phone calls not connecting/ disconnecting
internet signal poor/dropping out every 5 minutes if connects at all
I am a single parent with 2 small kids month in i had to call emergency and the phone kept dropping out every 10 minutes and wasn't able to make calls if it wasn't 000 courtesy to call back ... then what???
I can't afford a land line currently and want out of that deal!!! Pls help!!!

I had been with 3 for over 5years and just 3mths ago I got a new phone and thought because Vodaphone now owned 3 that there coverage would be as good if not better then 3 sadly mistaken it drop out heaps no coverage in lots of areas not receiving messages from friends internet coverage really slow even not at all I now wish I had stayed with 3 never had this bad a service with them really hope it gets better soon plzzzz

The usual problems that everyone is facing - No reception, drop out coverage, no indication of missed calls, etc.

I have decided not to renew my contract with Vodafone when it expires. Unfortunately I have to wait for another 18 months.How do I get out without paying too much penalty?

Hi everyone,

I'm disabled with epilepsy and live on my own. My parents need to ring me during the day to check on me and I need to ring them them as well if I need to go to appointments etc.

Can you imagine the sheer panic my parents go through when they try to ring my mobile and I don't answer? My phone hasn't even registered that they tried to call me repeatedly so they have to jump into the car and race over to my house scared to death that I could have seisured and possibly killed myself. Then they get to my house only to find that I'm safe and sound after all that distress that they just went through.

It can take me up to four calls before I can actually ring someone (anyone) and even then I tend to lose reception and quite often the call is so badly garbled that I have to try and ring them back. Sometimes I have to try up to four times to ring this person back and each time I get through the line can still end up garbled and I have to start again.

I'm scared.

Just a quick note to all disabled Vodafone users: if you are using Vodafone then I urge you to stop being disabled because you are putting yourself at risk. Sorry people, but if you don't laugh you'll cry.

I'm stuck in Chinchilla and must credit Vodafone with an increased reception from it's normal zero to 4 bars of reception. Is this because of the increased "city dwellers" here to report on the floods?

Well, my wife and I have been with Vodafone for about 4 years now. Over the years we have had issues with network, data and customer service. We did complain with Vodafone regarding the network dropping out on a regular basis, and this used to happen in very centrally locate areas. They initially blamed it on the handset (which we had received as part of our contract from Vodafone), and then they said that we would be travelling through some "dead pockets" (can't really see Garden city being a "dead pocket"). We were told to restart our cell phones when we failed to get a signal, saying that restarting might get our phones to connect to a stronger signal (really don't know what that was all about). The problems with Vodafone became more apparent when we ordered new handsets after our contract had expired. We had requested our numbers to be transferred over to the new handset. An lo behold! The handsets arrived with new phone numbers and contract. So basically Vodafone decided to keep charging us for our old numbers and then give us totally new accounts so they can chanrge us on that too!! We called the customer support (which is based in India), and we literally spent an average of 1.5hrs each on 5 different conversations just to get all this sorted out. The reason of the 5 different conversations was because we had to call them back since they kept reassuring us after each conversation that the issue has been sorted out but it wasn't!! We wrote a 2 page letter to Vodafone head office outlining all the issues we had to deal with and their response was "since we haven't heard anything regarding this issue we assume that it has been sorted out. If you are unhappy with this resolution, please respond to this email within the next 72hrs". On top of that, the data plan we have, we would have rather not gone for it. It is just soooo slow!!!! I was extremely happy to find out that I wasn't alone in this "journey" with Vodafone. I hope they pay for it!!

I live on the North side of Brisbane and i am constantly having issues with mobile internet, just dropping out, when I connect it says reception is very good but it keeps on dropping out?
I also went to Vanuatu and Noumea recently and had roaming put on my internet, but it would not work at all??? I went and seen Vodafone upon my return and all the girl said to me was that happens, no apoligy no refund??? Not good Vodafone, I am currently looking at getting a new Iphone 4 but am reluctant to go to vodafone, even though a lot of my friends are with them and experiencing the same issues i have been reading about. Vodafone when are you going to get it right???

I am on a $49 cap and in the last three months all of my bills have been well over the cap, I have all of the billing lists and it is quite clear that there is a problem with there billing system. They wont admit it, only thing they do is after a long wait on hold or if it is even awnsered they give me a discount of $20 and then it starts all over again next month.
I was in the south east corner and Harvey Bay over the Xmas holidays I had so many drop outs with calls it was not funny and while in Harvey Bay the mobile phone was next to no good would not even send sms let alone a call and it did not even work when i was driving home to townsville until i got to the north side of Mackay the phone was showing full bars but would not send or recive anything. I dont have a Iphone. (N97 mini) nothing but trouble since i got it over a year ago, what a piece of shit

AFTER UPGRADING FROM A IPHONE 3G (THE FIRST ONE) AND RENEWING WITH VODAFONE ABOUT 3 MONTHS AGO, MY 3G HAS BEEN WOEFUL AT BEST, I HAVE BEEN SWITCHING THE PHONE OFF EVERY HALF HOUR TO REGAIN 3G ACCESS... AS A LAST RESORT IVE SWITCHED OFF 3G BROWSING, AND I AM RUNNING ON EDGE... PAINFULLY SLOW, BUT BETTER THAN THE STALLING NOTHING OF 3G. MY BILL IS INCORRECT, BUT I CANT GET THROUGH TO BILLING, AND WHEN I ASK FOR FAULTS, IT SAYS ITS TRANSFERRING ME, BUT THEN I GET A MESSAGE THE NUMBER IS NOT CONNECTED, I CANT EVEN GET MY BILLING SORTED, LET ALONE THE (NOW RENEDERED) POINTLESS IPHONE 3G CONNECTION

ACCC - why did u allow the 3 Vodafone merger
TIO - 8704 and counting disgruntled customers
What has to happen before our regulatory bodies do something ???????

This is a joke. I'm willing to bet that 90% of the people complaining are using an iPhone, which is a joke in itself. iPhones have had known reception problems since DAY ONE!

Put an iPhone 4 next to a HTC Desire HD, Samsuns Galaxy S, X10, HTC Legend or almost ANY other phone, and you will see the reception difference.

I work in a Vodafone store and we shut people up EVERY DAY. They show me their iPhone with 1 bar, I pull out my HTC with 4-5 bars.

iPhones suck up the most bandwidth of any phone in Australia to date, and with the number of them out there, what do you expect? Vodafone pushes more iPhones out a day than any other network in Australia, and with the 3 take over, you can't blame them for the troubles. They're upgrading their 3G towers so that the iPhone people wont have anymore problems (well there will always be problems with iPhones)

Just relax and wait till they upgrade the towers. Vodafone is still 2nd out of all the major Mobile companies in Australia with or without the customers complaining.

I'm with 3 mobile and they are the same carrier as Vodafone. I am disgusted with the service and number of dropouts I have put up with, I have made complaint after complaint and still I get no satisfaction. I am so happy for this website and could wait to express my pain. Vodafone/3 mobile get your act together or get out.

If you absolutely fundamentally need to be contacted at all times and cannot afford any outage use half a brain and build some redundancy into your telecommunications.

This means don't rely on one provider.

Do you think the plane you fly on has one set of control cables? What if they break? Will they just complain?

Of course not. Voda is pretty poor; but you get what you pay for. If you've got some CRITICAL BUSINESS NEED because you are VERY IMPORTANT take some responsibility and build redundancy in.

In my business, I rely on the fact that my customers, staff etc can contact me no matter what. This does not occur with Vodafone, recently loss a major business deal as I did not get a answering machine message or text to my mobil for many hours. In fact the service has been slipping further into disfunction since January 2010. I like everyone else thought that it was my iphone or other phones that we have with Vodafone. In fact I had spent may hours on different days in at Apple complaining about their product was not working as expected. Apple to their credit replaced my phone. I purposely went to Apple after being told by Customer Service at Vodafone that my phone was to blame. Only when I told Customer Service several month later that Apple had confirmed that it was not my phone in error did the staff admit that they knew that this was the case. This is misleading and deceptive conduct on the part of Vodafone. Fortunately for me I have every conversation well documented and various proof from Vodafone supporting my case. Most people are understanding if a company is honest and upfront with issues, but Vodafone has intentionally mislead, as well incorrectly billing. I for one will be joining the legal fight against Vodafone. Oh and by the way the Mobil Broadband from Vodafone is not secure and anyone can hack your system as there is no protection. I also have documented evidence of this. Vodafone has damaged my business and my family and myself as well. If Vodafone had admitted the issue when they were first aware of it and followed it up and actually do what they were paid to do then they would have stopped selling until they had fixed their issues and not continue to add to the problem. Vodafone as a direct result of your actions, I am personally out of pocket many millions of dollars.

My Family and friends try to contact me all the time and say that it just goes straight to message bank.. when on my phone it clearly says full 3G recpetion. Messages I can recieve up to 2 days later, obviously when they are now irrelevant! I can be stuck on a major highway just outside of the city and the phone says NO SERVICE. How are we supposed to rely on vodafail at all if they cant even get coverage "that is promised to you" even in such a high density area! At first I thought it was the iPhone I bought.. but now I realise its not.. its just the company who are happy to wave a perfectly good phone in your face not caring about your needs in the Service, customer care etc are.
It's not fair to lock someone in a contract, when your not willing to be in the contract with them Vodafone!

I'm a doctor and work on the Gold Coast. I have good outside phone coverage, am often woken at 3 am with delayed text messages from the previous day, and am unable to use the mobile data to look up vital data on my iPhone apps if needed. I have purchased an I pad with Telstra data, to allow me to access data. This is compromising patient care. I do not have the time to explain these issues to the overseas call centre, and quite frankly the complaints continue to fall on deaf ears. Vodafone are simply in breach of their contract with me - I was promised 3G data coverage, and may as well have none. They are putting lives at risk and perhaps patients who are injured as a result of the above issues could also become part of the class action. ACCC and TIO get off ur bums and fix this mess

Vodafone are going to be sooo f**ked over cause of this hahahahaha up yours vodafone CEO!!

i have 8 months left and i pay $100 a month =( HELP!!! How do i get out of this freely????????

The ironic thing is that I convinced my teenage son to go Voda when he got a phone, because I wanted him to have a decent quality phone, with decent quality service provider.

Main problem with 3G on my lap top. It receives but will not send, and is very slow. 3k's out of Brisbane and it shows 'poor signal'. Just about at the end of my patience with Vodafone. Poor signal strength on mobile too.Thank you for bringing vodafone's problems to our attention.

Bill Silvester.

I've been with Voda for several years with no problems apart from initially being without my phone for 12 days while they stuffed up the porting process. Oh, and the lack of coverage outside major centres.

Lately though, I have had text messages not arrive, or arrive days late, and little or no reception where previously it was fine. Calls drop out, or caller/call-ee cannot hear each other. The 6 phones I have with Voda all have this issue.

Also, my online account at My Vodafone has been deleted (by them), and I cannot check my usage history, account balance, or use it to recharge my account. I know I can do this other ways, but online is/was most convenient and easy.

After being made to change from 3 to vodafone, i was assured that i would recieve the same service as vodafone own 3, what rubbish, i am very disapointed with the coverage, how am i supposed to use my cap when i can't get a signal half the time and the signal is not consistent. After a visit to my local Vodafone dealer in Robina i had no signal in their shop the assistant then proceeded to tell me it was a fault with the phone, come on vodaphone, i dont like being patronised, i am sure your shop staff must get fed up with hearing the same complaints, spend some of that massive profit and sort it out.

Mobile internet wont load, get text messages hours later, phone calls drop out saying connection error! i have 8 months left and i pay $100 a month =( HELP!!!

R. Forbes. Inner city BrisNeyLand . from 12/12/2010 within 400mts unobsructed view of a tower , my (desktop) mobile broadband CeaseD COMPLETELY to load a page ... , the search engine page never completely loaded as nor did any page then attempted to download . (three complete days).
Tho I have not noted times , (casual domestic use) some afternoons & evenings download time is extended to untenable . To a point of apparently not functioning or so long the page times out .
Since then and today the reception bars show only TWO coloured of a possible five . Downloads are slow , vision is staggered , I am due to re-charge & will consider another provider .
Also , at sign-up I was assured this dongle was adequate for vision ; it has patently never been so... disGRUNTled....! !

I live in Redcliffe, Brisbane and frequently find my calls drop out. I use a iPhones for Vodafone mobile when inside the house only 2 BAR of network. For Vodafone Broadband same 2 BAR of network and sometime connected but limited access (mean cannot surfing)and sometime disconnected, cut off, no network, network error. At the moment I'm incredibly frustrated. Paid huge amount of money bu terrible service. I am waiting to find out what the problem is. anyone can answer???

I recently moved and until then had no problems with vodafone, however now our phone reception is poor and we can not use our vodafone internet at all. They will not let me out of my contract even though they can no longer provide the internet service. I am currently having to pay double the internet as telstra does have coversge. Not happy...

My reception is horrible, text messages come in hours later, phone internet wont load, why sell me a phone for 2 year contract and then say your in a dead zone! i have 8 months till i can get out and then im changing NETWORK!!!!

I was with Vodafone for many years and then after constant call drop outs, incorrect charges and poor competitive pricing, I logged a complaint with the staff. They stated there was nothing they could do but log the issue and they would endeavor to..."increase coverage, stabilize the network and fix billing issues". This did not transpire and after numerous calls complaining about these issues and staying on hold for up to an hour to finally be told I was over charged but I would NOT be getting my money back tipped me over the edge. I stated I would be taking my business else where and would recommend every person i know to do the same. The next day was one of the happiest days of my life as i walked to Optus and had my number ported over and have never looked back.
Vodafone need to realize there business relies on people and when the people are not happy with the service this is an indication to fix up the problem or lose money. I have ensured at least 100 people have not signed up to Vodafone.

I have been using Vodafone for many years now, and recently switched to their INFINITE PLAN and boy have i had DROP OUTS . its a pain in the neck even trying to re-establish connection. i do hope they fix the problem soon. My concern is what if someone - who lives on their own - need s to contact an emergency after hours Doctor or Ambulance and they dont have a landline and cant connect their vodafone !!! God forbid that someone meets an unfortunate ending because of Vodafones network problems.......... Barbie

hi
i truly understand your complaints. we are with vodafone as well... we find it hard to talk to anyone who knows what they are doing.... however its not just vodafone that is like this. we were with another company "O" is the first letter of the company and they were FAR FAR FAR FAR worse than vodafone.
Why don't you do a big campaign on all the mobile phone companies and change the whole system of our service, billing and receiving of service throughout the whole industry ?

I'm glad I've got a gig of data allowance in my plan as it takes about 10-20 mins to load the any page at any time of the day, it's always on wifi when I'm at home. I was quoted in the "excellent" coverage zone when I completed my contract, I feel for people In their poor coverage areas.
Glad I'm not the only one with a vodaphony.

I live in New Farm, Brisbane and frequently find my calls drop out. I use a Blackberry and for a while I would blame friends for the iPhones for the problem - but it seems to be a network issue. At the moment I'm incredibly frustrated because I've had no service for the past few hours. On hold now - 26 minutes later - waiting to find out what the problem is.

poor coverage. poor data.

I ordered my iphone through Vodafone on the 1/8/10, received a faulty handset after 5 weeks. I contacted with Apple and they advised me to return to Vodafone since I've got it from Vodafone. Certainly, Vodafone agreed to replace a new one for me. However, after more than 2 months and numerous emails and phone calls they still failed to put down the order for the new phone for me. In the end, I contacted directly with Apple again and they replaced a new phone for me the following week. I don't understand how they could stuff up so much

Anyway, the phone calls take on average 30 minutes wait before someone answer the phone and the transfer between departments as well that usually result in more than one hour per phone call. One particular call I experienced was that after an hour on the phone, they put me to the right department then as soon as someone talked to me it hung up and I had to call again which took another hour

Thank you for the opportunity to express my frustration and I hope Vodafail acts as warning for all big telco companies that they will not be able to get away with bad services and expect the customers would just accept it

Cheers

Toan

We live in the middle of the Gold Coast (500m from the Vodaphone shop and use vodaphone for both mobiles and mobile internet. The internet has been intermittent at best, frequently dropping or not finding a network and the phones have very poor call quality. One evening, after being on hold for 55minutes, the lovely lady in Mumbai apologised and explained that the internet problem was due to the fact that we had purchased an "outdoor" contract which didnt work properly indoors and she would cancel it immediately!We requested she not do that and the next day,we went into the Vodaphone shop 2 minutes down the road (where phone/internet signal is excellent btw) and related the story to them - embarrassment best sums up their response, and they are still unable to explain the poor signal, which continues now. We are lucky as we are not on contract so can change, but are holding out for Vodaphone to fix their network problems (for how much longer is hard to tell).

I have an office 3km from the cbd in Brisbane. I teeter on 1 bar of reception at my office in the Brisbane Powerhouse. I got an unlimited plan as I did not desire/need to have an office landline phone. This has caused me great pain as I constantly miss calls, drop out of calls get delayed texts leaving a very unprofessional impression on my valued clients. At first I thought it was my new iPhon. I got it replaced but still found the same issues. I then bought another phone and it still has the same reception issues. Other workers who are on Telstra have 3 bars of reception in the same spot. I also spent 3 days up the sunshine coast and had zero reception. I was uncontactable. I could not believe it. We were in a waterfront apartment at mooloolaba the centre of the sunshine coast.

Finally I live in New Farm brisbane. I found between 7:30-10:30 the Internet slows to a standstill making it too slow to do anything online. It seems the Internet is overloaded with too many users in this peak time.

Other then that it's great ;)

Was with 3 needed a new phone, the one I wanted was sold out with three, or as I was told no money was being put into 3 at the moment so there not restocking. The option I was given was walk away and have no phone for a few weeks or swap to vodafone. I was not overly keen but was told not to worry that they had the second best coverage in Aus! False! I had been with three for over 6 years, never any major problems, now I can NEVER get any Internet access for example, if I try to access the Internet 10 times a day I may get it once or twice, only to have it drop out after 30 seconds to a minute. Trying to make calls can also be frustrating as it takes upto a minute just to 'dial'. I have only been with vodafone for 4 weeks and I am extremely dissapointed with the service I have received!

I have been a loyal Vodafone client for 7 years, I have always boasted there cheap call plans and have never had any major issues till now!!!!
Since the merger with 3 Mobile its has gone toatally the other way.
I live on the Gold coast and work in Brisbane. I only ever had one small drop out spot at Pimpama and the Woolangabba, now when i leave home in Helensavle, I loose network coverage 3-5 times between there and Yatala....It keeps swithing for the 3G network to the 2G network the GSM network It drives me insane. I have never had an issue with coverage in Runaway Bay but since the 3 merger, I have the worst reception.
I have lost my faith in Vodafone and will be moving to Optus as the first available opportunity.
Dont even get me started on Delayed Text Messages and emails..........
Good Bye Vodafone good Bye

Paul Helensvale Gold Coast

I use the $29 or $49 maxi cap. I live in poet code 4223 Currumbin QLD. and most of my call are are dropped so I have wasted most of my money. Here is what they said about it. NO refund no nothing!!!!

Response

Question: Vodafone coverage within Australia
Answer:
Australia:

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.




Customer 13/08/2010 03:07 PM
There are a number of residences on the Gold Coast at Currumbin Beach 4223. That cannot get a strong enough signal to use mobile phones. The Houses and flats around no. 600 to 840 Pacific Parade Currumbin Beach experience mostly dropped out calls. Is there any kind off repeater that can be installed at a residence that boost the signal here in Australia? When I was living in Dubai they installed a cell phone booster in every apartment in our building.

What can be done please.


Question Reference #100813-000372

My service on Northside Brisbane

50% call failures
45% text msg send failure
50% of msgs I send - sometimes make it through a few hours later
100% crappy offshore 'customer care'
80% below substandard data speeds
100% idiot - CEO of Vodafone (he ulimately signs off on all major changes I would think)

All my correspondence with Vodafone is now through their 'emailing' contact page..... I can't talk with Vodafone 'customer care' anymore, they make me feel physically sick.

I have been the greatest advocate of Vodafone, even did work experience in their head office yars ago because they were the most customer focused operator who genuinely cared for their staff.

Now I find it impossible to defend my allegiance to them as I am constantly disappointed with their service and regret convincing others to use them.

My issues are coverage fluctuations in the same location, a lack of clarity on call rates (some are free while others seemingly in the same time frame cost a fortune). I am now deliberately late paying every bill. They can wait for me.

Vodafone 'customer care' made me cry a few days ago.... The only other telco to do that was telstra.... I can't believe I'm about to say this, but telstra is starting to look like a viable option again... At least you know you get great coverage and crappy customer service with telstra.

Vodafone 'customer care' made me cry a few days ago.... The only other telco to do that was telstra.... I can't believe I'm about to say this, but telstra is starting to look like a viable option again... At least you know you get great coverage and crappy customer service with telstra.

I was with Vodafone for several years without complaint, until I moved house. I could not get reception at all and made numerous calls to Vodafone only to be assured that I was in an area that had reception. Finally I had to go with another service and asked Vodafone if I could cancel my contract only to be told that it would cost me $380 to cancel. So I continued to pay $29 per month for the life of the contract. I recenly rang Vodafone to ask if I could cancel the contract now and was told that I would still have to pay a fee, even though I still cannot get reception. Seems like I am stuck until February paying $29 per month for a service I cannot use and have not used for at least 18 months. Maybe I am at fault for moving to an area without Vodafone reception, but according to the map on Vodafone site, the area is supposed to be covered.

It has been happening for about 3 months now I thought it was only me or something was wrong with my phone. My husband told me what had been happening I thought it was just my phone playing up as my husbands phone never did what mine did an hes with vodafone as well about a month or so ago i couldn't make any phone calls or texts last time it happened was just before christmas this year so i hope it gets fixed.and,

When you go to make a call, the message says, emergency calls only. The only good thing is you can have credit for a year. I am about to change carriers because I need reliability. Sorry Vodafone.

In February 2010 my $49 cap for 2 years had ran out and I thought i would change to a $29 cap with the offer of a new phone the HTC Magic. I made it specific to vodafone that I wanted to change to the $29 cap but soon found out that my $49 cap was still running and I hadn't been switched over. I found out later on in my billing period that the HTC Magic was always connected to the internet and my bill went to $900+. After I tried to sort the problem out, with no luck from any support from them I paid the large amount. The following billing period they sent me a text to say my account was over 5 times the common amount....thanks vodafone.

Company I work for changed from Telstra to Vodafone a few weeks ago - over 800 mobile services - because Vodafone offered a cheaper corporate deal. Since then I and my colleagues have experienced frequent call dropouts and a lot of calls go straight to messagebank even though the handset isn't in use. To top it off the text to tell you there's a message waiting arrives a few hours later. This infuriates clients who expect a prompt response.
Coverage is poor but at least we expected that and data service is so slow as to be useless.

I've just been reading through all these threads and being a Vodafone customer I share your angst. I've been looking at other telco's and I'd suggest all iiNet customers (like myself) to have a squiz at their new mobile offers - I believe they use the NextG network so it's far superior. Only drawback is that you have to bring your own handset along, but if we're on here complaining about service we already have a handset lol.

Well, it is 2:23am in the morning and I have been online since 12:00am in order to avoid the peak period. I have ben a Vodafone customer for nearly 10 years now and I am at the end of my tether with this company.
I can't believe that this company is allowed to operate in Australia. Given the level of service it provides and the charges for its services that it costs.
I have all my communication services with them and I feel as if they don't care about me as a valued customer.
It is absolutely appalling that this company is able to get away with what I think is very inappropriate level of service because as a communications provider, their services are functional 24/7 and yet their office hours are only from Monday to Fridays between 8am and 8pm.
I have given up on trying to contacting them because everytime I ring their help line, I am put in a que for at least half an hour and then I get given the run around and at the end of the session, I am no better off then before.
Prblems I encounter are: 1) my mobile phone drops out during a conversation quite often. 2) I receive promotional messages that I don't want and never gave permission for my details to be released. 3) my wireless broadband internet has very rarely got a good signal and when it does, it is slower than when the signal is poor. 4) I spend on average 10 times longer on the internet everytime I use it because it is so slow that it feels as if I was on a dial-up system. And even so, I feel that the dial-up system was faster than my broadband system. This causes me alot of stress and frustrations because I cannot complete what I set out to do. 5) most importantly is that I do alot of business on Ebay and I am not competitive as I always fail to bid on time due to the slow response of the Vodafone Service. I have missed out on alot of deals/bargains due to this. 6) Even worst is the fact that I cannot complete my transactions because the pages will just stop loading and I have to shut the computer down and retry, and even so, 95% of the time it will not work again until the next day, by then, it is too late and the items are sold.
Finally, I can voice my opinion to the world about this absolutely lousy service, thanks to this website.
I hope that Vodafone will wake up and do the right thing by their customers as they are an international company and should be able to provide Australia with the appropriate service inline with the charges that is incurred.
As for me, I am jumping ship as I don't like being ripped-off. As the ssaying goes, ONCE BITTEN TWICE SHY.

Anyone want to start a KILL LARA movement?

Constant dropouts of my mobile broadband USB modem, got to the point of being unusable for months on end and all they did was offer $10 a month discount!Seems to be sorted now but wasn't usable for much of this year. I was assured I was using it in a very strong area but it does not connect on 3G network, only HSPDA so not as quick as it should be.

Several things:

1. Their signal is crap, it is slow and painfully embarrassing when I am using it in my work environment.

2. It is always difficult to get through to their call centre.... Was on hold for almost an hour and my vodafone coverage was so bad that it cut out. I am sick of going through their bullshit whenever I need to talk to somebody about their service..... NO ONE IS EVER available!

3. Their service is a joke. You go into their stores and ask for help and they refer you to their website. Their website is so useless you call and sit on hold for hours - WHO IN THIS WORLD HAS THIS KIND OF TIME. I run a business and work 3 different jobs - I would be fired for giving such horrendous service.

4. I am currently traveling and FINALLY worked out (after many phone calls and what not) how to get global roaming for 2 weeks of traveling because apparently their rates are just SO GOOD. NOT. I got a bill for OVER A THOUSAND DOLLARS 2 days ago! Who are they kidding? I am not paying for this!

I will be organising to get out of my vodafail contract ASAP!

This Is a F@#%ing Joke it took 34 minutes to download 20 meg.

WTF is going on, come on Vodafone Pick up your socks get this sorted out, we pay good money for nothing. feeling ripped off & helpless.
Quick to take our money but not so good giving us what we paid for.

as a customer with v phone i have now changed providers,due to the lack of and no coverage where i live they lied to me,i have tried everything including emails,very long phone waiting periods and very bad data coverage,but the funny think is that under the v phone coverage site my house was fine,but when i approched v phone they then told me a different story saying i was in a BLACK SPOT ZONE?? NOW..YOU DONT FALSE DATA COVERAGE OR DO YOU TO GET A SALE..the problem now is that i still have a fixed contact with them until march 2011,but with no coverage as i live in a black spot zone..fair go v.phone
WHAT CAN I DO NOW..MONEY FOR NOTHING AND PHONE FOR FEE...

Been having issues since about August. I have an iPhone 3Gs, was working great, had 4-5Mbps at home, now less than one. Used to be able to use when out and about to look up things (eg at JB Hifi to look up a movie to see if worth buying), and to use Facebook. Now that is near impossible. Have calls where the voice goes in and out. Calls drop out 10-20% of the time, double that if calling another Voda service (which is a pain because both my best mate and my sister are Voda). Called Voda last week, they offered me one month free while they investigate (like that will help). Called TIO, they are going to talk to Voda for me. Now just waiting for Voda to respond.. could take a while. Can't wait to leave and go to Telstra (never thought I would say that).

For 2 months now my bills have been totally wrong. I have been over charged, when being on a cap plan..I was on a $29 cap for over 2 and a half yrs and never had a problem, but these past 2 months I have been over charged once for over usage of data (which was painfully proven to be there fault ) and the second month over charged when I was on a cap of $49.00 and was given an extra 500 free mins and megs for the mistake from previous bill IF I AGREED TO CHANGED TO A $49 CAP. I told them I felt like I was being bullied into this, but agreed as they were reimbursing me.. Now I was watching my usage like a hawk but apparently I still went over my usage?? come on? I call them up on the phone, sat there waiting and waiting as Lara is always flat out and low and behold I get cut off soon as an operator picks up?? I since have chatted to someone on vodafone help via twitter, my bills have been sorted out. ..for now...Im dreading the next bill, oh yeah and they still send me paper bills when I have given my email address and its been verified...I am so over it...I am scared of using my phone...Vodafone used to be good, but lately their performance has dramatically gone poor...

hi i live in kenmore queensland and have benn with vodafone for 8 months i get no reception were i live, and to call or to see miss calls i have to go to the local shopping centre which annoys me so much. i even got two big phone bills off vodafone saying i went over my cap of $450.00 by an extra $150.00 so i changed my cap still talk to the same people and now i use onnly $80.00 worth of calls, so how was i going over my cap vodafone im very dissapointed in your service as i have been a customer for over 7 years all up.

Vodafone mobile broadband is the worst.I have continuing error messages stating I am not connected to the internet. Meanwhile the the modem is telling me I am connected. The only way I can resolve this is to reboot my computer

SOS --- SOS --- SOS --- SOS --- SOS --- SOS --- SOS --- SOS --- SOS

AUSTRALIAN GOVERMENT , HELP the people in this country !!!!
===========================================================

Australians are getting RIPPED OFF ON PURPOSE by VodaFone !!!

Pleae Help Us, as VodaFone Doesn't Listen To Us, Their Customers !

PLEASE HELP !!!

After signing onto a $100/24mo Infinite plan, discovered that Voda do not supply decent 3G access in Brisbane (typically only 1 bar, or EDGE access within 10km city radius). Complained to Voda only to be told they don't guarantee data speeds... Thanks for clearly stating that before I was locked in, guys!

News Headline: Vodafone coach looks for new marquee signing to have understanding of defence and stabilsing a technical foundation. Fans are sick of marketing players scoring numerous goals each game but the team continues to lose.

We had the Manager for Customer Service come and speak to us at uni 2 years ago. Someone put up their hand and asked a question about how the customer agents were so terrible on the phone and how lara was even worse. He just laughed and asked for the next question!

I recently went overseas and had to make 3 phone calls to try to get my cap put on hold for 2 months. I then get back and receive a bill charging me for overseas phone calls i had apparently made and received. Now, I have an iphone so it shows me EVERY call I make... and there had been none since I left the country.
Sat on hold for two lots of 2 hours listening to lovely Lara and then gave up.
I don't care how much I pay for my next plan - it will NOT be with Vodafone.

This is not my mess, but while doing a Google search on other Vodafone problems, I found an article about Tania Zaetta who tweeted about Vodafone coverage... http://www.justweb.com.au/marketing/advocacy-advertising.html

Perhaps you could contact her for a comment?

We had a prepaid phone with vodafone, travelling in Queensland no reception from Charters Towers to Mount Isa. Mount Isa reception was pathetic to say the least.
Since moved back to Telstra and get decent coverage.

apart from only being able to talk to "Lara" when I call customer care,(unless I have time to hold for 2 hours... I now have a brand new iphone on a contract that I am tied into for 24 months, and can't ever access the 3G network, use the credit I get to make any calls as I live in the South Brisbane area and can never get any network. Calls drop out, my internet times out or I wait so long for anything to load that I give up. People try to call me and my phone is "off" as the reception is so aweful. I was previously with Virgin mobile who I never had any issue with in this area, and switched to vodafone because they had a good iphone plan. BIG MISTAKE. When I sent through a complaint about the rubbish customer service, I had email back to ask for "further information" which I didnt receive until a few days after the "cut off" for the reply to their email, and in their words "this issue is assumed resolved and we have closed this case" or something along those lines. Most frustrating service provider I have ever experienced

Receiption in Mackay fail fail fail fail thats all I have to say . . . .

I have had it all. From dropouts to crossed lines to network busy messages, delayed SMS messages by up to two days and no service in an area that is normally fine. I gave up trying to ring the help line as I don't have time to sit on hold or go around in circles issuing voice commands, sit in a ques for 40 mins then get disconnected and have to go through it all again only to hear we are addressing it? Get it together vodafone. I have been a loyal user for a lot of years with 9 numbers with your company. You have been getting your fair share of income from me, it's time I got my fair share of service.

Hi Yah, I've bee with three mobile for about a year now and in the last 6 months i have had quite a lot of dropped calls (even through my Phone Nokia E71, show that i have full reception) and also poor data performance, sometimes pages wont load eve though i have full reception 3G and all. I know Three has a crappy network but it is getting worser and i think it started to happen when Vodafone and Three became one. Even though they have different networks. The call center staff don't seem to care. So all i have to say is Good bye Vodafone/Three hello Optus!

I have been with vodafone for over two years and had no problems - however a few days ago I signed into a new contract and had nothing but problems - I have the latest HTC desire phone, anything that I try and download it tells me that my phone is not compatible. I can't get to the vodafone live website it just keeps redirecting me to another vodafone page. I can't use any of the shortcuts on my phone to download tones/games/ringtones because again it just redirects me to another vodafone page. I've tried to sign into my vodafone online and it tells me that my phone number is invaild. I've tried to contact customer care numerous times - only a few times did I get the "we will call you back option" Yesterday I waited on hold for over an hour only to get a man who told me it wasn't his area and put me through to someone else, after being on hold for another hour someone else finally answers and tells me it wasn't his area either, then tries to put me through to someone else and then I got cut off. This has happened so many times I've given up trying to make contact. I just want to know what the problems are and how long it going to take to fix them. I don't live paying for a service I can't use.

Has anyone else had a "network lost" message appear up to 15 times a day on their iPhone4? I have this message appear stating that my network coverage is no longer available and that I can chose a new network in settings. It gives me two choices, either to dismiss the error message or to go to settings. If I hit dismiss, my 3G icon disappears from next to my reception bar. Or every time I try to use 3G, the icon turns into an "E" and doesn't load. So incredibly frustrating, since I've been with Vodafone for more than 10 years and have never had the issues that I've experienced in the past six months.

I sent my mother and Father a PHOTO on christmas day of their grandchild playing with his new train set. They both got it at exactly the same time, 12:15am this morning, the 29th. That is virtually 3 1/2 days later. what a disgrace. But this is only the latest. Any time my father sends me a photo it takes anywhere from 1 day to 3. I'm not with Vodaphone thank god both my parents are and they are sick of it and will be pursuing this matter further.

internet keeps dropping out along with mobile. can only get reception in certain areas on my house. have been a loyal customer since 1996 ish but seriously considering changing when contracts are up. :(

I am fortunately no longer with Vodafone. The 'upgrades' that Vodafone are doing are consistent with the same 'upgrades' they were supposedly doing 2 years ago when I found their service to be sketchy. The exact same issue: Dropped calls / static in the lines / delayed messages / failed messages / loss of network. I was released from my contract by contacting the TIO which concluded Vodafone were not fulfilling contractual obligations. Nice to see that this issue is STILL going strong 2 years later. Well done Vodafone.

I joined up to Vodafone as my daughter was on it, and all I knew was they offered free vodafone-to-vodafone calls. I used to be on Optus Prepaid, and NEVER any problems! Great reception, great customer service, short waiting times when calling them...however, less than one month ago, I joined a no-contract monthly plan with Vodafone and here are my numerous COMPLAINTS:
sometimes calls drop out, reception is very very poor...OFTEN, often can't send text messages due to reception probs (strange, when Optus was PERFECT!), I called Vodafone 1555 last week to cancel my phone service with them, and I took the option of them phoning me back as the wait time was over 40 minutes they said. So they phone me back, and I was on hold another 114 minutes, before I HUNG UP IN DISGUST! :(((( I had my young kids to look after, and i wasted the whole morning on hold, and telling my kids to go play. They even missed morning tea. AND I NEVER GOT To TALK TO ANYONE. I even called a Mobile Phone shop and they say, no we have to call teh same number 1555 to cancel your service....
So what is the solution? I don't even use the full credit i get given....I want to go back to OPTUS....do i call in the middle of the night in the hope of getting through quicker? I WILL TRY THAT TONIGHT, and if they WON'T CANCEL MY SERVICE, I'll be back here!!!!!
I don't even care anymore if they make me lose my phone number (unless i pay them $50 to take the number elsewhere)...well, they are not getting more from me!

I have already vented my issue in regards to reception data having to leave my smartphone on 2g on the gold coast. I have seen the complaints grow from when this site had started. And yet vodafail yet to respond to when or what date things would get better. My business is been effected, have I complained to vodafail..no...why because I dont want to wait hours on the phone to hear lies. Yet they promote the themselfs with ads. So why dont we all chip in and get a prime time ad put on air warning people about vodafone and their hopeless network. I bet that would make the ceo of vodafone at least let us know what date we would start enjoying a service we all paid for and are not getting.

I have had not had a major issue with Vodafail until 2 weeks ago when I had rely exclusively on the for my mobile phone and broadband at home.
I always knew I had no reception indoors at home, but this was not a problem until my iinet ADSL & VoIP stopped working duem to still unresolved line issues.
Been a Vodafail customer for 17 years. Upset enough to tell Vodafail to stick it.

18000 latency.. ride that wave.

I recently migrated from 3 to Vodafone..and its just been absolute hell, my network reception drops or is constantly goign from 3G to 2G. I only migrated there because 3 were not getting the blackberry Torch and i wanted to upgrade my current blackberry. I regret doing it!. If this is what it takes to get the handset you want then screw it!..I should have stayed with 3!. It might be teh same company but their service is far ahead of Vodafone.
Vodafone customer service is pathetic, it took 3 days to activate my sim card.. I mean seriously. You are a multinational business. Lets not even talk about ur internet service... Get your stuff together,I'm not paying for 2nd rate service!

ESQ

Had our phones stolen just before Christmas. Tried to get onto Vodafone but couldn't. Finally got an answer via email, outbound calls now blocked.... on one of the phones.

Called today to get IMEI number to report to the police - on hold for two hours. Transferred by a support person who did not have access to the information. "You will be on hold only 15 minutes maximum".

I hung up half an hour later.

Their shops have iPhone 4's. But only if you are a new customer. If you're a customer who has paid them thousands of dollars over the last few years you can - you guessed it - get on the phone, wait for two hours and hope they have "new stock" some time in January.

I moved from Adelaide to Bundaberg on the 3 Network, which "shares" vodafone coverage, i could not get any service in the whole town, so i moved to vodafone, to the same problem. i am now a proud telstra customer.

i have no reception on my mobile or internet in my entire suburb.... vodafone says my contract states that it is not relevant if i can recieve reception or not. $260 a month, wasted.

We experienced Vodafail 4 years ago and had to pay out a contract of $1200 for calls that repeatedly dropped outor did not have reception work at all and a phone that sent multiple messages when we didn't even know how to send messages! We always knew something was wrong so am glad to see people are banding together now.

I leave in an area where the 3G network reception was very bad. My case was escalated to the priority team to get my contract and service moved unto Vodafone from 3Network. Vodafone sent me the new iphone4. You cant believe this, it took them a week and 2days to get the new phone activated. When my new iphone4 was eventually activated the reception was the worst ever i have ever experienced. I called vodafone to lodge a complaint about this and i was kept on hold for ever until my wife's mobile phone ran out battery. I ended up not getting any help to fix my phone.Vodaphone is so useless and i would never recommend anybody to subscribe to their mobile service

everyone's saying the same things, so i'll only count as a number. Call dropouts, unable to call, poor customer service (even in the store, they call the same number & go thru the same 40 mins of recorded messages - then they hand the phone to you.....) Sms messages missing / delayed.
Surely the network upgrade can't be happening to all towers at once.....and where is the transperancy to customers? If is was systematic, area by area, AND they were upfront about it, maybe so many wouldn't be upset.
I started with V. many years ago because i found their service, (both network & customer)to be better than Telstra, but have been having second thoughts for ages. Get the towers (if this is the issue)sorted & put real people (in australia) on the phones!

Well the mess I was in has now been partly solved by Vodafone's offer to cancel my contract for both broadband and mobile service. Tomorrow morning I will take them up on their offer. My main problems were with my wireless broadband service. I live in Fairfield which is just over 3 kilometres from the Brisbane CBD. The first thing that I noticed was that the signal strength never exceeded one bar of a possible five. So I was constantly being "bumped off". If it was simply a matter of reconnecting it wouldn't have been a real disaster. But I have an Apple iMac and each time I was "bumped off" I could not open ANY of my applications. And to make matters far more serious I could not restart my Mac in the conventional way! The only option left to me, EVERY time I was bumped off was to pull the plug out of the wall!! Now anyone that knows anything about computers knows that this is potentially a very serious situation. I've got rid of Vodafone, and I think all your complainants should do gthe same. Terry Allen

I live on the sunshine coast. I get no reception at home and limited at work. I put my phone down and get full bars then when someone answers and I bring the phone to my ear it cuts out. After going in to numerous Vodafone stores and speaking to customer 'care' on the phone the answer that i was given is that my iphone doesnt pick up reception as well as other handsets. Brisbane is the capital city of queensland and I don't get reception. It drops out in westend/taringa/cleveland/everywhere. Locked into a contract and paying nearly one hundred dollars a month for shitty reception/slow data and no answers gives me vodafone rage. They need to sort this out asap. I will never choose them as my provider again.

I live in central Surfers Paradise, a place where most would think the service would be best. I have been a customer of Vodafone for nearly 5 years now and have been using the 3G Mobile Broadband. Although I have no issues with the with cell phone service. With the 3G There is not a day where Vodafone has not disappointed me.

There has been time-outs in trace-route for as long as I can remember, even now.
(tracert -w www.google.com). as well as daily service outages. very high latencies (receiving 2380 ping at the moment whereas on some of those rare days i'm lucky to get 500)

Each and every time I have contacted Vodafone about this, the only answer i get is "The network in your region is congested." - Congested 24hours a day? I have received that one exact, very same answer each and everytime I have called in the passed year. In my opinion, That's indirectly admitting to the incompetence of handling the customers you have, not to mention new customers.

They awarded my account 250 megabytes one day... HOORAH????.. what a joke.

Like come on.. get your @#$% together.

Vodafone fails 100%

Vodafone isnt good but nor is Telstra. I hope this isnt a dodgey site to get us to go back to telstra!!!

I was with Vodafone for many years when it first come out and offered a heap of txts msgs each time that you recharged but as soon as they got the customrs in that went out the window and the offers got less and less.The coverage sucked as did the customer service especially in the stores.The mobile phones that you can get with Vodafone are rejects that other phone companies wont use,i learnt that quick. However in saying this there is not many phone companies that you can trust.Telstra employees are rude and have reduced me to tears many times. I have written a 9 page letter to them while being on the phone on hold from a telstra employee,i have had them laugh at me and abuse me and lie to me. Today i went to activate a Telstra sim and after many phone calls and and over an hour of my time on the phone i finally got through and was spoken to rudely.Telstra also have many black spots too and they certainly dont care about customers.
I just hope these complaints are valid and the person who started this is not a disgruntled past Vodafone employee.I notice that Telstra and Virgin are getting plugged on this site and they are not much better.
I accidently typed in vodafail.com.au and i got a blank page with my ISP on t,hmmmm!!! Is this an ad for Telstra????

I was with Vodafone for many years when it first come out and offered a heap of txts msgs each time that you recharged but as soon as they got the customrs in that went out the window and the offers got less and less.The coverage sucked as did the customer service especially in the stores.The mobile phones that you can get with Vodafone are rejects that otherphone companies wont use,i learnt that quick. However in saying this there is not many phone companies that you can trust.Telstra employees are rude and have reduced me to tears many times. I have written a 9 page letter to them while being on the phone on hold from a telstra employee,i have had them laugh at me and abuse me and lie to me. Today i went to activate a Telstra sim and after many phone calls and and over an hour of my time on the phone i finally got through and was spoken to rudely.Telstra also have many black spots too and they certainly dont care about customers.
I just hope these complaints are valid and the person who started this is not a disgruntled past Vodafone employee.I notice that Telstra and Virgin are getting plugged on this site and they are not much better.
I accidently typed in vodafail.com.au and i got a blank page with my ISP on t,wtf!!! Is this an ad for Telstra????

A. I live on the Gold Coast for the last month I can not make a call from my house as i have no reception, I work in Brisbane & if i am driving along the M1 my calls drop out at least twice on the trip this is every time I am driving to & from work .
B. the worst one was when i was on Hamilton Island & I was flying back to Brisbane my partner left me a voice message on the 4/12/2010 at 9.41 am to tell me he couldn't pick me up from the airport i received this message at 4.15 pm 4 hours after I arrived back in Brisbane as he was not there it caused me a lot of stress as I was worried about him & I had no way of getting back to the Gold Coast, this nearly broke a 17 year relationship .
Over the 14mths of this contract I have been overcharged numerous time my complaints have always fallen on deaf ears , my cap was far to high & not a good deal finally after more complaints vodafone they gave me a better deal.
I am locked into a contract & this is my second time with them it is getting worse I will be thinking very seriously before I lock in again.

My iphone died a few weeks ago. Went to the Toowong Vodafone. The girl was SOOO rude, dont me the wouldnt help me even though i brought it there and they know my face! I walked away disgusted, went to the city store. The helped me but it took me another trip to the city to get this done when the woman at Vodafone Toowong could have got over her attitude and assisted me.

I cannot get coverage from Forest Lake. I also have issues with vodafone seeding money out of my credit. If only I could have a statement of all my use because I am recieving constent messages telling my I don't have enough credit. So if it is a constent occurance how many times has it taken credit without me knowing? Please explain.

When i entered into contract for a htc desire hd $29 dollar plan
I asked them will my bill always be $44 if I dont go past my usage (including internet) (29 dollar cap + 15 dollar phone upfront/month) and they said YES definitely will only be $44 dollars if you dont go past your usage allowance. I received my first bill on the internet and it was higher than $44 and I still had $150 worth of credit and 193mb of internet left.

Unacceptable. This is definitely misleading information.
The phones are also absolute fail. I think all Desire HDs Vodafone holds all have build problems. My first one I found out had a bit of build fault so I returned the very next day of purchase. They allowed me to change only ONCE, (they said i have 14 days to exchange yet the next day they said they could only change it once) The new one also had that build fault. Worst company ever.

I keep getting drop outs. So annoying the person that I am taking to thinks I hang up on them.

I have signed up with the Fail-Full Duo, Vodafone for my phone and 3 for mobile internet. I had so so many failed phone calls, like 12 in one conversation to a client that in the end I blamed my Iphone 3Gs and concreted it. ( That is smashed it into a concrete path from 3m height ). That certainly fixed the problem.
So now I have a different phone, which of course suffers from the same thing but maybe not as bad. I think my company and customers think I dodge my smss` but in truth they turn up hours and days late.I live in Ipswich Qld and I mean the coverage is suss even in town, of course a few km`s out there is no coverage. If you see a white commodore sitting up at the top of a hill or mountain in the area then that may well be me, trying to get a signal of some sorts. And the (Vodafone) /3 mobile internet, well its just crap, just like having dial up. When my vodafone / 3 contracts are up - I`m gone.

I enter any local shopping centre and I have absolutely no coverage and to make matters worse, more often than not, the phone does not always reconnect to the Vodafone service when I leave the shopping centre. The phone I got with the contract is a Samsung Omnia (nealry 2 years ago) and it has to be the worst phone ever and this with the Vodafone coverage!!!!!! Fortunately I only have two months to go with my contract.