Totally fucked and that lara bitch just makes the pain worse

I'm a business customer ie company vodafone user - I've just come from Epworth Hospital in Richmond Vic - I live in the outer suburbs of Melbourne - 50Km away & my son was sent by my local GP to the hospital. I've gone from work to meet my wife & son and waited 3 hours in emergency. I all that time I couldn't receive or send calls to my younger son who was at home, wondering what was going on....fortunately my wife's Telstra phone was available to her - she & I had to seperate while the hospital did triage etc on my son (the patient). Would go back to Telstra (my former employers carrier of choice) in a heartbeat..Voda get your act together before soemone dies!!!!

always dropping out on calls. The service was great up until about 6 mths ago. Data is absolutely a waste of time its so slow both on the phone and the Ipad. Seriously Voda you need to lift your game and lift it real quick. If acquiring the 3 network and there people has put some strain on your system sort that shit out and sort it out fast!

Recently signed up for 2 years for my first time with them.... and wished i didn't. Will be gone for ever when my contract is over - but in the meantime will tell everyone i know not to go near them.

The product may be bad, but the customer service is without doubt the worst ever. Rude, arrogant and totally unhelpful. Can't wait to end my contract.

I am on Vodafone's post-paid mobile internet plan. For the first month, everything was plain sailing. On the second month, the data transmission dropped suddenly. My USB dongle could connect to the network, but could NOT transmit any data.

Called Vodafail's customer service and got put on hold for 1/2 an hour before actually speaking to a human; even then, I had to strain to understand his English which had a VERY, VERY strong accent.

I was taken through a whole series of troubleshooting steps which involved many more calls to customer service and trips down to the nearest Vodafail shop (which might as well be in Beijing). I was finally told that the base station that my USB dongle connected to was faulty and it would take a week to fix.

A WEEK!! A whole freaking week without internet during my exam period when I had to download notes off my school's network. Had to take the trouble of lugging my notebook down to school.

After the base station was fixed, I received no phone call from the tech team despite reassurances that I would get a call from them.

How reassuring is that?

In addition, I could not check my data entitlements via myvodafone.com.au on MANY occasions.

I am on 3 and supposedly 3 and Vodafone are one now. I used to have issues with the 3G network with 3 over the last 6 months however the 3G network seems to be improving however I do not have any call drop out issues. Guess 3 is getting better after Vodafone merger!

Vodafone is shit.Will switch to Telstra

I genuinely think they are one of the better providers. Has anyone here had to deal with Telstra?

i have experienced issues for a couple of months too......dozens of times when trying to make calls i can never get a line and its not my phone. its terrible and just another rort by another multi national ripping off the poor customer. lift your game vodafone.

My phone has been dropping out several times a day for the past two weeks. Reception is bad even in inner city Melbourne. I was promised I would have reception in country Victoria and was shown a map of Vodafone's area of coverage which included the area I wanted to go to. Crapola! I had no coverage at all. Wouldn't want to be there again, and in trouble and unable to use my Vodafone mobile to get help. Also, how about a refund on all those texts sent out dozens of times that you said you would refund me?

I had contract with vodafone, before renewing the contract this month. In my last contract which was of $49 n they suppose to gave me a included value of $450 but actually I was getting $410 instead of $450 , Then it took me three days to get the right person to share my problem with them, After 45 min of waiting every day to actually got someone to share my problem. After such a long discussion they gave me credit of $200 so it means they are at there fault to give such a credit. SO VODAFONE MAKE ME FOOL FOR NEARLLY 19 MONTHS BY GIVING ME LESS INCLUDED VALUE , WHICH I REALISE AFTER 19 MONTHS, BCOZ OF SOME BETTER DEALS I M STILL WITH VODAFONE, BUT THERE SHOULD BE SOMEONE WHO SHOULD LOOK AFTER ALL THIS MATTERS.

SO ITS MY HUMBLE REQUEST TO ALL THE VODAFONE CUSTOMER TO GET RID OF VODAFONE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO TEACH THEM LESSON

HOW POWERFULL IS CUSTOMER IF WE ALL CAN CREAT THEM WE CAN DESTROY THEM.

THANKS
GILL

Come on guys they try their hardest

Did anyone read their submission to the ACMA's enquiry on customer service ( http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_312279 )???? Liars.

I regularly have call dropouts, incredibly slow down load & am really lucky to have more than one bar...in inner metro melbourne?!!! My phone stopped working suddenly and it took me 3 days to get through to someone in vodafone who could help me, and more than 4 hrs of waiting. I did get thru to humans intermittently - one hung up on me almost immediately before i got to talk, one told me she couldnt help because the "systems were down" and a third "transferred" me to another department that didnt exist...and it disconnected me. I wrote them several emails of complaints, and got appalling auto replies, and then finally a "Lara" response that said nothing . Infuriating!!!!!

I left vodafone last year but my husband is still with them. His text messages are sent repeatedly. The record is five times in a row. And he's charged for each... FAIL!

Friend messages me asking WTF? Message I sent eight weeks prior finds it's way to his phone. My wife gets two from me six weeks stale.
My phone has not rung for a number of weeks??? I finally ported across to Optus, phone has not stopped ringing.

2G connection is OK, but I wonder if it's going to go the same way as One.Tel did?

I had no idea they were so bad when I signed-up last month,got sucked into it by seeing their ASHES ad. Worst network ,dont know what to do just signed the contract.

I recently signed up with Vodafone for an iPhone. First, I receive the phone without a number. Calling their service line kept me on hold for almost 2 hours. Gave up and had to head down to one of the Vodafone shops. Then I tried to unlock my iIphone as I am heading overseas. According to their Website, I will get a message when it is ready to be unlocked. Never got that message until someone told me to just go ahead. Oh my! Someone NOT in Vodafone phone is doing a better job than those who are getting paid. You think that's it? No! The data service is beyond words that I can find in my vocabulary. Try opening a site and you can drive from Geelong to Melbourne before seeing anything! When I got to Singapore, I had a prepaid SIM card and for half the price I am paying. The service level just blows Vodafone away. And no contract! Shame on you Vodafone! If people can load a Website faster than ADSL2 on 3G, I am left wondering why you cannot do so even in Melbourne city centre. Gosh!

I was just blinded by the ridiculously attractive salespeople. Seriously, anyone else notice this?

I love vodafone. They have by far the best customer service of any of the telcos I have been with- and I have been with them all. You people are all first class losers. Oh no my iPhone is taking a while to load Perez Hilton! Get a life

I thought it was a problem with my iPhone but after reading the article in The Age I too am suffering from vodafone. Pages on the Internet won't load, reception drops out in the city all the time and voice messages are taking 24 hours in some cases to come through. Appalling service and not good enough. I am missing important messages from clients because of vodafone.

I've been bagging Apple for the O/S upgrade making my 3G iPhone laggy and unresponsive - I hadn't even considered it might be my carrier. My contract is up in 2 months, I was going to move away from Apple to HTC Android to fix the problem. Take note Apple - you're potentially losing biz because of this!

When I complained about having no internet I was told the only way to lodge a complaint was online! The same twit also told me I was welcome to cancel my mobile broadband but, upon asking, was told I wouldnt be reimbursed for the USB stick or the 6 months prepaid internet. Very pathetic customer service - cant wait til my mobile phone contract is up in May so I can go to a real provider.

I'm in geelong, I can't get constant 3g and my phone call drops at least 3 times between Geelong and Melbourne while driving...! Anybody think I'm in the middle of the out back.. as much as I don't want to I'm going back to Telstra when my contact is up next may..

Random reception and lack of 3G. National data racking up because I can't get 3G is the worst

GET A LIFE! I KNOW THAT SOME OF YOU HAVE ISSUES, BUT DO YOU HAVE TO USE SUCH FOUL LANGUAGE? FOR GOODNESS SAKES, IT IS ONLY A MOBILE PHONE!

I live within 5 KM of the Melbourne CBD and I feel the pain! Constant drop outs (EVERY CALL!!), messages hours or days late, no reception in the middle of Melbourne. Absolutely NOT what I signed up for. I also receive LOADS of advertising texts from them. I even managed to speak to someone at vodafake about this, who had to ask his superior if it is possible to NOT receive the advertising. The reply was "ITS FREE!" What? They then told me it is not possible to NOT receive advertising texts. Oh my god, crap service and no choice with advertising? I am running as soon as my contract is up!

When posting have the courtesy to read, re-read, and read again what you have written. Spelling and grammatical errors debase any arguments you may be trying to put forward and may make your posts appear as irrational juvenile rants.
As Shakespeare would have said: "Full of sound and fury signifying nothing."

At home, signal drops so bad that phones loss reception at all. The strange thing is that if I walk 1 inch to the left, I will regain the signal. This is worse than the iPhone4 "antennagate".

For about 6 weeks or more, I have not been able to attach to the internet using 3G from my Collins Street office. I called Vodafone a few weeks ago and was told there was nothing to do about it because of "access congestion" on the Vodafone network. More recently I've found calls dropping out and no improvement in accessing the internet. Yesterday I called and was told transmitters in Flinders Street were being upgraded and some of the problems were caused by the merger between Vodafone and "3". I was told that I should see an improvement to the network. In the mean time, no offer was made to compensate me for failed access, dropped calls etc. I've had enough and in the process of changing carriers. I'll take up the issue with the Telecommunications Ombudsman.

Catch a tram up Collins Street and watch the signal drop in and drop out constantly. Spent hours one night trying to work out what was happening and thought it was the phone. Vodafone said they did not have any issues, they lied to me. Was supposed to be in an area where they had signal range, nope not working at all even when I moved around the area. Another lie. Was sitting at work today no signal in StKilda Rd.

After years of my parents complaining about Vodafone coverage I sought assurances about coverage before signing with a company that uses them as a carrier, needless to say their assurances came to nothing and coverage is still abysmal. I won't be resigning with my current provider if they stick with Vodafone.

I am getting so frustrated with Vodafone and will NEVER renew a contract with Vodafone again. Call after call is droipping out and you have to ring back for onother fee. Their customer service is and conflict resolution processes are a joke

i have setup direct debit however they cancel my service the reason is payment hasn't made
i cant get reception even at my home

Near the end of 2009/beginning of 2010, Vodafone caused over 400 Victorians to become redundant by sending their jobs to Manila.

Pretty much in the heart of melb and always bad reception, 3g is shocking. You wouldnt think it was nearly 2011..

I'm a 6 year customer of Vodafone and have noticed their customer service sliding to an all time low this year. On hold for 30 minutes plus every time I call (however, if you call the sales line, you get through in 2 minutes - funny that)... I have also emailed them 3 times to request getting out of my contract because they have been so bad, with no reply.

The minute my contract expires I'm out - can't put up with it any more - but they have lost another 2 year contract from me (and I spend $60-$80 per month).

Nice fail, Vodafone!

Poor coverage - Across Melbourne - CRAPPPP

I live in Williams Landing. There is no coverage in our suburb. I get like one bar if I am in my garden and inside the house there is no coverage at all on 3G. I use iphone4, I manually switch off 3G option to get proper signal strength, which means the network goes to EDGE and I can make calls! I can't access Internet with good speed because of this!

Every now and then someone will try to call me. They instead have the privilege of listening to Kylie Minogue. Whilst my phone doesn't even register that they have called...

Can't get calls from anyone on any network other than from one using Vodafail.Have called them everyday for the past 2 weeks but still problem not sorted out.Stuck into this crappy CAP.

They offered my 10 bucks compensation so I can get a happy meal.

Vodafone's call centre is now the old 3 call centre based over in India. They are useless, they were useless back when 3 first came out, every call to them is minimum half hour and constantly placed on hold. TIO is the way to go.

Vodafone are telling lies when they say a software fix will resolve these issues. They need to build more infrastructure, it cannot cope with the increased amount of smartphones on the network. They have a project in place to split the bandwidth and resolve this problem, but that is going to take a year. Nothing will be fixed by "next Friday...." as they keep saying.

constant drop outs, not being contactable. I thought my handset was causing issues, but no hearing other people with their issues. Whenever in the CBD in Melbourne, i loose reception and ability to receive call or make calls for up to 4-6 hrs per day.

I get call drop off's every day.One minute I get 3G coverage and next minute It is GPRS or Edge. I think my phone got major issues with switching from one phone tower to other while driving. I have given up after talking to Vodaphone helpdesk. I do not even bother to call them anymore. I am looking to sign a contract with Telsra, It might be expesive but at least worth it.

I have always suffering from network problem at my home. most of the time it shows "no service" and most of the time "call dropped". Before switching me from 3 to vodafone, they have said the we have problem in 3 but in vodafone. So you shift on vodafone but vodafone has same story. My iPhone camera is freezed while taking photos or making videos, I have complained to vodafone, they said go to any vodafone store, I went to one of vodafone store. Representative there said you should update the software and it will be ok after that. But I have already updated two more versions but it has still same problem. Vodafone, please listen to the customers otherwise you will loose big clientele.

When you use your mobile as your ONLY phone, you expect that your one phone will be reliable. Pity I counted on Vodafail! Constantly drops out, even when standing in the CBD having a conversation. It's like there's a timer, and they cap your calls at 3 minutes. Every single call reliably drops out around that lovely 3 minute mark.

First of all - I myself is a telecomunication engineer working for one of the leading vendors. I called their helpdesk when I was trying to send SMS to Sweden but it did not work. But I could receive SMS from that same Swedish mobile. I asked the helpdesk guy about text message agreement between Vodafone and the Swedish operator Tele2. But the guy did not want to listen and kept saying I was using wrong number. I asked how come the same number works when I try from 3-mobile? He didnt answer and asked me to try his suggestion. And his suggestion was to add 0011 instead of + (when you dial overseas from Aus), country code, CITY CODE (which is only applicable for calling land lines) and then mobile number beginning with 0. So, the number for SMS should look like: 0011 46 03 071234567. Or just to explain how dumb that was I am giving example using Australian numbers - 0011 61 03 0411576891.

I told the guy that this would definitely not gonna work cause CITY code is not applicable in mobile number system. But the Indian guy got angry and he was so rude and said - "you first try what I tell you to try. who is the helpdesk? if you know how to do it, why did you call helpdesk? first try my recommendation, and if it does not work, call back again." and he hung up.

Of course it did not work and I called back the next day. Talked to an Australian girl this time and she agreed that what that Indian guy said was rubbish. But still she could not help to figure out why I cannot send SMS to Sweden but can receive.

Finally, after waiting for 3 months without a solution, and facing other issues like no coverage in my bed room, or underground car parks or even in safeway/coles, I decided to move to Telstra. Could be a little costly but their NextG got the best possible coverage.

So yeah - VERY POOR, RUDE, DUMB CUSTOMER SERVICE and VERY BAD RECEPTION.

VODAFONE GET MORE STAFF AND FIRE LARA!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a pathetic service you offer

I am on 3, but this uses Voda GSM coverage where there is no Three 3G coverage. At home I only have Voda GSM and it takes about 10 attempts before I can place a call. I was thinking it was my new shit phone!

I use my mobile for work as I work between the office and an external warehouse. At least once a day I suddenly receive a voicemail alert even though I have not been on the phone and the phone has not rang. I check my voicemail and sure enough, the office has called and left a message a minute or two earlier. Some of these calls that I have missed have been extremely urgent. But, must say that Vodafone still rates above Optus on my best telco ladder (but it's hard to rate worse that Optus really with the shit they put me through!)

I went with Vodafone because I liked the competitive rates. But the pay off for poor service is unacceptable. I live in Preston and regularly only have one bar of reception in my house, when my partner on Telstra has all bars. I get the no cellular message at least four times a day. But the most annoying things are the delayed messages - voicemail messages received a day or more after they were left. I use this phone for work, so that's completely unacceptable. I'm locked in for another year, so 12 months more of pain.

house was robbed-thought person still inside. even call to 000 kept failing and had to keep calling back! Had to convince them I was not making a prank call and that the phone reception was crap. Took four phone calls.

Big mess. Have recently signed up to crap service.
Here's a hint everyone - check out Vodafone's media pages for the names of the CEO, Head of Customer Service, Head of Retail etc (I found them in about 10 minutes). Then send an email to all of them outlining your problems & why they have failed. I received a call from their escalation compaints department the next day.

The other night I couldn't log in to my Vodafone account to check my bill, after 90 minutes on hold (to be exact), an arrogant an unapologetic operator answered. When questioned about why the waiting time had been so long, he simply stated that they were "very busy". When I raised my issue, he then said that he could not get into the system to reset my password, and that I should call back in 24 hours. When I said that I didn't think that I should have to call back, but rather that they should call me back when the system was up again, he eventually agreed to arrange a call back for me. In the meantime, I sent a complaint via their website, which I received the following generic, pathetic response:

"Thank you for your email. It is always disappointing when a customer is unhappy with any aspect of our company and we regret that you have been dissatisfied with the service you received during the above mentioned phone call. Vodafone continually strive to achieve the highest possible standard of service and go to considerable lengths to train our staff in all aspects of customer service. We are currently experiencing a very high volume of incoming calls and i do apologise for the wait in queue. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. Your feedback allows Vodafone to improve their business for the future."

I was previously with 3...but ever since the vodafone takeover, I am constantly roaming, or have to 3G data or just outright have "no service"...THAT WOULD B RIGHT!

Id like to see who else is excruciatingly annoyed by Lara

Signed up for mobile broadband a couple of weeks ago but couldn't log on to their website to check usage for some reason. Tried calling 3 times and was on hold for at least an hour (I was informed at the start of the call that the wait was 20 min, F--king joke). Finally got through and logged in to find someone elses name on my account. Emailed them about the problem because I wasn't waiting on the phone again and I never got a reply. FAIL.

- experiencing volume and reception problems on my phone which were completely denied by vodafone - they blamed my hardware - i only know the truth from blogs and comments like this
- trying to call Vodafone customer service and waiting 47 minutes on hold

I was about to purchase an HTC Desire HD on a 24 month plan with Vodafone, but now that I see so many people are experiencing poor network coverage, I think I'll go Telstra. Might be more expensive, but at least I'll be able to make calls.

I think heads should roll.

I've been with Vodafone for 11 years and have had no issues at all with them - in fact in certain places their coverage exceeds the other two majors. I wonder how many of the people whining are actually iPhone users compared to real mobile phone users - bet you if we compared we'd see where the problem really is.

I have purchased a phone for me to be in constant touch with my partner and she only seems to receive 1 in 5 calls I make.

dropping important calls with clients, thanks telstra for atleast 9/10 calls (Average over 10 users) im finding when there is a drop out it's for bizarre locations in dead zones under garages etc, funny though that i keep connected in lifts!

I signed on to Vodafone for another 2 years because I was, till the middle of this year, a relatively satisfied customer. Recently, I've not been able to work from home like I used to because THERE IS NO RECEPTION IN THORNBURY. It's not like I'm living an hour away from the CBD! This is just ridiculous!

No service, dropped calls, messages are 5 days late, my customers think I don't return calls, etc...
On hold for hours, no real help or advice...I would like a refund, or/and a different telco.

Very frustrating!!!

poor reception...signal is very poor roaming almost all the time even in CBD and metropolitan area.
What's worse is the call centres are based in India!! bring back those jobs to Aussie!

I went to buy a phone on the infinity plan. Heck, even the lovely shop assistant suggested I use a friend's phone in my area for a few days, because dropouts are so common.

I have to re-dial every time I call my parents in Sydney, I mean the calls keeps dropping all the time. I can't browse or use the net, my phone has hardly a bar of reception! And I am paying for 2GB of data that is hardly used. Try to speak to someone and expect to be on a waiting call for over one hour, disgraceful! - I recently paid my last bill - $390 including insurance for stolen mobile, which I don't even want to remember what a nightmare this was just trying to get this matter resolved. After paying this bill I noticed VF deducted the same amount by direct debit! - I am now short $390. I mean, I don't get a service but they don't even blink to charge you as soon as they print the bill!!! SHOCKING. I can't be bothered to contact customer service and spend half of my day waiting for someone, AND let me tell you going to a Vodafone store is not any better, AT ALL!!!