Got charged $600.00 for a mobile payment plan, after consolidating my bill, called 1555 on my phone, and requested a call back in 10-15 mins because customer service was busy at peak hour. They then called me back in 9 mins, and spoke to Asha who looked into my bill for me, and realised the mistake, she subsequently waived the $600.00 i was incorrectly charged, and transferred my mobile payment plan to my new consolidated bill. This took about 20 mins in total to do and was very pleased with the outcome. I was simply nice and so were they. The offshore sales representatives are in many ways more punctual than the average australian bogan, no wonder vodafone would rather pay someone in India $6000 a year instead of $60000 salary. I cant understand why so many people are unhappy, either im very lucky or there is a lot of incompetent customers that cant understand the technology they use, I was in store the other day and another customer was ranting saying they couldnt hear other people when talking, the thing was that the guy hadnt removed the cover on the screen from packaging, like seriously, what a gene cess pool I have to live beside LOL. Most of the complaints can be summed up as not understanding billing, handset or network concepts, If i was vodafone i would incorporate an aptitude test aswell as a credit check so these issues dont occur.

Was Telstra customer in tassie (VF bad reputation for reception). Moved to mainland for uni and heard VF was good here. Switched about 8 months ago. Only one billing issue (I had lots of problems with telstra) and that was reliatively easily taken care of in a shop. Unlimited calls and texts with a new phone for less than i was paying telstra.
Overall a good experience, reception not quite as good as with telstra but worth it for the money i save.
Just thought i would let people know its not all bad.
All that and i now work in a telstra shop. HA

Tried Vodafones customer service repeatedly but not quick enough to respond and couldn,t wait any longer as couldn,t use any of our three family phones anywhere in our home area ,signals got so bad . Took advise from this site and the TIO complaint set ball rolling quickly . Vodafone called me within 2 days of receiving the complaint . Offered three months free on all three family phones until up grades were completed in our area or they would release us from our contracts. Accepted three months wait as have been a customer for over twelve years and no complaints at all up to the last year so was hopeful it would be sorted .Sadly up grades have apparently been completed and no better worse if anything. Rang Vodafone resolutions line spoke to the young lady who gave me her name to arrange our contract releases. She was very helpful and said it would be done within the hour . Off to Telstra as know service is good in our area so don,t want to chance anyone else but no more contracts for our family .

called up customer care, within 5min had my problem resolved. customer care was very patient and polite.

I managed to talk to a (VERY) patient person within 2 minutes. Previously I have been unable to get away from Lara no matter how many buttons I push. The human was not able to see any information he needed to help me or unable to in anyway resolve the issue which is still abysmal however not speaking to Lara was a real relief.

vodafone who gave the contract to the intelenet globals services pvt lad..is one of the third class company where m working right nw as a agent(CSA).there agent under pressurd for s-set from custmor.if they not get it meant to termination or leave the job by force fully..i feeling very same to describe abt it

Three things are certain in life. Death, Taxes and no vodafone coverage.


What did the Vodafail executives say when CEO Nigel Dews said he was quitting?
"you can't quit, we've got you on a 24-month contract"


One Vodafone customer calls the other. What did they say?
What does it matter they couldn't hear eachother.


Constipated? I suggest signing up with Vodafone. Their mobile coverage is guaranteed to give you the shits.

Called up to complain about the poor coverage, calls going to voicemail, slow SMS etc. They started off offering 3 months free, then reduced plan cost per month. I just wanted out - which they finally agreed to.

I have ported to Telstra.

They will supposedly send a bag to collect the iPhone 4. Does anyone know how long this might take? How can it be escalated if the bag does not arrive?

I am sure they would be happy to charge for the handset by not sending out the bag to return the phone.

I had my payments for my plan and phone (HTC destire HD) reduced to $0 for the next 6 months on top of the last 4mnths allowing me to use another sim card in my cool phone. Reducing my phone cost by 50%. Originaly I paid $59 per month now I am paying $18 a month for the same data and calls I had with Vodafail. So Vodafail is paying the cost of my phone for half the contract plus now I can use the bloody thing cause I'll be on the Optus Network.

Thanks to the advice and issues similar to mine that I read about here on Vodafail I made a complaint to the TIO after months of hassles with Vodafone and got my contract paid out and was ported across to Telstra within minutes.

I always thought a full 5 minutes to load any web page was just how mobile phones were. Now that I am with Telstra a web page loads in 3 seconds and ALL of my text messages get sent to the receiver and no calls drop out.

Thank you Vodafail and Vodafail contributors for making me realise that I didn't have to put up with Vodafone's massively flawed and substandard service. After 18 years of Vodafone I am now a very happy Telstra customer.

I was released from my contract 12 months early, and after having issues unlocking my handset i was able to arrange for vodafone to pay me $200 to help purchase a new handset. they also let me keep my existing handset which i was able to sell for $140.00

the team on the phone when i called voda direct were horrible to me, and said there was no way that i could be released from my contract, and basically told me that i would never get vodafone to pay me money for my handset.

once i contacted the TIO it was clear that they and I had vodafone by the balls and that they would basically give me whatever I wanted. my only regret is not making HUGE demands.

I was another fortunate one to get out of my vodashit contract and switch to Telstra - they also wiped an excess bill of $1000 I had, but now I have got my last bill two months later and it says I have $100 CR.

Does this mean vodacrap owe me $100 and will they pay it to me or do I have to ring the Indians to find out? I don't want to be on hold but I also don't want to get more junk email every month from vodafone telling me my old account is in credit.

Anyone else encounter this?

Hooray, submitted the TIO complaint with many many scenarios.

I took my new Voda smartphone overseas in September, and made sure I read all the instructions and fine details to make sure it was switched on to Vodafone Traveller so my phone would work overseas. I even called Voda before I left & made sure I'd done it right, & they said I had. My travel partner had done the exact same thing with his Voda iPhone. Sure enough, I get to San Francisco & my phone's can't connect to any network there - its access is dead as a dodo. His worked, mine didn't, nomatter what we did (and we're no luddites). Eventually, with no other options, I hunted down an internet cafe - because you had to email them if it was a tech difficulty! My 4am query marked "Urgent - no access" was eventually responded to by a person 9 days later, who then 'activated' my account for overseas use (i.e. what we'd done back home weeks before). All up, I had a completely unusable phone for over 11 days - including through a family health crisis when I couldn't even call home. Today I asked them for an apology and a credit for the 11 days. I didn't get the apology (of course! but worth asking), but they did give me a $20 credit on the account. That's pretty close to my pro-rata monthly fee, so I figured that'd have to be good enough. It's not a massively inspiring story, but hey, it's something. Solidarity fellow Voda sufferers!! Ciao.

after complaining to vodafone, then making a complaint with the TIO I was released from my contract 12 months early. I was told that I could keep my handset.
I thought this was great until I discovered that the handset is still locked!

Hopefully I can get this unlocked otherwise it is useless to me (i would never sell a handset locked to voda after my issues with them).

At 5:35pm today I was called by someone responding to my email to the CEO from lunchtime - offering to end my contract, but paying out the phone, some $300. I wasn't too upset with that deal and hung up. 1 minute later, the TIO Complaints area called me to release me from my contract with no charges, and I keep the phone... I'm thrilled. Hello Telstra.

For 2 days my vodafone mobile broadband has actually allowed me to watch youtube at full speed.. Does that count as a gain? Also all my smses arrived on time.. Possibly they have done something, or everyone is so jack of it that I dont have to share the network with them :D

After more than 2 months of complaining and problems (before this site even existed) vodafone had agreed to let me out of my contract 12 months in with no termination fee. They offered me to purchase my handset iPhone 3G for $350 which I think is fairly reasonable since it is only two weeks old (warranty replacement). I went to a vf store and the helpful person gave me a direct number to their cancellation team - crazily I was on hold for less than 30 seconds before my call was answered. I also got a print out of my customer notes - very helpful. During the cancellation call my call ironicall dropped 3 times. Anyway I'm of to telstra. Best advise is to not let vf sweet-talk you with offered of account credits etc. Be assertive but not rude or agesive - that won't get you anywhere...

waiting on breaking contract talks form voda, but they threw in 500 free minutes.. be good if i could only now make phone calls!!

I followed the How to Complain and a few success stories below and within 4 days I'm free.

I had to talk to their cancelations/retentions team and perform a network coverage check. They promised that if they didn't get a report back from the networks coverage check they would allow me to cancel the contract exit fee free.

I just have to return the phone in the satchel they'll provide and I'll be done with vodafone!

Note that I also sent through a complaint to the TIO on the 3rd day.
Note 2 that the exit fee DOES appear on your account/bill until they recieve the phone. Once the phone is returned the fee is completely waived.

Do not have to pay my December bill - they are sending me another sim card in case this is the problem (for both my partner and myself after changing handsets...coincidence? I don't think so however they wouldn't let me out of the contract until we did this).
They also told me that when I signed up I was at a different address and although a mobile phone service they cannot provide coverage everywhere. I informed them that I literally moved 1km and I live in Canberra, ACT not the middle of the outback. IDIOTS

i got the TIO onto vodaf#&$ers as they charged me 13 TIMES over the limit of my average per month while i was overseas! they are meant to warn you as soon as you go over your limit but i was contacted when i was 10 times over!
so my cap was a $79 + $10 insurance = $89 p.m, so i my bill after 10 days in hawaii was $1250!!! After i stupidly paid, i was listeneing to triple JJJ about a report of voda and other telco's ripping people off and that by going to the TIO it would help you but not being sucked into paying the full amount.
Voda admitted they made the mistake in saying that they should have contacted me and refunded me $700 cash, not credit which was great! but later on thanks to the very bad service and dody iPhone's they kept giving me i cancelled my contract and stupidly signed onto a new 79 contract, oh vodafail! couldnt you have come earlier?!?!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR ANYONE CONTACTING VODAFONE:

1) BEFORE PICKING UP THE PHONE WRITE DOWN THE DETAILS OF YOUR EXPERIENCE AND PROBLEMS IN FULL, AND THINK OF A FAIR SOLUTION (I DEMANDED 12 GIG OF DATA FOR FREE TO COMPENSATE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE TO MY BROADBAND SERVICE)
2) CALL VODAFAIL
3) ANSWER SECURITY QUESTIONS AND GIVE THEM YOUR DETAILS AS REQUIRED
4) ASK FOR CALL OPERATOR'S DETAILS: NAME, CALL CENTRE LOCATION, EMPLOYEE NUMBER (THIS ENSURES THAT THEY ARE ACCOUNTABLE AND THAT THEY WON'T "ACCIDENTALLY" HANG UP ON YOU IF THINGS GET TRICKY, LET THEM KNOW YOU'LL NOTIFY VODAFAIL SHOULD THE CALL DROP OUT)
5) STATE YOUR PROBLEM IN FULL. DO NOT LET OPERATOR INTERRUPT.
6) (OPERATOR WILL NOW COMMENCE MAKING EXCUSES OR DISMISSING YOUR COMPLAINT) AT THIS STAGE YOU CAN TELL THEM THAT THEIR EXCUSES ARE NOT NECESSARY, AND THAT THEY HAVE 2 CHOICES:
OPTION 1) THEY CAN GIVE YOU COMPENSATION (MAKE A SPECIFIC DEMAND AND STICK TO IT: E.G. 2 FREE MONTH'S PHONE USAGE, OR 12 FREE GIGS OF DATA - THINK OF THIS BEFORE CALLING)
OPTION 2) YOU WILL CONTACTING THE "TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY OMBUDSMAN", "THE AUSTRALIAN COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA AUTHORITY", "TODAY TONIGHT" AND "YOUR LOCAL NEWS PAPER". YOU WILL JOIN THE CLASS ACTION WITH LAW FIRM "PIPER ALDEMAN" AND SUE VODAFAIL BECAUSE YOU ARE ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION
7) TELL THE OPERATOR TO GO AND TALK TO HIS/HER MANAGER
8) THE OPERATOR WILL COME BACK SAYING THEY CAN GIVE YOU SOMETHING SMALL (E.G $20 OFF YOUR BILL OR 1 GIG FREE DATA). IF THAT IS NOT TO YOUR SATISFACTION TELL THEM THAT THEY ARE FORCING YOU TO TAKE OPTION 2 AND THAT YOU WON'T ACCEPT ANYTHING LESS THAN WHAT YOU STATED IN OPTION 1
9)THEY WILL GO AND TALK TO THEIR MANAGER AGAIN
10) THEY WILL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU ASKED FOR AND TELL YOU THEY JUST WANT TO RETAIN YOU AS A CUSTOMER
11) SAY THANK YOU AND THAT YOU APPRECIATE THEM NEGOTIATING AN AGREEMENT, AND THAT YOU DIDN'T WANT TO BE AN "ANGRY CUSTOMER" BUT THEIR APPAULING SERVICE CAUSED YOU TO HAVE TO CALL THEM. LET THE OPERATOR KNOW THAT YOU HOPE NOT TO HAVE TO MAKE THIS CALL AGAIN

IF THEY DON'T GIVE YOU WHAT YOU ASKED FOR IN OPTION BE PREPARED TO TAKE OPTION TWO AND FOLLOW THROUGH WITH IT.

KEEP IN MIND EVERY SINGLE COMPLAINT TO THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS OMBUDSMAN RESULTS IN VODAFAIL BEING FINDED $190, SO THEY WILL BE HAPPY TO GIVE YOU FREE STUFF TO STOP YOU FROM COMPLAINING. IF YOU RUN A BUSINESS YOUR COSTS COULD BE MUCH HIGHER THROUGH LOST BUSINESS REVENUE - IN THIS CASE DEMAND PROPORTIONAL COMPENSATION, AND IF THEY FAIL TO COMPENSATE YOU ACCORDING TO THE INVONVENIENCE CAUSED THEN JOIN THE CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT THROUGH LAW FIRM PIPER ALDEMAN