The My Vodafone website keeps timimng out and will not connect. I have experienced problems over several years and again cannot log in tonight. Have others had similar problems?

both my partner and I are vodafail customers and we are counting the days for when our contracts are unincumbered. We have and still do put up with pretty much every topic on this website. Delayed SMS and just fails to send, drop outs at approximately 10 each per day and one of the most frustrating when you work for yourself....delayed voicemail (some by several days). Never good for business followups. Very happy there is a website built for venting. Vodafone is akin to the same service provided by the old analogue 018 numbers (if anyone can remember that long ago!) Pathetic and so 1990's!

I have been a customer of vodafone for several years now an have never encountered problems like I have been over the past 3months, my phone constantly does not receive calls an texts are delayed hours if not days or on some occasions never get to their destination. I have just upgraded my plan to get internet as well as the new iphone4 an if I knew I was going to have these problems I never would have upgraded. I have entire days and nights where I think i have reception but I actually dont no one can call me it goes straight to voice mail and the message comes through that I have a voice mail comes through the following day or longer! This service is not very good for a big company like this I expected more of them!

Well i had $30 of credit and i tried to buy a ring tone for $10 it says i coulden't purchase it. So i went to try to buy a homer simpson ringtone for $10 it say i cant purchase it file not found like last last. Five minutes later i get a text message saying i have less than $10 of credit left.

Where do I start.. I have a full bar of reception, 3G network yet cannot get through to ANYONE!!! this is extremely frustrating especially in an emergency!
All I want to do is make a phone call! Never has any trouble with the Optus network.

I am currently trying to register for the my vodafone website so I can check whether or not I should have had service when I was overseas recently. Each time I enter my phone number they text me a temporary password however the passwords don't work. I've tried so many times and had three passwords texted to me. They instruct you to phone customer service f you continue to have difficulty which I did however after several voice prompts I was informed that service is closed and I have to call back in the morning. I have to work tomorrow and don't have time to wait hours to wait on hold to get something so trivial sorted. I have wasted many lunchtimes on hold to them over the past 12 years and just accepted it but since this website I've realised I don't need to take this. When I do get through I will attempt to end my contract.

why Vodafone stops staff mentioning the TIO to customers:

The TIO can investigate complaints by small business users of telephone and internet services about loss of business arising from events that relate to the provision or supply of telephone and internet services.

A claim for compensation must be based on actual monetary losses suffered that are a direct result of the actions or inaction of a telephone company or ISP.

The TIO will only consider claims for losses that a reasonable person would anticipate in all the circumstances. Ideally, a claim should be presented as Total Lost Profit; that is, 'lost revenue' plus 'costs incurred in reducing loss' minus 'expenses normally incurred'. As further guidance:

'Lost revenue' is calculated by subtracting the actual revenue earned in the claim period from the revenue the customer would have expected to earn if the disputed event had not occurred.

'Costs incurred in reducing loss' are costs incurred as a result of measures taken to minimise losses, e.g. extraordinary use of a mobile phone or additional advertising.

'Expenses normally incurred' are expenses the customer would normally have incurred in conducting their business, e.g. commission for sales that would have been made, packaging for goods that would otherwise have been sold, cost of labour that would have been needed if business was able to function as normal.
Compensation claims considered by the TIO usually relate to businesses rather than residential customers. This is because any claims for loss must be substantiated. For most residential complaints, any losses as a result of a member's action or inaction are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to substantiate.

The sorts of substantive documentation the TIO might consider when investigating a compensation claim include:

records such as bank statements (proof of cash payments), monthly income figures, profit & loss statements, sales journals, cashbooks or receipts. (i.e. records for the claim period and for comparable periods in the past);

figures that show actual income or profit fell short of amounts predicted in forecasts or budgets compiled before the claim period. (i.e. forecasts or budgets in addition to the figures for the claim period);

any data that shows the number of incoming calls received during the claim period was less than the number received in the preceding and following months, e.g. business bookings taken over the telephone;

proposals for contracts that were lost as a direct result of the action (or inaction) of the provider;

statements (preferably statutory declarations) from customers who state they did not spend money with the business as a result of the circumstances in question;

receipts or invoices for claims for reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses, where these expenses were costs incurred in reducing or mitigating losses.
Where relevant and appropriate, information provided must be independently verifiable, e.g. in the form of tax returns or audited accounts.

In assessing a claim for compensation, the TIO will consider whether a complainant took reasonable steps to protect their interests or to mitigate their potential losses. In the case of a lost job opportunity, for example, the TIO will consider whether the complainant had access to a mobile phone or could have borrowed a friend or neighbour's phone to make a call to a prospective employer.

To assist complainants present their claim for compensation, the TIO has a fact sheet, which it sends to those wishing to submit a claim. In particular, the fact sheet outlines the TIO's expectations regarding any claim, and how complainants may go about substantiating their claim.

In the absence of documentary evidence to support a claim, the TIO may exercise its discretion not to investigate further.

For information on the TIO's general approach to compensation, see Compensation claims and the TIO.

these are not my words, full credit goes to the TIO reproduced in full from http://www.tio.com.au/POLICIES/Compensation/Compensationforbusinessloss.htm updated: 11 August 2005

customer service 45mins on hold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! poor poor poor internet service

Been with vodafone since the iphone 4 release,

had ok coverage but cannot belive how bad 3G coverage is. I need the data, and I am on a good plan, not very happy with the coverage and coverage of a massive company like vodafone :(

tried to contact Vodafone they said they are unable to compensate me. they have offer credit for my mobile but I am not satisfied. spoke to indien girl and unable to understand her due to her accent. sorry this is simple a matters of communication not discriminatory issue. I am sick of waiting for any responses from them.

Using a pocketwifi.

It is a warm, still, cloudless night where I am so there should be no atmospheric abnormalities causing any problems.

I have positioned the device all over the apartment and the following occurs no matter where the pocketwifi is located.

The signal constantly changing from 3G to HSDPA.

The signal strength drops from the maximum to minimum while the device remains in the best receiving location i can find.

The internal wireless network drops out, resulting in a ping www.google.com to time out, web pages time out, even though the pocketwifi dashboard claims there are still wifi connections current. the connection has to be reestablished to continue.

The download speeds have reduced from (consistently) near 1 Mbps using an older style vodafone mobile internet to less than 300kbps using the pocketwifi. This is with only having a single connection to the pocketwifi.

I am totally disappointed with the service of the pocketwifi and if vodafone cannot improve then they should increase the number of call centre staff by a factor of 5. I feel totally sorry for the vodafone call centre staff.

This is the advice I have been given:
Turn off phone. Remove battery and Sim Card. With a damp cloth clean sim card. Replace sim and battery. Turn on phone. Try again.

This works about 50% of the time but what a JOKE! I have to lick clean my sim card to get my phone to work on a regular basis because I dont carry a "damp cloth" around with me everywhere. Absolutely ridiculous!

I was with vodafone for 5 years and only in the last 6months started experiencing terrible coverage and even worse customer service. after trying to make a complaint several times and having to wait in excess of 1hour to get through to customer service, i changed to optus. the only good thing that vodafone ever did for for was waive the early exit fee that i would have had to pay. thankfully i am no longer a vodafone customer.

I have been with them for 12 years. Paid enough. through the years have upgraded the phone (normal). Now they fail in service and have the hide to try and charge me $75 to unlock my handset. Well the TIO agrees with me, THEY should unlock it free due to failure of service.

I am unfortunately locked into a contract for my internet service paying $25 a month - I have at the best, internet service around 20% of the times I try and use it, bear in mind I will at most only check once a day and only need it for 20 minutes it is unavailable for 80% of the time. Often it tells me its connnected when in fact I am staring at a white screen.

I complained when I was getting reminders to pay my bill - except I hadn't received the email bill - as I cant get online to view them. When I am lucky enough to access my email, it is highly unlikely I can stay logged on long enough to access my online bank account so I gave up one month. The advice from the customer care centre was to phone their help line.

I'm in a contract for phone and broadband but have NO internet coverage inside or outsde my place and the only reception I (sometimes) get for my phone is the kitchen window ledge so I have to climb up on the kitchen bench to talk or send messages!

They've caused me so much pain that I'm going seeking criminal charges via the ACCC rather than just compensation via the TIO.

I have referred this matter to the TIO, however they are an alternative dispute resolution agency and I believe there have been criminal breaches of the Trade Practices Act, relating to not being able to provide a service as advertised, and continuing to advertise that service.

1. Calls going straight to voicemail without ringing despite bars being present to indicate signal.
2. Delays in voicemail and SMS messages sometimes by 1/2 day / 1 day despite bars being present.
3. Calls dropping.
4. Calls unable to get through.
5. No signal / dropped signal on a regular basis.
6. Botched connection for overseas and 10 day response means missed calls and service for 10 days.
7. 3G network often not working, replaced by a 'o' or 'E' symbol.
8. Data packets not downloading.
9. No reception in most of my residence, and the parts with better reception aren't strong enough to hold a call, or hear the caller.
10. Entire Western Australian network down for several hours.

All of the technical issues are present regularly between Sydney and Illawarra, in my regular travels to Melbourne and also during travel in throughout Western Australia. They are equally present in metro and regional. These have cost me lost business, lost reputation and most importantly, inability to deal with 2 family emergencies while traveling.

These issues appear to be endemnic and persistent and not isolated. As a result this really needs to be an ACCC flagship case.

I'm in a contract with a mobile phone and broadband USB stick but I don't get ANY internet coverage ANYWHERE in my unit or even the courtyard and the only place I can take/receive calls or send texts is with my phone sitting on my kitchen window so I have to climb up on the kitchen bench to talk!!!!

Ongoing problems with service since I originally contracted with them and service has deteriorated ever since.

1. Calls going straight to voicemail without ringing despite bars being present to indicate signal.
2. Delays in voicemail and SMS messages sometimes by 1/2 day / 1 day despite bars being present.
3. Calls dropping.
4. Calls unable to get through.
5. No signal / dropped signal on a regular basis.
6. Botched connection for overseas and 10 day response means missed calls and service for 10 days.
7. 3G network often not working, replaced by a 'o' or 'E' symbol.
8. Data packets not downloading.
9. No reception in most of my residence, and the parts with better reception aren't strong enough to hold a call, or hear the caller.
10. Entire Western Australian network down for several hours.

All of the technical issues are present regularly between Sydney and Illawarra, in my regular travels to Melbourne and also during travel in throughout Western Australia. They are equally present in metro and regional.

These have cost me lost business, lost reputation and most importantly, inability to deal with 2 family emergencies while traveling.


What appears to be deliberate stalling, and passing the buck, hours on hold, no offer of resolution or compensation.

I informed them of their potential breaches of contract, Trade Practices and Privacy Act. They were ill informed, and unable to escalate to anyone with the authority to do anything other than waste my time.

I told them to let me out of their contract because they were in breach of contract by not providing service and they told me that I would be charged if I changed providers without their technical dept getting involved. They promised to have their technical dept call me and they did not do so. I have been unable to get through since.

They have admitted fault, come up with every excuse under the sun, never apologised, offered compensation or even a token remedy.


Refund the full amount of charges since the inception of my contract and enable me to transfer my number to another provider without penalty. I am happy to return the handset upon transferring my number to another provider, provided Voda supplies a pre-paid envelope.

$xxx in wasted time which could have been spent billing clients instead of on hold to Voda.

$xxx in damages for lost business, missed opportunities and trauma caused by not being contactable by my family.

---

Looks like they've got 10 days to respond under TIO rules. Will be interested to see outcomes.

They drive me nuts. After renewing my contract for 2 years, I asked, double checked and triple checked that the 'EXTRA' services that I once paid for were removed as they are now included in my plan. They assured me they would not be billed again. month 1, they billed me. I rang and was told is was leftover from the previous month. Dont worry, all good. month 2 - There it is again. Try explaining this to how many people every time is a joke. I cant get the service taken off and refunded. I am going to go and see the girl who sold me the phone next.

I asked for vodafone to cancel international, internet and also premium sms
they only cancelled the internet, and three week later my phone was stolen and $1400 on international call were made before I relized my phone was missing and they claim that it is my problem that there staff did dont complete there task correctly

i am stuck in a 24 month contract where i never get any reception at all. i have to travel 20 minutes to get 2 bars of service and even then my calls get dropped and messages don't get sent.
i have paid my bills but they still bar my calls.
they would have known when i signed up for my contract that i wouldnt have any reception where i lived. but instead of letting me know, they have me stuck in a useless contract!
i have a 4 month old baby and today i was 50 minutes from home when i became stuck. i had no way of contacting anyone and had to walk to a service station in 34 degree heat to use a phone.
when i rang today to try get it sorted out i was on hold for 30 minutes and was then hung up on by a woman who i could hardly understand.
RIDICULOUS!!!!

aside from all the reception issues with calls and 3g i have an issue with my insurance. i had an iphone 3 stolen whilst in new york. 2 weeks after the phone was taken and i was home i went to vodafone and put in my claim and paid my excess and then had to wait 14 weeks to get another phone sent to me. in this time i was guarenteed a new phone "in two weeks". during this time is spent between 1 - 2 hours on hold on 3 seperate occasions. vodafone also kept charging me insurance each month although i had no phone to insure. i had to go and purchase another phone of much lesser quality than an iphone but was still paying $79 cap + insurance per month on a phone i purchased myself. i was very dissapointed in the service and the dissmissive attitude i gotwhen i finally got through.

I got charged $75 three times in one day on my debit card by "Vodafone Chatswood" and I am not even a Vodafone customer!

After 2 hours on the telephone merry go round I have had to ask my bank to lodge a dispute with Vodafone which they say may take up to 45 days to resolve.

When I rang Vodafone Chatswood store the lady said they get 3 or 4 calls a week like that but it is not the store involved but rather their Billing Department located in Chatswood.

So i just waited for about 25 minutes on hold then my call got answered and the first thing he said to me was there system is getting upgraded and i needed to call back in 24 hours..... UMM WHY DID YOU TELL LARA TO TELL ME THAT TO BEGIN WITH ??????

HAd issues with data roaming on 3. Was offered by 3 a move to Vodafone for duration of my contract. On porting 2 numbers one went OK, the second number still has not ported in 7 days. 3 account is closed, number has not ported due to "technical issues". Every day I call Vodafone and get, this issues has been escalated and will be resolved in 24 to 48 hrs. It is now over 168 Hrs and counting.

happens to me regularlyEuphues

I am in a mess with Vodafone's 3G
It is VERY slow... like my 1st dialup years ago.

My issues are between 4 to 6 km radius from the CBD
Uploading a small image file might take me up to 2 minutes.
Sometimes I Cant access my gmail...
Youtube is sooo slow.

When I complained I was advised that it might be my handset. My reply was that I was going to report their diagnosis to my hand set manufacturer... they then took a step back & focused their efforts on assuring me that they will do all they to fix "MY" 3G problem not theirs.... But all they have done so far is tried to sugar coat their failures with yes Sir we understand blah blah blah .

I waited for 40 mins to talk to a person.... then in total the call took 3 hrs & 10 mins....But nothing happened nothing was corrected. I directed & re-directed. A big hoohaa was made with lots of sorry Sir.

I advised them that they are in breach of the sales contract. They didnt deny this. I further advised them that in my opinion it was plain fraud.

Where am I now........ same as before
I am disgusted

I now can't receive or make calls from my phone despite it saying I have a strong signal. People trying to call me will either go straight to voicemail if they are lucky or just get an automated message saying that calls to that area are congested; try later. I'm trying to run my own business here so I have no idea what this is costing me. I need to get out of my contract and will be doing so asap. Only a few months left to run anyway.

I've been with Vodafone on / off again for a little over 5yrs and have never experienced any problems with them or my handsets!! I previously owned a Nokia N82 (that was with 3)and the phone did it's job. I wanted to upgrade and got sucked into getting an iPhone 4 which is Vodafone.

*Dropped calls
*Unable to talk longer than 2hrs, have to ring back and start again
*Delayed messages - local / international
*I'd say 80% of the time when I send a PXT / MMS it fails on me, have to restart phone and then resend it!!
*Reception goes up and down (Liverpool area)
*I've now lost all photos / videos / voice recordings that have been sent between my girlfriend and I!! What's up with that??? They haven't been deleted off my iPhone!!

Thanks for reading

Have a blessed one... :-)

Please PLEEEEEEAASSEEE, put me through to the Australian call centre!!

I changed my billing address to a po box from residential. I received billing at both addresses for up to 2 years even though I called them 7 TIMES!!!! regarding this issue. I was told it was a system gltich. I no longer lived at that address and the people we nice enough to redirect my bills. This issue amongst others is the reason I'm looking elsewhere for service.


Very disappointed.

This has been an ongoing problem,I have a BB and sometimes recieve emails up to 6 hours later. Sometimes my phone goes straight to voicemail due to poor reception , and then I recieve the message 3 hours later (I once turned up for a cancelled meeting because I didn't get the message and my phone did not ring or alert me to messages recieved.

Very Disappointed with Voda service. Have been with them for years but now looking elsewhere.

I used to use vodafone for the local customer services who were fantastic.
I just called to ask why i'm getting repeated "Network Busy" Messages and was told

a) Restart My Handset
b) Someone who is trying to call me at the same time so it shows Network busy.
c) It might be because the network is full.

a & b are very miss leading.

I'm now connecting to sales to find out what I can do to get out of my PLAN this service sucks and I just got a bill for a few hundred bucks.

Vodaphone had me for life, and lost me when care was outsourced. and lately with network performance.

I'll never recommend vodafone again, and will get my family off the network asap.

My wife lost her phone and we are calling the customer service to block her number to prevent someone else misuse the phone, however it took us more than one hour to wait for next available customer service. For me I believe it is an urgent matter which need a fast response and I am very disappointed because of that. The worst thing is we are stuck on this 2 years contract.

Been trying to pay an overdue bill for weeks. Every time I call an error occurs, every time I try to pay over the internet an error occurs. When I get a bad credit rating thanks to vodafones pathetic excuse for service i'll be taking them to court! And as soon as this contract is over telstra here I come!

Today I needed to ring Vodafone Customer Care. I did so I was on hold waiting for someone to talk to me for 4 and a half hours. Twice the phone disconnected. I am very disappointed in Vodafone at the moment. I have been calling Vodafone numbers and in the middle of conversations the phone drops out. I am also disappointed as I want to leave Vodafone but have been notified on the phone today it will cost $25.00 to unlock my phone to go to another provider.

I bought my new iPhone online a four months ago, and signed up for the new $69 cap that included 2 gig of internet data. I then got a phone bill the next month for about $400.00. This was the first warning sign I had because I mainly call other vodafone users and use my net quite a bit due to my job and the fact that it's an iPhone. My next bill was close to almost $900.00. I called Vodafone up (waited for almost 1/2 an hour. Did the call back service which they called after 2 hours, and then dropped out so I had to call them again). They said that I had to pay the $900.00 because $500.00 was worth of internet usage. I said this was impossible because I should be on a 2 gig cap and most of my net usage is through my wireless at home. They looked up my details and found that I was still registered with my old phone, with my old cap and no internet usage bundle. I was so upset with this, and they acknowledged that they must have done a mistake because they would not have sent me a new iPhone if my details weren't correct. I also pointed out that it would be stupid not to get an internet bundle if I had an iPhone or else what would have been the use on getting an iPhone. It took 3 days for them to work out how to get around to it before they decided to put my on the cap I had originally bought the phone for, and then deduct the amount owing to just my cap value. Vodafail to the max!

I signed up on a 24 month $59 plan for a $700 call volume plan through NRMA membership site where 10% off your monthly bill and first three months are free. The sales team twice confirmed that I will get this discount before I went ahead with the order.
A month later I got my first bill and there is no 10% discount or first three months free are not there.
When I call Vodafone (Indian call centre) after talking to me (back and forth and hold many times) they say there is no such offer.
I called the sales team in Australia and they say the offer is valid.
What should I do? Throughly disappointed. Vodafone is wasting our time.

Sitting on hold for 45 minutes, only to talk to someone that does not speak or understand English, who are always "sorry mamm" and just never seem to have any idea. Then the website always being down - sorry for the inconvinience .... call 1555 to adhere to your query! You can't win. When my contract is up in March, I am out of there! The are shocking!!!!

I currently have 6 months left of my contract with 3 Mobile and my handset broke. As 3 Mobile and Vodafone have merged I thought I would pay out my 3 Mobile contract and get a Vodafone plan as it would be cost effective for me. I went to a Vodafone store and was advised that I could simply migrate my 3 Mobile plan over to Vodafone and retain my current phone number. That was 2 days ago and despite being told by the Vodafone store that I would be connected to the Vodafone network within a "couple of hours", I have returned back to the Vodafone store, made several phone calls and still am not connected. Not a good start at all. After researching the many complaints about Vodafone online I have made my mind up. I am returning to the Vodafone store and cancelling everything with them. What a complete shambles. I have had mobile phones with many carriers and have never experienced this before.

I have been waiting for customer care now for over three hours...refuse to give up as it seems a plot to stop people from leaving them

i'm not across all the topics people have been complaining about - but have other vodafone customers with a blackberry (like me) been sufferring from RIDICULOUS delay times on blackberry chat messages? sometimes the messages i send and receive come through instantly - which is what is supposed to happen - but more often than not i get the stupid 'delay' icon and have to wait for ages for a message to be sent or received. is this problem worthy of its own category on vodafail.com ?? please discuss!

I signed a contract with VF 3 months ago. While I signed for a $69.month minus an online offer they had at the time $10 which makes the total $59, VF keeps on charging me bills in the range of 80-108.. Called the Customer care more than 7 times, asking them to send me the bills either to my email address or to my mailbox... Not sure what to do now... their system is simply not working... all it says is that the amount owing is xx and the bills dont get sent!
Customer service guys always say they have no access to the bill and that they will investigate the reasons as to why I am not receiving the bills... It's been 2 months, and I haven't heard back from them...

In 15 years of owning mobile phones I have NEVER experienced such ridiculous reception problems and incompetent service. I have to stand in one corner of my workshop to get 2 bars of reception while I talk on my MOBILE phone. Go outside.. and guess what no reception. Vodafone you should convert your business to a circus from whatever it is now.

I wonder how Vodafone would like it if their current customers made their way into their stores and discussed the problems and stress Vodafone is causing in their lives while still billing us.

Vodafone reception in and around Parramatta (Sydney) is poor. 50% of the time I have no signal. Even when I do have a signal, 3G internet does not work. It has been this way for at least 6 months.

I was wrongly billed a monthly handset payment for my contract where in fact in the order details it said that the handset was $0 (free). Went through the regular hassle (waited for half and hour to get to customer service). But good thing is that the person on the other line said he'd investigate and was offered a call-back and I agreed. So after 30 mins, I had a call-back and was told they had an error and they will rectify my bill. This is very frustrating because if I hadn't gone in and looked at the billing details, I wouldn't have known I was charged more than I owe. And I have the account set to auto-debit on my credit card. Vodafone should really get their act together.

i got a text from VF alerting me to the fact that my bill was $282 in excess of it usual $79 cap. Not unusual for me to have gone over by $20-$50 given its christmas etc, however the problem arises when i call VF "customer Service" to ask for details. Apparently it isn't possible to tell me any details other than the amount it is currently over. They say they can 't see the call list and i won't know until the bill is generated. When it is, it is something like $500 over! So upon further enquiry i get a man willing to tell me that all he can tell me is it is over and it is calculated and i must pay. On further investigation he hangs up apparently having told me enough i guess. There was no further call back and of course this after three times waiting longer than 15 minutes to talk and then submitting my number for them to call me back which took longer than they said it would. My problem is if they can generate a detailed account of how much I over-used my plan then how come they can't tell me the details or at least offer an alternative there and then to avoid the massive overcharge that they know is coming.

Am in Sydney CBD & there is absolutely no signal for me as well as my colleague in office, wondering if i need to switch to telstra...any recommendations

Intermittent Signal! I am calling a friend and suddenly it hangs-up and when I check my phone NO SIGNAL! I tried re-starting my phone but no luck and waited like 30 mins before I get signal!
So frustrated that its always like this!

Yesterday I received my phone bill. Paid it this morning. 3 hours later, I get an SMS saying my bill is due.

This is a great example of how slow SMS is on vodafone. If they cannot get out their own sms reminders for bills (which encourages people to pay and therefore is probably important to them) you have to wonder how bad sms is for customers? My personal experience is that SMS messages can be delivered DAYS after sending.

Working from home this morning, in central Sydney. Every time I attempt to make a call I need to make 5 or 6 attempts as each time I get a call failed response.

I recently signed up for one of the new "Unlimited" plans only to be seriously p'd off afterwards. I contacted Vodafone to upgrade my plan from a $69 cap to the $100 unlimited so that I wouldn't end up getting $200-$400 bills anymore. What they didn't tell me (the India Call Centre) was that the 4Gb data allowance in the plan did not cover data downloaded when I use the phone as modem (tethering). I found out after that this is an additional charge!! What the!!

I use my phone as a modem all the time for work and under the old $69 cap this was never an additional charge. I'm furious about this because I feel I've been duped. Also, I will never use this allowance simply by surfing the net on the phone. So I'm now paying for data plan that is no good for me and if I need to connect my laptop on the move I will get further charges over and above the "UNLIMITED" plan fee.

Just to add to the above Vodafone tried charging me $568 to pay out my old contract after upgrading to the "unlimited" plan. This should not have happened as I was changing to a higher plan. Had I not called them (and waited in the que for 40+ minutes before benig spoken too) to complain about this they would have let the charge go through. So they don't even validate their bills they send out. Useless!!!

I'm over the company and can't wait till my contract ends in 9 months.

Paul Brown

I was at the Sydney International Regatta Centre on 23/01/2011. I planed to meet friends and family once I get there but can not find anyone since I was unable to make a phone call the entire time I was there!

vodafone wont let me make a call, it just says connection error. wat is this. i want to make a call. Extremely dissapointing

sent a picture message last night about 10pm to my friend, she still hasnt recieved it. what a joke

i live in hawkesbury area and dont even get reception at home. lucky we have another phone please can call us on. Not with vodaphone.
sat i was driving from quakers hill to penrith and my phone call dropped out 5 times.
dont get reception in any shopping centre's. Once my contract is over im going to another carrier. i have been a vodaphone customer for about 11 years. There coverage has gone down hill for the past 4-5 years.

Used to have 3G signal at home but it now no longer the case. Thought the service meant to be improving but I see otherwise.

Whats the thing i hate most about Vodafone? Laura ofcourse!!!! Last week i had wasted an entire day trying to get across their help line. Infuriating to say the least.

Basically i can not make calls, send messages or use the internet on my mobile, in my suburb of Mt Druitt. I need to get in my car and drive out of the area just to contact ppl. This is overly frustrating as i do not have a home phone so i rely on my mobile 100%. Im paying $99 a month for a phone i can not even use. This started on Friday 21/1/11 and is still not working. This happened to me and my finace about 1 wk before Xmas, for a soild wk then it just seemed to fix itself. Also my phone says i have full service but messages and calls will not go through! My Vodafone prepaid internet is also not working. Just about ready to throw my phone at a wall!

I'm losing reception all the time.
I spent 2 hours last week turning my phone off and on again in order to make a phone call....it eventually connected.

Whenever I am at my boyfriends house I don't have any form of reception yet everyone else in the house does as they are with different carriers.

This is pathetic. I pay $80 a month for no service.

I have been with Vodafone for about 10 years. It has worked really well until Christmas 2011.

Following Christmas reception has been appalling both at home and at work. Repeated dropped calls, delayed texts, numerous missed incoming calls.

I called customer service on 1555 and went through to the coverage problems section. Went through a few diagnostics. The reception problem was escalated to the network technicians - I should hear back in about a week. I am now using 2G (not 3G) to work around the problem.

I am not happy with the reception problems but the customer service I experienced was ok.

-Andrew

So sick to death of this pathetic fucking company. No coverage anywhere i go, cannot make calls, receive calls, send or receive texts. Absolute joke. When i want to fix the problem, i have to spend more than my lunch break on hold calling the pricks. Completely fed up Vodafail.

Why do vodafail refuse to cancel several mobile and data services under our corporate account - they've been (voda)failing to do so now for over 12 months. I've had every excuse under the sun - "your request not signed by the correct authority", "needs to be on official company letterhead" (when it was), etc. I've escalated this to Fair Trading NSW (suggest you all do the same) for action.

Where does one begin? It all started the second they shipped their call centre offshore, prior to this you could speak to someone with an Aussie command of English with some conclusive concept as to your problem, query or complaint. I have been with voda for at least six years now and I'm so glad someone has finally spoken up. The frustration is beyond disbelief and good on you for starting this site.

Missed calls on mobile, sometimes SMS's delivered days after they have been sent & poor or no reception on wireless broadband. LARA is a real pain!!! Often takes 20-30 mins to talk to a real person. Staff are poorly trained & often tell me things that simply aren't true, which is really annoying & when one person can't answer a question often transfer call several times resulting in no resolution because no one knows the answer but won't admit it!

Every afternoon after work I attempt to call my boyfriend (also a Vodafone victim) for a lift home (he works 2 blocks away, in the centre of North Sydney CBD), and I am greeted by a long silence followed by a "call failed" notification. This goes on for anywhere between 1 and 10 minutes. It's not just North Sydney either. I get the same "call failed" message (after said long silence) regularly, to several different numbers in various metropolitan locations. Not to mention the data failure. I don't even bother trying to use the web on my phone anymore unless absolutely necessary, as I often I am waiting in excess of 2 minutes for regular web pages to load. BOO!
I cannot wait until my two vodafone contracts are up as I will be going with Telstra from now on (worth the extra dosh, me thinks).

I am so releived that I am not the only one suffering! Last night I spent exactly one hour and and twenty seven minutes waiting to get through to a customer service operator to rectify an error caused by vodafone I could not be more furious in the end I gave up so the problem still hasnt been resolved.

Everyone have a read of this new development.
This company really makes me sick.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/revealed-how-vodafone-dealers-bend-the-rules-posing-as-customers-20110121-19yn3.html

When i was signed in a contract with Vodafone, I was told that I will get 1st month free for two connections which I took. While I was overseas during Christmas and New Year break, I received my first bill. I opened it and found instead of 2 connections I have been charged for 3 connections. Since I was overseas, so I didn't contact customer care.

On my return I tried to access that bill but I could not. The link in email does not work and there is no copy on my account over vodafone website. I tried to contact customer care and could not talk to any one and put me on hold for several hours.

Then I received a threatening sms that if I did not pay my invoice my phones will be disconnected. So I had make the payment to keep my phone active.

I am still trying to talk to someone at vodafone to resolve the issue but no luck so far.

I am a '3 Broadband' customer living in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. The last week or so, I have been unable to get reception to connect to the internet. When I called them, I was advised that 'the QLD floods caused it'. Yet, when I advised them that a work colleague who lived up the road, the phone operator simply hung up. That solves that problem hey!

My reception would keep on dropping and as I run a business, it makes it difficult to get in contact with suppliers. When i call up Vodafone, i speak to Lara, which is hopeless and then am put on hold for several hours. Sometimes it even gets cut off and other times i decide to hang up instead of wasting my time. Eventually i found a forum online (not Vodafone website) that assisted me in my problem. I was very disappointed in Vodafone's service and hope it improves.

I recently moved to Bathurst from Tamworth and i have to say that for a town of that size, reception is crap (customer service isn't much better)! Even tho it says i have full 3g, do u think i can load a webpage? Yet back in Tamworth yesterday, web pages load without a hitch! I asked the staff in the store @ bathurst why i couldn't get webpages to work and they looked at me like i'm an idiot. Hmmm, lets try a test then. In Bathurst, pages don't load. In Tamworth and Dubbo, they load fine. In all cases it showed full 3G. If i have to put up with this for the next few years, i'm going back to telstra!

What I don't understand is that why do they employ indian customer service officers that cannot speak properly and also not answering our query correctly.

I have on many occasions asked short questions and yet they cannot even give me an answer for it. I get transferred around to another indian operator and then suffer from an infamous call drop-out.

I have been with Vodafone for about 5 years now.

I never really noticed the Coverage issues because I never used data on my phone. But now that I have a brand new N8 which I got from Vodafone at the start of November, I have used to internet on it ALOT. Several times a day at least.

I barely ever get decent 3G reception. When I'm sitting in my bedroom on my phone about 70% of my bedroom gets 0% reception. The places that do get reception seem to be very random.

I would like to believe it is my phone, but it isn't. It is the Vodafone network.

Thank you.

Regards,
Paul Smith.

Over two hours on hold on several occasions. And the same song lyrics kept on being played, "I don't want to be lonely no more" sung by Rob Thomas. I wonder if they get the irony.

So I have a $49.00 cap, 1 day before the end of my billing cycle I checked my account and had $7.00 remaining credit.The next day I did my usual checking emails and light internet browsing,couple of calls(no videos or downloads) and then I get whacked with a $265.00 bill for excess data!!!
I'm in shock, how can they do this. charge per kb!! Don't know what to do now as that's a big bill for us to pay. definately not renewing my contract with vodafone. It's pure corporate robbery in my book.

i dont think i should be paying for a service that doesnt work half the time, that drops out of reception, that wont let me make or recieve calls for hours at a time, ive tried calling the bulls*it customer care and ive never been able to get onto a real person i am deadset f**king sick of it if they think there going to get money out of me they have another thing coming to them

the store i re-signed my new contract at took my id (debit card, license and medicare) and gave my debit card details to vodafail and started a direct debit i did ask for and after noticing $400+ taken from my account thats when the complaint to the telecommunications ombudsmen escalated.

Have posted previously on reception and drop out problems. New problem is that I tried online at the Vodafone sign to have the fone unlocked (the fone is Nokia bought from Vodafone a couple of years ago) As requested I typed in the fone serial number and the site told me there was no record of it. Went into a Vodafone store and they said they could not unlock it either as their system does not have a code for that phone to initate an unlock procedure. All this despite the fact that I bought the phone from them and they offer an unlocking system for their fones. The person behind the counter was reduced to searching with google online to see if he could figure it out that way! He said he has put in a request to sort out the problem and that I might here back in 10 days with an unlocking code. By then I will be overseas. It will be interesting to see if I get the code via sms overseas with Vodafone's global roaming. Last time I travelled with their global roaming it did not work after Singapore!

No mess any longer. i got out of two contracts because of their poor service. I was told the area i was in was not a good area, only problem being, i had been with them for 8 years!!. As i told them the last twelve months were the worst. Cut a long story short the contract states they provide the service you provide payment. i got them for breaching the contract and therefore sent phones back and was let out of my contracts, i am now with telstra and low and behold i can run my business. The only calls to drop out are other carriers.
I was a fan of vodaphone but will never use them again, i will use a carrier pigeon before using them again.

I can't play online games like starcraftII using vodafone mobile broadband this has been a problem since I bought the USB modem. Has anyone got any solutions?

It is rare for me to ever have full reception, even when in the CDB of Sydney. I've been a Vodafone customer since 2001. From 2001 - 2004 I lived in rural NSW and had substantially better reception then and there than I do now. It has gotten to the point where I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to use my phone when I most need it. I recently even had to resort to using a pay phone at Sydney Airport on a Friday at 5pm as I had no reception.

Pick up your game Vodafone or I will also be joining the vast amount of people leaving your services behind.

i never have reception anywhere in any location!! it drives me insane!! calls are cut out and some calls i don't even receive because apparently my phone is switched off or unavailable!! messages will not send and i cant receive messages!! i have called and complained numerous amounts of time, have been on hold for over 40 mins and all they have to say is "our service and coverage is getting better" what a load of crap if anything its getting worse!! i want my plan cancelled free of charge!! they have breached the contract i signed and i have every right to complain and have this service cancelled free of charge. vodafone has the worst service and coverage and i will never be a customer of vodafone again!!

where do i begin?
i've been overcharged (i pay a $79 cap, was charged $150 for absolutely no reason), i wasn't notified when they decided to switch billing info from hard copies to email, i rarely get coverage unless i'm in the most inconvenient place, and quite frankly, if i ever encounter Lara, imma punch her in the face.

I bought an Australian Vodafone SIM in Armidale in early 2009. I was advised in April 2009 by the local Vodafone store that G service as strong as Telstra would be available for Armidale by August. Not too long before that date, the store closed without fanfare, and users were referred to Lismore for service. I had been in the store just a week before, and one would not have known that this was going to occur.

Given that Armidale is a university town, neglect of service, is astonishing. National broadband therefore patently has a place in this town.

Dropouts of service were frequent. One would not know if and when service would be available. Texts could be received hours later. Voice calls were frequently diverted to voicemail, to the great annoyance of my callers. I thought this problem might have derived from my handset until the Vodafail article made me aware that I was not alone in this experience.

Vodafone mobile broadband also was delivered at less than dial up speed most of the time, and even at early hours of the morning (6-6.30 a.m.) or later in the evening (10 p.m. onwards) were also subject to dropouts, or lack of availability.

Certainly Vodafone staff have promised more than they can deliver, and steps should be taken by its management to markedly improve service or change descriptions of their quality of service.

I am not an angry customer here but I was at a Vodafone shop yesterday to test to see what I was reading was correct. I tried a phone in the shop and went onto the internet on it. It had full bars and on the 3G network. I noticed that the internet was extremly slow and kept coming up with an error messege. I would never buy from vodafone anyway. They really are vodafail if there shop was also showing signs of crappy service.

I am on the $79 cap plan, and every month I pay by Bpay, I always pay my bill as soon as I receive the email. I have paid a bill due 29th december 2010 and just recently got an overdue bill $157 pay immediately, so I paid it and haven't challenged it. It's happened about 3 occasions where my bill was overdue. Has this happened to anyone else? I have always paid it and now when I pay my bill I email it to myself with the receipt number so in future I have proof. My plan is ending in may 9th so I think I'll be shopping around for a cheaper plan and a better carrier.

I cannot rely on my vodaphone connection at all, especially in the last 3 months. It is very frustrating. People- friends and family and work colleagues think I have switched off my phone because they can't get me. My phone just switches off, freezes, can't get a signal. And I'm talkign just my suaual area of living and travel around Wollongong, Sydney. Not Tasmania. Although when I was down there last May I only got a signal right in Hobart. Im very annoyed. If I could get out of my contract I would. Too unreliable by far, Vodaphone are not holding up their end of the bargain! cheers, Helen

very poor reception

I'm glad I have prepaid and expirey is 24/1/2011. Although I have around 1400 MBs left to rollover, there is no way I'll recharge with them. It's a miracle I've been connected this long to write this message. I feel sorry for those who are post paid and are contracted.

check out google "vodafone UK tax bill "

Reception in Shellharbour village is absolutely horrible on there website they say that they have full 3G coverage there but I'll be lucky to find 1 bar for more than 30 seconds. I have an iPhone 4

My son was addmitted to hospital last night 22 Jan 2011 and he rang from hospital and stated my phone went straight to vocie mail this service didn't not work and hasn't since I got a new phone even after having switch back on. It was lucky that it wasn't a life threatening situatition but had been so I would never have know about his injury & addmission to hospital, in the scheme of things I believe it to be serious but obivously Vodaphone don't live could be lost or else seriously injuryed what are they going to do about this service or lack off.

I have all the same complaints as the rest of you. Ask Vodafone to stop charging you and place you account on hold. I have asked Vodafone to stop charging me until they fix the problem. So far I have not paid a bill in 3 months. Best of luck.

Bought my mobile broadband stick in Brisbane and the Dick Smith guy asked if I was planning to be in any remote areas, because he said Vodafone coverage was limited out of main centres. Well here I am in Sydney CBD (Pitt St World Square) and for the past four days have really only been able to connect in off-peak times. Since when was Sydney CBD going bush ... only when you're with Vodafail apparently.

I have an iPhone 3G with Vodafone. They can't work out why I can't send emails from my mobile when I'm not at home using WiFi.
Calls drop our regularly.
Often calls go straight to wife's message bank for no apparent reason (also 3G iPhone with Vodafone), and vice versa, but does not show there is a message in message bank.
Text messages slow to arrive, especially MMS.
General coverage is terrible.
All of the above is very frustrating as we have a toddler and another baby on the way. If anything was to happen, it might be too late before I'm aware of anything.

I can only access my account balance through 1555 which means I have to wait a min. of 30 min and then talk to a customer service operator I can barely understand. Brought issue forward and was told it would be fixed within a week that was 4 weeks ago. Anyone else experiencing a similar problem?