Terrible coverage where I lived (even though it was inner Sydney!) and Vodafone refused to do anything about it for a number of years. Then they started charging my bill for services I had never asked for. After months of trying to resolve this I eventually started a TIO complaint. All improperly billed money was eventually refunded but Vodafone never addressed the fault in their billing system that caused the overcharging in the first place.

Not to mention the huge wait times to talk to customer service staff. These used to be regularly 45 minutes, and are still something like 10-15 mins. In comparison, Telstra have made huge strides recently to improve their customer service, with friendlier staff and zero wait time every time I have called them.

Ported out to Telstra in the end, and advising everyone I know to steer clear of Vodafone.

after i got my new iphone, it stopped getting service & i could not make any phone calls, i called vodafone for help and they went though some settings on my phone with me and then told me that i needed to take my phone into a vodafone to be sent away for repair. i told them that the sim card is my original one and that when i put it in other phones it says sim card registration failed. they insisted i needed to take my phone in for repair however seeming the sim card was failing in numerous phones i decided to go the a vodafone store and ask for a new sim card. once i put the new sim card in my phone worked again...

sadly the attitude of vodafone customer service is shocking and unacceptable...

I was with Vodafone for years, it took like 4 hours for someone to get a MMS from me. No Reception bad Drop Outs. You think with their call centre in Egypt they could afford to improve their network! But NOPE! They go and buy another Telco "3" yet their own network is crap! I since changed to telstra you might pay a few $$ more but at least it works and their customer service is in Australia. BONUS!

After weeks of trying to contact Vodafone, in a split decision, I decided to swap networks to Telstra's next G network...best decision ever...

Everyone always bitches on about the poor customer services...but id rather have poor customer service that i never have to use rather then what ever Vodafone has to offer.

At present, I have made a complaint to Vodafone and the TIO explaining that due to their poor service I switched networks and am un willing to pay the exit fee of $402....(after paying $130 for 18 of 24 months !!!

Moved about 1km away to a new house. Phone worked great .. then out of nowhere about 2 months later for no apparent reason I could no longer get reception from inside my house. I had to sit outside in the middle of my yard to get reception. EPIC FAIL. Now with Telstra .. not as great value (in theory) and more expensive BUT calls / texts / voicemail work EVERY time without fail and customer service is available 24/7 with a real person to answer and help.

Yucky their customer service is shocking I felt ad though I was being a yelled at by a teacher. Unbelievably rude!

I have been a loyal Vodafone customer for over 10 years and it's a shame to experience in the last 2 years it's decline in services. Vodafone is falling apart. My problems encountered are:
- having to break my internet broadband contract as internet service, which once worked fine completely ceased in the area I live in.
- after breaking the contract, receiving ongoing bills for months and having to make several attempts on the phone and in store to have the bills cancelled.
- I changed my mobile number and this reset everything in the system, so I no longer was able to receive MMS, internet or have my bills sent to my email. I also was unable to access voicemail settings for some unknown reason.
- It took 4 phone calls and a visit in store to rectify the abovementioned.
LETS NOT FORGET
- Constant delays in text messaging
- 45 minute wait on hold to customer service (at all times)
- Constant outage nation wide, especially when it's 2am and you have a medical emergency.

I have 6 months left on my phone contract, I will be changing carrier and will boycot Vodafail forever. I have already moved to another carrier for my net services and am satisfied.

I have been on this plan for just on two weeks and I had switched from Telstra. I was sick of them! But to come to Vodafone and get this type of start! Calls dropping out in the blink of an eye in the middle of the city. Another thing their customer service is worse then Telstra they are rude and totally inconsiderate. Get on the game Vodafone. At the moment your pathetic.

I've been suffering with call drops, slow data speeds, little to no reception (in the middle of perth) and deferred messages. I went to my local vodafone store to try and sort things out but was told because I've only made one formal complaint, which was about my billing, there's basically nothing I can do about it because it's their word against mine...
What ever happened to customer service? I'm disgusted.

Picture msgs never get recieved, dont recieve pictures msgs from people till next day. No coverage at all around Turramurra for the last 6wks. Need to reset network settings almost daily to get interent to work. Automated customer service is a fucking joke, wating to speak to operator takes to bloody long.
Charging me $2 for a paper bill is a rip off!!! If you want me to pay a bill it needs to be sent to me free of charge fuckwits.

I heard about this site on the radio this morning - reading through I see so many people experiencing the exact same problems I have - I have been with Vodafone for 3 years but in the last 5 month it has been a disaster - constant drop outs of calls, network connection errors, service not available errors - I thought is was my handset so after a long process eventually they sent "for repair" which has changed nothing. I am trying to run a small business but I get no reception or constant drop outs so it is a huge problem for me - go to the store & even they put you on hold to the customer service site for who knows how long - the result - nothing but frustration...

Vodafone's network keeps dropping out on me, when im in my room when im in the car or when im walking or standing still. I was in a very important interview with William Angliss Institute over the phone and suddenly within the last few moments of the interview I was cut off completely. Not only is this bad PR for Vodafone but its completely embarrassing for me because I had to mention that it was the networks fault for being rude and being the reason why I was cut off. Not to mention when i was complaining about the network to the customer service, what do you think happened? my coverage was cut off again then I rang again and had to wait a further 40 mins because of the phone waiting period. Then they had the nerve to blame it on my Blackberry and asked the network coverage is mostly likely due to your handheld.... no its not its your own coverage.... they are seriously screwed.

I am a long term VodaFail Customer who lives on a fringe area. Although I live well within VodaFail's specified coverage area I can tell by dropouts that coverage is poor. The thing that is soo strange is that if Vodafail got rid og LARA they would be huge force in Telecommunications in Australia & not just a bit player. Without effective customer service thier growth to this point has been by pure accident.
Why do I stay with VodaFail ??? I don't know?

As a loyal and high-paying customer of twelve years with Vodafone I found the 'service' I received over the past two years to get increasingly worse. I moved to a Central QLD mining town for work and asked Vodafone to freeze my cap payments as there was no Vodafone range, so I couldn't use my phone at all. I got a Telstra pre-paid so I could be contactable whilst out of Voda range. I was told 'too bad' and was charged my monthly cap even though I couldn't use it. When I got back to the city I had VF customer service people calling up twice a week for two months to see if everything was ok, as they could clearly see a big-spender had stopped generating charges at all for four months. I told them I shouldn't have to pay for a service I can't use and they agreed to refund me the money charged. However they didn't and I then received abusive (that's right, abusive) calls from Indians demanding the payment I owed them. It then went a to a debt collector who called asking for my details 'on behalf of Vodafone'. Customer service fail - no rewards for loyalty and they broke my privacy. This is the 'nutshell' version of a very long-wonded and boring story. The moral is, I have switched to Telstra. I have range everywhere I go and so far, no abusive calls or communication breakdowns!

Attempting to upgrade contract, 6 weeks waiting for phones so far, three and a half hours waiting for customer service, two persons spoken to, one did nothing, the second told me the particular phone was obsolete, then that it had not been released then accused me of giving him incorrect information. The service drops calls and diverts incoming calls to message bank without ringing. The messages sometimes take hours to come through. I have these numbers for business hence reluctance to attempt a move, but am losing business through their non-service. Absolute B.S!

Attempting to upgrade contract, 6 weeks waiting for phones so far, three and a half hours waiting for customer service, two persons spoken to, one did nothing, the second told me the particular phone was obsolete, then that it had not been released then accused me of giving him incorrect information. The service drops calls and diverts incoming calls to message bank without ringing. The messages sometimes take hours to come through. I have these numbers for business hence reluctance to attempt a move, but am losing business through their non-service. Absolute B.S!

Poor reception, poor data speeds, poor customer service. The only time they want to help you and are all over you is when they are trying to get you to upgrade to their rubbish service

I have just read the article where a Vodafone refers fo poor network coverage for the last few weeks. This is completely inaccurate as the poor service has been going on for years. I was still charged for service I didn't receive and had to make several phonecalls to the customer service where I was given the run-around and told to switch the handset off and various other things that didn't work. I am now no longer with Vodafone for this reason.

Everything I have with Vodafail has given me problems, from usb wireless internet which very rarely works and when it does it drops out continually to ordering an iphone and been told it would take 4 weeks but then received it 12 weeks later and then cannot make a call without a dropout or no signal.
Have tried calling customer service but unless you have 3 hours to spare and
speak Indian you will not get very far.......I could go on.

As a loyal and high-paying customer of twelve years with Vodafone I found the 'service' I received over the past two years to get increasingly worse. I moved to a Central QLD mining town for work and asked Vodafone to freeze my cap payments as there was no Vodafone range, so I couldn't use my phone at all. I got a Telstra pre-paid so I could be contactable whilst out of Voda range. I was told 'too bad' and was charged my monthly cap even though I couldn't use it. When I got back to the city I had VF customer service people calling up twice a week for two months to see if everything was ok, as they could clearly see a big-spender had stopped generating charges at all for four months. I told them I shouldn't have to pay for a service I can't use and they agreed to refund me the money charged. However they didn't and I then received abusive (that's right, abusive) calls from Indians demanding the payment I owed them. It then went a to a debt collector who called asking for my details 'on behalf of Vodafone'. Customer service fail - no rewards for loyalty and they broke my privacy. This is the 'nutshell' version of a very long-wonded and boring story. The moral is, I have switched to Telstra. I have range everywhere I go and so far, no abusive calls or communication breakdowns!

Vodafone used to have an Egyptian Call Centre with great customer service
now it's moved and the customer service is terrable

Does Vodafone own 3 or 3 own Vodafone?
3 used to have shocking customer service

I have had drop outs on the Princess Highway between Heathcoat and Batemans Bay

I have DATA drop outs in the western Sydney train line
whilst in the train
between Central and Parramatta

Besides all the issues everyone else is suffering (dropouts,slow data,delayed SMS,pathetic customer service, etc, etc, etc) the manufacturer of my so called "smart phone" released a software upgrade for the phone addressing a few of its many shortcomings several months ago but Vodafail is not releasing it for download. The only reason I can think of is: why make a customer more satisfied with his handset (with manufactures' faults) if you might be frustrated enough with it to prematurely buy another plan/phone from them?
I would be glad to join a class action.

I could not get the internet to work when i first joined vodafone back in June 2009. I downloaded the settings on-line installled them on my phone and followed all the instructions, yet it wouldn't work.

I tried calling the help line, but after being on hold for 20 minutes the call would drop out and i would be placed right back in the front of the queue again. This happened about 3 times across different days.

I tried going into a store, to only receive attitude from the staff who were completely disinterested as i wasn't buying. All they did was tell me to call the customer support.

I called customer support and got through. All the operator did was send the settings to my phone again, which i installed again and yet still didn't work.

I tried logging a request on the online support platform that vodafone have. Still no luck.

I tried calling vodafone and simply asking for some step-by-step instructions to change the settings my self. I finally reached an operator who understood my exasperation and put me through to the support. After speaking to someone who did mot understand english i was put through to an operator who finally solved my problem. My account did not have internet activated, despite me requesting it on the application form i completed.

I don't understand why Vodafone make it so hard to help their customers. Vodafone have serious issues in terms of the culture in there organisation. It is completely customer service averse.

Vodafone used to be good. Really. They did. As opposed to 3 (who are now part of Vodafone in a bizarre twist), who were expensive, had little to no coverage, and whose IT depatment made chimps look like engineers.
For some reason, and only in the past 5 or so years, Vodafone has gone really bad.
Coverage can only be described as crap, the word "plan" is used very loosely, and "customer service" seems to be an outdated, frowned upon method of solving a problem.
Personally, I think I have only suffered as much as the next person, but it is the fact that we are suffering at all that bothers me!
Why do I think sitting on the phone for "18 to 23 mintues" is acceptable? Especially when that seems to translate to approximately 45 to 90 minutes, and just in waiting time. Why do I just accept the fact that I can no longer use the email function on my iPhone unless I go into the Safari application and log on from there, apparentley because "Vodafone no longer supports that function", even though it did so just fine for 3 months!? And why do I also accept the fact that every second month or so, I "accidentially" get charged an astronomical amount, have a 40 minute conversation with Vodafone's tech support who unable to give any type of assurance whatsoever, and then I'm surprised when it happens again!?
Thank you for a place to share this Adam Brimo! Hopefully I will get away from Vodafone before my 30th birthday!

Poor reception all the time - in the parliamentary triangle, the airport precinct and Kingston generally.
Terrible customer service, after waiting in phone queue I was hung up upon right after they answered the phone. Twice.
the same device on the telstra network - both with full bar reception gives 400kbps down on Vodafail and 8000kbps for data downloads. But I don't even get 3g in my own house... (hebel brick, top floor of apartment). What's the point of having 2Gb data allowance if you can't even download that much if you try.

Besides all the issues everyone else is suffering (dropouts,slow data,delayed SMS,pathetic customer service, etc, etc, etc) the manufacturer of my so called "smart phone" released a software upgrade for the phone addressing a few of its many shortcomings several months ago but Vodafail is not releasing it for download. The only reason I can think of is: why make a customer more satisfied with his handset (with manufactures' faults) if you might be frustrated enough with it to prematurely buy another plan/phone from them?
I would be glad to join a class action.

I was a customer of Vodafone for 4 years. I had nothing bad to say about this company until the beginning of this year (2010). I began receiving complaints from friends that they could hardly hear me, calls started to drop out and I would have maximum reception bars on the handset but when I attempted to make a call it would not connect. Also reception issues where vodafone said I had reception I had none.

Unfortunately for vodafone my contract expired in November. I gave them a call (after waiting an hour) to see what was going on and to see if there was some explanation onto what was happening. I was advised that I needed to provide them with 3 examples of time, place and phone number dialled before they would consider my complaint. After waiting an hour and a further 30 minutes to register this complaint, it sealed Vodafones fortune for me.

After being a loyal customer for 4 years, it has become apparent that they really don't appreciate the customer and the best thing I ever did was switch to Telstra. As a previous Telstra customer about 6 years ago, I was a little hesitant as I had, had a few issues with their customer service at that time. To my delight, I have had nothing but exceptional service and reception from them and would recommend that all you people having problems with Vodafone walk with your feet. Hit them in the hip pocket.

I gave up trying to work out why my bills were at $450 per mth. I had been with vodafone for over 10years..and then this year started to experience both poor reception and poor customer service. I explained that there had been no change in my call pattern and I am on a business plan $79 cap plan which is for high users and that my bills were insane. I had constant complaints from clients and friends. I decided to bite the bullet and payout my contract and went to crazy johns on an umlimited blackberry plan to stop the bleeding. I thought this was risky but I needed a quick fix and entered into a $79 unlimited plan. for some reason I have experience better reception and customner service from crazy johns than with vodafone which is all a bit weird..maybe due to blackberry service..No excuse to vodafone...prior to my decision to leaving they offered me a deal to extend my contract with an extra phone which i agreed and then they palmed me off to someone else who reneg on the deal...absolutely ridiculous..

I had mobile internet with Vodafone for 2 painful years. Although I live very close to the CBD (where you'd expect good coverage), it was absolutely abysmal. The supposedly fast internet would contiously drop out after around 30 seconds. Tried to contact Vodafone and they were absolutely useless. Fortunately when my contract finished I moved to a local broadband company, with awesome customer service. I'll never use Vodafone again!

As bad as Vodafone is, think twice before jumping to Optus where customer service is just a rumour and changes in terms & conditions adfter you've signed the contract are the norm. Suggest the best thing to do is get out of your Vodafone contast ASAP and sign-up to use with Telstra's far superior network. It might cost a bit more, but as in everything you get what you pay for. Like flying Tiger versus Qantas :-)

I've had so many issues with vodafone I'm no longer with them. But most recently I was on the phone for almost an hour, on hold, trying to sort out a billing issue. Finally I had to hang up before actually speaking to anyone because I had to go to work. I have called back twice since and spoken to customer service people in Mumbai who are trying to sort out my billing issue. Vodafone needs to reimburse me the $60 they charged to my credit card after I left vodafone in October. They admit they owe me the money, but they haven't reimbursed me yet.

Last year I travelled for work and a vodafone sales person recommended I use a USB with a 24 month contract for wireless internet. Many of the places I travelled to in Australia had very weak service, if any service at all. I spent hours and hours on the vodafone help-line, and finally vodafone recinded my contract.

My father and sister had vodafone accounts until recently. For the ten years they had their accounts they received extremely poor customer service. at the completion of their contracts they have been charged at least $100 more than they owed, but the process of trying to deal with customer service prohibits any attempt on their part to reclaim that money.

Working in the CBD in Sydney and living just across the Bridge. Reception is consistently full 3G yet calls drop out consistently after 1-2 mins, sometimes calls don't connect and get automatically directed to vmail, data services around circular quay are absolutely pitiful during working hours. One more note, customer service at the Vodafone store in World Square is the worst I've ever seen "we are just a franchise, we can't help you, you need to use the telephone"..... what a cop out. If you have the vodafone logo on your store you are representative of them, sort yourselves out.

Vodafail stuffed up my billings and kept charging my credit card for overdue fees that kept rolling over - even though the bill is directly debited and i always had adequate funds. When i inquired in person, i was told that it related to the billing cycle. When i asked for it to be ectified i eventually got YELLED AT by a female worker in the Macarthur Square branch, in front of other customers. I said that i was going to make a formal complaint. After the complaint, i heard no response. Finally when i rang to end my service with them, they apologised and gave my free $50 credit so that i stay with them. I am now with OPTUS and have not looked back. Much better customer service and better reception. Vodafone is a big bbig customer failure. GO TO THE TIO. Itll make them loose control of their bowels over in the call centre in India.

I've been a vodafail customer for over 10years ! Finally had enough it took a month 9 phone calls and a total of 3hrs on the phone to incompetent vodafail customer no-service staff to get them to rescind a contract that I didn't even sign up for... Apparently it was my fault for not noticing it was on my bill ! Still only got them to repay half the money I was owed as I couldn't afford to waste any more time arguing with them ! GO WITH THE CLASS ACTION... I'm with a new provider now who even offered to come to my office to show me how the new phone worked now that customer service

I thought I was alone - but after reading these complaints I realise it is sub standard service I am receiving with Vodafone. I can be sitting right next to the phone it doesn't ring - will get a message sometime later (sometimes don't even get the messages) - poor service where I live (sydney metro) - absolute crap customer service - had to go to the telecommunications ombudsmen three months into the contract. Now it seems my phone bill is creeping up in $$$ every month - I am a low usage user and have maintained $29 average per month for around 5 years - now my bills are creeping up to $60 per month - can see they obviously want me to take up their "unlimited" plans. No happy Jan!!!

I see Vodaphone is spending zillions on a new ad. $45 per month sounds great if you don't have drop outs and have decent internet speeds. However the latest negative publicity has saved me from the obvious frustration , particularly the poor customer service. Too bad whistle blowers are treated so badly , if not then I'm sure there would be heaps of vodaphone employees coming forward with the true picture of how bad things really are.

Call drop out and bad coverage contrary to staff advice is main gripe. Calls drop out at several locations around Sydney. Entering Syd Harbour Tunnel from north side, then exiting at East Distributor, New South Head Road at Vaucluse and Watsons Bay, both at the bottom and also up the hill along the ridge. Other unexplainable drop out around other areas. Just not good enough. My work phone with Telstra beats it everywhere but is more expensive. In Vodafone defence I have had no problems with customer service. Steve

I think a very strong message needs to be sent to Vodafone so they are acutely aware of the problems they face at the moment and the massive dissatisfaction across the board with all their services!

Everytime I contact them to complain about an issue - I get a customer service representative denying any issues and wasting my time further on the phone.

Clearly since everyone else is experiencing difficulty - if they just apologised on the phone and told me they were working towards fixing it rather than telling me no problem exists - I would feel a whole lot better.

I

On trying to change from prepaid to plan via customer service, I spent (no exaggeration) at least 10 hours on the phone to vodafone to the past week. One of which was and 2hr 11 min call which ended on me being hung up on (accidentally or not) by the service.

I wanted to keep my same number, they sent me out a sim card which i put in my phone. They cancelled my prepaid simcard, but once I had put this new sim card in my phone I realised it was not my number, and furthermore I was unable to receive calls or texts on it! This was ongoing for over 2 days, being unable to be contacted. I rang on numerous occasions, each time having to repeat myself, to no avail. They would say 'we have fixed for you', but then nothing would happen!

Finally it worked. But now the internet on my phone isn't working. I have rung them no less than 3 times on this issue, with no improvement. My internet still doesn't work.

I am SICK of sitting on hold and talking to dip shits on the other line who seem to just LIE to get you off the line.

Worst idea ever, changing from prepay to postpay, if you are thinking of it, DON'T do it, it is not worth the pain.

Renewed an existing contract with 3 in dec 2009 after 2 years of great service, and slowly the broadband started to get slower and the mobile call reception deteriorated until we now have to go outside to make a call and avoid dropouts. Our internet is marginally faster than dial up during peak times and is so slow even when running at it's best I have considered moving house. Vodafone tell me they have been decommissioning 3 towers in the area and pushing all the services through existing vodafone towers. Result, congestion, and poor service quality. They did not tell us and we are still one year away from the end of the contract which is now not worth what we are paying. Vodafrustration rating 10.

Multiple issues.

First of all: I couldn't log in to my account on the internet for > 10 days. I called technical support after waiting for hours on hold. Then after talking to a customer service representative, he said he couldn't help me and to wait for a password to be sent again. Password was sent and still couldn't log in. Had to call again.

Secondly, I had an extreme amount of difficulty just getting another account setup and had to go to the store to get this done.

My voice message abnk notifications aren't going to SMS and I asked this and still have not had a reply.

I applied to get my phone unlocked, have inquired about it and paid and still no response.

I tried to setup another account and the tech support, after 26 hours of discussion with 5 different representatives told me to go to the store to solve the problem. Took the store person an hour to figure out the problem because they could think outside the box unlike the phone technical support staff.

Vodafone don't care I'm stiched up in contract and get billed for calls not made and services not used but vodafone can't be contacted and the Bathurst office says little and helps even less, Bathurst office told me that the new phones would work at my home but it does not unless I get lucky afer climbing a tree, all very curious that in 2010 that 20 kms from Bathurst Vodafone can't give me a service that works although they said they could not.

I cancelled one billed by month service after being wrongly billed had to pay changed to prepaid and get same poor coverage.

I'm fed up having to climb trees to make calls in the rain or drive 1.5 km to make a call that mostly drops out visitors come and they phone out from my home on other services, the Bathurst Telstra shop told me that the vodafone I have all 3 of them are not suitable for the local coverage that they are city phones.

so to move to another serive I need another phone why how can the government allow the poor service.

on another note: curious the government is now more worried about broadband but were the ones who did away with the CDMA service that worked here at my home/ the service now for me is virtually none and Vodafone does not care nor does the Government.

Vodafone don't care I'm stiched up in contract and get billed for calls not made and services not used but vodafone can't be contacted and the Bathurst office says little and helps even less, Bathurst office told me that the new phones would work at my home but it does not unless I get lucky afer climbing a tree, all very curious that in 2010 that 20 kms from Bathurst Vodafone can't give me a service that works although they said they could not.

I'm fed up having to climb trees to make calls in the rain or drive 1.5 km to make a call that mostly drops out visitors come and they phone out from my home on other services, the Bathurst Telstra shop told me that the vodafone I have all 3 of them are not suitable for the local coverage that they are city phones.

so to move to another serive I need another phone why how can the government allow the poor service.

on another note: curious the government is now more worried about broadband but were the ones who did away with the CDMA service that worked here at my home/ the service now for me is virtually none and Vodafone does not care nor does the Government.

I have been a loyal vodafone customer for 10 years, give or take. Previously I would recommend them to friends as they had awesome customer service, despite the fact the network was only good inside metro areas. Over the past year or two, this has changed. Poor network coverage, both phone and broadband, drop-outs, voicemail messages that come through anywhere from 6-48 hours after they are submitted. But the biggest fail of all is the Customer Service (or lack of.) Earlier this year it took me 4 phone calls, a number of emails and around 2 hours of hold-time, just to change my address. Then, the operator that emailed me had the ordasity to tell me "not to get upset" or something similar, after all this. More recently, I don't bother ringing them as each time you do, its another 1-2 hours on hold, then they transfer you to another department, and the call mysteriously drops out and back to sqare one! Just a tip... if I want something done now, I tell "Lara" I want to cancel, somehow that gets me thorugh to very helpful people in Melbourne, who actually jump over themself to help with anything!

Bloody Lara I want to kill her every time I call Vodafone!~ I've been put on hold for hours,,, why can't they answer the f--king phone!! Poor service!! A total disgrace!!

vodafone automatically turned my voicemail off when i went overseas and turned off international roaming, then turned it on again.
upon return, my voicemail was inactivated.
i spent 1 hour on three separate occasions on hold to vodafone, eventually getting through to a call centre in india who were of no help.
they advised to call another number, which i was on hold for another hour. they were unable to help me and suggested i email customer service.
instead of 5 business days as stated on the website, it took 11 business days for vodafone to turn on my voicemail.
i am extremely disappointed and can't wait to get out of my contract.

Customer Service throughout the Vodafone network,including its retail store distribution is disturbing. Firstly, Lara... please someone get ride of her.I came off contract October 23rd 2010 on hold for two periods of 1 and a half hours each trying to discontinue with this unprovider, finially got through to somewhere in the world,got onto to pre paid, still recieved email informing me of continued billing, spent another 40 minutes on hold again.Vodafone if your reading this customer service should be your mantra not providing the best possible deal that you can't provide... I wissh you the biggest possible failure

was called to an elderly customers premises 2 weeks ago to set up a wireless broadband stick he had delivered from vodafone. It was a prepaid unit delivered by VF them self.

I arrived to set the device up, needed to activate it, hes only other connection was a dial up service and the VF activate site takes along time to load on a dial up service. Any way, got to the page,tried to activate it, Put in the sim number and the service number (which i had to find by sms'ing from the computer to my phone) and it came up with a cant activate, having problems, call customer service. Rang them, turns out, the sim card they sent with the modem can not be activated for mobile broadband use , its a voice sim. (yet sms from the service says 12mth 12gb) anyway, they said they would arrange a proper sim, Called back over a week later, the new sim arrived, tried again, wouldn't activate, Took the modem to the shop to try on another pc, no go, called vf. Wrong sim again.

Right, wasn't putting up with this anymore, drove to the closest VF store, "sorry we can't help you, there is a pin on the account, without that no good. (i had everything that came with the modem) Can you have (customer) come in, No he is old and this is a VF problem.

Got back to the shop told the customer VF wont help and it is the wrong sim card (twice). Bugger it, the VF unit can go back, I'll organise an optus pre-paid.

Went to Big-W bought a $49 optus modem, popped the card in it, went to optus.com.au/activate, typed in the sim number and a few other details. 5 minutes later, The modem was up and running.

I have been with Vodafone for over four years. It's generally been a good company to deal with and their deals have been good. However, in the last few weeks I have been getting on-and-off again reception in my house which is in the southern suburbs of Canberra, callers can't get through despite trying multiple times, the phone doesn't ring, missed calls are not recorded, if they do get through callers get flicked to voicemail, voicemail messages don't come through, SMS messages can take many hours to get through. Clearly, Vodafone is in deep trouble, but that's no excuse for going into denial mode. They have had to be dragged to the point of acknowledging the fact that it's their problem. Happily my contract is just about to finish, and I'm not going to stick around waiting for them to fix their problems. Their customer service staff are pleasant and generally competent, but the CEO and others at the top have acted disgracefully. I have not received the service I should have over the past few weeks and I do not intend to pay the next bill.

On several occasions, spent more than 5 hrs on hold to customer service (I was trying to change plan) I should have realised such a thing was beyond the degenerates they employ. Most of them had trouble understanding my extremely complex request, and the one that did screwed up all of my account information. Rather than simply changing my plan on my current sim they sent me a new one with a different number. I almost cried. So I rang them to activate the new sim card, they said it would take 24 hrs tops. 25 hrs later neither sim card was working, I cried some more. I then decided to ring the tolled line, and surprise surprise no 5 hr wait, I almost got straight through. But they still couldn't help me because they had lost all of my billing information, and at present I am still waiting for my new plan to activate (they turned the old one off so I have nothing at all currently)

Their network performance is terrible, also. The internet on my phone seldom works, and yet they still charge me for every failed attempt to get to a website. Bastards.

I have been a Voda customer since 1996. They used to be great, I used to be rewarded for being a loyal customer. Now, they suck and don't care about their customers, even old ones like me. The last few months is the first time in 15 years I've seriously thought about leaving.

* Other people have found me uncontactable. My other half rang me at home the other day and said "Why aren't you answering your mobile?" My mobile hadn't even rung. He said it went through to voicemail. I'm still waiting to get the message. (This now happens A LOT, which is making work and business colleagues very frustrated with me. Voicemails can take days to come through, if they come through at all.)

* How is it that I can live in Glebe, in plain view of the city skyline, and get no reception? Broadway Shopping Centre is also an inexplicable dead spot, and has been for the last three or four years.

* 3G is uselessly slow when you get it. If you get it. Wherever you are.

* My latest fun experience - I was on a work trip overseas and had switched on Global Roaming via the website before I left. When I landed in the UK, I had no reception and no Global Roaming. The person who was picking me up couldn't contact me, I couldn't contact him. It took him hours of walking around the airport to find me. When I got to a computer, I turned roaming on again. A couple of times. Again, nothing. I called customer service, was on hold for an hour and had to give up (any wonder I came home to a $900 phone bill!). I later called the faults line, who told me there had been an issue with switching on GR via the website (for three weeks??? WHERE WAS THE MESSAGE ON THE WEBSITE SAYING 'THIS DOESN'T WORK, PLEASE CALL US', VODA??) They said they could put in a request to turn on my roaming but it might take 3 days. I sent a bunch of emails to various people which resulted in it being switched on sooner. In the meantime, I'm in a foreign country, for work, and practically uncontactable.

One thing that was an eye opener on this trip - the reception and 3G speed I had in the UK and the US was exemplary. It is what Voda promises here, and it showed me just how much they don't deliver.

Thank you and f%$k you Vodafone, for leaving me with no alternative but to switch to those damn crooks at Telstra.

I have corporate data and phone. Plan
I have complained to my account rep several times only to be told t will get fixed.
Calls constantly drop out when driving
Data unable to connect just as often
General poor service (signal) level
Last week I was driving from Olympic park to naremburn and I was not able to get any signal until I reached st leonards.
I have been with vocative since they first came to Australia, however their poor grade of service is affecting my business.
I have been doing some testing with TELSTRA and am finding the service generally superior in both reach and speed.
I think I want out

Wireless Data is so bad, and when I call customer service for help, I might as well ask the dog down the road, as the dog has a better chance of helping me than the person on the other end who ALWAYS says everything is fine.
Sick of it!

bad customer service
bad reception
bad 3g coverage

Wireless broadband cutomer in Brisbane. Initially 5GB for $40 seemed resonable against the alt options. The service was S-L-O-W to say the least, barely above dial up. Connecting was massive issue, but thanks to Whirlpool, learnt how to hook up using Windows internet connection instead of Voda software. Soon as Bigpond dropped 50GB to $50 bucks this year, migrated straight away (already had BB connection/Foxtel). Called Voda and on hold for 45 mins. THAT was enough time for me to lodge a complaint with Telephone Ombudsman...
Got a phone call back the next day from Voda rep (aussie). Why anyone waits for hours is beyond me! 45 mins is enough. I wouldn't treat my customers like that. I wouldn't have a business. End result, dropped back to a 1GB plan for $10/mth. The irony is that it works pretty good at my folks place on the Gold Coast...So I'm happy enough now.

Went to the boxing day sales today. The only two stores closed in the whole of this large shopping centre were Vodafone and 3. Methinks that they are trying to avoid a net loss of customers on this extremely busy shopping day. If there are any Vodafone employees here that can explain why, I'd be most interested.
Seems like they are not only locking customers out of customer service on 1555, but avoiding the need to provide assistance through their stores.
ACCC, surely this must be an issue???

Try calling 1555 for Customer Service, major delays and call drop outs call on and off for 20 hours from 17:00 yesterday - did not manage to get thru.

Now try calling to pay your bill over the phone by Credit Card on 02 8275 2267 call answered within 3 rings after going past the normal IVR Menu.

HMMM

to the employee below. $500 billion in network upgrades? is that a correct figure? and in what part of our contracts does it state poor network performance is acceptable? is it next to the stipulation of poor customer service is tolerated? or next to the stipulation that the company you're signing this contract with may merge with another global network and completely offshore all customer service based activity, bar store staff, at their own discretion? I'm happy that Vodafone employees are happy in their jobs and feel the need to support the company when times are tough, signs of a good person with loyalty where it should be. but don't neglect the fact that your company is responsible to one entity first and foremost; the majority stakeholder, in this case, us the consumer. So it's your responisbility to give us the time of day to complain about service from your network when it's underperforming, and not roll your eyes when we go into your stores, or treat us like a number when we call your call centres. we give you the dignity of allowing you to upsell and speed read our contracts when going through the motions of your sales process, so please allow us the same respect when we decide your service isn't good enough anymore and use other channels to vent our frustrations.

I am in NZ and having the same kind of issues. Dropped calls being the most frustrating. Delayed texts make planning something via text virtually impossible as you can't be sure the message is received.

Friends in Vodafone say moral is not good as staff deal continuously with disgruntled customers.

My partner's company abandoned VF and took their business to Telecom. Constant billing issues where they would threaten to cut off service despite bills being paid on time, as there was a delay in processing payments. Customer services staff acknowledged this but were powerless to do anything more than send emails to the account people. He couldn't get to speak to anyone other than customer services, mind you, even they couldn't speak to anyone else, apparently. Then he discovered that instead of logging the job, they would delete any record of the conversation so they didn't appear to be unable to resolve his problems. (Well, we assume this is the case, because when following up complaints, no one would know anything about prior calls made. In short, it seems management have totally insulated themselves from the customers experiencing problems and as consumers we are powerless to get them to listen! Way to go, Vodafone!

Just got a contract release, 15 months into my contract, with no break fees.
My advice:
- document your issues and attempts to resolve
- attempt to resolve with customer care but DO NOT fall for their stall tactics around testing your area, handset or SIM. The problem is probably a network issue, it's likely not caused by anything else.
- if continuing network or customer service issues occur, call the TIO.
- a customer service manager will call you back, although it may take up to ten days.
- they will offer you gratuities such as credit, a reduction in plan costs with a view to review in a month.
- if you want to break your contract, do not accept these offers. Explain that you've lost confidence in the network, you are highly reliant, etc; Explain that the only feasible resolution is a contract break.
- they will likely agree to this, conditionally. They may push the early termination fee or cost of handset. DO NOT accept this. Simply explain that you have been paying x amount for so many months and you must have covered a major proportion of the phone cost. If that doesn't work, explain that you are unsatisfied with the outcome and you will escalate with the TIO (Vodafone's fine increases every time you escalate due to non-resolution. Not only will their fine increase, but Vodafone also pay an amount of the TIO's operating costs proportionate to their issue burden).
- At this point, your release should be approved. Get this in writing, via email or SMS.
- You will be allowed to immediately port your number to another network.
- once you do port, an account closing balance will be issued. This WILL NOT include any penalty payments such as early break charges.

Stick with it and seek a fair outcome!

To all that are complaining, I know why u cannot call anyone ... The people your are trying to call have blocked your number cause they find it to 'painful' to speak to u!! (no reception issue)I cannot believe people waste time on this. Try being nice to the customer service staff , I'm sure they don't go into your place of work and blame their list of personal problems on u.. Most people have bigger issues than phone reception in their lives to deal with , but it's all about u isn't it?? !!

Etiquites is a word off vodafone dictionary. The customer service staff are arrogant and the do not care attitude care attitude won't rake them anywhere.theei service is bad network is worst and the customer service more than worst(still finding netter word than worst in English dictionary).
Calls drop regularly data often does not work call them and be prepared to wait for ages just to get no answer.

Can anyone send emails via smtp.vodafone.net I have never got this to work. Also payed my bill over a week ago and the web sites still says it's outstanding. I've called the customer service but keep getting told "we are looking into it and all will be ok by xmas. Oh and the data speed, what data couldb't even log on this morning !! Need I say anything else,
Adelaide, SA

someone actually started a website about this? really?

clearly some people have too much time on their hands. im seconding the notion of this being "an excuse to complain about the most minuscule and pathetic issues in life".

if anyone else works in telecommunications, they know what the phrase "network upgrade" means. $500 billion in network upgrades in the next 12 months... yes, doesnt seem like vodafone wants to fix their network at all.

read your contracts people, and find something else to do than blog about.

and to the blogger who works at Optus - I work for Vodafone. Dont start on customer service. At least vodafone staff know what the word SMILE means.

My girlfriend's phone disconnected with no reason. Trying to get through to customer service, so that her phone is more useful than a doorstop, currently still on hold 1hr 50 mins and counting.

I work for Optus, and I know that in many areas our customer service is lacking, but this is just beyond a joke!

Well i had issues with getting the roaming working from the website so i went in store, which they set up for me. i asked a few times if this would cost me anything (as i was going to America) and made it VERY clear i didnt want it if it was going to cost me money, they assured me it was free and wouldnt cost me a thing, they made NO mention of the fact it CHARGES you everytime ur phone connects to a different tower or something, i came back to over $200 phone bill for these connections, i went in store to ask what the hell. they didnt want to hear it, they had no problem telling me what all these charges were for AFTER i got back, this information would of been helpful i dunno BEFORE i left!!
The store wouldnt do anything and told me to go home and ring the customer service, so i drove all the way home, waited nearly a hour on the phone and was finally told to go INTO THE STORE!!! needless to say i wasnt impressed. i told them that the team member who served me left out the information i needed so it wasnt my fault i was charged. they said they would help me out IF i remembered the name of the employee, i DIDNT. how would i remember there name?!?! and they said they would ASK all the employees if they were the one to give me the wrong info, guess what NO ONE owned up! what a suprise! they pretty much said too bad there is nothing we can do.
They tried to offer $50 of texts, but with the plan im on i already get WAY to many texts for me to use, ive never gone close to going over. after being stuffed around on the phone more i gave up.

Now i havnt been able to get on facebook on my phone for at least 2 months.

cant WAIT til my contract is up so i can go to telstra or optus!!!

See below, feel free to copy and forward with your story to:-

1. Vodafone
2. TIO

Call received within 1 day of TIO being informed from a decision maker in Australia.

Result:-

1. 2 Months Credit
2. Released from contract.

Good Luck

To whom it may concern,

I am severely disappointed in the level of service (or lack thereof) being provided from your network, and your customer service team. Your lack of network coverage in western Sydney, has been of an unsatisfactory level for the past two months. It has become so bad it has come to me writing this email.

I have spent most of the day attempting to get this issue resolved with your customer service team, however when I contacted your business call centre at 1400 hours on the 20th December 2010, your customer service personnel was unable to assist me due to computer issues. He could not call me back, and insisted I would have to make another call later in the day to sort it out.

I rang again around 1850 hours, and waited on hold for around 80 minutes, until your network lost reception and disconnected me.

I then rang again at 2120 hours and waited on hold for around 60 minutes until the call was answered, the customer service person told me he would put me on hold for 2 minutes and get back to me, another 83 minutes later another customer service person answered the phone, and then it dropped out.

The problems I am experiencing are continual call drop-outs covering most areas between Penrith, Blacktown, Castle Hill and Parramatta (the area my business operates in). On top of this the 3G connection enabling my email and internet access is also slower or non-existant from time to time and lagging of sms messages. These problems have been occurring for around the past 2 months, with no improvements. In attempt to see if the situation gets any better I have tried another sim card (on my account), and a different phone, and I still receive the same problems.

These problems have caused extreme inconvenience and have financially affected my business, through being non-contactable and getting sms messages too late, that a potential customer has sourced another company to conduct the repairs work.

Northern Beaches- How to get out of your contract.....I just did. I advised them that it was my only phone at home (i.e we do not have a landline) and they ended a newly signed (i.e 3 months ago) 24 month contract WITHOUT QUESTION. All i have to do is return the phone which came with the contract.

Don't let the customer service operator fool you into conducting the "tests" i.e try a new sim, turn phone off and on, telling you that they will call you back later (on your mobile phone) when you are in the place where you have no reception -what is wrong with these people. Aggressilvely DEMAND to speak to the cancellations team oh, did I mention? Expect to be on hold for + 1hr 20mins!!!! GOOD LUCK!

Paid for their 3G data on my laptop between 2008 and mid-2010. Hardly ever worked. This was inside Sydney CBD. Moved to Telstra and have never had a problem. The only frustration bigger than their product not working was their customer service. Criminal product failure. Criminal customer service.

21st December Sporadic 3G reception from 14.00 to well after 00.00.Was on hold with Vodafone for appox 1hr.20 min and gave up.Friend rang me on land line to ask why my mobile was off !
Finally contacted them this morning Vodafone is unaware of any problems in the southern area of Sydney yesterday. Once again no compensation or truth about poor service.

In this article http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/furious-vodafone-customers-spark-accc-probe-20101217-190gl.html Vodafone's director of customer service, Cormac Hodgkinson said:

"It's not saying we aren't seeing customers come through with problems but in terms of the specific issues that we knew about that were pretty much across the network, they have now been addressed,"

i rang vodafone technical support today, and they said that there are known issues in manly (nsw) and sydney cbd, so this guy is a liar.

My pain has been going on for 10 months!! and now i have to deal with terrible phone reception. My story starts in Feb this year when i took my phone in which i broke, totally my fault i take responsibility for that i had paid for the extra insurance for 2 yrs and it finally came in handy. Paid the excess got the new phone all good, 2 weeks later new phone doesn't work the 7, 8, 9 button stopped working took it back to the shop that supplied it they put it in under a warranty claim a week later go in, get a new phone in the box ready to go. Less then a week later this phone breaks, it is a nokia 6210 navigator so anyone with similar probs please let me know, anyway i head back in to the store i am told i need to produce the papers i would have received, which i informed them i got nothing the last time i showed them the original papers but it was not for that phone was told to wait and a manager would call me regarding that, waited, waited waited, called up about it went into the shop still nothing they had not found the papers ( my opinion they hadn't even looked, every time i went into the store i had to explain my story over and over again to someone new). By this time it was near the end of may and i had got nowhere all i had was a broken phone and still getting bills for a service they where no longer providing. I was going away for 6 weeks on June 10th. I went back into the original store went through the whole thing again and was promised when i got back they would be able to sort it all out for me. returned to Australia, shop is closed down! All records destroyed, back to square one, down to the other vodaphone store that had never dealt with me, once again i explained the story and off we went on another pointless ride or going nowhere, once again someone was to contact me regarding progress, some kind of internal database search need to be conducted with the serial number so they could identify the phone. The original shop had given me the phone without recording that it was sold or given as a replacement, as far as they knew the phone was still in vodaphone hands. Surprise surprise when i went in a few weeks ago to find out what was happening the staff had no idea what was going on, the person i was dealing wiht had left and from their under the breath remarks i took it that the person who had just left was not a very good employee so jumped on the merry go round and began the story again, this time i got an AMAZING girl, she did a search on the spot, reissued me with a proof of purchase receipt took the phone and sent it in, Finally somethng was happening. Today collect the phone, tech report the battery was flat ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH did he/she not read the report it would turn on every few times then would not turn back on for months, of course the battery is flat i haven't used it for 10months i go the same crappy broken phone back. The helpful girl felt my pain and gave me a number to call and told me what to say. Right now i am waiting to hear back from some supervisor, who was not very happy to help until the words ombudsmen was mentioned and the amount of trouble vodaphone are in at the moment. I have had it with this company before i went overseas i canceled my plan and went onto pre-pay, the customer service and follow up in store is ATROCIOUS, this company had better do something quick smart if they wish to stay in business, by the look of it my problem is one of 1000's that they have to deal with.

For so long I had blamed my phones for bad reception, no internet connection, voicemails that disappeared into the infinate nothingness despite friends INSISTING they'd left them... "This damn phone!" I'd yell in frustration! But after three phone changes in the past year - the problem remained.

Vodafone. You sneaky bugger.

Then in the last few weeks the problems became public ... despite the customer service people (bless their hearts) telling me to reset my phone .. we all now know it's the network's problems.

The other week - I had a car accident. Crying on the side of the road - it took numerous tries to call someone to sob on the phone to who could come help me - and it took numerous tries to call work to tell them I couldnt come in (and even when I got through the person on the other end sounded like a robot). Now I'm missing calls from the insurance company, the insurance assessor and the crash repairs. Even when I get through - the call inevitably drops out a couple of times.

Thanks Vodafone. So reliable. To think - the reason I signed with you all those years ago was because Kramer from Seinfeld was doing your ads. (Yes, THAT long ago) Kicking myself on that one.

I have been using Vodafone for 8 years now, never really had an issue with customer service - actually every experience I had was great. Yeah, the reception was not always the best but this didn't affect me too much.
So, I open my most recent bill about 2 weeks ago, only to find it is $299.98?!?!! I am on an unlimited cap of $90, and an internate plan of @29.95 - that I do not use as I receive no reception. Rather than paying it out which I have been told several times is my only opton, just pay that amount everymonth. It's not a huge amount, so I don't really think about it. It also has only 3 months to run. My bill, in the 19 month I have been receiving them has never amounted to more than $90 + @29.95. So, I try to call the customer care. 5 attempts in one day, excessive hold times. finally get through to be told that their 'system is down', by a guy name Rasheed - or something dodgy like that. I can hardly understand the guy. I'm not the happiest of people, and I demand that they call ME back, I refuse to sit on hold at all any longer. He said they will within 4 hours. 10min later I receive a text saying they had triend to call me back, but I had not answered. Balls. My phone was next to me at my computer the whole 10mins.
3 more days of scattered attempts to contact them - but to no avail! even went into a local VODAFAIL store, who could also not explan the charges. Then on the 4th day I get through after a 34min wait. Only to be told I have come through to the wrong department. I get placed on hold for another 10mins. Call answered, to be told their system was 'down' again. That's when carcked and called the TIO, lodging a complaint. I try to call 1555 at 11pm that night thinking surely I will get through. Recording told me a minimim of 40min wait. Jam that up your A$$.
Yesterday, I am successful in getting through after an excessive wait AGAIN! (Apologies to my boss for using up work time.)
Apu (or whatever his name is) can't find the issue with my bill. Says there is a MPP charge on there. So I argue with this douchebag in his broken english, and his raised voice at me until finally he cracks and admits that there has been an error inm the bill. NO SHITE MORON. *** this is the good bit *** I demand some form of compensation for my time and all the troubles I have been having getting through to them. GET THIS - He says as a goodwill gesture, HE WILL CREDIT BACK THE CHARGES TO MY ACCOUNT!!! BUDDY, THAT IS NOT GOODWILL, THEY SHOULD HAVE NOT BVEEN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!! So I request to be put through to the complaints department. On hold for 10 more minutes. "Hello, this is another Indian call centre worker - but I am the manager, you can complain to me". After then detailing all the troubled AGAIN, I get nowhere. I also bring up the issue of paying for a service I don't receive with my internet. I ask for compensation for their lack of service and appaling customer service. I get nowhere. I ask to be put through to their complaints department again. This resulted in a heated argument about VODAFINE DOESN'T HAVE A COMPAINTS DEPARTMENT?!?!?! I give up, I advise I have already complained to the TIO. I then have an offer for a $29.95 credit for this months bill only. I ask for my contract to be cancelled of no charge - there are only 3 months left. I get nothing but a mouthful of crap from ths other Apu dude. I hang up.

I have now lodged a second complaint through the TIO.

Let's see what happens...

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TIGHT-ASS COMPANIES MOVE THEIR CALL CENTRES OFF SHORE.
SHAME SHAME SHAME.

After months of bad reception, dropped calls, slow data, delayed SMS & MMS messages I rang Vodafone with one question..."How much to get out of my contract?" After only 10 minutes on hold (I thought that was pretty good), the customer service person who took the call couldn't provide me with an answer (this took another 10 minutes to deduce). She said someone would call me back and quess what...they did! However, this person couldn't answer my question either. They were Tech support. They blamed my phone, my sim, my area (Sydney CBD???) and then said someone would call me back in 72 hours. I insisted that I just wanted to know how much to get out of my contract. Finally they agreed to put me through to someone who might be able to answer my question...another 10 minutes on hold...someone answered...and the call dropped out! This was last Friday and no-one has called me back.
I have been with Vodafone for 10 years and I am sad to be leaving them but enough is enough.

I was gonna order Vodafone on a 12 month plan with HTC Desire HD on their NRMA 3 months free offer. Before that i had Vodafone on month to month plan. I called up their call center(wait of 40 mins so I chose the callback option though the CS didnt sound like doing customer service) told me that the offer is not valid now. I asked them to check their website and they did and came back yeah its valid. Then they said you have to talk to Sales team(I had told them I am a Vodafone customer already) but still they did and I waited for 30 mins and then hung up. After some time I called up again this time I was told this offer is not for 12 months(again I said check the website) they didnt agree(and were rude). I called NRMA and they confirmed that the offer is valid and they connected me directly to a local Vodafone respresentative and he said since I am on Vodafone on a month to month I can get a new contract and move my current number to prepaid and then move back in to the new contract. And yes the NRMA offer was valid for 12 month contracts too. I signed up the contract and got a virgin prepaid and moved my old voda to Virgin and then after a couple of days called Vodafone to move my number(which was on virgin) back to my new contract and I was told Vodafone can only do it at the time of signing up. huh that was enough for me to take. After going all through I was back again explaining the CS at Vodafail of what I was told by one of their friends. And finally they recognized it and said "we will do it as exception" bullshit.

Now the experience of using the new phone. I see the network going off atleast couple of days in a week and in Sydney CBD too. I have never seen the 3G or HSPDA showing on my HTC .. Never!! All this Saturday( afternoon) there was no data network in North Paramatta(I was trying to check Ashes scores). Also under the account I checked out of 2 Gig data a big chunk is GPRS. I hope it doesnt mean that I have to finish that first before I start getting 3G/HSPDA which I never even if I sit 24 hours on my phone and open websites. What a waste of money this contract is I wish I could get out of it.

I used to have vodafone mobile broadband. The coverage was shit so I cancelled my contract and sent back the USB modem. This was 3 or more months ago. I noticed in my emails that they are still billing me.. So I called them. After being on hold for AGES they transferred me to a different department, then told me I had been transferred to the wrong department. I gave up trying and just hung up. I called back the next day and again, they transferred me to several wrong departments. To this day they continue to bill me. I'm not even going to bother trying again. Their customer service is just bullshit. If they can't tell that me not using any data mean I DO NOT HAVE THE INTERNET ANYMORE then they are morons.

Was with Vodafone for 5 years but the service performance was getting worse and worse that me and my partner had to leave the network. When I called the customer service line to ask when my contract would be up, they asked why I was thinking of leaving Vodafone, I answered as honestly as I could "Your network is so unreliable I can't make/receive calls and sms..." the rep just answered "oh... okay... is there anything else I can do for you today?" FAIL VODAFONE... FAIL!

Vodafone - please expect a civil suit to cover your customers lost business and time.
It really doesn't matter what you do from here. You're a bunch of dishonest bastards.
Funny thing is that the staff in your stores seem to agree. I've been to three stores to deal with my ongoing issues and the staff freely admit what a dodgy outfit you are. Specifically, they admit that the customer service system (which one staff member said you had spent $90B on - I think not), was causing more harm than good. All your staff mention that they have a gag order imposed, but they don't seem to care (I guess that's because they're so pissed off with you too). Your staff have freely admitted that there are obvious signs of a downturn in customer sign ups (but also admit that head office is happy to give out numbers on new connections, but not disconnections).
This is not made up. If you want store details, dates and times, then don't worry Vodafone, I keep records of my interactions with your 'team'. Just like so many others do.
Dealing with Vodafone is becoming a part time job!

I'm a small business owner, moved one of our numbers to Vodafone so we can get the HTC Desire HD. I'm afraid given my recent experience with Vodafone 3G and customer service I don't think I will move the rest of the business mobiles across to Vodafone. Tried calling Vodafone but like the other Telco's they don't employ human beings in Australia and try everything to avoid answering their phones and deal with customers. Unfortunately the other Telco's are no better so where do we go? I guess it's true, a recent comment by a senior executive for one Telco said "If Australia's biggest Telco doesn't offer customer service so why should we invest time, people and money in improving customer service" Unless Telstra lifts it's game and offer REAL customer service at REAL competitive rates the other Telco's will simply sit on their fat rear ends, take the money and run. Telcos in Australia don't give a s*#t about customers simply because there is no real competition.

My list of problems (which are probably the same as everyone else):
- calls not coming through at all.
- voicemail and texts arriving hours, sometimes days after they were sent.
- poor to non-existent internet access
- crappy customer service

It's bad in Perth and, oddly, even worse when I'm in Sydney.
My partner is with Telstra, and guaranteed, any time my phone is *not* working.. her phone is. Vodafail big time - counting down the months until the end of my contract!

Until a few months ago I had a mobile broadband service and a mobile service with VF. The broadband service deteriorated to the point it was unusable and after many calls and emails to customer service I went the TIO route .. end result is that the mobile broadband service contract was ended. Given that the service in my area improved I decided to keep the service but be free of the contract; at least that way VF retain a customer and I retain a service for as long as I want!

Poor infrastructure, poor customer service, poor public relations. They should be banned from taking on any new customers and be forced to offer ALL existing customers a release from their contracts. Lets then see how long they stay in business. Their profits are measured only by the deceptive marketing strategies they have in place. It's the telco equivalent of a Ponzie scheme and should be investigated by the ACCC.

Dave from the Vodafone social media team, please give up now.
It's obvious that you are a junior who can't do anything to help.
Formulaic stuff - "we hear you"....aaaargh. Sounds like you've been to a half day "dealing with difficult customers" class.
We all know that you can buy time by pretending to empathize, pretend that you are listening and promise to act.
Dave and Vodafone, listen up. WE WILL NOT STAND FOR YOUR SUB-STANDARD RESPONSES.
How is Twitter going to help me?

Dave, a story for you;
I have already lodged a complaint with the TIO. it's taken 7 business days but one of your customer service reps called me back and left a message and a phone number. I was in a meeting and unable to take the call. After the meeting I called back on the nominated number and guess what Dave, I was put in a call queue for 15 minutes and then the line dropped out.

So Dave, and Vodaphone - this 'social media' strategy won't fool anyone. It's obvious that you still think we are idiots.

Everyone else, vote with your feet. Complain to the TIO that you aren't getting what u paid for.
Go to another provider. Tell everyone you know about how poorly Vodafone has acted. Do it over Xmas lunch.

I walked into a Telstra shop yesterday to discuss plans just in case I can break my contract.
It was like a breath of fresh air.

Meanwhile, the staff member at the Vodafone store next store freely admitted how frustrated many staff are by their own employer and how bad they feel selling contracts to customers when they know that the service doesn't work.

Vodafone, sort yourselves out and stop forcing your staff to lie.

If Vodafone is in so much trouble (mess) at the moment, why dont they open up an Australian customer service department with some serious support - instead of waiting up to an hour for someone in India to answer the phone. The line quality to Inia is also shocking and I found it really hard to understand the person on the other end.

What is Lara doing answering phones when she should be making sandwiches?
Vodafone hold music is just crakling and repetitve assurance of quality customer service and optimum products.

What is Lara doing answering phones when she should be making sandwiches?
Vodafone hold music is just crakling and repetitve assurance of quality customer service and optimum products.

Poor service, forever dropping out, changing over to the Edge network constantly, data speeds are pathetic!

On the brink of seeing if their lack of service allows me to break my contract with them after a number of years being a loyal customer

I have been a customer pre-paid and contract all up for about 5-6 years! This is the worst service ever.
Am currently serving the last year of the 2 year contract I am one and for the last 4 months I have had drp outs, no service, web sites take over 5 minutes to load and most dont load at all, sms looking like they have sent but dont recieve.
I live in Hornsby NSW an area that recieves stantard service as per their website states.
Months ago I tried to call to report these issues. After several 45 minute waits and several drop outs while on hold - suprise suprise - I have been unable to speak to someone on the phone so I emailed in detail the problem only to receive some confusion automatic email asking me to fill in a form stating everything I just mentioned.
There was no mention of any technical issues.
This was the same story when I went into a VF store. Noone knew anything about it except for one staff member who told me I will just have to switch to 2G and that VF are doing maintainence to the towers and some customers will just have poor service and will have to live with it. Yeah I dont think so Vf read your contact people and use this against them.
So off the TCO I went and hopefully I will be out of my contact by Christmas. Best present I will ever receive!
Teltra here I come!

I now have a phone that doesn't make phone calls, a data service that only works when it is connected to my wireless network at work or at home.

Have given up getting them on the phone. Am now going to go into store.

Not Very Happy.

If you're interested to get on an endless loop to nowhere, call 1555. Lara doesn't "quite catch that". You say "billing enquiry" and she's like "did you mean iphone problems". Worst customer service ever. You'll wait for over an hour to speak to a real person who is based in india. If they don't know how to answer your call they simply hang up. Very RUBBISH customer service.
If you go into the store on George street, expect serious attitude from the horrible staff that see customers as an inconvenience to their day.
Get it together Vodafone.

I have been a Vodafone customer for over 10 years, I have never had worse service over the last 6 months, not only at a network level but at a customer service level.