Currently we have had no data available on the Gold Coast Southport area since 6.30 AM. When you call Vodafone they say that they have internal technical issues and cannot take your call, you then get transferred then they hang up on you. Have called over 14 times this morning. Then try sending an email to network feedback. Its a complete waste of time.

Reception using a Pocket Wifi at Bargara 4670 is always slow, rarely do we get 3G coverage and device usually operates on H. At busy telecomms times of the day reception often is too slow to be operative, ie slow download of 20KB/s reduces to 1 - 5 KB/s and becomes in-operable.

Since they announced an upgrade of the system many weeks ago the in-operability has become much worse. Have had this device for 3 months, the last two months of which have been BAD ! ! Tech support stated download speed ought to be around 400 KB/s.........400 !!!! After testing their equipment I was told I am in a poor reception area, to which I asked why it seemed to be resonable during the first month's use of the device and why it does work to a satisfactory level of 50 - 100 KB/s early morning time ?

We also have a Vodafail mobile which also has reception problems in our house as does a Telstra mobile and Telsta USB broadband stick. ADSL is not avalable here, so wireless broadband is our only option. We are trapped in a Telecommuncation TIME WARP and fed a constant stream of CRAP from Vodafail & Telstra the infrastructure supplier.

Will keep on complaining and seek a reduction in monthy fees, it's not worth $60 a month when we can't even use Skype VOIP to make calls.

I can't receive any calls because it just goes straight to message bank :( how can i fix this?

I signed up with Vodafail in 2003 well before internet was available on mobile phones. I have been on the 'no plans' plan the entire time. My average monthly bill is about $10. This month I bought a new 3G phone. When setting up the phone I downloaded 21mb of data. Have just received a bill for $355 for this data. Data fees didn't exist when I first signed my contract so I was never aware of, or consented to, the data fees I'm now being slugged with. Vodafail no longer offers the 'no plans' plan and I have not been able to find any pricing guides online or in store, but according to Vodafail's Indian Contact Centre, I should have been aware of the charges and am expected to pay.

Dropped Calls, Delayed Voicemail, Poor Reception & Slow Data Rates are just the start!

Brisbane Customer's Journal of Calls to Vodaphone

April 2011 - spoke to Vodaphone about problems with coverage & was given 3 x 50% discounts on phone bill
and buy the end of June, 'improvements will be noticed with our upgrades"

Improvements were not noticed, in fact were worse.

1st July 2011 - (Spoke to Affan)
- called about problems and investigation raised & they would contact me in 3 working days.

8th July, 2011(Spoke to Vishal)
- Still no call, So phoned them & they are still looking into problem.
- Can't say what has been done, (if anything) they will call within next 72 hours

11th July, 2011 (Spoke to Feema)
- No Call as yet, they will contact me later today & didn't receive a callback.

12th July, 2011 (Spoke to Parvez)
- Apologise on no call back, they will call be back in 10 mins
- Receive a call 30mins later, apologise on delay in calling me back
- Network team are investigating still, may take another 5 days)
- SMS text sent 5 Hrs later stating:
SMS - "HI, WE'RE STILL WORKING ON THE ISSUE, & WE'LL ADVISE YOU OF ANY CHANGES, THANKS VODAPHONE"

25th July, 2011 (Spoke to Moshan)
- I called them up as no update, gave examples of my problems again will get back to me in 3 to 4 days from Networking engineers

27th July, 2011 (Spoke to Moshan)
*** receive a call from the networking engineer, saying there is no problem, with dropped calls after looking into the problem, i asked about the slow data rate & THE PHONE CALL DROPPED (PHONE HAD 3 BARS & 3G AREA)

- Called back straight away (Spoke to Niltesa) no notes saying anyone had called me, still looking into problem, if the called dropped they'll call in the next 1-2 hours. Requested to speak to a supervisor, they were busy &would call me back within 1 hr.

- Supervisor never called.

28th July, 2011 (spoke to Vishan)
- I called them & recapped problem with ref number and passed into Tech Team

(spoke to Shetal)
- recapped problem again & quoted ref number & would pass me onto the Tech Support Team

(spoke to Geyshea)
- Recapped problem, quoted ref number again, apologise on not getting call back.
- Asked why my phone call dropped out while having 3 bars & 3G , suggested it was the other persons line, i then mentioned i was talking to Vodaphones Tech Engineers who had contacted me stating that there was no problem with their coverage.
- She said need to check some things will call you back.

Receive call from Geyshea (15mins alter) - Changed investigation form investigation to a complaint & would receive
50% discount on next 3 phone bills, Updates in area are being done, so should see results soon.


RESULT - discounted bills for 3 months - coverage problems, dropped calls, slow data rates remain.

WAS IT WORTH IT? - not really, i have better things to do with my time. But wanted to let people aware of this - complain enough & eventually you'll be given a discount because they are aware that their coverage is not good.

Call drops,flakey reception, intermittent 3g. Problem looked to be sorted earlier in the year.
Its started again.... arggghh

For past 3 weeks there has been no data flow around the Richlands area. Sometimes a small amount of data but most of the time 3g/h will flash on phone but no data. Vodafone tech said clear cookies and restart phone.....no luck.

I also have no data on my vodafone prepaid usb. THIS IS SO FUSTRATING

When I purchased the Iphone4 in April/May It was faulty right off the bat. My wife and I purchased 2 IPhone4's the same day and mine was obviously having trouble with reception as it was 3 bars lower at all times vs the wifes phone. i took it back the next day and the told me that they won't replace it and that they would have to send it away for 2 weeks for testing. Needless to say I was quite angry at that but they didn't really seem to care either way and just blamed Apple. When i mentioned I wanted a refund they told me I couldn't because I had signed a 2 year contract and If i wasnted out I would have to pay $39x 24 months to break the contract. Phone was away for over 2 weeks and I tried to ring the Carindae store where I purchased the IPhone4 and was met with the phone just ringing out over and over again. I had actually noticed that when I was in the store. The phone wuld be ringing off the hook and the staff would just ignore it. So i went into the store and they had the replacement phone there and it had apparently been sitting there for 5 days. When I asked "wtf why didn't you call me" I was told that they have made attempts to contact me. I told then they didn;t and they basically just kind of shrugged and asked if I wanted my replacement phone or not.

So now i'm stuck in a 2 year contract with a company of this calibre.... Awesome. :(

I work in Brisbane city and I get the feeling that the 3G network here is over subscribed or just simply crap. I sit in my office and look at my iPhone 4 3g. It has a full 5 bars of reception and the 3g data connection and yet the 3g network simply doesnt work most of the time. I get the odd burst of connectivity and then nothing.

I have now resorted to turning of 3g and going back to the old data connection (EVDO???) which while rather slow works fine all the time. I experience the same problem to and from work on the Beenliegh line. I can't really tell you what its like where I live in Parkinson as I am hooked up to the WiFi at home. I have only been working in the City for about 3 months and It seemed to work fine up until about 7-7 weeks ago and since then it has been totally unusable. Of course I get the usual run around when I call Vodafone.

Me: Explain the situation

Them: "Have you tried turning it off and on again??"

Me: Yes.. multiple times.

Them: Maybe you need to drop into the store so they can look at it.

Me: WTF?? I mean honestly?? Is that the best trouble shooting they can come up with?

/facepalm

On hold again
Just can't wait to get off hold again
Listenin' to the dumb hold music which never ends.
And I can't wait to get off hold again
On hold again
Getting angrier then I've never been
Saying things that I'll prob'lly say again,
As soon as I get off hold again.

With thanks to Willie Nelson

Long story...
-Out of 3 contact was offered vodafone contact discounted over the phone and STOOPID me I took it. Phone suppose to arrive in 5 working days
-7 days no phone so I go into a vodafone store - THEY spend 40mins to THEIR OWN call centre to ask why b4 telling I would get a call in a couple of days.
-Call comes and they say there is no phone coming and could I go into a store to get one.
-20mins later in the store - sry we don't have that phone. Tried to get me a newer phone but remember that discount? no record of that and they can't reoffer it to me. I said fine CANCEL IT!
-I have since had several calls to make SURE it's cancelled as I have now gone to OPTUS as of todayish. I got a bill (apart from my 3 one) from vodafone for $0.00 I don't trust it's cancelled. Will update with more news.

Got extra charge of $315 on internet usage over my phone that I never used. Current Vodafone network just cant even allow me to browse web site with my phone even I am located in Brisbane CBD. Complained to Vodafone's billing team, got me nowhere except offering me $60 in credit.

Talked to their technical support about unexplained data usage of internet but they told me it is all valid. Send emails to complain without any success. Finally I got to talk to a manager on duty, he claimed he understood my claim about how poor their network is performing but still think that I have used the download quota. (what the f***)

They constantly claims that their record is correct (if its correct why the heck am I complaining!!) I guess TIO is my next step.. wish me luck~

Over the last week or so, I have experienced incredibly slow data speeds on my iPhone. Facebook, twitter, ABC app and more have all been affected. I work in Milton, so would have thought that Vodafone would provide decent coverage to an area that has so many businesses.

I live only 15 minutes from the Brisbane CBD. My phone has consistantly 4 to 5 bars of reception. Yet everytime I go to check emails it takes a good hour to successfully download. It's always "could not connect to server", "server was reset", "check your log in".

On the bus it's embarassing. I can barely read 2 pages downloaded in 30 minutes of peak hour commute. I press a page and stare at a failure to download. I would love to use my download quota of 1 gig per month. It's just not possible.

Recently I went into a store to complain, and see about a solution. They said a new SIM card would do it. Ha! Classic get the problem out of the store solution. Alas I could not talk loud enough in hope potential customers would walk away before getting contracted to pain.

Lucky for me I'm soon off contract.

Slow internet via 3G wherever I go. Wife is on $65 plan, 2GB data, but the data is barely used due to bad performance. I am on $35 pre-pay (also 3G), which gives same results.

Live in Wishart, QLD

Tired of being on hold when contacting Vodafone support ??? - According to the cheat sheet from the TV report the other night - to bypass their phone system and get to an actual person then "Press 1 for mobile services, then 5. You can enter your mobile number or just hold. Avoid the voice activation system.". Haven't tried it to see if it works but is supposed to you to a human contact much quicker - not that that will help much based on the fact that many of their helpdesk people are flat out speaking English.

I can't believe a business can exist in Australia that so blatently rips people off. I will never purchase anything associated with them ever again and will advise others of their immorality.

when i connect to 3g wireless it changes to hsd?? very quickly. Is this an inferior speed? it seems pretty bad. only just started happening two weeks ago but all is worse

I use the phone on the train a lot from Wynnum to the city.45 minutes phones i would get cut off more than 10 times. and the net work is even worse.
even in the city CBD the net work is bad . slow like ant and can not hoops on the internet apps such as skype........
i definitely will switch after i finish this contact with Vodafone....Sigh!!

I live in Carindale.. travel by public transport to Brisbane CBD ..and my phone says i have 3G ..i get on my phones browser..but nothing..no data..
What i have to do is to turn airplane mode on.and off..
and then get 3G..
it happens so often that its becoming very frustrating

Living in suburban Brizzy 4 k/m from the CBD and having trouble with data connection and drop outs. When travelling on public transport I more often than not have to turn on and off my legend to gain access to the internet. I notice that on most occassions my phone keeps sending data whilst not receiving any.
This has gone on for at least eight months now.

I have totally run out of patience with Vodafone now. For the past 5 months where I have moved to a new suburb (wasn't my choice by the way), I did not my area was only covered to outdoor. (and even then had 2 stars for normal calls!) Until recently, the signal was barely fine for indoor but with lots of drop outs. Mobile internet was technically impossible. On the way to work on the Ipswich line, signal was really crap as well and I only get internet access for 70% of the time.

Now for the past week, the problem has become unbearable. It's now unusable, and I have both Three and Vodafone. Almost impossible to connect and even if I get it, drop outs will occur within 30 secs. Mobile internet on the train line is now even worse, and can only use it less than 50% of the time. (remaining time is to stare outside waiting for stuff to load!!!) What are my options beside just complain to Vodafone and expect to hear "your area is not covered indoor, so sorry" type crap? I've been resorting to VOIP via application on my mobile.

Live in the middle of Buderim, yet zero reception or internet in the house. Must stand on one leg in backyard to get 2 bars. Just drove from Buderim to Toowoomba and back (via Esk) and had reception for total 30 mins of a 6 hour round trip. Shockingly unsafe!! Glad I didn't break down. GRRRRRRRRR

Swapped from a Vodafone prepaid mobile to an Apple iPhone on a plan. This was mainly for Internet access and a mobile email. Changed over about month ago. I cannot believe how slow the Internet is and on about three quarters of attempts to use I suddenly get a message saying that the server failed to respond. How quick is this when Vodafone a constantly advertising how good the new upgraded network is. I have noticed on my on line billing that for one attempt to use the internet I am being charged in excess of $10. Very poor as I could not connect and yet I am still charged for trying. I will definitely be raising this and other issues when the bill is due. Must say also that while a happy Vodafone customer for several years, this past month has changed my opinion very much. Also less than impressed with staff at both the Vodafone shop and help lines. Being a novice with mobile internet and an iphone which I did explain to the sales person, no help or assistance was provided in usage or applications etc. I was told to look it up on line. I do not have a personal computer at home ( one of the reasons I wanted an iPhone) and advised the salesperson of this and for some reason was given a mobile internet connector for only $1 more on the plan I was going on. I returned to the store the next day and was brushed off by another salesman saying it was a freebie. I know that over the 24 month plan that I will pay $24 for absolutely nothing. No wonder Vodafone is so cashed up. Feel very let down, promised things that are just not happening and will pursue either getting out of the contract if things are not improved to what I am actually paying for. I also left nearly 3 weeks ago a message for the store to contact me and am still waiting. Phoned the helpline and was told that my "new phone" probably had dust on the sim card (no internet access)and to remove it and dust it and replace. Very sound technical support from Vodafone.

I live in Carindale QLD, have 4-5 bars of signal, and have been having issues for the last 6 weeks at my house, where I will browse internet on either my BlackBerry or my iPhone or using my latptop using a VMConnect, and after about 2 minutes the data just stops... you have to manually disconnect, turn the device off, then back on again, then it will work for about another 2 mins (sometimes I get lucky and get 10mins) then stop again. Late at night it seems to be a lot better, but during peak periods of the day it is shocking.

After all these issues you really would think that they would have sorted this out by now...

I went to Sydney on work the other weeks and everything worked great. as soon as I come back to Brisbane, back to the same ol' crap service.

As a bit of a GSM junkie who works in the industry, for god sake Vodafone you have Radio Access Network attachment issues - likely being caused by the HLR being out of synch with the GGSN - do something about it !!!

45min so far.... better not drop out or my phone is going through the window

Stupidly, stupidly took out a BYO modem month to month service with VF. Cancelled after less than 10 days. Contract dated 6 June 2011. Cancelled on 14th June 2011 as I was unable to use the service. Only used ~250mb in this time as it would connect, load one page and then stop working. I don't consider this a broadband service. Only phone calls shown on the account were to their 1555 helpline number, 8 calls in all on 6 and 7 June 2011.

I cancelled the contract in the Carindale store and dealt with a young Asian male who kept claiming their was no problem with their network. Yet the store had people claiming they had problems with their phone service.

He told me that I only had to pay $2.29. When I received an account they had billed me for the next month even though I had cancelled the service. I emailed them a reply to their emailed account. Today I got a SMS claiming I owed them $39.95.

Organised upgrade to iphone 4 after current Blackeberry phone ceased (7 months old and purchased through Vodafone), but as my last bill was paid on the 15th July via Bpay,(today is the 17th and a Sunday!) they hadn't cleared the payment yet and I was left with no phone to use. Very poor service and I have been a customer for 5 years!

I have had Vodafone and Crazy Johns for 4 years, reception is patchy at best, with little to no reception at our house. Sick of getting told that they are working on improving coverage, especially when all they say is soon. 4 Years is not soon!

I am cancelling my mobile and internet with Vodaf*cking unreliable tomorrow! It cuts out ALL the time, I have a HIGH speed mac but can't get the benefits from it as I am with a shit provider... Time to go with reliable Telstra :)

why must you sit back and bag the network- vodafone has a fantastic network, better plans then you will find anywhere else, great customer service and so on. the tiny percentage of people out there who may have had a bad experience, stop complaining and move networks.

Apparently in Ipswich qld 3G is not available! This is not good enough. Off to another provider I go.

Pre paid mobile internet (I live in Bramston Tce Herston, Brisbane on a hill with a clear veiw to the city)
Reception is soooo bad, often only bps, that I have NEVER been able to load the Vodafone website. This means I have to always use my mobile and call India to resolve any issues or to recharge etc. I have noticed lately though that the call centre people now use their real names and openly admit they are in India. Not as fun as having an Indian called Mick trying to convince you he is in Oz!

Pretty much no data reception anywhere I go in Brisbane, and even if I happen to get it somewhere, it shortly drops out. Can't wait for my contract to expire, I will be leaving them as soon as I can.

Little to no mobile data reception EVERYWHERE.
I work in Brisbane CBD and live in the inner suburbs and have no way of ever being able to use my 2GB data pack.

My internet service doesnt work in Brisbane and Gold Coast CBD or anywhere inbetween. I have been sent a fone in the mail after cancelling it because I picked it up in the store and despite numerous attemps to call and get help to send it back they have hung up on me, then after being on hold for 15mins the 2nd time the new indian girl didnt understand my problem. She advised me a call back but never did. I have had 3 promises of call backs but have not recieved 1. This whole company needs some serious work. I want out of this contract now. If they havent got the skilled manpower or the services to facilitate this many customers then they shouldnt be taking on anymore new business. So frustrated Im going to the Ombudsman.

Foir the past 2-3 weeks I am unable to access ANYTHING on line. My emails are not coming through and all web sites will not load. I have sent approx 8 emails in total, each time I get a call "there was a service outage, we are sorry"

The next day - it happens again.

All in Brisbane.

Poor reception, delayed SMS, 3G drop outs, no android updates.

1. One-bar phone reception at home and at work
2. Zero internet connection - even though it's included in the data plan
3. Call drop-outs - constant
4. Still have to pay for service that's clearly not provided

Paid for $55 new alltime prepaid plan. Made sure I did not ring 1300, 13, and 1800 numbers. Plan lasted 2 weeks apparently and this is not up in bright lights but the 121 message bank number is charged at $1.20 each time you ring for your messages. And they are double dipping here as a lot of my calls I don't receive they get redirected to message bank, so I am racking up a message bank bill that they are initiating because of their poor network. Rang Vodaphone (India) reckon they owed me a full month ($55) because it had happened for two months, generously gave me $10 back to go on this months $55.00 plan which is absolutely useless as I have changed to call back messages which is free.

Cheking Vodafone Network status page find no upgrades planned for Mackay, Qld (postcode 4740) See many plans for places al around here, but none in town!

Have been "out of service area" all day. Funny thing is I am still in my usual place of residence where I used to get at least 2 bars (if I stood out the front of my house and held my phone up high to "catch" the signal). But today, all day, zip! I suppose it was windy though, maybe it blew the signal away.

Oh, and what remote area do I live in? 15km from Brisbane CBD!

I feel the pain of all the other vodafone users out there. I have taken my complaint to the obudsman and vodafone have still failed to contact me. However they may have left a message but I probably won't receive it for a couple of weeks!

Does vodafail still have a 3G network - makes the apps look a little decorative? SMS works intermitently - and reception varies. All of these issues are getting worse. Used to love vodafone (providing I was in Sydney) but now can't even manage it in Redfern / Glebe. Most of the time I am recieving a late 1990's phone experience.

VODAPHONE ARE THIEVES...STILL TAKING..

TRYING TO CANCEL MY ACCOUNT...HAVENT USED MODEM FOR MONTHS...CONTRACT IS UP....ON PHONE....

I have been on the same contract with vodafone for 4 years and the contract was with wireless internet. In april my housemates and I decided to get TPG wireless for our house. I didn't end up cancelling my internet with vodafone because it would cost more to get out of the contract than to just let it run out.. so here is my dilemma. The contract was for $39 a month for 7 gb, it doesn't cost more if i go over it, it just goes slower. So since april when i got wireless TPG I stopped using vodafone, just found out that they have decided to direct debit over $800 from my mums account for months april, may, june & july where I have not even used the modem.. aaaargh vodafone you are pathetic.

Last two weeks, mobile broadband (via pocketwifi or iPhone4) in Brisbane CBD has been atrocious. Constant cycling between 3G & H(SDPA) on the pocketwifi even though I'm at 4-5 bars of connectivity. iPhone4 shows 4-5 bars of 3G connection yet throughput speeds are near 0kbps. EDGE performance also spotty. The only service that is near or at consumer grade for me is voice calls. Out in suburbia (where home is) things are marginally better notwithstanding that my area (around Beenleigh) has recently had it's tower upgraded to the new 3G 850MHz network.

i receive no reception at my location, passcode 4520

THIS IS REDICULOUS AND VODAFONE WONT GIVE ME ANY SUPPORT EVEN THOUGH IM PAYING $45 A MONTH PLUS THE PHONE INSURANCE!!!

im considering getting an ombudsman cause this is rediculous.

Its amazing me to the extent vodacon adds charges to milk every bit out of you. I have a $99 shared business plan, and i have noticed a graph that shows charges outside of your cap. Mine was 0.28c, which i had no idea where this generated from, and been on a cap made it more strange that it was added above the cap. Now my plan includes international calling. I phoned a friend of mine in the USA, kept the call short, but notice they have charged me additional flagfall charge which falls outside my cap so i get charged. Strange that its not mention in the terms & condition part of the cap so hence the 0.28c. Now it makes me think that vodaevil will start to call the shots when the additional data charges appear. Even if you have a data plan, whats stopping them from free willy anything over to addition charge section for example internet is part of your data bundle, but if you use skype you might get charged because you are not on a skype bundle, even if you are on the net using skype vodathief might just say skpye is not the internet or maybe say anything thats not through voda central is an additional charge. A friend of mine has a 3gb data plan on his phone but For the first time got charged $8 for using the net because his phoned roamed as a result to vodaripoff bad reception, triggered roaming charges in a suburb where it drifts from 3g, 2g, to roaming. So i can see the disaster that this so call addition charges is going to create, and no doubt we will see a spike of huge vodabills due to this new con. Beware the devil in red.

I've been on prepaid for years and the service was fine, but recently I switched to a postpaid account with a Nexus S. Almost exactly 1 month into the contract (After their 30 days no questions asked return policy) my data service went to hell in a handbasket. I can't get a 3G connection anywhere except the Brisbane CBD and constantly have to switch into 2G-only. Even when standing less than 20m from the local cell towers I get a horrendous data service.

OMG!! I thought these guys already hit the low end but today they surprise me again. I can't get 3G in the middle of the CBD. How stupid is that? I don't care if you are upgrading your network. You should always have a backup. WHHAAATT!! they tell me upgrades finish in October. Therefore I should not be charged for their mediocre service until October.

Only been with them for a 2 months on a infinite plan. Though it's no use as I can't ring anyone with out it droping out. I can not ring our take calls from work, because of the area!. Ive had problems even soughing out my direct debit! Right from the start!! Also I got a text the other day from Vodaphone saying there changes to my data! Though I can not access the site they gave to explain the changes! I'm a joke for with in my friend group because no one can call me or I can't call them on an infinite plan!!!!

I've been told today that Vodafone is upgrading their network, which is why I am not getting 3G on my Iphone. This upgrade will finish at the end of October, which means I won't be getting 3G until then?!?!

No consistent 3G connections anywhere! I have full reception most times but can not get a strong 3G link. Cannot surf the web on my phone, cannot download any files because of timeouts, I paid for 3G data and the damn bastards are taking my money and not giving access to 3G.
Have you done a network investigation? how can you, if customer care does nothing but pretend to record calls and do nothing afterwards.

2G voice calls seem to be fine but i wouldnt be suprised if people have not been able to call me and also they were not given a chance to leave voicemail!
Reception is strong but I think there are background voicemail problems for sure - delays or even loss of voicemails, laggy callback service too.

i hope someone starts a big movement to sue Vodafone and help us get our money back.
Would be nice if somehow our stolen money from vodafone could be moved over to telstra to continue our service but only on the telstra network - this should kill vodfone as a dodgy business for sure.

Unable to recieve or make calls, or text etc etc etc ...I have just been on the tail end of vodaphone shambles..and IT IS A SHAMBLES OUT OF ALL PROPORTIONS..Vodapne need to sort this out & quickly or their loyal customers will walk.

I'm on the Gold Coast in QLD & have posted here previously. This site was instrumental in allowing me to break my deal with VF to supply wireless internet, which just totally did not work. I followed advice here by making a complaint to the TIO & after 5 weeks of being lied to by every level of VFs staffers the TIO finally forced them to rescind my contract because of undeniable failure to supply the stated product.

This company is fraudulent by still mounting massive advertising campaigns telling consumers they will supply products that they knowingly cannot provide. If you are gullible enough to believe the advertising & sign with them they will make it extremely difficult to cancel the contract for products they do not supply. Their whole method of dealing with consumers is designed to make it extremely difficult to make a complaint.

2 Weeks ago my home mailbox was stuffed with a glossy 10 page advertising brochure from Vodafone with every page full of impossible to believe deals. To verify that the deals they were offering to me directly by putting it through my mailbox I went to the nearest VF retail outlet (7 mins walk away) & asked them directly if I should take up one of the offers of 12GB mobile broadband for $39 a month on a contract would they guarantee me reasonable reception & download speed. They checked the coverage for my house, which is about 900 metres from their shop as the crow flys & said I would NOT get reasonable reception at that time BUT they were planning to UPGRADE their towers in the near future. When I asked why they had produced a brochure that offered me a product they knew they could not supply I was directed to the manager to answer my question.

The manager was a young man with a charming manner who had just returned from a VF seminar (sales pep talk) & was in complete denial that he worked for a company whose main products were deceit & fraud.

Further to this fraudulent company's mail box advertising, this week I received a letter addressed to 'Vodafone Customer' at my PO box mailing address, which consists of a whole A4 page of gobbledegook about how the company is building the most wonderful network of upgraded towers & equipment. This came from Michael Young - Chief Technology Officer - Vodafone Hutchison Australia.

Hiya Michael, thanks for giving me the best laugh I've had since watching Billy Connoly's routine about going to the doctor to have his prostate gland checked --- Ha ha ha ah aha ahahahhaa hhhaaaa ha ha ha!!!!!

Not only have I complained about their poor network service, constant dropouts and my inability to receive or make calls, let alone get 3G access. Now I get a cryptic note saying that they want to charge more for specific data?? WTF?? why is my data being monitored at this level anyway??

I quote:

The use of services via the internet that require a personal log-in (e.g Hotmail and Internet banking).

Internet kick offs constantly phone calls dropping out I have sent numerous emails and have not had my problems fixed but I do know when my contracts end here we go again trying to send to you

Just received an email saying all handset data will be billed for access to bittorrent sites, VoIP applications and most importantly INTERNET BANKING LOGON AS FROM 8TH JULY!!
They cant be serious surely? Charge you to go online for internet banking from your mobile?

I'm outahere!

Vodafone customer service is crap! First off..why the hell do you have to tell them your phone number after you've entered it into the phone twice!
My problem- trying to register for myVodafone but the password that kept getting sent to the phone would not work. I had at least 10 passwords sent! I have phoned vodafone at least 6times tonight, each time they said they would sort this but all they would do is send another password! It's obviously not just a password problem! at least 2 call centre reps said they'd delete the profile and sort this out...yeah right!
still not registered with myVodafone..will not bother trying again! porting number tomorrow to anyone else!!
SAVE YOURSELF THE STRESS OF DEALING WITH INCOMPETENT CALL CENTRE STAFF - DO NOT GET VODAFONE!

I've looked for other numbers to call to talk to someone in Australia in conflict resolutions and the lady on the phone from India said all I can do is wait for this Ellen to call me back within 2 business days. It's been 4! I'm at a friends house using her phone to call ellen and have left 2 more msgs today, but I cannot sit around and wait all day for somebaody to contact me and I dont think they can contact me on my mobile as it has NO SERVICE! please give a phone number I can call to sort this problem out ASAP! I don't know who else to ask!

Mobycom rep out right lied to me.. <Removed>!! wont answer my calls!

WORST COVERAGE in the Robina area (Gold Coast)... Seriously bloody useless can never get more than 2 bars MAX on Wireless Broadband Mobile or even normal reception.. absolute joke fix this crap in Robina!

Well it looks like not many of us are going to benefit from vodacraps 850mhz service. They claim it will make things better for us all, so wrong. I live in Robina on the Gold Coast. Vodabull have switched on Robina 850, and Clear Island 850, as well as the upgrade to robina town center tower. You would think i would be happy to have so many towers for my phone to benefit from the improvement. WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!!. To benefit from these tower upgrades you would need a iphone or a phone that has 3G 850, 1900, 2100, now if you have Android phone like i have your phone will only get 850mhz only on 2G, so yes you have cell improvement but slow as data as your android will only use edge or gprs. When i switch my phone to 3G you get nothing to one bar reception. So if your phone specs dont state 3G 850 then nothing will change from vodatwits 850 upgrade. Sure vodadud will tell you it will free up 3G 2100 so you can benefit, but thats fine if your next to a 3G 2100 tower. So why would vodafone push android phones on to the market knowing that most, if not all androids dont have 3G 850 only 2g 850. So yes you do get great reception from the 850 upgrade but only slow data from edge an gprs. GO FIGURE.

I have just purchased my third vodafone lite prepaid broadband dongle. The first one I broke so fair enough, the second however stopped working after 3 weeks and vodafone refused to refund and insisted on sending for repair, meanwhile I had to buy another to use in the interim. Now I have discovered that vodafone.com.au is blocking me. It has been happening for the last three weeks, I cannot recharge my account, check my usage etc and am fed up. Vodafail are you asking us to leave you?

I don't have enough words to express how much do I hate Vodafone. Although I hate even more Telstra that screwed up my phone line so I can't have ADSL2. At the end it is all Telstra fault.

Telstra and Vodafone, you both sucks!

I used to be with 3 got no reception at all at home or surrounding areas. I live in caboolture north, I rang up 3 and opted to pay out my contract and by my iPhone outright but they begged me to let then swap me over to vodafone because they are linked and my reception is the same if not worse. It drops out during calls and suddenly drops out and picks up reception even if left in the same spot. It's just shit. I would recommend telstra for reception over these companies any day.

taking days to receive mms messages, fix it

I just received a phone call on my mobile telling me that i owe over $1,000. & i should pay this amount today. iam on a contract & i pay all my monthly amounts of $29.00 even before it is due. Please explain, Thank You Bad reception & i couldnt understand the caller

Vodafone have consistently for the past 6 months NOT sent me bills. I receive a text message explaining I have a massive amount owing on my bills (at one point I had 4 months worth of bills owing which I had called about and they said they'd sent and would re-send) then we do this dance where I call, they say they sent the bill, I tell them they didn't then they say they won't barr my phone but the next day my phone is cut off.
I have been a vodafone customer for 10 years and they have turned out to be THE WORST provider ever.
I always liked Vodafone because I never had to deal with Indian call centres 0 oh how that has changed! Language barriers, communication breakdowns and many other problems only lead to HUGE PROBLEMS!
To add to the bill mishap I am also dealing with (as I now see other vodafone customers are too) constant drop outs in reception, text messages not coming through and no 3G reception. I live innercity Brisbane - not bumfrig nowhere! There is no excuse for 1 call taking 6 attempts to connect and maintain connection! To a landline! Vodafone = vodafail!!!!

It is now more than one month that my 3G internet is useless. It is funny because the connection doesn't drop but although I'm connected I don't receive any data for some minutes, then I receive data for another minute and this s&&t keep going until I'm pissed off and give up.

Vodafone promised that my area would be upgraded until end of June but it disappeared from the upgrade list. It is hopeless.

The Vodafone website just wont load on any browser I have. I have now been trying for a week. So I cant even check my balance or re-charge my broadband mobile as I cant log onto their site! Help!

Was on land-line to the help & support agent who called me (from India). He got me to reset, fiddle with settings, even swap SIM to another haandset, as had been down before. Anyway, as luck would have it, my head office called my Vodafail number from one of their HQ mobiles. It got distorted & dropped-out! BLISS!!! Now it is on RECORD that mobile A number called mobile B number from xyz other service provider. Sabih took all the details and is writing a FAULT REPORT for the Engineering Team who will contact me with 5 business days. Jeez - seems like Christmas ... I am NOT holding my breath [wink]

Macgregor QLD 4109. I can see the Vodafail towers at Garden City Shopping Centre, just across the Pacific Motorway, yet, I have such poor signal strength at home that my mobile is - dropping out - distorting - people cannot hear me. Yeah, just the usual stuff. Anyway, have just spent 20 minutes writing on their web site to report the current status so we can progress ourselves on this mission. Lo & Behold, pressing SUBMIT button to send the report to Support Tech has produced - "Error on Page". The message has not been received. Jeez - even their support page on Voda web site if VODAFAIL.

Told today when I went to shop to cancel service [called VF twice yesterday] that their network was being upgraded in my area and work would not finish for another two months. I was on a month to month plan but the sales rep I was connected to by phone in store insisted I HAD TO PAY FOR THE MODEM I OWNED OUTRIGHT. This was because I was a customer with VF but due to declining network availability and customers info being hacked got out of contract.

This morning could only get a 2g connection. Days before today either no connection or one page would load then nothing. Did a ozspeedtest.com test and it said I had downloaded GB/s in 0/s that's right 0 seconds. Wonder how this compares to the speed of light! Yesterday there was a recorded message saying they were having difficulties with their accounting system. Not surprised. Imagine what your bill would be like.

Just posting in case others have had this experience and VF keep trying to troubleshoot YOUR problem. Quite frankly their network is stuffed in Mansfield Qld and has been since earlier this year [~Feb/March]. Thought I'd give them another shot in vain hope that after MONTHS their network would be fixed. Not so.

Firstly my company is with vodafail and have constant drop outs in the city & country areas or no reception. I joined vodafone 15 months ago after i did some reaserch got a acceptable deal with mobile & internet through a retail outlet.At first it seemed ok but I spend a lot of time in other areas away from my own address, big mistake.Fifteen minutes south in Windaroo its Zero reception not just drop out.I have been advised via the retail outlet to phone and complain & they (maybe able to tweak it ) really dont they know its a dead area lots of other people do.I want out with 9 months to go

Here is my frustrating experience as a Vodafone customer; I use a few portable computing devices for work (2 laptops and a tablet, with Windows XP, Ubuntu and Android operating systems). These computers work fine (tested repeatedly on other networks).

Because it sounded as an interesting deal, I bought a 12 months contract with Vodafone last February for Mobile Broadband (pocket-wifi). Even at the beginning, the internet connection was not too good, but we were told that the Vodafone network was being upgraded and that this was the cause of the connection drop-outs.
Once I could not get internet access at all for 2 days. Then for a while the internet access was restricted to Skype (which points out to a DNS problem).

I have prepaid mobile phone with another mobile phone company. Calling Vodafone support for pocket-wifi is very expensive in these circumstances (it's free only if you have a Vodafone phone). My experience with the phone support was disappointing. When my internet access was restricted to Skype, I called the Vodafone helpline via Skype. I explained to the helpdesk person the situation. In particular the fact that I was calling via Skype. The suggestion of the Vodafone helpdesk was to reboot the computer! I pointed to this person that this would cut short our conversation. There was a long silence. Then I was re-asked the same id-check questions, and the connection dropped :-(

For the last month the connection drop outs have become so frequent (rarely does a connection stay on for more that a few minutes - I had to copy-paste this message), that the very unreliable connection has become almost useless. So, I have decided to stop the contract early on the grounds that the service quality has become extremely poor. On Thursday evening, I went to a Vodafone shop in Capalaba, Qld. There I told my sad story and asked to have the contract terminated.

The shop assistant claims that this cannot be done in a shop. I argued with him, that I was not willing to spend tens of dollars on prepaid mobile phone simply to have my contract terminated. He understood my frustration, and call some technical person from Vodafone. The outcome was that someone was going to call me on my mobile phone in the evening (they wanted me to be at home). They promised to call on Thursday evening 8pm or Friday evening 7pm. To maintain the tradition of customer disappointment nobody called me!

well i own a nokia so its not the best of phone at times, and paired with vodafone, it has become a better solution to torture than being electrocuted. Most of the time when people call me it goes right to my message bank without my phone even ringing. on the odd occasion that my phone does ring i have to run into my bathroom to maintain 2 bars of reception, everywhere else in my house which i might ad is in a suburb 5 minutes from the Brisbane CBD has no reception...1 bar if im lucky. Sending texts involves waving my phone around the air trying to lock on to to the stray piece of reception that vodagay is offering us at $50 a month. I mean what's the point of offering infinite caps if i cant even make $10 worth in calls or txts. Gladly i have resolved these issues that have countlessly driven me to such acts as, throwing my phone at a wall or punching it with my bare fists, and that is to use the good old home phone or the internet. But by far the greatest resolution to my anger and infact to life itself was the best news I have ever received in my existence on this earth was the letter from vodafone informing me that my cap runs out in 2 months. there is a god

cuts out all the time, constantly uploading 1-4kb persecond am lucky to get 400 bits per second download, when its not cutting out. modem stopps working every hour or so and needs to be disconnected and reconnected. even with dialup i could load google in less than a minute!!!

Signed up to a Galaxy Tab 10.1v $39 a month plan. Am being charged $49.50 a month. Hung up on by two "Customer Support" (lol, buck passers) people. Told I had to go into the store I purchased at and sort this problem out. Apparently Vodaphone cutomer support are redundant as people just have to go into store now to sort out all their problems.

Although I hate the internet service in Australia in general, Vodafone can make it even worse. It is now three months that I can't have a stable connection. Vodafone already gave me three months for free since they are planning to upgrade my area to 850 Mhz and everything should be ok by the end of June.

Today I was checking their website to see if there is any progress on the upgrade of my area, Carina - QLD, and surprisingly it simply disappeared from Vodafone website!

What pisses me off is not having options. I have to use 3G "broadband" because of Telstra (I'm on a pair gain system) and I refuse to sign up with BigPond and give money to them.

Some 4 months ago I terminated my contract with Vodafail, I have had several communications with their facebook team as I am constantly receiving texts and e mails about the old account, saying I owe them money.

The facebook team have advised me several times that the old account has been closed and I will not receive any more texts or mails.

I advised Vodafail facebook team that the next mail/text would result in a complaint to the TIO as I consider it harassment and spam. The Vodafail facebook assured me I would not receive any more requests.

Today I had yet another e mail, so, off to the TIO.

Is it really that difficult to cancel (several times) an account, or are they just totally incompetent?

Customer service has reached a new low with this bunch of twerps.

drop out, eg: no reception for phone/net
drop out during call
there looks like having a reception , but people still cannot call me.

have been waiting for a phone call in reply to a job interview all afternoon. Had my phone by my side all day with full reception, just found out from a friend that my phone has been engaged all day even though i have not been on it once and it has full reception. turned it off and on again, same thing. Called the job and they said i would of got it but i was uncontactable all afternoon, not a good sign of reliability, therefore i didnt get the job. So does vodafone want to support me with 45 grand a year so i can afford to live. Tah.! What a fuckup!!

Texts messages being sent but receiver isnt receiving them!!!

I bought a sony ericsson XPERIA X10 (i know HUGE mistake) september last year and it has malfunctioned since 1/2011. so i sent it away in march to get fixed. got it back two weeks later...same thing still broken. went back again and they claimed that you have to send it away TWICE to get fixed! what rubbish!! I have been waiting over two months for my phone to be returned to me and everytime i ring vodafone they say they cant help me...meanwhile they are collecting my nearly $100 a month bill for a phone that im not using. is there anyway i can get them to either cancel my contract or get them to upgrade my contract to a better phone?? (PERSONAL DETAILS REMOVED)

Seems that for some reason, my mobile broadband will only work properly at increasingly arbitrary hours, like 12 at night or 6 in the morning, instead of all the other normal hours of the day!! Edge works well enough, of course, but the 3g, even with full bars, will simply just sit there and not do a thing. Seriously, the government needs to pull it's thumb out on this whole telecommunication bullshit.

Have had intermittent issues for a long time in brisbane, namely calls dropping out, dialing the number and nearing nothing happen (no connection), sms messages will not send... so i will have to copy the message and send it again later, no coverage in new address in Highfields (which, admittedly their coverage map shows is low coverage), and horrible coverage throughout Toowoomba which should have decent coverage. Also have lots of issues with the mobile data. Have contacted support, and while their staff are only doing their job, the response is slow and inneffective. I have been given 3 months worth of 100% discount on my minimum spend, which is great... except that Im getting a free service that doesnt work. I have called back later and told them that I want to be released from the contract, and they have stated they need to start an investigation which will take up to 72 business hours.. which is 9 days, or nearly 2 weeks.

Any tips?

I cannot send picture messages, at all! Since 3 was bought by vodafone, I have been unable to send photos to friends. luckily I have an app that i can send them over via the internet, but to txt a photo, its impossible. It's not that I live in the sticks, i mainly send them from right in the cbd!!!

Only 7 months to go on my contract... 7 months till its bye bye vodafone!!!

After hearing of the well priced deal for the new Nexus S phone, I decided that it would be worth it to go back to vodafail and see if their network had improved with their deals.

The online order failed to generate a confirmation number, but the following day I received an email from Online Store Team Leader Simone Coleman to say my order had been delayed. Fair enough, cool that they let me know. A few more days passed and I called the customer support number. After being bounced around department after department, I was told I would be called back. After I had not received a call the next day, I rang back and was again bounced around seemingly forever, where I was told there had been an IT problem and that my order would be manually processed. Cool, an answer.

The next day I received a call from a customer support member saying that it would be better to post a new order now the system was working again. I did that straight away. It generated the order, all seemed well. Two days later, I got a second confirmation - the manual order had finally been given an order number, now they were trying to send 2 phones.

After calling and emailing repeatedly, I managed to get the manual order cancelled, which they did by forcing a credit check failure. A few days later (bearing in mind the expected shipping date was 1-2 business days) I received an email stating the remaining order had been delayed. No reason, just delayed. The online tracking still listed the order for 1-2 business day shipping.

I then received 2 emails, containing separate bills for $0, which indicated that the post-paid accounts, both of them, had been opened and I was being billed as of this time.

I contacted support, who explained that the remaining order would be in my hands within 5 business days, and nothing was to stop me from getting my phone. 5 Business days later, no phone. I contacted them again and was told there would be another 5 business day delay, but I would definitely be receiving my phone. Yet another 5 business days passed, I emailed support again, and 2 days later, instead of responding to my email, another automated email came through telling me my credit check (which had supposedly cleared 2 weeks prior) had been declined.

For the record, I have notified Vodafone that I would be taking these events public to help prevent more people being sucked in by misleading support staff.

plastic cups and string anyone?

Joined the 35$ sim-only cab. This is the second month. Spent about 2-3 hours per month with india on the phone finding out why havent i yet recieved a bill for ACTUALLY $35!..first bill was 37$ and they said it was "connection fees"..second bill $53!!!! Bloody Hell! that included an "honesty fee" when my "autopayment" bounced off..altho i didnt know i had autopayment activated, didnt get any news about it bouncing off and thought i just paid my bill on time and thats that. In addition there was $1.5 for promotional txts that i never recieved and 2$ creditcard processing fees! After writing off some of those payments i asked the girl (ok..they did improve their customer service i gota say..last year i used to wait 2 hours b4 anyone speaks to me) to cancel my contract & she managed to convince me to keep it 1 more month as a TEST! we'll see.
Reason i dont leave them? coz i dont think any of the other providers are better. we are TRAPPED! plastic cups and string anyone?

Oh Vodafail, how can I possibly download 2,000,000kB of data when my mobile is off? Why is it that I am the one that has to ask your customer service reps twice to calm down? Why do I have to pay $500 for your mistake. No my dear Vodafail, I think not, TIO has been contacted and you have 10 days to respond.
Why do we not have a better regulated Telecommunications system in Australia?

6 months into 24 month contract. Trying to run small business from home with 3 Mobile but always have low or no signal. Daughter and wife are with Optus and have full signal. How do I break contract. Customer service is bad. help at all, if you can understand them! Frustrated to max when I have to go for a drive and make phone calls in good reception area.

I have had Vodafone mobile internet for 3 years and since the first month. It has never worked from my property. Even Vodafone admitt that there is nocoverage where i live in an inner city Brisbane suburb. Each month i complain and each month they tell me that if do not pay the account, my phone will be barred. Last month after the 24 month contract ran out i sent them a user account for the last 24 months and they finally reimbursed me $1230. The next day i changed my accont to another carrier and now they are telling me that the girl in the shop had no right or authority to alter my account. Luckily, i had girl in store sign a refund for me and i am happy to take this all the way to court. Vodafone are a disgrace and as a matter of fact most of providers are the same!

After going to the TIO I have been able to get out of my 24 month plan with vodafone:), no exit fees! Still think they should have refunded the past 6 months' bills, but I'm just happy to be done with this crap company..They definitely should not be allowed to operate.

I left Australia yesterday and had to cancel my 3 Mobile broadband internet and Vodafail mobile service.

I called 3 Mobile the night before and they told me they would have to seek higher authority to cancel my account and that they'd be in touch in an hour. When I saw that my service was still running an hour later, I called them again and my account was still showing as 'active'. Finally after the 2nd call (and ENDLESS questions about whether I knew someone I could transfer the service to), the account was closed.

The EXACT same thing happened at the airport with my Vodafail account. I called them once and they assured me it would be cancelled. An hour later my service was still running. So I had to call them again when I was on the plane and had to rush the guy at the end of the call because the plane doors had closed.

GOOD RIDDANCE to terrible service!