I have a Vodafone contract and a phone that is sim-locked to Vodafone. On the 20th of March 2011, Telstra was able to put a block on my phone saying that it was reported stolen by one of their customers.
Vodafone would not help me with this issue, and insisted that I contact Telstra to get it unlocked.
On thet 21th of March 2011 after hours of talking to customer support representatives, I was able to convince Telstra to lift the block/stolen status.
However despite this, my phone still remains blocked on the Vodafone network. I have called Vodafone customer support numerous times, and they keep saying that the issue should resolve itself within 24-60 hours, and keep asking me to restart, reset or restore my phone to default settings.
It has been two and a half weeks and my phone is still blocked on their network and they will not allow me to escalate the complaint to management.
I am extremely frustrated with their lack of customer support and the fact that I cannot use my service despite paying them 80 dollars a month.

Until about 3 years ago Vodafail had the strongest signal at my home, now it wont even connect if I stand in the garden, let alone in the house.

The coverage is woeful , i'm sitting in my office at home with no service on the phone or signal on the usb wireless internet they provided.
I went to northern nsw the other week ,bugger all coverage there , its not like its that far from civilisation.
various places on the sunshine coast calls are missed or drop out.
NOT HAPPY AT ALL!

on a contract til the end of this year and i will be going to telstra. i lose service just siiting in my lounge rrom, call drop outs, call fauilures wont dial the number. my wife would ring my phone it would go straight to voiuce mail no call or notification she now sends a TEXT if this happens cant wait to go to telstra, all this seems to have happened or gotten worse since vodafone took over the 3 network. just hopeless if you ask me. Come late november bye bye vodafail.....ggggrrrrr

Using Vodafail .3G Mobile Slowband from Sydney CBD

Been using for a couple of days on a business trip thinking that Vodafail Slowband would be better than the rip off hotel rates - big mistake.

Packet loss rate of about 35% continually causing web sites and company VPN to lockup.

Service latency is double that of satellite services (which you expect to be sluggish).

The packet loss rate clearly indicates oversubscribed service (too many people using too little network resources).

Graph of trace to City of Syndey Web Site shows a decrease in latency after the packets leave the Vodafail equipment and move to Optus. Weird usually latency increases.

There is absolutely no way I can use the pre-paid volume I purchased and infact I am being ripped off as it looks like 35% of the data I send is lost by Vodafail.

Thanks for the Web Site and accepting my rant - evidence follows:

Stats for 100 pings at 15 sec interval...
Target Name: www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
IP: 203.147.135.212
Date/Time: 7/04/2011 7:19:25 PM to 7/04/2011 7:44:10 PM

Hop Sent Err PL% Min Max Avg Host Name / [IP]
1 100 6 6.0 68 2643 1160 [10.103.49.71]
2 100 100 100.0 0 0 0 [-]
3 100 100 100.0 0 0 0 [-]
4 99 32 32.3 75 2558 1361 [202.81.69.131] Vodafail
5 99 37 37.4 74 2536 1336 [119.225.37.5] Optus
6 100 100 100.0 0 0 0 [-]
7 99 36 36.4 81 2474 1288 verizon.sd42.optus.net.au [202.139.39.250]
8 99 36 36.4 81 2443 1261 0.ge-6-2-0.XT4.SYD2.Alter.Net [210.80.34.53]
9 100 32 32.0 89 2442 1253 0.so-2-0-0.XL4.BNE1.Alter.Net [210.80.33.74]
10 100 32 32.0 96 2411 1233 so-6-0-0.GW4.BNE1.ALTER.NET [210.80.33.138]
11 100 30 30.0 86 2359 1183 webcentral1-bne-gw.customer.alter.net [203.166.92.74]
12 100 33 33.0 95 2470 1172 gi2-48.core2.bne3.server-noc.com [203.147.255.217]
13 100 34 34.0 113 2307 1120 te1-4.core2.wic.server-noc.com [203.147.255.25]
14 100 34 34.0 92 2285 1097 po94.mls1.wic.server-noc.com [210.247.140.74]
15 100 29 29.0 81 2234 1057 svc005.wic141d.server-web.com [203.147.135.212]

A few years ago I was trying to set-up someone's laptop to use a Vodafone New Zealand USB modem stick for mobile interneo. For some strange reason it would not send emails. I phoned up the so-called "helpdesk" and was told point blank that they do not answer software queries!!

I help out many people with their Mac computers, many of whom are elderly / retired so can't afford to keep upgrading computers that are perfectly usable for their needs. A couple of years ago Vodafone's authentication servers had a problem which means Mac OS 9 users cannot even log-on via dial-up. This is a problem that had occurred a few time before and with a few phone calls to the then-ihug Help Desk the problem would eventually be fixed ... no such luck now. After numerous calls to Vodafone, being told there was no problem, then being told there was a problem and it was being "looked into", then it was to be fixed "tomorrow / later today" (for about six phone calls over many days), but eventually I was told that they were not going to fix the problem at all. Experiments with other users and other ISPs have shown that Vodafone appears to be the only ISP that disallows Mac OS 9 users to log-on! Vodafone NZ simly have no interest in and no ability to run an Internet Service Provider.

Vodafone NZ bought out the Internet provider ihug a while back simply to get their greedy fingers into New Zealand landline phones and since then Internet "service" (which was already quite shoddy towards the end of the lazy previous owners reign) has plummeted to abysmal levels. They don't bother listening when you say there is a problem via either email or the "Help" Desk and try to tell you it's the settings on your computer. The servers are constanlty having problems, especially the Usenet newsgroup server, which as of today has been offline for a week! The so-called Network Status page is worthless - you're lucky if it tells you that there was a problem after it's been fixed (or supposedly fixed, but fails again a few days / weeks later). I refuse to use Vodafone NZ for anything else and actively discourage other people form using them, but unfortunately I'm stuck with the fools for my Internet access for the foreseeable future. Vodafone has become the laughing stock of New Zealand Internet providers, easily taking that crown from Telecom NZ / Xtra! Xo(

I have zero reception in my area, and am locked into a contract i can not get out of. calls are constantly dropping out, which is very unproffessional when speaking to clients. I have a landline (and another bill!) purely because i can not use my phone to call anyone.

I was going to change to Vodaphone when my wifes and my current contracts ended in a few months. Thanks to this site I'll be staying well away. Sorry to here what you have all gone through. Thankyou Vodafail you have saved me and my wife from becoming the next potential victims of such poor and dodgy service. Vodaphone you have just missed out on 2 new contracts, I wonder how many others have walked away. Sounds like a perfect example of a company driving itself to failure. Maybe it's time to pick up your game.

They wanted me to extend rather than cancel a contract that has no coverage.

Since switching to Vodafone 2 months ago, I don't seem to receive some text messages and it is limited to the one person who is on Optus. However the person is adamant that they replied to my text, has no real reason to lie to me, but these message don't seem to turn up at all. It seems to be a sporadic problem which makes me wonder if this person is just lying.

Also been having problems with the phone not ringing, poor battery life, and trouble sending texts.

i got a vodafone contract renewed after being on it for several years, and it came with a nokia n97. this phone continued to go well for a bit, then it started freezing up and turning itself off. then not charging. then when it was fully charged, as soon as i would make or answer a call, it would die. I took my phone into a vodafone shop and they refused to replace it or send it away to be fixed. i refuse to pay my bill until they fix my phone. its now been about 6 months. im with telstra now, and not one problem at all.

I will keep the company that I work for annonomous but we have been through so much pain last year with Vodafone. ( we are one of australia's leading companies in the auto sector ) We moved our entire mobile fleet of 60+ mobiles and 50+ wireless modems to vodafone in an attempt to save some dollars during the GFC. before we did this we spent months working with VF who assured us there coverage was upto speed and they had spent over 35 million in the last year upgarding there network. The biggest concern for us was coverage in rural area's as many of our staff travel into rural areas across the country.

As soon as we migrated to Vodafone the problems began. We went from recieveing maybe one or two related mobile helpdesk calls a week, to roughly 30 or 40 requests a day. Our staff after a few days were so fed up, that we had recieved some of the most abusive calls and emails from staff. The problems ranged from ridicously poor coverage. ( even all staff in our office in the CBD had limited coverage ), handsets breaking down, wireless modem software constantly crashing, billing errors, numbers churned incorrectly, Vodafone support having no expertise in mobile sector and so on. We even had some of our major events crippled when we had staff with no communications. We cannot put a price on how much that simply effected our events, canmpains and lines with customers.

As far as vodafone were aware they were meeting there SLA's but they had no idea of how to record when there devices had no coverage. After 1 year of abserloute pain we have finally moved our fleet back to telstra and our telco problems have disapeered.

basically we ended up loosing a lot of money to move back to Telstra but it was worth every cent. seeing the back of vodafone is the best news all year.

My advice. Stay away from Vodafone, Stay very far away.
If you are a home consumer looking for cheap rates and not to concerened about coverage then vodafone may be a good option, otherwise stay away.

Having data connection issues on my mobile. I haven't been able to get online for a few days now. Such a pain.

Text messages not being sent...retry....retry.....retry........annoying and seems to occur when I need to send one the most...vodafail.

From Friday 1st April till now I have had the slowest connection speed ever, pages will not load as the connection will time out. After re connecting every 2 minutes (if I'm lucky) I may get 10 mins of full speed before connection drops out again.If this is one long April fools joke then I've had enough as I have contacted vodafone everyday regarding these this matter and I'm told connection in my area REDCLIFFE, QLD 4020 is fine and no problems reported!!! Funny that when I have reported a problem with network speed for the past 5 days......
Just wish TELSTRA would have better data plans and I would jump ship ASAP.

Not receiving sms messages. NO signal alot of the time. I was supposed to meet someone for an important meeting but due to Voda FAIL, I was not able to receive any txt meaasges from that person.
Vodafone u r the the worst company in Australia. I regret signing a new contract ith you. You're f****d!!!!

Just signed up to Voda a few weeks ago barely getting any signal at home rang through tech said that i could be experiencing loss of signal till july this year cant recieve calls going straight to voicemail. Just sent a sms to a friend he got it 2 hours later. i just signed up wasnt aware it was this bad....Not one but two numbers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have sat back patiently for 5 months waiting for Vodafone to fix their service, as a loyal customer. This week I gave birth, and thanks to Vodafail, at least 50% of my MMS of my new baby have failed. Most of my "I've had a new baby" calls have dropped out. I finally cracked it and called Vodafone, who, after a 20+ minute wait, suggested I call back to speak to their technical department tomorrow, and that they would offer $20 compensation for my trouble. Nice to know, after so many years as a loyal customer, and completely failing me at an important life event, that I"M WORTH $20!!!!!! Thanks to the extremely compassionate Soraih who I spoke to, for your help. Couldn't feel less important. WTF Vodafone?????????

I almost have a 100 percent drop out rate. and I will now be looking for another phone company.......

This was the email I wrote.


To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing to make a complaint of my disappointing experience with Vodafone Customer Care as well as the Vodafone Service Centre located at 47 Park Road, Milton, Qld.
I visited the service centre today, (6th April 2011) to get my Nokia N97 repaired. Upon arriving just after 9am, I was informed by a staff member Danielle, that my phones IMEO number was not on my account. She asked me to return with a receipt of my puchase as they were not able to look at my phone without proof that the mobile was linked to my acct. I returned to the service centre at about 1pm with a "confirmation of upgrade" letter received previously from vodafone with details of the start date on my 24 month contract on the same N97. This time I was attended by a male staff member who advised me to call customer care since I did not have my receipt. (Why didn't Danielle tell me that at 9am?)
I rung customer care and spoke with Selvin who advised he would ring me back as he had to contact another department to link my IMEO with my account.
When Selvin rung back to say it had been done, the male staff member I was speaking with had left and I was informed he was on lunch. I would have appreciated it if he had let me know before he left. Danielle from my first visit at 9am then came out and took over.

All in all, I am disappointed that Vodafone did not take ownership for not linking my IMEO number to my N97 and wasted my time and fuel driving back and forth to the service centre. The service centre staff all exhibited poor attitude with dealing with me. No one was expressly rude to me, but neither did any of them care or try to help. On my last visit at around 3pm to pick up my phone, both the male staff member who went to lunch as well as a female co-worker were busy looking at internet footage of a girl riding a show jumping cow. I know this because they were chatting about it as I was waiting for my number to be called, by the way, there were no other customers waiting while the discussion on the show jumping cow took place.
It is highly unfortunate that your vodafone service centre staff are so lacking in professionalism.

Up till today, I was one of the few customers defending vodafone as I have been a customer for a number of years and I had not experienced technical difficulties that have been reported.
I am writing to tell vodafone that I will not continue on as a vodafone customer once my contract is up in Dec 2011. Take ownership when you stuff up and try to employ people who have some semblance of customer service.
I work in a company that employs 15'000 people in Australia. I will be letting as many of my co-workers know how frustrated and disappointing vodafone's service has been.

Lastly, please take off the $20 credit to my bill. I am not interested in monetary gain and cannot be bought off with $20. I just want an apology for Vodafone staff dropping the ball especially when you guys are apparently trying to retain customers and 'do better'.

That computer generated letter sent from your CEO is laughable.

Trying to speak to clients all day and yet again (15th time today) phone just drops out!

What sort of business plan are they offering customers when you can't even use the phone!

Where do I start? Vodaphuckt is the antichrist of telecommunications! Their unbelievable waiting time to get customer service (funny name that) on the phone just makes you puke and so you try the website - same, but worse because you have to wait soooooooo long for pages to load because the site is soooo overloaded with disgruntled people who just tried to call them! Add to this the call dropouts (good going guys -each time the call drops out, I have to pay another flag fall on the re-connected call)and the crappy customer service and you've got a business going broke by the minute. I called them to express my dissatisfaction (I have been a customer for about 10 years) and the best they will do for me? They offered me a up-grade to a more expensive plan - at my cost! The only advantage? I didn't have to pay the break fee from my current plan and also i would have to sign up for another two years!! Gee, how generous Vodaphuct!

Since Friday I have had issues with mobile broadband, I am still connected however the service keeps dropping out. Web pages won't load, Skype dies constantly, MSN just logs out then it comes back and goes constantly. I'm currently on my 4th call to them. I have tested the modem on 2 computers, have replaced the modem and the sim but nothing works. I have also tried it the next suburb over and same issues though not quite as bad. Doing my head in as I can't work. I'm based inner city Melbourne, anyone else having the same issues. I have never had this issue before my service has always been good.

Finally I received my letter from Vodafail, not accepting responsibility but allowing me to port out of my contract. Not as easy as that though!! To unlock my handset from them they gave me a link that doesn't work..fail again. So I have to register on the Vodaphone website to be unlocked, meanwhile I have no service at all on on my mobile. As of a month ago, in partnership, I own a telco and I don't have a mobile service. I will advise anyone with this company to abort through the TIO and find somebody decent but make sure you have your phone unlocked first.

I'm in the Geebung area of Brisbane and have both vodaphone mobile broadband and vodaphone prepaid mobile telephone accounts. Regrettably I recently renewed my broadband account for 12 months, as vodaphone appeared to be lifting its game. Unfortunately, and in hindsight predictably, this perceived improvement in service delivery was short lived. I'm tired of waiting several minutes for a webpage to connect, only to have the search time out. If vodaphone are going to continue to sell mobile broadband accounts in this area they have an obligation to customers to ensure their mobile towers have capacity to service the number of customers in the area. Presently I'm lucky to get 5bps upload and this figure regulary fluctuates down to 0bps, which is why I can never get access. I relation to the vodaphone mobile telephone service, its coverage is poor compared to other mobile services, with most call connections dropping in and out. Calls are regularly terminated mid sentence due to the poor coverage. Vodaphone if you're going to sell a service please first ensure there is a service to be sold!

I called Vodafone to get my Message Mate Pack cancelled. The message I got when I called was that Vodafone was experiencing system issues (as usual) and may not be able to assist me. When someone finally took my call, the Vodafone receiption was so bad (as usual), that I couldn't hear anything after the initial few words spoken and then the call dropped (as usual). I called again the next day as got the message that Vodafone was experiencing system issues and then it automatically ended my call. Twice. Because I tried calling back. Again. I then got pretty fed up and sent them an e-mail instead requesting that my Message Mate Pack be cancelled. I advised them of all the difficulties I had been facing trying to reach customer service and also the fact that I am using their mobile broadband which also drops out every few minutes. I have to repeatedly refresh pages, disconnect, reconnect, just to get a connection that works for a few minutes/seconds. Although, it is stated that Vodafone will respond to my e-mail within 2 business days, they responded nowhere near within 2 business days. I actually sent a follow up e-mail asking if anybody was even going to respond. To which I got an abrupt and highly dissatisfying "Your Message Mate Pack has been cancelled". And that was it! Is that all Vodafone has to offer? Failed network reception, failed mobile broadband connectivity, failed customer service, failed systems, EVERYTHING FAILS! I would like nothing more than to have my contract cancelled so that I can switch to a network provider who actually provides me with something! I spent the whole of last Sunday on the phone firstly being transferred from department to department trying to get the right person to attend to my mobile broadband issues.. and even when they finally got me to the right department.. it didn't help because Vodafone's network is so bad that my call to customer service kept dropping out! What is the point when I can't even hold a call with customer service long enough to get help!? That is.. when they even bother to respond to my requests for help! I have sent a further 2 e-mails and heard absolutely nothing back from bloody Vodafone.

I am with 3 and thier indian call centre gives me the sh@@@ no one speaks english and their accents are dull and poor and everytime I go to the 3 store I have to explain my problems they then try to refer to me to their indian call centre. However I ask the staff you speak to them and they refuuse to do so

Bloody Annoying!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I live in Wellington NZ. But rest assured, Vodafone here sucks more than Vodafone in Aus.

My first pain point is their coverage. I live 10 mins drive from the CBD, yet my phone drops calls on a regular basis. Many calls to customer service have done nothing to remedy the problem, so now I (sadly) accept it as part and parcel of the Vodafone experience. Next pain point is around mobile data - Jesus, I have an old 14.4kbps modem that could download data faster than the Vodafone 3G network. Not to mention the overinflated price ($0.10 per kb!)

My last gripe is the iPhone plans here in NZ. I mean, holy shit, $250 a month for 600 mins, 600 texts, and 1GB of data? They are having a laugh at the expense of their customer base!!! Who in their right mind is stupid enough to pay that much per month in phone bills?

You Australians should consider yourselves lucky to have several mobile providers who not only give you a variety of plans/mobiles to choose from, but also keep the marketplace relatively competitive. Here in NZ, we have 2 Degrees, Telecom and Vodasuck, all of whom have perfected the art of gouging their customers.

That is all I have to say... Peace out!

No longer in a mess .....I returned to Telstra! Savvy mobile phone deals were praised on a 6.30pm TV show as being the cheapest and better deal, and that they use the Vodafone network. The website stated that my postcode (10km 'as the crow flies' from the Gold Coast) was suitable for this service. Unfortunately, the mobile phone had no reception inside my home, and only sometimes had reception outside the home. The staff also 'ported' the same phone number. Several phone calls to Vodafone and 2 weeks later, it still hadn't been ported, even though I was told over the phone that it had been.

Today is the last straw, my wife had to end up going to a nearby McDonalds for free wi-fi to be able to research for her Uni assigment.

3G is really bad here in Homebush West, constantly cuts out, slows down and recently practically unusable. Have called Vodafail and they promised a call back by the technical team within 3-5 days, well this is the fifth day, they most probably cannot/won't get in touch with me because mobile connection has been extremely bad today too.

Seriously thinking about cancelling my Postpaid contract. Accounts have stuffed me around with credits too. Have to constantly call them to get credits I'm entitled to, unfortunately a lot of customer service don't know of promotions unless it is written on my account, so if for some reason it isn't, I have to teach Vodafail about Vodafail promotions.

Today is the last straw, my wife had to end up going to a nearby McDonalds for free wi-fi to be able to research for her Uni assigment.

3G is really bad here in Homebush West, constantly cuts out, slows down and recently practically unusable. Have called Vodafail and they promised a call back by the technical team within 3-5 days, well this is the fifth day, they most probably cannot/won't get in touch with me because mobile connection has been extremely bad today too.

Seriously thinking about cancelling my Postpaid contract. Accounts have stuffed me around with credits too. Have to constantly call them to get credits I'm entitled to, unfortunately a lot of customer service don't know of promotions unless it is written on my account, so if for some reason it isn't, I have to teach Vodafail about Vodafail promotions.

Since signing up for a 24 month contract with Vodafone I have received a poor level of service. In particular, I have experienced poor reception and slow internet. If I had known this is the quality of service I would receive from Vodafone I would have joined a different network.

I have prepaid mobile broadband. The connection I get is so bad that at times my internet is unusable. On 3G I can not download. I can not play even the most basic of games because the connection speed is too slow. I get freezes and lags. Often I can not even open web pages. I paid for 12GB ( $150 )as I thought that was the most convenient for me . Now I am stuck with barely usable internet. The dial up service I used 10 years ago was better than what I get today. For such a large company Vodafone is really behind when it comes to providing quality service. They really do prove that cheaper is not always worth it.

This is my third time writing this complaint: the other times the broadband program disconnected and Im forced to start over again.
Im unable to go 2-3 minutes without my wireless broadband disconnecting. It either disconnects itself or just plain stops working. And when it does work i get sub dial-up speeds.

It's a pain trying to get through to Vodafone. They kept me on hold for over an hour and all I wanted was to speak to someone regarding my bills and setup direct debit. I have tried serveral times to set it up myself in my Vodafone log in, but everytime is the same result: "Sorry an error has occurred, please call Vodafone on....."
Grr...

Dear Vodaphone, Even my micorwave can recognize a time change, but you seem incapable handling it. Let me help you. Spring forward-fall back! Should I manually put in the time on my phone, or just wait for the spring Equinox when it will fix it self. I have done the highly technical, turn it off and on again, a couple of time in the feable hope that it could sort it self out. Yours truly, about an hour ahead..

My corporate account Vodafone doesn't work at home, on the train and now isn't working in the office. Called Vodafone, they advise I need to switch off 3G as their 3G tower is full. Seriously, that's their 'resolution'.

I dream about the day I wake up to find my number ported to Telstra - imagine the communication possibilities a working mobile could give you..!

5-April-2011: The local 3G tower in the NSW Central Coast (Lisarow, Ourimbah, Niagra Park Area) the tower is currently down since 6am this morning on and here is the response I received from Vodafone:



Question: Vodafone coverage within Australia

Answer:

Australia:



Vodafone's GSM (2G) network covers up to 94.52%* of the Australian population. Our GPRS (2.5G) network covers 92% of the places you live and work in Australia. 3G available to 94% of the Australian population. Capital cities and larger regional centres operate on UMTS 2100MHz and smaller regional centres on UMTS 900MHz. 3G services are available in Vodafone's 3G areas - compatible device required. In metropolitan and some regional areas, Vodafone's 3G network operates on UMTS 2100Mhz. In smaller regional areas with Vodafone coverage, Vodafone's 3G network operates on UMTS 900Mhz. All 3G 900Mhz devices available from Vodafone are 2100Mhz compatible. However, not all 2100Mhz devices are 900Mhz compatible. Customers with 2100Mhz devices that are not 900Mhz compatible will experience GPRS (or Edge, where available) coverage in 3G 900Mhz areas. Slower speeds can be expected outside Vodafone's Mobile Broadband areas. Individual customer experience may vary - many factors affect access, capacity and speed. See www.vodafone.com.au/coverage for more details.



Important: While the highest standards are applied in preparing coverage maps, 100% mapping accuracy cannot be guaranteed.



Overseas:



When you’re overseas, you can get online access using our GPRS network in over 60 countries, with a growing number of 3G and 3G broadband networks throughout the Asia Pacific and Europe. So next time you go overseas, pack your laptop and device and stay on top of your workload.



Please Note: For the latest coverage information in Australia or overseas, visit: www.vodafone.com.au/coverage.





Discussion Thread

Customer 05/04/2011 07:20 AM

Is the tower down in this area? I have no coverage this morning....





Question Reference #110405-000040

Product Level 1: 3G

Date Created: 05/04/2011 07:20 AM

Last Updated: 05/04/2011 07:20 AM

Status: Solved

First Name:

Surname: <<SURNAME REMOVED>>

Enquiry PIN:

Mobile Number:



Email Address

no reception and delayed voicemails

No service at 222 Kings Ways, Melbourne Victoria. Nothing,... not a flicker Was working this morning now just searches and comes up with 'no service'.

Signed up 3 weeks ago (wish i knew about all this beforehand) because of the awesome unlimited plans vodafone has....since then only 1-2 bars of reception if any. cant use the net successfully unless at home on my wifi. My grandfather was dying in his nursing home this last week and i couldnt ring anyone to let them know, had to ask for other peoples phones.....

so....rang vodafone.....they were polite, spoke well and helpful so far.....ive been given 50% off my bill for the next 3 months and have been told to ring back in a week or so if no improvement (apparently the tech team are working on it) and i can arrange to be released from my contract....

so we will see i guess..

sick of the constant bad recepton/calls dropping

The internet takes at least 1 minute to open a page and sometimes never opens at all. Calls drop out and the service provided is just appalling.

I have spoken to 2 x different people and have now been on hold been on hold for 20 minutes plus.

Can't unlock my own phone from the network since I did report it stolen 2yrs ago but found the phone again in the house.
Customer service keeps telling me to goto
https://unlock.vodafone.com.au/voila/handsetunlock/self-service.html
then asks me for a phone number that I haven't used for 2yrs and also cannot find my name on the system.

Therefore I have no choice but to throw the phone in the bin

Labrador, QLD.....
5% 3G..........
95% EDGE (hello, 2011!!!)
late txt.....24hrs..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(WTF!!!!!!!!)
70% Dropped calls.........

Worst reception.
Waiting on important phone calls. Reception bars are full, but callers can't get through.
Even vodafail tried calling me to sell me on more products, but ended up sending a text saying they couldn't get through.
Impossible trying to get service as well.

Haven't recieved a call in 3 weeks - Check!
Receive vociemails from my 'calls' hours later - Check!
Receive text messages hours later - Check!
Thumb hurts from pressing 'retry' when sending a text message - Check!
Data.....wait, what is data? - Check!
Lodged complaint with TIO, yet the resolutions department insists on calling my phone(!!!) to resolve the complaint when I have clearly listed what the problem is and given them alternate forms of contact - Check!!!!

Well done, Vodafone Australia, well done.

No coverage in Point cook area. Absolutely ridiculous.

I JUST SIGNED ON FOR 24 MONTHS, THE LADY GUARANTEED ME IT WAS STRONG RECEPTION IN MY AREA - CAN'T EVEN SPEAK TO MY LOVED ONES TO SAY GOODNIGHT.

THANKS VODAFONE...

A friend sent a message at 0900 3/04/11 and I received it at 1800 3/04/11.
Mobile broadband is flacky to say the best. 2 bars of coverage and then for no apparent reason "no service".

I never get my email phone bill, i have to chase them for a bill every month, i like most on here have had call drop-outs, and the access to the internet is frankly appalling, i can rarely get any access even tho i am right in the middle of the Melbourne CBD! I have had this service for about 6months and there has not been a month where i have an issue, i still cannot seem to get Voicemail working, it seems to jsut dissapear on me all the time.
I wonder why they saw fit to compensate the pay as you go customers but people like me paying them more than $80 a month on a plan is getting nothing?? So i pay $80 a month for a less then 50% service??
I am over it.... stuck with them for another 1.5 years! And no i will not go to Telstra i used to work for them and know how useless they are....

Using a Vodafail Data card in Wynnum 4178. 3G drops out frequently and signal strength varies from hour to hour....maybe it's go something to do with the wind, birds flying past, coulds in the sky....I've been told it's got nothing to do with the Vodafail network.

When 3G drops out 2G simply fails to work what so ever.

I was told by the helpdesk that my antivirus interfered with the signal strength. That might even be believable if I had the card plugged directly into my notebook. I don't - it's plugged into a Netcomm router.

I know there is nothing wrong with the router as I've used it with other 3G services and also via Vodafail in Perth/Sydney in the past.

When are the network upgrades actually due...is there a project rollout plan to review the status of certain areas.

I traveled from Echuca to Port Fairy on the weekend and only had reception at Echuca, St Arnaud, Horsham and Port Fairy. Vodafone can not be defined as a network but a select series of outposts.

As for Sunday a truly utter debacle where the Hospital Switch could not get hold of an on-call specialist to come in for an emergency case. Being on Vodafone and oncall could endanger patients lives.

I NEVER have service, and when I do it is one bar...so I send someone a message and BOOM BOOM no service. GAHHHHHHH Im switching.

I was calling dell customer care and when i got my turn after 10 min call got disconnected , i called second time now when technician was responding to my query i couldn't listen him properly and it got disconnected as well. I also got a job interview call today i couldn't listen him properly as well this time i ran outside to get better coverage....what a pain Vodafone coverage is ....

I had a 3 mobile broadband contract but was getting slower than dial up speeds (20kbs was average). After complaining numerous times over 3 months and being transferred to 'technical', to no avail, I threatened to complain to the TIO unless I was released from the contract without a fee (I had 4 months left). Instead, they transferred me to vodafail and will pay the next 6 months of the contract, as well as double the data allowance. Vodafone, however, is even slower and has more drop outs than 3! Glad we're not paying anymore!

Awaiting activation of SIM card, 9 hours after applying for it.

I am only 4 kms out of the Sydney city center in Waterloo in an apartment on the 5th floor and my mobile continually drops out as of 28.03.2011, I am sick to death of this issue, the year is 2011 not 1980 and the service from Vodafone should be of a much greater level.Im the one paying for the reconnection when I have to ring the person back that I was talking to.

Really annoyed Vodafone.

I went from Telstra to Vodafone about 5 or 6 years ago because at the time, they weren't too bad. Needless to say after the last couple of years of crappy service I have now gone back to Telstra. Last year I had quite a complicated pregnancy (and before anyone says about a land line, I live in a rental property which has had all the phone outlets ripped out, currently negotiating with landlords on this one), so a mobile was a must. In the last couple of weeks before my son was born, there were DAYS in a row where I had NO reception whatsoever. A phonecall to vodafone informed me that I lived in an area with no coverage, and never had. I laughed! I had reception not even a week before! I had lived in this area for the whole time I had a vodafone phone, so obviously I just IMAGINED I made all those calls for the last 3 years! Then they basically said because it was pre-paid they didn't give two hoots. There were other problems at the time too, like the multiple text message thing that I have read a lot about on here, and being cut out or not being able to call. I will be sticking with Telstra in future!

All day today I have not been able to receive incoming calls. Vodafone is pathetic!!

Recently my friends are advising me that the sms's that i am sending are coming through at least 4 times when i have only sent them once. I also found out today that i haven't received at least 4 sms's that were sent to me. It sometimes takes hours or even days for me to receive a picture message. Coverage is spotty and unreliable. Several times over the past week I have had no signal at all.

I am unable to receive calls or text message from customers other than Vodafone today. I called Vodafone and complained and received a waiver against my next two bills

They keep resending a lot of my messages like 50 or 60 times and using all of my credit and refusing to refund me for making the credit purchase, I will be switching to Optus or Telstra tomorrow.

I am aware that I can't receive calls or texts for the last three hours. I rang Vodaphone who advised that they couldn't tell me how much longer I would have no service but when I asked to be put through to Australia (after confirming I wasn't speaking to someone in Australia) they said there wasn't anyone in Australia I could speak too. This isn't the first time Vodaphone has failed me and I am 100% confident it won't be the last, I can't wait for the last day of my contract.

We have a wireless network thingy ( i dont know what its called )
and it take half an hour to get onto my home page and then it says no network! so i end up waiting for hours for my internet to load and actually work!!!

Network "Congested" for 4 hours at the moment.
I am sending SMS messages to my wife 8 times per message, including ones I sent 4 hours ago. She has text me, getting nothing. Calls either get engaged tone or congestion message. To top it off, a real estate agent was trying to call me today to get a final offer on my dream home, couldnt get me and guess what?? I got beaten on the house. Damn you Vodafone, I will take this as far as i can. TIO already contacted, your useless service team contacted and I will crush you.

No reception on my mobile when I am in my office which is in the inner suburbs of Melbourne - my colleagues who are all with different carriers do not have this problem. Internet on my iPhone is so slow that it is often unusable - I just have to wait until I am at home and can use my iinet wireless. I will definitely be changing carriers when my contract finishes.

I've never been able to access the My Vodafone web service to check my spend. It's pretty annoying, but it was never a problem until last week.

My girlfriend's in Malaysia and I've needed to make international calls, which are included in my cap. I was told multiple times (three seperate occasions) by Vodafone reps from the Bourke/Swanston Street store in Melbourne that my credit refreshed on the 14th of every month - thinking this was correct, I made a long international call on the 14th of March.

The info they gave me was incorrect, my credit refreshed on the 15th, and I went over my cap by 330 dollars after they'd marked it up.

I went in the next day, and was told by a rep named Alex that he'd have it sorted out for me in 48 hours. He said he'd call. After 10 days, he hadn't. So I went in again, and spoke to a rep named Mai, who said she'd have it sorted out for me within 24 hours. Didn't hear from her for a week.

Went in again, and it turns out one of their teams had sent an email regarding my bill saying that they were going to apply my 330 dollar call to my current month's allowance, having not told me for more than 17 days of regular usage. This, obviously would have sent me over again. I told the guy - Alan, from the South Melbourne store - that was completely inappropriate, seeing as I came in to resolve it the day after it happened. He told me the same old shit - he'd have it resolved in 24 hours.

Surprise surprise, next day I didn't hear from him. I tried calling the South Melbourne store literally 30+ times that day, and eventually gave up and called 1555 to take my chances. I told that stupid voice recognition thing "CANCEL" and it sent me through to customer retention. I explained my situation to the lady, threatened to go to the TIO and after about ten minutes of going through what had happened she refunded me the money.

So the lesson to take from this is -

The staff at the Bourke/Swanston street store are fucking retarded, don't care about customer service and don't take issues seriously. Alan from the South Melbourne store called me three days after I'd got it resolved on the phone to try and take credit for getting me the call refunded, until I told him I'd had to do it myself and hung up.

The main lesson is just scream bloody murder and TIO until they give you a reasonable outcome. I don't like doing that, and it's important to stress to the reps you deal with that you're not angry at them, but the situation and the service you've received. But my threat to go to the TIO wasn't an empty one, and you should definitely do it if they give you the run around like they did me.

Good luck

Matt

It's my wife's phone (I'm with a different carrier), and its been going on for months, delayed massages, poor coverage, calls dropping out, and now she's in QLD, I need to pick my daughter up from friends, and i've been trying to phone her for a few hours to find out where and what the friends phone number is. Ok so bad planning on my part, I should have had the number and probably could have pre-arranged it - but I didn't think I needed to. Friend is probably trying to call her to with a "where is he?".

Ditching Vodafone later today, contract payout pain, but its not good enough. Aaarrrggghhhh!

Parents flight is delayed and i have to wait for their call to know when to make the trip out to the airport.
BUT GUESS WHAT! they cant call me because the network is congested, on a SUNDAY morning. After being told by the chick on hold id be served right away, an hour later im still waiting. So all i have to do now is drive to the airport and keep doing laps and parking in 5 minute bays until the plane lands. pfft

Dropped calls, poor battery life, the list goes on. Why am I sticking with them? When I signed up for the contract the vodafail employee messed up, meaning that I get a couple of gigs of data, 300 minutes of phone calls, unlimited texts and an iPhone 4 for $29 per month - I'm not being charged for the handset. Least they could do, given all the network problems I've been having.

I have been trying to get through to a friend for the last 45 mins, however I am continuously being told that vodafail "is temporarily congested". It is 7.30 on Sunday morning? Not, one would think a terribly busy time.

No 3G connection for last 2 days at work - North Shore and at home - Northern Beaches.

Tried two Telstra sims in my phone, 3G worked with both sims.
Tried a Virgin sim in my phone, it works.
Tried bit of cardboard cutout in my phone, it works.
Tried my Vodafucked sim in other phones, no 3G...

My vodafail phone seems to be perhaps the worlds most expensive paperweight

I live in the Southern Highlands and in most arears there is no service. I also travel to Goulborn and again no service. My phone has become an expensive clock and nothing more.

Poor reception, hours delay sending SMS messages (5 hours, for one of them). Calls regularly dropping out.

I'm on a plan, Vodafail puts extra $8 every month on my bill for something I signed up for, and CANCELLED my subscription for5 months ago. Every month I have to call customer care and wait for an hour or two, or alternatively visit the vodafail shop which is half an hour drive from where I live. All that for no reason, but what do I say.. It's Vodafail

I am in the Hervey Bay region have been with vodafone ever since I brought my first phone which is a very long time 20 or so years, i moved to Hervey Bay and have had nothing but trouble with the reception I get up here have spoken to vodaphone a number of times about this issue and the issue is still not resolved, I get limited service where I live and when Im outside the service is just as bad, so sick of being cut off while im trying to talk on the phone, I am on a plan and I hardly use my phone because of this issue. I have even switched my phone to 2g to see if I get better reception but nope it isnt better.

At the end of February 2010, I went into a vodafone store in the ACT to investigate possible mobile broadband plans. I was assured that where I resided in the ACT had good coverage and so signed a 24 month contract.

The coverage since that date has never been up to scratch, sometimes taking over 40 minutes to download lecture recordings that I require for University. Throughout the second half of 2010 i spent much time on the phone to vodafone (costing me money every single time as I was not offered callback) and in one week alone spent at least 5 hours in the store troubleshooting. My sim was replaced AND the modem, however the bad service continued.

Recently, I went into the store again and spoke customer service on the phone, I was not able to convince them to terminate my contract without waiving the early exit fee despite the fact they have not upheld their side of the bargain.

I was assured coverage would improve in the next three months and was given three months credit on my account (which i was thankful for) and also a network enhancer was to be sent to home within 5-7 days. FOUR WEEKS later and I still have not recieved this network enhancer, even after another trip to the store and a further lengthy telephone call.

This is just part of what I have been through with vodafone and needless to say when I am either released from my contract or finish paying it off I will never go with vodafone again and will ensure that I do my best to ensure everyone knows just how much trouble they have caused and how much money i have wasted on a second rate service.

I reported 5 delayed missed-call notifications to Three Customer Support. Three decided to close the problem report without informing me, which I discovered today, when reporting another delayed missed-call notification, the 6th in 2 weeks. I was then informed that the networking team do not work on weekends therefore the soonest today's problem will be investigated will be Monday. If the problem was urgent, forget expecting Three to investigate any problems over the weekend.
Its about time this lack of support is publicized on current affairs programs on TV and radio.

No reception at home (Manly) No reception at work (Walsh bay) as good as useless

Apart from the constant disappointments mentioned above, I made an insurance claim some months ago to replace a 6 gig iPhone, as the new model iphone was released at the time of the claim they could not supply one. Three months later I was finally told why it was that they could not supply me with a 6gig phone and asked me to pay extra for the 12 gig phone.I refused and asked for a replacement phone and they told me that the replacement phone would be sent to me with in a week, a flat out lie. Two weeks later I was again waiting on the phone for how many hours I can't remember cut of multiple times and transferred to the wrong people multiple times only to be placed on hold again for hours on end.

Finally I managed to speak to to a floor manager he looked at my file and told me that my claim had not been processed and I would receive a new phone in a week, during the conversation I had my address changed to forward the phone to.

Two weeks later I am on the phone again for hours on end being transferred to the wrong people only to be told that the phone was sent to my previouse address. You would think I am joking but I happened again two weeks later.

The hole time was being charged a monthly bill plus insurance including the premimum for the claim at this time I told the floor manager that I was in the process of launching action with the ombudsman and they had two days to get the phone to me.

For my trouble vodafone gave me three months credit and up graded my phone to a 16gig phone
And removed the insurance premium but could not supply me with an adjusted bill.

Close to six month later I received my replacement phone, I asked them to remove the insurance coverage yet it is still on my bill. My contract is now finished so I tried to cancel the pan to day during my lunch break but I only have an hour on my lunch break and it wasn't enough time to get through I had to go back to work.

Rubbish.

Just like to say i am glad i was never supplied a phone by Vodafail. (Because i don't have a so called 'job').

They actually did me a favour. I have since applied for and received a iphone by Telstra on the Telstra 3g network. Great coverage, great prices. Thanks Vodafail.

I now have NO 3g mobile broadband coverage in my home (in one suburb next to the Adelaide CBD - Bowden) for 2 days now.. And I work from home so this is terrible for me. I call vodafone - they check my coverage in my area and say it should be perfect. Also says full coverage on their web map.

I really feel that I have been trapped into a contact by deceit. I was 20 months through a 24 month contract with Three Mobile with GREAT reception and coverage in Mitcham SA, then I moved closer to the CBD and get terrible coverage. When I called to complain, they said I could switch to Vodafone which I did, assuming I would be on the same contract, and I could cancel if no good. I now find I have been trapped into an additional 12 month contract with Vodafone, with terrible, terrible service..... I have complained with no avail (they just keep raising a ticket, and I never hear back....)

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Can't get any reception inside any buildings at my uni. People with other phone companies at my uni don't have this problem.

text messages take hours to get though. the longest a test message has taken is 6 hours. 3 hours happens frequently. 30 minutes is probably the average.

I only receive about half my calls, when people call me they get a message saying that "this service is unavailable". even when somebody calls me from the same room they cannot get through. vodafone does not let me know that I have a missed call, I only find out that somebody has attempted to call me when I see them next.

I continually lose reception where ever I am, I can't send or receive messages and sometimes have to wait after half an hour sometimes

I have never dealt with more incompetent, unhelpful, intellectually challenged people in my life!
My partner and i signed up for the exactly the same plan, with the exactly the same phone, we also both pay insurance. After comparing bills each month mine was at least $15 higher than hers. At first i just thought that i had been going over my cap, using the internet too much maybe, so i let it slide. But in the end i found out that Vodafone have been billing me incorrectly for several months now!!!!! This issue was extremely hard for me to dicover because when i go to actually view my bill online, it says that it is a 'broken link'!!!!
After several time wasting calls to the customer service call centre, and speaking to several people from a number of different countries (each with unclear and crackling phone connections) i finally spoke to someone who who appeared to have been able to figure out that i was being charged for 2 insurances and not 1 !!!! She was actually quite helpful and assured me that the problem had been rectified and that their would be an investigation into the problem and they would contact me in a week or so to follow up. They didnt! Surprise surprise! I made several more attempts to contact them again but due to 40min+ delays i had to choice but to give up!
Today i went into a vodafone shop (thinking that face-to-face contact might actually not only improve the customer service but also the waiting times....) It was there i found out that i had also been charged for another phone number that was somehow connected to my account! The girl then told me that she couldnt fix it for me i had to ring the customer service number AGAIN! Once my contract is up (which i cant wait for!) IM DONE WITH THEM!

As a employee of Vodafone in the contact centre, I feel for the many people who I deal with everyday over the same issues. Thankfully im with optus, and have been for 15 years and no way am I switching just because of my employer.

Having worked in call centres since the begining of time I take pride when countless times a day I hear "Thank you! FINALLY some one who can speak english and understand my point of view" Sadly im not superwoman and cant take all your calls personally. I can assure you that you get nothing short of 100% empathy,respect and fantastic service from me.

I wish the same could be said about my co workers. I do liken the place to working at a zoo sometimes and am in total horror over the rudeness and attitude I hear them coughing out.

On behalf of my co workers, im sorry for the crap service you recieve. On behalf of my employer im sorry for the crap service and "were working on it" just isnt good enough!

Please dont think all call centre employees are crap, there are good ones out there (like me).

When you say "i want to disconnect! you guys suck" and you hear the silence on the other end of the phone, rest assured I heard you and im not politely ignoring you, Im just not allowed to say "Hell Yea! Totally agree! Go Optus man!" because I have a home loan to pay and those words would see me in the unemployment line.

Oh and a final note from the inside.....I hate Lara, We all hate Lara..no Vodafone employee (except maybe the idiot who created her) likes Lara!

The 3G Reception in Payneham South 5070 it's Cero. I need to turn on the phone wireless and use my wireless home connection. I used to have Virgin Mobile before and the signal was excelent.

At work in the middle of our national capital city and I have one bar of 2G reception. Where I am staying in Canberra, I am lucky to have any reception...all of 12kms from the centre of Canberra.

Back at home in Melbourne our (wife and son) other 2 Vodafone handsets have awful reception...10kms out of the city and the calls drop out regularly (all within direct line of sight of a massive tower).

It is rare for a call to not drop out...I haven't mentioned 3G data/internet access - what's the point? It has been so long since I can recall it being useful that I had almost forgotten how useful it can be. 3 x Iphone handsets (3G, 3GS and 4) all rendered useless, courtesy of Vodafone's 2nd rate underwhelming network.

Received the message from the Vodafone Australia CEO...very polite, very positive - talk is cheap and what you are delivering is not acceptable.

I will be cancelling the Vodafone contract for our 3 services...this problem has been going on for at least 12 months and there is no end in sight

they sent my bill out recently and it was $300 and i rang asking how, as the plans on my bill are a $45 infinite and a $69 with $10 a month extra for insurance, and because we dont call 13 numbers and i had only used $100 of my cap credit that it wasnt possible for my bill to be that high. At first she said well you must have made the 13 calls and i said NO i dont think so now look i have a level 2 complaint with the TIO against you and i want answers as to how my bill was so high, next thing i know she put me on hold comes back and says oh sorry there have been some wrong to charges on your account. Makes me think how many "wrong charges" have been on my account of the years and how much money ive potentially lost to their dodgy billing system.

I know they will ripp me off on price but i think its time to be on the Telstra network !!!

There is no 3g network coverage around parts of Ryde/Epping in sydney. Calls allways take about 5 go's to connect keep getting network error message aaarrrrrhhhhhhh !!!! Oh and when there is 3g network coverage the internet speed is like dial up !!!!