I live in iner south Canberra, on many occassions i have not recieved phone calls. I have checked my phone strength and all is good. Also i call vodafone and i wait for over 30min to get through which is a joke.......

I have not been able to access my bills for 7 months!!!!! i can not have a phone call that's more than 1.5min long because it drops out and then I can't get my phone to work again for anothe half hour. I can retrieve my emails maybe 2 out of 7 days a week. And when I try to call Vodafone they keep passing me from one person to next until it drops out! I say we all stop paying our bills and see how much attention they start paying then

No.1 - I never receive spam texts and I have received two since yesterday. I wonder if this has anything to do with the privacy breach???
Anyone else experiencing the same problem?
No.2 - Vodafone's total performance is absolute crap. I tried to send them an email yesterday only to be informed on their site that the email page was unavailable, couldnt even get into my account details!!!

Oh well whats new, same old service we have come to expect and I think its about time we all stopped talking and started to take the only action available. Talk with your feet and find another provider, Vodafone does not deserve our business.
Totally fed up to the back teeth!!!

I was a loyal customer of Vodafone since 1998 ( use same number since then), but now I am ready to leave them as soon as I can, because the service sucks!!! They do not care about their customers as they did when you came to Australia market.

They've ask me to leave details ( for not waiting online, nice feature), BUT when they call back I have to listen their lousy, annoying music for 1.5 hour this is shocking!!!

Their web site did not provide info that I want ( returns error), phone support does not answer. They have to pay my money back if they can not provide service.

" Hang in there" Vodafone! I will be not be with you soon!

I tried to call my girlfriend who is also in Vodafone and all I got was a call failed message. This happens about ever second day. How hard is it to connect to another handset on the same network? Fail Vodafone.

MY HUSBAND IS A SHIFTWORKER AND HE WAS WORKING ALL NIGHT. I WAS AT HOME ON MY OWN. HE WANTED TO CALL ME TO SAY GOODNIGHT AND MAKE SURE I WAS ALL GOOD. HE COULD NOT GET THROUGH TO ME AT ALL. THANKS VODAFONE. I FEEL SO SAFE. YOU SUCK.

1)95% of the time, everyday now, I cannot make ph calls! I'll dial the no, only to be in limbo, waiting for ANYTHING to happen, before it just drops out. Never mind if I even wanted to call Vodafone to get help - it won't connect to anyone! Or it'll drop out while on a ph call. 2)I've often been kept waiting for 30mins+ when contacting Vodafone. Even when they've started 'helping' me, I've been transferred on to another 'customer service rep' only to wait longer each time! One time I was buck-passed onto about 7 ppl! 3)My voicemail, smss & pxts have consistently been delayed. 4)Don't get me started on 'Lara', or Vodafone staff for whom I have to simplify everything. Very unhappy.

http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/909293/fromItemId/142
Vodafone Hutchison fixes faulty handset policy
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has accepted court enforceable undertakings from Vodafone Hutchison Australia as a result of an investigation into alleged misrepresentations about consumers' rights to a remedy for faulty mobile phones.

The ACCC was concerned that from 1 May 2008 to 8 June 2009 (prior to Hutchison 3G Australia's merger with Vodafone Australia to become VHA) Hutchison implemented a handset direction which involved staff making representations to its customers that the only remedy available to them for a faulty mobile phone was a repair.

Generally the only time a customer was able to obtain a replacement mobile phone was during the 'early life failure' period, which was normally 14 days after purchase.
VHA has since acknowledged that in making these kinds of representations it was likely to have breached the Trade Practices Act 1974.

"Hutchison created an untenable situation where consumers with 15 day old faulty mobile phones were told they were only entitled to a repair," ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said.

"Suppliers of goods and services need to realise the Trade Practices Act implies certain statutory rights into consumer contracts. Mobile phone retailers need to know that often consumers' statutory rights will extend beyond the manufacturers' warranties.

"Statutory rights give consumers a basic, guaranteed level of protection for goods and services they acquire and such rights cannot be excluded or limited by suppliers. In fact, any representation by a supplier which seeks to limit the statutory rights available to consumers is illegal," Mr Samuel said.

The types of remedies available to consumers should be assessed on a case by case basis. For example, if a mobile phone is faulty the consumer may be entitled to request a replacement from the retailer rather than accept an offer of repair. Such a right is usually available for a 'reasonable time' after the consumer received the good. A 'reasonable time' depends on factors such as the cost and quality of the good.

To address the ACCC's concerns, VHA has undertaken for a period of three years to:

extend the 'early life failure' period during which replacement mobile phones are provided to consumers for faulty mobile phones manufactured by Nokia, Apple, INQ and Research in Motion (Blackberry) from 14 days to 28 days* after purchase
provide all customers who acquired a mobile phone (except for mobile phones manufactured by Apple) in conjunction with a service contract on or after 1 December 2009 an express repair warranty for the entire length of the customers' service contract. That means a customer on a 24 month service contract will receive free unlimited repairs if their handset is faulty for the entire two year period
provide all active pre-paid customers who acquired their handset on or after 1 January 2010 an express repair warranty for 24 months
provide all active pre-paid customers who purchased their mobile phone prior to 31 December 2009 an express repair warranty for a period of 12 months from date of purchase
take all reasonable steps to provide a loan phone to customers while their faulty phones are being repaired, and
take all reasonable steps to ensure repairs are completed in a timely manner.
*Significantly, VHA has expressly acknowledged there will be circumstances where a consumer is entitled to a replacement outside the early life failure period but prior to the service contract coming to an end. VHA's undertakings will apply to both its '3' and Vodafone customers.

"Everyday consumers across Australia have to deal with the inconvenience of a faulty mobile phone. Often the real frustration begins when the consumer takes the mobile phone back to their telecommunications provider for a remedy."

Common complaints received by the ACCC include:

consumers face long repair times, sometimes with no loan phone being provided
consumers experience repeated faults with their mobile phones but each time are told they are only entitled to a repair rather than a replacement, and
consumers being told that after the initial 12 month period in which the manufacturer's express warranty applies, no remedy is available; this is despite the consumer being locked into a 24 month service contract.
Mr Samuel said this undertaking sends a strong message to other mobile phone retailers that they need to lift their game.

"At minimum, they need to ensure consumers have access to a reasonable remedy for the entire period of their service contract.

"It is simply not good enough that a customer is tied into a service contact for two years when the retailer is only promising to fix a faulty mobile phone for the first 12 months."

Media inquiries
Mr Graeme Samuel, Chairman, (03) 9290 1812 or 0408 335 555
Ms Lin Enright, Media, (02) 6243 1108 or 0414 613 520
General inquiries
Infocentre 1300 302 502
Release # NR 004/10
Issued: 13th January 2010

Very
Out
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Frequent
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No
Explaination

GAHHHHHHHH!!!! what happened to you vodaphone? i used to adore you and now all you seem to do is irritate me!! i only get service in waves on the top of my brothers couch in longbeach when i visit the coast, and in my own room,u are killing me!! i cant ring sometimes,i dont get texts until 3 hours later,cant send texts,and have no service!!!
DEFINATELY changing carriers,i gave you a chance and all you do is dissapoint

Got through to Lara but then told, due to tech problems, to call back! This call was to ask WHY MY PHONES ARE STILL CONNECTED TO VODA after canceling my contract on one phone and disconnecting a prepaid today (took 3 hours in CBD and talking to Mumbai)!

Let me guess, 80% of you have iPhones? or smart phones?
iPhones have killed the network
the rest of you just wanna bi**h online

I currently Live in Casey my partner and i get very little to no reception in our own home, we do not have a home phone. I have just got off the phone to Vodafone (after a 2 hour phone call, including being "disconnected" twice! Finally speaking to a helpful Customer service officer, aftyer running through all my settings on my Iphone 3GS and realising all my settings are correct and it is just their crap network they have now launched an investigation into the coverage at our house. If it comes back that it can't be fixed straight away they will be cancelling our contracts we send our phones back etc. So for all you people out there that don't get reception or get little reception at your own house call VOdafone and go through the steps, it may take a couple of hours, but be patient and you maybe able to get out of your contract! Next stop Telstra...

I spent the month of Decmeber arguing to get my contract terminated with no cancellation fees attached (I had a contract with a carrier of Vodaphone). After MANY phones calls, hours on hold and talking to people who had no record of any of my previous complaints, my contract was terminated. I was told I would have to pay the fee and I said not to bother putting it on my bill because I would not pay it - so they didn't!!
My issues were the fact that I run a business using my phone as a point of contact and was missing a large number of important calls each day. People would call and my phone would not ring - just straight to message bank and then it would take ages for the missed call to come though (even though the phone said I had full service). Sometimes 3 days would pass and it would take me turning my phone on and off to get the message. Tech support told me numerous times it was not the coverage issue, it was the phone. I did everything they asked me to do and they still claimed it was not a problem. That's when I really got annoyed!!
I am very happy now that I have changed service providers and can't help looking back thinking of what a poor business Vodaphone is running (or attepting to at least!).

I am working in Canberra, sometimes I had been forced to separated my 1 minute's conversion with my wife into 4-5 parties, because my BB fail always in the Hawker and Parkes.

Like so many, I have experienced the same things, lost calls, lost texts, calls going straight to voicemail even though I had full reception at the time...

I've had periods (lasting for up 2 days) when my email and internet will not work... full stop.

I have had issues since approx August, but didn't complain as they were pretty rare and they weren't interfering too much.

It was only in late November that the issues turned annoying and more frequent.

I visited 3 stores in 2 cities, I did sim checks but they seemed more interested in fixing the handset (in spite of my putting my sim into a different phone for 24 hours and having the same result) or getting me to pay for a new iPhone...

So I called VF for the first time on Dec 2, reported the issues... then again when I wasn't called back on Dec 6, then Dec 12, 16, and 31. I called on Jan 4 to speak to tech people to launch an investigation... I was told that I would be called the next day... then when they didn't call back by 9am on the 6th, I made a complaint with the TIO.

I then called VF again and told them that I wanted this settled quickly and painlessly for everyone, and after being on the phone for 2 hours with tech support I refused to talk to them again. They then said, and I quote "someone will call you within 24 hours to sort out how this can be settled"... no phone call on 7 Jan...

Then today, 10 Jan, after pestering the customer service person, I was put through to the cancellations area... probably not who I should have been put through to... I got a bit of a shock when told that the only record they had of my complaining about coverage was on Dec 2... so they considered this to be 'out of the blue, and just complaining about it now', then suggested that I shouldn't be listening to 'media hype'... I was then told to give three specific events of problems - as if I keep all my records?

I didn't appreciate the tone or attitude, I was told I could leave my contract but the exit fees of $495 would not be waived.

I spoke to the TIO to add this information...

I'm tired of this, wasting my time... I just want to leave...

I have had TERRIBLE reception for several months now. It seems text messages take longer and longer to go through every time, and I often have to reattempt sending them as they won't go through. I often can't call people and get 'Connection Error' messages and it takes several attempts to get through. Calls often go straight to Voicemail without my phone even ringing, and I find myself switching my phone on and off several times a day to fix issues with my mobile internet browsing. I called Vodafone to discuss the issue, and they suggested it was probably my handset reception issues and I should get an upgrade (and a new 24 month contract). Yeah right!

The woman in the upgrades section was much more honest and said that's probably not advisable, but said for anything to be done I had to complete a questionaire with approximately 25 questions, including a record of at least 3 calls being dropped mid-conversation within a 72 hour period (hard to do when you can't make calls at all half the time), who I was calling, where I was, etc. I had to try my SIM in another phone, try someone else's SIM in my phone... and after I had done all of this, MAYBE in 6 weeks someone would come and have a look at the tower near my house and if they found anything wrong, they MIGHT be able to arrange some sort of discount off my plan. Are you joking...?

I am a medical doctor & am on call 2 to 3 times a week, very unreliabe service Calls dropping out, reception issues, poor data performance are the issues I deal with since i have moved to vodafone. Not very good as people can not contact me from the hospital becos of poor service.

I wonder if this is the "secure website' - it seems to also be listed on Google. https://teamrooms-vista.vodafone.com/SSOLogon/manual_login.jsp

All you need is a user name and a password, and you're in !
Why not have a try, or ask a friend who works at Vodafone if this is right and borrow their logins

I have not had decent coverage in months yet they still charge me 69.95 a month

I have been on a contract with vodafail since may 2010 and the issues have been endless. to start i live in metro ACT and the coverage is useless, i don't even have service at my house... second my number keeps getting called from different locations all over Australia, a wire cross over or something and forget talking to someone about it they just kept handing me off to the next useless person. The internet is painful to use and they wont cover anything under the extended warranty i took out and pay extra for various stupid reasons Even know the sales person told me it covered everything)and now this confidence breach, you have to be kidding me. We are people not just $$$ i think even pathetic 'Lara' could even understand that.
Not impressed! I want out!

Got over charged $600 dollars saying my bill was over the cap when i hardly use the phone. Called bloody vodafone and spoke to some rude dude in india saying i needed to pay it, or else, so i didnt pay it as mark of distcust and called back, got to a different section and they said "oh sorry, it was a glitch in the system and we'll wip that for you.
How can i cancel my contract as this keeps on happening..

Cheers

Ev

What a crap service - my new iPhone never has good coverage and the calls drop and the call center are a bunch or retards.

Stop selfishly getting more customers to clog up the network without enough investment in it -invent your money in your customers for gods sake- Nigel needed a good kicking up the bum.

Id like to meet Lara and tell her her services are no longer required.

It started in October 2010. I was overseas, with international roaming enabled. 2 big problems:

1. Pre-paid ran out. I went to my online account and tried to top up. I repeatedly got the error "technical problem with the payment system". I tried calling Customer Care to make the payment and complain, but I couldn't: the number was blocked and I got a text saying I couldn't call international numbers.

2. Unable to make international calls while overseas - but I could send international texts! Every time I tried to call an Australian or US number, I got numerous texts of two kinds: "Transaction failed - Insufficient funds" and "Yo'ure not allowed to call this number".

I complained via their extremely unhelpful online enquiry service. Trying to work out which problem I should categorise both complaints under was difficult.

I sent off the complaint on 17 October 2010. I got a reply on 21 October:

Hi Madeleine,

Thank you for your patience.

Vodafone apologises for the delay in responding to your enquiry within our normal time frames, and regret any inconvenience this may have caused. We understand that due to this delay, you may have utilised other avenues to resolve your query.

Please note that Vodafone are unable to assist with handset upgrade or mobile internet technical issues via email. For assistance with these queries, please call Vodafone on 1555 from your Vodafone handset or 1300 650 410 from a landline.

If you still require assistance via email, please advise us within 72 hours, and we will respond as soon as possible. Alternatively the answer to your enquiry may be found by registering and accessing the My Vodafone website.

Not helpful at all. So I responded, advising that no, they had not fixed my complaint. On 27 October, I got another email from them:

We have not heard from you concerning your request for support in the 120 hours since we sent you a response. Consequently, we have changed the status of your question to SOLVED.

At this point, I gave up. Being overseas and completely unable to get help via phone or email, I ended up relying on pay phones.

In December 2010, I had numerous problems - my phone dropping out of service for no reason; not receiving calls or messages; being charged for messages sent, but the recipients not receiving them.

Now in January 2011, I find out that maybe my privacy has been breached. Maybe, unauthorised people have my details. But maybe not. How would I know - Vodafone hasn't advised me whether or not I'm affected. Instead, they've buried a dismissive blog post on their website.

I've had enough. Are you actively trying to destroy your business?

We live in North Canberra - coverage is next to nothing (although has got better in the last week or so). I run a small business and use my mobile constantly between September-December last year I experienced probably close to 100 dropped calls or calls that just didn't connect.

I have been with Vodafone for close on 15 years (Digicall as they were when I started) and this is the worst I have ever experienced. I still have 18 months to run on my contract and I am just about over it all.

When the system was converted from analogue to digital years ago, we we assured call quality would be excellent, coverage australia wide, drop out proof service etc etc. The old analogue system was far more stable and had excellent coverage. Australians were sold a pup in the move to digital transmission as it has proved to be inferior to the old analogue system.

vodafone send me inexplicably large bills frequenting almost monthly.
vodafone claim that payments havnt been made and have cut my services three times despite all three times acknowledging they failed and restored my services.
constant reception problems in a seemingly isolated bubble where vodafone actually works.

Suffering the same issues as everyone else here.

Just a comment - isn't it strange that Vodafone, government agencies and the courts/legal system place no value on the time and frustration of customers to try and sort out issues. It seems that the only measurable thing is dollars - whether you have paid them or not and no measure if whether the bill actually reflects reality is a complete work of incompetence.

Our time seems to be a valueless resource to be consumed without consequence.

An extremely distressing event occurred yesterday morning. I was having some problems with a very good friend and they agreed to call me to discuss the issue and the call kept dropping out and attempts at redialling only failed to connect very briefly. They called later and the call dropped out again, and they tought i had hung up on them! This has caused me great distress and has resulted in an already sensitive situation with a friend escalating into a possible loss of a very good friend. I believe Vodafone is materially responsible for the failure to provide a reliable service. I live in an inner suburb of the ACT!!, so would expect reliable coverage when i need it. I have call logs to demonstrate the failed dial attempts and dropuots. I am considering pursuing this matter further and believe i am entitled to compensation for personal distress and loss.

I, too, have received msgs days afte they were sent and have missed out on an earlier important appointment with a medical specialist. I was furious as I had waited for months to see this specialist and then a cancellation came through and I could have been able to see him so much sooner had Vodaphone not failed me!

Also, I have been with Vodafone for about 15 years and renewed a 24-month contract in March 2010 which allowed me to have a Blackberry Short II. I went into the shop planning on selecting an iPhone but the staff member talked me out of it instead to take the Blackberry. Long story short, I was told all the bugs of the first Storm had been fixed - I discovered that was clearly not the case. I complained many times and was, some weeks, back in the shopfront every day with an new issue, sometimes it froze other times it would select one of my contacts and called them or send a blank text msg. They assured me it could be fixed with an update so it was sent away for 4.5 weeks and would not provide a temporary phone despite the phone being a dud. When I requested a new phone and to change from the Blackberry and all its problems, it was flatly denied. I protested my loyalty to the company to no avail and in the end I agreed to purchase an iPhone on a payment plan because I needed a working phone immediately so that now I am in effect paying for 2 phones as we all know there is no such thing as a free phone!

I am mortified that my private personal details may have been sold on to heaven knows who, Vodafone you MUST address this issue immediately and properly. Tell us whose details have been sold - WE NEED TO KNOW NOW.

Changing all your system passwords now is like closing the gate after the horse has bolted isn't it?????

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO FOR US?????

I get a message saying "Hey can you come in to work this afternoon?"
"I reply with Yeah sure, I'll come in at one!"
My manager replied with "I sent you that message 3 days ago.."
Smells like a vodafail to me!

Yep Vodafone suck bigtime. Living in Franklin (Gungahlin) my wife and I supposedly have full coverage. Well that be a lie. We both have iphone 3GS's and we are lucky to get 2 bars when outside the house and when inside it is a crap shoot between 1 bar and nothing at all. Have also experienced call dropouts, text message issues (eg: receiver gets them 6 hours after sending them, can't send them at all). My favourite was when we went to see Bon Jovi in Sydney and the SFS. Missle of Sydney and I couldn't get coverage. And.... don't get me started on the call centre. Bravo Vodafone, Bravo!!!!!

I used to be a Voda Store Manager and when I worked for voda we used to get txt on our phones about stystems being down etc etc. I left the company 3 months ago and I am still receiving these txts. I know when the systems aren't working. This means that i could tell all my mates who have bad credit to go into a store when the systems are down and tell them to get a phone on a plan because voda will do that if they cant credit check you, give you a phone on a plan and then manually create the account if you decline. This info is for you guys so you know how shit their privacy is.

My problem is with 3 but then Vodaphone and 3 brag that they have been part of the same family for over a year now so you get the strength of both companies HAH!

My partner and I went to Thailand last year, we went into a 3 office to get our handsets unlocked so that we could use a local SIM while o/s. We specifically stated that we "did not want access to global roaming because it was too expensive" we had NOT ticked 'global roaming' on our respective contracts. My partner had her SIM stolen whilst in Phuket, we figured no biggie without global roaming it was useless o/s and we'd cancel when we got back to Oz. Wrong, 3 had activated global roaming DESPITE OUR REQUEST NOT TO! We got back to find over 250 calls to France and India and a bill for over $6000. 3s response? "we recognised the change in usage pattern and sent an sms to the number requesting identification but it was never answered" DUH! Wankers!

In the ACT, Vodafone simply fails to work in any area where there is a dense number of people, shopping balls, business districts, etc. While you may have service bars - you simply don't get any ability to use data or make phone calls with calls routinely failing.

Absolutely crazy!

i pay $60 a month for about 2weeks of every month i don't have internet access i never know when i'm going to have service i'm in the middle of a freaking city randomly i cant make calls or send msgs i can only use about $10 a month of my plan i can't use the rest because it doesn't #*@! work. i went to the shop they couldn't help they told me to call Vodafone they told me to go to the shop.

From the time I got a Vodafone internet account, Vodafone continually overcharged on data download amounts compared to the that which the download monitoring software it provided was recording (Huawei).

Spent hours on hold trying to get through to resolve this over many months, and hours when eventually getting through, arguing the toss. Eventually spoke to a (name known) Vodafone person who admitted to KNOWING VODAFONE BILLING AND THE VODAPHONE-PROVIDED HUAWEI ACCOUNT SOFTWARE RECORDED DIFFERENT DATA THROUGHPUTS.

Service person said that it had been a known fault "forever" and that anyone relying on the Vodafone provided self-monitoring software to monitor their data throughput was bound to be upset when a much higher bill came in, as it always did (about 25-30% higher, always with Excess Charges as the data throughput, under on the provided monitoring software, had been "Exceeded" according to Vodafone head office accounting).

Ended up terminating the service in disgust. Had been on a 12 month contract which had passed, but then Vodafone started arguing it was a three year contract, based on their THEN standard at the time I ended it (not the one I signed on to earlier, which had been 12 months). Spent months arguing that toss.

Was then chased for the better part of a year by a debt collection agency (aggressively for months after I ended the deal) threatening all sorts of credit history black-balling and credit character assassination unless I fulfilled a three year contract.

Vodafone did not fulfill its obligations as a service provider under the contract during the 12 months it ran. Vodafone-employed (or sub-contracted staff) made full admission that the fault lay in the the Vodaphone provided modem/software, that Vodafone had always been aware of the fault.

Vodafone subsequently employed (or contracted) a debt collection agency to attempt to extend the contract under threat of credit history assassination.

Over to the Ombudsman.

Seems Vodafone has Vodafailed yet again!! http://www.theage.com.au/technology/security/vodafone-mobile-records-leaked-20110108-19jgm.html

I switch from 3 to Vodaphone on boxing day,i was told to keep using 3 sim card until it dropped off, and the vodaphone sim would be activated in a couple of hours. however, 3 dropped off in few hours later, but the vodaphone sim was not actived. i rang up to reactive the sim card the day after, still not working until i went to the store to get 3/vodaphone staff to fix it in internet, that was three days later. :(

the reception is so bad, i went to the store to voice this issue, the staff in store told me to switch my phone off then turn on again may resovle this problem. ???? ans also, the reception drops while i am calling, it is so anno!!! i never had this problem before while with 3G.

I bought a mobile broadband device and 6 GB of quota a couple of months ago.
Can I use it? NO I CANNOT!
I can get full 3G+HSDPA reception one day and then the next day in the same place it is 1 bar of 2G only!
I go into the CBD to be given a service that has below dialup speeds and random dropouts. I may as well use dialup, it would faster!
I took my device to a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY and got full internet speed all the time with no dropouts.

Ive been trying for close to 1.5 hours to get my issue resolved. I keep getting transferred from one area to anotheer. All I want is my phone fixed. I cant make calls and cant receive calls and text messages are delayed by approx 15mins. Billing says my account is fine. Iphone area says the phone should have been fixed. I've got some news for you Vodafone, if it was I wouldn't be calling you!!! All I want is for mt phone to be fixed!!!

tells people my phone is off when it is on and have full reception and then takes an hour to recieve voicemail message

Just found out that I couldn't make outgoing calls or receive incoming calls(all diverted to the voicemail). No wonder my phone has been stayed silenced for a few days. But strangely the signal strength shown on the fone is with full bars.

Called the customer service, waited for about 35 mins, and hung up the call - srsly I got a life, I wont be able to stay over the fone for that much that that I could do loads of stuff.

There are heaps of onging issues with my fone, slow internet browsing (could not load a complete webpage at all, always stuck at 60%. and then fone died), low battery life (I assume this is with the fone manufacturer, but still, the fone sucks, why were they in the market at the first place anyway, QA check must have failed). And no flexible option (I asked to upgrade my existing plan to a more expansive one 6 days after I signed up this one, but they refused saying I either pay out the 23 months before i start a new contract or have my fone for a service).

I will never sign up vodafone again. This is the biggest mistake ever I made (stayed with 3 for 6 years never had a single issue.)

DONT EVER SIGN UP WITH VODAFONE THEY ARE EVIL!
DONT EVER SIGN UP WITH VODAFONE THEY ARE EVIL!

I had a one night stand with Voda and now I'm pregnant. He doesn't answer when I call, I just get his wife Lara. I feel so ashamed. FML

No service now for 48hrs. No calls and No Text.
Err messages " Network Busy" and " No Connection "

I cant call Vodafone because my mobile phone cant make calls. If I go into a store then the rage will take over and there may be innocent casualties.

I have called and complained so many times - went back to where I originally purchased my vodaphone only to be given a new SIM card and told if it continues I would have to come back and get more SIM cards etc. or call and complain to the Vodaphone Hotline - which I have done sooooo many times and after being on hold for more than 1hr one time when I called the phone dropped out!! I told the "sales" person and they just said "it happens" and to keep trying to phone them as the staff member I was talking to couldn't help me!!
Long live customer service ha!!!!!
As a consequence I have missed heaps of important calls and I recieve text messages that were sent to me 2 months previously!
I don't have a home phone or internet so this is my only means of communication as I pointed out to the customer complaints line when I FINALLY got through and received a very lackluster reply!

No 3G signal at home - iPhone 4 spends 90% of its time "Searching"... Full 3G coverage with Optus & Telstra though.

The post-paid 3G Dongle SIM was rejected today (after 3+ years of reliable service) telling me the SIM needed to be activated.

I get more reception when I'm a level below ground in the break room at work, than I do in my bedroom above ground. And even then I'm lucky to get any reception.

How does that work?

Since 4:50pm today there has been NO NETWORK. No phone calls, texts or anything else. I am oncall 24/7/365 and I can not be called, can not make a call. This is costing business and extended IT outages for a Federal Government Agency.

probally 6 out of ten of my calls i make i get "call failed".
i get late voicemails and late texts and my internet is sooooo slow.
seeing as i dont have internet on my laptop i rely on my iphone to tether it to the computer or use the internet on there but it is so DAMN SLOW that it often times out.
I AM AN ANGRY MAN!

The TIO requires me to take reasonable steps to resolve my issues with Vodafone before I lodge a complaint, but efforts so far have been fruitless. I tried calling 1555 but I was informed that there were network connection issues and disconnected me, I have also tried to fax a complaint to the designated number as well as head office but the numbers don't answer and I have tried phoning from a landline to various other numbers. How can I fulfill the TIO requirement if I can't get through to anyone at the company.

Bought ph and plan online/Sales Sept.Ph never worked. I spent 2 months and approx 35 hrs on hold/talking to 17 different Cust service reps and spending 3 days home waiting for return calls that NEVER CAME.. I finally got exchange ph.
Voda website has been hopeless, and I'm still awaiting rebates promised in initial deal.Coverage is useless apart from main shopping centres.
If TIO will give OK I want out NOW!!

I have consistently not been able to make or receive calls either at home or work in Canberra - with about a twenty minute drive between the two of them.

Called VodaFail on 22/12, told them I was signing up to a new plan that afternoon as I couldn't handle not having reception until after Christmas and was told they would call me back in 3 days to discuss getting out of my contract, on the alternate number I provided them with.

4/1 - they called me back on my vodafone number - not the alt. number that I told them to call given that I couldn't receive calls on my vodafail number. Now I've been told I need to wait on hold for over 30 minutes or wait for them to call me back in half an hour - most likely to have nothing fixed again.

And they're half an hour call back time is laughable - last time it was closer to three hours!

Consistently receive NO reception or ROAMING reception in areas that should be and have confirmed to be 100% perfect reception areas. Happens all over Canberra too, which is so frustrating because it always seems to happen when you need it most.

I continuously have one or two bars on my iphone, and 3G is shaky at best, i live in Canberra, on the south side, and my service is so unreliable it's shitting me to tears. I am locked into a contract till June else i would have changed carriers. I have not called customer support, feel like it'll fall on deaf ears, their service wont miraculously fix if i complain, although I'm not getting my moneys worth. Really bad.

Is anyone else sick of listening to rob Thomas on repeat! As I write this my phone says no service .... No wait it's back 4 bars?

I'm a 3/Vodafone customer (thankfully only for another 2 months as my contract is about to expire and I can't wait to change!)

I've had to endure substandard service and overpriced bills for almost 2 years now.

A few examples:

- Constantly had echoes on the phone. Left the handset in to 3/vodafone 3 times, only to be told each time there was nothing wrong with the phone. Vodafone/3 refused to change/upgrade the phone.

- Was holidaying in New Zealand. Phone worked fine for 2 weeks on roaming, then stopped working completely. Emailed 3/Vodafone for assistance, but received no reply.

- Phone constantly (ie several times on a daily basis) cuts out during business and personal calls.

Thanks for setting up this website - its a great initiative and great to know I am not alone in my terrible experiences with 3/vodafone!

Waiting 6 hours for a text message is ridiculous. If I have a friend on a different network standing right next to me with full coverage try to call me and not get through, something's not right. I was talking to a customer service representative who suggested that perhaps I should turn my phone onto the vodafone 2G network. I then advised the lady on the phone that I am not paying for a 2G network I am paying for a 3G network. The only solution to this problem, according to the customer service representative, is paying the same amount for a network of lesser value.

It seems the failing Voda coverage is even affecting their MVNO partnerships. Good one Vodafail! Transact in Canberra has told me that the reason my mobile is dropping out is your FAULT!!! So now your business partners are losing customers as well!

If I ran a bussines as bad as they do and were unable to provide
the service I handsomely charge for and relied on an inept off shore help desk I would would be sued, shut down and run out off town...and rightly sooooo.

Unfortunately my best friend and I are both with Vodafone. Although we live in inner city Melbourne a 5min call in order to make plans to catch up will drop out on average 4 times.
Next to frustrating in the dictionary it should have a Vodafone logo

I've been with Vodafone since 1998...

My iPhone reception is pretty crap... I have to wait around 30sec for it to actually start calling the number... And normaly I have to restart to just get a signal.

But the worst customer service was when my mobile broadband account was up for renewal. The 'customer service' (used lightly) person upgraded me to a better mobile broadband deal if I signed an extension to my contract. I did, and found the next month I received two bills for two separate mobile broadband plans... When I rang to question this, they asked for which account was I wanting to discuss... to my knowledge I had only ever had the one.

They never cancelled the old account.

When I had to explain what had happened (as they had no record)... They then told me I would incur a disconnection fee for the old account.

After I threatened to leave Vodafone for my internet and terrible mobile phone account they decided it best to wave the fee...

how nice of them.

I just spend 2.5 hours on the phone with customer service to complain about my lack of coverage. I get no coverage at work, none at home and none in various other places I frequent. My calls drop out or fail etc.
It would seem they are going to conduct quite a thorough investigation... perhaps I will have a gain... but i won't hold my breath!

Issues I have had with vodafone:
-being slugged an extra $10 GST on my plan without being told
-struggling to resolve my issues with incompetant caller assistants that can't speak english
-despite having evidence of setting up direct debit still getting my bills sent to an old email and getting charged late fees when they're forgotten
-not being able to change to an infinity plan which is a much better deal than mine even though my plan is the same price
-having a constantly faulty phone and a 3 weeks repair turn around when I've done nothing to damage the phone. I have to pay my bill whilst vodafone takes there time repairing my phone. Why should I pay extra for their malfunction
-having to answer half an hour of questions before an indian caller will let me cancel a service which I'm not in a contract with!

Have complained previously but seems to be getting worse, rather than better.

Yesterday I had several calls go straight to voicemail even though my phone was turned on, not on a call, and had good reception.

Also couldn't get any data flow whatsoever in the middle of Woden with 5 bars 3G reception. Even attempting to update the temperature in a weather app, or update Twitter etc (i.e. things that require just a few kB of data) would time out.

Poor mobile phone reception at home (south sydney) and at work (city) in particular. Call drop outs. Delayed texts and voice mail messages. Very frustrating and concerning.
Internet broadband at home very rarely connects, and when it does, maybe lasts a minute or two then drops out. Have had this problem for months, but it's getting progressively worse.
Lodged complaint with Vodafone yesterday. Was told there's an upgrade to the broadband in my home area next week. Investigations logged for mobile coverage issue at work and home, said they'll get back to me in 3 days. Totally frustrated and fed up!!

Everytime i ring someone my phone drops out after about 30-60 seconds and i must either ring people back or they ring me and we have a chance of dropping out at the 5 minute mark

Both my internet and phone are with vodafone, and im having major reception issues. People try to ring me when i am at home and cant get through to me as i am "unavailable or phone is switched off" Which i know is not the case.

I'll keep this short because I'm fairly hot headed right now. Been having trouble with ALL vodafone services (sales, upgrades, instore staff, connections, data, phones, you name it) for the past 2 years. I've been patient. When NO texts that I sent over Christmas were received I calmly put it down to networks being over-run. 11 days later they still haven't been received. Neither have the v/mails I have left or apparently recieved. and NOW my future wife will not talk to me because I am an"uncaring and un-emotional (insert expletive)". Why??? Because I don't return her missed calls - that don't come through, and I don't reply to her texts - I do, they just aren't received. Oh and apparently I'm having an affair because I get texts from total strangers at all hours of the night. Really frustrated and really want Vodafone to sort itself out so I can go back to living a normal life.

there isn't actually a tel-co in the world that doesn't have customers experiencing issues with coverage, usually about 3%-5% of customers, a small percentage, and would make sense nothing works perfect, in Vodafone's case 5% would equate to over 400 thousand people! Much more than registered for the class action and 400 x the amount of complaints here!

Think it needs to be put into perspective!

transact do need to life their game a bit, i went in the transact store and they just wanted to blame Vodafone and wouldn't help me with my bill saying i need to speak to them!

But they cant help me i'm not with Vodafone i'm with transact, if i have a problem with my OPTUS home phone i don't go to TELSTRA just cause OPTUS use their lines!

Transact Fail! when are transact customers gonna get their on website for problems, or are we just being ignored by Adam!
Reply

I have a two year mobile internet contract with TRANSACT which uses vodafone network. In the past few months, the drop out rate is sometimes every few minutes and when it is on it's so slow that it's practically useless. Hello TRANSACT, are you going to do something about it or do I have to go outside the ACT to get a decent service???
5 Jan 2011 10:29:52 AM: transact do need to life their game a bit, i went in the transact store and they just wanted to blame Vodafone and wouldn't help me with my bill saying i need to speak to them!

But they cant help me i'm not with Vodafone i'm with transact, if i have a problem with my OPTUS home phone i don't go to TELSTRA just cause OPTUS use their lines!

Transact Fail! when are transact customers gonna get their on website for problems, or are we just being ignored by Adam!
Reply

I hae had a number of people tell me they have rung me and my phone is off or out of reception. My phone uis always on, I did an experiment, every night at home I get my wife to ring my phone whilst we are both home. My phone always says it has reception, in the last month about 40% of the time she has gotten the message that my phone is off out of reception. Depsite me sitting next to here with my phone on and with it displaying that it has reception. I have forwarde these results to vodafone, as yeat no response.

Friends and myself who are with vodafone are missing phonecalls that go straight through to voicemail, when i have full service :-/ WTF?????
not receiving said voicemail until upto a day or more later :-/ WTF?????
not receiving txts when i have full service and having to turn my phone on and off repeatedly to receive txts sent hours ago when i had service the whole time :-/ WTF?????
having service and not able to use the internet and also not able to send txts... and when i call tech supp or vodafone in itself the call goes straight through to "i'm sorry, there has been a technical error, please hang up and call again" POOR FORM

They have suddenly decided that I haven't paid my bill from September 2010, when my bank account clearly disagrees! I can never get through to customer service and when I do I get different answers from different people, none of who can explain to me what is going on or how to fix it.

Also recently changed the account name - it was the most complicated, drawn out and ridiculously frustrating process I have been through.

Six months ago I started a plan with vodafone with data. At the same time I changed to Vodafone for internet and I live in Manuka so it's not like I reside in a remote area. For starters my phonecalls drop out up to five time a day, some of them business calls. It takes about two hours to drive around and find a suburb where my iPhone will pick a Vodafone signal. Even when my phone shows it has a full signal. I have given up on sending picture messages and it takes sometimes over night for me text message recipients to receive messages from me. I could send a parcel express post quicker to the recipient. Now for the internet, I find it almost impossible to get access to the internet from my home computer. It's as if all the stars have to align before my Vodafone internet works, then if and when it does work, it drops out soon after and takes about eleven attempts to even log on and check a simple email. Isn't it funny that when I am out of credit, I get a 'Very Good' signal. A signal that is strong enough so Vodafone can get my credit card details, then once they ahve STOLEN the money out of my account, my signal then becomes weak or drops out altogether so I spend the rest of my months credit downloading the same webpages because I am constantly starting from scratch every six minutes. With any other internet provider you can 'surf the web', with Vodafone all you do is sit in a still puddle of water.

I got a text from vodafone which told me that I had free facebook until February. I had 20 dollars in my account, and as I was browsing facebook for a few hours I went off and decided to text a friend. Vodafone then texted me that I had no more credit. I went to a vodafone shop and told them that they have essentially stolen 20 dollars of my credit, they gave me 5 dollars credit to make up for this and told me that I couldn't use facebook without paying money. Grumble.

Rang them to complain of no reception in an area, which there website clearly shows as covered, only to be told by vodafone staff that it's not covered according to "their" maps. And so to cancel my contract I need to pay a cancellation fee... bs to that.

HD DESIRE - 65 unlimited plan.

Vodaphone discovered a new way to limit my unlimited plan - give crap coverage, call dropouts, delayed voicemail, delayed sms, patchy internet speeds.

My bars go from 3 down to 2 down to 1 and then no service - wihtout changing postion in a matter of 4 seconds - WTF.

Is there any way we can get some decent music on while we hold, seriously this is border line ear bleeding.

I have a two year mobile internet contract with TRANSACT which uses vodafone network. In the past few months, the drop out rate is sometimes every few minutes and when it is on it's so slow that it's practically useless. Hello TRANSACT, are you going to do something about it or do I have to go outside the ACT to get a decent service???

I use my mobile for work and If anyone tries to call my phone it says it has reception but my phone doesnt ring. and i never receive my messages until hours later.

I WANT MY ACCOUNT TO BE CANCELLED SO I DONT HAVE ANY PROBLEMS AND HAVE NO CHARGES SO I CAN MOVE TO ANOTHER NETWORK WHO CAN EFFECTIVELY SERVICE MY NEEDS

When I was in Perth I had problems with Vodafone wireless internet. At the store I was told that my suburb had good coverage, however it turned out to be really poor. I complained to the store and they said it all depended on the positioning of my house and the locality of the transmitting towers... I then moved back to Canberra and coverage wasn't any better. I was annoyed but just waited until my contract finished and went with another provider (which incidentally provides better internet, more GB of downloads and is cheaper).
I now have an iPhone and so does my hubby. We frequently get people trying to call us but they are unable to get through to us. We often don't get notice of a missed call and/or a voicemail. Sometimes it takes a couple of minutes before a call connects. Pretty frustrating really. Now I'm on a month by month contract I might just switch to another provider...

Hello, my broadband service never worked...they eventually told me to buy a sharing doc to improve signal strenth - didn't work. They told me they would deduct the cost of the sharing doc from my bill - they didn't do that. They told me I lived in an area with excellent coverage - what a joke! Now I am fighting them over the bill. I hate Vodafone more than anyone else.

Firstly let me say I have in the past been a supporter of Vodafone but of late, the last 12 months, I am sick of the amount of calls that drop out for seemingly no reason and also those that drop out when receptin is lost. I travel regularly and am constantly frustrated at the amount of calls that drop out when i am discussing business. If you travel anywhere outside of the major cities you don't have much hope of keeping coverage, and even within the cities it is less than satisfactory.
Additionally, I have very limited coverage inside my house, and yes in a capital city. When I answer a call inside, the calls more often than not, drop out.
Quite often SMS don't come through until I make a call and I get a couple at once.
I recently queried why my account did not show that I had paid my last bill. I was on the phone for 22 minutes before I was forced to hang up. I then thought I would query via the customer support email system. I received an automated response that did not help. I then replied to that email through the manner written in the automated response to which I got another automated response. I still have not received any service from the customer support area.
Overall I am getting more and more unhappy with the service that Vodafone provide.

Calls have been coming through and going directly to voicemail. A missed call has not been registering. My phone doesn't even ring and on some occasions I won't receive notification of the voicemail until the following day.

I have little to no reception where I live (Dunlop). The 3G internet is very slow and several times a day my Iphone registers no internet connection at all.

Further to this, I waited on hold for 50 minutes on 14th of December to order a new Iphone which I was advised would take anywhere up to 3 weeks. I called last week and was on hold for 70 minutes and hung up out of sheer frustration. I then called back on the 31st December and waited on hold for 20 minutes to be put through to a call centre in which I was told that I would receive the handset by the 6th of January... I am still awaiting the new handset at this stage.

In the last six months Vodafone have turned down there transmission power giving poor to very poor signal strength.

It is absolutely right, you can't just port out or expect not to pay until the ACCC comes up with something themselves!

Graeme Samuels head of the ACCC has strongly advised this and has told everyone to be patient till they can get it worked out.

If you do just do it Veda Bay-corp/D&B will consider you completely in the wrong and your credit file will be screwed and they won't care a bit about the Vodafone factor

I recently upgraded to a new iPhone 4 with Vodafone. This replaced my old iPhone 3G. I have been trying to get the iPhone 3G unlocked so that I can give the phone to my girlfriend since her Optus phone is starting to mess up... I am unable to do this on the internet, presumably because during the 2 years I had my iPhone 3G, the button broke, and it was sent off to Apple to get fixed. They sent me back a new handset (obviously with a different IMEI number) and the Voda site doesn't seem to recognise the new IMEI for unlocking. Irritating, but understandable right?

Wrong!

I have called them 4 times (each time eventually getting to someone, each time being told that it will be sent to the 'unlock team' and they'll get back to me within 10 working days), gone into a store (who emailed the unlock team and CC'd me in, and then the 'unlock team' 'escalated' that email by forwarding it onto someone else), obviously tried online AND called Apple. Apple are able to see that I had one phone, sent it back, and was sent a new phone. They are able to see that I am with Vodafone. They informed me that "the call has to come from the telco for us to unlock it". Why on earth can Apple see exactly what I need, but Vodafone simply can't make that call?! This doesn't really involve money (yet... Let's bet that when I finally do get the phone unlocked, they'll charge me the full unlock fee because I didn't use their online service) I still feel that it is a absolutely awful customer service.

To be honest, I haven't had too much trouble with the actual network, but that might be because I pretty much always use wireless... And when I do use 3G on the odd occasion, it is quite slow, but since it's only occasionally I've always assumed that it was just because my wireless was faster... Apparently I was wrong.

I have already documented my many issues with Vodafone here - apart for a poor reception,poor data download, poor reliability, inability to bill correctly and having woefully inadequate systems and being in denial of the extent of their problems and not putting forward plans on how they will fix their problems they are great. Perhaps they can should have spent some of the money put toward sponsoring the cricket to actually improving customer service.

However I digress. For those interested here is an article on how the same kind of inattention to customers impacted AT&T Wireless in the early part of this decade in the USA. The full article to "Project Management: AT&T Wireless Self-Destructs" is available here http://www.cio.com/article/32228/Project_Management_AT_T_Wireless_Self_Destructs?page=1&taxonomyId=3198 - it is well worth a read and would be quite instructive to Vodafone management.

I can almost visually see two mobile towers from my house, yet my reception is on 1 bar (HTC Desire HD, which to my knowledge does not have production faults like the Iphone 4) and my Internet coverage is nil, some places if I am lucky it will switch between 3G and Edge constantly which will grant limited net access... at the cost of my battery.

Strange thing is though... this seems to be a recent issue, been a Vodafone customer for atleast 5-6 years and only within recent months have I had these issues or heard about these issues. Possible they are having some sort of infrastructure failure or something?

Until the ACCC comes up with something through their investigation Vodafone haven't done anything wrong officially yet!


Graeme Samuels of the ACCC stated that people are not within their rights to just cancel there contracts and not payout.

I'm sure given all the problems there is, they probably will in fact allow this to happen but until they do you cant just get out of stuff unless they let you themselves, and they probably aren't gonna do that.

I was at a local restaurant in urban Sydney last night. I could not get any data down while connected to the 3G network. At first I thought it might be an issue with my iPhone 3GS, a number of friends at the restaurant also were with Vodafone and they were unable to get any data down either with full coverage.

After turning of 3G reception and using GPRS I was able to receive data.

I've been with Vodafone since 2002 and am happy to wait it out for another month or so as they really have been an excellent carrier and I've been impressed countless times in the past. I'll look elsewhere in a month if they cant get the basics right soon. As soon as they do get the basics right I'm sure their helpdesk call volumes will drop then they can get back to being a good carrier again.

I wonder what the IQ of the people actually complaining here is? Half can't even spell the provider they are with (LOL) and half seriously must just like complaining for the sake of it!

Sucks if you have problems, but so does very network. Optus sent me a bill for $500 last week and I have never been with optus, it had my number on it and my name :/