iPhone 3GS - dropped calls, constant "no service" messages when friends with the exact same phone and on non-Telstra providers have full signal, the most useless customer service around (and now outsourced, so even worse), nigh on incomprehensible bills that somehow ALWAYS exceed the monthly amount (I'm on an unlimited plan) and an online "portal" from the 1970's.

I have already applied to Telstra for a Business Unlimited Plan. $150, unlimited. A day after I applied a Telstra rep (from Australia) rang up and walked me through the process, as well as giving me his direct line.

That's called a proper company.

The customer service is a joke - some third rate call centre out of mumbai where a person reads from a screen and has no idea what is going on.

The reception is some bad it is not funny. Dropped calls, no net, just ridiculous.

The lies of the customer service reps, the false tests and the utmost waste of time is just mind boggling.

They cannot possibly continue to offer service contracts when the network cant even handle it!

They should be suspended from taking on new customers until such time as the network issues are resolved satisfactorily!

If you are with them get out... If you are not run...

I live in Tenambit and I have checked there website, spoke to a service person at Greenhill and also spoke to customer service (2.5hrs on hold) about the problem and they all tell me service is excellent in my area and I should have full service. I DO NOT get full service, barely 1 bar. I have an Autistic son who get's extremely frustrated when we can't make phone calls/calls drop out.
It has taken me 2years to get him to use a phone and he still has problems.

Vodafone, aside from running a dodgy network, has partially or completely REMOVED HUMANS from its interactions with customers and COMPLETELY ABANDONNED ANY PRETENSE TO CUSTOMER SERVICE.

If you call Vodafone:
You will be answered by Lara (a computer program). She may or may not ever connect you to a queue where you can wait for a human. However, she sometimes connects you to another automated service that you don't want which will hang up on you. Frustratingly, when the Vodafone website tells you to call 1300 301 030 number, you get regular Lara, who does not know why you have called and does not help you find out who you should speak to.
LARA DOES NOT WORK and Vodafone KNOWS LARA DOES NOT WORK*, but you have to deal with her anyway.

If you email Vodafone:
To email Vodafone, you must complete a webform. The webform will NOT allow you to send the email until you have browsed FAQs - 3 SEPARATE TIMES.
IF you can send the email, you will probably receive an automated reply. This reply will inform you that, EVEN THOUGH you read the FAQs and did NOT find an answer, the answer to your question is in the FAQs. The email will then INFORM you that your question HAS BEEN answered. No human has looked at your question, and no human ever will.... unless you reply. If you are especially lucky, weeks after you send your email - Vodafone will send you another automated reply informing you that because it has taken so long to respond, you have probably fixed the problem yourself. Vodafone will then INFORM you that it considers the problem RESOLVED. The problem has so far been 'resolved' twice without any human reading your email... unless you reply AGAIN. Then, if you are super lucky, a human will read your email. However, due to all the long trail of correspondence required to get a human to read it, the questions in your original email have 'gone missing'. So, the human will invite you to reply AGAIN AGAIN to clarify what the original problem was. Judging by the length of time I have waited, your reply AGAIN AGAIN will probably go to the end of a very ling queue.**

If you take your complaint to the TIO:
Vodafone will eventually call you back. The human you talk to may well ask you if the previous people you spoke to were "from Australia", suggesting that they think this is important. In my case, I eventually managed to fix my original problem myself - by finally logging into the myVodafone website - HOWEVER I think it is very *likely* that Vodafone lied to me originally about the problem. LYING TO CUSTOMERS IS A PROBLEM. The Vodafone complaints department will NOT investigate that, and will NOT release the recordings of calls without a court order. Vodafone will usually charge $20 for a print out of your 'billing records' and it is not clear what this includes. They will also NOT correspond with you by EMAIL. Even the TIO complaints department will NOT provide any CONVENIENT & VERIFIABLE way to communicate with them.

IN SHORT:
Vodafone do not want to provide a human to deal with you. Ever.
Vodafone will not answer your questions.
Vodafone representatives may well tell complete lies, but it is very difficult to find out.
VODAFONE DEMONSTRATE CONTEMPT FOR YOU IF YOU WISH TO DO BUSINESS WITH THEM.



* A representative from Vodafone complaints department called Phil confirmed that Vodafone is aware that Lara is loathed and Vodafone plan to introduce a parallel system, but not until the end of February.
** I suspect this queue is made even longer by all the times you have to reply if you are really determined to get an answer in writing.

I run a small law practice and as I work remotely, I depend heavily on the data service for emails. My emails sometime take up to 24 hours to be downloaded and I have contacted Voda 4-5 times and they keep on closing the fault after 5 days without any resolution. As I am on billable time, sitting for hours waiting for Voda customer service is revenue lost. As I close the office this week, I will make one last attempt to fix this, otherwise I will lodge a complaint with the Telecommuniations Industry Ombudsman, who has regulatory 'teeth' and the telcos are sensitive to the TIO as every complaint from the TIO costs them money. So the TIO is a good place to go if people are fed up with Voda's lack of service.

I assume this won't get posted as the publisher appears to have a few issues - I certainly have never had an issue with Vodafone. Excellent customer service - coverage isn't great in rural areas but the entire country knows that, and ppl who say they don't are either ignorant or liars.

dropped call, no service and dont give a crap about customer service. wont let me out of my contract.

One hour and 15 minutes on hold last week on land line because phone kept dropping out and only reconnecting on hard reset. I gave up waiting.

service keeps disappearing, calls keep dropping out, and when i try and call my friends back... nothing. i have internet and phone through vodafone... both are really poor connections. services have disappeared, like informing me that i've received a bill... and all i get is an SMS telling me my bill is overdue and to pay immediately. i dont call customer service to tell them as i don't have the time to waste sitting in a phone queue... would probably drop out anyway.

I can't even see my bill and how they got the figure of $186 because I cannot login to their website to My Vodafone where the bill should be displayed. The website has failed so many times while I was with them that I was forced to the call centre...hell upon hell..If I wanted to create the worst company possible with the worst systems and poor customer service I would invent Vodafail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I called customer service line last Friday and hold the line for almost 1 hour and finally had to give up... I will never recommend this service provider to anyone again.

Wasted one and a half hours trying to upgrade to an iphone on the Customer Service Line. Started with LARA and moved on to 6 Indians with no result.Have decided to ditch them as I am out of contract.

The crappy service or lack of from Vodafone over the past few months has been agonising. I thought it was my phone so I went out and bought a new phone only to discover it is not the phone but in fact the non existent service provided by vodafone. Calls drop out every 5 - 10 seconds, no network coverage, phone is out of service when 3G shows full service - no one can ring or sms. My phone only works sometimes when the 3G is switched off. SMS messages are late sometimes over 24 hours late. The 1223 service give you the wrong numbers, the customer service does not provide any service at all except for tormenting and torturing. Vodafone really SUCK. They deserve to be shut down, boycott vodafone and switch providers I am. Vodafail your lack of service, lack of customer support is disgusting, shameful, horrible, despicable, ridiculous, shit, appalling and leaves a lot to be desired. Refunds for everyone.

Call Dropouts, No service in the heart of the Sydney CBD near queen victoria building. It appears that Vodafone have a major issue with their 3g and or gsm network transition code. I'm on a new phone as well. When setting my phone to GSM the network is MUCH more stable. For the internet it's just slows things down a whole heap. SHAME ON THESE THEIVES FOR HAVING SUCH A POOR SERVICE!!!!!!!

Im on Vodafone pre-paid, been with them for about 9 years. I've not been able to get a balance on 1555 for months, when dialled a voice system says something like 'ok you want a balance, just a minute...to get a balance simply call 1512 from your mobile". I mean what the...
Then today I tried to send a text message, then got 7 texts instantly from Vodafone advising that i had insufficent funds. I tried to recharge online, but the system was down..an online message advised this. So I then went out to buy a recharge voucher, followed the instructions (dial 1511, but the options were different to those printed on the voucher. A voice system kept asking me to enter the invoice or mobile number i wished to pay followed by the hash key) Each time I entered it the voice said "i'm sorry, please enter the invoice or mobile number you want to pay". So in complete frustration I called 1555 (customer service), but was put into another 'merry go round', where I could speak to no-one, after trying all of the different options I did get through to someone...In India, how the hell could he possibly help me...well he tried and wished me a good day and put me through to 'someone who could help', the message "Hi welcome to Vondafone, the area you are calling is closed, we are open tomorrow from *am to *pm". I am moving away, this company is BAD!, and they leave their customers in the dark.

I am so angry with vodafone. I am disgusted that they can get away with providing such poor service and coverage. My internet rarely works, compared to my friends on Optus and Telstra, the coverage area is just terrible. My phone is often out of serivce. I often receive messages hours after they have been sent to me and sometimes don't receive messages at all. Messages that I send are sometimes never received. I will be changing as soon as my contract is up and telling everyone I know to steer clear of vodafone. I can't believe they are able to get away with this, as far as I am concerned they are fraudulently operating as they are not providing the service that they advertise and they are well aware of this.

Been with Vodafail for three weeks and havent been able to send a single email from my iphone. When I contacted customer service they told me that this had been the case for SOME CUSTOMERS for some time and couldnt tell me when it would be fixed. Would they let me know when email was back up? Oh no that would be customer service and vodafail don't do that!

Been all over Melbourne today, drop outs on every call today, my conference call was a waste of time. We got 25 Mobiles with VodaPain, India customer service BAD...been weeks like this!
Boss said: Making life easier! I think Telstra this week!

I've been with vodafone for about 10 years now and it's never given me any dramas. For weeks now I've had drama's with my coverage and I've spent hours and hours on the phone to customer service with the majority of it being on hold. I haven't been able to log into my account on the vodafone website for a month now too and when I call them they just keep telling me it's being worked on. I have since asked for a copy of my bill so I can see why I've got a bill that's way over what it normally is and I was told I'd have a copy in 48hrs, it's been over 5 days and I'm still waiting. I'm sick of sitting on hold with vodafone.

I often missed call from my boss and other teams in my office and have to show my phone to tell them I didn't receive the call or missed etc. infact often they doubt me . This is a network which i am paying $69 per month, embarrassing publicaly,proffessionaly and personaly. I have to show my phones to convince them that i didn't get the call nor missed call . Untill I came to know the reason for past months mess from smh.com.au.
half the time walking down George Street, I have 'no service',missed call no records of the call etc. To attend after and before care for my kids.I am constantly receiving messages from friends up to quiet late or even a day after ... my 3G internet says full service but pages just don't load and I get the 'no cellular network' message several times a day."

Useless customer service, dropped out calls, not connection even when i have full strength,,, grrrr seems to all gone down hill with the beginning of the 3 merger

I often missed call from my boss and other teams in my office and have to show my phone to tell them I didn't receive the call or missed etc. infact often they doubt me . This is network which i am paying $69 per motnth, embarrassing publiclay and proffessionaly, personaly. I have to show my phones to convince them that i didn't get the call . Untill I came to know the reason for past months mess from smh.com.au.
half the time walking down George Street I have 'no service',missed call no records of the call etc. To attend after and before care for my kids.I am constantly receiving messages from friends up to quiet late or even a day after ... my 3G internet says full service but pages just don't load and I get the 'no cellular network' message several times a day."

After haggling with rude and unhelpful Vodafail customer service people when my prepaid was billed TWICE (I left it with my bank in the end, as it was getting nowhere and their customer service tried to recharge me after my bank chased them!!) NOW I'm cut off entirely - no service whatever for the past few days. I'm in the inner city, Sydney FFS! I may complain to the ombudsman, but easier, I believe, to complain with my feet - come monday I'm ditching Vodafail and switching to a new provider. I suggest you all do the same!

You should all use Telstra. While their billing systems are a bit buggered, their network is tops and their customer service is improving heaps. If you have a problem with their billing - call and they assist big time or you can contact David Thodey the CEO directly.

Lara, Lara, Lara how hopeless you are.

I was assured of coverage for my area thats a joke , i also have had issues with there so called customer service & there customer call centres. In short can't wait till I can get out

ACCC, help! Please.
Vodafone are selling a service which does not deliver to their promises.
This includes reception AND customer service.
I feel like I've been ripped off and I find it really upsetting, because if information was available I would've known better.
This is so unfair.
They should repay their customers ALL MONIES PAID IN THE LAST THREE MONTHS.

Ironic, isn't it, that 'Vodafone' is an amalgamation of shortened words for 'Voice, Data, Fone'. Because since I joined them, voice services have worked sporadically, data services have NEVER worked to any extent that might be considered useful, and the phone I purchased on a plan with them failed to perform certain vital functions despite being new out of the box. Luckily, Vodafone has it all figured out, I've found: their staff refuse to take complaints in store - you must call the help line (I simply refuse to refer to it as a 'customer service' line). But you can't get through to the help line without spending half your day waiting for someone to answer - that is, if your call isn't dropped! Try emailing them, and you'll receive a non-specific mass-produced response that amounts to 'We know, and we don't care to make any reparations or even sympathise.' So you're stuck. Just remember, and I swear I use this to get me through the day when every call I make cuts out and every text message I send comes back as 'failed to send', Vodafone is running itself into the ground. No customer will return to Vodafone after incidents like this, and a telecommunications company relies on its customer base. Somehow Vodafone finds it in its interest to ignore this fact. Reality: they will be laughing on the other side of their faces when droves of customers leave it, never to return. I'd prefer to pay more with another telco than pay for a service that doesn't work. And that's what I'll tell the hapless agent who calls me asking why I am switching providers when my contract term is up.

ACCC, help! Please.
Vodafone are selling a service which does not deliver to their promises.
This includes reception AND customer service.
I feel like I've been ripped off and I find it really upsetting, because if information was available I would've known better.
This is so unfair.
They should repay their customers ALL MONIES PAID IN THE LAST THREE MONTHS.

we are a company with more than 10 mobiles and rely on the service for emergency's it has taken up to 3 days to receive text's lots off tel drop outs, bad service next to no customer service.this is one bad company.good marketing,poor service and no after sales service.the telecommunication industry needs goverment intervention.

I just spent nearly a day getting my daughter onto Vodafone pre-paid. The website where I was told to do it didn't work - the link just took you to a 'Page not found'.
I emailed but got no reply so tried phoning Customer Service. Big mistake. Took about 30 minutes to get through, to finally speak to an Indian I could hardly understand. He fixed up the registration, but it still didn't work, so I had to call again (and wait...) so someone else could process the payment. About a week later I got a response to my initial email.
Will go back to Optus. Reluctantly I might add.

I live close to the CBD and rarely make a call on my mobile that doesn't drop out at least once. About 2 weeks ago I had no service for 3 days. This was very worrying as I no longer have a landline and I was therefore unable to be contacted by family overseas when there was a crisis. I have sent numerous emails and made calls to the help desk but am always told to reboot the phone or that there is nothing wrong with the network signal in my area! I feel extremely angry that I am not receiving the service I paid for. I will certainly not be renewing with Vodafone.

I'm at Burleigh Waters, near Bond University and use Vodafone's Pocket Wi-Fi on the 8Gb/$39 offering, seems to work fine most of the time, but there have been network issues over the past few weeks with little or no signal and loss of connectivity to the net. Not using them for phone though, have iPhone on 3 with 2Gb of data, I haven't had too many major dramas with it.

Now I know why you usually have to go on a contract, it's to minimise customer attrition due to poor service or competitor activity offering better value. Contracts should be abolishes.

I have recovery agencies trying to get me to pay $900 for a one month bill for data download, which I did not use with my two year contract with V. One month before the end of my contract using a Blackberry I started using an Iphone and was charged exuberant rates because I was not using the same phone I sign up with. Imagine, a mobile data download bill of $900. My cap was $79. How can they do that to their customers? THEY ARE CRAZY, I will hate them for the rest of my life! I also had issues with dropped services, imposed overseas traveling rates and EXTREMELY APPALLING INDIAN CUSTOMER SERVICE who don't understand the aussie language & refer you to long time dead customer service centres in Hobart! Vodafone is a JOKE, they are SELFISH abusers and corporate SHARKS!

My customers ask why i don't return their calls.
My phone shows no missed calls.
Their phone call logs show that they called me but i never got the call.
Calls drop out all the time & I'm in Brisbane, not a remote area.
Most customers just buy stuff elsewhere when this happens, i know i would.
This is costing me money, pissing off customers,friends & family.
It is plain old poor service.
How often do we see companies grow so rapidly & make such profits that they forget how to provide basic services to their customers?

Telstra would have to come somewhere near the top of the hit parade, when it comes to the absence of Customer Service. There just isn't any, the call centre staff just have no answers for any queries, quite often they are very difficult to understand. The whole Customer Help system at Telstra, is designed to not offer help, but just hope you will go away after talking to recorded messages for anything up to half and hour. From what I am told, Optus is only a whisker behind Telstra for their petty hopeless customer service. When is Kevin 07 going to tighten up the way these Telcos operate. They are way beyond what the people expect.

We were with three for many years and happy but at renew time I switched to a VF plan (I wanted the HTC Legend) and since then nothing but trouble. Dropped calls, poor reception, no reception, poor customer service and incorrect billing both on my new plan and on the wife's which is still with 3. What a mess. BTW I must say the staff in the shops try their best to help but the phone support (join the kill Lara campaign anyone?) and on line services are bad bad bad.

Been putting up with Vodashit's crap for 21mths... only 3 to go. Same old stuff - constant call drops outs, no reception, missing txts sending/receiving. The classic - I sit at my bench on a call with full signal, I lean over 20cm and bam, zero signal, call drops out. And there's plenty of places where this occurs. Don't even get me started on their customer service. How do they continue to get away with it and sign up more naive suckers?

Have 3 phones on a business plan all the same problems. Dropped calls that frustrates customers and my staff are getting abused now because of Vodafail's poor service. Voicemail takes hours and even days to come through. I will have full 3G reception and in 10 seconds standing in the same place, same position the service will drop out (NO SERVICE) come back as low reception no 3G etc.
Trying to talk to a customer rep is like sliding naked over sand paper. The Vodafail network in India is just as bad from the sounds of things.
Tried to terminate the contract and was told to pay the contract in full.

We live within viewing distance of the centre of Brisbane - but have *NO* mobile reception inside our house (NOT just 3G - NO RECEPTION). There is barely any reception outside the house - we have to drive a block or two to get decent reception.
The clincher is when I called Vodafone's "Customer Service" - and explained my issue to the 10 different people I talked to - all of whom (a) obviously were not in this country and (b) did not know where BRISBANE was..(!!!!!)
It's a sad day when Telstra is the better alternative..!!

Was with three for many years, but as soon as Vodafone bought them out, nothing but trouble. Dropped calls, poor reception, no reception, poor customer service. Switched to Telstra, which i hate, but much better service, and price is about the same, but no dropped calls, the person who answers the call, fixes the problem, not being put through to another and another department.

I have been using Vodafone from more than 6months. I live at one of the hottest places of Melbourne city. There is hardly one point of signal outside the house and absolutely no signal in the house. Call always drops in the mid of the conversation and have to forget about reconnecting. I am also facing the frequent connection error problem. I have been told by the customer service representative that there might be some problem with the sim card; please replace the sim card which has got the more signal reception power. When I have personally gone to the Vodafone store, they said there are no sim cards which have got the more signal reception power. They have simply given me the same sim card and I am still facing the same problem. Clearly indicates that there is no coordination between them. That Customer service is the worst; we have to leave the phone on for hours together for our turn to talk to the customer service representative. Some times mobile battery might get flat before we get our turn. They said they are in the progress of some technical improvement, but I have not seen any improvement from past 6months. Finally I would like to say that Vodafone is the worst network service I ever seen in my life.

I joined Vodafone on a $99 a month unlimited plan. No contract, just put the sim in my old phone. Call drop outs, no service, on the phone for hours trying to get support. All the problems people report. I was with them for 3 weeks and could not bear it anymore. Move to Telstra. Yesterday I got a final bill from Vodafone for $186!!!!!!!!! I can't get through to customer service to find out how this three weeks of a $99 plan cost $186. Taking them to the TIO. 3 weeks of a terrible experience with Vodapone and the final insult is a $186 bill for three weeks on an unlimited $99 no contract deal. How is this possible? Thank God or whoever I did not sign up on a contract!!!!!!!!!!!

In mobile network or railway network even if service providers have performance commitments with Govt agency these companies use very simple trick to get away with poor service...law of averaging..the commitments are never made for peak time/peak location...for example uncongestion commitments are seldom made for a calculation period less then a day and for a location smaller then a suburb. So in theory there can be peak time chaos at a location but when averaged out over a longer period/ larger area the performance can still be justified as with in limits. Moreover the regulator depends on the honesty of data from service provider. To independently verify the performance specially of a mobile network is extremely expensive exercise.

A network provider may have contractual obligation to customer set at quite low limits but will generally provide quality only because of competition.This means if quality is poor he may not be able to get more customers but it may still be not in breach of existing customer contracts.

When it comes to mobile network. Radio waves by nature are never guaranteed to work all times. To prove that it is not an act of god but it is a poor network can be very difficult for a individual consumer pitched against organised professionals. Customers can be told it is their faulty handset. However service provider will know fault is at their end if many customer face problems.

No one bloody listen to what i have to say. You go to the store to sort out they just act dumb not knowing the situation. One of the staff just said that its out of our control. Very sad and poor service

You have to wait 30 minutes easy over the phone before talking to them. I waited 45 minutes in one instance. The delivery address in their web form has some smart/dumb logic and does not allow more specific details be placed. As my work place street number is shared by 3 huge CBD building blocks, the first delivery was failed, interestingly I found this out only when I asked them and they have no intention to contact me for more address detail after the first failed delivery. Of the numerous queries over the phone, one operator asked for my contact number and said he'll follow it thru and call me, nothing happens after 2 work days and I have to call (and wait for over 30 minutes again) and to start my problem description again. While you are waiting over the phone, their recorded message sometimes said "you will be attended to shortly" but subsequently said "We are flat out...", so customers are not sure whether they are REALLY progessing in the queue or not. I worked in a service organisation where they are KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for phone answering service, after a customer waited for 5 minutes, a yellow light blinks for attention, after 10 minutes, a red signal with a noise will be triggered in the call centre so someone (either the supervisor or the manager has to answer the call), I guess this simple customer service mentality was definitely not in Vodafail management's mind, they would probably be spending more energy on where to secure cheaper labour cost of operators over the other side of the globe.

For the Last two years I have been on a contract with Vodafone, paying 79 dollars a month for a phone that broke (was not at fault) however my insurance did not cover the breakage, despite paying extra insurance for precisely this possible eventuality. I decided to remain with vodafone despite weird data black holes and shoddy phone call connectivity, as This is my partners service provider and it works out a lot cheaper.I recently entered the last three months of my contract, at which point Vodafone will replace your handset and start a new contract. I went into the store on Friday only to discover that the handset that I want is only available to order over the phone. Today I spent over four hours on Hold and being misdirected to various departments, when all I want to do is Purchase a new service with them, and when the phone call was actually connected the call failed.
I'm waiting for my contract to expire and then moving to another service provider.

Hi guys I work for a telco ( not voda ) and must say that 70% of new customers that join our network come from vodafone. I hear all the complaints and stories about why ( customers point of view) vodafone is a "fail". Vodafone is the biggest telco in the world - this may be a major reason on my the network has gone downhill. They know that customers will
Sign up with them because it is a household name - they know they won't have trouble getting customers and profit- so they focus less on there customer service, and the voda service and network
Itself. If u haven't noticed 3 and voda have come together recently. I have seen numerous stores being shut down. (cost cutting) as well as not upgrading there network to the ever growing mass use of mobile phones. At the end of the day, it's about being confident that you can make a call when you need to - not about saving a few dollars a month. I'll stay in touch.

i've been with vodafone for over 10 years and really liked it.... up until a couple of months ago.
The service has been terrible lately and getting data to work has been rare.
I hope they fix it because i've been with Optus before and hate their customer service, I really dont want to give Telstra any money either!

my concern with all this is that there are current plans for Vodafone and 3 to merge. Some months ago 3% all of its customer service to Manila and immediately the bum dropped out of the service levels and as a businessman running my entire operation on three Mobile it scares the beJesus out of me in terms of ongoing connectivity. Problematically, I think that like all telcos, service is the very last thing they worry about.

Called Vodafone to register call dropouts, lack of coverage etc;
A recorded message recommended I leave my name and phone number so that a consultant could call back when I had progressed in the queue.
Over an hour later, I did get a call back - only to be put back in the queue! 10 minutes later, a consultant answered. And then my call dropped out.
Vodafone, you really are doing the wrong thing by your customers. And ultimately you will be forced to apologise and compensate. Your lack of responsiveness wins you no fans. In Australia, consumers appreciate transparency.
I, a customer for over 8 years will be leaving and not coming back.
My lifetime customer value will be going somewhere else.
Do the maths Vodafone and sort yourselves out.

If you are not with Vodafone and are considering signing up with them, don't. Read this forum, search the whirlpool forums and read the news. Vodafone have a terrible network and poor, poor service.

I had a Blackberry Storm for 2 years on the Vodafail network - talk about issues! Call drop outs, data never working, not to mention the s*** customer service. I couldn't wait to end the 24 month contract. I'm now with Telstra on one of their cap plans - its excellent and great value. Never any issues. Take action and move to another telco who deserves your hard earned $$$.

Bought a Blackberry and was assured by Vodafone that I would have full 3g and Data coverage in Wollongong, transfered my service from a 'no plans' to a Blackberry package, immediately after I activated the phone I had no or only GSM service. Unless I'm standing immediately under a mobile tower I have very little coverage and I'm unable to use any of the functions of the phone. Calls continually drop out, emails sometimes take 24 hours from sender to me, voice mail messages have arrived 2 days later, the list goes on. I have noticed a slight improvement in coverage in the past week but its still intermittent with periods of ZERO coverage. Tried contacting Customer Service, but as the calls continually drop out unless I get an answer in 45 seconds or less, I have no hope. Tried emailing my problem to them, several automated emails over 3 weeks I'm no closer. Made a complaint to the TIO and have had a reply from them but no joy from Vodafone. 6 weeks into the debacle, I'm still paying bills for something I'm not getting and my service is still CRAP!

Call center never solves issues, been trying for days to speak with someone in australia who can assist. Just a poor serviced company, who Fail to understand customers needs

Constant coverage drop-outs, unable to connect (website) issues, and to top it off, my request to have a text service cancelled which they (customer service) claim from the system point of view is, yet a month later still getting daily messages and still being billed for it!!??

What I can't stand is their sheer arrogance and disdain by which they treat the people that are paying them money ie their customers.

I think the govt should be looking at the contracts that lock people in and not allow them to move with paying penalty fees for putting up with such poor service, reception, drop outs, delays in actually making a call etc etc.

Voda with 3 are taking everyone for a ride but we should be getting off their bus...

Some of my posts from WP:

Oh look, another bunch of unhappy Vodafone customers who are going to be lied to by Vodafone customer service about there being "no currently reported issues". Please...

After calling Vodafone about numerous call drop-outs, no internet access in 3G/2G and unable to send texts or make phone calls I FINALLY got some sense out of a CSR.

"Sir, I apologise but our network is congested beyond its capabilities at the moment. We are looking to upgrade sites in the future to deal with the sudden growth of customers using our network, but for the time being, there isn't really anything I can do to help you"

The helpful CSR even recommended that I switch to Telstra.

Vodafone are FULLY aware of the congestion issues, but are happily still signing up customers, and lowering their prices to get more and more and more people on board, thus adding to the issue.

RandomJoe writes...
followed pointless instructions about turning off the firewall and non-Microsoft services.

This is what really shits me about Vodafone customer services. They give you the run around and get you to do pointless troubleshooting when they know full well that the network is the problem (most of the time).

I've had Internet issues before with an iPhone 4, called up and was told to reset network settings, reflash phone, upgrade firmware yada yada only to be then told when all that failed that there was an Internet outage.

After 6 years with Vodafone it was time to seek another Telco as I could never get any network coverage nor customer service with Vodafone. I have a baby and for safety reasons needed to know my phone would work, it would often take me 5 tries to get a line out and then drop out after a few minutes. I tried to complain but it takes 40mins on hold to speak with anyone in Mumbai. Last week I went to a Vodafone shop, their network was down so they could not help with questions, I called the service hotline was on hold for 45mins to be told that their network was down and to call back in 3hours. I have been told a Supervisor would ring back, they never do. If you call Vodafone 123 that is a minimum cost of $4.77 - disgusting. And if I ever have to listen to Lara again I will go mad. Well I won't have to listen to Lara again as I have moved to Optus!

For over one and a half months, I have had many problems with Vodafone related to this topic of crap reception and in return, our phones use more battery to pick a signal, therefore worse battery life. My iPhone 3GS constantly says No Service yet with OPTUS, i got full bars. On the 16th of December, I decided to move my entire family to OPTUS and leave vodafone after all this crap. Its such a joke - why arent they called AT&T? I had five phones on the $99 Timeless and they have just lofe $500/month of customer. It took to long to resolve and what made me move also was the CRAP and horrible customer service who in a positive way, give you the flick!
BYE VODA - HELLO OPTUS!

Lets start with the delivery of my new iPhone, advised of a 3wk wait 5weeks later called waited on hold for 45mins. My phone had not been ordered fast foward 4wks phone finally arrives 9wks in total.

My wireless net is on average poor service or no service i live in the heart of the northern beaches my girlfriend with optus always has 3g coverage? My broadband is also hit & miss if it will connect to a usable server.

Vodafone also had a system issue in early feb in which my bill wasnt debited from my acc. I called & was advised it was paid, i advise it hadnt been debited so i dont know how it was paid. In June i recived a letter advising of the system issue & that my account would be debited to correct the bill, I rang voda to find out the total of the bill & was advised the letter was incorrect & I was upto date. July voda try to debit the "owing amount" on my account & it is dishonoured, I call voda & am advise i havnt paid my bill since feb when they direct debit my acc? I advise of the previous calls, I was told I was lying & that i need to pay the bill. A week later my phone was blocked 6 phone calls later 3 more rude advisers & finally after threating going to the communications ombardsman is my "owing amount waived" & my account reinstated.

At the end of my phone contract after having had a sims card with voda since the Nokia 5110 was the bees knees I'll be moving.

I know this is a 2 year old story but i couldn't resist telling it when i saw this site.

about 2 years ago we got voda internet. within a month it had stopped working completely. everytime we switched the modem on...nothing.

calling customer support during the day was hopeless, never got through. mum and i woke up early one day to call them at 7am on the dot when the lines opened. at 705am the message we got when we called was "our voda customer service reps have slept in this morning, please try again later"

finally got through, they could do nothing for us. spent about 2 weeks trying to call to get our issue resolved. speaking to the same customer service rep each time. finally ended up wanting to just get disconnected and we refused to pay the contract termination fee because we didnt have any working internet.

the finance department customer service rep was the same guy was the previously useless tech service rep. finally got him to understand that we wanted to account closed.

he apparently did it, and to this day we still get monthly bills sent to us in the mail. we havent paid a single bill and when we call to tell them to stop sending us bills, they say the account is closed and we dont owe anything...and yet...we keep getting bills!

absolutely pathetic!

Took months for telstra to get my home phone going and then several more months to get the billing right. If I had a dollar for.every minute spent on the phone with a Telstra 'customer service rep' I'd have built my own network. Vodafone took 10 minutes and I was making unlimited calls to anyone in Australia. Telstra and Optus rip off their customers and are a disgrace.

I rang Vodafone to get up a new business account at the beginning of November. It is now 18th December and they have twice delivered an incorrect handset. I am still waiting for the correct handset and have no phone as I have to keep the incorrect ones in their packaging for return. Everytime I ring to find out what is happening I am on hold for at least an hour and then spend an another hour being bounced bewtween departments and customer service people while they try and work out what is happening. I still have no phone to use but am alreadxy nearly 2 months into my contract.

Signed up with Vodafone 9 months ago. Their website did (and still does) show full 3G coverage in our area, even double checked this with sales staff. Never had more than half signal strength and only access data via my own wireless connection at home.
Complained last week and was told coverage issues were a temporary issue (what for nine months!!??). Escalated through to their network faults department who did confirm that my suburb does suffer from poor network coverage (thought I already told them that!!). Upshot is that they're waiving the CAP fees for the next two months to see if the coverage improves. If not they've agreed to cancel the contract without any fees. I asked about compensation for the previous nine months an not receiving the level of service I'd signed up for, "Sorry there's nothing we can do about that".
Oh, and why is the 'we'll phone you back' option when calling the customer service department, only available randomly?
Finally, this is a classic, I waited on-hold for around 40 minutes (call-back facility must have been on lunch) only to be told that I'd have to call back in at least 4 hours because all their systems were down - priceless!!!
VODAFONE - Wake up or leave it to someone who knows how to treat people.

you would spend hours waiting to speak to the customer service on phone, then take long time explaining the problem, they promise to fix the problem, you wait a few weeks, nothing is done, you call back , spend hours to get to speak to a person, only to discover that they have no record of your prior calls, can you match that!

Vodafone have been a joke for years, poor service in the middle of the CDB, calls dropping out, voicemail notifications coming through a day later, the list goes on and on.

But you do get what you pay for - they are incredibly cheap if you compare the amount to get to another carrier.

Telstra in my opinion is honestly the best in the country - however you pay a price for it, so you have to ask if you are prepared to pay a premium for it. I'm not so Optus it is which has a reasonable service for the price

words like 'customer service' makes LARA the automated system go into spin

NO RECEPTION..NIL..NONE... IN TOP RYDE SHOPPING CENTER...EVEN IN FRONT OF THEIR SHOP...SHIT SERVICE.....BEEN WITH THEM FOR 6 WEEKS,SHIT SERVICE

On your alternatives page, you cross off Thinkmobile as being Voda wholesale. This is only half true - Half their plans are Voda (what they call the "Swift" network plans) and the other half are on Telstra 2G (the "classic" network plans).

I was on Voda pre-paid in 2008 (awful - dropped calls, delayed smss, atrocious customer service) before switching to Thinkmobile Classic (Telstra 2G network). Thinkmobile's network was great for domestic usage but I had some issues sending international smss (their international SMS provider didn't have a service to Taiwan). For the price, Think were great and their call centre is in Australia.

I have contacted Voodaphone customer service (unfortunately India call centre I think) a number of times to resolve my broadband issues, and despite the fact that voodaphone representatives hardly speak any understandable English they are also horrible at their jobs as they are not familiar with the system they support.

Voodaphone, this is very poor effort and I am really disappointed.

I have wireless internet service with Vodafail. I moved across from ADSL service from Iprimus, as it was impossible to connect to from about 3pm till 9pm. Anytime when school kids got home home till bed time it was shocking.
Vodafail had great advertizing, I went from unlimited download for $69.95 pm with Iprimus, to 6GB per month for $59.95 , BUT The first 6 months were half price.
The service was average from the start, would often drop out- and then the software would not reconnect. You would need to reboot before you connect. Other friends of mine have the same issue. I wondered if it were an Apple thing seeing I am a Mac user. Friends who use Windows have the same experience.
I started to phone or email with complaints. Spoke to lots of people in India - or should I say I tried to speak to them, but got spoken down to and spoken over most of the time. The Indian Call Centre staff are very good at following a script BUT crap at listening.
So lots of comments - like you dont have 3G coverage - you should not be out customer - well my answer to that - was when I signed up online - I was living here too. So if I could not access the network with enough signal - why did you allow me to become a customer, AND why do your coverage maps say I have enough coverage,
Then they send me out a Sharing Dock. After 6 weeks finally got it to work, but I only get EDGE coverage on it. However its more stable.
Complaints got me a 50% discount for 3 months, and the offer I could leave my contract. Signed up for Telstra 3G wireless broadband. Shocking customer service, got the dongle thing USB Stick - but could never connect. The device said I had network, but could never get it to work. Lots of phone calls, to Manilla, same sort of crap as Vodafail, its a faulty stick, its a faulty sim - repacements sent out. No difference.
Meanwhile my Optus mobile phones are struggling to connect, yet when we built this house in 1995 the coverage was fantastic.
Not sure how we will go with the NBN - or the costs that are going to be involved. But from what I can see - its Telstra - 0 Vodafail 1 (purely because you can connect) and Optus 1 .
PS when I speak to someone they always want to call me on a landline - which I dont have anymore - as the call keeps dropping in and out. Whattha??

I was a customer of Digicall the predecessor of Vodafone back in the early 1990's and now Vodafone. The company has deteriorated very rapidly in the last 3 years.

Their biggest failing is their Indian call centre. When you are a prepaid customer with a problem you are on hold forever - I'm talking 20 minutes, before someone in India answers your call. Then they are overly deferential - must be part of the culture while they keep putting you on hold and saying bear with me while they try and solve your problem... but then don't resolve it. You end up hanging up.

Whoever Vodafone Australia's head of Customer service is, the moron who came up with the idea of the Indian Call centre to save the company money - should be sacked.

Vodafone in Australia is a company on the pathway to ruin. In England they still have their act together - just not the Australian operation. The entire Australian management team should be sacked, and bring in new people from overseas.

The bad service extends to the stores. Staff - who look like they are on the minimum wage - aren't properly trained and trash the company to the customers.

I live on the North shore in Sydney and calls drop out every day at particular spots on my journey from Roseville to the City. I know where the spots are and warn my mother when I'm talking to her that the call will drop out in about 1 minutes time when I know I'm approaching the vodafone blackout spot.

Vodafone is a company in freefall due to its totally incompetent Australian management team.

The company is worse now than Digicall was when it was first set up back in 1995.

I am currently contemplating switching to Optus or Telstra and I am a customer who spends $100 a month.

After months of troubles with an old unlocked Telstra 3g phone on the Vodafone network my partner relented and got a SE Experia X10. And we thought we had problems before... The fun only just began. 90% of all calls in either direction end in dropouts, terrible conversations due to dropouts, late messages, and general frustration. Useless customer service over the phone. Useless customer service in the stores. It doesn't end. I am also on Vodafone and don't have as many issues on my old GSM phone thankfully. Never again...

Tried to set up global roaming before going Os. Was on hold for 55 min and the the Indian customer service officer picked up and call went blank. My calls keep dropping out and when I text customer service for a balance of my usage half the time they don't reply back. Can't wait for plan to be up I will be going to telstra at least you get what u pay for and better coverage

Vodafail blamed the poor service on the fact that I "live in a unit with brick walls". WTF? Works perfect since I switched to telstra. Get out people!!!

after months of no cellular service,dropped calls, texts that don't send, and being fed complete BS from Vodafone customer service, I finally got out of my two year contract. call vodafail
, wait an hour on hold and ask for cancellations. Or call the TIO and tell them your not getting the service you are paying for. I went to Optus and its bliss. They even answer customer service calls! Don't get mad, get out of your Vodafail contract !!!!!

I have resorted to morse code and pigeons to deliver messages...Vodafony has no idea when it comes to technical service or customer service. The only reliable service they have is billing.

dropes out all the time and the say give u 3 meg lost about 900 + phone calls had three better customer service but they just had a take over guess who vodafone had a nnnnnnufffffff

Ported to VF only to find areawhere I work is non existant to Vodafone. 7 colleagues at work can't even see the newwork at all. Sometimes I get 3G signal but no phone reception (if anything) Customer service wants me to phone from another handet to show it's not my phone. Hey I got 7 people who can prove it isn't my phone.
Customer help ?? An offshore unit who have no idea where Sydney is. Apparently It's in Bathurst. Well Same state anyway.

My iPhone cannot read the MyVodaphone website, so I can't see what my account is doing.

Might have to port out after only being in less that two weeks

Live in the Illawarra and work at Hebersham (Mount Druitt )in Western Sydney. There are 17 spots along the 1hr 15 min journey where there is no coverage & the line drops out & many others where it sounds like I am talking underwater like a chipmunk. One of those lasts for six minutes! Vodaphone won't allow calls to Telstra's Directory Assistance line even though this has been the national phone inquiry line for decades. It diverts the call to the Vodaphone 123 line (should be called the Oh Deary Me line!) and which is slow while they google a number because their database is inadequate. At least 5 out of 10 inquiries can't be satisfied and I often give up in disgust, many times after three and four minutes of waiting. After I was so disillusioned about not being able to get a phone number for Westmead Children's Hospital in Sydney for at least seven minutes of waiting and three separate phone calls, I rang the Customer Service line (long wait & the phone kept dropping out)and someone did call me back the next day and they promised to look into it and get back to me....that was five months ago and I have heard nothing. Also unable to dial 1900 lines (for competitions). Great disappointment with the Customer Service Centre for help being run out other countries. I am offended at the odd hours they SMS me with their tripe marketing & I am over not receiving texts promptly from my teenagers who we bought phones for in case of emergencies. Receiving them 2 days late hardly helps a crisis. It is not good enough and I am leaving, never to return. The website has been ridiculously slow & convuluted to get answers from over the years and I feel like we the customers are just the cash cows. The management & corporate handling of this has been laughable to those of us who work in companies who do care out their customers and work hard to improve services and keep clients informed. It's an emabarassment. Bye Bye

Vodafone were charging bills for upto 800 dollars per month as I went from prepaid to plan. It is way over what I expected and I was on the Mega Cap 149 a month. Vodafone agreed it was excessive and agreed to put me back on PRE-PAID and drop the 900 dollar disconnection FEE. They said once you receive your bill and tell us that we agreed to drop the charge. I did that and no one has record of me speaking to the customer service manager SAM which I spoke to. I told them to get fucked and now they put a black mark against my name cause I didn't want to pay to 2 thousand dollar bill.

Fuck they can screw you around. That has basically destroyed my life and future for the next how many years of borrowing. Fucking Heartless fagots. Its basically criminal behavior that's legal. I will murder a person from Vodafone for this.

For 6 months I have been fighting overcharging - where despite asking for data plans for 2 new phones for my team I was charged as if I didn't have them. Try $39,000 overcharge. They recently offered me a $32,000 credit, so now I'm still fighting over the remaining $7,000. All this for a service that regularly drops out multiple times trip on the short trip from annandale to north sydney...

The product may be bad, but the customer service is without doubt the worst ever. Rude, arrogant and totally unhelpful. Can't wait to end my contract.

I am on Vodafone's post-paid mobile internet plan. For the first month, everything was plain sailing. On the second month, the data transmission dropped suddenly. My USB dongle could connect to the network, but could NOT transmit any data.

Called Vodafail's customer service and got put on hold for 1/2 an hour before actually speaking to a human; even then, I had to strain to understand his English which had a VERY, VERY strong accent.

I was taken through a whole series of troubleshooting steps which involved many more calls to customer service and trips down to the nearest Vodafail shop (which might as well be in Beijing). I was finally told that the base station that my USB dongle connected to was faulty and it would take a week to fix.

A WEEK!! A whole freaking week without internet during my exam period when I had to download notes off my school's network. Had to take the trouble of lugging my notebook down to school.

After the base station was fixed, I received no phone call from the tech team despite reassurances that I would get a call from them.

How reassuring is that?

In addition, I could not check my data entitlements via myvodafone.com.au on MANY occasions.

Been on hold for 5:12 Hours now...

I called back as soon as the original call I was on dropped out or I was hung up on! All I want to do is to cancel my newly signed (3 weeks) $100 Ultimate 24 mth plans x 3. I believe you have 28 days to terminated a newly signed contract, should said Telco be unable to provide products or services as advertised...

There network may have be oversubscribed & exceeded max capacity, & supply of sub standard handsets which find it difficult to receive any signal - yet coverage maps indicate full 3G - Crapple!!

As for Customer Service, still waiting... Will share an update!

I had a bizarre experience with Vodafone. All of a sudden they extracted about 4 times the usual monthly amount from my account(about $260)- with no explanation. Then someone rang me from a private mobile number claiming to be a VF representative and offering to update my contract. He asked for my details and I told him he could shove it- I asked for him to verify to me he was actually from VF but he was not allowed to ... or something. The impass ended when I rang their usual customer service number and had to wait the average about 45 minutes for an answer(the OS call centre worker confirmed the last guys was actually from VF). I went on to express my disappointed at being charged such a ludicrous amount, and he seemed to explain it was because of some change in the contract.. It was never really clear- but - and this is the killer- He offered to update my contract and retrospectivly apply this update so I wouldnt get charged as much. Of course I agreed. I was shanghai'd. When this was done he claimed I was $170 in credit, which VF would kindly hold onto for me. They still have my money(each month I use up some of this excess credit). They are a corporate cancer.

Did anyone read their submission to the ACMA's enquiry on customer service ( http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_312279 )???? Liars.

Appalling customer service. Terrible coverage. Pack of money grabbers.

I was with Vodafail for almost 14 years, but when the service went crap, I called to report and was on hold for 3 hours and 42 minutes without speaking to a single person, then they promised to call back as there was no one there who could deal with my issues. The next day, I was on hold for 5 different calls for over 6 hours all togther. I am disgusted by their complete disdain and utter lack of remorse or empathy for the issues the customers had to deal with. After they wouldn't do anything but off a lousy $20 one of credit, I complained to the Ombudsman and Vodafail finally agreed to let me out of my contract. They are a pathetic bunch of losers who believe that because you are in contract, they can treat you how they like and get away with it. The worst customer service in the world.

I love vodafone. They have by far the best customer service of any of the telcos I have been with- and I have been with them all. You people are all first class losers. Oh no my iPhone is taking a while to load Perez Hilton! Get a life

I was with '3 mobile' and when time to upgrade my handset, I was told '3' was merging with Vodaphone so therefore I had no choice but to change to them also. I was also told at the time that Vodaphone had better coverage, which now seems very doubtful as my phone often has poor or no signal in the middle of Sydneys CDB or in my home in the Southern suburbs of Sydney (which was never a problem with 3)

Since changing over, i have had nothing but problems. see following:

The handset took approx. 3 weeks to deliver (not 3 days as told).
Vodaphone canceled my '3' sim card without notification to me so i was left without my business phone for 2 days.
Trying to set up voicemail was a nightmare - it took more than 30 minutes as i kept being redirected back to the top menu with the recorded message not being saved.
my plan (supporting 2 gig of data) would not let me connect to the internet.
phone calls break up or contain static or do not connect. When speaking to customer (NO)service there is a contact distracting echo over the line.
Wait times for customer support are absolutely horrendous on the many times i have had to call. Often to the point that i just give up as i run out of time on my lunch break.
When i politely asked customer service if i could lodge an official complaint i was told that Vodaphone did not have any customer feedback lines.
my phone did not arrive with a user guide. (not sure if this is vodaphone or phone co) i had to search for one online.

I used Vodaphone 10 years ago and the service was horrendous then also. I remember them charging me for months after finalizing my account with them and it was a nightmare trying to sort it out. Them at one point threatning legal action. In the end i just paid for months i didn't use as i felt i wouldn't be able to afford the legal fees. Obviously things haven't improved since then.

Action needs to be taken

When I complained about having no internet I was told the only way to lodge a complaint was online! The same twit also told me I was welcome to cancel my mobile broadband but, upon asking, was told I wouldnt be reimbursed for the USB stick or the 6 months prepaid internet. Very pathetic customer service - cant wait til my mobile phone contract is up in May so I can go to a real provider.

The customer service is a joke - some third rate call centre out of mumbai where a person reads from a screen and has no idea what is going on.

The reception is some bad it is not funny. Dropped calls, no net, just ridiculous.

The lies of the customer service reps, the false tests and the utmost waste of time is just mind boggling.

They cannot possibly continue to offer service contracts when the network cant even handle it!

They should be suspended from taking on new customers until such time as the network issues are resolved satisfactorily!

If you are with them get out... If you are not run...

I'm with 3. Identical issues to everyone else here. For the past three months basically have not had a phone service: 'Network Lost' and 'Cellular data' messages popping up ever 5 seconds, text messages gone AWOL for hours, not able to connect to the Internet at all, and basically gave up even trying to make a call as it would drop out without fail even though I live 5km from the CBD.

Bit the bullet and moved to Telstra yesterday. Feels sooooooo good! I'd forgotten what it's like to actually have a working phone. Not once in all the hours I spent trying to resolve my issue with 3 customer service did anyone admit it might be a network issue. They had me restore my carrier settings, restore the factory settings (I lost all my photos and videos of my 2 month old baby - irreplaceable), new SIM card, had the Apple Store run checks on the phone... They wasted so much of my time (which I very little of with a new baby).

I talked and talked til I was blue in the face, and they finally agreed to let me off my contract on the proviso I return the handset that I've been paying off for 14 months. I'm going to do it just cos I want this over (but there is still a threat of charging me $500+ if the find a fault with the handset! I don't think so, Tim). Anyway...

Class Action, people!!!! Is all I can say.

I can't conduct business because people can't call me, and when they do calls drop out. Vice versa.

Also; 3G, I can't even say it's working because it just constantly sits at the loading screen. I've had this problem not only in ACT, but NSW and QLD.

As soon as they have performed their 5 day investigation *ugh* I'm switching to Telstra. They may have poor customer service, but at least they have coverage!

I've been dealing with VodaFAIL's customer support for the past 2 months. All started when i was in Spain and i got a text message saying that my bill has reached $850 and i need to pay or call them asap or my account will be suspended. Tried calling them but got a closed of business hours. I received the same message at least 5 times a day. Then i get a call from someone (in the middle of the night) telling me i need to pay my bill knowing that i had Intl roaming on. Then when i got my phone stolen, i had to buy an international phone card to call customer care but was on hold for 1hr, until my card ran out of credits. Asked my sister in OZ to call on my behalf, but she was on hold for 1hr and gave up. Returned to OZ and tried calling customer care again, was on hold for 1hr15mins until it hung out. Emailed support centre to ask for somebody to call me but was told they can't do that coz it's against policy...yet they didn't have any issues with calling me in Spain and making me pay!!! After my complaint, they were willing to decrease the bill to $300. Then i asked if they can provide any special deals coz i still have 13months on the contract with no iphone. First agent told me she can offer to put me on a new contract but i have buy a new phone and pay the exit fee, which i asked her how is that special goodwill deal? Hung up and then called back and spoke to another agent who were able to do something for me (probably only agent who did something right). During this time i had to go to the VF store everyday to see if they have the iPhone 4 in stock; every store gave me same rude generic response 'no'. 2wks later they tell me they can put me on a waitlist if i call their customer care. so i did, after another 30min wait. Spoke to another failed customer service agent who did not even read his notes before assisting me and made assumptions that were completely wrong. i had to escalate to a manager who then was able to put me up the waitlist and waived the delivery fee which this agent told me he couldn't do. TOTAL CRAP! And yesterday i got a letter saying that a delivery was attempted but no answer so need to pick up at the postal office. Went to work late today just so i can pick up the phone...they only delivered the micro sim!!!! WTF!!!!

This is just the customer service side so don't get me started with the constant bad reception and slow internet speed and i live within 4kms of Sydney CBD!

I've been with Vodafone for 3 months now on a new iPhone 4. I work in the middle of the Sydney CBD, and live in a suburb 7kms from the CBD. I get at least 5-10 dropped calls a day. The mobile internet works some of the time only. This all happens when I have FULL 3G coverage noted on my phone. Crazy.

I've been through 2 iPhones now as Vodafone insist it's Apple. The last time I went into the apple store they ran a diagnostic tool which told them how many call dropouts I have been having (date and time included). They changed it for the last time stating to me quite clearly that it is not the iPhone that is at fault; it is a network issue.

The icing on the cake is i have to wait for at least an hour on the phone on 1555 to speak to a real person. Just crazy, especially when you've been at work for 10 hours.

Years ago I was on the 3 network and left them becasue (a) it didn't work and (b) the customer service was non existant. Vodafone bought 3 over this year and inherited 300,000+ customers. This is obviously the problem as 3 did not have their own proprietary network; Vodafone's network now have to deal with these extra customers on the existing infrastructure.

Seems to me that 3 acuired Vodafone and not the vice versa!