Dear Nigel,

I hope you don't mind me calling you Nigel, but seeing as you addressed me by my Christian name, I thought I'd pay you the same discourtesy. I'm sure we have never met personally. But then, Vodafone has always had a somewhat cavalier attitude to customer service, and not only in my experience. The letter of apology (3/3/2011) you sent to me and thousands of other customers was a kind of hilarious insult, and I think even the type of people that subscribe to bestiality websites collectively scoffed at your vapid excuses. I'd have thought it was a risky career move to apologise to your customers in the Telco business, seeing as it's an admission of guilt, which for my money makes you liable to compensate people for legitimate grievances-but that's an unpleasant topic to bring up at this fledgling stage, so we'll come back to that, but for now, I'll say this: apologies don't put dollars back in our pockets, Nigel. If you really wanted to apologise by 'snail-mail,' (which is apparently faster than your connection to 3G) you would have to bulldoze about 500 000 hectares of Tasmanian old growth if you wanted to be comprehensive about it. You say, in the second paragraph of the introduction, that you 'aim to provide our customers with an excellent customer experience and the best possible value, but recently our network and customer service performance, particularly in December and January, fell well below the standards we set for ourselves.' Fuck me, Nigel. That statement alone starts my mind spinning like a one-armed bandit. There's so many goddamn dirty questions (or confirmations of my suspicions) that you've thrown up for all to see that I don't know where to begin. I'll get to most of them in due course though. Pour yourself a Scotch.

Firstly, if the network coverage and customer service had only fallen below par in the months you mentioned, I might not be writing this note, but the fact is the service - both network and customer - has always been an abomination in the face of value for money and basic, honest, human decency and conduct. Secondly, I was amazed to discover that you have standards that you set for yourselves. What, pray tell, might these 'standards' be? It strikes me as standard practise in the Telco industry to yank customers around by their contracts like a choke chain without ever revealing what kind of obligations the service provider has to them, the paying customers. Let me stress that: PAYING CUSTOMER. That's right, old son, you work for me, for all intents and purposes or at least, that's what you should be doing. But all you do is take my money while alleging that you are providing me with something in return. In shabby reality, you're not. I am routinely overcharged for a service that I cannot even use in my own home or suburb. And it's patchy at best throughout the region. You might think we're a bunch of parochial morons out here in the sticks, but cellular technology has been available to us for at least ten years, believe it or not. Word is we'll even be getting the internet soon. Does Vodafone offer internet connections? I'm thinking of getting 56K dial-up. I don't have a landline yet, but I'll get one, because I'll be damned if I'm going to put up with your bullshit any longer.

Yes, a landline. I guess that way if I have to call the police or any other kind of emergency service, the phone connection is less likely to DROP OUT like it does when I use my mobile phone to call them I hate to have to sue you over some grievous, long term injury that I could sustain on my property. Did I mention that I'm a young woman living alone in a relatively isolated area? Yeah, that's right, I live a whole twenty minutes north of the largest regional centre in the Illawarra, and about twenty minutes south of a phone tower at Maddens Plains. In fact, I believe there is a phone tower in Thirroul, which is five minutes away from me. It's built between an Anglican church and a primary school, though the primary school is for Catholics so, I wonder why I can't call a friend on a lonely night, let alone the police or an ambulance? To the best of my knowledge, emergency services are not equipped to receive Morse code, or read smoke signals, which is about all I have at my disposal if something terrible happened. That was the first lie one of your sales reps told me - that Vodafone has 98% network coverage in Australia. Evidently, while the girl in the shop looked me in my good eye and said that, she neglected to mention that the 2% not covered includes a good deal of the Illawarra. Seeing as this was happening at a store in Wollongong, I don't see any excuse for it whatsoever, though I understand that honesty is not the best policy when you're in the snake-oil business. This brings me to a proposition - no - directive that I have for you:

Seeing as you were foolish enough to admit what a monumental balls-up your engineer gimps and sullen service reps made of December and January, I think it's only fair to expect some kind of compensation. I wonder if you would feel the same? It strikes me that you probably didn't become a CEO by lying down like a smack-whore on the nod and getting fucked by every ruthless exploiter that stepped over your body. Well, I don't intend to let that happen to me, so if you've got a problem with this strong suggestion, try and put yourself in my shoes. I bet you can. You don't get to be the boss just because you've got a smooth complexion or do you? Anyway, how's this? You pay me back the two bills I paid during December and January. By the way, nice timing on your Egyptian-style destruction of the communications system, dude. Right smack bang on the summer holidays. So - the bills amount to $84.89 (Dec) and $81.00 (Jan). If I hadn't somehow mysteriously exceeded my cap ($79), which always seems to happen, the sum total would be $158 for the pair, but seeing as your corrupt and/or terminally stupid Nazi debt-collector types like to overcharge me, it amounts to $165.89. There was no way for me to investigate this apparent skimming, because I have a couple of things going on in my life. Like commuting, working and sleeping. Having been on the phone to Vodafone for eight hours (total) one day, I don't feel particularly inspired to deal with your maniacal rhetoric on a monthly basis over a couple of dollars. But goddamn it, you know you take your cut well as I do, and I think that's a lousy way to make money. It's for bums. You grift people who give you their bank details like idiot tourists buying imitation Rolexes in third world countries. You're nothing but a bunch of hawkers, con-men and scabs. Your marketing department is run by pimps. The whole operation appears to be based - almost completely - on deceit and subterfuge. It's as if your organisation is run by an army of street thugs, and the call-centre workers are on the front line but I'm not saying the others are any better. I don't want you to feel singled out here, Nigel, but as the CEO, I would imagine you should be held responsible for the conduct of a major corporate entity whose moral compass has apparently been hurled into a snowdrift in the Arctic Circle.

Anyway, a few more stipulations regarding the money I am invoicing you for. I would, obviously, like to be released from this 'contract' I'm allegedly bound to. Seeing as you don't appear to take the contract seriously, I don't see why I should. When you show me your policies, codes of conduct etc, (which I was told were internal documents' when I asked to see them) I might entertain the idea that this contract' is in any way legally binding. You want to hope it is, because it's sure as hell not based on good will, is it? Telcos in this country have been getting away with treating people like shit and charging them for it for years. That is not going to happen to me anymore. So, I'll take the $165.89 - every cent, thanks - and be released from the contract without severance fees or string attachments of any kind. That deal goes a damnsight further than fair, Nigel, and you know it. We're talking about real money here, not that Monopoly-fantasy-call credit horseshit you use to dupe the rubes out of their shiny pennies. And I know that $165.89 ain't much to either of us, really, but I'm asking for it because it's money you admitted you don't deserve. Billing cycle begins on the first of the month. Failure to pay within the first 12 days of the new month will result in a $25 penalty fee!. If you are indeed 'working as hard and fast as [you] can to show [the customer] the changes and improvements [Vodafone is] making,' I want to see the evidence. In the form of cash, old mate. Money talks a hell of a lot louder than second-rate apologies beefed-up with pointless technical details. I hope I'm not being presumptuous, but I'm sure you are aware of this.

Explanations don't come easy in your business, do they? It was easier to get an apology out of you than it is to contend with the unmitigated stream of bullshit that I get from both automatons and humans that man your call-centres, which I imagine resemble some kind of third world sweatshop. Believe it or not, I am a professional - a civil servant, no less - and that is how I am able to pay these inexplicably inflated bills you keep hitting me with. Unfortunately, it also means that after a day of dealing with the disabled that I do not have the patience or inclination to deal with your half-bright service reps when I get home. Not that I can call you from my home, because, as I may have mentioned earlier MY PHONE DOES NOT HAVE SUFFICIENT NETWORK COVERAGE. I hope I'm being plain enough for you to follow me here, Nigel- in fact, it's quite pleasant writing to you, because I haven't been transferred to five different trainee phone monkeys who are pretending that the manager is out to lunch. I suppose you have a harem of PAs to screen your mail, but I pray to the heathen gods one of them hates you enough to pass this letter on to you.

Yours Sincerely,

Ms (SURNAME REMOVED)

I got out of my vodafone contract on the 31/12/10. We agreed to cancel the contract, but i will pay $300 for my new iphone, to be paid over 3 months.

I have now recieved an invoice for the full $300 due a few days ago.
Ive been told by someone in accounts that no payment plan has been arranged,
and as it stands, if i dont make the payment, debt collection process will start.
2 working days ago i finally got through to the tio resolutions team to only get the
option of leaving a voicemail. and i will receive a call back within 2 working days as per vodafone/tio guidelines.

i have received no call. i call through again today,told that the team are busy but a call back
has been logged, and i will receive a call in another 48 hours. currently on hold.

This was meant to be resolved 3 MONTHS AGO. I'm so sick of this shit

I had a vodafone pre-paid, upgraded to HTC des HD on 2 year contract. I have for the last month been trying to connect to my home optus webmail, without luck. Have had 5 emails from vodafone support, going no where, been to a vodafone outlet, no luck, tech support, no luck. and $899 to cancel contract. What now?

Phone keeps dropping out, can't talk to my girlfriend

just like everyone else I have poor reception especially when I am trying to use the web. What's the point of getting 500MB data every mth when I cant even use it? The issue has been ongoing for over 6 mths now and no fix seems to be in place. The only reason why I am still with Voda is because I have been with you for almost 7 years and had no problem it until this issue came up. I hope this feedback will be taken on board

3G coverage is pathetic, takes forever to load a page if at all, phone calls constantly dropping out, thank god I am rid of vodafone!

I have had extremely poor 3G broadband service in the last 2-3 weeks. When is this issue going to be fixed permanently? What's the point of increasing the quota when the service is unusable?

Wow vodafail has failed again. No service for the 5th time today, and unable to reconnect. Sigh. Meanwhile they did manage to send an ad SMS to me!

vodafone mobile lite still drops out every couple of minutes, slow to none upload or download speed... i am starting to pay as consistently as they give service...sporadically. We have phones and internet service and we are at our limit.. leaving vodaFAIL ASAP!!

Access to network services (Data and Telephony) has been very bad since Saturday, 26th March, 2011. I've experienced drop outs on calls, no SMS connections at times, and very very bad data transfer rates throughout the day. Only during early morning hours data connections seem to be reliable and fast enough. I have experienced this at home so it's not a question of moving to a black spot or less-covered area.
A radius of only 5 km from Perth CBD. I find this unacceptable.
Thanks

I signed up to a 12 month contract for wireless internet, only to get no service at my house, which is near the CBD. What a joke! All calls to vodafone relate to a painful experience and a never ending merry-go-round!

I work in North Sydney and I don't get 3G most of the time, and when I do is slower than my dial up back home in Peru in 1998. Moreover, not only the data network is defective but also the mobile network (voice calls). My wife calls me during the day and most of the time it goes straight to voicemail. I tried calling myself and it only goes through after 3-6 attempts.
How crap is Vodafone? its absolute R.U.B.I.S.H.

I joined Vodafone from a recepected leco because they had the phone that I liked. The only problem is the phone has never worked as Vodas reception is awefull. I complained and complained and complained and nothing happened. So I stopped paying my bills and have unlocked my phone and use another sim in there now. I called vodafone and told them I was to cancell my contract and was told it will be 1500 dollars. After two hours on the phone the indian bloke said pay your bill or pay the exit fee either way i dont care.

I hate vodafone so hard right now

I bought an HTC phone from a workmate who has gone overseas. It developed a fault rear loud speaker stopped. A very helpful phone shop selling all kinds of phones advised me to contact HTC who replied that the phone was one of Vodafails and to take it to them. First problem no proof of purchase. Ok I'll pay for the repair Ok bring it in to us pay $50 and we'll send it away could take up to 8 weeks.
Next visit we can't send your phone away because you don't have the original receipt but HTC says it was one of your phones. But it's not on our data base so before we can send it for repair you have to tell us where it was bought. I wondered how many mobile resellers sell phones for Vodafail and what was in the the girl's head.
Returned to my friendly phone dealer who said Send it off to SA they will fix phones out of warranty here's the place here's the phone number and address.
Great service from one small shop Zero from brainless Vodafail.Do they train their staff? I will never enter their doors again.

Witnessed serious accident on Lakes Way near Forster on the weekend. Unable to get through using our phone with Vodafail on 000. Someone else who pulled over managed to call no problem through another provider. What happened to "Emergency Use Only"? Lucky nobody was in serious need of hospital attention...

Receiving calls or texts to late and charges are not explained properly as I'm on unlimited
Very bad reception and lost calls
not enough gigabyte download for $114 a month

Dear Cretins,
I have been an customer since 9th July 2010, when I signed up for your 24 month with phone and data deal. During this nine-month period I have encountered inadequacy of service which I had not previously considered possible, as well as ignorance and stupidity of monolithic proportions. Please allow me to provide specific details, so that you can either pursue your professional perogative, and seek to rectify these difficulties - or more likely (I suspect) so that you can have some entertaining reading material
My network connection stopped without warning, resulting in my spending an entire Saturday sitting on my fat a**e waiting for your operator to work out what I was calling about
I spent a further 257 minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even more annoying robot woman telling me to look at your helpful website I alleviated the boredom by playing with my t..ticles for a few minutes - an activity at which you are no-doubt both familiar and highly adept.. I have made 9 calls on my mobile to your no-help line, and have been unhelpfully transferred to variety of disinterested individuals, who are it seems also highly skilled bollock jugglers
I have been informed that the network is available (and someone will call me back); that no network info is available (and someone will call me back); that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a network available (and then been cut off); that I will be transferred to someone (and then been redirected to an answer machine informing me that your office is closed); that I will be transferred to someone and then been redirected to the irritating robot woman...and several other variations on this theme.
Doubtless you are no longer reading this letter, as you have at least a thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another one of those crucially important t..ticle-moments to attend to. Frankly I don't care, it's far more satisfying as a customer to voice my frustration's in print than to shout them at your unending hold music.
Forgive me, therefore, if I continue. I thought T were s.it, that they had attained the holy piss-pot of godawful customer relations, that no-one, anywhere, ever, could be more disinterested, less helpful or more obstructive to delivering service to their customers. That's why I chose Voda, and because, well, there isn't anyone else is there? How surprised I therefore was, when I discovered to my considerable dissatisfaction and disappointment what a useless shower of b**tards you truly are. You are sputum-filled pieces of incompetents of the highest order. Telecom - w..nkers though they are - shine like brilliant beacons of success, in the filthy puss-filled mire of your seemingly limitless inadequacy. Suffice to say that I have now given up on my futile and foolhardy quest to receive any kind of service from you. I suggest that you cease any potential future attempts to extort payment from me for the services which you have so pointedly and catastrophically failed to deliver - any such activity will be greeted initially with hilarity and disbelief quickly be replaced by derision, and even perhaps bemused rage. I enclose two small deposits, selected with great care from my cats litter tray, as an expression of my utter and complete contempt for both you and your pointless company. I sincerely hope that they have not become desiccated during transit - they were satisfyingly moist at the time of posting, and I would feel considerable disappointment if you did not experience both their rich aroma and delicate texture. Consider them the very embodiment of my feelings, and its worthless employees. Have a nice day -, you irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch of *****. John

No coverage when it's needed. Two emails to customer service ignored. Waited on hold for over 2 hours on the customer service line. Just finished my TIO complaint.

Hey just checking I am not alone
Who has phoned Vodafone about no network connection only to be told that it must be your handset that is the problem and not Vodafone?
Do you find Vodafone operators are slow and difficult?
Have you heard the line that Vodafone is "upgrading the network"?
Do you find that customer service looks to customer faults and not Vodafone faults?
Do you find that compliants logged online are responded to an email with "solved" when nothing is solved at all.

Call reception is awesome, I've never dropped a call or had a late sms.

However - I can honestly say that in the 6 months i've been with voda, I have not been able to access the 3G part of the network. What is the point of having a smartphone if I can't use the internet or look at emails...?

I have an account with three/vodaphone with e billing. Today I received my bill through the e mail erver. When I wanted to watch and print the bill as I always do the 3 customer care the answer was "wrong pin" so I tried again.Same result . I didn't give up, entering my pin very carefully. Same result and a message stated that the account was blocked. It gave a phone number to call and guess what. After several tries with accessing the right connections I waspromised to speak to a customer care person. after a few garbled noise the call disconnected.
This happened 4 times and I still cannot find out how big the bill is. Stinks!

I finally worked out how to ring Australia. Guess what, they can't even get onto their own services. What hope have I got. All I want to do is activate my sims. Australia tried to ring to get me connected to the right department and cannot get on. This has taken me weeks and hours on the phone. When will the TIO and ACCC investigate this company seriously. They are not providing services they advertise and sell and take money for. COME ON.

Can these IDIOTS get anything right, OMG I cant even pay their patethic monthly bill without getting errors. Logged onto Vodafone website, entered all my details and credit card number, and whallah- ERROR- read below.

Now I got to log on again in 2hrs, load my details in again and check that their stupid system actually got my payment. WOW what a waste of everyone's FU****ken time. GET IT RIGHT VODACRAP.

Pay My Bill
An error has occurred.
It's taken longer than expected to get a response to your payment. Please do not attempt to pay again right now as your payment may have been received. To confirm your payment status, please wait at least 2 hours and log in to My Vodafone. If it wasn't successful, we recommend you try paying again at that time. We apologise for any inconvenience.

Has anyone noticed any improvement in internet speeds? i surely haven't- in fact i think it gotten worse!

Since last Friday, 25 March 2011, my Vodafone mobile broadband in North Sydney, postcode 2060 has been pretty much non-existent and is still down today, 29 March. Loads of phone calls to Vodafone and they've told me yes the network went down last Friday, momentarily there are glimmers of hope, "their network people don't work weekends !! "- unbelievable for a technology company. Simply put no end in site and I understand many adjacent areas of Sydney and NSW are all affected by this issue. I get extended days and more MB but what use is that when there is no network and no end in site to the problem !!!!!!!!!!

After months of complaints, calls dropping, being unable to retrieve emails (in Sydney CBD) and poor customer service being "promised" that towers will be built and the issues "fixed" by "end of March" I now find myself on 29th March 2011 with no service. Appalling. Oh and the bills are increasing so now I have to go back (once again) and negotiate why the capped rate they gave me of $120 pcm is still going over when I rarely use my mobile. They are the WORST I can't wait to leave them in September when the contract expires - I speak on behalf of 3 friends in the same position.

when i first turned 18, i was going through a $49 recharge a week, so i went to look at plans, and i was advised that the best plan for me, is the $49 cap, as i would only be spending 1/4 of my current spend. now, being immature as i was, and salivating over getting a 5MP camera phone, i signed the contract, with the salesman telling me how muuch money i would save.

one thing led to another, and i very quickly ran up the bill, and i was paying it off using the $10,000 inheritence i got. eventually that ran out, and i was struggling to pay my bill, moving up to the $79 and even the $149(i think that was it) cap.

then my bill hit almost $8,000 yet this whole time, i was having to use 2G covergae, because i could never get a signal, and vodafone telling me "the infastructure in SA isnt that good" (i was always in the CBD or western suburbs)

anyways, i eventually cancelled my contract, and started paying off what i could, until 1 week, when i went to call them to tell them i couldnt afford the weekly payment, the number i was given for the debt collection agency was disconnected.

so i called vodafone customer service to discuss it, and i was told "not to worry about the debt"

2 years later, i get a bill telling me i have 7 days to pay $4,990, which is unrealistic in itself. also, by my records, i still owe $7,500.

i know the debt is my fault, but given the time frames, serivce i was provided (or lack thereof) i shouldnt have to pay.

after speaking with a lawyer, they are confident that, assuming my facts are correct, i would have no problem taking it to court, and doing well in my case

Left them recently when calls kept dropping out in the city all the time (basic service from a mobile company) not to mention the data on my phone. I could never use it or connect. The worse mobile service. I can't believe that the ACCC allows them to continue advertising at all!! Surely this must be illegal to take cash for a service that doesn't live up to customers' expectations. Atrocious!!!!

Unbelievably poor reception in Macleod, VIC, even though the web-site mentions perfectly fine reception (http://www.vodafone.com.au/tools/checker/index.htm) around the region.

I'm personally lucky if I get one or two bars of reception from the front bedroom, whilst my wife is able to get one or two bars of reception from the kitchen.

Apparently, coverage is also meant to be good all of the way into the city of Melbourne, but reception drops out completely whilst on the train at areas of Eaglemont, Ivanhoe and Jolimont (in particular).

Obviously, a severe breach of contract and will be looking into ways to cease this contract and transfer to a reliable service network. Very disappointing.....

Highest regards,
Steve.

Since moving from mornington to frankston two weeks ago the reception on my mobile and broadband is practically non-existent.i rely on both to keep in touch with my family here and in the UK.Continual dropout,.no service etc at all times of the day and night.I was assured by the salesman in mornington when I bought my contract that moving to frankston would not affect the reception and yet when I rang the customer service I was told that yes, Frankston is a bad area and I should be able to get out of my contract.I haven't heard from them for a week now but I will not be silent. I am a retired teacher,living alone andI need my internet!!!

After barring my outgoing calls, I tried all day to contact them to have this problem rectified. Everytime I rang, I would get to the recorded message of the customer service reps name, then it would go silent then cut out. Finally I get a hold of them and they tell me I have to call back and speak to collections because it is their error and only they can lift my bar.
I am on hold for 3 hours and 44 minutes before the line just cuts out.
NO RESOLVE, NOTHING!
So frustrated!

class action anyone???? I am sick and tired of vodafail, they are a fucken disgrace, i am so sick of paying for a service that does not deliver. FUCK FUCK FUCK you vodafone cannot wait for this contract to end you dumb poeces of fucken shit.

Wish to share my pain...

After being with Vodafone for now over 6yrs I hate to say it but I am thinking of heading back to Telstra (Arrghh), why you ask? Because I have been finding at critical times in the morning (ASX opening) my phone goes dead - no calls out no calls in!! Hopeless, hopeless hopeless.

And when the calls can get through I have to be quick because after 2mins the line drops out!! Hopeless, hopeless hopeless.....

I actually left to Telstra, couldn't be happier, my advice to everyone is complain to the tio and just leave, I'm surprised voda phone still has any customers left!!!

JUST RANG THE FUCKERS AGAIN GUESS WHAT GOT CUT OFF AGAIN 9 TIMES VODAFONE SUCKS SHIT

On hold for over 45 mins before i gave up. Not good enough!!

Vodafone is are completely disfunctional. I am disgusted at how I am treated. From now on, EVERYONE refuse to talk to any office except the North Sydney Head office - 9015 0484.

SHUT this company down. they are completely disfunctional. I am disgusted at how I am treated. From now on, EVERYONE refuse to talk to any office except the North Sydney Head office - 9015 0484.

Don't break down travelling past Bathurst from Penrith unless you have an Optus phone. Will need to risk flaqging down a stranger for help or walking to "nearest" landphone to ring for assistance. No good relying on VF!

My calls always drop out. I dont have flag fall charges given the business cap my fleet is under but man its a little annoying.

I was a 3 customer, who called them to change my rate plan. They referred me to vodafone to get a better deal as they are the same company now. Huge Mistake! Took them 1 month to activate my SIM! Ever since I have had problems trying to sort out being put on a 24 month contract when I was on no contract with 3 and have my own handset. Who in their right mind would want a 24month contract when they have their own handset! Trying to sort that out at the moment. Have had issues with them not being effective in activating my services, so I have had to call seperatley for call waiting, voicemail, no of rings on my phone, all things that should be dealt with at the time of connection. I called them today, as I have no coverage on my phone, called from a landline and GOT DISCONNECTED! Normally when I call on my mobile, I can accept that but calling on a LANDLINE AND GET DISCONNECTED???? Their service is atrocious. Not to mention I had a shitty wireless modem with them for 2yrs in contract, thank god that ran out, the coverage was shocking, and the billing, I had to monitor and record month to month, as at times, I would receive bills in excess of $500 for one month, luckily I took print screens from my document that proved the increase in GB usage from one day to the next, which was a discrepancy of about 30gb, when my plan was for justr5 at the time. They suck, anyone thinking of using their service, save your pain. Last week I was actually in tears emotionally wrecked from the grief I have had in trying to sort it all out. I have been ringing 3 to get them to sort for me as they led me to that path. They gave me the name of a supervisor who called me saturday to say that I needed to call the welcome team to sort out the 24month contract issue. Am dumbfounded that I keep getting to the front of the queue in terms of resolving this. Today I awake to no service on my handset, so can't sort out the other issue until this is resolved. IT IS EXHAUSTING!

Only Vodafone could manage to lock my iPhone to their network, without keeping any record of said iPhone. So, my number was ported to Telstra this morning but my handset remains stuck with Vodafone and it's going to take at least 5 working days to fix it... 5 working days by Vodafone standards means a month too, by the way. How? How can they be so incompetent? I'm just trying to LEAVE FOREVER and they even find a way to stuff that up for me!

trying to rectify the problems by phone. - not happening! passed from one person to another, wrong queue again!!!

repeated incorrect billing charges, constant loss & interuption of service, constant failing of myvodafone website so cannot access my billing details....

incorrect billing charges

I have a pocket wifi on a plan for broadband and it has been working fine for the last three days than all of a sudden it has stopped working. It usually says 3G on the screen but now it always says 2G and it sometimes comes up sms only and its really annoying cause the speeds are 0b and then goes to 20 b not kb. but yeah so mad right now dont know what to do.

Do you know how many Rob Thomas songs i've heard after being on hold?!!

the signal in karratha is shocking, i live near the town center and i have to go outside and stand on a table to talk on the phone without it dropping out. my contract runs out in may and i WILL NOT be resigning with vodafone. they are one of the biggest telecomunications companys in the world and the state their network is in is unacceptable.

After months of frustration, I was promised I could cancel the contract without having to pay the early cancellation fees . I would lose the 120,- I paid for the phone in the contract but that was all according to the Vodafone Manager. I just received a bill though for 857,34 for early cancellation which goes against everything they had agreed upon. It looks as though the whole process starts all over again now and also now I have a new contract with Optus (which is great)
I hope that one day this company will file bankrupt.

Vodafone seems to have serious troubles providing reception, at all.
Over the past 6 months I can't tell you how many times I've had no reception, its lasted hours, even over night sometimes.
I can't make or receive calls or texts.
Is it really that hard vodafone, everyone else seems to manage, right?
WORST NETWORK EVER.
customer service is terrible too, damn you laura

Super super fail data connection.... i feel like i'm using a brick fone....my blackberry internet is mega slow and always get data loss. FFS. #pissedoff

Everything you can think of!

Wrong contract, poor coverage, applling customer service!

tried to speek to vodafone serveral times about bad service was on the phone for close to an hour each time going from agent toagent to agent getting nowere complaning about paying top dollar for a phone that did not work i was told i was the only one complaining in my erea wich was rediculars my hole erea was complaining when i spoke to other costomers.finaly vodafone agred to reduce the bill but when the next bill came nothing was reduced but more money added to the bill so back on the phone to you no were all other conversations seemed to be forgoten and i was still told my phone had great service.after the latest complaint on 26/03 2011 the next 4 phone calls dropped out and i am still paying for a phone that does not work properly about 50 % of the time i have lost a lot of money due to this problem becuse i use the phone for work by not receiving calls whwt do you do next HELP

I signed up for a $29 cap last year with a HTC Magic. They told me it could do Exchange email but it couldn't. Then they pushed out an update to Android 2.2 after 6 months which allowed me to use email but the phone lags so bad, it takes forever to even type a message. I asked them to cancel my old plan and give me a new one.
After 2 hours on the phone with customer service, they let me cancel the old one for $350 and put me on a new contract with a new phone. I only hope reception and network speeds will get better..

I can't talk in my home i have to take it outside and there is places where i can't use it at all.This can be very dangerous if you need an ambulance or police i cant ring from my home i have to go outside and on the road.I have a prepaid phone

I signed up in January and double checked with a rep and the internet that I could get coverage in a town called Whyalla. I have had 2 months of horrible coverage: sms, mms failure, phone calls cut out, people can't hear me, no internet usage available and they won't end my contract because they need to do an "investigation into the problem because no one else has had any issues" Yeah right! They can't tell me how long that will take and they will only let me cancel if I pay the 1000+ cancellation fee, which they will kindly reduce by 50%. Rubbish!!

2x iphones 3gs zero reception in own home. Limited reception Darwin and Zero reception surrounding areas. Delays in receiving SMS up to 4 hours in some cases. Contract due to end in 4mths. Told to wait till end March upgrading system. Nothing has changed. What can you offer to convince us to stay
Then to make matters worse we tried to talk to customer service and waited over an hour and still didnt speak to anyone.

got a wireless vodafone internet usb modem, worked until 2AM then stopped working when i still had a 4 bar connection! I couldnt even load google!!! what sort of service is this when internet just drops out at 2AM?? they said the service was fine....BS!

I never see a full network on vodafone it is a biggest problem withthat....

Can't sort out my service issues (unusable slow data, inconsistent reception and call drop outs) cause tech team says nothing is wrong... even though i have screenshot evidence which they don't take into account... only their own investigation. Basically vodafone customer service thinks I'm full of s*** cause tech team investigation says nothing is wrong... and no point trying to argue with tech team guys... they are always right! Been getting ripped off for months and they want me to pay cancellation fees to get out of the contract. I've had enough... I just hope I can resolve matter by going through ombudsman and or ACCC.

I've had no coverage the entire day. There's no announcement on their website apologising for the inconvenience and there probably won't be. I'd rather pay out my contract and give Vodafail the finger.
I've emailed their "contact us" address which gave me an immediate automated answer (crap) which didn't even relate to my problem. So I've asked for an answer ASAP ... won't hold my breath.

I wasn't able to receive a lot of my friends' call since I joined Vodafone last June. I've been dealing with their customer service for over a month; spoken to two team leaders; lodged complaint twice to TIO. They can't fix the connection problem and they never apologies for their service. The resolution they have is to end of my contract but I have to pay for the remaining charges on my handset. I suggested an alternative by returning the handset and avoiding the charge but they denied it. Their resolution team was being rude in saying:"It's up to you now. This is our best offer!" Shame on you Vodafone!

Vodafone changed the cap plans in July last year and they are available to all customers - if you know about it, and if you know they are available to all customers.
Was told that it would be too hard to tell customers...
Since I am two days past my billing date, my change can of course only be made in a month...
Just complained and spoke to an ultra rude staff person (who i could barely understand). I was told that my complaint would be put in my account notes...wicked.
I was going to complain about the fact that i don't get internet, and often don't get mobile coverage in Bondi, but there is no point. Vodafone just sucks, plain and simple...every little aspect of vodafone can derilict my balls.
Never again.

120 minutes on hold only to drop out. I wouldn't have stayed on however I wanted to see how long they would make me wait.
I wouldn't give a stuff normally, but after years of vodafail I am OVER IT!

Day 3 and our network is still down. How can anyone take 3+ days to fix a mobile service? This is outrageous incompetence.

Just swapped over to TELSTRA Ahhhhh.. what a feeling, good connection again and again. The guy in the Telstra shop told me that they are churning about 20,000 customers a month over from 3 & Vodafone nationally. They must be getting pumped with revenue losses. Too bad so Sad, next time fix your network before "over promising and UNDER DELIVERING. Wow did I get that right, oh Yes was talking about VHA

I recently posted a notice re pro-rata billing carried out by Voda. Well after lodging matter with TIO they rang back ... turns out they claim they arrived at the amount billed for 6 days of a billing cycle by dividing the monthly amount by 28!!! Why I asked? No answer!! Standard business practice is to multiply monthly rates by 12 (to get annual rate) then divide by 365 to get a daily rate...but not these kings of rip-off and spin. When pressed I asked why they chose 28 and not 31 (as the pro-rata days occurred in March which has 31 days) ... well we just use 28 was the answer. Please point me to where it notifies me of that in your Terms and Conditions "I can't" and then "It doesn't".
This bunch of cowboys are SIMPLY DISHONEST. So ... how many millions are they stealing each year through millions of subs via this slight-of-hand????

Yeah just the last 3 weeks I have noticed my signal is dropping mid-call and I am having to call people back, at Novar Gardens and edwardstown. Same with 3G I couldnt even get signal at Ingle Farm.
I have been a loyal Vodafone customer for 8 years, even used to tell people they were great, but lately has been crap. Phoned customer service about 2 weeks ago to enquire about roaming was on hold for about 2 minutes which isnt too bad, service was friendly and informative, which is good. But at the end of the day, if you cant stop the drop-outs and data outages by the time I'm out of contract, you're fired Vodafone!!! I also think its crap that I got a letter from the CEO saying sorry and we are working on it, but did not offer any complimentary peace offerings like discount months etc.

So the network is still down totally out here, at least they have come clean and added to the network fail site http://vodafone.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail_network/a_id/3730 the 3rd one in QLD.

My daughter managed to miss the bus this afternoon from school, she's 15 and couldn't fight her way out of a wet paper bag, but she wasn't able to contact any of us thanks to the network being down, so had to walk 2 klms home, flashes of Daniel Morcombe went through my head. So I just called Vodafail and said that's it, last straw, if I wake up in the morning and the network is still down I want to cancel the contract at no cost which they agreed to.

So they have 15 hours to get it going or I'm out, I'm not having my kids put in bad situations.

BTW, they were adamant that I couldn't speak to anyone in Vodafone Australia which I find incredible.

Hi, it is even painful having to explain all the issues. I have been with Vodafone for 7 months. One of the months I was overseas for real, the rest seem like I was anyway by not getting any service. I was so excited to have my iPhone... Now I can't hardly use it except for certain calls and sometimes data. If I am able to connect to the Internet it takes ages to open a page! Sometimes I don't get messages or calls and sometimes I can't make calls. It is terribly frustrating because besides all the issues I pay my bills on time. I relly would like to know how to get out of it. I have called them many times to report the issues and they say they will call back and they never do! Very disappointing...

For 3 months now I have been trying to transfer my mobile number from the vodaphone account of my former employer to my own personal vodaphone account. All paperwork was filled out and copies of driver's licences etc all attached and faxed to vodaphone. almost a week later, nothing had been done. the paperwork was faxed an additional 10 times and emailed twice before someone at vodaphone finally had the document in their hands. I signed up for a month to month sim only contract and almost 3 months later, i hadn't received a bill. I checked with vodaphone and I they cannot give me any info because I don't have a PIN for my former employer's account.
Out of desperation, I went back to the vodaphone shop which originally signed me up and they told me the account hadn't been created and the transfer period had expired. They re-enstated the transfer and signed me up for a new account promising me that all would be taken care of. Now five days later, nothing has changed. I don't have an account, and I can't get any information out of the brain dead simpleton's on the other end of the phone.
Honestly, how hard is it to do a simple transfer of title from one vodaphone account to another. It's not even an intercarrier transfer.
I need to keep my number, otherwise I would just cut my losses and change carrier's. As it stands, I'm going to see this through and once the transfer is finally complete, start the just as painful process of porting my number to a new carrier.
I will never use vodaphone again, and I definetely won't be recommending vodaphone to either an individual or a business.
How can a company this broken be allowed to trade.

My work has mobile phones with Vodafail (aka Vodafone)...tomorrow it will be 2 weeks since Telstra started trying to port the numbers across. First it was because the account number was incorrect when in fact it wasnt. Vodafail eventually admitted that error to be theirs...now they are saying the primary account holders DOB does not match. After calling Vodafail and putting in all the correct information (PIN etc) I was told that there was no DOB on the account (So why take a copy of a Driver's Licence!!) and that my boss would have to call back on the exact same number and even talk to possibly the same person and then the DOB could be added, even though it should have been in there from the start. Well done Vodafail! You just cost yourself a few $$$ by being reported to the TIO!

Hi i am holding a number from vodafone <<PHONE NUMBER REMOVED>>.i am having lots of problem in using the internet 3G.Most of the time its very poor in CBD too.Many times when i try to access tramtracker i will find a message error in connection and no internet connection in royal park and in brunswick.i am using iphone 4.whats the use of iphone when internet dosnt work properly.One more point vodafone has no tower at melbpurne airport .after going to the airport i cant able to make any calls to my friends to say a final bye.i have all the screen shots of the issues i am facing.Still i am paying all my bills properly but the service is not good.Please increase your 3G speed else it no use of having an iphone without an internet.i have 3 Gb data to use but how can i use it when internet dosnt work so this month too bcoz of this issue i had wasted more than 2 gb data which is not carried forward tooo.i want a best solution else i will disconnect from the service.

ok so they replied to the tio enquiry cancelled my account and i returned the phone and was refunded for 2 months,now 3 months later im still getting bills from vodafucked telling me i owe money for the last 3 months this is the second time i rung after i got a bill a month ago they said no problem it will be fixed and i will get no more bills yet they keep coming even though im not a customer of that shithouse company any more

i have called vodafone (vodadfail) four times today to be told each time the manager of the cancellations department will call me back in five minutes and everysingle time he has not.

all i want if for vodafone to cancel my contract and not charge me bacsue since i had the phone my internet never works, i cant call anyone at home because every call drops out and they say my area ( banksia grove ) has perfect reception my arse...they should try living there and having to out up with extrodinary home phone bills because we cannot use mobiles there....its rediculous why wont they just cancel my contract not charge me and let us both get on with it....i swear if the dont i will call them all day everyday until they do.......

Having to rely on my phone for work/business it is extremely annoying that when I'm in the office and receive a call on my phone, it will still drop out without any reason. The other thing is that when I try to make calls, it shows signal but when I dial it comes up with "connection error" time and time again. I end up having to call the same number 4-6 times in a row at times. Data wise, its just too slow. I have a iphone 4 and my emails, photos and web connection is just so poor that I can't even receive my emails until I'm home where my much faster non-vodafone router is to connect. Just very frustrating!

Again no freaking coverage in Brisbane!!! Im sick to death of paying for a phone that is useless!! And how about customer service that is respondent and co-operative to your issue or needs, rather than a freaking offshore cheap ass call centre that tends to calls as robots!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just received an early upgrade offer from Vodafone and thought, "Wow, they're doing something to make up for the pain lately". Turns out it's an offer in conjunction with Nokia only so I can only upgrade free if I take a Nokia. Given that the best Nokia smartphone option, the N8, is way behind the competitors it's really not much of an offer. I would think it's better to not give people a "special offer" when it's such a mediocre one.

Melbourne CBD/Collins Street. Data drops out constantly (mobile broadband/Huawei dongle) especially when on HSDPA. After a few minutes connection, HSDPA usually shows 0 bps download and hangs. This happens day and night. The past 3 weeks its gotten worse. Constantly switches back and forth between 3G and HSDPA.

Unreliable coverage in the heart of one of Australia's largest cities. This is MELBOURNE CBD folks, not the back blocks.

I have held my tongue for the past few months, knowing that Vodafone was attempting to resolve these much publicised failures, but now I am about ready to go atomic.

This is absolutely unacceptable and a breach of its service contract. If Vodafone cannot deliver a workable service they are not entitled to market it.

HSUPA connections speeds varying frm 0 to 200KBts-mostly in BYTES!No joy frm resolution centre..Just a "part of the network upgrade(?)".I cld take my laptop & try it nxt suburb!!!

My mobile misses calls all the time, have only one place in my home I can sometimes get reception in and then drops out all the time. My laptop with vodaphone wireless connection is absolutely useless .

I brought with me an iPhone 3GS from Ireland to Australia as part of my migration. Initially the speeds were great out near Casula and Liverpool about 4 months ago. Since returning to Australia in late February, I've been beset with awful data speeds, (<0.20 Mbps) and constant timeouts and connection failures, not to mention the frustration of dropped calls and texts arriving hours late.

Managed to get the iPhone unlocked by contacting Vodafone Ireland, who are actually incredibly reliable, very pleasant and have the best network in the country. Cannot believe the Vodafone brand is so awful here. Porting to Telstra as soon as I use up my credit. (Not data; that would take years)

Arrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I live inb Samford Village north west of Brisbane. There is only one transmitter here and it has been down now for 24 hours. I rang them to report it yesterday morning and to see whats happening last night, they said it would be up at 7 this morning, well guess what, it isn't!! Now I work from here, so today I'm faced with having to get in the car and drive over the hill to Ferny Grove to get reception. Don't know if you are aware but it is going to be 30+ degrees ie really hot, so do I have to swelter in the park in the car to carry out business?

NOT FREAKING HAPPY!!!

Vodafone claims to cover my house in its network. Big fat fail because i drop out at least two to three times a night while I talk to my boyfriend on the phone. Your a big fat waste of my time.

I use my galaxy tablet regularly, and mainly use it with data. Lately, around where i live, i receive absolutely no data at all!! all i get is an error saying network error no matter what i do, web browsing, rss feeds or games that require data. This is the same with my phone. All it shows is half a set of bars in HSPDA mode. On my way to work is the same, at least 50-60% of the time i can never get a reasonable data coverage, i end up waiting almost my whole trip.

Switched from 3 to vodafone and have had reception problems constantly. I have to go outside to use my phone and it's really bad. No wonder they gave me an "infinte" package, I guess they knew I would be lucky to make 1 or 2 calls a day...this is terrible. I hope the ombudsman does something about these crooks

Just how bad can vodacrap get, No or very little data on the gold coast for the last 5 hours I think vodacrap should give up in australia. WANKERS

Yesterday after waiting 30 minutes to get through to customer care as soon as they answered trading hours were up so they just hung up mid conversation. When I tried calling back I got the answering machine. :( My wife and I both want new handsets & my contract has been finished for many months but my wife has 4 months left on her contract. I would like to negotiate to get her contract finished early so we can both be billed at the same time, but cant even get through to the right people. However, I do get annoying phone calls in the middle of the work day trying to sell me new contracts, and when I suggest my proposal, they put me on hold to a different department... NEVER TO TAKE ME OFF HOLD!

Locked into my contract on an iphone with vodafone a year ago! as all iphone users know, data download is a very important necesity with almost all iphone apps and im sure its the same with other smart phones! when i first purchased my iphone through vodaphone my data download speed was amazing! facebook, safari, google maps and all other apps were fantastic and all loaded within a couple of seconds! then! sometime around november 2010 my data speeds sunk to incredible lows! facebook takes about 5 min to load status updates from other users! 5 MIN!!!!! its probably not even 100bytes of data and it takes incredibly long! something that used to take all of 2 seconds!!! Most of the time facebook and other relevant apps time out saying lost connection with server! obviously vodafone have cut there network range or hardware somewhere along the line to save costs! its been slow and getting worse ever since! it makes having an iphone completly usless!!! its time for vodafone to get there sh*t back together or let me outa my contract!! i pay 80 a month and get 1g of download! i recon if i kept my phone on constant download it wouldnt even be able to download a gig worth of data in a month its that slow! so how does this seem fair? iv tried ringing through to vodafone customer support but they just blow it off to an overload on the server at the time (too many people on vodafones servers at once) well how about u upgrade ur network and pay for the extra network coverage and demand so we as consumers who pay get what we are rightfuly paying for! i must admit some days vodafone service drives me over the edge! and it seems everyone of my family and friends with vodafone is copping the same treatment! everytime i see a vodafone add i cringe with anger! and often tell people do not make the same mistake i have and contract with vodafone! its unfair that someone should be locked into something that they are not fully recieving! add to this data problem the constant no service and friend calls that amazingling neva ring or eventuate, the txts not recieved and then the txts recieved all at once!! not to mention customer credit card details and information leaked! the only thing vodafone hasnt failed in and the only txt i always recieve is the txt saying my vodafone email bill has arrived please pay promtly! vodafone is byfar the worst telecomunications network on the planet... Literally!

Last bill, tried to charge me $800 in excess data. Eventually got a credit. This month here we go again. They are seriously having a go at getting money illegally. Are they going broke? I have to check my usage every week. Then I have to challenge my bill every month. End of contract in 18 months = NO MORE VODAPHINE!!

I wrote an open letter to the Vodafone CEO.

http://www.reddit.com/search?q=Dear+Nigel

Sitting at Melbourne Airport, cant get or recieve SMS's even though i have full 3G signal for the past 30 minutes. Totally useless.

Live at Hillbank. With Crazy Johns who use Voda Network. Can't make or receive calls most of the time. If you ring Crazy Johns to get it looked at, all they want to do is assume it is your handset (Please turn off then on, switch SIM to another phone etc etc). Pretty useless all round.

the usual poor reception, slow data speeds, the ability to destroy the firmware in my smart phone with corrupt data packets off their 3G network and the stupily long wait times when you try to speak to them about it.

i have been over chagered few times now

I signed up on a business plan with 3 handsets which were to be used by sales reps travelling throughout Queensland. Over the past week I have been informed by both current business clients and new that they are leaving myself and team voicemails with return call. This would be because WE DON'T GET the voicemail and we don't get the missed call.

I dread to think how many clients I have lost due to the bad phone reception. After speaking with 5 vodaphone "customer relations staff" who wanted to know the location at which I was having the problem I advised them, how do I know the location if I don't know they're calling?! They gave me the usual story about how they are improving - by that stage I won't have a business so it wont matter!

It gets worse...

I have just now walked out of a VODAPHONE "service centre" due to my Iphone not working. I require a new handset but due to Vodaphone having no record that my Iphone was issued by them I couldn't receive it. After waiting an hour and now being told they can't help me(they couldn't even call to check), I have again sat on the phone, been transferred to 5 people to try and do their job for them by matching my plans with headsets that they issued.

I am astonished at the lack of customer service and will never sign another contract with them.