Been a Vodafone customer for over 10 years. Used to work for them in fact. Never had a problem with coverage or my bill and actually believed in the product until 2008. Full spectrum 3G comes in and I live 5 minutes out of Adelaide, can only get "poor" on my modem. My new iphone then loses signal and I get call fail more often than I get calls. I can learn to live with slow internet for a cheap plan UNTIL ALL of the customer care and upgrades is outsourced to India causing a number of problems that only become evident when you are involved in them.
The one I am in now- got the new Iphone 4, it has a giant display fault, (fair enough some of them are duds) Call Customer care. After a 20 minute wait they tell me that I have to talk to another department, another 20 minute wait. This guy tells me that I have to go into a store (the reason I got it over the phone in the first place was so I didn't have to go into a store) and they can send it off for repair for me. I HAVE HAD THE PHONE ON LITERALLY TEN MINUTES and he wants me to send it off for repair. I said no I would like the DOA phone replaced instore once they verify the fault. He says they can't cause store stock comes from a different warehouse than online stock. What a logistical idiocy having a singular company with different warehouses that can't communicate. I tell the guy I am willing to go in to a store for them to verify the fault but I want another one sent out to me.
The after mush of me repeating " I am not happy" they guy says if I get the store guy to put a note on the account he will call me back at 1pm today (adelaide time) and organise a new phone to be sent to me.
It is 2:18pm and I'm sill waiting.
Over the past year I have had hundreds of dollars credited to my bill for overcharges and misdirection of payments to OTHER PEOPLES BILLS. I was disconnected for a month while I had to prove I had made a payment and each person I sent the details to lost them or didn't receive them.
I am glad I left working for a company that I no longer believe in

My god, I could go on for days about the problems I've had with Vodafone. Weeks even. When I went on a new contract and got a new phone it initially took three weeks and a call to the ombudsman before I could even use said phone. It literally didn't work for weeks. THis was because the salesman had tried to use some tricky technique for porting my number from Optus, which basically caused my number to get stuck in this cyber hole where it was neither an Optus or Vodafone number.

Then, when my Blackberry failed, I had a nearly four week wait to get a simple receipt emailed to me so I could get it replaced. Yup, nearly a month just to get a proof of purchase emailed through. I spent so many hours waiting in the shop to get it (their computers were down) and then on the phones to India (the second time I called to check where PoP was, they inadvertently cancelled the request for one...)

Don't even get me started on their crappy coverage or customer service.

Vodafone, never EVER again.

In 2007 I joined $79 Vodafone contract. After about 6 months on the contract I had apparently gone over the cap and got slammed with a $2,300.00 phone bill. I rang them and said there was no way in hell I was going to pay that amount. After many back and forth conversations they cancelled my contract and sent me a bill for $3,103.00. After many back and forth coversations regarding the new amount we finally came to an agreement to work out a price. They then referred my matter to Dunn & Bradhurst Debt Collectors finally in 2009 we agreed that I would pay back $1,183.00 because I still had the mobile phone that came with my cap. Two weeks ago I went to the bank to get a personal loan and got rejected. I make really good money. I have no credit cards. Never had a bad debit. So I requested a copy of my credit file from Veda Advantage which says "It was advised that a Telecommunication account was overdue due to payment default". Because of the negotiations I got a bad credit which gets cleared in 2012. Now I am in the middle of a big arguement to have Vodafone amend this so I can get a personal loan.

I ended my contract with Vodafone late last year, and switched to another telco who paid part of my unexpired contract with Vodadone. I waited and waited until I had to part with vodafone, with 200 dollar payment to them, I was so desperate to get out.
When vodafone called me in Australia 22 months prior to resign my contract with them, they gave me the Nokia E71. I set my phone up to use with my WIFI network at home, so I would not be downloading from Vodafone data and being charged for this. While I did use some of the data from Vodafone when I was away from home, doing internet banking and such, this was very very minimal. Everything was fine after a few bills, until one day they sent me an extra large bill of 1500 approx.

I rang around was told that I had downloaded a large amount of data, and after going back and forth, back and forth was told that the Nokia E71 would auto switch to gprs vodafone data when my wifi signal dropped out. I was always within range of my wifi at home and had a strong signal, so i explained that this could not be the case.
They told me that I my wifes phone also had been doing this as well, and thats why it had been such a large bill. But here is the thing, my wifes phone, had never never been connected at anytime. They told me that the htc phone my wife had, "automatically" updated "things" I still dont know what they are. They thought I came down in the last shower.
I am not stupid and know exactly how to work the phones i told them, and that my wifes htc phone had never auto downloaded before this contract, because this was my old phone, and never had anything like this happened before.

No matter what I said, I could not reason with the call centre in Egypt. I spoke to the manager in the Call Centre Eddie. He could not answer any of my questions regarding the issue. They could not even tell me what kind of data had been downloaded. He kept repeating himself, "you should had gotten a package that had capped downloading costs. He would not listen to anything I had to say. He cut my phone bill in half, but that was not the point, I wanted someone to make sense, someone to tell me what all the charges were about.
I tried to call someone in Australia. I called my local vodafone shop, and was told, you will have to call the centre in Egypt. We cant do anything. I emailed the Australia Sydney office and was told basically yeah yeah we know your upset, we cant do a thing, call the centre in Egypt.
So even though someone called me in Australia to resign the contract with me, they now could not call me to answer some of my questions.

sorry are you still with me???

When I called just before I ended my contract with Vodafone, the guy in Egypt told me he could not tell me the finalized amount owing on my account if I were to leave at that moment. It makes me wonder if this true, if, what do kind of computer systems are they running.

we could always sms a number to see how much of our cap, or what was owing on my bill at anytime, so why couldn't they.

After I left, I kept getting phone calls from them, and their market researches, and asking me personal details as to why I left....what was I paying now, why this why that. I was scared they were going to make up some more charges and send them to me.
I still am living in fear....the phones ringing....is that them??

Drop outs all the time. No usage in my own home. I'm missing out on lots of business. I have been with vodafone since they came to sydney and now the last months its got so very bad. Telstra works. What's happened!!!!!

I ended a contract with Vodafone 3 years ago. I did not make a fuss about their poor service at the time or the bad reception. Instead I simply took my business elsewhere. I recently applied for a loan and found that Vodafone had put a default on my credit report for a bill that I didn't and shouldnt have received and so the Bank would not approve the loan despite my good income and otherwise credit history. I have sinced hired a credit report repair company and they are fighting to have the default removed from my credit file as well as reporting Vodafone to regulatory bodies

I have been with Vodafone for 6 weeks and have had 95% dropped calls. This spans usage from Mornington Peninsula to Armadale to Torquay. It occurs whether I am driving, walking or sitting absolutely still. How can I be on a call, sitting still with full reception one minute and the next droppped? Did someone move the reception tower? Ridiculous.

I'm on the 3Mobile network and it just does not work. Anywhere. Tried in Syd CBD, Wollongong Uni, Gold Coast. Everywhere I go it just does not work. Trying to make or take phone calls is impossible.
Have been back to 3Mobile and they're re-issued SIM card and keep trying to tell me it is my fault. My wife has the same phone with Telstra and never has an issue.
Any advice?
JT

Coverage came in and out resulting in 33 failed calls between 12.30pm and 12.41pm on January 20th. Bars went from full to one and calls could not be made. This is appalling.

We are a small business with 26 connections. I am not able to speak to my account manager to sort the billing issues for the last one year, services issues as well. If i send him 10 emails he sends me one email saying that they are working on it. But it is more than a year and still working on it. I am not sure how this company is still operating. We have to 24 months contract and 12 months have gone. We will never go back to them again.

I have just changed from 3 to Vodafone (2 weeks) and have had perfect coverage with 3, but have yet to have a full conversation, without drop outs, t\with Vodafone. I have to keep using our land line which costs me more money! Vodafone sucks!

I am so sick of no service on my phone instead of some form of coverage.
I no longer use the mobile internet as it is too slow and most of the times i haven't got any cover making it useless.
Hate to say it but nextG here I come

I am having network issues with my new iphone here in melbourne and so i called vodafone to complain. They told me I had to wait 2 months while they 'investiagted' and in the meantime i should go get a pre-paid phone from another provider (!!!!) and ring vodafone back and then ask to have my calls diverted to the other number. That way when i have no service i can still get my calls. Can you believe that! I was on hold with them for over 30 minutes and was transferred through three different people to get this useless information.

I divert my office/business to my Vodaphone after hours and alot of the time at home i have NO reception. Now have a 2nd telstra phone to divert my vodafone to when a call cant get through but dont like having to run and carry 2 mobile phones.

When i try to log on to my account on the vodafone website it will never just log me in the first time i try. I have to keep retrying and close the window and re open it because it says they are experiencing problems and cant access my information right now.... what the hell vodafone, if you were a person id punch you in the face

My phone is constantly losing reception in open areas where most other phones have 100% coverage. I have replaced my phone with vodafone 3 times and changed sim cards. My internet coverage, anywhere in Sydney is poor and at times of travelling accross the city, will have recpetion drop out and then not return to my phone until i reset my phone.

I receive missed calls and then its not until about 4 hours later i get the msg saying 1 new voicemail. When i open the voicemail it doesnt load up until about 30mins of having it open..
And overall i have poor reception everywhere i go... i live in the hills and i know its harder to get reception up there but i switched from 3 to vodafone because vodafone assured me they had better service and now when i look at my old 3 phone i always have more reception on it.
I also have people telling me they have been trying to call me and it says my phone has been switched off or its engaged and iv been sitting right next to my phone and nothing has come up at all... Very frustrating!!!!

I ended my contract on 08 November 2010 due to:
Incorrect overcharged bills ($500 on $49.00 cap) and phone hadnt been used!!!
An incessant hate of the stupid half baked sl*t of a thing called LARA
having to call some cluster in India to resolve my billing issues.
Took my case to the TIO (Dont wait - just do it) and ended my contract.
Switched to OPTUS BUT WAIT.

I still get Bills from Vodafone, even though I've confirmed with INDIA, that I DONT HAVE AN ACCOUNT WITH VODAFONE!!!!

Massieve network issues, delayed voicemail and SMS messages. Call drop off. I finally got in contact with the customer service after hours waiting on the phone and advised that there's no service is available in my area and they are unable to perform even a trouble shoot. I'm so sick of this situation and I have two mobile connections and pay over $100 per month for a service that I do not receive. The reason that I cannot disconnect is about another 10 months left on the contract tht I signed.

Every time I ring vodafone for something, Lara answers the call but with too many bingles. She can't understand a word. I get annoyed listening to "I'm sorry, please say that again". I have to repeat myself over and over again. Very frustrating.

I hate Lara.

i work at the hospital and 99percent of my shift thre is no covergae what so ever.
this shit company is a waste of space, i am thinking of changing if vodfail dont get the act toghter
lora the voice recorded bitch, they should replace her with real FUCKEN person sorry for the languages but that how a feel.
regards unhappy customer at all time.

Call dropouts and I cannot call any number with +61 (oz code) at the front of numbers or any other nations code. I havent experienced delays in sms though.

I signed up for a two year contract in Nov 2010. It was for a $29 cap over 24 months with the first 12 months being $19 only. However I've been charged the full $29 for two months already. When I called up customer service, they said that it was the store's responsibility to sort out the problem. The store said it was the call centre's responsibility. This to and fro went on twice. Then the store mananger asked me to call him up during working hours so he can put me through to a three way teleconference to sort out the problem. I don't have time for a 1 hour teleconference with vodafone during working hours.

Middle of Sydney with full '5 bars' and I can't even load something as simple as Google Maps. (e.g to find out where I need to go)
Well, at least the GPS works - I can see a nice little blue dot in the middle of nothing!
Still, I count myself lucky as I see I can still receive calls - unlike other Vodafone folk on this site.
Vodafone - what are we paying you for!?

No reception in sydney CBD.
Ring Vodafone and they say it must be me, I say Ive being sitting in this same spot at work for years and nothing has ever been wrong before.
Numerous Drop outs

I have taken up vodafone contract recently and was given some data to use internet from my mobile but mostly the phone says internet connection unavailable or the connection drops out when i doing something and does'nt connect again for a while.I was with three earlier and did'nt have this kind of problems and now i regret my decision to come to Vodafone from Three.Is there a way that i can sort this out with vodafone ?

I have been a vodafone customer for 10 years now and in that time i have never been offered a loyalty bonus for being with them for so long, no free phone mid contract or anything. All i was told by them was that i could get a free phone when i signed up for another 2 years! Ah no vodafone, anyone who walks in off the street can get a free phone when they sign up, you dont need to be a loyal customer to get a free phone!!
I just cant believe that when i told them i would be leaving them for another carrier they did not do anything to keep me!

5 drop outs in half an hour
1 bar of reception for most of the day
delayed voicemail
failed text
LARA is a frustrating robot who I want to swear at very loudly, even a foreign call centre attendent who doesn't speak English would be better than a robot!

on top of every other issue ive had with vodafone (a whole other story with netowrk issues like everyone else), this takes the cake. i didnt want my bill direct debited anymore , firstly due to their privacy issues, secondly as im planning on leaving them asap, so i logged onto myvodafone and cancelled my direct debit. to my surprise, they direct debited me today, overdrawing my account (i didnt have the money in there as wasnt expecting any direct debits). Just as a test, i went back into myvodafone, which showed the direct debit still active. i deactivated it, it told me the direct debit was removed, i logged out, logged back in, and SURPRISE! the direct debit is still active!,i informed them of this today, they didnt really seem to care that their website has such a flaw, didnt offer any compensation for the inconveniance, and unless i send them my private bank statement showing overdrawn fee i wont get any compensation for that (like hell, considering their record with my private information , they aint seein nothin!)

I finally left Vodafone after suffering years of bad reception and service and now I can't get them to unlock my handset (iPhone) so I can use it with the other service provider that I have already switched to. I have called countless times, been on hold for hours, had calls to customer service drop out, I've been into their stores (where the staff aren't adequately trained)and sent emails. It has been two months and I still can't use the phone I bought outright.

I get no coverage! I have to call people 100 times before I can actually get through to someone! My phone calls out half way through a conversation and I get text messages hours after they have been sent to me.

i get no reception hardly anywhere all i have to do is take to steps to my left and im out of reception its ridiculous, Even when im in a shopping center i cant make calls or sends....

I travel along Roe Highway frequently with my job. If I happen to be on the phone near mills park then the call drops out every time. It appears that there is no reception in this area. The same problem occurs while driving down the Forrest Highway. If you proceed past Paganoni Road through to Pinjarra Road reception is all but non existent. The Telstra phone I had did not have the same issue. I could drive from Perth to Bunbury and talk on the mobile the whole way without drop out.

poor reception sometimes none at all, late messages sometimes 4 days!

I have been with vodafone for 10 years but will be changing to another provider when my contract runs out in a few months. My calls drop out all the time, my reception changes from room to room in my house, I have to stay in the front of the house if I want to make a call. Most of the time my internet data transfer is slower than dial up and am unable to use the web on my iPhone as the pages time out! I have complained to customer service only to be told it's my phone and to turn it off and on haha. I no longer bother even calling them due to the long hold time, usually around 40 minutes but sometimes it has been longer. I also find it hard to understand some of them and have even asked to be tranfered to another representitive only to be told no. It's shocking that such a major company can be so dodgy.

Despite having full signal strength calls constantly go direct to voicemail. Ongoing autopay issues. Had enough, in the process of changing provider... Count me in on the class action!!

I live just outside Canberra of a major highway and drive in and out every day and over the last 2 months the coverage has reduced and it now has major black spots. I know there is a prob with one of the transmittors but they do not listen.

Ive been a Vodafone customer for a little while now and have had major issue when trying to use their 3G services for email & internet. I tried making the switch from Blackberry to iPhone on the Vodafone network and had extremely poor experience with it. Falling short of throwing the iPhone out my car window as the calls constantly dropped out, i tried a sim card from another carrier in the same phone and it worked flawlessly. So i had no choice but to switch back to the Blackberry and although it works with respect to sending and receiving emails, internet connectivity is poor at best and the phone reception is a major issue for me when the phone is in 3G coverage. Im paying for a 3G service, however I have had to manually adjust my phone settings to drop down to 2G so that I can get half decent reception and minimal call drop outs. Im fortunate as my contract is up shortly. I can definitely say that I will not be signing up EVER again with Vodafone and will strongly recommend to colleagues, friends and family to stay away, irrespective of how good a deal they think they are getting.

dropouts,on hold 4eva,double up texts,frustration having hung in with company for years.Now sneaky 3g changeover,thanks for the heads up.

Have continually had intermittent internet service, sometimes works, most times doesn't. Have tried repeatedly to cancel my contract, pay it out early whatever, just get me off vodafone. Everytime I ring I am n hold for excessive amounts of time, then when it gets through it cuts off, or I get transferred to someone else who then cuts me off, they might bother to call me back once or so but it always gets cut off, I cannot understand a word the person in the call centre is saying and I dont think they can understand me. All I want to do is get out of my contratc! I am happy to pay it out early I don't care I just want out from Vodafone, what the hell am I supposed to do?

I am sick and tired of the customer services of Vodafone.
I have now been to 3 stores and it is always different stories.
Vodafone Insurance still has not returned my phone ,and it is now 2 weeks,since i sent my phone for repair and was told that i will get a new phone .
this is the worst telecommunications company as far i know

I have been with Vodafone before Vodafone shops existed, 15 years or so. They have always been fantastic up until the last couple of years. If there is a problem they tell you to take the battery out & the sim & leave it for 5 min as that will fix the problem. I have an I phone, battery is in there for life. You need a key to get the sim out & if its not with that is also a problem. So what the 1st operator suggested didn't work so you ring back. Only to have to go the same procedure. Very frustrating.

So off you go to the local Vodafone shop. I order my phones so I don't have to deal with my local one. She says she has done all these training courses but all she has ever done is stuff mine even further then tells me it's my problem. So then I ring Vodafone data support & hey presto, this person gets it all going again.

As I am an interstate truck driver, I spend alot of time on my phone. The thing that I am noticing is the signal is getting worse. I also have a company phone that is a telstra next g. Its great. It's rarely ever out of range. If I am in south west Nsw & I have my lap top with me, rather than use a dongle, it's better & cheaper to use my phone as a modem.

If I go to victoria I might as well throw the phone out the window. The signal on the dukes highway is rubbish. The sturt highway, which Vodafone got the contract to build the towers, is slowly being wound back on signal strength as it is nowhere near as good as it used to be. If you are travelling on the mallee highway, you might as well forget Vodafone as it doesn't work. Telstra & optus do. You will have no signal for nearly 400km. At ouyen my phone used to go into roaming & swap to telstra. It has not done that for 12 months at least. I guess they didnt pay the bill to telstra & got cut off.

In & around Adelaide the signal strength is appalling in some places. We have to go outside to use our phones. It is getting worse.

Thanks Vodafone. After all these years I would expect better. The customer service people in the call centre is not very helpful.

Like many others, calls constatnyl dropping out. Poor reception. I should not be getting the country network in the metropolitan area. Data service that rarely works, and when it does, its terribly slow. Missed calls and messages and no notifications of such calls. Picture messages only come through from certain people, and sometimes a few days after they were sent.

The coverage thing is what gets me the most. Travelling from Banktwon to Ultimo everyday, no reception around bakstown at all. And it drops out constantly between bankstown and the city. Previously I was working in North Sydney, jsut after I signed up to this contract a little over a year ago now, and at the best of times had 1 bar of reception. North sydney is a major business area and should have soem of the best coverage. But no.

Havent bothered even contacting vodafone as I know it will be put to a call centre overseas where they will tell me that it is my handset and not the network that is the problem.

Vodafone should allow all digruntled customers to break thier contracs early without termination fees due to thier terrible service. I dont understand why its so bad here, in the UK and europe their coverage is fantastic.

To make a long story short, my daughter ordered an IPhone 4 without my permission on my account. Made her cancel it the same day. Next bill comes in and im charged for the IPhone. Called and sorted out the bill and was told everythings okay we can see that the phone wasn't sent out. Bingo!! 2 weeks later an IPhone 4 arrives. Not to my address but my daughters boyfriends address. Left the phone and did nothing for about 2 months thinking they would chase it up. (High Hopes) I have rung twice and explained that I have an IPhone that im not paying for. Do they want to do anything about it? NO!!!
They told me to send it back by express post. Told them that they sent it they can pick it up. No one wants to do anything about it. Still have the IPhone. I bet there just waiting for it to be connected so they can charge me for it. Wont happen though. I already have an IPhone 4. No one could answer the question of how can they send a phone to a different address then is on my account. Wouldn't that ring alarm bells. If I was ordering a phone I would want it to my own address.

I've been reading some of the posts and it seems like everyone here are Vodafone customers, rather than 3 customers.

I have been a 3 customer for over 5 years and until the end of last year, I have been very happy with their service. Since around October/November, I have had problems with getting mobile broadband on my phone, as well as the dongle and in areas where I've had no problems before. The service (or lack of) at home and other places (even in the middle of Sydney CBD) seems to be intermittent.

I went into a 3 store and was told that this was due to the merger with Vodafone and this was the same response when I checked with Vodafone. Neither could tell me when the problem will be resolved.

Vodafone should be spending their money on fixing the problems, not sponsoring sporting teams! My contract expires at the end of the year and they will definitely be losing another customer.

i own a small bussines and keep getting drop calls all day every day an average of every second call after i ring them and wait for ages they ask me stupid questions like about the reception around where i live i explain to them i am on the road all day and it is happing every where yet still nothing i want out of my contract for they r not abiding by the terms and conditions but they tell it will still cost me this is crap and i cant do anything till my contract runs out plrease can anyone tell me if anything can be done to get out of this concract i have been a customer for 8yers and its getting worse

I was a TPG customer before and didn't have any issues other than no coverage in remote areas which I expected from the beginning, but it's been a few months that I'm with Vodafone and the service is terrible, especially the data transfer is too slow and reminds me of Dial-up connections !

When I signed up for this deal I had to give them my license number, and after that they send me an email confirming my details including the plan I signed up to....etc. In the email they send me the name In that email was correct, however the next 3 billing emails that they send me my name was mis-spelled!! One Letter only but it made a big difference!! So I called up and ask them to change it, and even tho they looked at the my details and admitted that they were wrong, they said, sorry cant do it here, you gotta go to a store with you photo ID to change it.. What I dont understand is that if they can sign you up on a plan over the phone or on the internet without looking at your photo ID, why cant they just change the name even tho they know that its their fault for entering the wrong letter. Because of their fault they require their customer to get out of their way to correct their mistake for them??

I am from north. Everytime I ride train going home, I normally talked to my friends, the call always dropped and need to redial again

My father passed away in September and my mother contacted Vodafone to inform them of this and to close the account. I faxed through the death certificate and a letter informing them of his passing hoping that this would be it. No, the very next month my mother received a bill for $23. Again I faxed through the death certificate after they told us that there was a discrpancy on it as on the account my father's initials were JL instead of LJ. Fair enought I thought, but that fax sat on someone's desk with the account and contact details on it yet nobody bothered to contact us regarding any discrepancy. My mother's stress soared again when yet another letter arrived saying that there was $23 on the account accrued after his death and after she informed them of his passing. I rang Vodafone only to be left on hold for ages before speaking to an Indian call centre operator. She informed me that she could not access his account without his pin number. I did not know it, neither did my elderly mother, why would we? She persisted in asking me again and again only for me to demand to speak to a supervisor. Finally after me losing my temper and telling her short of exhuming him and raising him from the dead there was no way to provide a pin number. I then spoke to a supervisor who lo and behold unlocked the account details without me knowing the pin! After much berating from me and threatening to contact the ombudsman and A Current Affair he told me it would be rectified. Thankfully this was the end of it, but it was a lot of emotional stress and needless pain for my mother to endure. A local call centre or point of contact could have saved my mother and me the stress of dealing with such incompetent staff.

I haven't had any phone service for 2 weeks. I can not make or receive any calls. I have tried to call Vodafone and the phone keeps dropping out.

After being reassured I would be refunded $1000 (I was wrongly billed far more than this)on my credit card and my plan fixed to what I originally told it was serposed to be.......I waited....and waited.I contacted the TIO again and they said they would fix it.....Vodafone still havn't resolved any of the problems I have raised, nor held up thier end of the solution promised in Nov 10.....I HATE YOU VODAFONE YOU GO TO HELL... YOU GO TO HELL AND YOU DIE

i travel from guildford to the city in sydney every day, i have my vodafone blackberry and a telstra blackberry for support purposes at work.
both handsets are identical.
email is forwarded from the same address and same exchange server to both handsets.
the telstra one recieves them sometimes up to 30 mins before the vodafone one.
the telstra phone has full 3G coverage all the way to circular quay (except in the tunnels of winyard and town hall) which is to be expected but everywhere else it has full reception and i can browse web pages and do anything i like with it and pages load the same speed every time.

with the vodafone handset, it has 3G maybe 15% of the time, and during those times its only a few bars not full coverage and most of the time page requests just time out even when it says its 3G, infact its more responsive when it has dropped down to EDGE or GPRS and they are rediculously slow at the best of times.

i can literally do 15-20 google searches on the telstra one in the time i can get one search on the vodafone one.
from lidcombe to merrylands seems to be a hideously patchy area for vodafone and i am lucky to have any reception at all let alone think about data services.

i have had both phones for 6 months now, and this has been the case the whole time it really is a complete farce that vodafone can get away with charging people for a service like this.
the minute my contract ends i will be carrying 2 telstra blackberrys around....

its one thing to get a bad service and know its bad, its so much worse when you have the service you should be recieving for your money right there in your other hand.

Not only did calls drop out, reception was bad and their voicemail system is useless. I missed several very important calls because of vodafail, one of them being a job offer! I never got notified of a missed call and the voicemail wasn't working for weeks. I moved house and changed my address with vodafone, also had a redirection for my mail put on for 12 months, They kept sending the same bill to two different addresses. Called 3 times to correct the problem. Then the 4th time I called (cause it still hadn't been fixed) they tell me they couldn't find my details for my current address, which they were sending mail to, in the system and I needed some 4 digit pin (I could never remember) to change my address. I went through a series of departments about the stupid pin, then after an hour of the worst customer service ever, I asked to speak to a supervisor cause I was not happy. The person on the other end of the phone refused to put me through, gave me all sort of excuses that the supervisor was in a meeting etc etc, then finally 15 mins later they were out and ready to take my call. They refused to give me their contact details and didn't want to help me. 2 hours later and lots of yelling later I still wasn't even sure if the address thing had been sorted out. The call centre was in Egypt by the way! 2 days later my contract ended and I switched to telstra and have not had an issues since! Oh and they kept sending zero dollar amount bills to me for 4 months after my number had been switched over to telstra.

Calls have dropped out reguarly since i purchased my new iphone on a plan with vodaphone. On two sepreate occasions the reception has completely dropped out for more then 5 days at a time. I am on a $49 a month plan barely use internet (as i have wireless in my home) and do not use my phone extensively, some how the bill for the last 2 months was $179.81. i don't see how that adds up.
Not only am i dissatisfied with my service as a customer, but i am also paying twice as much as i assumed.

I'm sure alot of ppl know about that 3 months free access thing vodafone offered a few months back and I think its still on? (not sure) Anyway I got that offered in October and its January now going to be Feb and I got charged instead of free access, so I called up and the staff who I talked to still have to talk to his supervisor asking about this deal... like seriously shouldnt all staff know about this deal already? I'm also suppose to have 10% off my handset as well but they keep charging me full amount. not happy! =(

I could cite plenty of grievances but the one that got up my nose the most was when I last upgraded my phone. I was already a Vodafone customer, and wanted to get a new iPhone on a contract. I contacted my local Vodafone store to make sure that they had stock and was told they had plenty, however, these were set aside for potential 'new connects'. Existing customers, I was told, would have to join a waiting list. Rang a number of other stores only to be told the same thing. You can't blame the salespeople for treating existing customers as second class citizens, because they work off commission and this is how Vodafone pays them - they are rewarded for finding new suckers to lock into contracts, not for keeping existing customers happy. I complained to Vodafone and received the customary 'fob off'. They were happy to lie, denying that this was how staff were remunerated - not realising I have friends who work there who can confirm otherwise. Don't Vodafone understand it's far cheaper to retain an existing customer than keep a new one?

As a long time customer (10 years) i am very dissapointerd in the reduction of servive quality. What really irks me is it used to be so good (in capital cities), but I guess the push to increase the subscriber base and 3 merger has just stretched the system beyond it's capabilities.

I am a 3 customer and as far as i am aware vodafone and 3 merged. Since this merger has occured i have had the worst coverage on my phone and my wireless internet. Most of the time i'm either in roaming or at 1 bar in 3g, and it continues to drop out in calls. I go to my mothers house to visit and i have no coverage, but her partner has a telstra account and his is full coverage.
My wireless net access loads up in 3g and automatically goes to HSDPA, and in that mode a simple webpage can take up to 5mins or more to load, let alone a smallish sized app on itunes takes me 3 days to get.

Once my plan is up......i'm gone.

Last weekend (15th, 16th Jan 2011) I drove from Brisbane to Sydney. The network coverage of my iPhone 4 with Vodafone hardly ever worked whilst the Telstra NextG coverage of my iPad worked absolutely everywhere (even when I had to go inland to avoid the flooded Pacific Highway). Vodafone's claim of wide network coverage is just not true.

My iPhone 3GS gets better network speeds using edge than 3G most of the time!
Sometimes when I use 3G I see full signal, yet trying to bring up a web page just hangs. If I turn off 3G and revert to edge, the same page comes up and while a little slower, at least it works.
Not sure why I'm paying for a 3G service that doesn't work

I live in the centre of Sydney (Paddington), the largest city in Australia. Should I then experience this message when trying to access my 3G network?

'Network Connection Failure - Please Try Again Later'

And drop me out of phone calls time in time out 'Call Failure'

The company can sponsor an event like the Ashes series!?! pay for advertising campaigns on prime time tv! but cant provide phone reception in major cities. Mobile phone technology is now almost 20years old, how havn't they got it right????

Constant call drops. Phone CONSTANtLY searching for signal. No internet when 3G signal is showing multiple bars. Totally unable to get a solid signal anywhere around Central Station.
I am SICK TO DEATH of being lied to by Vodafone support if and when I can actually reach someone. Now they've released a "script" to their vendors on how to deal with complaints
http://images.smh.com.au/file/2011/01/21/2144076/vodafoneqa.pdf
And they have the hide to try to say their infinite plans aren't tied to this mess. They still haven't learnt to tell the truth

Every third call is dropped, 3G internet is intermittent on both my partners phone and mine.
Then to add insult to injury the mobile phone 3g usage does not update within the stated 48hrs (which that in itself is a joke), usually taking 4 days or more ... which has led to excess usage charges!

I have a vodafone broadband dongle. When I first started to use it in early 2010, I had decent 3G coverage. Now, I'm lucky to have one bar of roaming reception. Ridiculous.

I work in Fitzroy Street, St Kilda, Melbourne and have a Vodafone 3G Mobile Broadband device which, before you connect says it has a 3G connection available, but once I connect it ALWAYS connects at HSUPA which is way slower that 3G.
I have selected 3G only and sit next to a window, so no physical blockages either. All other in the building have the same issue with Vodafone devices.

Vodafone are saying in SMH.com.au they are happy with the actions they''ve taken and that the service is much better. I am still experiencing hopeless service. On Sunday (16/1/2011) in Coles Neutral Bay store I could not call home (tried a number of times - call kept disconnecting before being answered by my wife). I called my wife's mobile - it connected and asked her to call me back using the land line - it worked fine. I then called her back on the same land line and this time it worked fine. All this time I was standing in the same spot. I have not seen any improvement in the service over the last 4 months when it all started going horribly wrong.

I called the Vodafone customer service number approximately 18 months ago advising them that text messages I could send sms messages from my phone, but that they were not being received by the sms recipient (or if it was received it was >24 hours after sending). They told me it was a problem with my phone, not the Vodafone service. So, I call my phone manufacturer - they agreed with me that it was a telephone reception problem seen as messages were being sent (and I believe I was being charged regardless of whether the messages were being received by sms recipients or not). Vodafone denied denied denied and said they could do nothing about it. These days my main problem is reception, although I still find the occassional sms is not received. So nice to read the articles lately (except for the ones stating client information has been circulated and stored in manner that was not secure) about Vodafone service problems across the country... makes me feel like my concern was (/is) valid. Thanks for putting the blame on everyone except yourself Vodafone.

I have just received my new iphone to replace a Nokia and now experience an inordinate number of drop outs, incredibly poor reception.

I had never really had many issues with vodafone until about 3 months ago when I started a long distance relationship. My last 3 bills have all been over $300 due to me going over my cap, which is understandable, BUT when I went in to the vodafone store to discuss moving to a higher plan, they told me to call customer service, who in turn told me that as there was no plan higher than mine anymore I would have to pay a $540 cancellation fee and then re-enter another 24 month contract on a different plan. Ridiculous! I was happy to stay loyal to vodafone and pay a bit more each month for more useage, but I think they took one look at my last 3 bills and realised I'd keep paying them the $300-$400 phone bills I was racking up! Very disappointed, never get good coverage and constantly get dropped calls too.

I am so sick of never having a decent signal with 3G when surfing the net... it takes an incredibly long time to even bring up Google on my phone and sometimes it doesn't even work, even when i'm in the CBD of Sydney.

I work in West Perth and live in Subiaco. Hardly the middle of the outback. However the most I can hope to get of late is a couple of bars of reception - plenty of times I have only 1 bar or no service at all. My calls regularly drop out and 3G (when I can get it) is slow and unreliable. Get your act together Vodafone - how about spending more money on the network, and less on marketing campaigns aimed at luring in more customers when your substandard network can't even support the number of customers you already have. Of course, as an alternative, you could keep up your current standard of service, and before too long you won't have any customers left.

Dropped calls

Ordered 2 new hand sets, was sposed to come in the 2nd week of January. They still havent come, been calling every day asking what the !@#$ is happening with this order, the last phone conversation was that they had no record of the new handsets order. I AM FILTHY WITH YOU VODAFAIL. Sort your shit out

I was with Vodafone for 14 Years until last week. I finally had enough of the consistantly poor service they provide. Early 2010 I broke my phone and needed to claim onmy phone insurance. I was told to take the phone to the nearest Vodafone store and they would send it away and I would receive a new phone within 5 working days via courier. Given that I was now without a phone I thought they might replace the phone with Store stock. I was informed that this was not how things were done.

2 weeks passed and still my phone had not arrived. I became increasinyl angry and phoned Vodafone to complain. When I FINALLY got through I waas told there was nothing they could do to track the location of my phone or its estimated arrival date. They suggested I phone the store or Vodafone Insurance (which is an outsourced service ny they way.

A customer service person at the store took my name and number nad promised to follow it and call me back. I never heard from him. I phoned thie insurers and they wiped their hands clean saying it was nothing to do with them and they couldnt help. Everyone just passed the buck and no-one was able to tell me when my phone might arrive or when. Finally I had to phone the TIO who contacted Vodafone. A rep phoned me and said as compensation I could end my contract early and if I wanted another phone straight away I could then sign on for another 24 month contract. You must be joking right? Finally received the phone 2 weeks after the claim was put in.

This is not the opnly problem I have had with them but it is the most recent.

Trying to get a phone replaced under warranty with this mob can be a nightmare as well. I dont understand why if a phone is clearly faulty they cant just replace it on the spot. NO. it has to go to the "repair centre" where it is "assessed" and then they want to replace it with a refurbished phone. I dont want a refurbished phone! If its broken I want a replacemnet with a brand new one straight away. Subsequent research I have conducted suggests it is unlawfull not to replace the item straight away.

Anyway have just changed carriers. Goodbye Vodafone, I cant say its been a great 14 years.

P.S (tip for vodafone) Hire a larger number of more competent call centre customer service operators for a start. People hate waiting to talk to someone and it is even worse when you finally through the quality of the service is dreadful anyway.

My phone is with vodaphone, my husband's is with Telstra. Most of the time I have little to no service whilst he has full service with crystal clear reception.
My bill this past month was 5 times the usual amount purely because my calls keep getting dropped and I have to call the person back. Multiple times.
I have rung Vodaphone to have my phone unlocked so I can use as foreign sim whilst travelling; first they couldn't find my phone on their system (it IS a phone bought under a vodaphone contract - unfortunately), then they say it takes a week to unlock and incurs a charge.. Previous phones with Optus were able to be unlocked almost immediately with no charge. It has been a week and still not unlocked.

Grrrr....!!!!! I don't understand how Vodaphone aren't subject to any sort of regulatory or fair trading governance that can call them on their blatant theft and immoral business practices.

Purchased Nokia N8 connected through Vodafone Dec 2010 & have had drop outs 50% of time used. Returned to store & got new N8(Nokia have lost me forever)& new phone still drops out. Complained to store who advised to ring Vodafone, who advise to go back to store i purchased phone from. Im continously going around in circles. Now im stuck in contract for 2 years using my old phone. Bitterly disappointed as i purchased N8 soley to use email for work. Very Very unfair.

I have frequent call dropouts and text messages are being sent three or four times with each message being charged.

I signed up to a 2 year contract for a Dell computer with a built in modem with Vodafone. I work and live in the inner city. I was only able to log on sporadically for the first month. Since then I have had no success in using the PC or the internet. I have gone into Vodafone shops who haven't been able to resolve the issue but they can't refund money because I'm locked in a 2 year contract. I have also called Vodafone numerous times and no one has been able to help me and no one can refund money for a service I've not been able to use for 23 months!!!! This is just wrong to rob people of their money for no service!

Just got off the phone with a vodafone another rep. None of them speak english!!!

How can they expect customers to continue using their service if they can't even communicate with customer service??

Come on. Vodafone, you outsource your customer service reps to India or where ever and it's appalling. I actually believe so many customers are leaving vodafone, that It could actually collapse.

Fire the management - immediately. Hire some people with common sense.


Unkind Regards,

M

Hi guys,
I brought a Blackberry on a $79 plan from Vodaphone on 1/5/10 and had coverage problems immediately.
*June and July, no amount of downloaded updates helped, changing the SIM did not help. Then in
*August the handset started playing up with message issues amoungst others, still no coverage at home and not for a 8km radius - they replaced the handset. Still no joy with coverage, but the phone worked.
*October the handset stopped working, sent away again and replaced. Still no coverage but handset works.
*January the handset stopped working again (3rd new one) and still no coverage.
20/1/11 Sit in Vodaphone store for well over 2 hours, on the phone to customer support for 2 hours. They will not cancel the policy, they want to send the phone away again. Offer me a new Nokia if i pay for it and they will reimburse me (no way), offer me a month free service (what service, i have no coverage). Anyway, phone now sent away again, customer service to call me Monday 24 Jan to see if i have coverage with new SIM and loan handset, asking that i document any calls that dont go through. Then they will launch an investigation and if it shows no coverage they will then cancel my contract.

Got home last night with loan handset and new SIM - no coverage only emergency calls can be made. Soo.....700klm later, $711 bills, 8 months no coverage at home, 4 new handsets and still they persist with keeping me in a contract for a service i cannot use for its intended use!
Thanks for listening, I will keep you posted!

Came across the following link in an SMH article today - looks like a dealer FAQ prepared by the VHA Comms/PR team.

http://images.smh.com.au/file/2011/01/21/2144076/vodafoneqa.pdf

Appears that there are a number of escalation email addresses in here that dissatisfied customers could potentially direct their concerns to.

Constant drop outs.. I will be talking and all of a sudden, nothing and I'm not even in a bad area!!! All of a sudden I couldn't receive picture messages, I rang Customer Service and got through after an hour and a half, he told me I had to download some software, which I did and still nothing. I went into a Vodafone shop only to be told I would have to ring Customer Service - AGAIN! I don't have a spare 3 hours to wait on the phone!!!

They keep giving me crap information that doesn't work and then they kind of give up and keep transfering me to different places. NOT HAPPY!! I desperately want to get off Vodafone!

tried to order an andoid phone on the vodafone online store back in sept/2010. after waiting 4 days got a message to say couldn't process my order as insufficient indentification was produced??. I then cancelled the order with a customer service person. But wait there's more....about 7 working days after cancelling the order, abracadabra! the phone suddenly appeared on my desk at work (courier dropped it there without even a signature!) By this time i had already ordered a new android handset from Optus online, which was delivered to me within 48 hours!.
Anyhow, another call to vodafone customer service to organise returning the handset, and what a pain that was. I think i was on hold for periods of up to 1 hour or more!! just to speak to someone. By the way, it took me about 6 attempts and over 3-4 days to actually speak to someone who could organise for the handset to be collected. Finally about another week later the return satchel arrived and i sent back the handset. You thought that was going to be the end of the story..didnt you! Oh no, Xmas eve 2010, i received a Final Notice letter for about $133.00 demanding payment. I called their account dept and just went right off my rocker!!
touch wood havent heard anymore from Vodafail, and hope i never will.

I have been on hold MANY times in regards to my MMS. 45 minutes one time...and then they HUNG UP!!!!!!!

Constant call drop-outs, call fails, non receipt and delivery of SMSs, constant "switched off" message when not the case, 3G network failure and extremely poor coverage.

I have logged requests and problems through the website and even though I have an incident nubmer, have received no reply/reponse. I tried calling but gave up after being on hold for 25 minutes.
I am also frustrated that a handset that I bought from Myer is locked to Vodafone even though I bought it our right and there was no sim card etc linked to the handset.

Cannot talk properly, very poor reception, phone get disconnected during call.

i have rang numerous times bout service issues with vodafone. to the point where i wanted out of my contract. im sick of talking to bombay when i ring. they struggle to comprehend what im talkin about. all ive been give is $20 credit towards my account (mind you, im still waiting for that. its been 2 months)

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/revealed-how-vodafone-dealers-bend-the-rules-posing-as-customers-20110121-19yn3.html

Check this website out.
Vodafail dealers pose as customers, cancel contract & sign up for a new contract. This enables them to earn a higher commission. OOPS - you got caught !!!!!

What more can I say !!!!!

Where do I start:

Waiting in phone queues forever.
Double / triple SMS's & then sometimes NONE.
Dropped calls / poor reception.
Took numerous calls to have my address change.

I have several problems, but in regards to reception issues...I was told that I would have 3G coverage and full reception in the area I live. They showed me the "map" where 3G coverage was good. Not true. My phone drops out, the internet is very slow and drops out also. Stupidly I also got internet for my laptop. What a waste of money! But I have to PAY to stop the charges each month!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Less than 2 weeks after signing up for a N97mini on a 24mth contract, I started experiencing phone problems could not make/receive calls or texts. The next day I went to take it to my local Vodafone store to have it repaired as it was under the initial 1 month replacement warranty. I got to where our local store is, to find it closed down whilst the shopping centre was being remodeled. I rang Vodafone to see if I could post it to a repairer in Perth, which is 2 hours away. They told me if I want it fixed/replaced I will have to hand deliver it to the nearest store which is 1.5hr drive away. When I signed up for this plan I also received a usb modem, but no sim card for it. I also got told that I'd have to drive to nearest store to get this. I told the customer service officer that was totally unreasonable as i work,so would have to take 2 days off (one to drop off and one to pick up),and it would cost me at least $80 fuel. He told me we'll reimburse you for the inconveinece,to which I asked how. He told me that the store will have a form for me to fill in that I can submit to ask for reimbursement. I thought this too good to be true so I rang the store to ask if in fact they do have sucha form to which I was told no. I asked the store assistant how I could go about getting it sorted without me losing time having to drive the 3hour round trip. They told me to ring the customer care number as they may be able to sort something out. So after another 1/2hr on hold I got nothing useful from them. It was 3months before the local shop reopened(no sign advertising when this would happen) and 4 months before I finally got a sim for my modem. All of which I still had to pay my monthly bill, without being able to use my new phone/get a replacement phone and not being able to use my modem.

Have been with vodafone for a few years now and am constantly losing signal in my town. It has gotten even worse now that I have moved house since I do not get any signal at all in my house now and have to walk down the street to send and recieve messages. I would understand if I lived in the middle of the bush but I am in Mackay and it isn't really that small of a town.