I had network issues and was not recieving phone calls text messages and voicemails although in fairness voicemails some did run late by a week.
I had tried calling but would end up hanging up because after being on hold for 1 hour i would be told that i needed a different department which meant i had to hold for another hour.
Finally I was fed up and told vodafone that I was cancelling and not paying a cancelletion fee as this was a joke they then told nme to try different handsets and a number of different things they sent me text msgs that did not come through.
After all of this they told me they needed to troubleshoot which may take 28 days to figure out what was wrong. The Consultant then told me I had to pay to cancel which i was fuming at so i explained I was happy to continue as long as they were happy to pay consultancy fees per hour for the 18 hours i had been on this particular matter over 3 days and no call backs as promissed.
To cut a long story short after 5 hours I was offered a credit and was advised that because my phone was required for business and i could not wait to cancel and go to another network. Which i did immediately as i was traveling overseas the following day and left my phone with a friend for the time i was away and took theres so i did not have network problems.
I explained to the consultant that if i had to call back i needed to be compensated if none of the above were actioned. I had even exagerated my fees at $5000 per hour and told them that I would charge this for the hours i had spent previously and the hours I would send to sought it out.

After all of this I sure enough got charged to cancell and no credits were applied. I then called back and went to a supervisor who said i would not be credited but he would do me the favour and wave my cancellation fees. I explained to him that as per my mention that i would be requesting a $100,000 + compensation for my time and services. he then said that is impossible I then said well you wont apply any of the credits that were originally agreed to so put me through to the person who I spoe with originally and this super visor who I wont name refused saying he did not believe me that this had been mentioned and i was lucky that i he was crediting me the cancellation fee. I finally hung up as I was getting nowhere.
I then called the next day spoke to the person i originally spoke with for 5 hours on november 2nd mind you it took an hour to get through again. During this I conversation i had to loose it as he was going on about it was my fault and that he could no longer credit me as i cancelled on his advice but he would wave the fee. Finally I advised him of our compensation fee and he said he would wave the entire amount owing but could not get me any form of compensation.

Yours sincerly
Mr 30 hours+

Where do I start?
There are 2 significant Vodafails I have experienced in the last 5 years. Not impressed:

1. I have had my Vodafone mobile number since I joined the service back in 1997. It is my only number I use for business purposes as I am self employed. However between 5 and 7 years ago, a number of clients and friends commented that they had tried to call me but been put through to a guys phone instead. It was confirmed when on one of these occasions my friend asked him where I was, and he replied "Oh, I've been getting calls for this girl for at least 5 years". As soon as my friend actually managed to get hold of me and tell me, I rang Vodafone to confront them about why another customer had MY number and did they realise I had probably lost business because of it!
Well the charming girl advised me that she would disconnect me!!! In the end I don't know what happened to the 'other guy', but what they did was to disconnect my service for a few hours and then reconnect it (after I had to call them to do it). I was never given an apology once. All this whilst on a $149 business plan per month. DISGUSTING.

2. My husband and I purchased the wireless internet because it was such a good deal. Shame it had zero reception. It would take up to 6 hours to load a single internet page, like hotmail login. The poor guy I spoke to was so sheepish when he admitted that Vodafail had failed to actually supply enough infrastrusture to support the demand. We took it back and got our refund.

I am still with Vodafone due to the call costs, however my husband and I will shortly be changing to Optus so we can save money on a package deal with our home and internet.

I ended a contract with Vodafone 3 years ago. I did not make a fuss about their poor service at the time or the bad reception. Instead I simply took my business elsewhere. I recently applied for a loan and found that Vodafone had put a default on my credit report for a bill that I didn't and shouldnt have received and so the Bank would not approve the loan despite my good income and otherwise credit history. I have sinced hired a credit report repair company and they are fighting to have the default removed from my credit file as well as reporting Vodafone to regulatory bodies

Constant call drops. Phone CONSTANtLY searching for signal. No internet when 3G signal is showing multiple bars. Totally unable to get a solid signal anywhere around Central Station.
I am SICK TO DEATH of being lied to by Vodafone support if and when I can actually reach someone. Now they've released a "script" to their vendors on how to deal with complaints
http://images.smh.com.au/file/2011/01/21/2144076/vodafoneqa.pdf
And they have the hide to try to say their infinite plans aren't tied to this mess. They still haven't learnt to tell the truth

No coverage in my house except when lying on the couch in a awkward position!

Usual story - locked out of my vodafone, sent a new password which didn't work. Phoned customer service and gave up after waiting for 35minutes. Sorted by email after 3 days. Still haven't received $50 credit as advertised when I started my new plan in spite of being told it had been applied to my account a month ago.

I changed to vodafail in early December and was told because of where I live/ worked I would be fine coverage wise!!!! What a lie I don't get any reception in my work building and I get hardly any at home. and talk about call drop outs i don't think Ive ever had a full conversation to someone that I haven't had to call back. They lied. When I went to a Vodafone store to speak to someone to get some help they told me it wasn't their problem and to call customer service. I told him that it was upto a 3 hour wait and didn't have that kind of time and he told me "They are the Breaks" I will never use them again as soon as my contract is up which is in 2 years unfortunately I will be going to Telstra. I should have listened in the first place and gone with them what a mistake!!!!!

My partner and I changed to Vodafone less than two weeks ago. As soon as we joined, we have immense difficulties accessing the internet, even in CBD Melbourne. To top it off, my partners iphone, which was less than 1 week old shut down. We went to two seperate Vodafone stores, had to wait half an hour both times to be served by customer service, who tried unsuccessfully to solve the problem. We went home and tried to reboot the phone, still not working. We told one representative three times that we had tried all these things and then were told that they couldn't help us, wasn't their problem and it would easily be fixed. I mentioned to them that it was a faculty product and I was told that the phone was given to us in working order, implying that we had broken the phone. To top it off we were then told that we had to contact Apple ourselves to sort out the problem, all this within two weeks of joining Vodafone. We went to Apple, service was FANTASTIC and within 10mins, were told that the phone had major hardware malfunction and had a new phone!!! Vodafone, you should take a leaf out of their book. Vodafone, shame shame shame.

My problems are:

1) delayed messages and voicemail even to other vodafone phones sometimes days late. As well as receiving messages all at once instead of throughout the day when they were sent.

2) poor service and call drop outs especially within my house. I've tested this besides other phones with other providers who have full coverage and watched my service decline to zero. My previous telco had no problems with call drops outs or service within my house.

3)fluctuating 3G coverage especially within the city.

4)unhelpful staff when contacted either through the call centre or within a shop.

5) Question really - has anyone questioned the amount of information collected when applying for a contract?? I didn't have to supply as much information for a mortgage.

Thanks for organising the website! I now know I too am not alone and will consider other telcos as this seems ....are there equivalent websites for them???

Frustrated by continued poor coverage, drop outs and slow SMS/email messaging I emailed Vodaphone with a very detailed list of my concerns and a request for advice on how best to deal with these concerns and what options were available - in return I received a standard form response full of jargon and not the least helpful. I replied with words to this effect 3 days ago and have heard nothing back. Here's the form response I was given - can you decipher it? Does it help ease your pain?

Vodafone's GSM (2G) network covers up to 94.52%* of the Australian population. Our GPRS (2.5G) network covers 92% of the places you live and work in Australia. 3G available to 94% of the Australian population. Capital cities and larger regional centres operate on UMTS 2100MHz and smaller regional centres on UMTS 900MHz. 3G services are available in Vodafone's 3G areas - compatible device required. In metropolitan and some regional areas, Vodafone's 3G network operates on UMTS 2100Mhz. In smaller regional areas with Vodafone coverage, Vodafone's 3G network operates on UMTS 900Mhz. All 3G 900Mhz devices available from Vodafone are 2100Mhz compatible. However, not all 2100Mhz devices are 900Mhz compatible. Customers with 2100Mhz devices that are not 900Mhz compatible will experience GPRS (or Edge, where available) coverage in 3G 900Mhz areas. Slower speeds can be expected outside Vodafone's Mobile Broadband areas. Individual customer experience may vary - many factors affect access, capacity and speed. See www.vodafone.com.au/coverage for more details.

Important: While the highest standards are applied in preparing coverage maps, 100% mapping accuracy cannot be guaranteed.

Frustrated by continued poor coverage, drop outs and slow SMS/email messaging I emailed Vodaphone with a very detailed list of my concerns and a request for advice on how best to deal with these concerns and what options were available - in return I received a standard form response full of jargon and not the least helpful. I replied with words to this effect 3 days ago and have heard nothing back. Here's the form response I was given - can you decipher it? Does it help ease your pain?

Vodafone's GSM (2G) network covers up to 94.52%* of the Australian population. Our GPRS (2.5G) network covers 92% of the places you live and work in Australia. 3G available to 94% of the Australian population. Capital cities and larger regional centres operate on UMTS 2100MHz and smaller regional centres on UMTS 900MHz. 3G services are available in Vodafone's 3G areas - compatible device required. In metropolitan and some regional areas, Vodafone's 3G network operates on UMTS 2100Mhz. In smaller regional areas with Vodafone coverage, Vodafone's 3G network operates on UMTS 900Mhz. All 3G 900Mhz devices available from Vodafone are 2100Mhz compatible. However, not all 2100Mhz devices are 900Mhz compatible. Customers with 2100Mhz devices that are not 900Mhz compatible will experience GPRS (or Edge, where available) coverage in 3G 900Mhz areas. Slower speeds can be expected outside Vodafone's Mobile Broadband areas. Individual customer experience may vary - many factors affect access, capacity and speed. See www.vodafone.com.au/coverage for more details.

Important: While the highest standards are applied in preparing coverage maps, 100% mapping accuracy cannot be guaranteed.

Signed up in November on a plan. Was not advised that the Infinity plans (which would have suited my requirements a lot better) were being released the following day! Exceeded the cap I signed up to but was not informed. Called Vodafone and upgraded to an Infinity plan (more expensive per month than original plan but suited me better). Sales rep agreed that the cost of the calls over and above my previous cap would be credited as I had agreed to sign up to a new more expensive plan. Bill arrived - credit not applied! Emailed Vodafone 3 times and got an autoresponse each time. Tried calling 3 times but was on hold for 15 mins or more each time. Vodafone then barred my calls. That day I eventually got through and spent 1 hour 10 mins on phone with agent who struggled to understand the issue. With respect to the agent, she was new to the job and clearly did not have the appropriate training. However this was extrememly frustrating as there was no supervisor available for me to talk to but she could not help me. Eventually persuaded her to unbarr the phone and give me a commitment to have a call back from somebody that could help within 24 hours. No callback! Received a text 5 days later saying that my "billing issue had been resolved". Also received an email to tell me my account was overdue - again with an amount that was overcharged! Phoned Vodafone again and got through to an agent after 20mins on hold. After 30 mins call he eventually agreed to credit the charges as was originally agreed 7 weeks earlier. What a struggle and ultimately I am listed as the customer who did not pay on time!

After spending 3 hours on hold to transfer to customer service, I was advised that the csr was going to transfer me to a department that could assist me. She transferred me to a call q that was closed. I was alos told that move form post pay to pre pay that I would need a new sim card which I bought and it was all a load of rubbish, didn't need to spend $30 at all. Dropped calls alot in 3070 and overall crap service.

had so much difficulty sending emails with data/file attachments, it took two days until I went to a store and ask the people there, how they can solve the issue of sending a simple email with just one photo attachment.

the frustrating question from the store staff was, "have you tried several times?". i went beserk and flabbergasted about the arrogance and the tone of her question, having explained to here that it's been two days that i had been trying to.

eventually, she took my iphone unit and did something without explanation whatsoever, and handed it back to me and said, "done"

after all the trouble, i asked for the supervisor. i demanded a simple answer to the store supervisor about the issue on connectivity. she replied, "having merged with "3", "3" customers take precedent on having access to the 3G network and she does not know why?

i just find it really irritating and at the same time hilarious that "we" as customers are just being treated like "kids" and "idiots" about the answers you are getting from them

In December, I have to always watch that my mobile is connected because the message "USIM is inactive..." came up at least once a day and I have to restart my phone to restablish connection to the network.
I am applying for jobs and I don't know yet how much damage has been done but I've had to explain many times to relatives and friend why they couldn't reach me when they called.

Vodafone's incompetent, lazy and make-things-up-as-they-go but can speak english call centre in India set up when their countryman ran Vodafone, will always be a problem for this telco.

NRMA Promo: 3 months free + 10% discount every month thereafter. So, I sign up 2 mobiles. Big mistake.

Absolutely shocking coverage.

Then, my first bill is $205!!!! What happened to the 3 months free?!!

Get on to customer service...no there was no such deal. Told him I have an email confirmation...got told I was lying!!!!!

after promising coverage at my girlfriends house in Freeing within 3 months... we are 1 year later and still no improvement. there is no signal there at all. Their promises were the reason we both signed up (and that we could get free calls to each other).

After a lot of pressure they released my girlfriend from her contract because of the lack of coverage and she paid out $100 for the phone which she was happy to do. They refuse to release me because even though i made it clear when getting the phone that i would be up at her house a lot of the time (2-3 days a week) i didnt put her address on the form i put my address because SHOCK HORROR THATS WHERE I LIVE!!!!!!

They refuse to let me out of the contract because i didnt list her address even though vodafone misrepresented what they were telling me when i signed up.(on a side note they also lied to my dad about coverage when he signed up 6 business phones with them).

The guy on the phone said "if i go to the shop, find the person who said this to me then call back and get them to admit that they lied to me when i signed up, then i could be released from the contract" WTF!!!!!!

Anyway, added to that i am now on my 3rd iphone because of signal loss and dropped calls which were blamed on the phone, i spent a month paying for the phone and data package for the iphone whist using some crappy basic nokia without internet on it. It was quite obviously a problem with the network not the phone.


Anyway the ombudsman said i have a case and is now investigating.

I have been a Vodafone AU customer for over 2.5 yrs...

Generally, I would rate their overall performance as limited to poor...

Initially I had issues with 3G USB modem (provided by VF) connectivity, which would successfully establish a connection to the local tower, but then not forwarding any traffic (unable to ping VF DNS or WWW IP's) beyond the gateway (but was still able to ping the 3G gateway address)...

Logged an ongoing fault (problem) with VF (got (Ciaro of all places) which got followed up initially with a call but then several mths later, once again with a call requesting authority to close the job..?? (No resolution and no info even suggesting VF understood the issue)

I find the 3G voice network also randomly drops calls in the Brisbane CBD distrcit, most often when I am busy and least need it..!!

Generally my "gut" feel on Vodafone is that they have the potential and competence to run a high-end reliable network, but the level oversubscription model employed across their infrastructure platforms for voice and data is less than acceptable...

The underlying cause of this I strongly believe to be the VF business model...
VF AU (perhaps internationally) runs on the premise of an enormous debt facility, so the business model essentially pushes the capability boundaries of the underlying infrastructure (+ traffic engineering QoS/Tos) models) to ensure maximum revenue streams support this debt facility, thus providing end-users of the consolidated network services a poor, unreliable quality of technical service alongside a complete disregard for the supporting services, again, the employment of automated IVR systems etc to minimise staffing overheads, why, again to reduce the debt facility....

At the end of the day, I think VF actually can competently provide the services they claim to sell, but they need to investigate their underlying business models and the underlying technical infrastructure to find a "happy medium" that allows them to support the debt facility they require to offer services (which may need to be reduced) while providing consumers of the services a reliable and satisfactory level of service...

I am an ICT Analyst with aN Network Engineering background in Telecommunications and would be happy to work with the executives at VF to investigate and analyse the current VF business metrics and identify strategies to return VF Service Consumption into an uplifting experince for their consumer base..!!!

My name is Morgen Lofting and can be contacted on www.likedin.com.au...

Have a great day...

Families and friends contacted me on FB, complaining I never replied to their SMS and my phone is always OFF everytime he tried to reach me. Guess what I always replied, it just doesn't get to them thanks to Vodafone. Also, my phone is never OFF, it's always ON 24/7. If only I'm not on the contract, I would've switch to another network.

1.I have been a Vodafone customer since June 2009, after switching from my employer's Telstra system due to work downturn. I arranged for a $29 a month prepaid account using my existing mobile phone, and for it to be automatically recharged from my credit card account every month. The automatic payment has not occured 75% of the time, and I have only been aware of this when "call failed" appeared on the mobile's screen. My wife and I were stuck in Europe due to the volcanic ash cloud and I couldn't get my account credited because I didn't have the right credit card with me to do it. When I have asked Vodafone why the system to automatically recharge hasn't worked, I have been given many different tales - system failure, credit balance was too low, it won't happen again, etc.
2. In June 2010 I took up a "special offer" through NRMA and chose to buy a $49 a month account (less 10% for NRMA members) which included a Nokia 97 mini. Howevere, the next day, I realised that I don't need a new phone or the extra services. I rang Vodafone to cancel my order. They said that was fine, but I had to return the phone in a special 'return' bag which they would send me. Despite many calls (most of which I give up on after waiting up to an hour) and a visit to the local Vodafone store, no 'return bag' arrived, so I sent the unopened package back to Vodafone. Then the billing started - $49 a month. I returned the bills indicating that I didn;t have a Vodafone supplied mobile. Another bill, then another then another - all returned annotated to say I didn't have a Vodafone supplied mobile. Then the debt collection agency wrote saying I owed Vodafone $1324 and unless I paid legal action would occur. I went yet again to the local Vodafone store where I was told that because I had cancelled my account I had to pay a cancellation fee ($900?)- but the store could not resolve the problem, it had to be done by phone. More calls and hours spent on hold. Eventually my solicitor told me to send a "Cease and Desist Notice" to Vodafone and to use this in any legal proceedings that Vodafone might try to bring against me. That worked. I have received no more bills or threats of debt recovery.

We a business in melbournes Western Suburbs. We are approximately 8KM from the CBD. We swapped over to vodafone in the month of october 2010. We have 6 phones connected to this service. We have lost business (due to the amount of drop outs), been abused (not getting back to people as we dont always get their voicemail), had extra expenses (due to people not being able to contact us) etc etc. I can really go on and on and on. It is an absolute joke that this is allowed to happen. The only solution i see is to change over to a new carrier. Vodafone says we are on a contract and therefore we cant. My reply to them is that they have not fulfilled their side of the contract as they are not supplying the service they promised.

First of all, thank you for setting up this website!

I had heard that Vodafone is relatively poor in terms of national coverage. Yet, because they seemed to offer the best value for money and the fact that I live in central Sydney, I decided to at least give them a go. In June last year I went to a Crazy John's shop (only sells Vodafone deals) and enquired about Vodafone's coverage. I was shown a map (same map that is available on Vodafone's homepage), where it showed that there was 100% coverage of the area where I lived. Just in case, I asked what would happen if their map turned out to be "wrong" in terms of coverage. I was told that all I needed to do was to bring the phone back in store and it would be cancelled. As soon as I got near our house in Watsons Bay in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney the reception got worse and worse... eventually, there was NO reception at all. Disappointed I drove back to the shop but was told that the cancellation process was a bit complicated... They sent me home and asked me to call Vodafone's engineers from my landline and explain my situation to them and only then Crazy John's could refund me. I spoke to three or four different people and no one really had a desire to help out. In fact, they were adamant that I was wrong...For instance, one guy said "No, you must be wrong, our maps show that there is perfect reception where you are". I gave up, went back to the shop and told them that I was not keen on spending the rest of the day on hold with Vodafone's customer service or with their engineers who did not want to help out anyway. Eventually, we agreed that Crazy John's would make the calls for me. About two weeks later, I still had not heard anything and I checked with Crazy John's and was told that they had "forgotten" to make the call... They did make the call and Vodafone eventually sent out a satchel for me to return the phone to them in. In the instructions it said in bold text and capital letters: make sure you remove the battery before you return the phone. I had bought an iPhone and was a bit perplexed as getting the battery out is not that straightforward. I found some youtube videos on how to remove the battery but the whole process seemed a bit dodgy. By accident I happened to read the instruction booklet and in the small print I found that if you remove the battery you cannot return the phone. I phoned Vodafone again and asked them what I should do. I was told not to remove the battery after all. I went to Australia post the next day thinking that finally I could get this whole thing out of the way. They asked me if I had removed the battery from the phone that I was sending to Vodafone. I told them what I was told by Vodafone. Australia Post refused to accept the satchel as it is against their safety rules to send phones with batteries inside. I went back home, called Vodafone again but was told that I needed to use the satchel they had sent me if I wanted to cancel the contract. The next day I went to a (different) Australia Post office and I actually lied about the content of the satchel... It did not feel good, particularly as I had to put my signature on the paperwork. It was sent away to Vodafone and I was very relieved when, a few days later, I found out that Vodafone had received it. Then, about two weeks later, I received a bill for the full amount of a month's usage. I can see how things get wrong when everything is automated so I simply called them and asked what the bill was for. They apologised and were actually surprisingly helpful that time. They told me that I did not have to pay anything as it was cancelled and that they were going to send a new bill that stated that I owed them zero dollars. The next bill, however, showed a new amount which was even higher than the first one :-)...It took another two weeks before everything was sorted out.

This was a something that should have been a very simple process. I am convinced that a lot of people would have given up half way through, which I guess, is how Vodafone makes a fair bit of money at the end of the day. I spent so much time both on the phone, by e-mail and in the store that I have become completely turned off by Vodafone forever. I will never, ever go near Vodafone's products again and I will continue to recommend friends not to have anything to do with them.

1) They use false advertising by saying they have full coverage of areas where they clearly don't. This is a serious offence that ACCC should look into.

2) They advertise a simple cancellation process, which is nothing but an administrative headache, which you need to spend several hours on to get to the bottom with.

3) Some of their customer service reps were nice and helpful (including staff at Crazy John's) while others were completely uninterested in taking any accountability.

I find it amazing that Vodafone spends so much money on advertising and sponsorship (e.g. the Ashes) instead of spending it on a good product and customer services!? Word of mouth travels far.

i am also an unfortunate person lied to when sold vodafone/3 wireless braodband, working in Melbournes cbd, at best its at dial up speed, so how they can say this is broadband, evades me, the drop out are regular and consistent, and dont bother even trying during school holidays, the vodafone wireless network cant handle basic streaming media, unles you like a 5 minute show to take 25mins to watch, stop start, these peopjamale are selling a product they simply cant or are not prepared to deliver

Inconsistent/poor coverage that constantly fluctuates. Poor data performance. Dropped calls, messages not sending, messages delayed, calls not coming through. Was lied to about my coverage upon signing contract. The usual tripe.

Vodaphone charged me for downloading games that I didn't download. When I called to enquire (called 3 times over a period of a week), they transferred me from person to person (all of whom struggled to completely understand what I was saying) and refused to provide a refund. Nonetheless, it was promised that once they worked out whether or not there was a problem (as if I was lying), they would call me back and credit my next bill. This was in September 2009. I have not heard from them since.

Being charged for spam txts to my phone that I did NOT subscribe for and being charged $52 a month for!!! Unfortunately I didn't go through my bill until 2 motnhs later so have $104 to pay for this rubbish. Smarmy female at call centre told me even though this is a known problem throughout Vodafone, that I was not just an isolated case, I would still have t pay for it!!! I told her I never subscribed to these horoscopes txts nor have ever used them, yet got them every week which I would just delete when they came through - never opened them. I was informed that I obviously did sign up to them and I'm telling her in no uncertain terms I never once hooked into any crap like that, nor asked to get it constantly therefore, I need to be credited the amount. The unhelpfulness, the smarmy attitude and at the end of waiting....'have a lovely day.' They told me this is a big problem....yet they told me I still have to pay it...WTF??? Seriously? I have since talked to a friend who is a Voda account manager who is getting out of the company as is sick of all the crap she puts up with and she is highly disgusted in how my issue was dealt. They inform me they don't do the 2212 horoscopes and I said I don't care who does it, It's Vodafone who sends me the bill so I take up the gripe with them. I am still so angry with this that it hasn't been resolved, they keep telling me its a service I obviously wanted (isn't the customer always right??), and basically insinuating I am lying. Had an absolute gutsful.

Was with vodafone for a few years. Fed up with shoddy waiting times to talk to customer service and bad coverage, I transferred my number to Telstra. Changed my address with them for final bill. My mail was forwarded for 12months in July 2005 and another 3 in July 06. I cancelled in Sept 06 with Vodafone. For 4 months, they were texting me asking me to rejoin Vodafone with special offers, promotions. In Jan, 07 I opened a nasty letter from a collections co saying I had been defaulted and to pay $176.00. When I rang Vodafone for a please explain and asking why Vodafone had not taken any measure to ring my phone or text me if they could take the time to send me promotional texts and why my address had not been changed when I expressly told them the response was in a foreign accent "Madame, we cannot ring everybody" I was really pissed and tied numerous time with their collections co to have my default removed all to no avail. I got a letter from them stating I had paid but it was too late for my credit file! It has come up in any loan I have applied for an I have been knocked back by my own bank recently for a home loan as they said it was the Vodafone default. It's always Vodafone" my manager stated and shook her head. I rang PDR last year (their collections co)6 times in October. The issue is being looked at with our legal team madame. We will call you tomorrow" Each time no one has called! Another bank has approved our loan as they have seen the sense in my explanation which has always been extensive, emabarrassing and unecessary if they had just got their act together in the first place! They should be shut down. I'm a nurse, mum of four, have no other default ever on my file! They have caused me so much grief, I feel like suing! Vodafone is VODAPATHETIC! Thanks for listening and this great website. Louise.

After account access troubles for the past month, mysterious password changes, four digit pin changes and my address changing to the house over the road from me on my account I suspected either sheer incompetence or foul play regarding my account. Once I heard about the information leaks I was sure my details had been tampered with so I called Vodafone to confront them about it.

The first operator told me there is no way that can happen, even though I had called the number Vodafone supplied on their website if you suspected your account details had been compromised. I explained that my password was changing almost everyday, locking me out of my account and I had to call and have it reset. Without even looking he told me that my account had not been compromised so I asked to speak to his manager. He transferred me to someone else who without even asking my name told me that my account was not one of the accounts that had been leaked. I told him that I had been advised that any misleading info regarding this matter would result in criminal investigations by the TIO and he transferred me to someone else.

I knew I had someone who meant business this time because I got an Australian on the phone. I explained my situation to them once again. With a few quick key strokes the operator informed me that my account HAD been compromised! He then offered me a months worth of credit to my account! A whole months worth for getting calls from seedy foreign sales people a dozen times a night trying to sell me anti virus software because they have detected my copy of windows is at risk... I own a Mac... I had a copy of Vodafone's privacy statement prepared and read it to him, the WHOLE thing. He then asked how I would like to proceed. I told him that I was mislead regarding the service I would receive on my phone in the first place, lied to about getting full reception at my house and place of work only to get home and NEVER have any - Contract breach on their part number one... I also told them that they illegally sold my information to a third party for which now I am harassed constantly - Contract breach on their part number two.

He then tried to tell me that I am in a legally binding contract and any attempt to nullify the contract would lead to dishonor fees and charges. So I read the letter the TIO had given me to him stating that since the commencement of the contract I had fulfilled my terms completely - paying accounts on time. However the provider of the account HAD NOT fulfilled the terms of the contract in regards to false information and coercion of the contract, failure to deliver the service promised in the contract and suspicion of criminal activity in regards to information provided for use solely by the contractor.

He went down kicking and screaming, but finally voided the contract. A week later though I get a bill demanding I pay an exit fee which I was advised to forward to the officer from the TIO investigating my case. The exit fee is more than I would have paid for my phone and my contract upfront and I have also received an outstanding account bill for minus $976.88 which I have 14 days to pay!

Unbelievable. How do I pay minus $976.88 before I am reported to debt collectors???

I would like to express some concerns. Why are people labelling this site as highly biased? It's plainly obvious that it is a site for unheard or distressed customers to complain and vent their anger here rather than at Vodafone staff. Words here have some minor profanity, but it is only what usual angry people have to say. Place yourself in their shoes, wouldn't you be just as angry with swearing involved? If this site makes customers feel better, then obviously, by using the how to complain section, they can get their problem resolved with less anger and more respect, since their anger was already posted here as a complaint. That's how I see it. However, direct or indirect racism is not Australian, so that is not right. Do not be racist here or anywhere else. Why? Because we are all humans and are a single species that have a majority of DNA exactly the same as each other. Being racist is like saying dislikes to physical limitations of evolution. We are different in ethnic backgrounds, which helps us distinguish each others' uniqueness. If people all had the same body , the same customs, and the same identity, many people would have trouble recognising each other and people would complain again. So appreciate our differences as multicultural Australians. Implying a comment about verbal accents or communication issues, which would otherwise be taken as racist, should be alright under the condition that it has a reason and explanation as to how it made your issue hard to resolve. If people want to really express how magnificent, excelling, fantastic, and marvellous Vodafone is, then go to their website forums or give them a call telling them how much you love them. They would really need that support right now. Perhaps you could create a Vodafine or Vodafantasy fan site to show your biased support for Vodafone, to make them happier in these dark times. Hopefully, people don't immediately complain about this useful post.

I signed up for the first year half price plan. Get my first bill and charged full price. It took me the entire day to get through to their call centre. When i did get through they were really condescending telling me i didn't understand my bill. When i finally convinced them that i was being overcharged they transferred me to differing departments. When i asked one person why he was transferring me, he hung up on me. Eventually went in store (told to vodafone myself because they can't do it for me) when i refused and insisted they call on my behalf (and yes they do have a direct line for store staff members to contact there call centre - they admitted it after originally lying and saying they didn't). Still don't have my money back after my second bill, so have lodged formal complaint with the ombudsman, which i strongly recommend anyone with a problem with Vodafone to do so. The more formal complaints lodged, the more time, effort and money vodafone has to spent to sort it out it might just give them the desire to fix the problems rather than signing ppl to contracts and forgetting about them!

I won't even get into it. However it is quite sobering to note that no customer had stood up for this company known as Vodafone. Often we have both sides, one that hates and another probably likes. This website highlights that is company is tragically not liked by anyone. No one stood up for Vodafone at all. This means this company is really quite hated and not welcomed to do business here. Where are all your loyal customers? Where are their support for you Vodafone? Sadly whatever you advertise, it is far from clear that anyone in Australia likes you at all. You best go back to Europe where you belong.
You are just a profit gouging and would stop at nothing to make a fat profit, including lying, resorting to unethical business practice and misleading the public. And on top of that you train yours staff to be rude and act in contempt towards customers who rightly deserve every cent of what you have ripped off from them. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, first prize winner of worse business of the year.

Howdy all.

I live in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. A small town in the eastern suburbs. I recently was looking into getting a phone plan with vodaphone and so I checked their website for phone coverage to make sure, sure enough the website said FULL 3G reception 100%. So I thought cool, but because I of this website went to get a pre-paid simcard to just check it.

Guess what, NO coverage ANYWHERE in the street I live in, let alone the house.

I feel cheated out of 2$ and pissed that I was lied too and they advertising was an absolute lie. Something should be done about this.

That is all.

This is a follow on to my post #12532 earlier in the week & relates to a totally unsolicited deal that VF sent me with tempting extras to switch from 3 wireless Internet to them with no more to pay. Basically they looked at my nearly ending 3 account & sent me an offer too good to refuse, which turned out to be too good to be true!

I thought I had sorted my problems with VF when a nice young (sounding) Aussie "account executive" (What does that mean, somebody who applied for the low rate job & was accepted to make coffee & occasionally answer the phone?) agreed to cancel my 1 day old deal because it just totally did not work at all. The deal would be canceled when I returned the modem & software disc by way of a reply paid satchel, which would be sent to my address within 3 days.

No return satchel arrived to date but today, about a week later, I received a call from a nice Indian lady named Poonam & she tells me they want me to check the hardware again before they actually send me the return address satchel because I should give it one more try with their technical dept. My reply was that I am an IT expert & have thoroughly tested their hardware & software & I have determined that neither are the problem, VF just does not have the coverage & the signal is too weak for me to get any kind of acceptable Internet connectivity. This is on top of waiting hours in the LARA queues for days just to get the original guy to agree to cancel my deal.

Anyway, I know live in hope that Poonam can actually arrange for me to back their gear so I can be totally rid of anything to do with this maladjusted, malfunctioning company.

I'll keep you posted on the end result, in the meantime as it's late afternoon I'll have a couple of drinks to dull the PAIN!

I'm another disgruntled customer putting up with almost no signal and slow data speeds. I'm in the process of leaving Vodafone, which we all should do, should we have these pathetic problems for weeks unfixed. The TIO will need to help us get out of Vodafone's illegal contracts. - @ Vodafail.com/mod: As suggestive feedback for extra useful statistics on Vodafail.com, I think there should be a rating bar of 0-100%, in a section known as 'Rate Your Pain', on this site so we can rate how angry or upset we are. That section should include check boxes for if we are still angry and if the problem remains unresolved. It should also include a dropdown box for choosing how long we have been having this pain (days, months, weeks, etc) and how long it took us to cancel our contracts, accounts, etc. A rudenessmeter may be necessary for us to rate how rude Vodafone has been depending on the situation. The 'On Hold Again?' section should include a dropdown box for us to choose the number of times the call centre has cut us off per day, the number of times our calls dropped per day when we call other people, the speed rate we are currently experiencing for 3G (0-1500+ Kbits per sec, for 3G anything below 300 Kbits per sec or about 38 KBytes per sec is just pathetic), and a textbox for us to briefly note the lame responses the call centre employees give us (for eg. 'We have technicians at the site and the network issues will be fixed by the end of this week.' These comments can be placed into categorised list, like the topic categories in Share Your Pain. It would be amusing to see which responses are most often heard from the call centres daily). A voluntary textbox for noting down the suburb where the customers are currently experiencing network issues may be necessary for further informative feedback, so we can see where the problems are and perhaps avoid those areas. A lyingmeter may be necessary for us to flag how many times the call centre or VHA staff lied based on us reporting their usual responses as is, in both the textbox for sharing call centre employee responses and the Share Your Pain section. All this may seem like we are doing an audit for Vodafone's network problems (which I strongly think Vodafone should be doing themselves), but if we actually provide enough information here, we can better inform eachother as well as other people about these issues. I believe the Share Your Pain is an excellent section for us to express our complaintful opinions and experiences of the Vodafone issues. The call centre is like a brick wall. At least here, there ARE Australian multicultural human species that can understand our problems. Cheers.

1. Impossible to keep track of spend on contract. Sometimes takes up to three days to update which often means I go over my cap and charged ludicrous amounts.
2. When I tried to arrange an installment plan to pay off one such excessive bill they took it out in one installment and sent me overdrawn.
3. Constant dropouts.
4. Useless useless telephone helpline.
5. Even more useless internet site. Fails to recognise my password, fails to recognise my new password that they just texted me and when I finally get online to check my account I get an unknown error and am told to call the useless useless useless telephone helpline.
When I am lying on my deathbed pondering my life, I will think of all the hours I have wasted dealing with Vodafone!.
(Didn't realise they were Poms. I'm Irish so now everything makes sense...)

Poor reception soon as I leave town, reception so bad and unpredictable that I have a telstra prepaid as a backup incase I break down. Totally hate Lara, she needs a punch in the ovaries, as a female if the human species relied on Lara to reproduce the human species would disappear. And to top it off Vodafail does not care if their network goes down for days at a time, when my contract's up I am porting my number to Telstra.

It has been a month of utterly shit 3G/2G signal and speed where I live, east of cbd. (Sigh) I can't reach vodafone support properly. Their website states nothing about the state of network towers in SA. Lara is a retard and not helping. Vodafone has not done anything about their retrograding infrastructure. Vodafone makes many customers feel like crap, worse than or as other telcos. Nigel Dews is doing shit all. (my general assumption and opinion) The infinite caps are making the network even more obliterated. I hope potential customers don't switch to vodafone. The indian call centre is for the vodafone in india, not australia. Tossing our calls overseas to india will not save costs, but cause more pain. Vodafone Australia seriously needs an Australian call centre. They also need to abide by the law and provide a service that works when they sell products to new customers. They also must promptly fix a service should it be broken nationwide. Vodafone Australia ultimately needs to go through and revise all 12000+ complaints on this site. They also need to revise through the plethora of issue threads in Whirlpool forums. However, they are ignorant. I don't think vodafone australia has any contact with their indian call centre. That call centre is a sidelined relic. The merge with 3 has not shown any positives since both provide the generally similar plans. Trying to gain market share by merging is just pathetic. If VHA think they can combine their $millions cash investment into their network to alleviate expenditure, then I don't see any evidence of them 'improving' their network over the past year. Nigel Dews, can you please tell us what on earth is going on with the company's network services. (he denies any issue at all) 15000+ customers signup to class action lawsuit and this vodafail site launches skyhigh into the heavens. (he automatically apologises with an attitude like Lara and tries to gain good public relations) We find that he lied to us that the network is all fine but its actually fkd. We wonder why vodafone has done nothing about the network. (he too, remains silent, aside from his dogmatic statement that the network will be upgraded and the service will be even better apparently.) I guess those 'upgrades' are disrupting the services so badly to the point many customers find it unusable. The CEO seriously needs to review the company's mission statements if there are any left. This failing network is taking long to recover and any upgrades should not sever our services for extended periods. And Vodafone's slogan 'power to you' needs revising. These days it seems that Vodafone has the power to do nothing. Luckily we customers have the power to leave. However, vodafone has the power to hinder us from leaving. Luckily again, with the help of TIO we have the power to leave without penalty. All I can say is thanks vodafone, for giving us extraordinary powers. It would be even better if they conserved their power for resolving their service...nuff said.

Upgraded my handset with Vodafone over the phone, was told that to insure the new handset I would need to go and visit a store after I had received it.. I did so, and was promptly told that I was no longer eligible for insurance as that needed to be arranged at time of purchase. Apparently they were not allowed to sell me insurance over the phone in the period that I upgraded, so rather than loose the sale, the staff member simply lied.. Now I am left with an uninsured iPhone which they refused to either insure or accept as a return.

Next I moved to a new house, and as my home phone was getting changed I though i could rely on my mobile to stay in touch.. Fail.. Vodafone had NO coverage at the suburb I moved to for two weeks as they upgraded a tower.. not even low coverage, NO coverage, I literally had to drive to the next suburb to get my texts and make calls.. I live in the inner suburbs of Brisbane, the third largest city in the country and they simply turned off coverage for a fortnight. im on a $99 cap, you would think that I would be entitled to $50 off? no deal..

I hate you Vodafone.. more than Telstra even.. and that is a massive call

By looking at everyone's agony here, it looks like Vodafone Australia will soon set a 2011 Guinness World Record of being the worst telco giant ever as of yet. I work in a small business and need the portability of mobile broadband. I only have 0-1 bar 3G signal, for weeks on end at torrensville. WTF is up with their crusty network towers? Did they turn the 3G function all off to save costs or did they execute an Australia wide armageddon against their network towers? I can't even recognise the difference between GPRS and 3G anymore. Perhaps, in the most appalling circumstances, Vodafone and 3 are still deciding on who should be what role in management. A year later, they are still hopeless at merging. They just leave some of their employees with redundancy packages, while we customers pay them monthly faithful to the contract, waiting (and still waiting as I post this) for them to fix their reason for existing. Vodafone is meant to provide mobile services rather than provide a bunch of loser statements online about what they 'plan to do' when they don't. They should just 'do it' for cryin' out loud and stop lying to us. Honestly, they lack honesty. Unreliably, they lack reliability. I would waste my words saying that but as of yet, Vodafone's service is shit. Because I'm drowning due to Vodafone's broken speeds, I'm going to catch a life boat and be rescued, at NextG speeds thank God, by Telstra.

I have been overseas for 8 weeks and I haven't received any notice of the due payment. I just got back and my phone has been cut off without ant warning. I wet to one of the stores in Bondi and the staff referred m eto call a number ( as always). They still keep adding dollars to my account even though they are not supplying the service. This morning I have been 25 minutes on waiting to get to someone that was going to put me to a voicemail system!!! I got very upset. to top it all the coverage in Bondi is really bad. I have been complaining for months they have changed my sim card but still many times the coverage is really bad. I have been with vodafone for more than 4 years and I haven't get any compensation what so ever. VERY VERY FRUSTRATEDDDDDDDDDD

supposed to have excellent coverage in the area I live according to their map, can't use phone inside house and frequently drops out when finally able to make call. delayed messaging is a huge problem, need phone for work and to keep in contact with child. vodafone never replied to complaint email. told by local vodafone store it was my 'outdated' phone and sim card, so purchased new one and had to go back to store 7 times to get set up properly. on prepaid, what entitlements do I have, don't want to pay to switch service providers

I went to get a mobile broadband plan with Vodafone in November last year. Service was alright until I had 1 bar 3G signal, incredibly crap speeds, & it has stayed that way since beginning of January 2011. So much for a network maintenance, which some foreign customer service guy claimed would not take longer than a week. Must be some lying generic response, just an Indian version of Lara. The towers seem to be unable to handle the amount of users they are constantly attracting and taking in using their misleading marketing. Vodafone emphasizes their 'good' coverage and 'speed', which is so abysmal that even a snail can travel faster than the data that reaches my usb modem. Im living in a suburb with 3G coverage, but the connection dropouts are just appalling. It happens every few minutes. There is no point in using GPRS mode, since it's even slower than the oldest person alive. These days I seem to be paying monthly fees for nothing. You get several GB of usage and you can't even use it. This is seriously epic fail. It all started with me reading Vodafone's ad clustered site for technical information regarding coverage, speed, & service. They claimed to cover metropolitan areas, which included the suburb I live in. They claimed a reasonable speed range that most other telcos quote and boasted about their service. Then I waited an hour at the store to be served, the dealers seem to rather enjoy chatting with one customer at a time very slowly until their shift is over. To me, it felt like days. Finally I got my plan set up. After sorting out the VMC software problems, the product worked (yes I know strange as it may seem, it actually worked for a few glorious weeks) until it struggled again. Here I am, poor signal for weeks, 0-20Kbps 3G, & almost non-existent service. Even if the network tower is not far away & there is nothing major blocking the signal. Heres where the pain begins that customers have endured. I called Vodafone technical support 35 times, 30 of them were Lara transfer problems leading to call cut offs. WTF is the point of Lara's telemaze if it leads to cut offs. It's like having to solve a f*d up maze only to reach a dead end. The other 5 times led to horrid patchy musical hold up times equivalent to a theatrical length film. Finally I got to a foreign guy who told me these lame responses, which I, a pc expert, would have already tried. He still insisted me to try his troubleshooting even though I told him 10 times I've already done it. Ranging from reinstalling the device & software to deleting browsing history. Lame. Still got crap speed & signal. I really need to 'troubleshoot' someone in the head. Then he rambles on about a network upgrade in my area. Another generic response in their agenda. AND they always say there is no deadline for these upgrades. I hope people don't have to wait a lifetime's journey to get full signal again. Knowing their call centres are foreign these days, I gave up because even maintaining a call with them (that is prone to dropouts) will take blood, sweat, & tears. Now we have 12000+ Australians lobbying for a lawsuit against Vodafone, for reasons similar to my woes. I wouldn't be very surprised. We also have a recent issue involving customer data security breaches over the web. All Vodafone does is tell us that everything is fine. IT IS NOT. Whirlpool forums is packed daily with unheard complaints of Vodafone's services. In fact the threads are so vast it could form a large encyclopedia or a Lord of The Rings novel. As for the Vodafone staff seeking sympathy, think again. You are the cratered face of the company, so you must deal with the aggressive amount of recent customer woes. It is us customers that have all the power in the end. We can choose, in the extreme case, to do a mass exodus rather than put up with Vodafone's recent incompetences. We suffering customers (which seems to be a majority of Vodafone's customers in Australia, looking at how many complaints have plagued across the net) could all leave Vodafone & go to Telstra, Optus, etc. That will leave Vodafone Australia dying out of business, which will mean the Vodafone staff will lose their jobs. But then heres another issue. When customers attempt to cancel their plan & account, the customer service person attempts to hold on to the already dissatified customer for dear life like a leech, offering lame discounts & bartering. We shouldn't have to pay the remaining cost of the plan if we get slow unusable 3G net for weeks on end. We shouldn't have to rely on TIO and other full blown agencies to get our word across. This Vodafail site clearly indicates the last straw for the telco. It's just ridiculous, seeing that 'Vodafone' is an international business. If Vodafone doesn't fix these customer & network services, then too bad for the future. There won't be much for the telco to fix once its over. Not to mention the irony of 'gain sharing', I can barely post this using my Vodafone mobile broadband.

The other day I called Customer Care to speak to them about my handset issues (after they'd given me a broken phone via insurance).
The Indian woman on the other end of the line didn't understand me, so I asked to speak to her supervisor, to which she replied 'There are no Australians working here.' When I repeated my request, she put me on hold for ten minutes and then came back on the line, no mention of the supervisor. She was probably taking another call.

While I was expressing my frustrations with Vodafone's bad service and explaining that this was just another thing that was going to make me leave if it wasn't resolved, she became personally insulted (because she didn't speak English, so took offence at what I was saying) and threatened to hang up on me if I continued to 'use profanities'.

I had to explain to her that 'It's not about you, I don't know you, you just work for a multinational corporation. I have a problem with that corporation, like millions of other Australians do right now.'

She kept putting me on hold over and over again and threatening to cut me off if I was rude to her (wtf!!!!!!!!) and then put me on hold to some other department where 'Lara' said the wait time would be 40 minutes. After my incredibly frustrating experience, I just hung up. I submitted my request to be released from my contract to the TIO immediately.

what a joke. on the website it is saying there coverage map is down because of the floods. yeah right ive been trying to check my coverage for days and couldnt get on to it. it was BEFORE the floods even happened. stop lying vodafone!!!!

as everyone knows brisbane is flooding and we are all relying on our mobiles, that can be done as long as you are not with vodafone and we have 0 coverage not only here but my daughter on the gold coast also has 0 coverage. My mother who is with telstra has full coverage so I dont want to here the excuse that it is because of the flood.

on hold for over an hour trying to set up roaming, i receive text messages sometimes up to a week late, customer service are useless and have no idea what they are doing and always give incorrect advice, they always overcharge on bills and claim they have made the mistake in error... the list is endlesssss

I've already posted regarding my years worth of trouble with vodafone, including a recent incident overseas where i tried having my phone unlocked and was lied to with regard to the instructions just to get me off the phone with them, which resulted in me using my holiday time sitting in a london vodafone store on hold waiting for someone else to 'help', if thats what you can call it. At the same time i'd asked for my phone contract to be put on hold whilst i'm overseas coz obviously, i wont be using my aussie number - i told them this about 5 times and asked them to assure me that the phone would be put on hold. WOuldnt you know it, i check my bank statement and they've charged me the full months fee rather than the $11 or so monthly 'suspend' fee they said they would. HOW STUPID DO THEY THINK WE ARE???

Same story as everyone else. Customer service used to be good but that is a thing of the past. Had reception issues for years now and supposedly in an area of full coverage. Sent an email to complaints and they replied with a generic paragraph on network services and wrote off the complaint as solved. ***Beware global roaming*** as i recently went overseas and afterdiscussing the call charges etc many times I discovered that they don't explin the fine print, to the point where they gave me false information when i questioned teh call rates. Thankfully they reversed the charges after i made a complaint, but i hd to do all the follow which was a timely experience.

Actually my son took up a plan with Vodafone approx 2 years ago. What the staff member promised is not what he got, when he disputed this & disagreed to pay to pay the obsene bill ($1800 for 1 month) Vodafone slapped a default on him via Veda credit services. He has since applied for loans from 11 different financial institutions & been rejected based on this default even though he had since paid it. He has complainedto the TIO Obudsman to no avail. Vodafone called him & told him they would send records relating to the default nearly a month ago & nothing has turned up & he cannot get on to them to make an enquiry. Does anyone know if there is a way to dispute the injustice of this

I bought a new vodafone phone for my daughter to use after checking the vodafone website to see that Albany in WA has reception. We found there was no recption from our home and pretty much everywhere except the centre of town even though we are situated in what is considered the middle of the city. After numerous calls to vodafone to get an unlocking code so we could at least use the phone with another provider we were told it costs $25 to do it online plus an extra $50 because the phone is less than 6 months old. I was quite prepared to pay the $25 but not the $50 as it wasn't my fault we couldnt use the phone. Every time I spoke to someone about the issue they told me they couldnt help me but would refer me to their supervisor who would contact me. I told them not to call the vodafone number as we get no reception and as a consequence our credit also expired as we couldnt use it in time before it expired. Receiving messages is the same problem as we had no credit to retrieve them. They never replied and so I had to keep ringing them and telling the same story to someone new with the same result - I'll get someone to call you. It wasnt until I threatened in an email to report them to the TIO that I was sent an unlocking code which did not work and so I had to continue making calls until I set a time limit on contacting the TIO. That is when I at last got someone sensible on the phone who told me that obviously I needed a new unlocking code and that when she receives it she will call me on my other mobile and walk me through the unlocking process with the code. It finally worked and we havent looked back. I will never use vodafone again and have also told anyone who will listen in Albany that vodafone has no reception here so DO NOT BUY VODAFONE.
Now there is this problem of leaked personal info - I wonder about identity theft and who knows what transactions on my credit card. Where does this leave us???

I cannot get the internet to work in Townsville.
If i go to brisbane it works, but it wont work north of brisbane!

also had major excess fee's when i went on holidays to new zealand, after confirming 3 times with vodafone before I went away there would be very minimal. They completely lied and charged me hundreds of dollars and i cant do anything about it.

My contract was up in June 2008, and in May 2008 I was moving to London for a year.

Prior to leaving, I called and confirmed that I would obviously NOT be continuing my contract, and requested I pay it out then as I wouldn't be using my phone for the last month of the contract.

The agent was friendly, and said she'd arranged that for me. Stupidly, I took the call centre agent at her word, and only discovered 18 months later that there was actually one more payment that the agent failed to tell me about.

Not being in the country, the payment was referred to a collection agency, and a black mark was put on my credit rating. (I found this out only when I was applying for a home loan, on my return, and I was offered a lesser value home loan because of it.)

As soon as I learned this, I paid the outstanding $70, then I called the collection agency, and the Indian call centre - at least 5 phone calls of 10-15 mins each.

Each time I was told that a record would be made that the payment was received, and the note on my credit rating removed.

2 1/2 years later, this mark remains on my credit rating. Totally pathetic.

My contract was up in June 2008, and in May 2008 I was moving to London for a year.

Prior to leaving, I called and confirmed that I would obviously NOT be continuing my contract, and requested I pay it out then as I wouldn't be using my phone for the last month of the contract.

The agent was friendly, and said she'd arranged that for me. Stupidly, I took the call centre agent at her word, and only discovered 18 months later that there was actually one more payment that the agent failed to tell me about.

Not being in the country, the payment was referred to a collection agency, and a black mark was put on my credit rating. (I found this out only when I was applying for a home loan, on my return, and I was offered a lesser value home loan because of it.)

As soon as I learned this, I paid the outstanding $70, then I called the collection agency, and the Indian call centre - at least 5 phone calls of 10-15 mins each.

Each time I was told that a record would be made that the payment was received, and the note on my credit rating removed.

2 1/2 years later, this mark remains on my credit rating. Totally pathetic.

I have had a number of billing issues. I was 12 months into a 24 month $49 Cap and got a bill for $400. I called the lovely people at VF India and I was told that my cap was exceeded due to numbers which were not included in the cap. I told her that I hadn't had problems with these numbers over the past 12 months (my usage showed $49 per month consistently then an incredible jump in usage to $400 despite no changes on my part to my usage etc). She told me that numbers which were previously included in my cap were no longer included due to changes to my plan and that my previous $49 cap plan no longer existed.

She suggested that if I changed to a $59 cap (which was actually $69 with $10 credit per month applied to the account...I won't hold my breath!) that my calls which I am complaining about would be included and I wouldn't get the big bills anymore. I reluctanly agreed after being assured that a recalculation of my bill meant that I wouldn't have to pay the outstanding $400. She told me that I can change back to my $49 per month cap at any time and that the end date of my contract would remain the same (ie. I wouldn't be entering into a new 24mth $59 cap plan).

All seemed good until the next month... I received another huge bill.

I called again and basically was told that I had to pay the balance of the bills and that the $59 plan started at my next billing cycle and also included extra as pro-rata for starting plan part way through the month....didn't they say I began $59 at beginning of cycle...anyone confused yet?

Anyway...I asked them to cancel my contract and was told that I'd have to pay out my contract for the 23 months left (apparently I had agreed to another 24mth plan on $59 per month. I told the guy that I had been reassured in my last call and had names and numbers to confirm contact that my contract wouldn't be extended due to changing the cap amount. He apologised and in an uncomfortable manner told me that my original date of exit would still apply. Nice to catch them out occasionally...

Anyway, I have had many hours of discussing my issues with people from VF while extending the knowledge of their indian employees (informing the guy that no, I would not be going to Bondi Beach for xmas as I lived in QLD....)

I must admit that while I find my problems frustrating, they could be much worse. I am counting down the months til I can jump ship and eagerly awaiting my monthly calls to india via 1555... NOT

In my experience so far... document everything said and take any names and numbers you can get. Don't accept what customer care tell you as it always conflicts with the previous information provided (sometimes in the same conversation).

Be assertive and don't give in to their crap.

Agree with last comment. Voda has a policy of delaying complaints - they asked me for the same info three times in three seperate emails. Don't be a sucker like me and keep replying. After three emails complain to the Ombudsman.

I'll try cut it short. Was on a plan and had a overdue bill that wasn't paid due to loss of job which got disconnected. Eventually when I had the money I rang to pay the bill and the early termination fee. I got transferred around to 5 different departments with each 1 telling me a different figure. The final figure was given to me and it seemed lower then I expected, so I questioned if it was the whole amount. After being told yes I asked about 4 more times is that definitely it. Was told yes so I asked if there was nothing owing would I eligible for a new plan. Was told yes so I went and got a new phone that day on a new vodaphone plan. All was good until I received a bill for $1400 3 months into the contract. I rang customer care many times and each time they said it was the early termination fee from my last contract, I told them the story everytime asking them to look into it as I asked many times for the final payout figure. They made me out as if I were lying. How do u sign onto a new plan with the same company if there is $1400 bill still owing?? In the meantime of trying to sort this out I paid my monthly bill but refused to pay the $1400. I kept ringing bck trying to sort it out but after 3 months of the $1400 bill not paid they automatically disconnected my plan and sent me an early termination fee or nearly $2000 for the new contract. This is ontop of the $1400. I managed to get the new ETF wiped after many calls but was sent to debt collectors for the $1400. I was defeated after all my efforts and couldn't afford a bad credit rating I started to pay it.. After paying only $500 off a bill that was there error, my next payment came back saying I was $100 in credit?? My credit rating still got marked as unpaid default even tho i got a letter saying I'm in credit and I cannot get anymore phone plans. I just accepted it and are on pre-paid now. Credit rating stuffed and I dunno if I owe money or not all over a bill that I tried to pay and they couldn't give me the right figure! PATHETIC

After having our fifth faulty handset replaced (in under 18months!) about 8 months ago, my husband and I have had a good run with Vodafone until december 18th 2010 when both our Blackberrys ceased making and receiving calls. Since then it has been a nightmare - texts are delayed up to 5 hours and internet access? Forget it! We have spent days on hold with staff having no idea how to service our phones. We have been lied to, repeatedly hung up on, abandoned on hold and been refused an audiotranscript of our calls as they had no capability to record(!!?). Our phones now work approximatly 5% of the time. We have had no assistance with the issue other than basic troubleshooting and a suggestion to upgrade our (less than 12 months old) handsets by recontracting for another 24 months - the staff don't even seem to know that there is a nationwide Australian issue! To add insult to injury - I recently received my bill! I don't think so Vodafone - it's not good enough. We have joined the class action.
Eve

Managed to get a $174.79 credit for data charges overseas as it was explained and roaming activated at the North Sydney store in Greenwood Plaza that calls would come out of my post pay credit then once that was used I would pay on top of that but that wasn't the way it worked. You pay for ALL overseas costs on top of you regular cap.
Well that was back in Sept and the credit was meant to be applied to Oct account, then Nov account and again Dec account balances. It's a monthly process of ringing up and going through it all again and I'm readying myself for this months call.

I hope the woman who supplied Lara's voice hangs her head in shame.

ok all carriers have issues...but heres my point from being someone who used to work in the industry.
one yes the call centre support number is crap simce it moved from tassie some years ago.
the systems they use siebel is crap constantly failing. it failed for months when first released.
previous systems were so easy to use

Staff in the telco industry hate calling dealer support as they are hard to hear and yes they dont speak english well....
please remember the staff in the telco industry dont make the issues it usually is the network as a issue we understand and share your pain.

accessing personal info yes it has a web portal and only vodafone store have full access to billing calls ecetera.

VHA as they want to be known have people who dont know vodafones systems trying to help stores as they are brought from three (hutch)
The amount of information from vodafone and training is rubbish there training material is incomplete and has a massive issue with too much unecessary information.
other carriers have very easy to follow and easy to see any issues when processing conections.

words of advice
go through the confirmation with the staff and get all the relevant brochures regarding you plan and make sure the staff know what they are talking about they are the professional and should know this information inside and out.
a easy way is to ask them if they are on the ball ask them call rates and flagfall and txt and pxt msg costs if they know this then you have staff who are knowledgeable with the plans and network.
(confirmation of understanding is something you sign to say you understand all the terms call rates and what you have applied for make sure the copy is given to you)

2nd buy a prepaid sim to check coverage or get a month by month account one you can cancel at anytime to check the reliability of the network

3 if you cant check on you current providers phone select network select manual search and see what names come up

4 ask about what happens if i get no coverage as you are signing up.
as other carriers have a satisfaction guarantee.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It started in October 2010. I was overseas, with international roaming enabled. 2 big problems:

1. Pre-paid ran out. I went to my online account and tried to top up. I repeatedly got the error "technical problem with the payment system". I tried calling Customer Care to make the payment and complain, but I couldn't: the number was blocked and I got a text saying I couldn't call international numbers.

2. Unable to make international calls while overseas - but I could send international texts! Every time I tried to call an Australian or US number, I got numerous texts of two kinds: "Transaction failed - Insufficient funds" and "Yo'ure not allowed to call this number".

I complained via their extremely unhelpful online enquiry service. Trying to work out which problem I should categorise both complaints under was difficult.

I sent off the complaint on 17 October 2010. I got a reply on 21 October:

Hi Madeleine,

Thank you for your patience.

Vodafone apologises for the delay in responding to your enquiry within our normal time frames, and regret any inconvenience this may have caused. We understand that due to this delay, you may have utilised other avenues to resolve your query.

Please note that Vodafone are unable to assist with handset upgrade or mobile internet technical issues via email. For assistance with these queries, please call Vodafone on 1555 from your Vodafone handset or 1300 650 410 from a landline.

If you still require assistance via email, please advise us within 72 hours, and we will respond as soon as possible. Alternatively the answer to your enquiry may be found by registering and accessing the My Vodafone website.

Not helpful at all. So I responded, advising that no, they had not fixed my complaint. On 27 October, I got another email from them:

We have not heard from you concerning your request for support in the 120 hours since we sent you a response. Consequently, we have changed the status of your question to SOLVED.

At this point, I gave up. Being overseas and completely unable to get help via phone or email, I ended up relying on pay phones.

In December 2010, I had numerous problems - my phone dropping out of service for no reason; not receiving calls or messages; being charged for messages sent, but the recipients not receiving them.

Now in January 2011, I find out that maybe my privacy has been breached. Maybe, unauthorised people have my details. But maybe not. How would I know - Vodafone hasn't advised me whether or not I'm affected. Instead, they've buried a dismissive blog post on their website.

I've had enough. Are you actively trying to destroy your business?

Is it possible that VodaFail supplies
to customers cheap 'factory seconds' or
defective phones?

My wife had to waste hours and money on
transport to go to iphone shop to repair
VodaFAIL supplied phone. My VodaFail supplied
iphone is not working properly. I will have
to waste few hours to visit iphone shop for
them to check and repair.

Both 'need-repair' phones were in brand
new sealed boxes (new) and are less than 6
months old.

I get a message saying "Hey can you come in to work this afternoon?"
"I reply with Yeah sure, I'll come in at one!"
My manager replied with "I sent you that message 3 days ago.."
Smells like a vodafail to me!

vociemails and sms arrive late by hours or days and at times not at all. Given I am applying for jobs at the moment this is unacceptable.

From the time I got a Vodafone internet account, Vodafone continually overcharged on data download amounts compared to the that which the download monitoring software it provided was recording (Huawei).

Spent hours on hold trying to get through to resolve this over many months, and hours when eventually getting through, arguing the toss. Eventually spoke to a (name known) Vodafone person who admitted to KNOWING VODAFONE BILLING AND THE VODAPHONE-PROVIDED HUAWEI ACCOUNT SOFTWARE RECORDED DIFFERENT DATA THROUGHPUTS.

Service person said that it had been a known fault "forever" and that anyone relying on the Vodafone provided self-monitoring software to monitor their data throughput was bound to be upset when a much higher bill came in, as it always did (about 25-30% higher, always with Excess Charges as the data throughput, under on the provided monitoring software, had been "Exceeded" according to Vodafone head office accounting).

Ended up terminating the service in disgust. Had been on a 12 month contract which had passed, but then Vodafone started arguing it was a three year contract, based on their THEN standard at the time I ended it (not the one I signed on to earlier, which had been 12 months). Spent months arguing that toss.

Was then chased for the better part of a year by a debt collection agency (aggressively for months after I ended the deal) threatening all sorts of credit history black-balling and credit character assassination unless I fulfilled a three year contract.

Vodafone did not fulfill its obligations as a service provider under the contract during the 12 months it ran. Vodafone-employed (or sub-contracted staff) made full admission that the fault lay in the the Vodaphone provided modem/software, that Vodafone had always been aware of the fault.

Vodafone subsequently employed (or contracted) a debt collection agency to attempt to extend the contract under threat of credit history assassination.

Over to the Ombudsman.

Msg fail...again...due to no network coverage. This of course just triggered my memory of seeing this site being talked about on TV and thinking finally someone has said something about how bad it really is and thought i would share my frustrations with the network. Yet again i have gone to sms and there is no coverage in, outside or around my house which is based in Perth. This happens most of the time no matter where i am and is really frustrating. I seem to also receive msg's a lot later than when people have sent them to me & also have a lot of network errors when i try to call people and it takes two or three times to actually get a dial tone. I have only just learned of the '30 minute wait' when calling Vodafone now as if it wasn't bad enough before that. All i wanted was a new password because their temporary one they supplied me failed to work..and this is only so i can get on their site as I really dislike the new set up for sending out bills via email, but needless to say cannot download my new bill until i can get onto the site for some reason. I sympathize though for the people who really needed their phones in that massive dropout they had recently, Vodafone need to get their act together before they lose all their customers if they haven't already lost enough. :/

In June 2010 I purchased a mobile broadband plan for my parents. On attempting to set it up for them I couldn't get it to work. I called the help line and spoke to someone in Israel who told me after a half hour that the salesperson from where I bought the device should have supplied me with an updated CD. They had given me a CD but it was the wrong one. I went then to a Vodafone store and they gave me the correct on. They seemed to be well aware of the issue as there had been other people who had the same issue.
On trying the device again it still didn't work so I called again, this time speaking to someone in Egypt.After half an hour I was told the device was faulty and I needed to get a replacement. I then called the local vodafone number I was given and she tried to get me to accept a replacement she would send. This was hugely inconvenient as my parents live interstate and I was only there for a few days.
I gave my details and yes a postal satchel did come with details of how to return the goods which I followed to the letter.The problem now is that Vodafone claims it has never recieved the device although I have an email from Australia Post stating that someone at VF signed for it. I won't go into what VF told me to do to prove I had sent it. So they now continue to bill me for a device I don't have that never worked. Plus they charge me for a paper bill that I never wanted.
I am reasonably happy with my mobile phone except for the data download speed (I only have 50 MB/ month but the rate at which it happens would take me forever anyway so I hardly use it for that.)
I have emailed their complaints site on numerous occasions and get the answer that they are unable to help me any more. The VF store is unable to help as the staff have apprently the same access that I have.I've left it for a while now as I was too frustrated and had other more pressing issues to contend with but I aim to give them a call on Monday and then the ombudsman. I thought about sitting in their office until they fixed it but I don't have the time nor energy.

At least 50% of the mornington peninsula mount martha (benton's square area), Main Ridge, devil's bend, shoreham, have no or almost no coverage. Phone bill seems to always blow out because of returned missed calls. I have a vodafone usb internet adapter that seemed to work intermittently at home. Home is in central frankston. The supplied Dell netbook works on the internet but not on the internal 3g modem. Phone reception gets patchy even at home in central frankston (just off beach st)

At least 50% of the mornington peninsula mount martha (benton's square area), Main Ridge, devil's bend, shoreham, have no or almost no coverage. Phone bill seems to always blow out because of returned missed calls. I have a vodafone usb internet adapter that seemed to work intermittently at home. Home is in central frankston. The supplied Dell netbook works on the internet but not on the internal 3g modem. Phone reception gets patchy even at home in central frankston (just off beach st)

im am at my wits end with vodafone, after spending 9 hours on hold in the last 3 days trying to get my iphone unlocked, after i was told i could do it straight away. i am getting nowhere. they blamed apple so i called apple myself with the info voda had given me to find out that there is no error on apples end that voda lied to me to get out of doing anything to help.

For my birthday I thought i'd upgrade my phone and go on contract after being on prepay with vodaphone NZ and vodafone australia for over 10 combined years. Anywho this is how it it panned out.

1st step: I apply for the contract online and was approved and had my phone delivered to me etc, however because the phone was very expensive I called Vodafone and requested to have incurance added.

2nd step: As advised by a vodaphone rep who "Fucken Lara" the machine eventually transferred me to and took over an hour to I was then advised that insurance cannot be approved over the phone and I must take the phone in to a store so they can view and confirm that insurance was applied before the package was opened.

3rd Step: A lady fills out the insurance form we both sign and she says it will be sent away and I will be charged $10p/month. I was not given a copy of the insurance forms.

All sounds easy right???? WWWWWRRRRROONNNNNNNGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!

My phone breaks so I take it in and was advised will not be warranty. Fine I advised is under insurance only to be told the is no way I can have insurance if i signed up over the phone..... like WTF "What The Fuck" Yep I was told insurance cannot be applied when contracts have been organised via direct deals over the net. Ok now this is crazy but its true so i decided FUCK that im gonna get something in writing.

I then go online and chat some spastic who also said the same thing so i said to her "I was told to take the phone in still sealed and have the insurance forms filled out, signed and sent away" so she replies back saying i am right so then I email her back and say "Please read your email below confirming that insurance cannot be added" so the dumb bitch emails me back and says "I am just going off what you said previously" I mean come on who works for vodaphone the spastic or me.

In the end I couldnt be fucked dealing with vodafone...... I pay my bill late every month and I wait for a collections call unfortunately for the person on the other end they cop a ear bashing!!!! And now that they have disconnected my phone I have called them to update my details and they are now calling me on another mobile number to collect funds.

Yes I am still paying it as I do not want bad credit but guranteed I will leave $100 or less at the end of my contract and call them back to request a credit.

Vodafone is shit!!!! I recommend you get rid of it, start using your work phone if you can or get a landline. If that does not suit you then go anywhere but vodafone..... Hate them with a passion.

I was down in south-west WA for the weekend. Talk/text worked fine, but mobile internet through my iPhone, which I was relying on for travel planning, was flaky and continually dropped out. Thanks, vodafail.

I am in the middle of doing the contract walk. Been a Vodafoney customer for one and a half terms now. The first contract was okay until I got the iPhone. I'm sure most of you who are dataphiles notice the poor 3G service. Calls also drop out and the iPhone loses the signal and then has to be restarted to get the signal back etc.
I registered my complaint through email (very fast communication - one email a day) and was told that they were well aware of the problem, try to clean the SIM, switch to 2G instead; they are upgrading some suburbs etc. They offered me 2 months credit and I rejected it, preferring to walk. I then registered with the TIO to force Vodafone's hand in releasing me.

Intermediate hoop jumping - Vodafone then replied with a bunch of technical questions about the service like they'd never heard of this fault before. Some of the questions even requested my full name, telephone number and PIN (memory lapse).

I submitted the answers with the reference for the TIO submission. Looking forward to email number 4 from Vodey

I am applying for jobs. I'm getting a bit sick of saying the same thing over and over again - that is "I'm sorry if I drop out, I am with Vodafone at the moment and they have major problems". NOT a good look to a prospective employer. Common sense would say "use the home phone" but we have just moved house and that is not connected yet. Home phone ... optus all the way!

QUESTION??? I complained in december (the 26th i believe) about handset and network issues. Since lodging the complaint Vodafone have replied asking for bits of information (i.e. date and times of dropped calls) and admitted that the network in my area (southern sydney ) has failed. Despite this admission they wont reply to me with a solution, the last two emails have simply been them asking the same information over and over i.e. requesting my pin number (which they have asked for three times - you can see it in the reply history of the email) and asking about fault information which they already have. Has any one else had this? At what point do you go to the Ombudsman??

Well last night lying in bed had 2 bars of reception next thing I didn't move BANG no reception, I did not even move. about time Voda manned up and took responsibility for their poor service.

After complaining to the TIO about my poor coverage and constant drop outs at SydneyOlympic Park ( still being investigated by vodafone) I was revered to this



Mobile drop-outs and poor coverage

The TIO regularly investigates complaints where consumers allege they were misled by their provider or its dealer about mobile phone coverage, or are otherwise dissatisfied about the level of coverage they are receiving. Most commonly, complainants seek the TIO's assistance in being released from their contractual obligations.

Where a complaint concerns allegations of misleading or incorrect advice, the TIO seeks information and evidence from both the complainant and the provider to attempt to ascertain whether the complainant has a sufficient case to be released from their contract. The TIO will need to establish:

whether coverage is poor and, if so, in which areas
what expectations the dealer gave the complainant about coverage (e.g. Did they guarantee coverage in certain areas? Did they show a coverage map?)
the extent to which the complainant has been able to use the phone
whether the complainant has moved
whether the complainant specifically told the dealer where they would be using the phone
whether the standard of service has changed
whether coverage differs depending on the time of day, weather, etc;
when the complainant first brought the complaint to the attention of the provider or dealer.
Information/documentation that might assist the TIO to determine these factors includes the written contract itself, copies of mobile phone bills, statements about any discussions that took place before the contract was entered into, and coverage maps.

The TIO expects a provider and/or its dealer to ensure a customer is adequately informed about the likely performance of their phone. Having said this, the TIO has regard to the experience and knowledge of the complainant in relation to mobile phones. The TIO also considers the customer's apparent level of understanding and therefore what could reasonably have been expected of them in the circumstances.

Where the available evidence suggests likelihood that the dealer provided inadequate, inaccurate, or misleading information about coverage, the TIO expects the provider to release the customer from any contractual obligations, without termination charges or fees. Depending on the circumstances of the case, the TIO might also expect the provider to reimburse and/or waive any access fees or other charges paid.

Where a complainant did not make their provider aware of a coverage problem until well into the contract, the TIO will question what caused the delay. Where it is apparent that the complainant could reasonably have raised the issue much earlier, the TIO will bear this in mind when considering what constitutes a fair and reasonable outcome in the circumstances.

In considering complaints about coverage, the TIO also considers the extent to which the complainant has derived any benefit from the phone. For example, where it is apparent that a customer is effectively unable to use their phone due to poor coverage, the TIO might expect a provider to cancel a fixed term contract without termination charges or fees even where the actions or advice of the dealer were not brought into question.

Next: Mobile facilities: installation and location

24 month contract for internet. Connection drops out for no reason all the time, often won't connect at all. Disconnected us for not paying a bill they never sent to us in the first place then they tried to charge us overdue fees on that bill. My boyfriend rang up and got given a different number to ring then that one gave him a different number to ring cause none of those people were of any use to us. Third number lied to us and said they have EMAILED (when we elected for paper bills) us the bill weeks ago, boyfriend gets shirty and makes a smart comment about the fact we have no internet so can't actually get our emailed bill. Check emails at parents place... magically no bill is there. Call AGAIN on hold for 1hour 40 mins to be put through somewhere else to be on hold for 18 mins to be put though to someone who is finally a nice helpful person and informs us that they don't even have an email adress for our account in their system so they never sent us a bill in any form then tried to charge us overdue fees. Also internet stick/dongle broke after like 2 months and they won't replace it we either had to pay 100 bucks for a new one or they would send ours away for ages to be "looked at" and offered us no replacement for that time so we would be paying for nothing basically. Just rubbish all round VERY fed up and trying to get out of contract early!!

I switched from Vodafone prepaid to 24-month contract. I still had $20 on my prepaid sim card but when I asked Vodafone if that money can be credited to my account, they replied that I need to contact the store (who promised me the refund). The store, of course insisted I need to call the main Vofdafone line and after being on hold 3 or 4 times for 30 min + each time, I decided to give up.

Vodafail is actively and knowingly defrauding Australian customers. Promising a service, knowing that this promise is fraudulent and then lying that it is your problem with your phone or area while continuing to take your money. I was with them for 3 weeks and it was the worst company I have every had to deal with. I am so glad I did not sign up on a contract although my unlimited $99 uncapped cost $186 for three weeks! How do you explain that? I even used my own phone and did not get one from them.

Vodafail will end up a Harvard Business School Study on how to piss off and lose as many customers as possible in the shortest possible time. Good luck with the class action!

Terrible customer serivce, reception, internet, lots of lying and deception. Almost as bad as Telstra, but not quite. Rude rude customer serivce, shocking. Hate the FEMBOT LARA.

If I ran a bussines as bad as they do and were unable to provide
the service I handsomely charge for and relied on an inept off shore help desk I would would be sued, shut down and run out off town...and rightly sooooo.

I have two main issues with Vodafone:

The first is that SMS messages sent by me or sent to me are not delivered in a timely manner - sometimes they arrive up to 24 hours later. This is very bad for me as I am on call for my work and I need a reliable SMS service.

Secondly, I regularly call a friend in Melbourne. On average I get about 4 to 5 call drops every time I call her. Sometimes it's so ridiculous; just one call drop after another I just give up and call her later. It is VERY frustrating.


Luckily I don't have to pay for calls to 3 users because if I had to pay for every new connection I would be extremely pissed off. Also it would be TERRIBLE if you relied on your mobile for Business.

I hope Vodafone will do something about SMS delivery and call drops. It will probably take ages to upgrade the network though. Meanwhile I'm locked into a plan. BOO!

After consistently receiving the message "SIM card registration failed" one day, I tried calling the customer service line of VF 3 times - first time I got through and I said it was a problem with a Nokia handset (just guessing, I'm no tech person), which then transferred me to a number which was not connected. I then called back and this time I said it was a problem with the SIM card, and got a message telling me there was a technical problem and I needed to hang up and call back. The third time I chose that it was a problem with coverage and the same thing happened.

I then emailed, got an automated message about covering 94.52% of the Australian population, which I replied to saying I was sitting in the middle of Sydney. I didn't receive a response for a while (I think just over a week), then eventually received the following:


Thank you for your patience.

Please note that this is an automated reply and is being sent due to unexpected and extended delays.

We apologise for the delay in responding to your enquiry within our normal time frames, and regret any inconvenience this has caused. We understand that due to this delay, you may have utilised other avenues to resolve your query.

If this has not been the case, please let us know by replying to this email (between the lines indicated) so we can assist you further.

Please be assured if you still need a response we will reply as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Vodafone Correspondence Team


They were right - I did utilise other avenues - I switched to Telstra.

here in coffs harbour the reception is so bad you can walk from one room to the next n loose reception,when we travel up to brisbane or down to sydney we would be lucky to have 40% coverage.Reward mobile doesnt want to know us and s much as i hate to do it we will be changing to telstra,if we travel around the state vodaphone cannot be relied on

Signed up with NRMA discount offer of "first 3 months free and $10 off per month after that" end of October/Early November. Unimpressed when the first bill arrived in december.
Logged a call on-line within days of receiving it, but heard nothing back.
Finally called after Christmas, and helpdeskdroid was suitably apologetic and said it was being fixed, and I would have an extra 10% off for my troubles.
This morning received SMS from vfone telling me bill is now overdue.
Called - well, with over 1/2 hr delay had them call me back - and nice helldeskdroid tried to help, but explained that the credits were not able to be applied to already issued (and now overdue) bills, and would not take effect until the next bill.
Unimpressed.
Technically this is a breach of the contract, as it was clearly stated that this would be the "first three bills", not "pay the first and then the next three free".
Frustrated.

I only signed up for vodafone a couple of months ago because they seemed to be able to offer 'cheap' dataplans without a contract. Now wish I hadn't ...

Even though I live and work in Metropolitan Sydney where coverage should be OK if you believe their map, the service is dismal.

- Receiving Calls: I keep on 'missing' calls. I can reproduce this: Even when my phone says it is on 3G with full coverage bars, sometimes when I call it with another phone, it just goes straight to the 'blablabla unavailable' message. I don't get a missed call on my phone nor do I get a text or anything about a call being missed

- Making calls: Even right in the center of town I need to almost stand still to successfully complete a call without being dropped. Entering a building or walking through an arcade or something will drop the call almost every time.

- Data coverage: With full 3G and all coverage bars I regularly get timeouts on opening webpages. Even when it doesn't time out, a speedtest shows my internet to be a dismal 150Kbit (about 25 times slower than my other Telstra SIM on the same phone). I have given up relying on my emails coming in on my vodafail SIM as they often don't arrive until half a day after they are actually in my mailbox.

- Coverage: This is what baffled me most. I drove over the blue mountains to Orange the other day. Only an hour out of Sydney, I lost complete reception never to get it back. In Orange I could not get any reception yet shops on the high street were still selling Vodafone plans - How do they do it ?

All the above didn't seem to deter from Vodafone sending me a $270 bill on my $39 cap for my first month. I have blocked my direct debit and will do everything I can not to pay this bill.

I guess I am luckier than most of you guys as I am not on a contract so I can (and will) just port my number to a decent provider.

All the best for people fighting to get out of their contracts - No consumer this day and age should put up with this sort of service !