The only organisation loosing its customers faster than Vodafone is the the Labor party in the Queensland election. Some similarities are deceiving their customers, lying, covering up, making promises that aren't kept (its been 2 years that they have said that they have been improving the network)and a complete lack of service and support. Fortunately, I have only 2 months to go and it goodbye Vodafone forever.

JUST WHEN YOU THINK THE VODAFONE SAGA CAN'T GET ANY DUMBER


VODAFONE'S AUSTRALIAN OPERATION PUT ON THE MARKET
by:
Christian Kerr and Mitchell Bingemann
From:
The Australian March 16, 2012 12:00AM
Source: The Australian

THE owners of embattled telco Vodafone Australia are looking for buyers, industry sources say, with an abbreviated information memorandum circulating among potential purchasers in Europe and Asia.
The Australian understands that a preliminary information memorandum to test the market reaction to a sale has been circulated to cashed-up telcos and sovereign wealth funds in Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere.

Qtel, Etisalat, Korea Telecom and NTT Docomo are believed to have seen the initial sales document, as has China Telecom, a controversial potential purchaser.

"Vodafone might say no, but they are hawking it, no question," one industry source said.

Vodafone Australia and one of its two 50 per cent shareholders, Britain's Vodafone Group, vehemently deny that the mobile operation is flirting with a sale and dismiss the suggestion as rumour.

"Vodafone remains fully committed to our operations in Australia and our sole focus is on the turnaround of the business," said a Vodafone Group spokesman.

...Vodafone Australia's other 50 per cent shareholder, Hutchison Whampoa, has also said it is committed to the local operation, and managing director Canning Fok has pledged financial support through the turnaround.

"We have provided and will continue to provide extensive financial support for VHA to accelerate the work needed to ensure all of our customers in Australia enjoy state-of-the-art mobile network services," Mr Fok has said.

However, analysts and industry sources are not convinced and wonder how much money the troubled mobile carrier's shareholders can commit to it, and for how long, especially after the slew of network disasters, profit erosion and customer defections that have plagued Vodafone in the past 18 months.

The Vodafone joint venture lost $336 million in 2011 and shed 554,000 customers (taking its total subscriber base down to 7 million) as ongoing network issues and customer confidentiality breaches took their toll.

Its customer base shrank by 179,000 in the six months to December, compared with gains of 313,000 at Optus and 958,000 at Telstra over the same period.

Its deteriorating balance sheet and exodus of customers has forced Vodafone Australia to embark on a major cost-cutting program that is expected to result in hundreds of job losses as it strives to reignite its sales performance.

Even though the carrier has injected $1 billion to improve and upgrade its mobile network to lure back customers, some analysts predict two more years of losses as spectrum renewal and interest costs hit the bottom line.

Renewal of its spectrum licences is expected to cost Vodafone $710m over the next two years and that will rise to up to $2bn by 2017 once the government finalises auctions of airwaves currently used by analog TV broadcasters.

Vodafone now needed to put a lot more into capital expenditure than it had in the past "just to put a bandaid on its wounds", said one analyst who declined to be named.

"All the problems Vodafone has experienced over the last 18 months have tested its parent companies' patience and we know that Vodafone Group has sold struggling operations in the past, so you can't entirely rule out a sale," the analyst said.

China Mobile, which has almost 650 million customers and which recently set up an office in Australia, is one potential buyer of Vodafone. The Chinese giant last year reported a profit of $19bn on revenues of $80bn.

With about $US50bn ($47.7bn) in the bank and between $US16bn and $US17bn in free cashflow each year, it has the cash needed to fund an acquisition the size of Vodafone Australia.

However, analysts say the Chinese telco would be unlikely to view Vodafone as an attractive prospect because of the limited growth profile of Australia's maturing mobile market.

"China Mobile has growth aspirations but in the past three to four years they haven't made any acquisitions. I'd be surprised if they ventured into Australia anyway because all they want is growth," the analyst said.

"And I also seriously doubt that too many European carriers would want to come to Australia and compete with Telstra and Optus. Life would be very tough, unless of course Vodafone turns out to be a very cheap asset."

MR.FOK,...YOUR COMPANY HAS LIED ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE,SO... FOK YOU,MR.FOK!

I recently (and successfully) cancelled my mobile broadband contract due to issues after approaching the TIO. Phone contract ends soon and I really don't care about paying more, I just want to get as far away from Vodafone as possible after years of issues.

2009: No issues yet, but then again only had a basic cap and no broadband

2010: Ordered iPhone, was lied to by Customer Service about delivery dates - got different answers over the 7 times I called over the space of 4 weeks. Received my phone and activated SIM but it only actually activated a day later on Vodafone's system.

2011: Got broadband, speed at 1kbps for weeks. Customer Service completely unhelpful, ended up resolving after 3 weeks without their intervention. Multiple issues involving incorrect billing and usage details. myVodafone constantly delaying updating of usage details by up to 12 days. Received a bill one month for almost $4,000 (normal bill is $103 for broadband and phone), but no usage shown outside caps. Apparently a system problem. Received several updates - amount changed to over $4,000, then $13,000 then negative $11,000. After 1 month of trying to deal with Customer Service, submitted to TIO and resolved within a few days.

2012: Cap for mobile broadband showed as incorrect on my account for several weeks - Customer Service couldn't figure out what problem was, took a month to fix. Continuing issues with usage details being incorrect. Broadband and phone signal at home became non-existent. Dealt with several Customer Service reps, all of whom said there didn't appear to be an issue with the network. One blamed me for using the network during peak hours, but couldn't answer when I asked if 3am is a peak hour. Was offered 3 months with a discount but only if I waived my consumer rights and accepted the bad service without question - no guarantee that service would improve. Submitted to TIO and resolved quickly - they also admitted there are major issues in my area, so I was either lied to by the others or their system is inadequate.

Not worth the stress or the cost, looking forward to being free!!!!

Charged $6+ for 10 sec phone calls to voice mail on numerous occassions. Called to complain... treated as though I didn't know what I was talking about... then apologised to with no explanation why this has occured...told I would be credited for the over charged amount... no credit applied to my account ... BIG WASTE OF FREAKING TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, on Friday 2nd March ordered a new iPhone 4S calling their centre - foreign call centre answered. I was told a 12 month term @ $62 per month. The contract arrives - it's stated over 24 months @ $62 per month !!! I phone to cancel the order on Monday March 5 - was told cancellation takes up to 5 days to process. I phoned back Tuesday morning March 6 and repeated my cancellation request, stating I wanted to speak to someone in Australia (I cannot do that was the reply), reassured it was cancelled. TODAY, Wednesday 7 March, sms adving of the consignment delivery number !!! What the hell - TIO, here I come. Absolutely disappointed and lied to.

I am a 3 customer for almost 4 years and had have no issue with them. But just a month back I decided to buy Iphone 4 and it was on 29 cap with Vodafone so I decided to buy from Vodafone. I called 3 care because now 3 and Vodafone are together. 3Care put to Vodafone team and I assked them for discount as i am 3 customer foe 4 years they said as we are charging $5 a month Extra on 29 cap we can revoke it so you can enjoy 29 cap and a further 10% off on 29. Voda told me you have entered into Contract online and we will send you Iphone 4 32gb, Sim and details and you will receive in a week. After a week I called Vodafone customer care to enquire about my Parcel and I wondered they replied we have no such details... After waisting around 1.5 hour and talking to different departments they again took my details and send me the package. I received it in 4 days.. They sent me a mail and it clearly says $5 Off, 10% further Off and 1 month free. And now after 22 days I received a bill for
$56.34(The bill includes $29+ $5+ Advance fees for next month)
When I contacted Vodafone Customer Servise They said that they have no records for such discounts.. I sent them Copy of Details and matter is still pending because every time they ask for full story and irritates me because every time is new Assistant to help ( to Harras) ..NO ACTION SEEN..
THE CHEAPEST CUSTOMER SERVICE I 'SEEN WITH THEM.
MY ADVICE TO ALL NEW CUSTOMERS NEVER.. NEVER.. NEVER.. THINK ABOUT VODAFONE..
I HAVE ALL DETAILS OF CALLS MADE AND TO WHOME I CALLED ALONG WITH THEIR NAMES AND ID DETAILS AND I AM TAKING THEM TO CONCERNED COURT..
VODAFONE IS BULLSHIT......

After no vodafone coverage due to "upgrades" and advice they would be no/variable service in Toowoomba for 3days in Janurary, I was released from my contract for no charge (around an hour on the phone, appeasement with a 25% bill reduction offered - nope).

Now they continue to hound me for contract cancellation fee. Every letter I have responded to. Have had no reply to my correspondence.

They are now at the threatening/abusive/lying stage. Not going to pay.

Lake Macquarie area - For most weekends this year (2 months) there as been no coverage on the weekends - and I am relying on my phone to make and receive calls regarding a person's medical condition!!

Usual shocking reception, data speeds, SMS send failures, voicemail etc. called Vodafone & on hold to india for 50 mins. Told them I wanted to leave. Was offered 4 months to stay. Since I only had 4 months left on my contract, I thought "what the hell?". I'd keep my handset, then I can move to Telstra. Cool!!

Next month, I got a bill! Odd I thought as I have 4 months free. Rang Voda. Told no record of it. Assured it would be applied. Same thing next month. 45 mins on hold, only for call to drop out. Again, regular as clockwork, my bill came again now over $300!! Threatened with service restriction. By this stage I was over talking to Vodafones "service" centre in India.

Out of the blue got a call from the Tasmanian call centre doing a random "customer satisfaction" survey. Told her the issues and she told me a retention team member would be in touch. 2 weeks later, Indian team member called. Had no idea what was going on, was only told to call me.

I hung up. Lodged a complaint with the TIO. Thats supposed to STOP all collection action etc. what the hell, it's only a government regulation right??? So woke up one day & my phone is barred!!!

Called ombudsman & was given direct line to their TIO liaison team (they're Australians who speak English as a first language thank the Lord!!). Had restrictions lifted, my 4 months credited and I'm finally getting what Vodafone promised e over 4 months previously!!

Now, I'm off to Telstra to go with them and actually get reception & the service I pay for! Good to get the result from Vodafone, but it's just not good enough. You've lost my business FOR LIFE!!!

Hi, I have purchased 3 Vodafone subscriptions on the 13th of Jan that I cancelled (all) on the 29th, as Vodafone could not provide me usable network even in Brisbane CBD. (Actually the Vodafone network experience is the worst in my life, even if compared to mobile networks in Africa)

I returned all devices in their original condition to a Vodafone store where I got a form statin that I cancelled the contract via their Network Guarantee.

yesterday evening I almost died when I saw their AUD 2000 invoice with early termination fees... and they will charge this onto my credit card, there is no way to block it.

I feel this is pure theft - if advertising a guarantee that is not applied at all is tolerated in Australia then the legal system here is a joke...

Customer service obviously does not help, they always have different excuses, they seem to be creative...but I am not against the idea to go to the Vodafone shop with a huge poster on my back with this story for 1-2 weekend days (let's see how many customers the will lose if I do this)

Was told I was lying about my shit reception

Call dropped on complaint line and then sent a text stating that because I terminated the call, they considered the matter closed.

Fuckin Charming.

In Bunbury Western Australia. Vodafone service has degraded over recent years and despite constant promises and upgrades, the service does not improve.
I think that everytime Vodafail/Vodafone does an upgrade - necessary not only because of faulty systems, but also largely because I believe the network is over utilised/saturated, Vodafail/Vodafone promptly signs up more new customers and saturates the new infrastructure as well.

Problems regularly experienced:
1. One side of conversation drops out, and remains dropped out until call is terminated and re-initiated - THIS HAPPENS DAILY!!!!
2. Reception dropouts - How is it that they keep telling me how their network is increasing yet the reception doesn't?
3. Phone will often not ring and goes directly to messagebank. When I get the message, I look at the phone and see good signal strength.
4. Vodafone staff keep blaming the phone and denying problems with their service. "Turn off your phone for 10 minutes and then turn it back on. That fixes most problems." I have tried several phones, even had sim card replaced. After contacting other people using vodafone in the area - they experience the same type of problems.
5. 'High Speed' Internet is non existent. Very often there is insufficient coverage to get any internet ( even though the bars of reception might show full 5 bars signal) and just shows 'E' for emergency only for the internet. When there is internet, it is usually slow. I have a 1.5GB plan with Vodafone and can rarely use it. Hence I am lucky if I get over 100MB usage for the month.
6. Voicemail notifications often do not arrive and I am only notified that there is a message after 2 or 3 voicemail messages have been left, which could be hours or days.
7. I have made numerous complaints to vodafone and tried to be escalated to a senior technician or department that might be able to work with me to solve the problems (I am a technician) on their network. They end up denying a problem and I never get the opportunity to speak to a level of support really interested in addressing rectifying the underlying problem.
8. Vodafone are more interested in adding more customers than they are fixing the existing problems.
9. I lose business because of the problems with them.

From last two months, Vodafone billing is beyond my understanding and I ready very angry and want to sue this shit company.
I made enormous amount of phone calls (wasted allot of time). And yet they don’t understand or want to understand my issues.
OK start over again------
I signed a contract almost 15 months ago, and I was using the services with the number (PERSONAL DETAILS REMOVED) (Account 1). The contract was for 24month/$69 cap with $10 rebate on plan. So I was paying only $59.
Last month, I decided to get an-additional number, so I signed a new contract and have additional account with the number (PERSONAL DETAILS REMOVED) (Account 2).
>>> Now the first issue was that they charged me for two months for account 1 with $69 cap.
When I called and asked clarification, the customer operator said, that because I requested new account (which I didn’t) that’s why you are charged extra and you are still getting that $10 discount for your account 1. And next month I will get rebate back from the closed account, so my Feb bill will be adjusted.
Which is still not adjusted.....
>>>>> Second issue, the last bill (for the month of Jan usage) came unexpectedly very high. I am checking regularly my balance with 1555. On 21/01/2012 the balance message came as I have $385 (cannot remember exact numbers) worth of calls available.
(Note: These facts were taken from excel sheet saved on 5/2/2012) When I checked again on 27/01/2012 I already not even used that amount and also exceeded real dollar value of $84.63 (extra to my monthly quota), though I only used if we consider from 19/01/2012 till 25/01/2012 (Vodafone needs at-least two days to update the system—shocking) = $319.08 worth of calls.
My last conversation ended up in veins as operator said, wait until you get bill, and then call us.
And he was not excepting the service fault, which clearly shows lack in giving real information. Operator was saying we have major upgrade is going on that’s why.... and also other excuses.
I think it is Vodafone fault which allowed me to axcced my monthly phone quota. Therefore I should not pay that excess amount.
>>>> Thirdly the $10 discount on my cap is still not applied.

Vodaphone has reported a default to a credit reporting company! I changed my address with them and paid the final amount after reporting that despite telling there was coverage for internet from my unit, there was none, dropping out etc. They would not assist. I had to pay out the contract. I put the internet usb in a draw and never turned it on - ever. Yet, I was getting dataa usage charges for it at early hour times - when I was asleep. I complained each time and they said they would credit - they never did.

Paying the final bill, I find nearly 12 months later a default for a considerable sum on my credit rating. I have no correspondence, no debt collectors bill or phone calls from them pre-warning me that I owed them anything. I have contacted vodaphone to be passed between departments as they cand find no record of my account (it is closed and not showing) but they say there is a an outstanding amount when through to credit control. I have had to ring a credit agency who they say are handling the matter externally but when I called this company they said that the file is no longer in their hands. There is no record on their system of any of the calls I have made to sort out the situation and when trying to speak to someone who understands me and knows what they are doing, the call keeps dropping out and then I have to ring back and go through everything again. Conveniently, none of these calls are ever logged and you end up screaming! The last attempt to sort this issue out I spent 4.5 hours on the phone back and forth calling back etc! COnsequently, because they can send me any copies or information, I cannot rectify this sitution and I cannot clear it from my once impeccable credit rating which ultimtely affects my ability to obtain credit despite my assets and salary. I cannot get through to anyone to help me here nor can I go to a store to sort it out as I have nothing from them pertaining to this alleged outstanding debt. I have not received any mail from this stupid company in more than 14 months!!! I updated my details with them too - but they never seem to have records of anything!!! everytime I ring these muppets up, no one knows what I am taalking about and I get told different information each time. It is making me irate and it has severely affected my credit which is unacceptable. They are completely incompetent, lying cheats!!!

To say I am in a mess with Vodafone now,is a bit of a stretch. HOWEVER,due to their repair departments lack of effiency and one of their store managers telling an out and out lie to my face,I am now going to break my contract with them and go elsewhere.
On the 6th of December I took my HTC Legend which was no longer working to the nearest Vodafone shop,because I thought there was something wrong with it that would be covered by warranty(the phone was only 8 months old)Anyway the guy in the shop said that the phone had a cracked LCD screen,which is not a warranty issue(as if I needed to be told it was not a warranty issue)After going home and ringing my insurance company,I returned and left the phone at the shop to be sent for repairs.The insurance ocmpany wanted a quote on repair costs or if it could not be repaired,the replacement cost.Within a few days I had the quote and put it in to the insurance company.They gave me the go ahead for repairs on the 16th of December and I immediately rang the repair centre to confirm repairs could go ahead.I also told them I would be going away and would not be able to collect the phone until around the 30th of Decememer.The person I spoke to said that this was not problem as it could be held for up to 90 days at the shop.Anyway whilst I was away I got about 3 SMS telling me my phone was ready to pick up.I rang the repair centre on the 27th of December and told them I would collect the phone NOW IT WAS REPAIRED no later then the 1st of January.I went to the store to collect it on the 30th and noticed it had not been repaired,only to be told that I had rejected the quote,which is garbage,it is an insurance claim and they knew I had not rejected anything.The man at the shop said he would send it away that afternoon(30/12) and it would be back the following Friday(6/1) as there was a one week turn around.SO back to the shop I go on the 6th,only to find that the phone had not even been sent away.According to the sales staff I spoke to I had rejected the quote.Turns out that the man I had spoke to the previous week was the store manager and he had stood there and lied to my face.I retrieved my phone and took it elsewhere for repairs and finally got it back a few days ago.I have complained long and loud about the whole episode and their "good will" gesture is to offer me two months credit.So I will stay with them long enough to use the credit and then I am going to break my contract and go elsewhere.I have been with Vodafone for many years and have never really had any problems(some signal loss at times excepted) but never again.Seems to me they are losing a lot of customers for any number of different reasons but the biggest reason is poor service.

Experience data drops regularly.
Emailed support and exclaimed I keep getting data drops when surfing net.
Responses were please give me 3 examples of sms or call drops in 48 hours... plus a massive list of questions which could literally track down Osama Bin Laden on the moon, yet they claim technicians need more information still.

Although I mentioned web browsing data drops and banged on about this, I supplied 3 network drops anyway. 2 weeks later and 8 replies back and forth with arguing, me talking about internet drops and she constantly saying she wants phone call information, the service person finally exclaims "she cannot help me, as she does not work with resolved data problems"

WOW! - Why could she not read my initial email content and decide that? What a waste of my life and money. Absolutely useless. READ MY COMPLAINT BEFORE SPINNING OFF YOUR STANDARD COPY+PASTE RESPONSES VODAFAIL.

* just thought I would add...

I needed to provide details within 48 hours. So, I collected data drops, times, suburb and posted them to the service rep. Now get this...

Vodafail did not respond to me in 48 hours after that response.... - So 55 hours later I get a responding email... I had to provide another set of examples because "I" provided details which was "outside the 48 hour window". Not to mention this data is claimed to be only needed because it makes it "faster" for the technicians. So I'm working and collecting data during work days to provide and easy day for the technicians... How rough!

It would be interesting and a nice concept for a company being paid to,

a) investigate on behalf of the customer - not have the customer do all the work

b) Read customer emails and understand their problem before copy+pasting your standard customer service respones.

c) Accept responsibility for answering late rather than blaming the customer for providing details outside a time frame

d) Have a complaint loding service that allows the customer to have some sort of investigating into their service in less than 2 weeks.

ridiculous.
I have been waiting over 8 months for them to produce a valid proof of purchase for an iphone 4 I recieved. It was stolen, so I applied for the insurance.
Seemed easy.... I was wrong. The insurance asked for my IMEI number....
Vodaphone accidently never recorded my IMEI number when I upgraded my contract and phone. So when I produced the box with the IMEI number, they told me "oh that number cant be verified... you could have borrowed that box of your friend just to have an IMEI.
So basically, the insurance company through vodaphone wont help me, and vodaphone customer care has failed on numerous occasions to try and find my orginal proof of purchase.
Not only do I feel cheated, but Im reminded every bill when they still charge me for the phone that was stolen AND insurance... and it cant be replaced because of their crappy mistake.

I was offered 50% off my cap amount for problems with a faulty sim card that was the responsibility of vodafone. I agreed to this as I was about to change providers, and vodafone offered the dicount so I would stay with them.

However when I recieved my bill and no discount had been applied, vodafone said I had not agreed to the 50% discount. WHY would I not agree and then stay with them?? I can not beleive the DISHONESTY of their staff in indicating I had not agreed to a discount in my favour. It was only when I threatened going to the ombudsman that they brgrudgingly accepted it would be illogical for a customer to not accept a dicount and finally credited a future bill.

A little while ago i rang and talked to LARA, she suggested a call back instead of waiting half an hour. I agreed and waited, one and half hours later i get call back from a call centre person Im guessing is not in Australia. I wanted to ask about my bill, guess what, their system was down and he couldnt access it, why couldnt lara just say that when i first rang up?
The next day i get a sms from vodafone asking about the service i received and they would like me to answer a few questions, I received the first question so i replied to it, guess what, it is still sitting in my outbox waiting to be sent, it will not send. maybe because i sent a low rating, it will not accept it.

have finally left!!! how funny they sent me out a survey to complete, but i never heard anything else from them cant even open my final bill cause its on their myvodafone site and my account is closed so cant log in, figure that out...

copy of what i wrote to them:

"lousy reception.

being lied to about how they were improving the network.

disorganisation, incompetence with billing, for example:

not billed for 2 months from direct debit, then billed for 3 months in one hit...

then when wanting to cancel;
1) calling and not being able to get through,
2) leaving an email on the site and not getting a reply
3) visiting a shop and being told to call the help line!!!

i then went ahead and ported my number to other provider.

then got texts and emails from vodafone saying they were experiencing a large volume of enquiries and would be getting back to me... which never happened.

then receiving abill for $150 in the text of an email but with no attachment. I tried going onto the website but of course my phone number wouldnt work as log in as it was no longer with vodafone!

so i went into the shop and asked if they could print out my bill so i knew what it was for. they couldnt log into my account either and said i'd have to call vodafone.... wtf!!!

so i call and left a message as they were too busy as usual. some guy calls back and says he'll take care of it and email my bill out within a week. 3 weeks later nothing...

so even if the service or reception was adequate, and the price more competitive, i still would not stay just due to the lack of customer service and thier ability to stuff everything up constantly!

no regrets and never coming back"

Went in to the local Vodafone store and asked about upgrading my mobile broadband download limit. After being offered an attractive deal to migrate my provider from 3 to Vodafone and assured that I had a 3 day cooling-off period, I walked out with with a brand new K3771 USB modem.
I waited 24 hours for the number to be ported and then plugged it in to my computer, expecting it to load the software and set itself up automatically, as my previous 3 modem did. No such luck.
After 10 hours with various members of tech support, I was told that the version 10.2 software that comes with the K3771 modem is NOT Windows 7 compatible and I should download a prior version. An 88Mb file eventually came down at dial-up speeds and I installed the previous version as instructed. The new software failed to even run.
At this point I asked to exercise my 'cooling-off' option and go back to 3 whereupon I was told by the Retentions people that "There *is* no cooling off period".
So now I've been lied to, sold a product that Vodafone *know* doesn't work and am still being told by their Retention gremlins that "they *might* consider letting me out of my contract if they decide that they can't provide me with a service".
I have a feeing they plan to send me an email asking me to reply if that's what I want.

after promises from vodafail that my reception problems in my area are fix they again lied to get me locked in to contracts for phone and internet vodaphone you will be losing a long time customer thats 2 phone contracts and mobile broad band contract never ever again vodaphone good bye vodaphone

This is an issue to do with 3 Care but arn't they all the same people now?
To summarise my over 12 month ongoing issue:

I had to give my iPhone up for repair due to technical issues numerous times in a row as they kepy telling me the issue was fixed but I would get the phone back with the same problems.They gave me an ancient replacement phone during all the time I was without my phone which was broken anyway and couldn't receive some calls all the meanwhile I was still paying for my unused iPhone.

The last time I came to pick up my iPhone from repair they told me the issue cldnt be fixed and gave me a new phone and told me they updated my plan to the new $49 Unlimited plan so I would get unlimited calls to all 3 & vodafone users

2months later my plan hadnt changed so I went back to the store the woman told me 3 care made a mistake and didnt put me on it and that it would get done right away.

next month received a big bill due to still being on the wrong plan went into the store and they told me there was no notes of anyone having offered me the new plan.

Called 3 care after long arguements and getting put on hold to speak to supervisors they credited me back the money over my $49 cap and told me I would be transferred to the new plan for the next month.

A few months later I was still not getting unlimited calls to vodafone and 3 and came into stores and rang them more times than I can count. Every time took ages to explain my issue and most of the time despite my insisting to write notes about each phone call the new guy would tell me there is no record of me having being offered the update or having called the previous million times.

Finally after numerous expensive bills for a service I wasn't receiving in October 2011 I was told that the unlimited plan does not exist on 3 and can only be accessed on Vodafone so the guy at the Vodafone (used to be 3) store told me he would transfer me to 3 so that I could be on the unlimited plan in the next month and that he would call me back within 48hours to let me know if they can credit me back any of the bills.

I received no contact from Vodafone and on the 24th Dec received a $394.60 bill from 3 (I thought I had been transferred to Vodafone). I rung them immediately and spoke for hours to 3 Care employee then supervisor then manager who finally told me that he would credit me back $344.60 for te Nov-Dec bill and he will call me back the next week when the Dec-Jan bill comes through so he can calculate the amount to return to me for that bill. He also said he would send me out a new iphone with a $59 Vodafone contract for which I would only be paying $49 and will have the unlimited calls.

Did not receive any calls so on the 12th Jan called them back, first spoke to a boy who said there was no record of anyone telling me they will return the money, after arguing for 20mins he got the manager I spoke to last time to call me back. The manager made up excuses for not having called me back and as to why I haven't received the money and offered to pay back half of both bills instead of the full amount he quoted me last time. I refused and reminded him what he told me in the last phone call so he put me on hold came back and said due to me having to chase them up for it he will credit me the amount which he already offered me last time we spoke! He became annoyed with my dissatisfaction, telling me this is my fault and finally said "look we'll credit u the $394.60 plus half of the second bill in the next 24hours! Bye!" and hung up on me.

Today I just got the new iPhone in the mail but I'm not sure what to do as I am very hesitant about starting another contract with them! I have received extremely poor customer service, pretty much have been accused of lying everytime I spoke to a new person on the issue and spent hours and hours chasing up vodafone people to come through.

I had a phone with Vodafone which I got on contract over a year ago. The number was changed and with this the connection came up with an x = no signal. In the same house I previously had signal but it was low and would keep dropping out.
I called to complain and have this looked into.
I was told the issue would be resolved and my phone would work, I went through troubleshooting but was still unable to use the phone. I also had another phone with them which worked but still had the drop outs as it still does today. We agreed to send back the phone and have it cancelled and closed as I couldn't use it at all. It took almost a year for them to send me out a bag to send it back to them. I kept calling them every few weeks/ month to find out where the bag was. I eventually got it 11 months or so after we first agreed to have it.
During this time they continued to charge me for the second phone that I couldn't use.
I would have to ring regularly to find out what was the deal with my bill and phone, each time I would get different answers. I continued paying for the phone I was using and refused to pay for the one I couldn't use. They barred my phone (the one I could use) on numerous times despite being told it wouldn't happen and every time I called them to get it back on they would tell me I had to pay for the other phone I couldn't even use. Eventually after hours of arguing with them they would put it back on and place a small credit to get it by.. They would reassure me it wouldn't happen again and to only keep paying for the phone I could use. Despite doing what they asked it would happen over and over.

After I received the bag finally in August 2011 I sent the phone back immediately. I had to call them to make sure they received it. They had. But it didn't end.
I continued to get charged for the phone that I couldnt use and they had back.
My phone has been cut off 2ce now since october. The efforts to have that account closed and the fees dropped have been exhausting. I called the last time just the other day (1st week in jan 2012) after they barred my phone. I was told I had to pay the bill, there was a small amount credited on the account but not the total amount, I knew I shouldn't have anything owing because I had kept paying for the phone I use.
Eventually after an hour and a half of arguing with a 'team leader' he appologized after actually going back over the last year of notes. He had told me he had applied for a full amount of credits and had made a note summarizing the last years notes.

The only reason I am still with Vodafone is worry of losing my number which I have had for a really long time and because I still have just under a year contract left with them...
My phone I am still using still has drop outs and cuts off when I'm talking to people, or on the net. But I don't bother calling on that one because this has been a horrible experience already and I'm just waiting till September 2012 to finish this contract and leave!

I had been on prepaid with Vodafone for about 8 years, the moment I went on plan I feel like they have screwed me over....

Vodafone signal and service is discusting.

To summarise..

1) I signed up based on your advertised product

2) I enquired about coverage, did research - Was told it was optimal... by Vodafone engineers

3) Was wrongly billed in the 3rd month and continued after that for numerous months.

4) spent hours trying to get issue resolved

5) vodafone admits error - Wrongly applied data allowance

6) Do not receive a bill for 2 more months - when I do its wrong.. spent a few more hours getting issue resolved.

7) I cancel plan after being fed up.. was told I owed nothing and was apologised to..told plan will cancel in January 12th , 2012

8) Receive bill for over $230 ... contradicting the consultants advise

9) next months speed drops to slower than 15kb/s - Engineers cannot resolve issue, apologise and say there is nothing they can do.

10) Lodge complaint to media authority ... unacceptable response from Vodafone.

So, contract was due to expire so I rang up to ensure the contact was cancelled so that it would not roll over.

Was told that cancellation was processed.
One month later, my service had rolled over into a per-month-charge service.
Rang up second time, was told that the cancellation had not gone thru as the systems were down (a standard excuse whenever they stuff up). Was told they wou;d backdate the cancellation, stop the DD, and no further charges would be applied.
So, was surprised (well, not really) when $80 was taken from my account.

So here I am on the phone for the third time trying to get my money back. After too-ing and fro-ing, they have admitted their mistake and will apply a credit to my phone account (great, since I no longer have an account).

I have been told to ring up in a week's time to have the credit transferred to my bank account.

F you, vodafone....stuff your 'new towers' and stuff your customer service!!!!

Vodafone seems to be trying to fix some of their problems but it seems like its as complex as fixing world hunger. I got a new phone which was faulty. With my phone less than a week old, I went to the shop (after spending about an hour talking to various service people on the phone) and after more than 3 hours, a good dose of bored non communication and constant repetitions of we cant help you. I walked out with a new handset and an admonishment that if that one didn't work I would have to send it away to be fixed. My SIL tweeted the problem, VF replied in 8hrs and are in the process of trying to make me feel less angry. This is surely a good sign. The whole cost to me was about 6 - 7 hrs of wasted time and patronising interaction during my holidays, a 40 min round trip to the shop. $5 parking fee for going over the allocated 3 hours and significant frustration of trying to get a new handset that should have just been instantly replaced from people who wanted to prove I was wrong about my phone being a dud. BTW I have next to nil reception in my home at warrimoo. Whole other problem!

I decided on making the switch on December the 8th 2011 from Vodafone to Optus prepaid. I'm taking up the offer with Woolworths the $29 +5GB of data for 45days. The plan is powered by Optus.

I called Optus on the 8th of December 2011 to port my number across. I was told by Optus that "Vodafone are having technical issues with there poting system".

I called Vodafone the next day and ask how long it would be. Was told that they are having issues dating back to November 2011 and are not sure when it will be processed.

I even went into both stores first Vodafone and there was no record of the port pending on there in store computer system. Second was Optus with my details as pending a port from Vodafone to Optus. I asked the silly question as to when or how long it NORMALLY takes. Optus replied it "can normally take up to two weeks for it to be ported from Vodafone to Optus".

After waiting the two weeks I called Vodafone to see what is happening. I was told the same story we are experiencing technical difficulties with our porting system and there are delays. Oh in the mean time I had been receiving txt messages from Vodafone saying if I recharge in the within the next 7 days they will double my free credit inclusions .Example if I get 100 free txt included in my prepaid cap they would give me 200 free txt. Then a couple of hours later I received another txt saying we will triple the offer if you recharge within the next seven days.

Called today after giving up over the xmas / new year period and just bought myself a $2 simcard (Woolies Optus)and registered it online and was active within 5 mins.

I called Vodafone today January 4th 2012 only to be told that Optus has cancelled there request for the porting. Called Optus and they reactivated my request for the number porting.

Now the ball is back in Vodafone hands. I have talked to friends of mine who have ported there numbers from other providers and only taking minutes to happen or overnight at the latest.

Hmm will I receive txt messages again from Vodafone saying they will double then triple my free usage if I recharge with them.

VODAFAIL can they port a number in under 2 hours?????

I have been waiting since the 8th December 2011 and today is the 4th of January 2012. Hmm 4 weeks tomorrow, how much longer????????

Oh and yes I did write and lodge a complaint with Vodafone with no response from Vodafail of course.

Not so much Vodafone here but rather the 3G network is extremely inconsistent. I nearly failed to book into a hotel over the NYE because the train line connections were only available at the main stations, so every time the train stopped, I had to be extremely quick (good luck, LOL) with the WOTIF transactions!

And also, I live on the North Shore of Sydney (love calling it the Dead Shore!) as reception is just barely minimal, it connects but it's like worse than a 56k modem!!

Also, I entered the contract, asked them about coverage and they flat out lied to me saying it is all good, same connection speed everywhere up to Newcastle and down to Canberra!! Seriously, I'm going to go to Telstra, but I do not have any credit ratings and they get all hanged up over this extremely minimal feature of your Bank Statement Records!!

Billing Issues - Paid my account before time but I am told it's not paid and contact the bank. Did contacted the bank and they confirmed my payment via BPAY has been processed. Its a pain to call them and wait for hours and they direct you here and there. They can't understand simple English and give wrong advice. My email address has been changed without my permission and I don't get the bills on the correct email address. Why in the world would I pay full expense for such a 3rd world service?

Please help.

No service for 40% of overpriced 2-year contract. Can't get online/phone help; waste of time going into Rockingham store. 5 days of pain and frustration, and all data/phone allowance used up trying to unlock phone, additional $$ incurred buying more. Given wrong advice 3 times by VodaIndia. "Customer care"? oxymoron. This moron went to Virgin and hasn't looked back.

Was put a plan in November, 2010 only to have the phone they gave me start playing up. I took it into the store and the unhelpful staff member told me it was their service that was also playing a major role in the failure. After I told them I need to have service due to several immediate issues, so she gave me a temporary phone which is still no use due to the fact Vodafone cannot supply a service!

I received a text from Vodafail asking me to call urgently to settle my bill. My usage was up as I had my phone on roaming. Despite my next bill being due on January 1, 2012, I was asked to cough up $450 on the spot to keep my account active. I did this as I cannot afford not to but felt bullied in to doing so. Once this contract is up I'm changing carriers. Customers who are with Vodafone long term are clearly dispensable.

VODAFONE DOESNT WORK!!!!! I have to go outside to make a call and i live in Sydney suburbs! The staff at vodafone really are pleasant, but they keep changing their story. "please understand, i am not lying to you...your service levels are excellent" (said in an indian accent of course. "its very true vodafone are experiencing issues during our upgrade, but your area is very good reception... oh, well it will be good at the end of this month.....next month....march 2012..... september 2012" and on and on it goes. They have suggested i can switch off 3g when i go inside a building and simply just turn it back on when i am outside...this may help they say. I am paying for a service which does not work. Coffs Harbour last week -zero service unless i walked to the top of a hill. Coffs that is, not lightning ridge!
This company is a joke! I notice if you call for a new service you connect to an aussie but as soon as you require assistance the call is diverted overseas. They try really hard and are most pleasant but sometimes very difficult to understand. VODAFONE I WANT MY MONEY BACK!! NOW!!!!!!!

So, today, after wo days of waiting, i recharged my phone. Only a 20 dollar prepaid top up, but the system had been down for two days, so i waited. Then i was BOMBARDED with text messages of thanks and free offers of TRIPLE the free talk time and texts........and to go to supplied web addresses with codes to get more info. NONE OF THE SUPPLIED ADDRESSES CONNECT TO ANYTHING !!! Surprised? Not ME !

My concern is recent reports "Carriers" are using "Carrier IQ" software pre installed on Android devices particularly those from HTC to extract personal usage including "Key Strokes" without the users permission. Ref: gsmarena.com 4th Dec, 2011. Vodafone deny such action but to be sure will get my phone tested by a professional if they are lying and in fact Vodafone Australia are using "Carrier IQ" to extract data for and on behalf of advertising industry I assure you hell will play and will make sure every Radio, TV and Newspaper will know about it, and what if carriers can use the software to extract information what if criminals or News of the World get hold of the software.

Who else out there has recharged their phone over the last 24 hrs,only to find that their recharge has not been registered by Vodaphone and they can't make any calls.

This all started 24 hours ago for me ... now I just feel like slashing my wrists for being so bloody stupid and putting up with the Vodaphone network problems for so long.

Of course you will at first think that their network is down temporarily. Just before you feel like ramming the phone up Vodaphones nether regions, dial 1512 and you will realise why your phone doesn't work.

I am about to give the complaints department a verbal spray, I know it's not the complaints department fault, but I need to have the problem noted on record.Then I will take this further .. I run the phone for business and this Glitch,that has been around for a year now,could cost me a huge loss in income..guess who I will be suing for loss of business revenue and further damages?

Don't take it lying down .. give them a boot up the backside ..it's your money!

I posted a little while back about having three or four days with contasnt call drop outs and delayed texts/multimedia messages and really really slow internet.

It has now been four weeks. Of the same thing.

Still no improvement.

Every time I make a call I either get "beep beep" and no connection at all, OR I get "Hi ..... " and it drops out straight away. I'm apparantly still not receiving half of the text messages people send and when others try and call my phone when it is switched on and apparantly has full range (I've tried this from my home phone too - to test) and it goes straight to "This person isn't available right now"

So I went in to a vodaphone shop front the other day to see what's going on- if it's my sim or what...

"No... It's your Iphone" (I have an Iphone 4) to which I replied "It's not that old, I got it in July this year from America (when I was in the states I got it from the Apple store in New york with full warranty, so it's a genuine phone).
I then got told "No it must be a dodgy phone or you have done something to it... Have you put it in water"?

I explained there was nothing wrong with the phone (software/hardware wise)all the apps work, everything is great but the reception/phone/visual voicemail failing to connect/call drop outs... etc.

She told me there was absolutely no issues with the network but I would have to go to the Apple store and get it sorted.

It turns out another disgruntled customer sitting next to me while I was being told this leant over to her (the vodafail rep) and said he worked for the Apple store and there was nothing wrong with their phones (regardless if it was an American Iphone - UNLOCKED!) and he had experienced the exact same issues which is why he was in the Vodafone shop!

She then went "Ah... aH" and went back of shop and got me a cordless work phone and said "Here" and dumped a phone on me without telling me who was on the other line or what I was doing - it turns out it was the call centre in whatever country and I had suddenly to speak to some lady about what was going on - all over again.

While I was on the phone I looked for the vodafone person who was with me before and she was off with another customer ignoring me and the other dude!

This is not the first time someone has handed me a phone and walked off when they had a tricky question. It happened the last time I went into a vodafone shop - is this common practice for them?
Ignore the customer?

Nice vodafail. Nice.

I recently damaged my iPhone so I needed to do an insurance claim. The insurance claim was fine and I got my phone within a week (very happy about this). When I picked up my phone from the store I asked them when my contract was up and they said in 3 months and that I could upgrade for free. I was a tad annoyed about this as the insurance claim cost me $250 and I would have upgraded and avoided that cost. Anyway I thought I would give the new phone that I got from insurance to my sister as she was in need of a phone and I upgraded my phone over the phone. AS I was giving the insurance phone to my sister I needed something to tide me over until I get my phone from upgrades in the next 2 weeks. I went into the store in Rundle Mall in Adelaide to grab a cheapie phone. I was served by a young girl and she ran out the back and got me the $20 cheapie phone that I asked for and when she came back she asked for my drivers licence. I asked what she needed it for and she said that she needed to activate the pre-paid sim card that came with the phone. I looked at the board that the phone was on and said that there were other phones that said that tehy came in packs but this one didn't and there was no disclaimer saying that I needed to activate a free sim card that came with the phone let alone hand over my drivers licence to activate it. I said that I had no need for the sim card and seeing as it didn't state that I had to take it I didn't want it. She started talking about how it was by law that they had to activate a sim card with every pre paid phone sold and so on and so forth. I said I would like the literature that states that I need to activate a pre paid number when I just want to buy a pre paid phone. She printed out a form (the one I had to sign) and said that it stated it on there. I informed her that the form talked about activating a pre-paid mobile number, not purchasing a pre paid phone. A young man came to help serve and he got agitated when I pointed out that the form had nothing to do with purchasing a pre paid mobile phone and I would like the literature which said I had to activate a sim card when purchasing a pre paid mobile phone. He said he could not find it and I asked politely if he could dig it up and I would be back in the store in an hour once I had finished work. His response absolutely horrified me. His exact word were, "I would rather be serving customers that have to do this." Now I have 3 post paid accounts with vodafone. One for me, one for my mother and one for my father as they are a bit older and it is getting a bit much for them to deal with bills so I consider myself a customer of vodafone no matter how small my issue is. Before I lost my temper I politely told him that if he could be so kind as to try and find the paperwork regarding activating a pre paid sim card before I returned I would be more than happy to take it.

I returned to the store an hour later as I said that I would. The girls who served me the first time was there and she asked me to wait. She then went to the front of the store, spoke to another girl and the second girl served me. The second girl said that I could have the phone with no sim card but there would be no warranty on the phone. I found that strange and said so. She then changed her story a little and said it was because there was no way of tracking the phone if they sold it to me without a phone number that they activated. I informed her the the first girl told me that I could throw away the activated sim card if I didn't need it and if this was the case if I came back needing the phone repaired without that phone number how would they find it? She then said it would be because they would find me by name.

Now I am not up-to-date with all technology but I do know this from buying other phones outright (without a damn pre paid sim card), to find a phone that a store has sold they always record the imei number. This is what happened why I needed to get my receipt for insurance and I know for a fact my name was not on that receipt because I have just checked it against the pre paid one that I bought.

I decided to test this theory. I called up the Tea Tree Plaza store and told them that I had bought a pre paid phone from a store in another state and I wanted to know if I could get a copy of the receipt from her store. The girl on the phone said, "yes, all we need is the IMEI number in the back of the phone."

I actually then went into the Tea Tree Plaza store and pretended that I wanted to buy a pre paid phone and the same thing happened. A boy said that he needed to activate a pre-paid sim card with my pre paid phone. I went through a similar spiel with what happened at the Rundle Mall store and he refused to sell me the phone and that it was for warranty purposes that he needed to activate the sim card with the pre paid phone.

Strange.....considering that the girl from the Tea Tree Plaza store said earlier that all I needed was the IMEI number for a receipt.

I believe that the girl in the Rundle Mall store along with the boy at the Tea Tree Plaza store were just trying to bump up their quota of pre paid numbers for the month and I am absolutely disgusted.

I have since gone through the Vodafone website thoroughly and cannot find ANYTHING saying that all pre-paid phones have to have a pre-paid sim card activated with them. Vodafone, I am withdrawing my upgrade and am transferring all 3 of my numbers to another carrier as soon as my parents phones come out of contract!

......and all of this because one of your staff members demanded my personal details to sell something that she didn't need

i have recently applied to check my credit as I would like to buy a house. I find that vodafone has put me on the bad credit list cause I have not paid a bill from June 2007. Thing is i have been a client of theres all this time and have never been informed of any outstanding amount of $930. I am up to date with all my bills and have never even seen this amount stated on any bill of any of the several contracts I have signed over the years. I would have been happy to pay this but in this time I have not been able to get a car without any hassles, get credit of any kind and now it seems that I cant get a home loan. Now I would like to be compensated. The worst part about it all was it took me 3 days to actually find this account of mine. Now that they have found it they would like me to pay the amount. The bigger they get the worse they become.

i am unable to call anyone - even vodaphone them self
i can recieve calls i can send text msgs but cannot call
when i rang vodaphone from a landline they said that the area was busy???
so if the area is so busy how come i can recieve calls???
why am i paying vodaphone for a service they are not supplying????
not happy vodaphone

I will make this very easy for all to understand..I have been so terribly mistreated by vodafone that i cannot explain it in 3000 words..

Some incidents// I have been on the phone to Vodafone for the past 11 weeks 3 hrs average every day..

I have been voice recording the last two days in which one of their senior Staff members has repeatadly said that in all his years at the Vodafone company he has never seen any body so poorly treated.

I have been offered credit which shouldve been applied repeatadly/when i call back as to ask in 3 days whats happening they simply call me a liar and hang up/This staff member that has been trying to sort out my issues for 11wks is so upset with the current situation and how badly i have been treated that he has offered on countless occasions that had it been up to him he wouldve gladly replaced the handset i paid for. He would've paid me for all the business i lost .I am currently studying A bachellor in Science and degree and doing my I.T degree at the same time,Well i wont go into details to much all i can say is that because of nearly 92hrs logged on the phone to Vodafone since mid september i have had a mental break down and am defering as to GP's instuctions.I have been recording all my phone conversations with them..I have got some rippers..Imagine not being able to call your son or daughter on their 18th birthday.Well this is just the beginning MR DEWS..AS i stated to the KEENS in GHANDI ville on many occasions in the past 5wks..I have recordings and am going YOUTUBE and The Media have already taken an interest in this one..So lets just hope my number that has not been working for so long mirraculously fixes its self and the merchandise that i have payed for outright suddenly appears at my door step..Well let me just say that up untill the 5wk stage i was ready to simply work something out,,But to many of your supervisors have all promised me express delivery and within half an hour your service will be activated..Imagine waiting 97days for this to happen and every calling u and getting the same thing your service will be activated within half an hour to 45 mins sir..JUST imagine well THIS is whats happened and still is to this day.I am fed up..TIME FOR you VODAFONE to cough up..Voice recordings will be posted on youtube shortly will advise every body of the link shortly... :(

....i have been with vodafone for at least 4 years....and frequently dubious about my bills though havnt really looked into it, as i feel phone companies in general are a rip off but a necessary evil....im not really a phone talker....so i mainly text....
....when my old contract with vodafone was near up i decided to re-sign to a new 24 month contract this time opting for a $29 cap as i rarely used my previous $49 cap.... quite regularly my bills were 10 to 15 dollars over my cap, and i accepted this as just me going over though i found it a little rough as i might make 10 phone calls a month if im lucky....as i said i mainly text....and dont use internet at all!!
....i pay my bills on time and regular so when i got a message from vodafone saying my bill was overdue and to please pay to avoid a late fee, i went into my local store to find out if there was a problem....it turned out that i had an outstanding amount of $140....i asked if the assistant could check why and she found that in the month of september i made approximately 1800 texts in that month i asked her to divide that by 30, resulting that i would have had to make on average 60 texts a day every day for a month !!!!
....needless to say i was shocked and saying to the girl this has to be a mistake and enquiring what to do about it, she replied i would have to call vodafone (1555) as they only dealt with sales connections etc. ....i paid the bill to avoid late fees but was not happy....upon sharing my pain with a friend, he told me of all the dramas with the provider recently....then i found this website and was shocked to find the tens of thousands of people also getting shafted by vodafone....
....is it worth chasing up or do i just give vodfone the finger and change providers....or am i risking having to fork out more money to these criminals....i am totally resenting the idea of giving even one red cent ....but dont want to be hit later ....

I tried to recharge my prepaid mobile on the Vodafone website but it was down so I tried to recharge on my phone by using my credit card. The recording told me that they could not confirm that the payment had been processed and to check again later.
I checked my phone the next day, no recharge. But I checked my credit card account and $29 had been taken. I rang Vodafone to see what my options were. They said that yes the payment had been taken and yes the recharge had not gone onto my phone.
They said if I wanted to get a refund, I would need to fax them a bank statement showing that $29 had been deducted from my acct and they would put a refund back into that acct.
I did this and got a phone call saying that my statement did not show $29 was paid to Vodafone. I told the man that this was what my bank gave me, I was told I could not submit an internet copy which shows that info. He said he would need to verify with my bank. This was done, he said the refund would be in my acct in 24hrs.
I checked my acct, no refund. I called Vodafone back and they told me that the request sent to their finance section did not say a supervisor's name and date of incident. They said this would now be fixed and the refund would be in my acct in 24hrs.
I checked my acct again, still no refund. I tried to call Vodafone back but the phone line was playing up. I then decided to send an email to Vodafone through their website.
I received a response saying that according to their records, the refund should have been in my acct. I checked my acct, nothing, so I replied that it was not. The reply I got was that the finance dept would look into this.
Last night I received a phone call from Vodafone saying I would need to submit a bank statement. I said no I will not as I have already provided this information. I was told again and again that I would need to submit this. I kept saying no I refuse to do this because I had already submitted this information.
The lady said she would get back to me when she could look at her options. I got another phone call from her and she said "seeing as you won't submit a bank statement, all I can do is put an extra $29 recharge on your prepaid acct". I said no (and I admit I did swear because I was extremely angry with the way I was treated) and hung up. I then proceeded to send another email (once I had calmed down) to Vodafone saying I will NOT be submitting anymore information, I have already done this and that I would NOT be going through their company again and I would tell my family & friends not to use them either. I have not had any response so far.
I am extremely unhappy with their service, with the way I have been treated. I am sick of the lack of communication (between themselves) and I am going to keep onto them until something is done!

I have been a Vodafone customer for about 4 years. In that time, I have been consistently faced with the most incrediblly incompetent and infuriating service I have ever experienced in my life. Dealing with dropped calls, no coverage, bungled payments is mind bogglingly infuriating but pales in comparison to going through the process of speaking to a Vodafone consultant in India, which takes an hour each time when you actually get through, and they have no record of previous agreements reached for the account on earlier extended calls. Just today, I had my phone cut off out of NOWHERE after calling vodafone on Monday to get a payment extension until Friday, which was granted. I actually paid my bill onWednesday - but SURPRISE, my phone is blocked by Thursday morning. Vodafone is a joke and a failure! I am a peaceful and relaxed person most of the time. My home was recently unfortunately burgled and we lost most of our valuable items. The next day, the police were trying to call me ALL DAY - they called me 10 TIMES - and although I had full service on my mobile, none of the calls came through. I know this is something to do with vodafone Because other people tell me the same thing REGULARLY. With 100 percent honesty, I can say my anger and frustration at being burgled was only a fraction of the sheer frustration I went through going through a run of the mill conversation with a vodafone employee the next day who (surprise!) had no record of a $100 credit being applied to my account a month earlier after I complained about the issues with coverage and being overcharged. Thanks for wasting another few hours of my life Vodafone, for NOTHING. I honestly don't have anything in my life that makes my blood boil like this. Vodafone is a DISGRACE and an embarrassment to our nation. They have lost yet another longstanding customer that would have stayed if they didn't so consistently royally screw things up for $200 per month. EXTORTION.

Lets start with the switch from 3 Mobile to Vodafail! 3 were fantastic for over 5 years! Still not officially with Vodaphone but already hate them! They lie, lie, lie and fail in every area!
Called to switch over from Vodaphone to 3 on the 10th October 2011, all good phone to be there between 3-5 days! 7 days later no phone! Check website, it says upto 10 days for a new switch over! Call up they say to wait for 10 days(you did said 3-5 to start with)! Ok 10 days come around and still no phone! Call up and they have stuffed up a whole shipment of new phones! There is no way to track them as they ruined the tracking numbers! Thanks Vodaphone! Told to wait another week as they are dealing with it! Call back again, now out to 16 days, they cant find it, try calling the dispatcher or AAE! Call them, they say they dont deal with consumers, only vodaphone! AAE cant find it cos the tracking numbers are wrong! (why I am calling and not them, i dont no! its their job to call around and fix it not me!)Call back Vodaphone, this time they decide to do it for me! Man calls dispatcher many times and says they are not there! Well the lying little man was told that I called 10 minutes before I called him and they answered my call! He places me on hold again and calls them again, surprise surprise they answer this time! But they cant help me and then calls AAE and they say its somewhere, but they cant say where, but the problem has been fixed and it is transit! Told to wait until the following Friday, will be there, no problems im assured! That Friday comes around, now 25 days since I started, and no phone! Call back and they try to go through the whole process again, and this time I tell them to sort it out themselves and call me back! They do and say that AAE where unable to deliver the package! How or why they dont no but it is being returned to the dispatcher! I speak with AAE and after talking to them we discover that Vodaphone stuffed up the address which is why it didnt get there! Ask Vodaphone why they didnt call me "as you are not a customer we are unable to contact you" - again LIES - I am a Vodaphone mobile broadband customer(which by the way doesnt work and is as slow as dial up and I live 5 minutes from the CBD in St Kilda Road), I tell them and they ignore me, they seem to know im right but just cant say anything!
So now ask where to from here and can they send the phone again, no they have 'cancelled your order and you must now reorder'! Could not understand this but go through the whole ordering process again and lets see how it goes, BUT I am told that as the phone I am after is in high demand there will be an extended wait on the product! I lose it after that, after 25 days I am told they now dont have the phone in stock and I have to wait after I have signed up for a second time! After he stuffs around for a bit he finally says he can get my original returned phone, sent back out to me, but I have to wait for it to be returned! better than nothing, but why they couldn't just do that instead of re-signing up I will never no!
Now I still sit here waiting 29 days later and still no phone! Now onto their complaints department and TIO!

One day for no reason I lost all reception on my phone. After 2 months, that's right, 2 months, of contacting Vodafone and being passed around, told complete lies, having to deal with total idiots, I called and told them I would be cancelling my contract with no fees, they tried to get me to pay but I told them where to go. NEVER use this company. I laugh at all the ads they have out now trying to get customers back. I will tell every single living being about how horrible they are to deal with. They blatantly lied to us about what was happening just to try and keep us as customers. SCUM.

Every call is dropped. EVERY ONE! When a call CAN be connected, you have to be totally still and NOT MOVE THE PHONE MROE THAN 0.5 CM! otherwise of course, dropout! Texts randomly fail. data is sometimes acceptable, others it is dead. it is totally pathetic, i have been lied to many times by customer service - the few times i have actually gotten through to complain and query if the handset itself (Galaxy s II) is faulty. Spoke to 3 different stores, all deny ANY issues EVER with VF.. BS! We are being lied to every day. I work for an outsourced provider that services a department of VF's customer service.. All I can say is they look even flimsier internally than they do to the public, reactionary corporate BS - profiteering A$$HOLES. Switching to Virgin.

My 81 year old dad received an unsolicited sms message on his Telstra mobile purporting to be from "Auvodafone" - no sender's number supplied, on 27.10.11 stating $136.50 owing on account no. 635312466 has been sent to your email address - due for payment of 15 Nov".
Dad doesn't have an account with Vodafone. I emailed them just now (29.10.11,13:14)& immediately received an automatic reply email stating "due to higher than anticipated volume of email enquiries, we are currently experiencing some delays in email response" then advertising how to port to their company! At the bottom of their reply, it says "status: solved"!!
Bizarre that they can claim to have solved a query from a live human being using an automatic response! We're assuming the sms is spam. Can they somehow interfere with credit ratings if dad ignores the message? Thank you for your site - it's a great play-on-words name too!
Pam Topham

Hey guys, this is a copy of my complaint email to Vodafone, to which I haven't yet received a reply of course.

My complaint:

On Wednesday the 26th of October I wished to call the Vodafone help line (Lara) for assistance with my recently purchased "Pocket Wifi" device. Since my own mobile phone provider (not Vodafone) does not allow for calls to 13,15,1800 numbers, I inserted the Vodafone sim from the pocket wifi and dialled 1555. This was unsuccessful.

I then proceeded to call Sydney's head office on (02) 9415 7000, since that was the only number available for me to dial. After speaking to the operator for a short time she put me through to a call center; I assume from the heavy delay in our conversation, and by the representative's accent, he was somewhere in India/Pakistan. Initially, the person seemed keen to help me, and I was happy with his effort...though it was quite difficult for us to understand each other's English.

A very, very, VERY long story cut extremely short:

I stayed on the phone for 2 hours. During this time I spoke to 16 (that's SIX-TEEN) different people. SIXTEEN PEOPLE. The line dropped out twice, I was hung-up on after holding for 12 minutes for one operator, and even hung-up on by the thirteenth Vodafone employee, after I raised my voice to her when she asked me to verify (for the THIRTEENTH time remember!) who I was and my date of birth etc.

Finally I spoke to yet another man in an overseas call-centre, who told me all I had to do to have my faulty device replaced was to take it into a Vodafone shop. This seems simple enough, but seeing as I bought it online, I thought it was best to check before simply turning up in a shop I'd never been to before and demanding they replace my product.

So it took 16 employees 2 hours to tell me this.

Then today, the 27th of October, I visited Bondi Junction Westfield shopping-centre. The first Vodafone store I went to told me they were "too small" to help me, and had no replacement products. They advised me to go downstairs to a "3 Mobile" shop where I'd be able to talk to Vodafone workers.

I did this, and after waiting 23 minutes to be attended to, finally thought I was getting somewhere. The young man working in the shop was quite helpful and said he'd replace my faulty pocket wifi. Just when I thought this whole ordeal was over however, he informed me that they didn't have any in stock. "No problem", I said. "Just keep my details and let me know when you get some in."
To which he replied, "We're closing in two weeks, no point."

So now, on my day off from work due to sickness, I'm sitting in Mc Donalds in Kings Cross: in order to use the free Wifi: in order to complain about the fact that I have no internet.

If I don't receive at least an adequate reply, from someone who speaks English as a first language (or at all), I will destroy my product with a claw-hammer, and avoid using any Vodafone-related product 'til my dying day.

Regards and terrible wishes,

Ben.

Internet keeps dropping out - DNS lookup fails time after time. Server closes connection without sending data, browser times out because response too long..... Vodafone need to URGENTLY resolve Internet Gateway issues with THEIR ISP. Too few ports available or what? The network is always OK but the Internet connection is a BIGTIME FAIL!! My wireless Telstra connection just hoons along with no slowdown, but I signed up with Voda 'cos their mobile data rates are more civilized. I want Vodafone to honour its contract with me by supplying continuous data. Like I said, their High Speed network is OK, just the Internet connection sucks - a gateway issue, not a network issue. Please get this right & stop blaming it on network upgrading which is NOT the root cause. I reiterate, Voda's Internet Gateway is the bottleneck - PLEASE, PLEASE FIX IT!!!

I was originally with 3, which was fine for a while, but mother made me switch to Vodafone for some upgrade reasons. So I've been with Vodafail for about half a year now and my first incident occurred with the last bill that I need to pay soon.

I understood why I have the amount owing, but I was not happy with the way they were charging me, and how SLOW their service is. Basically, I posted on their 'Vodafone Community' about how I didn't like receiving a bill I was unaware of, considering I am a loyal customer and text to 1512 everyday just to make sure I'm on track with my usage. They never let me know that my exceeding amount was $78, instead it stayed on 0 the entire time up until the bill arrived. So I asked them if this was a way of milking money off customers? Telling you you're not exceeding and then charging you under the radar. I told them I would've been happy to pay that amount if they did their job or upgraded their service and notify me earlier about how much I was exceeding.

Now the point is, instead of replying to my post and helping me out...I receive a 'private' message saying my post was removed because I wasn't being nice and it didn't flow with the guidelines of the post forum. They also said I should 'treat them like how I want to be treated' - which then ended with a "Thanks for your help in keeping the community a friendly, productive environment for all members."

Really? I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure that majority of complaints don't end with a friendship bracelet. I wasn't a happy customer, and that was expected. I didn't swear, I wasn't being racist, I didn't do anything to offend anyone. Deleting my post instead of fixing the problem? Nice work, Vodafone! Now you're IGNORING customers. Hooray for poor customer service!

The numerous staff we've spoken to doesn't know the in's and out's of the business resulting to wrong advice or no help at all.

I got a three thousand dollar phone bill from vodafone. They said if I added an additional phone and internet account to my initial account as a packaged deal, I'd never pay over $150 dollars a month. On the second phone I was getting charged 50, 70 a 100 dollars a phone call. They lied and I'm stuck with the bill. I don't know what to do. I'm sick to my stomach.

I recently swapped my existing contract from 3 to Vodafail, as they are merging. When i did, my first bill consisted of 2 plan charges. My existing $79 cap, and my $29 cap from years ago, plus excess usage charges. That plan did not even exist, it was ended when i started my $79 cap... yet i was charged both. I called them, they could not explain why this had happened and told me i would received a credit on my next bill. Today i receive from vodafail on the 7018 number that said i owe "$146.23 due to usage not covered by plan allowance". I call them and ask what is this about? He told me he can't help me, he can't access that information until tomorrow when the billing comes out. I said to him, no, you sent me a text about the charges this morning, you need to be able to explain what they are about. He was evasive, and i kept querying him (him being Glennn, ID number 39395). He said to me "how are you not understanding what i am saying" implying that i was stupid. So i got his name and ID number. But got nothing out of the call. I have NO idea what the charges are about. When i look at my online usage it says $0.00. Yet the text says i owe 146.23. Nothing but incompetence since i have changed over.

Well Adam, I have a suggestion for your 'suggestion box'.

I think you should create a similair website but for Qantas. Vodafone and qantas today have caused more stress than I can remember.

My parents who are in their 80's were flying back to South Africa today there flight was delayed due to strike and then due to engineering problems.

I have had so many drop outs today that my mother had a full blown panic attack as me calling her back all the time just stressed her out.

We are not going to see eachother for 3 years now and this is the way we had to say good bye.

Shame on you qantas and vodafone!!!

I have been with 3 for a number of years and have always acknowledged that their coverage is not good outside of major cities...........but that is not my complaint. 3 have always been first class on customer service and could be relied upon to assist where possible and advise if there was a problem. I had chosen for my personal mobiles (which included the wife and all the kids as well - 5 services in total) because i had had difficulties with billings in the past with Vodafone and it took me a year to get my name off a "bad credit" listing that they had instigated.

Imagine my dismay when i discovered that 3 was now part of Vodafone. Still, have to give everyone a second chance..............

Now, my eldest son was sent a message regarding upgrading his phone (it comes out of contract in 3 months) and the same week we all received notification that 3 was now part of Vodafone "officially". He decided that it was time he had his own account rather than using mine so we needed to transfer ownership and then he could upgrade to a new phone.

I called 3, explained the situation and they told me no problem but that the new phone would be with Vodafone as they were now all one Company. I asked about the ownership transfer and was told that it should be fine and could be done by phone but would be easier "in-store". Knowing all the ID problems normally associated with transfers I thought, yes in-store would be easier.

We arrived at the recommended store (Innaloo, WA) and noted the big new signs with 3 and Vodafone on them but also noticed a large queue.......but that is normal so we queued for approximately 30 minutes. The somewhat harrasses sales lady finally spoke to us somewhat rudely and we explained what we needed to do. We were then informed that they would not do it in-store because it took too long and because they were a Vodafone store and not a 3 store. No amount of arguing would help and we were told to call 3 and do it on the telephone. We were also informed that Vodafone and 3 are seperate Companies.

After an exchange of words we got the message and went outside the store and called 3. I explained what had happened and was told that the gorl in storw was incorrect but as we were on the phone they would do the transfer there and then. It took about 30 minutes in a noisy shopping centre but we got through it and the changes to ownership were made.

Needless to say, I was still a little upset with the store so i went back in (queued again) and complained to the Manager saying that i wanted to lodge a complaint. She listened then told me that the sales assistant was correct and that they did not have to deal with the issues from 3. Apparently all the stores had complained about having to deal with ownership issues from 3 and that 3 was supposed to be a seperate Company and all changes should be done on the phone. Again, apparently they had been told that a memo had been sent to all phone staff advising them not to direct 3 customers to stores!!!!

I explained that I had spoken to three different operators at 3 over the past week and that they all appeared unaware of it. I was told that it was not her problem and to take it up with 3.

Fortunately we only have 3 months left on the Contracts.............good to see that Vodafone have not changed and are as inept and unhelpful as ever. I am never going to recommend them to anyone, and cancel all services at the end of Contract...........I suggest that all 3 customers do the same thing......Vodafone will muck you around, overcharge you and be down right rude to you if you dare question them.

Hi ,

i have just been switched over to vodafone from 3 as i was looking for a new phone and i was suggsted that i should switch over to vodafone to get the better hand set and service .

i was told that as my billing cycle is finished on 12th of every month and i have applied after vodafone afert that , so my plan with vodafone will be applicable from next billing cycle (ie : next 12th ) . and i specifically confirmed that i will not be charged any extra bills then the cap i am on , and i was confirmed that it will not be the case .

But as at the end of the month i was charged 49 $ from 3 and i got another bill from vodafone for 87. somtheing $$ .

thaking this complaint i went to one of your outlet ,and now the story was all different , now when i told them that i have got 2 bills , they threw every thing on me saying that they cant do any thing about it as i have used 2 days from 3 and the rest with voadafone , so i am suppose to pay both the bills .

but hoe will a customer like me will know that i am on 3 or vodafone at that time when i was told that i will be on the same plan with 3 for the whole month till next cycle . when i was switching over i was told " oplease do it it better for you as it is the same company " but when i went back saying i have been charged for what was not promised by the person on the store , then suddeny it bacame 2 different companies saying that , they cant do any thing as they are 2 different companies .

so what am i suppose to assume that the person who represents your company on the store or in the call center is not always right and is not providing the right information every time as it cahnges from person to person . i do find it mifleading and dishonest as the information i got first hand became false and invalid as i dont have a proof for what your representative said at the first place . and at last what we hear from them is " Sir as we can see that this discussion is not going any where and at last you have to pay the bill for both the compnies and thanx for you patience "

i hope i will get better reply for this from you side ..

Kind regards

(PERSONAL DETAILS REMOVED)

Where to start?

First they quote me a international data usage rate that is 100 times (not exaggerating) more than the data rate actually applied. Spent two weeks complaining to their call centre that there is a difference between 0.008c and $0.008 per kilobyte.

Went through the ombudsman and Vodafone finally reluctantly agreed that they made a mistake. I stated that after all the time wasted I wanted to cancel my contract without penalty. Was left a message to call them about this additional request and provided a number to one of their customer resolution team members. Every day for the last 2 weeks I call that number and am advised that this so called Sarah is on the phone. In total I have left 4 voicemails and 10 text messages. Have even gone through the pain of dealing with the call centre just so they can send an email to Sarah to call me... still nothing...vodafone sucks

My friend downgraded an iPhone4 cap plan from $79 to $59 three months after getting the phone from Voda. When I ask a w'hat-a-fail' staff for the same
deal with the same conditions as my friend, he simply replied me 'YOU CAN ONLY
UPGRADE YOUR PHONE PLANS, NOT DOWNGRADE' with an arrogant manner. After hearing
the story of my friend, he blushed and ticked over 'sorry under certain conditions we may allow customer to downgrade, but you need to sign a new plan
with us and there may be some surcharge...' BULLLLLLSHIIIIIIIIT! WHAT A FAIL!!
REALLY WANNA HAND THOSE SCUMS TO POLICE!

I've been offwork due to illness for several months and as such I haven't had all my bills paid on time. I got an sms and a phone call from vodafone the other day explaining that my bill was overdue and the SMS asked:

"please pay $x immediately by dialling 1527 from your mobile"

whilst the phonecall had asked me to call the same number from my handset if I was unable to pay. Either way, I try to let people know if I'm late for a bill what the situation is and that I plan on paying as soon as possible (I've paid it just now).

However, when I tried to call the number from my handset I was informed that I had call barring in place, which is of course something I was already aware of and considering I'd just been contacted in two different ways asking me to call that number from my handset, I didn't think would actually be an issue.

My illness has made it hard for me to deal with the problems I've had with vodafone, so I've mostly just acceppted it for now with every plan on changing provider when my contract is up. The fact that I tried to contact them the way they asked me to, and they give no other contact options in case they have infact barred you from making calls, has really demonstrated how fractured the administration of their service is, not just how badly they've managed their network.

On the topic of making payments, why does it take 24 hours for payments made via CC on their website to be applied to your account?

Calls constantly drop out, if they connect. I'm so frustrated as I NEED this phone for business. Sometimes I can hear them but they can't hear me, other times it doesn't even connect. Apparently it is my SIM card (or perhaps it was a flying pig that disrupted the signal). The most appalling network ever! Ombudsman here I come.

Offered me a change of plan, the little indian bastard then said that by doing htis as I had an unsual spend on the interenet that it would wipe the slate clean with that bill. After re-itterating 5 times that my bill would be normal if i swap over which was answered yes, then recieve a bill for 690 dollarsm i then call the office and they basically tell me I am lying and in no way are going to help.

asked vodafone to fix my coverage.. there response "dont worry next month there should be upgrades in your area" when i compalined the following month they said yes but dont worry in a few more months you will get upgrades. when i called them 2 weeks later asking them to leave the contract they said that i probably need to swap my sim card around again. i then started sending vodafone emails asking to leave the contract. they havnt replied on either occasion.

I used to work for Vodafone, and hated it! Not initially because of the company itself, but because of the call centre-which is now Vodafone's fault for lack of training and informing staff exactly which department does what so that they don't toss the customers from one department to the next.
Imagine making 20 of those one call centre phone calls a day and you will understand the pain I along with half the Vodafone staff experienced.

I haven't worked for them for about a year now, but unfortunately I signed myself up to a contract before leaving them. The problem these days is the call centre regardless of any miscommunication have absolutely no authority to do something within their department. There is no one to speak to any more who can resolve any issue!

I can go on and on about my mobile broadband issues and being charged per month when it has been in repairs for 6 weeks, Or how about staying on the phone for hours being thrown around like a rag doll from customer service department to collections team to be hung up on as soon as I ask for Loyalties and Retention (apparently now called 'Cancellation team') which is the only department that jumped to fix the wrongly applied barring to my phone which cost me days of important business calls and emails (I upgraded from Vodafone Rep to an Advertising agency) and should really be with Telstra, even though there service is equally poor, at least we won't get any dropped calls.

Anyway, I will not bore you with my pain story, I'm sure others have covered every problem. However Vodafone CEO if your reading this, you can say goodbye to your pretty penny because I can guarantee you that your business is already down the drain, the only income you will receive from here on in will be the left over contracts, which if like mine will end within this year and I will disappear from your pathetic Siebel software which gave away customers details.

P.S your company is not shit because of the slow service or dropped calls every now and again, because people don't care - nothing is perfect, it's shit because your to busy sitting on your yacht enjoying your passion fruit mojito to notice your untrained staff are failing to meet each customers expectations-and that is an understatement!

*** VHA SELLS MOBILES WHICH IT IS FULLY AWARE ARE FAULTY ***
I upgraded online from Pre-Paid to Post Paid and could select either a Nokia N97 Mini or iPhone3 @ $29 per month & simply ticked the box for $9.90 p/mth insurance. I completed the order online & received the phone a week later. I have had ENDLESS issues with the mobile and sent it for repair, only to get it back functioning more erratic than before. (Naturally I was reluctant to send it for a 2nd attempt) I did notice they sent it to the VHA workshop & not Nokia which is where it should have gone. Hmmm
Whilst I waited 2 weeks for it's return, I did some research online and discovered many levels of complaints regarding the full sized N97 model, which the mini was purported to have fixed. Then I discovered the same issues with Connectivity, Software upgrades and Browser limitations with the mini model also. The advertising said I could watch videos online but experienced "Upgrade Flash Player" which the handset wouldn't allow.
According to the plethora of information, it seems both Nokia AND Vodafone are well aware of the technical issues with BOTH these handsets, yet continued to sell them in stores nationally. (Sometimes @ premium rates)
I grit and bared it until a month later my mobile fell out of my pocket whilst washing up and I had to call to claim my Insurance. I was told I had to pay an excess of $50 if they repaired it (waiting up to 2wks minimum) or $175 if they replaced the handset completely. Now, I did NOT receive ANY information during sign-up or with the received documentation about any excess for insurance, I had simply ticked a box. I was practically accused of lying by one operator & promised a callback by a Team Leader.
After numerous calls being referred from Insurance to Customer Service to Direct back and forth, no one could give me a explanation. I ended up eventually speaking with a team called "WIN- BACK". I explained I refused to pay any excess and if so, requested cancellation of the contract under Trade Practices (Misleading & unconscionable conduct) which had been advised by TIO.
I was told by Vodafone ... "Too bad, You will have to pay the Termination Fee." I explained seeing the handset was water logged it would no doubt be the $175 so if they were going to charge me for it anyway, then I requested to attend my local store and obtain a different model. They accepted this and I ensured a Reference Number to streamline the process.
Apart from a minor delay in obtaining consent in-store (wasn't in notes), I requested a Samsung Galaxy S2 which would require an upgrade from $29 - $59 per month which was refused due to my bill not being paid (per instructions from the TIO until matter was resolved). You would think this would have been an opportunity for Vodafone to not only resolve a customer complaint but obtain MORE business? I eventually chose the Nexus S on the same plan with insurance (wasn't taking any further chances)
I received a phone call later that day from an authorised VHA rep to tell me they were crediting me $50 toward the $175 replacement cost. Whilst this was a very nice gesture, the fact that I have to pay an excess at all is ridiculous.
I am in the process of consulting legal counsel to determine if Vodafone Hutchinson Australia can be prosecuted for selling mobile handsets when they are aware they are faulty. And also how customer can terminate their contracts due to this.

I'd be interested if anyone has any feedback, advise etc. Cheers.

Together in Solidarity

i am a recent ex employee of vodafone. without going into details of how terribly unfair i was treated during this process i just wanted to let anyone reading this know that their are ways to work around the system, sometimes it just takes an insiders know how information.
as of about a 2 months ago vodafone introduced a new policy which allows managers and assistant mangers to issue credit onto contracts for disgruntled customers IN STORE, ON THE SPOT. not many people are aware that as of right now you can walk into a vodafone store and state they are not meeting their end of the contract (supplying customers with reliable service) therefore you do not have to meet yours (paying your bill). customers who said this line to my manager in store usually got their last months bill amount credited to their account. in other words the next month was usually free when people said this.

sometimes the manager would say they cant do anything for them blah blah im sure you have all heard it before however im telling you right now they are lying. i have seen it with my own eyes. more often than not customers who were aware that the manager had authority to credit the account got what they wanted. so some tips for you all
1. walk into store and state that service has been terrible - slow speeds and drop outs work best because it cant be proved wrong using coverage checker. the staff member who served you will usually get coverage checker up so say you travel around through multiple post codes. that way they cant blame outages. your word against theres.
2. if your declined keep going back in and make sure you state you are aware the manager can give you a FPR
3. if they still decline you credit try another store. in the end its the managers decision to credit so keep going until you find someone dumb enough to do it ( my manager certainly was. remember be persistent.
4.repeat as many times as you can. continuation of this process can often lead to cancellation fees being waived because head office get sick of crediting people accounts.

boom. goodluck guys. stick it to the pricks.

Hi,

We have been migrated from Three to Vodafone. When we switched we were committed 1GB of Data Plan on Infinite $ 45 Cap. After switchover, found that only 500MB data was allowed. Then after several calls, it was then rectified. We were told that 750MB plan has been included as a free of cost. But later found it was charged to us.Again calls were made to vodafone and thought it was fixed but in vain. Recently we upgraded handset on $ 45 infinite plan, and without confirming we were charged $ 480.00 for Handset upfront and also credit which should be applied to our account as per telephonic discussion, were not done. Still we are calling VODAFONE..FAIL) everyday and problem persists.

i just got a sms from my friend, i replied to it and my friend said "why are you replying to this, i sent it 5 weeks ago (at the start of uni semester)"
a 5 week delay!!! 5 WEEKS!!

I legally attempted to unlock my Nokia phone through the vodafone website, costing me $25, and I was provided a bullsh*t unlock code. I entered the code thrice, only to have it permanently block my phone. When I called vodafone they reiterated that the unlock code provided was correct and that the issue would need to be passed to the "unlocking difficulties" guy. They also told me the issue should be resolved in 3 - 4 days. I was sent an email from this guy on July 1, 2011, saying:



Hi,

Thank you for your query regarding IMEI ---------------. We are currently checking your unlocking code. You will receive a reply from us once the code has been verified with the handset manufacturer.

We trust this has addressed your query.

Kind Regards,
Manoj



...on July 9, 2011, I sent an email back saying:



Hi,

Could you please update me on the progress of getting my phone unlocked?
I'm overseas until the end of July and would really like this sorted out soon.

Thank you.

Kind Regards,
Patrick -------



...I received no response. On July 23, 2011, I sent another email saying:



Hello,

Could you PLEASE update me on the progress of my phone unlock!
I was told this was going to take four days. It has been almost a month now. What is going on?
I would also appreciate if you replied to my emails instead of ignoring them.

Thank You.

Kind Regards,
Patrick -------



...still no response. I then sent another email on August 1, 2011, saying:



Okay... So it has been a month now and this is my third email (the other two seem to have been ignored).
WHAT IS THE STATE OF MY PHONE UNLOCK???!!!
IMEI ---------------

Kind Regards,
Patrick -------



...no response. It is now August 9, 2011, and I've heard nothing. I am going to call them. The only reason I had been emailing was because I was in Malaysia. The whole purpose of buying the Nokia phone was to use in Malaysia. Total waste of money. The point of this rant is: if you need any indication on how lacklustre vodafone's approach to email is, the evidence is above. Wankers!

Have struggled with Vodafone's poor network for over two years now. Probably a bit of a sucker to have signed up with another 24month contract. The optimist in me wanting to believe they could be bothered to fix their network in a regional part of Australia.

Funny thing is, around 6 months ago, the coverage got worse! Signal is less than what it used to be, making 3G useless.

Recently (last couple of months) found that the Internet has gone from dog slow to no access at all (or slower than dial up for every 10th page-load attempt).

Rang Vodafone and got told it will cost me over $800 to terminate my contract for a service they apparently think they are providing. Apparently the network issues are to do with my handset and/or sim card... even though I can duplicate the conditions on two different handsets and friends of mine are having a similar experience.

Now postponed while there is an "investigation" launched into my problems. A process which apparently takes "a month or so". The support person could not provide details as to exactly what this investigation entails, but my cynical side tells me a large part of it probably consists of doing absolutely nothing until they can come up with another reason to keep me tagging along and paying that monthly fee for a service they are not providing.

Awesome way to keep customers and improve good will.

Major Incompentence on the part of Network Architects & Admins...
What is going on there..??

I have to flood ping a gateway or DNS server for like 20 secs to wake up a "sleeping switch port" (oversubscribed) to get some level of throughput...

The oversubscription model is not designed with the underlying infrastructure capabilities in mind...

I suspect the underlying debt ratio (financial business model) is heavily reliant on an unrealistic oversubscription model to generate the required revenue streams capable of servicing the underlying debt facility...

What has been experienced to date is typical of short-term improvements (a reduced oversubscription model) in performance which coincidently disappear once media has changed it's focus from Vodafone (VF) and the VF propaganda machine has blurted out how committed it is to customers and network improvements while re-establishing the previous oversubscription ratios because the underlying debt facility requires it...

The root cause is not in the technology, it's in the financial business model that supports VF...

Nearly all business use debt facilities to provide operating cashflows, but, a carrier like Telstra has invested nearly $4 billion in it's 3G network, but they have chosen to offer less value for money to end-users but provide superior network coverage and performance using an oversubscription rate that is aligned to the underlying capabilities of the network platform architecture...

Fix the root cause of the problem and you would win a base of loyal customers committed to a business that is committed to providing performance and value...

Definitely no improvements since the media firestorm of some months ago....

VODAFAIL 100%...

Seriously tearing my hair out!

Live on the North Shore, work in the Inner West, travel through the CBD every day. Patchy coverage everywhere, missed calls because callers can't get through to me, text message alerts that come through hours after a voicemail has been left, signal strength constantly up and down, data service abysmal, paying 69 dollars a month for something I can't use. My partner and most of my contacts on Vodafone but it's embarrassing how many times I have dropped calls, have to make repeated attempts to call.

Six weeks ago, spoke to customer service, described (very diplomatically and politely I might add) all my issues, found them to be reasonably helpful... albeit it was two hours of my life on the phone to a call centre that i'll never get back. Got callbacks and had my phone reset, established that all the stated areas of Sydney had "network issues"... as a consolation, I was offered for $69 to be credited to my account for 3 months.

Reasonable I thought, although ordinarily I'd have no qualms about paying for something that does what its supposed to. Six weeks later, and two bills have been sent out to me, neither with any suggestion that this credit offer has been applied.

So I ring back again... guess what, no record that the conversation ever took place! Brilliant. So, another hour on the phone through various departments and "engineers" all going through the same charade of calling back, resetting, testing, postcode checks, blah blah blah...

Seriously, what's the best thing to do here? Apparently, this time they've requested the credit to my next bill, and on my explicit request, they made a note on my account that the conversation we'd had had taken place and the outcome stated. However, a discounted bill for the next month or two doesn't actually help me, it just eases the pain a little bit. I still have nearly 12 months left on my contract and the cost to buy my way out of it is over $600...

Help!

Back in December 2010, I cancelled my contract with Vodafone because the failed in providing network coverage on repeated occasions, I would have to walk to or stand in parks or streets to get reception at times.
Several Phone conversations prior with Vodafone, I told them the service had to be cancelled without penalising me for ending the contract early.
NOw - 7 months AFTEr the account has been closed - I'm STILL getting monthly Bills.

"Vodafone,
yet again you disappoint me. You've sent be a bill for closing my account when I have had serious discussions with your resolution team regarding the lack of service and coverage that I had been receiving.
As stated in my conversations with VXXXX and subsequent email - 9/11/10 that I was perservering with my account 042X XXX XXX providing you didn't make continuous errors in billing and service, like you did with number 042X XXX XXX. But you did make serious errors in not having signal in my home and poor reception within the CBD - therefore not supplying me with the service you promised in contract.
This is why the service was been cancelled and I do not expect to pay any penalty for exiting this contract.

I was cold-called one saturday morning by someone from Vodaphone when I was still with 3, and told by the rep that Vodaphone had bought 3 and as a result all their customers were being "encouraged" to move to Vodaphone. He had my access details, phone plan details, and full account information, and identified Vodaphone plans that would provide everything plus more that our 3 accounts would. I had concerns about the Vodaphone network since we have several friends who have experienced such poor reception that they have moved to another network - he "looked up" our address and told us our signal would be much better. He also made the transfer sound painless since it would be an internal transfer.
The deal sounded like it was inevitable since 3 and Vodaphone were going to be the same, everyone would have to transfer sometime, and everything would be matched or better than for 3, so I signed up. We received SIM cards in the mail about a week later, and switched over.
We had some initial problems with MMS messages because no one told us that our phone settings needed to be changed for the new network, the staff in our local Vodaphone store fixed this for us.
Whilst in the store I have learned that one of the key features of the 3 deal is not available under Vodaphone - with 3 when you are overseas on a 3 network in that country your calls are considered as though you are in Australia - which was attractive since we travel to the UK and Europe and want that feature, this is apparently not available on Vodaphone.
I have also just been charged over $900 by 3 for leaving thir network without telling them. They will refund it but only after a long and heated discussion with them. Basically Vodaphone salesman sold the deal as though it was one company, and you would take care of the transfer - BUT 3 levy a large charge unless their customers inform them, which I didn't do since I was told that this wasn't necessary. Whilst I will be refunded I will have the inconvenience of no money until it is refunded, and have incurred bank charges for going overdrawn - which is unfair since Vodaphone have caused this.
AND, apart from all the hassle I have had to do (and am still dealing with) to effect a "seamless internal" transfer my wife has such poor receotion in her place of work that her mobile is useless during the day. Since she works in the centre of Perth city approx 50m from your nearest store this doesn't reflect well on your network. I have also experienced far more dropouts and low signals than I ever had with 3.
My main complaint is that your salesteam made it sound like there was no option but to switch, that the switch would be completely painless, and that every aspect of our current contracts would be the same or better. If it had been just a telesales I would have hung up, but they had full access to 3's systems and therefore sounded very official.
As a result of your actions I feel very strongly that we have been lied to, and wish that I had never taken your call. Since your network is worse than 3's in the centre of Perth, South Perth, and Victoria Park it is virtually useless for us. I would like to switch back to 3 - but since it will become Vodaphone in the future this is pointless, and means that we will no have option but to transfer to Telstra.

I would appreciate your comments, an apology for your telesales team, and an assurance that 3 customers will not be contacted in this way again. I have complained to 3 about this and will follow up with them.

No longer in a mess because I am now in Norway. I was Three (Vodafail) customer and wandered why my phone would drop 80% of the calls. Thought I had a lemon HTC Legend. Three techs implied that was the case. I am now using Telenor, a Norwegian carrier, and the problem vanished! Phone problem. Not. Carrier problem - Yes. Took an international move to prove it.

As of 48hrs ago I was smacked with a $900 bill...
I have a $45 unlimited plan with 1gb of data per month. The bill was not for excess calls/sms etc but rather for going over the data limit. The interesting thing is when you work out the $900 in terms of how many mb of data over the limit i was it turns out to be close to 5gb. Even more interesting is the fact that records of data transfer for this month show that in the handfull of times i have accessed the net the data usage was at most 500kb. Then all of a sudden on 10/7/11 there is a massive 1.5 gb spike in data usage - this alone obvsiously exceeds my monthly data limit. However on 3 other occassions there over the next 24 hours I apparently downloaded files as big as 1.8gb.

I have the same applications on my phonw i have had for the last 6mo when i first entered the contract and at no other time have i has issues with data limits. And yet i had vodafone service attendants telling me it was me. I replied with the question of why would I knowingly go over the limit by an extra 4gb? Of course the customer service rep was silent and offered to slash $200 off the hefty $900 bill to which i replied thats a start now lets address the remaining $700. I checked the download records on my phone itself and apart from a 100mb operating system upgrade last month (outside of this billing period) i have no other updates that were downloaded so it wasnt due to automatic software updates either...even if it was, what bloody phone app needs software updates in the order of 4gb? In short the problem has yet to be solved and im waiting for a call back from one of the customer service managers. Any ideas on how to tackle this or any similar stories please let me know. Any help would be greatly appreciated

I'm on the Gold Coast in QLD & have posted here previously. This site was instrumental in allowing me to break my deal with VF to supply wireless internet, which just totally did not work. I followed advice here by making a complaint to the TIO & after 5 weeks of being lied to by every level of VFs staffers the TIO finally forced them to rescind my contract because of undeniable failure to supply the stated product.

This company is fraudulent by still mounting massive advertising campaigns telling consumers they will supply products that they knowingly cannot provide. If you are gullible enough to believe the advertising & sign with them they will make it extremely difficult to cancel the contract for products they do not supply. Their whole method of dealing with consumers is designed to make it extremely difficult to make a complaint.

2 Weeks ago my home mailbox was stuffed with a glossy 10 page advertising brochure from Vodafone with every page full of impossible to believe deals. To verify that the deals they were offering to me directly by putting it through my mailbox I went to the nearest VF retail outlet (7 mins walk away) & asked them directly if I should take up one of the offers of 12GB mobile broadband for $39 a month on a contract would they guarantee me reasonable reception & download speed. They checked the coverage for my house, which is about 900 metres from their shop as the crow flys & said I would NOT get reasonable reception at that time BUT they were planning to UPGRADE their towers in the near future. When I asked why they had produced a brochure that offered me a product they knew they could not supply I was directed to the manager to answer my question.

The manager was a young man with a charming manner who had just returned from a VF seminar (sales pep talk) & was in complete denial that he worked for a company whose main products were deceit & fraud.

Further to this fraudulent company's mail box advertising, this week I received a letter addressed to 'Vodafone Customer' at my PO box mailing address, which consists of a whole A4 page of gobbledegook about how the company is building the most wonderful network of upgraded towers & equipment. This came from Michael Young - Chief Technology Officer - Vodafone Hutchison Australia.

Hiya Michael, thanks for giving me the best laugh I've had since watching Billy Connoly's routine about going to the doctor to have his prostate gland checked --- Ha ha ha ah aha ahahahhaa hhhaaaa ha ha ha!!!!!

Vodafone have stopped doing automatic direct deductions to pay my bill. When I log onto their website to pay the bill manually it says that therre is an error and I should ring up.

As the only reception I can get at home is when I stand in the middle of my backyard in the cold and rain, I sent them an email. I received what appeared to be an automated reply which had nothing to do with my problem. I replied asking them to answer by question but no reply.

I recently sent them a second email via their customer support "contact us" websire but still no reply after two weeks.

I have tried ringing them but gave up after twenty minutes on hold.

I have now lodged a complaint with the TIO.

I lodged a complaint with TIO on the 07/06/2011 regarding not being able to use plan entitlements that I am paying for such as data due to reception issues. TIO then forwarded the complaint to Vodafone on 08/06/2011. I then received a voicemail message from someone at the Vodafone resolutions department on 15/06/2011 stating that they would try and call back later. Again on 16/06/2011 a voicemail was left from the resolutions department stating they would call back, both times a return contact number was not left. As I had missed 2 calls from Vodafone i used the contact us section on the Vodafone website to ask that I be contacted via email. I then waited until 23/06/2011 to be contacted via email only to be annoyed at the fact that the resolutions officer asked for a brief explanation of what my complaint was. I replied with the required information and it has now been 7 days and I have not heard anything back. I think it is very unprofessional that my complaint still has not been responded to

Mobycom rep out right lied to me.. <Removed>!! wont answer my calls!

Billing issues. I was given a credit for the bad service and coverage. Months later they take away my credit and said it was applied by error. Raise complaint to TIO and someone from Vodafone calls me and said they will apply the credit and will show up on next bill. Bill arrives and no credit. Call customer service and they know nothing about it. TIO again. Not only is coverage a problem but so is their billing.

Everything from Vodafone is fail, including the phones they brand. Anything Vodafone is fail. Don't buy a footy sweater that has vodafone on it, something bad will happen.

Vodafone is a virus in many different shapes and forms.

Where do i begin? Each time i call Vodafone i am stuck talking to them for so long that the vodafone drops out (of course). They are useless! THINKING OF USING VODAFONE? WHY NOT ASK A VODAFONE CUSTOMER FIRST and save yourself a lot of frustration!!!!!!!! Ask me if you like, ive suffered their poor excuse for service for years. I hear other peoples private vodafone messages, I have been lied to for 2 years about a problem with my service and billing, only now they admit there has been a problem all along and they were just fobbing me off coz they didnt know how to rectify the billing problem. I am now on hold AGAIN waiting for the consultant to check with his supervisor...he is confused about my bill-if he cant understand it, how can the customer?? MANY MANY complaints about this mob. ISnt it a bit racist of them to have local Australian staff at call centres when you are buying a product or service, but offshore staff when you need any assistance after you r signed up.....hmmmm. check it out... call to the centre and press buttons thru to buy a contract- talk to an aussie. now call back and press buttons for billing or problems....presto-overseas cheap call centre! i think this is a poor and discriminatory process by vodafone.

My vodaphone is my main business line. There have been many times in the last 2 months that I have had not incoming calls from customers for days at a time. I only find out when I next meet up with. I was offered a $10!! of my last bill. I ask you $10 lousy dollars when I am losing out on thousands.
Every time you go to make a call it quite often takes 3/4 times to even get a connection and I am in the Perth metro! I Have been with them for some years and these problems started about a year ago now. I have now just had enough. I am also feed up talking to and Indian call centre too.
Regards Rick Hewson
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