantly.... absolutely shocking customer service and even though i have always tried to avoid it that big T might just get my ongoing business come contract cancellation time!!

Having a small business with 4 phones on a business plan with Vodafone would you think service and customer service would be different to a retail customer. No treated with destain and told that there is never anything wrong with the service. It must be at your end. What 4 people can't use a mobile phone?

My wife an I both have vodafone accounts and we share a wirelss broadband again with Vodafone. Our wireless broadband is painfully slow and has not worked at all for six weeks. We now use our i-Phone for internet. My calls to Vodafone customer service have degenerated into shouting matches when the services representative tells me we have excellent coverage. It does not. We now refuse to pay our broadband account and will be happy to see them in court. I am now on holidays 200km west of melbourne and have absoulutely no phone reception while my sister who has Telstra gets better service than when I'm home in Geelong. Vodafon are a nightmare!

I have been with 3 for years and was told Voda and 3 were basically one and the same so went with a better off through Vodafone. Well ...

messaging taking 24 plus hours to be delivered.

I have been billed for my last month and cant access my billing invoice to see what I have been charged for. My bill is also higher than expected, I cant see a reason, but cant see my physical bill or usage to confirm.

Customer service is non existant. (hours on hold) (lack of help)

BUT if you want to change your plan or get something new, there is someone there to help.

I have been with vodafone for over 10 years, since I purchased my first mobile. Over the past 18 months I have notioced a decline in coverage and service. When calling the so helpful "customer Service Desk" to explain my concerns I was told "I live in a well covered area in Sydney". How can this be when my phone drops out at least 50% of the time and constantly cuts in and out of service in my house without moving the phone. In my opinion, mobile phones have come along way with the use of technology, people are not only using them for making calls but internet use as well and this use of data must have some effect on vodafones own capability.
Why then is Vodafone still recruiting customers when they can't support their existing customers. I've had enough of their lack of service, lousy and unreliable reception they offer. I'll be switching companies at the end of my contract if I don't get out of it beforehand.

For nearly two years now I have suffered at the hands of Vodafone. I had been using Vodafone for a long time without too many problems, so I decided to get a new phone with them on a $29 cap contract (over 2 years), as the $29 caps had been doing me fine previously. Within a short couple of months of signing that contract Vodafone changed networks, and I was in dire straits. With the frustration of next-to-no reception and constant dropped calls, I feel that they were in breach of contract, as the contract I signed was for the previous network. I have attempted numerous times to sort out this problem. To cut a long story, the final straw was to be told that I could not contact the appropriate people by email, I had to phone them. They could not transfer me, I had to phone them! I tried to point out the irony: How can I phone them when I have no reception and/or the calls simply drop out? Their reply was, "Yes, I understand, but that is the only way we can help you." How much I loathe that "I understand"! I have now given up and am waiting for January 19 to finish the contract; it will be interesting to find out what their reaction is going to be when I demand that they unlock the phone because I am going elsewhere in the hope of receiving better customer service.

have to say, only get 2 bars of service in a area that vodafail, says should be 4 or 5 bars..bull crap..
customer service...holy mother...no such thing..anything from 45 mins or more to speak to a muppet in customer service..and then you only get more grief or they try to change your plans, they WILL NOT LET GIVE A REFUND OR CANCEL CONTRACT..
ACCC needs to look at this in depth..

i have a usd modem that provides me with internet service like it was 1991,the connection bar says the connection is excellent and is delivering internet at a speed of 130.0mbps what a load of shit,its no where near a tenth of that it takes 3 minutes to open a website.called customer service with no joy and i tried to have my service stopped but the operater said no one there could help me that day and someone would call me within 48 hours well that was 8 days ago now.not happy jan

I live in Adelaide's North Eastern suburbs and switched to Vodafone about 14 months ago after being a Telstra customer of over 18 years. Took out a $124 plan which included mobile internet (via USB modem). Having switched to Vodafone my wife also takes a $30 prep paid plan also.

I'll say from the outset that the Technical service received has been excellent - much better than Telstra but the phone and internet coverage, particularly in my area has been very disappointing. Running a small business from home, I find that I cannot have a decent conversation without fear of dropping out (which usually happens). I've actually given up on the trying to get reliable coverage through the USB modem and put it down as a bad investment!

I sent an email to Vodafone reporting the problem and seeking some advice of proposed system upgrades which may improve these services, particularly in my area. To their credit, I received a reply within 24 hours stating that there were no planned upgrades to these services - which means one of two things. Either I will attempt to opt out of my plan and switch back to Telstra or Optus or, if this is not possible, wait until it expires in October 2011 and put up with the the poor frustrating service.

This is a pity because I have found Vodafones customer service to be 100 times better than that of Telstra, but Telsra's reliability is 100 times better than Vodafones - even though you have to pay through the nose for it!

I bet that Telstra are rubbing their hands wathcing this whole episode unravel.

I have missed important medical appointments from failed voicemail messages that I have not been able to listen to / retrieve.
Takes upto 3-5 days to retrieve messages both voice and text.
I have been kept on hold for upto 1 hour 3 different times in one day regarding a phone bill that I have paid, I have the receipt with a receipt number, but the operator did not want to know that, he wanted to argue I hadn't paid the bill. I am still waiting for a hard copy to be posted to me and prove that I have paid for that bill.
I also find their billing system pathetic; why they have to send it in an email is beyond me.
Service drop out is ridiculous: I have hardly any coverage at all;
The last time I spoke to Vodafone about all my issues, I told them I would be looking to change carrier, he wasn't too fussed - told me to have a nice day. This is not customer service.

Signed up to a good deal on a 24 month contract. Was promised great reception at Hervey Bay QLD (populated tourist area) Dropped calls bad reception in 90% of Hervey Bay. Phone squealing in my ear with error. Phone disconnects all the time. Impossible to get through to customer service. Bad phone and the short of it is. I am tied into a 24 month plan I can't even use my phone at all. Most the time it wont even let me send a text from an area I was promised good reception. I defiantly checked the reception on there website before entering into the contract.

Very weak reception, random drop out,minimum time to talk someone in customer service 45minutes. Even I tried to contact at 2 AM but I waited for 85 minutes and Lara was saying you'll be connected very soon!!!

As a happy I left before it went to crap ex Vodafone Australia staff, so prior the Vodafone Hutchison Australia debacle... I feel for all the customer we once served and provided an excellent AU based customer service led organization.

At the end of the day after the merger of Vodafone and 3 there is only 1 director remaining, Dave 'Brutus' Boorman. The current 'VHA' ,a left over 85% 3 Management led company, is destroying a global legacy of innovation.

I would suggest that the Vodafone plans released prior the merger of a 900 and 2100 network were working and sound, the '3' mentality of knowing better than Vodafone globally, instead they went with 850 as well, with 900 and 2100, Michael 'SMS' Young should stand up and be proud.

It is a shame that Nigel 'SMS2' Dews decided to rid the organization of all of the 'professional' telecoms people and instead leave with the 'Hillsong' and 'car salesmen'...

I would suggest that is another organization that might want to investigate the dealings of the general management for some 'interesting' and questionable business practices.

Vodafone have been charging me for a contract that ended in April 2010. When I FINALLY got through on their overseas number after 5 attempts and over an hour of waiting. I have written 3 times on their customer service contact email and they agreed to reimburse only the amount the call and the email, even though the email was to follow up why I hadn't been reimbursed. I still haven't been reimbursed and plan to contact WA Commerce Department consumer complaints to follow up formally.

..and I am still being billed by Vodafone!

Have the same problem like all of you... but what pisses me of is when I called customer service and asked them if there was an issue they played dumb and acted like I was the first person that made a complain about these issues. I was supposed to have a vodafone tec call me to rectify the problem,its been 2 weeks and I'm still waiting.

I purchased a plan that included music downloads etc.I tried everything to get music onto the phone that was supplied to me. I spent endless hours on the phone mostly because "Lara" couldn't work out where to send my calls. My calls were diverted to Malaysia where the operator told me to 'Just go with another server" and HUNG UP ON!

I finally had some luck when I rang a store in Sydney and the helpful chap told me that my phone was not one that I could use the plan on. I took it back to my local store where I bought it and was told "Not My Fault". At the same time I pointed out that I was supposed to be having free Vodafone to Vodafone calls. They informed me that I was supposed to ring up and start this up myself. How the hell was I supposed to know. In all I had paid for 4 months worth of calls that were supposed to be free. I told the storeperson I was not happy and he said "you're free to go with someone else" - bullocks, I still contract.

I hate Vodafone, I hate LARA and I let everyone I know not to go with Vodafone.

As a business user, I left Optus because we lost our local account manager. I switched to Vodafone because a Voda agent (local) promised us we'd always have local support if we had problems. This is has ALWAYS been the case. This has been almost three years. Thanks Red Mercury.

To those complaining about specific phones (particularly iPhones) their poor reception and antennas is well documented. It is your fault. I also chose a phone that delivers poor reception in my home. The good ol' Nokias power on. Suggestion is research the antenna and transmission power.

Now the buckets: the promised expansion to the actual VODA network and increased data speeds have never eventuated. I thought it would be OK as I'm not normally "too far" away from what I believe to be metro or reasonable regional locations.

Data speeds for wireless internet access in Sydney are rarely HSDPA (normally 3G only) and one of the worst locations is the airport (where you really need it). Coverage in Newcastle NSW was hopeless and we're talking one of Australia's largest cities.

What burned me most (as I do travel extensively) was a total lack of coverage (on both phones) at Heathcote in Victoria, a significant regional town in a significant regional area (Bendigo). Heathcote is not much more than 100km from Melbourne, yet reception is only picked around Lancefield.

Forget it if you want to go down the Yorke Peninsula (SA) once you're past Ardrossan. Point to point across the water it is less then 70km so not hard to fire a signal straight across the water. Telstra doesn't seem to have problem getting down there.

Oh, and don't let me forget that Vodafone itself called me to try and poach the business away from their own agent that had supported our business well over the life of our contract. Shame on you vodafone.

We are just deciding what to do now... stay with Voda (for the beaut agent customer service) or take the plunge and go to Telstra for the superior coverage.

But like most here I HATE offshore call centres. So if I can get a local account manager, the decision is likely made.

I think Lara Croft should take out Lara!!
voice system is really shit, maybe if signal quality was better she maybe be able to actually help, rather than customers wishing this to put virtual bullets in Lara's virtual head. Virtual Lara Croft should kick her Virtual butt.

I have been with Vodafone for over 10 years and up until 12 months ago had great coverage, good customer service (although getting through to the right area with "Lara" was always painful), no problems with either my mobile or internet connections. Then my internet started having connection problems, dropping out repeatedly and generally not performing to the standard I expected for what I was paying for. I made call after call after call to complain to be told it was my computer, the network was busy, etc - all complete nonsense. After 4 months of calls to fix the problem, I finally reached a gem of a man called Alain who was at a call centre in San Francisco, he listened patiently to my rants, actually apologised and then proceeded to find out what the real problem was and although this took him a few days he called me back when he had gathered the information - in short there were major network problems in my area and I was never going to have good connection. I can honestly say this man was way too good and professional to be working for Vodafone as he actually cared about his customer and had the integrity to be honest. Not one person in any of the Australian call centres could be bothered to help me or provide any honest information about the network other than to lay blame elsewhere (ie. my equipment). Unfortunately it was too little too late and I severed my internet and mobile accounts with them. I still have a prepaid with them (which when the credit runs out this month I am changing to another providor) and I called my parents this morning to tell them about this website as I'd seen it on the news last night and guess what? - that's right - my call didn't connect as the network was busy! What rubbish - it's 8am on Public Holiday, everyone's still asleep!!

Terrible experience, I spend at least $200 with Vodafone a month yet my phone and internet barely work. I will be changing everything to another telco as soon as possible. Reception is not there and cannot get hold of customer service. Been with Vodafone over 6 years and their inability to act and address the issue at hand means that I will be canceling all of my business and personal contracts with them. Disappointing considering I used to be a Vodafone employee.

I have two mobile phones. One for my business aswell as personal and the other for my wife. I am very dissapointed and SO ANNOYED at their reception service. Cuts out ALL THE TIME in many areas as well as my home. It is really getting bad, as i am speaking to clients. I am a capenter and need to ba able to discuss needs in detail and VODAFONE can not provide my needs.
When am at home and i have to continue to ring clients back or go walk about outside to find a better reception spot. This is not good enough. I should be able to sit in my office and speak to clients without issue. It is very frustrating not just for me but for clients as well, especially potential future clients. I need to be able to conduct business professionally.
I am also unable to speak to my wife on the mobile when i am at job sites as she is at home with 2 young babies. She is unable to go walk about outside to find reception area when her mobile rings. She answers and can not speak for long before cutting out. Only one part of the house can get a little reception. This is very frustrating for her too.
We will defanately be leaving Vodafone when contracts finish and going to a more respectable service provider.
Vodafone will never get our business again as customer service is low and you get fed up being on hold. Never again.

I was told the area I live is fully covered when I obtained the connection. But I cannot take incoming or out going calls from home. I cannot receive my text messages or the emails too. Very poor service, I cannot speak to a Customer Service agentas I am put on hold for in excess of 50 minutes. I am not joking 50 minutes. Do you think anyone has time to be on hold for that long. It is a rip off.

I've been with Vodafail for YEARS and been satisfied until recently. Things have noticeably been on the slide. After receiving regular email bills & text reminders, suddenly they stopped. I'm starting to have drop outs too...strange! My contract finished in December '10, there was no reminder as expected. I spend time on the line with customer service & it's more challenging to feel confident that whatever my issue is will be resolved. I've lost a lot of faith. Now that my contract/s are up, I'm seriously going to consider moving to another company. I will deal with this today.

Poor reception, lost or late txt, I just received a txt today 28th that was sent on xmas day, my daughter in another state so important for communication. Have alot of trouble contacting customer service. Phone cuts out on important buisness calls, txts being sent thru about 3 times at our cost.

Almost every call I have, whether I commence or receive the call drops out after a very short time & then I cant get the person back - sometimes for hours, I often dont have service, I cant browse applications (they wont stay connected), delayed messages, failed mailbox, and the list goes on.

Worse, is the lack of customer service, waiting at times for up to 37 minutes before a person answers the phone, and then only to drop out before I can log my fault.

Over the past 6 months I have been unemployed and looking for a job so my mobile was critical. I have had numerous times when calls have failed to reach me only to be diverted to voice mail and then subsequently had to ring the other pary and be charged for the missed call. I also experienced the "network busy" issue on numerous occasions in the heart of Sydney. When visiting country NSW recently, my phone was useless due to the lack of coverage.
Obviously the advertising does not stack up against the reality - this is a major issue for the ACCC and the Department of Fair Trading to investigate.

Hi
Vodafone ,Three broadband connection $49 cap for 24 months , so not possible to come out of the contract due to huge exit fee .
Connection is such that it will not remain stable for more than 15 minutes , speed drops , gets disconnected . One hr work takes 3 hrs
Broadband modem hardware have pathetic quality goes bad every three months . Even in warranty the customer service refuses to change it and asks to buy a new one for $50 .

It seems Vodafone is either making too much money or the business of a Telecom operator is un viable that they have to retort to practices which are no less than cheating the customer .

Thanks for providing the forum to at least vent out

Regards

Vodafone has been slowly turning to poo the few years including how they have basically no customer service whatsoever! Even if you go into the store you still get put on hold!

I got a wireless dongle on a 24 month contract so I could access work emails when I traveled. Didn't matter where I was, reception was always "very low" and I had to reboot half a dozen times to then wait 5 minutes for a simple email to download. I just couldn't rely on it anymore so, even though I don't like Telstra, I got a bigpond dongle and never had a problem! I waited 24 months then canceled the contract but they continued to send me monthly bills. Every time I tried to ring I was put on hold for ages then cut off. I started ringing the new sales number as they only take about 20mins to answer that one. When I eventually spoke to a person they assured me my contract was now canceled but wanted to argue about the date - I then figured out they were in INDIA! where it was actually the day before. So now all our private details including credit cards are available to anyone in India??????? I went straight out and canceled all our business mobile phone contracts and took them to Telstra - cost me a fortune but got great customer service and reception in places Ive never had it before!

ok firstly this site is so overdue!!! When i make calls often another phone call drops into my call and i can hear everything the other 2 callers are saying and so can the person i have called. and then there is the coverage... where i live (20km out side of newcastle and 10 kms from maitland) i have to walk to the middle of my street just to get enough reception to make a call... voice mail? bahahahahahaha thats a joke!!! i too have gone days before getting both voice mails and text messages.. or someone will text me at say lunch time and i wont get it till around 3am when im asleep or was asleep!!! And then there's the vodafone customer service, or the lack of customer service. my plan ends in a years time (jan 2012) and i will never use vodafone again. EVER!!!!!!!

After being a long time Vodafone customer I have already had to change to another provider to solve my reception issues, the customer service is probably worse but at least I can make and receive calls.

I think Vodafone are the worst company I have ever had to deal with. I have used them in England and in Australia and both times they had no customer service skills and spoke to me like a piece of dirt. Every time I have to call them I am on hold for around an hour, and then I speak to someone who I cannot understand. It took them over a week to activate my pay as you go sim card as they messed up. No apologies or anything, I will never ever use them again and urge everyone I know who is buying a phone to stay far away from Vodafail!!

Capped plan lacks up to date information on how much I've spent on my plan at any time, I've complained to customer service who inform me that it can take up to 24hours before up to date information is available on how much I've spent on my capped plan. Result has been bill of over $114 for one call o/s on a $20 capped plan because I couldn't tell if I'd gone over my plan or not, even when I accessed information it was not up to date.

I have experienced CALL DROP OUTS and with a intermittent drop and slow 3g connection even though i'm in one of the capital suburb of NSW. Their website too is very slow when doing inquiries and payments and and the worst of all is the customer service .. How i wished i stayed with VIRGIN mobile .. how I wish i can switch .. I'm only on my 3rd month of my contract. My second phone is expiring with my VIRGIN but I WILL NEVER THINK AGAIN OF SWITCHING TO VODAFONE .. SO DISGUSTED WITH ALL OF THE SERVICE THEY PROVIDE AND WILL N EVER RECOMMEND TO ANYONE...

waited for 3 hours when we ( my husband and I) had 0 service in a syd suburb only 10kms from the city and 3 kms from the vodafone tower at chatswood. once I spoke to customer service they said they had no record of a problem - helpful!! I've considered buying a new handset thinking that was the problem when its been vodafone all the time - 3 days to send a photo of my daughter to her godmother on xmas day!

Dropped calls, poor reception, New phone in the repair centre longer than we have had it in our hands, Poor customer service and phone bill charges to wait on hold for a customer service rep. that does not speak english and is to hard to understand that we just hang up and try again to get someone that speaks broken English

I use Vodafone 3G mobile internet and had problems, which I tried to report and complain about to the customer service. Since I do not use a Vodafone mobile phone number, I was charged for the call. I was on the hold for hours to be connected to a customer service and at the end I ran out of my phone credit. I wrote email to Vodafone for compensation but they only say superficial sorry.

Needless to say, I continue to experience problems with their internet connection. The number of times I could not connect to the internet is just countless.

I tryed to contact Vodafone a number of times regarding one of my 4 numbers with them , also e mailed them to contact me on my mobile number , that was in September .... i am still waiting for a call , think i will be going with another phone service

I was using vodafone broadband internet (mobile). About June this year I started experiencing drop outs and couldn't reconnect. I then called customer service. This happened about 10 times before I got an Egyptian call centre who recommended that I return the modem for a refund! They gave up helping.
I then joined Crazy John. I was unaware that these guys used the Vodafone network. This time it was worse as I got a phone contract aswell. BIG MISTAKE! The problems started right away. 50 calls to custimer service and hundred of drop out or no coverage later Crazy John vodafone called me on Christams Eve admitting that I was in a Low Coverage area (postcode 3041) AND I was being rleased from my contract!! AVOID VODAFONE AVOID CRAZY JOHN. I was so angry that I passed a vodafone store full of people and yelled in there "Don't do it, don't join. These guys a liars and they provide S#!* service!" People actually walked out!

Phone drops out all the time, I live in Newcastle, they debited my account twice for the same bill and despite countless emails and phone calls to vodafone over the last three months (in which they said they would rectify the problem I hear nothing) my contract is up shortly and I'll be giving them the shove. Their customer service sucks!

I spent two hours, 3 weeks ago, in a Vodafone store in Chatswood with a very helpful customer service guy(thanks Gareth). I was there due to the ongoing appalling level of reception in metro Sydney and the fact that I could no longer send emails from my iPhone 3GS. He spent two hours on the phone with his own fellow Vodafone staff, knowing the very best way to short cut the usual call centre traps and delays and he still got absolutely nowhere!!! I am totally reliant upon my ability to send email from my mobile. I run 3 different business email accounts from that phone and now I can't trust the email service at all. What is most concerning.....and I'm sure is being experienced by many other Vodafone customers is that when you send an email from your mobile, it actually appears in your "Sent Box" as s sent message. The scary thing is that your email NEVER arrives to the intended receiver. You believe you have sent an email, but it NEVER ACTUALLY ARRIVES!!!
This is incredibly frustating and that's before I even get onto the shocking call drop out rate I have been experiencing over the last 3 months. I live in Balmain, 5 minutes from the largest CBD in the country and I can't hold on to a call. I can also identify a minimum of 3 dead spots or drop out zones (guaranteed to fail) in a 5km drive from Balmain to Sydney CBD. How much of a joke can this be??

I have been a very loyal fan of the Vodafone brand for over 15 years, but I am now reaching breaking point. I am doing my best to avoid going to Telstra and would never consider Optus. Vodafone.....your time is running out FAST.

my name is michael; i have been with vodafone(or i should say vodafail)for 3mths i"m paying for 2gig & only getting 1gig.also very slow data speed.also internet drops out.and when i call customer services; there is no service. thanks vodafail for the headache.

I am now overseas, but I had the worse experience with Vodafone since their stupid merge with 3, ACCC hear this: you should never had approved this. The Australian public hates it. I had been with Vodafone for quite some time now, from the days they had the Metro Wireless plans and then they sold it to Iburst who disappeared and then I am back with Vodafone again since they agressively sold their data services. However I have a voice service with them too.All up I have 3 connections with them, 1 voice and 2 data.
Last month, I remembered I had no data service for a whole 10 days!!!! It was EDGE and then nothing!!
I thought I paid for a 3G service? Their customer service is pathetically overseas, condescendingly gave me a 3rd degree as if I do not know apples from orange after having their service for nearly 3 years now. Even their Australian call centre staff are no better, I had billing issues where they also talk to me in condescending manner and would not offer to help and refused to put me to a manager when I ask for one, The call centre staff (when this was in Australia) told me their managers never ever talk to customers. Also, they never call you back on any issues, the staff told me they are prohibited from making calls to customers as they only take calls coming in so they insist I call them back wait in queue and jam their lines to get updates on my problems. What sort of phone company is this where the staff are not allowed to call the customers to update the customers on a problem they need to solve in the first place? They also made so many errors in my bills for so many months it's not even funny. Also in the past, 2 phones they sent to me were lost in the mail and they refused to believe me even after the courier company told me it was lost, they insist that I wait 4 to 6 weeks to prove that it was truly lost when they could have just called the courier company to ask and they refused but kept challenging me.
Back to the most recent problems, my calls was cut out for no reason in the middle of a conversation and I was thinking it was my phone when indeed now it is a fact that it was Vodafone all this time, very sneaky, never tell the truth. Vodafone, stop lying to people and stop pretending this is something that will go away and stop teaching your staff to be rude to customers when your staff could not handle a problem, which is most of the time; Vodafone's own doing. Also teach your staff never to hang up on a customer. I had calls I made to their call centre, where after waiting and explaining the issues, half way thru, the call was conveniently hung up and they never call you back even though they know how to reach you.

Vodafone, what a load of shit.

after being stalked and caught out right after i turned eighteen, the guy who signed me to the deal assured me that if i went over the amount of calls my plan allowed, i wouldn't be allowed to make any calls... he lied. now i am stuck in a deal where each month i am paying $1,200 and putting me in debt. what vodaphone is doing is criminal and unjust. after trying to get through to customer service and being dropped. and afer getting no response via email my last option was a vodaphone store BUT they were of no help either. now im left with no choice but to continue to pay much needed money that should be going towards my uni fees.

ps, a fact... 90% of people in debt under the age of 25 are in debt to phone companies.

I have been a vodafone Customer for 8 years, I regretably just signed another 2 years (Iphone 4... can't blame me) and they were ok up until about a month ago... now there is NO customer service in Australia anymore.... AT ALL!! nothing!!! all customer support is now offshore... don't get me wrong, they try their hardest to help you but they CANNOT 'understand' you... they understand words and their meanings but they don't 'understand' what you are asking most of the time. I will leave vodafone if this keeps up

Vodaphone customer service is just as useless in NZ, they sold me a mobile phone and the opera browser on it didn't work, despite downloading the program again it still didn't work, having downloaded a few things off their site onto my phone and showing it to the Representative at the shop, they told me to reset the phone, the result was that it deleted everything off my phone, and when I said it didn't work and I lost everything their reply was near enough "sorry we can't help you, we can send it to the factory and it will cost $50 to look at it", not sure what it's like in Aussie. But I have left the network and its high call and data rates, and have never looked back, nothing but money leaches. :D

Have been a Vodafone customer for over 7 years and no problems at all. Found the customer service to be much better than other telco's. Keep up the good work Vodafone!!

no reception in my home (wollstonecraft), no reception at work (city), no lines to call anyone between the hours of 830-930am and 430-630pm, 3G data slower than GSM when 3G is switched off, 1-2 day lag in receiving voicemails, voda not willing to compensate for poor service - they told me to replace my sim which was only 6 mths old, and now the service is even worse than it was before i did that! paying $74 a month for an iphone 3gs which i can now get for $45 on an unlimited plan - such a rip off!

Purchased a brand new Nokia from Vodaphone 3-4 months ago -after giving my old phone away which was again Vodafone thinking its the phone that had the problem. Same problems. NOT JUST ME WITH THE NEW VODAFONE BUT MY HUSBAND AND MY DAUGHTER - HUNDREDS $$$$$ WE PAY EVERY MONTH. Thank goodness for this site but i doubt anyone will listen - talking to ourselves as usual - I guess it is better than having to wait for someone to answer the Vodafone customer service line - or maybe they cant hear it ringing due to reception they are experiencing - with the average waiting time we experienced is no less than 25 minutes... At least we know now its not our phones that have the problem and we can now change provider.
VERY DISAPPOINTED and Extremely angry - the least they could do is answer the phone and tell everyone they have issues - rather than have everyone suffer and pay. Good luck to all of us fools just write it all down and at least we now know - we are not alone...

I have been a loyal vodafone prepaid customer for about 10 years and honestly i dont know why im still with them, i have noticed more recently vodafone is consistantly going down hill. I recharge with $49.00 each fortnight so its pretty obvious they profit from my dislike of bills. Their customer service is an absolute joke, only last week i had to call them waiting for 115minutes to speak to someone be told by the representative i would be paying for the call. Prior to calling i waited in a vodafone shop for 30mins to be told sorry we cant access your details in store you have to call. F**kin annoying!! Love how they had the nerve to send a text apologising for network problems the other Saturday...5 days later with no mention of the free call compensation. The internet data service is unreliable, calls always drop out and the 'vodafone to vodafone' they promote is utter bullshit. Vodafone pick up your act & start showing some loyality back to your customers!!!!

I guess I am a bit luckier than some of the people who wrote on this website.
What happen was I was 3 months away of finishing my contract in Dec 10. I called up Vodafone to ask them any special procedures to stop the service as soon as the contract ended. The first call I made, I have waited over 2 hours (Luck that I used the fixed line with hands free, otherwise I would have hang up in 30 mins. Then tried again and this time 45 mins with no success and I gave up. I then use the contact us (email) from their website to have them cancel my service as soon as my contract finish and make a complaint of their so called customer service. A week later someone from Vodafone contacted me regarding the email complaint and tried to sell me another contract quoting that they can give me a good deal (3 months free access, free "cheap phone", free delivery etc which all providers were offering the same or even better at that time). So I told her I rather go to 3 (now also own by Vodafone) at least 3 customer services pick up their calls in minutes or even less (surely will change in the future). Today, I am so happy to receive my very last bill. I am now with Virgin big cap $29, getting $450 and 200 MB and a free phone that Vodafone told me NO WAY they can give me that phone for free on a $29 cap plan!! By the way Virgin picks up my calls in less than 1 minute...tried few times to ensure I don't get myself into another trap!!
J

as vodafone customers of 12 years or more, we have found the service to be really disgusting in regards to coverage within country areas and sometimes you do not have to be in a country area, we had spent a week in the town of 1770 for a holiday , as to our disgust we had no service in the 1770 area now this is a coastal town where you would expect phone coverage as optus and telstra had coverage as w had friends that were in the same caravan park and they had reception as we never. even when we had travelled from 1770 to gladstone for a day outing we still had no coverage with our vodafone service if you could call it service, we have even been driving on the sunshine coast in between Nambour and Maroochydore and have been having a conversation and the service would drop out and mind to say that is still doing this to this day.

About two months ago, I paid my account and i had over paid the account by $1700 by the slip of a finger and pushing the wrong number when confirming details via the bpay system, once i had realised what i had done, i ieadiately started to panick I then contacted the Vodafone customer service and what do you know there was no helpful service, what ever happened to keeping the customer happy. I had explained what had happened to the customer service member and they had told me to contact my bank, so I did this immeadiately and my banking institution Replied back to me that once the transaction takes place via bpay that they are not ab;e to stop the transaction from going through and they then proceeded to say to contact Vodafone back and request that the overpayment be reimbursed back to us.

So as you would expect i returned the call back to Vodafone, they then proceeded to tell me that they could not put the money back into the account as it would take 24 - 48 hrs to do this, but before this could happen I would need to fax the vodafone office a copy of our Bank statement to show that the money had definiately had came from our account, I then explained to them that our Bank statements only came every quarter and it was only the beginning of the quarter as it was september and we would not recieve a bank statement for another 2- 3 months and that it was a weekend as it was a friday that i had overpaided the account, but to no avail they were not going to help with this situation. so on an unhappy note to the end of the conversation with the vodafone customer service i explained that i was not happy with theyre explaination as to why they could not pay our money back into our bank account even when i was able to,provide them with all of the relevant banking details as to what account the money had come out of and our vodafone details as to our vodafone account details they still did not budge from the fact that they wanted the bank statement faxed to them.

my next few words with them was that i was going to take it the the Telecommunications ombudsman, of our state, they still did not budge but the next day my husband had recieved a phone call from vodafone and they had said that they would be sending a bank cheque to us for the overpayment and this would take any where from 2 - 5 working business days to acheive even though we had paid it by bpay we still had to wait for the cheque. It then proceeded to be a further 3 weeks before we had recieved the cheque from vodafone.

we then proceeded about 8-10 weeks ago we had requested for our contract to be cancelled as we where not happy with the service provided by vodafone we have a short time left with vodafone on our contracts and we are wishing to have them cancelled, and as you can imagine we are still waiting to hear back from vodafone in regards to our contracts as they were having to do an investigation into our allegations against them as a provider of our service, which there is no service from vodafone if anyone was to ask me about the vodafone service i would be saying to them to really think long and hard about going with the company vodafone before they sign a contract with them. as you can see we have not had a great experience with vodafonein the 10 - 12 years that we have had our 2 mobile phones with them. signed disgruntelled vodafone customer

I live in regional Vic and up until August 2009, I was with Vodafone. As Metropolitan areas are now discovering, regional Vic has been suffering non existent coverage for some time. The final act for myself came when speaking with a Customer Service Representative. I complained that I had zero signal out of doors and never had any 3G coverage. His response was that they (Vodafone) don't see regional centers as important to their business and had no immediate plans on improving the service to these areas. To say I was dumb struck is an understatement. Realised then that this company does not value all of it's customers. Having three months left on my contract, I unlocked my phone, sold it and threw away the sim. I paid the remaining months as normal and contracted to another carrier. With recent revelations, it has become quite evident that Vodafone treat all of their customers with contempt and the best remedy towards a company like this is to walk away. I will never use their service again and hope others do the same. Jurgen

I tried speaking to customer service of Voda few times and I was on hold waiting to be served by an operator for more than 2 hours. I am really furious the way they treat their customers. If not for my plan I would be more than happy to change voda for another provider.

was called by a vodafone salesperson on my mobile promised 3 months waiver of fee charges,insurance to be included, no charges for first three months recieved phone with no bills or proof of purchase my first bill $154.86 called customer service informed being charged for the first month and the following month and asked about insurance just a reply by the insurance service that its not mentioned in your account so we cannot offer you as you have started using the phone. 4 months old phone charged phone in the morning no usage but falls low within 12 hrs which is just 4 months old. billing charges first $154.84 next bill $223.85 then 111.11 and last $ - 26.90 Called customer service and complained and requested to speak to the manager asking for cancellation but was said they are busy will get back to you in 48 hrs haven't settled the bills other than my first bill and 2 months passed no reply. Network cannot have a long conversation for 30 mins just cuts off and mobile internet takes ages to open with most attempts being requested to retry.

as vodafone customers of 12 years or more, we have found the service to be really disgusting in regards to coverage within country areas and sometimes you do not have to be in a country area, we had spent a week in the town of 1770 for a holiday , as to our disgust we had no service in the 1770 area now this is a coastal town where you would expect phone coverage as optus and telstra had coverage as w had friends that were in the same caravan park and they had reception as we never. even when we had travelled from 1770 to gladstone for a day outing we still had no coverage with our vodafone service if you could call it service, we have even been driving on the sunshine coast in between Nambour and Maroochydore and have been having a conversation and the service would drop out and mind to say that is still doing this to this day.

About two months ago, I paid my account and i had over paid the account by $1700 by the slip of a finger and pushing the wrong number when confirming details via the bpay system, once i had realised what i had done, i ieadiately started to panick I then contacted the Vodafone customer service and what do you know there was no helpful service, what ever happened to keeping the customer happy. I had explained what had happened to the customer service member and they had told me to contact my bank, so I did this immeadiately and my banking institution Replied back to me that once the transaction takes place via bpay that they are not ab;e to stop the transaction from going through and they then proceeded to say to contact Vodafone back and request that the overpayment be reimbursed back to us.

So as you would expect i returned the call back to Vodafone, they then proceeded to tell me that they could not put the money back into the account as it would take 24 - 48 hrs to do this, but before this could happen I would need to fax the vodafone office a copy of our Bank statement to show that the money had definiately had came from our account, I then explained to them that our Bank statements only came every quarter and it was only the beginning of the quarter as it was september and we would not recieve a bank statement for another 2- 3 months and that it was a weekend as it was a friday that i had overpaided the account, but to no avail they were not going to help with this situation. so on an unhappy note to the end of the conversation with the vodafone customer service i explained that i was not happy with theyre explaination as to why they could not pay our money back into our bank account even when i was able to,provide them with all of the relevant banking details as to what account the money had come out of and our vodafone details as to our vodafone account details they still did not budge from the fact that they wanted the bank statement faxed to them.

my next few words with them was that i was going to take it the the Telecommunications ombudsman, of our state, they still did not budge but the next day my husband had recieved a phone call from vodafone and they had said that they would be sending a bank cheque to us for the overpayment and this would take any where from 2 - 5 working business days to acheive even though we had paid it by bpay we still had to wait for the cheque. It then proceeded to be a further 3 weeks before we had recieved the cheque from vodafone.

we then proceeded about 8-10 weeks ago we had requested for our contract to be cancelled as we where not happy with the service provided by vodafone we have a short time left with vodafone on our contracts and we are wishing to have them cancelled, and as you can imagine we are still waiting to hear back from vodafone in regards to our contracts as they were having to do an investigation into our allegations against them as a provider of our service, which there is no service from vodafone if anyone was to ask me about the vodafone service i would be saying to them to really think long and hard about going with the company vodafone before they sign a contract with them. as you can see we have not had a great experience with vodafonein the 10 - 12 years that we have had our 2 mobile phones with them. signed disgruntelled vodafone customer

THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. 45 CALL WAITING. VODASUCKS

i have just spent over $200 buying a new phone because i thought it was my old phones reception dying only to find that the new phone was just as bad. i have also received a $100 extra on my phone because i went over my cap due to all the droping out and have to make 3 phone calls instead of 1. As for the waiting on the line for 20 minutes to get through to a customer service representative its a ploy by big business to make sure you really want to complain or give them the flick, most people get sick of waiting and just give up.

Bring on the class action i'm in!!!!!!!!!!!

just migrated from 3 to vodafone just 3 weeks ago and i regret it. vodafone is the worst provider i have ever experienced. activation sim card takes 5 days, account balance error, not reflecting real usage, always takes 40 minutes for customer service to answer my call and when they do they said to me they will get back to me in 2 minutes but never did. my account balance still in error and vodafone offered me no solution. thank good it's only 12 months contract. i am impatiently counting the days, i cant wait for this contract to end so that i can terminate it

I am from syd and have signed up for my second contract in a row with them and thinking to myself the issues i had with the old phone were just that..WITH THE OLD PHONE ...but they were not!!! Its Vodafones CRAP service

I am only 20 years old and my original contract was 114 unlimited - The service was nothing short of HORENDOUS between call droputs and almost 0 3G Network coverage but stupid me thought "Well if i get a new contract and a new phone then all the issues should be resolved". Unfortunately for me that wasnt how it panned out.

Signing up to Vodafones 79 cap proved no difference - and even with the new phone.I decided to call Vodafone and spoke to a "Rick" and after explaining to him my situation i simply wanted out of the contract because i am not getting the service that i am paying for. Though do you think that was good enough?????

"Rick" then said "oh ill call you back tomorrow with a resolution" Surely enough that did not happen till several days later in which he said "i left you a voicemail" - (so did i not get the voicemail cause of their shitty service or was he lying?) He then proceeded to try and trouble shoot the device with me...WHAT MORE CAN YOU DO TO A PHONE BUT RESET NETWORK SETTING AND REBOOT!!! I have tried to reboot and reset every single component but it never changed a thing!!!!!!!!!

The part that REALLY pissed me off:

Rick then asked me questions and he said the main part is for me to tell him exactly which calls have failed in the last few days under what numbers and at what time... IS THIS A FU**ING JOKE? IF THERE SUPPORT WS IN AUS I WOULD HAVE DRIVEN THERE AND SHOWN HIM WHAT TIME IT IS!!! At that time i was so frustrated with what he'd asked me to do i just left it... i felt i had NO chance with these people and just had to stop and quit there...I mean...the customer service guy himself had NO clue..he had to hang up and call me backabout 5 times with answers.

Until i came across this site!!!! PLEASE lets voice this so we can at least get what we deserve...and thats good service and at bare minimum - WHAT WE PAY FOR!!

Summary of what i experience:

Late or no voicemails being received
FREQUENT drop out of calls
Texts not being sent and having to restart the phone or reset the service
"NO SERVICE" displaying in which a restart would have to take place yet again!

I can come up with plenty more if you need me to!

If there is a way i can get some help to fight these giants please contact me on anthony@djanthum.com THANKS for your help!!

I left Vodaphone because every time I called their call Center I got an Indian operator who would never solve my problems. When I asked to speak to someone in Australia they said they didnt have the ability to do so. A telecommunications company that cant transfer a call to its head office. Useless! What happens is that a contractor in India doesnt want Australian management to know how bad its service really is so nothing ever gets mentioned or done to correct the poor service. Its only when things hit the fan does management in Australia find out there is even a problem.