I am a Three (now VodafoneHutchinson Australia - VHA) user and have always had (free) email access since joining Three. Now Three Support advised me today when I called them that I have to pay $5 a month for email access. When I upgraded my handset at the local Three branch, no-one advised me a charge (for email access) will apply. I've checked the Three website and nowhere does it state a charge will apply. Three now expect me to pay the monthly charge whereas it was their responsibility to advise me at the time of replacing the handset a charge will apply. In my view it is their responsibility to ensure I continue to have email services at their cost, not mine.

POOR service
POOR call receiption
POOR in message recievals
POOR all round

couldn't promise to fix all of the above, ended up braking contract because of that. all they cared about was that the billed got paid, didnt have problems taking my money...
vodafone POOR POOR POOR

I Have been a vodafone customer for more than 3 years and got a contract with the iphone 3gs and was given a coverage map the day i signed up ensuring me that coverage was not a problem in my area.
I was soon to find out that this is not the case at all. I cannot get coverage in my house or outside unless i get up on my water tank which is very dangerous.My boss has almost given up trying to ring me because it constantly drops out and then costs more to ring back again and again.
One night i came home from the city on the train and tried ringing my wife to pick me up from carrum station in melb but had no reception on the train all the way from parkdale so i ended up having to ring from a payphone and yet costing me even more money! Voicemail is constantly down or you dont get the message untill hours later and i cannot send emails from my iphone.
I have complained to vodafone on their website more than once and their response was "we are working on it", i must be a big job because that was last year and its still no good!I cant believe i am legaly bound to a contract that i have to pay for when they are clearly not providing the service that they promised. Like in said above its Criminal.

There is an evil awakened in this land, and while my people FIGHT for there very souls against it, YOU HENRY THE RED wage war on us!!

I have been with Vodafone for years.. I really don't know why. I think it's because now I have half my family on Vodafone for the free V2V calls and I'm stuck with them. I can't tell you how many times I have been charged for internet on my 'blackberry with free internet' plan. To call them and get the charges reversed takes a minimum of 3 transfers in their callcentre and then the problems are never resolved. To resolve this I have been on hold for over one hour on 3 separate calls. I ring, immediately on hold.. speak to someone, get transferred.. wait 20mins on hold, after describing my issue for the second time, transferred again, another 15mins on hold, someone answers and hangs up immediately without even speaking to me. Issue not resolved, another call, more time on hold. It is so bad I have literally been in tears more than once in frustration with vodafone. Now I am trying to buy a prepaid for my daughters Xmas present. I cannot load the site for days, when I do, I try to 'add to cart' and it has an error. They aren't selling this phone instore. I try again, no luck. Call online customer sales, they can't sell it to me either because it's a prepaid. Yes they are having difficulty with their website, please try again in 4 hours. So frustrated again at this point. I ring back - 'please say what you are after' "COMPLAINT".. 'Unfortunately there will be a... 20min.. wait to speak to someone'. 20mins?! 20mins on hold to complain?!? OMG I am on hold to complain about being on hold and getting crappy customer service! "Buy before the 20th Dec for delivery before Xmas"... it's now the 19th. Try to call again, one last time, speak to a lovely person located in TAS (wow! not many of them left at Vodafone) but she still can't help me because it's a prepaid. I send a screenshot of this offer through to their online feedback form. I get a response saying "I can't find this offer, but we have some lovely contracts for you". I reply again "as per my previously attached screenshot, the offer is clearly shown on your website, can you confirm you are not willing to give me the offer as advertised and shown in my screenshot'. Someone will get back to me. It's now 29/12 and no reply for 7 days. I try again on the website.. still stuffed. So here I am. And this is not even the half of it.. just some of the issues I have had. Why am I with Vodafone?? That's right, all of them are just as bad as each other.

Have got a wireless modem with them and it is so slow that the web pages time out and there is very limited coverage in the places i work, i don't have a problem with my Smellstra phone though.

I have been a vodafone user for about 6 years. I can handle the intermitant and weak vodafone reception but what I won't put up with is poor customer service.

I called the Vodafone call centre after my phone started sending multiple sms messages to recipients. I was left on hold for 40 minutes at 8pm on a sunday night. My call was picked up for about a minute, no one spoke to me and I could hear laughing and conversation in the background. My call was then placed back in the queue and I hung up. I have worked in a call centre and there is absolutely no excuse for this behaviour. I have now moved my business elsewhere.

me and my 2 flat mates are all using vodafone internet sticks, for the past 3 months now the servicice is constantly disconnecting and re ceconnecting after a few minutes and running at very poor speed,
for a space of a week we could hardly connect at all, i called up twice to complain about this and got no where, after the call operator going through services of trying 2 make out it was my computer that was at fault ( which i kept sayin it couldnt be as 3 of us were having the problem) the call server then said it appears my computer correct and then suggested i just go 2 a different area to use my internet, so basically there were not helpful 1 bit

also my phone is vodafone and when on calls constantly keeps dropping in and out of calls and even disconnects me, which is a massive pain as i do alot of calls over seas so just 2 reconnect calls hits my credit and friends credit on the pocket

I have been with Vodafone for years however had never experienced such a high frequency of dropouts and delays in receiving and sending text messages, sometimes days in between. I too am disappointed in the service and would like it rectified or released from my contract early.

Despite repeated to calls to Vodafone and confirmation that there is an acknowledged problem, after several months am still unable to use Vodafone smtp server to send email from my iPhone and no end in sight.
and yet I keep getting charged for my data plan without discount.

poor reception, bad customer service, it took 2 weeksw to lodge a claim for handset insunce they wanted me to drive 7 hours to hand my handset in at a different vodafone store then the one closes to me. they put a bar on my fone when i still had 2 days to pay it.

When I suddenly started having USB modem internet problems, I called the call centre. Phone dropped out twice and after being kept on hold for 28 minutes, I was told to go into the shop as they couldn't detect the problem. I went into the Highpoint Vodafone store, and they told me that they didn't have any service in the store and would have to go outside and contact the call centre again! In the end, it turned out that the same Vodafone shop gave me a prepaid MOBILE sim card when I had requested to purchase a prepared INTERNET sim card! The packaging doesn't differentiate!

I have purchased a new house in an estate that has been established for around 8 years. I cannot get reception inside my house on my Iphone. It keeps showing an E and only one bar of service. For a laugh I got on my roof to see if it was any better and still no change. When I commenced my contract I paid $120 to upgrade my phone to the 16gig and since I want to get out of my contract they want the phone back. Even thou I paid this money they are not going to refund me!! I have had constant problems vodafone in melbourne sydney brisbane and darwin!! I would never recomend them to anyone. I cannot wait to get out of my contract!!

told I could get vodaphone reception in about 90 % australia coastline, cant get reception a shade out of melbourne until I reach Midura some 600 klm away
I live in mornington and cant get reception in my own home, and when I do it drops out very often,can,t get any satisfaction basicaly suck it up

I live in St kilda in vic and i'm using iphone 4

as soon as i get into my house nearly lost 3g reception.

also it happens when i get into any building except CBD area.

n sometimes lost signal completely

my internet keeps dropping out, so i had a bit of trouble accessing this site and sharing my pain

There have been a number of occasions I have sent a single text message and the message has been sent multiple times. Just over a month ago it reduced my credit to zero in a matter of minutes.

At first I thought it could be my phone playing up, but then I heard it was happening to a lot of Vodafone users.

If my understanding is correct then Vodafone should definitely be making efforts to reimburse users like myself.

Once I can find the patience to last long enough on hold I will see what they can do for me.

To the previous persons trying to defend Vodafail for what they are, I take your point about cheap prices get cheap service. However, there is such a thing in Australia called "minimum service requirement". It's clearly that Vodafail did not meet that at all. They are worst than catching a train in Melbourne and Sydney. Just try to imagine that, your car broke down somewhere in the CBD and your phone had no signal or can not make a call due to network problem. Do you think somebody will really come and help you? Worst still, if you are a lady get chase by potential rapist, a working mobile would be great savior in these sticky situations.

i have been a customer with them for around 7 years and never had a problem but now my phone keeps dropping out all of the time ,always got a weak signal , and i have changed phones 4 times so that definitely cant be the problem ,i have missed heaps of calls relating to my work , and even txt messages are just a joke , i was wondering why i wasnt getting any replies one night then the next morning i got over 30 txt messages that i was supposed to reply too the night before then when you call them to see if something can get done about it , you cant understand the person who y9ou are talking to ,,, come on voda pick up your act

can't make calls when at home as i get little or no signal - calls drop out constantly (this has been the case for at least 3 years). Cannot get signal with internet on my phone and no reception with mobile dongle for the desktop PC either. Paying a total of $129 month yet cannot use internet at home or make phone calls - couldn't even dial 000 when i needed to the other night (Thankfully it wasn't gunshots after all)!

Tell me again what i have been paying for? Up until now i figured all telcos were prob the same and no point switching (have had bad experience with Telstra with work phones etc...) but now find out i've just been getting ripped off month after month after month.....

Never reach the limits of my cap coz i can never make calls or use the internet services i have been paying for! Will def be changing to someone else when my contract expires again in 12+ months (grrrr)....

I was with Vodafone for a few years.. and eventually gave up..I had limited coverage to the point where I sometimes had to leave my house and walk to the next street to get reception..I had absolutely no coverage at my workplace.. too bad if there was an emergency.. I have now left them and will never return

The only way to get ahold of me when I'm at home is through sms. Its the only way to 'hold' a conversation because I can rarely receive a call and when I do, 99% of the time it will drop out. I've tried standing in my backyard and it's only a minor improvement.

I thought phone companies were supposed to provide adequate phone service at the very LEAST???? How can they still be in business!!??

Customer service... Vodafone you should be ashamed of yourself.... over an hour waiting on hold and still no resolution or they simply say 'I will all you back' and of course they don't. They started my new contract before I even had my iphone delivered, jamming texts, poor phone coverage, call drop outs constantly.... the list goes on... If you can't provide good phone or customer service, then don't PRETEND and LIE like you do.

I have only just had this website brought to my attention and I am pleased to know I am not alone in my battle with Vodafone.

I have been a Vodafone customer for more than 6 years however only recently moved from pre-paid to a plan. For more than 3 months now I have had no service or so little network coverage on my phone that i cannot even send text messages, receive phone calls etc. Everyday when I arrive at work I am inundated with texts and voicemails from missed phone calls. I have to be more than 3 kilometres from my house to make a phone call and even then it still rings and then cuts out. My frustration is that the service was working but is only now failing. Something has to give... I would be happy with a cleared contract so i could choose a new provider... and preferably one with no Lara.

Change from 3 to Vodafone because I was told from a 3 representative that where I live the network will be much better. Note: 3 and Vodafone have the same parent company nowadays and they did not want to lose me I reckon.

95% of the time when I am at home, I don't have reception. It's really a pain and I have end up using my home phone now. But my partner has an optus and I do have a telstra for work and they both have reception.

The 3G internet is always very very slow. Can't even look for something on the internet. And it is the case in the city too. Whereas other service providers are quick.

Customer care is zero. You have to wait for nearly one hour before you get someone to talk to you.

When I got my phone, it was without a sim card in it. For nearly one month, I was without a working phone. And despite calling numerous times and waiting several hours on the customer service.

All I can say is the coverage map on the Vodafone website is not a real one. Don't take it into consideration. Their signal keep dropping out and it is even more stressful. Cheap but not worth. Go for optus or telstra.

Thankfully i haven't had any experiences with call drop-out. My main issues are with poor reception. I know that if I go into a supermarket, then without fail, by the time i am half-way in the store i will have no reception at all. This happens regardless of the location of the store.
And at my girlfriend's house i have virtually no reception at all, unless i hang out the back door near the garden, then i have one bar. But even then the reception is so poor it's pointless making a call as you can't hear the other person. And this is at Chadstone, not in the middle of the bush!

Not much really.

I have noticed however that if you are on a busy 3G cell site getting on the net on my iphone is almost impossibly slow. When compared to my sons iphone on Optus. Tho I would rather deal with Vodafone than Optus. All my friends on Optus have had major problems with billing.

Im not a Vodafone employee or related to one. Just someone who doesnt mind Vodafone.

I would like to be let out of my contract tho as I want a HTC Desire HD. ;)

I'm getting over my iPhone not supporting flash and the shorter warranty on apple gear.

using vodafone for almost 3 years, very fustrated when talking half way and call dropped, especially making enquiries for important issues or interving for job...when will this be improved? It also went to voice mail very fast

I am with vodafone since a year and half. Reception in last couple of months is a nightmare. I work in highpoint shopping centre, i am hardly getting 2 bars with my phone. Dropping calls everytime. out side of shopping centre no coverage. i have been outer suburb of melbourne (great ocean road and ballarat regiion) was getting better coverage than city. Was getting 3G coverage. As i spend lot of time at work I have to have coverage in shopping centre. WHAT VODAFONE CAN DO FOR US???????? THIS IS NOT WHAT WE SIGNED UP FOR.....

using for business, can't work. I think i have wasted over 26 hours in the past week just trying to send/receive email and phone calls dropping out.
Can't send emails from a Mac using Entourage for NO apparent reason.

I am cancelling my contract and moving to another supplier just to get a phone/internet that works!!

Im extreemly over phone calls cutting out serval times during one phone call, too many 'no service areas' where other networks get full service, and lastly that highly annoying voice activated recording when all you want is to speak directly with a real human! Very frustrating!!!!

very poor coverage constant drop outs and Im 40 ks from the cbd of melbourne I now have a second telstra mobile for when i travel to W.A as i get no service at all in bakers hill

Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty Ltd is the combined old companies of Vodafone and 3.

I recently had 3 demand I pay money upfront because I was using roaming. I've used roaming before and racked up a bill of $500 and yet on this occasion I got a rude SMS asking I pay the previous bill early as well as additional money towards the next bill I had not seen yet!

I lodged a complaint with the TIO and spoke to Janeen in the TIO Resolution Dept at Vodafone who assured me my phone would not be suspended and I could pay my bill as it falls due. My phone was suspended later that day!

If I wanted pre-paid, I wouldn't have signed up to a contract! There is no guarantee for me that this will not happen again the next time I use roaming. As soon as my contract is up, I'm leaving them!

One of my workers was locked out this morning, she called me at 730am to advise she couldn't open up, despite normally having full service in my house, the phone never rang, she left two voicemail messages both of which came through at 9:30am - 1.5hrs after we were scheduled to be open! Not good enough Vodafone! Massive Vodafail!!!!

Cut's out during a conversation, wont ring through 5 out of 8 times, messages come through days later. MSM come through late in the PM when been sent during the day. I rang to make sure I had correct coverage prior to my partner heading overseas for 10.5 weeks and he hasn't been receiving my txt messages. Its hard not to be able to communicated with him for sure a long time.

I live in Greenvale victoria. If my phone is in my pocket i never have reception and calls go strait to message bank and if i am lucky enough to be on a call most of the time it will drop out anyway. If IM trying to make a call often it will give me a connection error.Having been with telstra, optus and 3 over the years i have no doubt that Vodaphone is by far the worst and wish i could get out of my 2 year contract :( It makes running a business hard and communicating with loved ones a hassle. With all the technology we have these days why is it so hard to simply make a phone call? I had heard rumers that vodaphones reception wasnt the best, so during the purchase of my handset i asked the staff about coverage and reception in my area which he showed me was fine and that it will get even better once they merge with 3. I feel like i have been lied to and missled. If i had know how bad it was i never would have entered this contract.

i can not use my mobile with a vodafone pre-paid smin shopping centres especially gladstone park tullamarine.
It says emergency call only.
Funny how i can use my optus without any problems.

I was previously with 3 and as i live in a roaming area I was getting charged ridiculous amounts for roaming charges, I was told that if I change to Vodafone I would still have the great range 3 had to offer but would not get charged the roaming fees. I did so coped a 2000 dollar cancellation fee i was assured would be wavered then was stuck with the crappy reception that Vodafone has to offer on top of it. I have no reception in my house, I will have full reception then suddenly my Iphone 4 will cut out and start searching for reception its not good enough and I am locked into a 2 year contract. These issues would want to be resolved soon or I will have take another ridiculous fine and change carriers once again.

Well, i was living in a house that didn't have a phone line so to get internet i had to get one of those mobile thingos. The price was ok compared to other providers, still super expensive, but the service is pure junk! When it rains, drops out .. windy, drops out ... little bit o' cloud ... gone!!

Sometimes just the machine itself is soo poor i need to restart my computer just to get it to recognise itself! I did a speed test and turns out my net is slower than dial up ... seriously??

Yesterday I went into a Vodafone store to look at getting a new phone on a 24 month contract (plenty of people were in the Optus store that day, and no-one in the Vodafone store, I wondered why...).

I asked the shop assistant "Can I please have a look at the contract for this phone plan?"
"Uh... what do you mean by 'contract'?", the shop assistant replied.
"I assume to get this phone on the 24 month contract, I have to sign a contract. Can you please give me a hard copy to have a read over?"
"Oh we usually just fill in your details on the computer. Oh and the system is down at the moment."

I am SO grateful the system was down and I had the chance to come across this website!!!!

I have all my families phone and internet services with Vodafone pre-paid. I am extremely frustrated with vodafone especially when it comes to my internet connection. I have been unable to use my internet as it just wont connect or it connects but then cuts out constantly. As it's pre-paid if my credit is unused it does not roll over so I am losing money and I believe I have no grounds for compensation. And as for my phone services, let's just hope I don't go into early labour while out alone with a mobile that just wont pick up reception!

the service is beyond pathetic.. VodaEpicFail!!!!!!
they are in constant denial about the issues and do not agree to release me from my contract.... i have had no benefit of using vodafail and yet they so conveniently debt my account every month for this epic fail service
RELEASE ME FROM THE CONTRACT VODAFAIL!!!!!

The amount of broadband dropouts I've had to restore data from are countless. Simple updates interrupted by the haphazard signal carrier change massively increase my overpriced limit usage. From 3G to HSUPA to HSDPA to the dreaded signal destroying GPRS. The redundant and endless stream of DUNS error codes that are simply wrong due to lag. A broken customer account login page to the completely hopeless website that is as helpful as aspirin to a migraine.
To the fact that I dc'd 3 times writing this.
Vodafail indeed.

I've been with Vodafone for 22 months, until around June this year, reception was fine, since then, I cannot make phone calls because I don't get reception in my own house, I don't get it at work or at uni.
On the odd occasion that I do have reception, it drops in and out constantly and results several 'failed calls' and multiple disconnections. If it doesn't disconnect, I can barely hear the person on the other end due to distortion.
I went in store about 2 months ago, and was told that it was a faulty phone, and that because I didn't purchase an extended warranty (despite paying insurance every month) I would either have to pay $200 to replace it under insurance, but it would need to be sent off first. $250 for a brand new phone, or to pay out the rest of my contract for $320 and go on a new contract.
As soon as I have found a new carrier, I will be leaving Vodafone, and never returning.

Yes, you're right. I used to work for an ISP. Every complaint to the TIO costs them money. On a sliding scale from level one complaint.

I signed up for a whiz bang offer in 2001. I ended up with a phone that was so big it wouldn't fit in my pocket (motorola a series). The problems began the moment I walked out the door. The battery would last just 4 hours in standby. I'd carry two batteries with me just to last the day. Support said that it was normal! Bullshit!

The network coverage was worse than telstra by a country mile. I couldn't make calls indoors from an office in balwyn, just a few km from the cbd! Hopeless.

The phone from hell would not be repaired. The customer service was non existent. So I stopped paying the bill and whenever they rang me with demands for payment, I told them payment would be made immediately if they give me a replacement handset.

I think you know how this ends. Bill goes to debt collectors. I tell them to suck it. Account holder get nasty annotation in credit file. I complain. They get written off.

Anyway, about a year ago we moved up to the nsw border and my wife was with voda despite my dramas earlier (they never listen). No signal in the town. Not even 2g. Nothing.

So sometimes we'd get one bar from the next town. One fleeting bar of signal. But most of the time the phone just sat searching and chewing through battery.

Needless to say they expected us to pay out the contract. Yeah right. So I threaten to call the tio. Of course we'll let you leave early, they say.

Worst telco in the country. Don't use.

I am upset that there is a Vodafone class action suit being organised but it doesn't appear to extend to Three, which has long been crap and is getting a lot worse (since joining with Vodafail?). Where is the Three Mobfail website?

We shopped around before we finally went with Vodafone. We were told that we have service in our area.

We don't have service in our area and as I travel in my job I have seen that the service is very patchy.

Their bills are always late and/or problematic. I rung them twice. On the first occasion I was on hold for 45m. On the second occasion, where they were claiming I hadn't paid my bill (they had drawn from my bank account almost 3 weeks before), I was on hold for 81m.

I'll give them 1 or 2 months to fix all the issues. If not fixed by then I will demand a release from the contract - I will take it to the ombudsman.

John D from Kyneton VIC

To Whom it May Concern:

I have just got off the phone after WAITING well over an HOUR for my concerns to be heard, only to have the women on the other end of the phone tell me that "I have to ring back between 8am and 8pm" to talk to someone who can help.

To say I am disgusted and disappointed is an understatement. Considering this ladies voice comes on every 5minutes saying "sorry for the delay we will be with you shortly". Please explain to me how WAITING over an hour is being with me shortly?

All I am trying to do is CANCEL my Vodafone account when my contract runs out on the 29th of December 2010.

I have been with Vodafone for quiet some time now, but that will end on the 29th of December 2010.

I will be going through a different company where the Customer comes FIRST!!!

Regards,
A Disappointed Customer

PS I have also rung Vodafone on another occasion only to be hung up on. I do not understand how they have any customers left.

vodafone coverage in the area where i work has gone from average to worse to at times non existence. The company i work for had upto 100 or more mobiles with vodafone but because of lack of coverage have now switched to another carrier. I have constantly spoke to vodafone about this problem and its really hard to explain to somebody in mumbai that you not gettin the service you pay for, its even harder to fathom when you are workin not half a kilometer from a mobile phone tower.

Not just Australia all so England vodafail.
Talking to friends in England same SHIT

When did I log that last comment? I am still on the phone with Vodafone. I have passed to second person and on hold again. Has he gone on his lunch break? I am attempting to negotiate some amalgamation of the two accounts. One has 6 months to go, the other 12 months. Do I cut my losses, pay the (I am now told $299+ $272) exit fees? Oh he's back. Every time I say cancel both contracts, I get another "Did you read the contract?" spiel. I explain the concept of unfair contracts and the classd action lawsuit. Now a router is on offer. OK m I ask for some extra gigs for the rest of this month. Back with the hold music whil he goes to eat his toast. This is just the old car saleman technique to wear you down "Must go ask the manager yada yada yada". (I have hit limit again :() Man, it's like getting ood from a stone.

Hey there just some advice from a former 3/Voda customer, if you have a legitimate complaint then ring the Telco ombudsman. I rang them they gave me a reference number, rang 3/voda and they straight away let me out of my contract and waived any outstanding fees. I now have a telco that works, might cost more but at least my phone does not drop out.

Thankfully I switched to another provider the day before Christmas, and life is so much better. Contacting this provider for after sales service is bliss! Vodafone, take some lessons from other Telco's (of which there are sadly, only two successfull ones).

I would physically get cold chills each time I had to call Vodafone for help on an issue (and if you were to see my Vodafone file, you would see there were many!) Customer service standards did not translate from the words of the pleasant and empathetic staff on the phone to the end result. I feel very sorry for the Vodafone staff on the end of the line.

Speak to the Ombudsman if you want to get out of your contract. Although considering the latest headlines, you may not need to. Thanks for letting me vent. Wish I could say more!

Yes im a vodfone sucker and have been complaining for months.
Whent to voda shop where i live. And saw a list of over 200 names that have complained in my area alone. i went to vodaphone comlaints on web made the statment on page of class action. It was removed next day. You go hard Vodafail.
I have registerd to.

Thankfully I switched to another provider the day before Christmas, and life is so much better. Contacting this provider for after sales service is bliss! Vodafone, take some lessons from other Telco's (of which there are sadly, only two successfull ones).

I would physically get cold chills each time I had to call Vodafone for help on an issue (and if you were to see my Vodafone file, you would see there were many!) Customer service standards did not translate from the words of the pleasant and empathetic staff on the phone to the end result. I feel very sorry for the Vodafone staff on the end of the line.

Speak to the Ombudsman if you want to get out of your contract. Although considering the latest headlines, you may not need to. Thanks for letting me vent. Wish I could say more!

I have a 3G Mobile stick which never connects to a 3G network and I live in the middle of Melbournes CBD! It constantly drops out and is very frustrating, I will not be renewing my contract when it ends next month, this has been a constant problem since the start.
Just bought my wife a new mobile and this appears to be doing exactly the same thing, it is useless when connecting to the internet and regularly drops out.

I have a 3G Mobile stick which never connects to a 3G network and I live in the middle of Melbournes CBD! It constantly drops out and is very frustrating, I will not be renewing my contract when it ends next month, this has been a constant problem since the start.
Just bought my wife a new mobile and this appears to be doing exactly the same thing, it is useless when connecting to the internet and regularly drops out.

I found it ridiculous that while at the MCG with vodafone signage everywhere my iPhone claimed i had no reception.

Our business has a plan with 8 phones till April 2011.
Iam on diversion for glass emergencies and have to place my phone on a ladder on the second storey to receive calls and to make a call we have to climb onto the roof of the second storey.
Obviously we miss lots of calls and business.
We live ON THE BEACH AT FRANKSTON, we can see the city and the Dandenongs and the whole of Port Philip Bay !!
How bad can it get!
Can't wait to resume running a business in April with another carrier.

I took my laptop and VF Mobile Broadband to Mt Gambier as I was there for the family Christmas. I tried connecting on Mon 27 Dec. I needed to run the payroll report to send to our payroll dept. VF had me on my mobile for 4 hours trying to fix the problem. They told me that there was good coverage in the place I was. I found a search item on my computer that scanned for broadband signal. It found Telstra and Optus but no Vodafone. I had to abandon trying to connect and had to wait till I got back to Melbourne the next day to run my payroll report. Staff will be paid a day late because of this.

Vodafail? My god people, did you not choose to go to Vodafone as it was the better deal? What, you were expecting, like reception and customer service as Telstra for a fraction of the cost?
The way the general public treat these sales assistants instore is just plain shameful.
They are somebodys' daughter/son, mother/father, someones friend, they have good days and they also have shit ones, they are the products of misinformation given by VHA CEOs.
Unfair to threaten to spit on them and treat them with such disrespect instores.
Australia, you should be shamed!
Stop complaining about someone told me this, and someone told me that and start reading the fine print before you sign! How about as average everyday people we investigate what it is we are signing up to, read forums and ask our family and friends?
How about we take some blame for our actions and start being proactive about resolving our issues instead of complaining about them

I have 2 vodafone accounts, both Mobile braodband. I live in City Melbourne on St Kilda Rd where there is no excuse. Constantly plagued for nearly 2 years with constant drop outs, malfunctions of the broadband connectivity, slow transmission. This means many periods of lost produictivity and paying for a service that is not provided. When trying to resolve problems on the phone being passed from technician to technician repeating the same steps, often 2-4 hours in one day. THey tried to tell me there was no problem, so I took my laptop into a Vodifione store on Elizabeth and called from there: each page tool 60 seconds or more to open and then froze. On billing issues I am never able to get through. Last week I tried and was told the wait was 45 minutes. This morning I got through, had a 10 minute conversation, was again put onhold, and it is now another 30 minutes I am suitting listening to Vodafone hold music.
The excess usage fees are pure usury: a $49 plan I was billed $587 this month. I am, near end of contract and they still want $250 exit fees.

I had been with Vodafail for over 13 yrs and over the past 6 yrs, I have seen a steady decline. Steady at first, but its now a LANDSLIDE ! I got out of my contract and changed to Telstra by arguing and arguing and arguing that if they can not provide me with a service, I can not be expected to continue paying for something I DO NOT RECEIVE ! Eventually they caved in but. Last night I heard that VODAFONE have set up a special number to log complaints with their network and the number is 1555. THIS NUMBER IS NOT NEW, ITS THE VODAFONE NUMBER EVERYONE DIALS FROM THEIR HANDSETS FOR FREE. NOTHING IS NEW, NOTHING HAS CHANGED, YOU STILL GO AROUND IN CIRCLES ON THEIR 1555 MENU UNTIL YOU EITHER HANG UP IN FRUSTRATION OR GET DROPPED OFF IF YOU HAVE SIMPLY MOVED 1.05462 millimetres to the left AND THE SATELLITE HAS BECOME CONFUSED AND DROPPED YOUR CONNECTION. EVENTUALLY WHEN IF YOU GET THROUGH AND YOU HAVE BECOME OLD AND GREY, THEY VERIFY YOUR MOBILE NUMBER AND IF YOU DROP OUT, THEY DONT EVEN BOTHER TO PHONE YOU BACK THEY SIMPLY DONT CARE, ARE THE WORST TELCO IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. THEY ARE SIMPLY THERE TO TAKE YOUR MONEY AND GIVE YOU NOTHING IN RETURN.

We recently moved from overseas where we had great Vodafone prepaid. Disappointment was ours when I locked into seemingly generous combo-plan. We live 20 minutes from the city & have no broadband reception despite being shown on map before signing up that there would be no problem where we live. I missed the hoped contact with overseas relatives and friends during our relocation and @ Christmas. I spent at least 15 to 20 hours on the phone with Indian call centres in the first 2 mths. I have had to pay upfront $ 300 out of budget for internet installation and now have much higher monthly bills. We are locked in on vodafone still but the cancellation team offered foc months as compensation. They changed our plan to calls only because we get some crappy phone reception. But any more call drop outs we will be pushing to cancel all Vodafone services. I feel more confident we can not be turned down cancellation this time knowing so much of the country share the Voda-pain. Thanks.

I have joined vodafone on there new uncapped deal paying $45 per month for unlimited phone calls, text, video calls to any phone in Australia and 1gb of data per month.
My biggest issue is the 3G internet. It does not work 90% of the time. And if it does work it is 10x's slower than I internet dialup connection.
I do get phone call drop outs here and there. But not that bad really...I have not really tested my phone outside the CBD area.
What I found amazing after I joined is that on top of the 1Gb of data included in my plan. I also get a bonus 500mb of data per month. But whats the bloody point of this when it does not actually work 90% of the time. Getting hold of a person in some hidden Indian call centre is impossible.
Why would a company with a cripped network sell one of the best internet deals in Australia. And now that they are only charging $45 bucks for unlimited calls to any phone or mobile in australia I could only imagin that people taking up this deal will flood the already crippled network even more. Vodafone you are not providing what I have paid for. How in the hell do they get away with this! I dont see any point in writing or contactig the TIO. Im sure most people have already done this.

I got a BlackBerry business plan back in August 09. First couple months were fine. After the first few months, the handset itself started stuffing up, and calls would constantly drop out, or I wouldn't be able to access the internet etc. I used to spent 4 hours a day on trains to and from work, so the main reason why I bought a BlackBerry plan was to make good use of my travel time to reply to emails I didn't get the chance to during the day. Most of the train journey, I had no reception (from Central to Picton via Campbelltown). Picton itself (a small town 85km south west of Syd) had fine reception MOST of the time.. so why didn't suburban Sydney have the same?! In May this year I moved to Doncaster just outside of Melbourne, very suburban and very close to the city.. reception constantly drops in and out, calls will hang themself up and often I won't even have enough service to send texts - despite the Doncaster Shoppingtown store telling me it would be fine! I can't use my BlackBerry anymore because it turns itself off all the time and the trackball just does not work. Vodafone told me that my only options are to either cough up the money to buy a new handset even though it's not my fault that it is stuffing up, or just deal with it. So, not having a spare $800 lying around, I am now using a really crappy $60 handset that I can't even email or internet on - even though I am still paying Vodafone $114 to do so. SOOOO MAD. Thinking I may go to the TIO because I need to get out of this plan and join with someone actually capable. Grrr.

We live in a new estate in western melbourne but the area has been established for well on 5 years now. We struggle to get any reception in our house full stop let alone any 3g reception and have constant delays on SMS, calls and voicemails. I have been a Vodafone customer for over 5 years now and this is by far the worst experience I have ever had with them. My phone is almost unusable at home which defeats the whole purpose of having one.
To make matters worse...I have been over billed the last two months for a mobile payment plan. When I called Vodafone about this, the said I must have signed up for that.....r u serious, I have been on this contract for over 12 months now and this plan only came about when there was a billing system change.
I will give them 1 more month to fix it otherwise I am off to TIO....

This Vodafone problem has been around for years ! Every year, when I send my Xmas and New Year txt messages, the people that I send them to either dont receive my message or receive it in the first 20 days of January ! The only come back line Vodafone give me is that I should choose a different time of year to send my messages !?!?!?! REALLY ? ? ? how about I start sending my Xmas messages and New Year messages in APRIL to ensure they are received in time for the special occassion !!!!!!! WHAT CRAP !!

I have to not move, not breathe, and leave my house to make a call so that the satellite can SEE ME ! otherwise I cant make calls ! The constantly ask me to advise them where, when, what date, what time, what location I did and did not have coverage. I told them that if they wanted the information they needed to pay me because I dont get paid to drive the streets of Melbourne and logging in good and bad spots !

Anyone know what the reception is like in Gippsland??

Four days of trying just to connect once to mobile internet. I had to go to use public access internet to make this complaint. Impossible to get through to Vodafone Customer Service.
Cannot make any usefull calls while travelling due to recurring dropouts.

I was over billed for 2 months in a row, only to hear the second time I rang (after waiting for over 40minutes) that my mobile broadband had all of a sudden changed from 500MB to 250MB. Whilst on the phone trying to get the sales rep (the manager might I add) to see sense, he changed the terms on my online bill.. asshole
I was then hung up on.

I switched from 3 to get better coverage as promised by Crazy John's staff and the coverage is actually worse, I loose reception between Carrum Downs and Keysborough, had no reception at all in Ventnor Philip Island on Monday 27.12.10, some reception in parts of Cowes, always had 3 reception on the island. Disappointed, regret changing providers. KaD

I received an MMS message from my step-son this morning and replied to it via SMS. The MMS he sent....... Was sent last Friday. 5 days!!!!! That is an EPIC FAIL in my books.
Vodafone=Shit

It's common knowelege that the iphone has receptioni issues. So you shouldn't have selected that phone. However I reacon vodafone shouldn't be selling a phone with known reception issues anyway. It's just to please the isheep i suppose.

I have had a stroke and need to keep in contact with my daughters while husband is at work so that they can keep a check on me.

I have been with Vodafone for a while and I want out.. My only concern is how do I get out of my contract without having to pay my way out?? Any suggestions please?? Cheers :)

I am a one woman business owner - working mostly from home and vodafone was the single worst decision I have ever made! ditto everyone elses comments and when I have called vodafone to complain - guess what the phone dropped out!!!

limmitted signal at home (1 bar in some areas) even after eing told i would have full signal there, cals dropped every 5 mins or so when in these low sgnal areas but also in areas of full signal elsewhere. Messages dont get recieved until a few hours/sometimes days later when there are 40 or so.

this is shit. cant even get reception in my house. have to go outside to get like 2 bars just to send a message. i live in morwell victoria 3840. fix it

That's all my phone seems to do. When I signed up they told me they had total coverage in my area. When I complained they told me to switch off 3G and then I could make phone calls. When I said that didn't work they said I should just call them and they would talk me through it. How could I call with no signal? Duh!

I constantly have drop outs in my house (which apparently is surrounded by Vodafone towers) and am lucky to have reception anywhere outside the Melbourne CBD. When i am able to access their 3G network it still runs extremely slow.

Absolute joke!!

That seems to be the only signal I ever get on my phone. When I am lucky I will have 1 bar, however if I move less than a metre from the kitchen table to the kitchen bench, it drops out, starts searching and you guessed it NO SERVICE comes up yet again. I've also had enough of the poor customer service, if I'm able to get through. I recently moved to a rural property where having phone reception is essential so I enquired into how I could get out of my contract. I was told I'd need to stay in my contract and to go to the next suburb to get reception and make my calls. The next suburb? I'm on a rural property, there is no next suburb, the next town in 30 minutes away and I'm not driving 30 minutes to make a phone call. I just pray that we never face an emergency, Vodafone won't be there to help.

I have been a Vodafone user for over 10 years, when we moved to another area I found that they did not cover this area, I rang them so many times to ask why I could not get coverage in my area, I was giving so many reasons as to why I could not get coverage, also I found the operators to be very rude and even some of them hung the phone up on me. The last call I made to Vodafone to asked when they were going to give phone coverage in my area, the operator then asked me why I was not using my mobile to contact them (I laughed at this statement) and informed the operator that I had no coverage to be able to ring them or anybody else, after being transferred to so many different operators and then they hung up and the call was disconnected. I just gave up, a few days later we were in an area that had coverage I tried to use my mobile and to my shock I found that Vodafone had disconnected my phone completely. I rang them from a landline and asked why my mobile had been disconnected and the operator informed me that I had asked for cancellation of my service, I informed the operator that I had not asked for any such thing and to connect my service immediately, it then took Vodafone several days to reconnect my service back.

Internet dongle and Phone - live near the beach so what do i get amazing views, but cant call, text or use the internet to brag about it. . . Why am i paying for such a service. . . . Everytime i have tried to call vodafail i have given up because there has been no answer or i have been on hold for 3+ hrs!!!!!! I want out!!!

I have 3 services with Vodafail. All 3 suffer delayed retrieval of sms, patchy reception depending where you are travelling and un-reliable internet/data access.
I also had to chase Vodafone to actually obtain my cap bonuses that should have been applied upon the activation of te account. I am still chasing my bonus credit from the purchase of an eligible Android phone that should have been given to me on my 3rd bill. I am now approaching my 5th bill with no credit bonus.
Being placed on hold for up to 50 minutes at a time to talk to a service consultant and then to be passed on from one department to another.
Not good enough.

I have had dropped calls daily since using Vodaphone for the past 3 years. I always thought it was the other person not me or a fluke for ages but now I see it isn't. In addition, I have noticed that where other friends have good reception, I have none. For example when I am at Melbourne Uni in one of the buildings everyone has reception with other networks like Telstra, yet I have none from the second I walk in the building. As soon as we leave the city, reception is adequate at best. Thank you for starting this website as I was just getting used to substandard service which is not acceptable!

No reception , I have lived in 3 different area, and all the areas are the same, NO RECEPTION. I received no help from VODAFONE at all...

call drop out sms not able to send or receive some arrive some don't unable to make or receive calls a lot of the time and vodaphone want to charge me $250 to get out of my contract. It is still charging for a service I am not receiving.

Can't get out of contract with paying a huge amount of money. Canot receive SMS or Text until often two to three days later. Cannot send as receiver doesn't get them. Call drop out and unable to make calls.

Hey 7909 re battery life. Yes Voda and all networks controll battery life. Clser to tower phone transmits less power so longer battery life. If signal is weak then phone transmits more power so less battery life. FACT Sorry! The reason is to stop overpowering the base station reciver.
Net effect; weak network, poor battery life.

I purchased a Vodafone mobile internet stick while we were travelling around New Zealand for 2 weeks on our honeymoon. The Vodafone store even called Vodafone Aus, to ensure it was compatible once we got home. Yep no issues, they just reinstall a different program on it when I get back.
Guess what...it isnt! So now I have a $100 USB Stick which is absolutely useless to me, unless I happen to travel to NZ again one day!

I have lived in the same house for almost 6 years. Roughly 2 years ago I started not recieving calls and having calls drop out. My phone wuold be sitting there on my desk in front of me, not moving, full 3G coverage bars, and yet people would be trying to call me and just get the message 'this Vodafone is unavailable, please try again later'. As this was our only phone, this was obviously extremely inconvenient. For a year and a half I called and spoke to I think every customer service and faults officer in Vodafone's Egypt office. Half the time, there were not even notes left from the previous time, so subsequently I had to go to a Vodafone store and replace my SIM card 4 times in total, replaced my phone, at my own expense, twice and cannot count the amount of times I had to switch it on then off again, reinstall various programs they sent me etc etc. I just wanted to make calls and recieve calls. My husband missed out on numerous employment calls. And eventually the last straw came when the woman on the phone said she had tried my phone and it rang fine. I called her out on her blatant lie, as my husband was on chat with me on the pc at the time, with the phone next to him, and it had not rang at all.
Eventually when I threatened to contact the TIO, they 'tested my area' and found that I was in a low coverage area. How this changed in the last year from this time, they would not or could not explain. Same house, same street, same suburb. Which coincidently shows FULL 3G COVERAGE on their website.
At this point the man from faults offered me a day of free calls credited back to me. I was incredulous. A DAY for 18 months of Vodahell!!! My friends had started using the term "I was Vodafoned" to explain a drop out!
I went to the TIO, and they put me through to a man via email. Because obviously he had trouble calling me!!! He offered me 1 month credit (I was on prepaid) I demanded 6 months minimum. He gave it to me no questions asked.
Honestly, I should have gotten 18 months back, but by this time my spirit was broken, I just wanted out of their company. Since then, I have joined another company. It is MUCH more expensive. But they so far have not made me wait over an hour to answer my calls, I have no drop outs, and when people call me, surprise surprise, they can get through to me.

Both my mother and sister are both still with Vodafail, and have issue after issue after issue. Its such a shame, because all of my siblings and myself have been with vodafone for about 15 years. But they have no clue what loyalty is.

Im a happy Vodafone customer and they have helped me in solve all my issues. But what i don't understand is that when i first saw this website the dude that made this i think his name is Adam or whatever said

"In short I am a disgruntled Vodafone customer after using the service for less than 6 weeks. After my relentless attempts to contact Vodafone customer support to resolve my issues (the usual dropped calls, no reception, poor battery life and delayed voicemail messages) I have no choice but to create a website to express my dissatisfaction to the world"

I get how vodafone is responsible for dropped calls, no reception and delayed voicemail. But for someone of his intelligence and for a so called software developer i don't know how he can say poor battery life is a fault by vodafone. Does he mean that Vodafone sents out some signal to make the phone use more battery power? Poor battery life is caused by the manufacturer! As for the coverage map on this website, HAHAHAHAHA what a joke!! True the Vodafone coverage checker isn't the greatest but that doesn't mean the one on this is any better. Just now i was able to enter in several post codes and say the reception was 100% and 0 dropped calls. Oh and the message saying your ip is blocked for spamming purposes. Hahaha just takes 2min to get a new ip.

I just can't believe how stupid some people are. I was at a store today checking up my plan. Sadly the system was down. But it came to my surprise at how stupid some people in this country really are. I saw a stupid lady blaming the sales rep like it was her fault the systems were down and its people like her that are causing problems. Seriously to all the keyboard warriors that spend time on this stupid website complaining about their service, if you have the brains then instead of wasting time here just call the telco ombudsman. Heres the website even
http://www.tio.com.au/
Soo simple. But im sure people just want to sit here and continue complaining. So how about instead of sitting on this poorly made website, you get ur lazy ass to a land line phone, and call the telco ombudsman. Why dont you go on and join up with Telstra the number 1 telco provider in AUS??? You will see that their complaints line is longer than their service line and dont get surprised when they charge you thousands of dollars for their service.

As a business customer I have had countless missed calls, the only reason I know they are missed calls is when voicemail pipes up a couple of days later.
If you do try to call that poxy computer system you will finally get some person from I think Sri-Lanka as it's cheaper than Deli. With all the technical training of a chimp I assume where they work is where the only power is so it fires them up, they them treat you like you have only just climbed down from a tree yourself.

After some 10 years I have just walked away from them. I walzed in to a Vodafail store got my customer number then walked across to Optus. I was up and functioning an hour later.
Since changing over my phone has started ringing again. hmmmmmmmmmm

Vodafone has gone from being ok / average to lower than the ant excrement on the soul of your shoe. If enough of us walk their network may function again but at what financial cost to them? Sadly I suspect not enough to send them broke.

Ive experienced sms messages delayed to whoever I send it to and being a hearing impaired person who cannot understand speech on the phone anymore, this is my lifeline...Ive had to change from 3G to 2G just to ensure texts get through. Ive had this problem since early 2009.
Currently, my phone is in a family members name and got this phone back in March 2010...for the first time, they did not send a paper bill for November, so this family member had to find out why...turns out they started sending it by email to someone else, which I gather may be the previous owner...this family member wanted the months bill waived but they only took $20 off. Thats ok, but for the bill to be sent to someone else? Really this is very incompetent since Ive had this number 10 months now. Are they passing phone numbers that are cancelled too soon? What about the level of privacy? My bill shows my address and phone numbers of people relevant to me and sent to someone else to look at?
But back to the sms problem, has been bit better with switching to 2G but why should I with the so-called coverage theyre supposed to have?
I used Vodafone pre-paid back in the early 2000's and everyone said they were very good and they were...what has happened along the way?
Im sharing this as a person who relies on visual equipment to communicate (non face to face contact) and if there is an emergency, as being hearing impaired and I dont have a landline, if I cant get a message out there, then this is a very severe problem.
I want to see a better level of service right across the board!