No reception on 3G, no reception on wireless broadband. Can't do urgent work :((

arrived on the central coast (Gosford) on 24th - no vodafone network. my sister on Optus - full strength. went to the entrance this morning - got some (late) voicemail messages on the way. got to the entrance - couldn't make a call. had to use sis' optus phone (again) - i've had this crap, on my way to erina this arvo to port.

Yet again more dropouts... 'searching...'

DIAF Vodafone!

Mobile Broadband is suffering outages today....again !!
Yet, their outage website says everything is just fine and dandy.
Very unreliable service which obviously cannot cope ! total disappointment.

I have been experiencing call drop outs for the past 3-4 weeks. Last 4-5 days have been absolutely horrendous. Most of my incoming calls go straight to my voicemail. Gives me "connection error" 9/10 times when I try to call someone. I have been trying to talk to someone for the past one week.. I'm on hold for 45 minutes and more but still can't get through. This is totally unacceptable. I was very patient for the first few weeks but now I have no choice but move to another network. I have demanded someone talk to me but haven't received a call yet. I have been a Vodafone customer for the past 10 years. This is really disappointing.

Spoke to 2 people on Christmas day, for a total of 25 minutes. In all, the 2 calls were dropped by the network 7 times! How pathetic is that? Thank goodness I only have 3 months on the contract to go, then vooooom! I'm outta here!

Will be demanding that my contract is cancelled as soon as the retail outlets reopen for business. This weekend has been the final straw. Disgraceful that we're paying for what is essentially a limited SMS network.

Starting from Xmas eve until I post this, with 5 bars signal, but cannot makes any phonecalls, neither 3G, and just lived 5kms from CBD!!! I think Voda wants to cut me off from civilisation and gets me back to 20 years ago where there is no mobile phone exist.

I had new contract with Vodafone just 3 weeks ago and since that I realised I can NOT received any text sms that sent from overseas. What the?? I contacted Vodafone and they told me my network is fine and nothing wrong with that and suggested me to turn off the 3G mode and switch to 2G network instead. but Guess what I still couldnt received the text sms that sent from overseas. this is so frustrating.. I went to one of mobile dealer which was I trusted the most and I explained all of my ridiculous experience with vodafone and they told me that they had so far 5 customers had the same problem and suggested me to call Vodafone again and ask Voda to replace my mobile Number this is the only way to solve this problem, my God I don wanna do that again because every call that I made to call Voda's CS line would eat up my 1 hour for waiting, but eventually I gotta call them and what I been told by them was its Impossible to change anything especially change the mobile number.
and thats it.. it leave me with no way out to solve this bloody problem.

stuck with 5 kids for 4hrs in Manly NSW in the blazing hot sun as no service to call a Taxi

helps to turn off 3 G

Trying to call my mother but the call keeps dropping out.

Holiday Mum Call Fail

In cronulla trying to call family and friends bit can't as calls are not connected and when they are I can't hear anything. You stole Christmas vodafone

It appears that australia is not the only country where Vodafone are selling empty dreams. Vodafone Ghana has just been caught out selling non-existent wireless access.
Well done Vodafone. First rip off Australia, then the world!

http://news.myjoyonline.com/business/201012/58221.asp

Christmas eve and the entire network has collapsed, no service nothing nada zilch!

Told to F... OFF out the shop or Police would be called after being a client for since 1994 Good SERVICE AND CUSTOMER RELATIONS....................
Today I entered the Vodafail shop in Manly after I had no service for the previous 3 hour.
I waited 35 min to be served by (DON'T POST NAMES -Vodafail) I produced to new I4 phones one of which had a signal and one no signal. I explained the problem and that I could not conduct my business with no service and an interupted service for the past month with nearly every call cutting out and not being able to get a signal in my own home in Manly, I was then told it's an apple issue..... been there done that spent 22 hrs on the phone with Apple and 4 hours in the Apple Shop.... NOT AN APPLE PROBLEM.. at this time I was asked by (DON'T POST NAMES -Vodafail) " what do you want me to do about it?" i stated that I wanted help.... we have a net work fault was the next answer and you can either accept it or leave it????? then I was told Cancell your contract and go take a new contract with another provider.....I said not good enough will I get a refund on contract monies paid... At this time I was told to F...Off out the shop or the POLICE would be called to evict me .... this is how you treat a customer of 17 years ... shame on you (DON'T POST NAMES -Vodafail) and VODA WHAT???????????? I sure hope that if there is someone at Vodaphone with an IQ in double duble digets reads this site and takes note of what is going on.... Cant wait to change providors.......

This site is great, but vodafone has merely appologised and nothing has in fact been done to imrpove the service?

Nice idea though

Try calling 1555 for Customer Service, major delays and call drop outs call on and off for 20 hours from 17:00 yesterday - did not manage to get thru.

Now try calling to pay your bill over the phone by Credit Card on 02 8275 2267 call answered within 3 rings after going past the normal IVR Menu.

HMMM

Ongoing Coverage issues @ Gold Coast- Carrara,Burleigh,Coomera,& also @ Coffs Harbour,Grafton,Tamworth. Online Maps shows Coverage is there in blanket form is it's not, they need to show levels of Coverage as some areas are just outright not there.

I work in the Sydney CBD, and since Monday I have watched my signal drop as I catch the Train to work. By the time I have made it to my desk the last of my reception is gone.

This continues for the rest of the day until I start leaving the CBD - even though sometimes I get the little 'Edge' E icon in the corner of the screen just teasing me into believing I have reception.

At least I can listen to music on my phone right - because I really don't need a phone do I Vodafone?

This is actually a dangerous situation.
Imagine if there was a real emergency, small or large scale.
Then we'd see the real repercussions.

Just got a contract release, 15 months into my contract, with no break fees.
My advice:
- document your issues and attempts to resolve
- attempt to resolve with customer care but DO NOT fall for their stall tactics around testing your area, handset or SIM. The problem is probably a network issue, it's likely not caused by anything else.
- if continuing network or customer service issues occur, call the TIO.
- a customer service manager will call you back, although it may take up to ten days.
- they will offer you gratuities such as credit, a reduction in plan costs with a view to review in a month.
- if you want to break your contract, do not accept these offers. Explain that you've lost confidence in the network, you are highly reliant, etc; Explain that the only feasible resolution is a contract break.
- they will likely agree to this, conditionally. They may push the early termination fee or cost of handset. DO NOT accept this. Simply explain that you have been paying x amount for so many months and you must have covered a major proportion of the phone cost. If that doesn't work, explain that you are unsatisfied with the outcome and you will escalate with the TIO (Vodafone's fine increases every time you escalate due to non-resolution. Not only will their fine increase, but Vodafone also pay an amount of the TIO's operating costs proportionate to their issue burden).
- At this point, your release should be approved. Get this in writing, via email or SMS.
- You will be allowed to immediately port your number to another network.
- once you do port, an account closing balance will be issued. This WILL NOT include any penalty payments such as early break charges.

Stick with it and seek a fair outcome!

Been a voda user for ten years And love it I would never use any other provider I bet all you ppl complaining are divorced or cheats cause as soon as times get hard u cry And want out of ur commitment shame on you, how unaustralian r u grow up

Opened a Vodafone account and want my existing number transfered over. I was told by Vodafone it would take 1/2 to 1 hour. Has not happened. Cant get through to activation dept. When on hold to Vodafone activation dept the call drops out. Not Happy!

Phone cutting out for months, thought it was my Nokia N97 (which does have numerous issues too, feel free to make a website someone).

Trying to call VF now, the automated service has successfully identified me, my password, and my type of enquiry, and the phone has now been ringing for 25 minutes with no answer. Have had other problems with them for years, am getting out of my plan and most likely never again back to Vodafone.

Etiquites is a word off vodafone dictionary. The customer service staff are arrogant and the do not care attitude care attitude won't rake them anywhere.theei service is bad network is worst and the customer service more than worst(still finding netter word than worst in English dictionary).
Calls drop regularly data often does not work call them and be prepared to wait for ages just to get no answer.

Work in Sydney CBD, have to try a few times to make calls, line keeps dropping, even with full reception its crap, third worls countrys have better networks, also there is no coverage on the train (east hills line), my iphone is now just an Ipod, the phone part is useless piece of crap... major FAIL..

I'm still getting bills after being released from my contract, last month. Is there any communication between their departments?

I've been a Vodafone customer for years. Things were awesome until 2010 until now I never had a bad word to say about them. At the start of the year I lost total reception for three days, I rang Vodafone and they gave me a discount for that month, only had to pay half my bill so I was happy with that. It was simple and easy.
The last 3 months I have had more days without reception than with. This also includes numerous in store sim swaps with staff who were very apologetic and helpful, but limited in what they can do. I've used different phones and I just don't have the reception Vodafone use to give me. I've emailed Vodafone numerous times only to be told 'they will launch an investigation with their technicians and someone will contact me within 5 business days' No one does. I try to phone Vodafone and I spend hours on hold and speak to no one, or I get disconnected. This also means tying up a land line that is not mine as my mobile phone is the only phone number I have.
Finally fed up with it all, I contacted the TIO asking them to contact Vodafone on my behalf to release me from my contract - done with in one week. No penalty due to me, no early exit fees they just asked that I pay $150.00 to keep my phone or send it back. I'm paying the $150.00 to keep my phone as it would cost me more to buy a new one.
Sadly how Vodafone have treated, or should I say not treated me with my questions and frustrations I may have been more inclined to 'wait it out' but as the mobile is my only contact number, I need reception, I need to be able to use it for it's intended purpose.
I have read many of the posts on here and people comment that you can go and get 'ripped off' by other phone companies - I don't have a problem paying for what I'm getting, so long as I'm getting it.

It hurts deep. I have begun to keep a record of all the dropped out calls and times when 5 msgs come at once rather than when they were sent to me. So far 5 drop outs in 36 hours.

Holidaying in Port Macquarie CBD. Broadband 3G extremely slow. Up to 30 sec at times to refresh a page. Other times complete dropout.

Again, Sydney CBD and metropolitan - can't hold a call, can't connect a call, sometimes doesn't even connect to the network at all for hours. Not recieving text messages for up to 3 days.
For months I thought it was just my handset acting up and even considered getting a new one, but then I read all the articles and came across this website - I'm not paying for a new handset when I now know it's a network error! I'll just switch networks.

Hmm Sydney CBD, cant hold a call in George St. Call Failed, drop outs, download speeds are non existant then great then none, then great. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Trying to complain about service levels, so I logged a complaint ticket. I received and automated response about how they provide coverage. I requested that they answer the question. Another auto-response saying that they are busy and will get back to me when they can. Ok, so I waited. Then they closed the ticket after 120 hours because there was no activity.

Pick up your game and let me out of my contract. Incident: 101214-000237

customer :"hi, im having issues with my phone fix it for me?" VF employee:" so whats up with it." customer:" i put it on the charger last night cause it died and now its blank and wont ring" VF employee:" let me have a look and see what i can do, well i see your issue! your phone is switched off at the moment, would you like me to switch it on for you?"

Customer:" hi, im having problems with my wifes handset and i wont to get it sorted out asap" VF employee:" thats ok sir, what is the issue? Customer:"it wont hold charge for more then 2 days, she tells me that she never gets my calls or voice mail messages or my sms's???" VF employee:" ok sir, it is very common for a hanset to only last 2 days without charging it. and have you got the handset so as i can troubleshoot her problems shes having with sms and voice calls?" Customer:" Oh no, i didnt think id need the phone with me, cant you just look on your computer and tell me whats wrong?" VF employee:" no sir, i would need the phone to help you with this. is it only your calls and sms's she is not recieving?

I am locked into a broadband contract with a service that drops out on average for 10 seconds every 15 seconds of streaming time. Watching a 1hr25min movie has now taken over 2.5hrs and 3/4 of the way through. Am only persisting with it as would rather burn the available air time than forfeit due to frustration.
Vodafone staff in stores are actually very friendly and helpful, however they are not always technically able to deal with issues appropriately.

Vodafone employees are the nicest bunch of people i have ever met. they smile and are helpful and they dont look at every customer as a sale! i have nothing but admiration for the stores i have had to go in too.

After e-mailing a complaint listing all my issues, I finally got a reply today (several days after my intitial email submission). I've got to say I was impressed by the admission that the Vodafone network has been on the fritz for "several months" (though the wording went something like "some of our customers have been experiencing reception problems in some areas"). I was also told that they've now opened their Customer Care call centre 24 hours, due to the high demand.

The lady proceeded to offer me one month of free access as compensation after telling me that they were working to fix the problems, "hopefully before Christmas". I accepted the compensation, only because I don't have a phone other than the HTC Desire HD that I purchased just a month ago on a 12 month contract (and I'm loving the phone), so cancelling my contract would leave me without a phone and a huge headache.

I'm still getting constant phone and internet drop outs, delays in messages, and calls that don't come through. This site is hopefully putting more and more pressure on Vodafone to lift their game. I'm publicising it on my FB account and telling other Vodafone members about it to share their experiences.

Power to the people!

Three accounts from VFail..network is as bad as it can get..forget 3G..even EDGE is a problem.
Broadband..can't get to the home page in Stanhope Gardens (near Sunnyholt drive), NSW; when can I get my 2GB. Zero utilization in two months.
Acconting...did not apply 3 free months (NRMA)...added insurance without my consent. What a waste of my time and money.

I have a HTC and my Vodafone coverage is fine. A lot of the network issues seem to be based sound iPhone and Nokia n97 users. What is the relationship here. Why must every second person must have an iPhone

went to the vodafone store on Monday to report a fault with my phone, data was extremely slow to download (if at all). this problem was progressively getting worse, since signing up with vodafone 2 months ago. the store attendant told be it was a faulty sim, which he replaced and asured me things would be working fine in ten minutes.

well things weren't fixed, data times out and now incoming calls drop out after 3 seconds.

and now i find on the internet that i'm not the only having problems. with the ceo publicly announcing tech problems, i find the vodafone staff to be deceptive and misleading when addressing my problem.

vodafone is charged me for services that they are not providing. disgraceful

My girlfriend's phone disconnected with no reason. Trying to get through to customer service, so that her phone is more useful than a doorstop, currently still on hold 1hr 50 mins and counting.

I work for Optus, and I know that in many areas our customer service is lacking, but this is just beyond a joke!

Well i had issues with getting the roaming working from the website so i went in store, which they set up for me. i asked a few times if this would cost me anything (as i was going to America) and made it VERY clear i didnt want it if it was going to cost me money, they assured me it was free and wouldnt cost me a thing, they made NO mention of the fact it CHARGES you everytime ur phone connects to a different tower or something, i came back to over $200 phone bill for these connections, i went in store to ask what the hell. they didnt want to hear it, they had no problem telling me what all these charges were for AFTER i got back, this information would of been helpful i dunno BEFORE i left!!
The store wouldnt do anything and told me to go home and ring the customer service, so i drove all the way home, waited nearly a hour on the phone and was finally told to go INTO THE STORE!!! needless to say i wasnt impressed. i told them that the team member who served me left out the information i needed so it wasnt my fault i was charged. they said they would help me out IF i remembered the name of the employee, i DIDNT. how would i remember there name?!?! and they said they would ASK all the employees if they were the one to give me the wrong info, guess what NO ONE owned up! what a suprise! they pretty much said too bad there is nothing we can do.
They tried to offer $50 of texts, but with the plan im on i already get WAY to many texts for me to use, ive never gone close to going over. after being stuffed around on the phone more i gave up.

Now i havnt been able to get on facebook on my phone for at least 2 months.

cant WAIT til my contract is up so i can go to telstra or optus!!!

just got a bill for $49 and im on a $49cap, i am so angry at vodafone right now! how could they charge me like that! plus i recieve no calls when my phone is off!!!
i am mad!

See below, feel free to copy and forward with your story to:-

1. Vodafone
2. TIO

Call received within 1 day of TIO being informed from a decision maker in Australia.

Result:-

1. 2 Months Credit
2. Released from contract.

Good Luck

To whom it may concern,

I am severely disappointed in the level of service (or lack thereof) being provided from your network, and your customer service team. Your lack of network coverage in western Sydney, has been of an unsatisfactory level for the past two months. It has become so bad it has come to me writing this email.

I have spent most of the day attempting to get this issue resolved with your customer service team, however when I contacted your business call centre at 1400 hours on the 20th December 2010, your customer service personnel was unable to assist me due to computer issues. He could not call me back, and insisted I would have to make another call later in the day to sort it out.

I rang again around 1850 hours, and waited on hold for around 80 minutes, until your network lost reception and disconnected me.

I then rang again at 2120 hours and waited on hold for around 60 minutes until the call was answered, the customer service person told me he would put me on hold for 2 minutes and get back to me, another 83 minutes later another customer service person answered the phone, and then it dropped out.

The problems I am experiencing are continual call drop-outs covering most areas between Penrith, Blacktown, Castle Hill and Parramatta (the area my business operates in). On top of this the 3G connection enabling my email and internet access is also slower or non-existant from time to time and lagging of sms messages. These problems have been occurring for around the past 2 months, with no improvements. In attempt to see if the situation gets any better I have tried another sim card (on my account), and a different phone, and I still receive the same problems.

These problems have caused extreme inconvenience and have financially affected my business, through being non-contactable and getting sms messages too late, that a potential customer has sourced another company to conduct the repairs work.

I work in Pyrmont and I regularly get poor signal or no signal at all. Currently there is 1 bar and I have 3G. I often have no 3G or am Roaming. This is not just in the office, but also walking around to get lunch, etc.

I think Nigel Dews should resign. Your sorry is too little to late.
Your pathetic excuse that only a few people are suffering is just that, pathetic.

Enter the (wait for it).......Mumbai "Save Team" - it seems Vodafails "customer orientation" is moving further and further away from..."the customer." Who are they "saving" the customer or themselves?

Thanks Vodafail for sharing the name of your new team - it's made my day!!

I had been trying for over a month and half to switch my work account to a personal account after being made redundant from my job. Every time I contacted the number they gave me they would ask for the employer's PIN number. I told them over and over I didn't work there and then eventually I had to call my old work and ask them to get involved. After numerous emails I was told I was authorised to switch to my own account and I had to call the Direct Deals people. After an hour and a half waiting I was cut off. I called back and waited a further 50 mins only to be told by the indian call centre that I didn't have the right number. I asked him for the correct number and he then proceeded to read back the number I had just called on. In the end he said he couldn't help me and transferred me to another department in Australia where I sat on hold for a further 40 mins. When I finally got through I was then told it wasn't authorised and having gone through the story for the umpteenth time I was told they couldn't do anything without the authorisation.

So, I decided to go into a store and see a real person.....what a waste of time that was. When I got to the store, went through my story, the representative asked me for the PIN NUMBER!!! After saying I didn't have this number he said I would have to contact Direct Deals and that I could use their phone. I sat in their store for 40 mins until I finally cracked. I ask the Gen Y representative if I could see his manager and he flat out refused. He said the manager was too busy. I stormed out of the store absolutely furious.

To cut a long story short, I finally got onto someone and he was quite apologetic. I told him I didn't want to continue with Vodafone and asked what I needed to do to move across to Optus. He pleaded with me to "give Vodafone a second chance" and that he will give me a free month on the infinite plan. I said to him that I was wary signing up to another contract as if I wasn't happy with the service I would want out. He said it was fine and that I would be allowed to leave if I wasn't happy after the first free month.

I've been with them for one week and none of my email or internet is working. I contacted Wilbur and he sent me a (almost) computerised response saying it wasn't his department and that he couldn't help!!!

Just after I emailed him, I was then sent bill for $46.90 which was the period 15th Dec - 16th Dec. ONE DAY! I sent it to Wilbur who has reluctantly credited the account but how or why they did it is beyond me. There was no explanation.

I've got Optus taking over the account now and there will be hell to pay if they tell me I can't cancel or try and charge me a fee. I will be going to the TIO if this happens.

I've wasted so much of my time with Vodafone. It astounds me how one company can be so shit.

Mike here from NSW, I work in the Recruitment business and due to a 3 hour delayed voicemail message I lost a $10,000 deal. Also my clients, family and friends cannot contact me as they lose connection. I cannot make calls as it doesnt connect and I am tired of trying to contact them.

Northern Beaches- How to get out of your contract.....I just did. I advised them that it was my only phone at home (i.e we do not have a landline) and they ended a newly signed (i.e 3 months ago) 24 month contract WITHOUT QUESTION. All i have to do is return the phone which came with the contract.

Don't let the customer service operator fool you into conducting the "tests" i.e try a new sim, turn phone off and on, telling you that they will call you back later (on your mobile phone) when you are in the place where you have no reception -what is wrong with these people. Aggressilvely DEMAND to speak to the cancellations team oh, did I mention? Expect to be on hold for + 1hr 20mins!!!! GOOD LUCK!

I recently spent over 2.5 hours on hold to them wanting to upgrade my plan to the new Apple iPhone 4, I never got through to them, so I tried again, after 1.5 hours on hold I had to have a bathroom break and couldn't wait any longer. So Im stuck till I get get through to one of the fools at Vodafone. My pain worsens, now as with all the other Vodafone users I am making multiple calls to have one conversation, thanks to their excellent coverage.

So I posted yesterday and am so grateful for this site as family and friends are sick of hearing me bitch about my constant vodafone issues over the pst 3 months.
But the latest is I havent actually recieved a bill via email for the last 3 months and I called to tell them this and of course 40 minute wait - but I wa happy to leave my details to call me back.
They call me back and I pressed one to speak with a VF rep and the phone rang for 15minutes - I mean are you serious - 15 minutes. They call me back and then tranfer me and then hello noone's there - Vodafail once again.
I am currently appealing to cancel my contract and I cant wait for that sweet day when I am no longer a VF customer -gbye complete frustration.

Let's see, minimal reception that drops out to nothing whenever it feels like it. Failed text messages, failed mms messages, failed incoming calls, failed out going calls, missing voicemails, web pages don't load, as for calling vodafone, I've logged up about 4 hours and still haven't got this sorted.
I have used 3 different phones, I've changed sim cards, I've got new sim cards. This is not me or my phones, this is Vodafone.
I am happy to go to Telstra and pay more providing I don't encounter all these errors all at once. Considering my family members at home are with Telstra and not one of them has had any of the issues I've had recently.

have bought 2 hand sets both different brands and coverage with vodafone IS TERRIBLE !!! and only live approx 10/12ks from sydney ,(can not make or receive any calls whislt at home ) very painful trying to explain to various people at vodafone that its not a handset fault . they would promise in calling me back when i am at home but unfortunatley still waiting on call .Am sick of calling Lara !!!! please help have only been with voda for 3 mths need to find out how to cancel contract

Paid for their 3G data on my laptop between 2008 and mid-2010. Hardly ever worked. This was inside Sydney CBD. Moved to Telstra and have never had a problem. The only frustration bigger than their product not working was their customer service. Criminal product failure. Criminal customer service.

In this article http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/furious-vodafone-customers-spark-accc-probe-20101217-190gl.html Vodafone's director of customer service, Cormac Hodgkinson said:

"It's not saying we aren't seeing customers come through with problems but in terms of the specific issues that we knew about that were pretty much across the network, they have now been addressed,"

i rang vodafone technical support today, and they said that there are known issues in manly (nsw) and sydney cbd, so this guy is a liar.

Vodafone 0426 numbers were released but they did not ensure that international texts could be received. I waited and waited for international texts but nothing came through. I contacted Vodafone and spent hours talking to their technical team who blamed the international carriers and said it was not Vodaphone's fault. Then I finally went into a store and one of the managers casually said "Yeah, those 0426 numbers don't work like they should. I don't know why we sell them". I changed the number to another carrier and it works fine! So what is going on at Vodafone???

i have random reception, people do not received my sms's, i cannot connect to the internet

When I joined Vodafone 12 months ago, I explicitly stated that not only do I need reception in my home town (obviously), but I need reception where my parents live in a small town on the other side of the Blue Mountains. Vodafone sold me the plan and the phone (iPhone 3GS) and told me I would have no service problems. The reason I need reception at where my parents live is my mother is sick. Sure enough, I get to my parents town and I have reception for probably 40% of the time. Ringing Vodafone, I was told a "network upgrade is taking place soon". I gave Vodafone the benefit of the doubt and over the next 12 months, my visits to my parents hom town resulted in the same reception problems. I rang Vodafone recently about this and they told me that my phone is incompatible with Vodafones network. When I told them it was the phone they sold me, they told me to "turn 3G off". I told them 3G is always off on my phone because it works slightly better, even for data (go figure!) and then they told me next time I am in the town to call them so they can troubleshoot it. I said to them "so I wait until my phone has reception, call Vodafone, be on hold for over an hour in which time my phone will probably drop out, and then if I get through, I will be told that my phone is working. Or I won't have reception and won't be able to call". They then told me to call from a land line. This is where the saga is currently at. I can't wait to get away from Vodafone... And will NEVER go back! I HATE Telstra/ Bigpond but at least their mobile network and 3G are good!

Purchased a Blackbury Bold, having continual issues with no 3G service, always on EDGE.
Txt & MMS fail, pictures do not arrive at my parners phone, message is there but picture is X in a box. Tech support useless, want to do "master reset" sending "service books" have given up on Lara, useless system.

All the apologies don't help, phone has shut down with "invalid sim" takes hours to speak to someone in a call centre, then poorest line quality cannot understand person. For a Telco, has the lowest quality lines in existance.

Contacted TIO and lodged complaint, waiting for my ten days, cannot eat apology. work for myself and do Airconditioning service, customers cannot reach me.

I've been a customer for a few years, only 12 months ago I took advantage of the internet deal 1/2 price for the first 6 months $20 then $40 for the following 18 months up to 5g of downloads, sounds like a good deal. I'd been paying about $120 a month with Telstra Bigpond for some time (maybe 5 years) and had continual trouble with the home phone not working at the same time as the internet, going back to the dark ages of "dial up" even to the point where the Telstra contractor advised that he couldn't fix it but had the hide to ask me if it was ok if he told Telstra head office it was fixed so he could move onto the next job... ANYWAY it never got fixed, so we changed to Vodafone dongle.

When we signed up, the salesperson in Vodafone shop admitted that there was problems with the connection/reception, but being a mobile phone customer and not having too many problems with the mobile phone I didn't think it would be that bad in our house.

We rarely have connection, we are paying for a service we cannot use, it makes you feel like you are absolutely being completely ripped off! When we do get connection, like right now, it's always a poor signal.

Now we have problems with both mobiles as well, all the same problems as most people on here, late voicemail (if you get it), dropping out all the time and connection problems.

The worst thing is I'll sit on my couch will not be able to connect to the internet because of poor signal but get full internet 3g on my phone next to me??!! What the?

I've read a lot of the complaints here on the site, all I can say is I'm glad I'm not working on the management team of this company! The amount of work that's required to fix this mess is going to be almost impossible and I'll take my hat off to Vodafone if they can fix the problem. Word of mouth is how they got so popular but it could possibly be the end of them.

Here's a plan.
Everyone, visit at least one Vodafone store this week.
Loudly protest your issues and convince at least one new customer not to sign up. Direct them to this website.
I'm not suggesting for a moment that the staff should be the target. But since Vodafone are practicing false and misleading conduct and there is no mass media campaign to alert the public, it is up to us to talk the truth.

DO YOUR BEST TO DISCOURAGE NEW CUSTOMERS FROM JOINING VODAFONE UNTIL THEY CAN REASSURE THE PUBLIC THAT THEY ARE OFFERING A SERVICE THAT THE CUSTOMER WOULD EXPECT.

Then there's the other issue where you can't check usage on their website, that has been going on for over a year now.

I am glad I filed an incident with the TIO 2 weeks before the supposed network issues were meant to be fixed. Even after 8 years of being a customer they still lie about known issues right up until the point of when I cancelled my contract they still acted as if there were no issues.
There are still people I know that are unaware of these issues until I mention it to them and they realise how long their connection and service has been rubbish.

My pain has been going on for 10 months!! and now i have to deal with terrible phone reception. My story starts in Feb this year when i took my phone in which i broke, totally my fault i take responsibility for that i had paid for the extra insurance for 2 yrs and it finally came in handy. Paid the excess got the new phone all good, 2 weeks later new phone doesn't work the 7, 8, 9 button stopped working took it back to the shop that supplied it they put it in under a warranty claim a week later go in, get a new phone in the box ready to go. Less then a week later this phone breaks, it is a nokia 6210 navigator so anyone with similar probs please let me know, anyway i head back in to the store i am told i need to produce the papers i would have received, which i informed them i got nothing the last time i showed them the original papers but it was not for that phone was told to wait and a manager would call me regarding that, waited, waited waited, called up about it went into the shop still nothing they had not found the papers ( my opinion they hadn't even looked, every time i went into the store i had to explain my story over and over again to someone new). By this time it was near the end of may and i had got nowhere all i had was a broken phone and still getting bills for a service they where no longer providing. I was going away for 6 weeks on June 10th. I went back into the original store went through the whole thing again and was promised when i got back they would be able to sort it all out for me. returned to Australia, shop is closed down! All records destroyed, back to square one, down to the other vodaphone store that had never dealt with me, once again i explained the story and off we went on another pointless ride or going nowhere, once again someone was to contact me regarding progress, some kind of internal database search need to be conducted with the serial number so they could identify the phone. The original shop had given me the phone without recording that it was sold or given as a replacement, as far as they knew the phone was still in vodaphone hands. Surprise surprise when i went in a few weeks ago to find out what was happening the staff had no idea what was going on, the person i was dealing wiht had left and from their under the breath remarks i took it that the person who had just left was not a very good employee so jumped on the merry go round and began the story again, this time i got an AMAZING girl, she did a search on the spot, reissued me with a proof of purchase receipt took the phone and sent it in, Finally somethng was happening. Today collect the phone, tech report the battery was flat ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH did he/she not read the report it would turn on every few times then would not turn back on for months, of course the battery is flat i haven't used it for 10months i go the same crappy broken phone back. The helpful girl felt my pain and gave me a number to call and told me what to say. Right now i am waiting to hear back from some supervisor, who was not very happy to help until the words ombudsmen was mentioned and the amount of trouble vodaphone are in at the moment. I have had it with this company before i went overseas i canceled my plan and went onto pre-pay, the customer service and follow up in store is ATROCIOUS, this company had better do something quick smart if they wish to stay in business, by the look of it my problem is one of 1000's that they have to deal with.

Pity I didn't find this website before I rang Vodafail at the weekend attempting to buy an iphone. After fighting my way through the system and hanging on for a total of 75 minutes, i managed to tell someone I wanted to buy an iphone4. As I use prepaid I was told I would need to upgrade to a plan before I could order an iphone. I relcutantly agreed to this. I was told to ring back to order the iphone once my new Sim arrived. My new Sim arrived today, guess what, it doesn't work. Tried to ring but Lara has lost the plot and can't finish a sentence. It did eventually go through to somewhere and I get another voice telling me I will have to wait at least 40 mins to speak to someone. There isn't an option on the website for dodgy Sims, I may have to give up work soon as most of my life is taken up hanging on the phone waiting to speak to someone I can't understand from Vodafail. I suspect there is only 1 person working in the call centre as I have spoken to the same person twice!

Why would Vodafone release Infinity plans when they know there is something wrong with their network - they should be sued for negligence!

Well thanks to a written complaint to the TIO, I was contacted by a nice young lady from Vodafone (actually from Australia and not the Indian sub continent) who advised me of my options in relation to the known service issues (but never known to me until I read it in the SMH). So I have been given a six week time frame for the service to be upgraded and given two months free access to the network, and I've also been advised to do a 'SIM Swap' as soon as possible. Well I'll give them the grace of waiting for the six weeks, and if there is no improvement, I'm moving carriers.

After months of bad reception, dropped calls, slow data, delayed SMS & MMS messages I rang Vodafone with one question..."How much to get out of my contract?" After only 10 minutes on hold (I thought that was pretty good), the customer service person who took the call couldn't provide me with an answer (this took another 10 minutes to deduce). She said someone would call me back and quess what...they did! However, this person couldn't answer my question either. They were Tech support. They blamed my phone, my sim, my area (Sydney CBD???) and then said someone would call me back in 72 hours. I insisted that I just wanted to know how much to get out of my contract. Finally they agreed to put me through to someone who might be able to answer my question...another 10 minutes on hold...someone answered...and the call dropped out! This was last Friday and no-one has called me back.
I have been with Vodafone for 10 years and I am sad to be leaving them but enough is enough.

Today my broadband connection is flying along at an average of 23kbps download and an average upload speed of 126bps!!!!!!!!!!!
This despite calls to the support centre and absolute conviction of Rajit that things will improve soon and that I must be a long way from an exchange as I live in "remote Hornsby".
When will the management of Vodafone start to take some of these support calls and hear the pain before we all jump ship.
I want my wirelss broadband dongle fee repaid and consequential damages paid for the impact the calamatous service is having upon my business.

with all due respect to all people out there upset with the vodafone network just remember that when you go to talk to the team in the stores its not ther fault and try use a bit of respect when you communicate with them, i was in a store the other day and ther was a lady blasting the team over the reception issue when CLEARLY its not there fault....technology will never be 100% and in 6months everyone will be singing a different tune about some other band wagon everyone can jump on the have the "Internet stab"...but hey its easier to complain like 3year olds....basic decency ad courtesy will get you much further then blasting employees that are limited in the job....

The other night my Vodafone service stopped working for 15 hours. 15 hours! I couldn't make a call, receive a call, send a text, receive a text, use the internet... I kept thinking, "What if there's some sort of emergency?" This, of course, on top of all the other dropped calls, delayed voicemails, horrible 3G reception which means I can't access the internet. So frustrating and has been going on for weeks with no end in sight.

All telecom companies have signal problems. This may vary depends on how kind of user you are, waht kind of services you demand, what phone you have, what area you live and so on...

Vodafone has had some issues recently? Yes, they had. But what make a company good is not just when things are going great, but when their customers have problems and how the company deals with it. I can assure you Vodafone is strong enough to turn this page and make everyone happier than ever and YES they are making a lot of effort to deliver a extreme cutting edge new network.

We are just talking about 1% of the total customers. It still means that I am among the rest of 7 millions happy customers and nobody will build a website to talk about how good Vodafone is...

Come on guys, give them a chance! You won't regret to be part of this great company!


Cheers,
A happy customer

No reception at work or home and drops out 8 times on bus trip home - yes I counted it on my bill.

They tried to tell me that I now live in a 'low service' area. I haven't moved house for over 3 years. Until 3 months ago I had full reception now I'm lucky if I get one bar of reception.
This now means that at home no one can call me as the call will drop out. Messages are delayed. I have an awesome phone that I barely use.
Also located near to my house is a rather large and newly developed shopping centre which has not 1 BUT 2 Vodafone stores. I get no reception in the shopping centre.
FAIL!

multiple calls dropping out daily in different locations, divert to voicemail not working.

Paying for a service that is unreliable and i cannot use.

Been with Vodafone since 2006 and all was peachy up 'til 3 months ago.

Now, 3GS internet reception thingo on my iPhone 3GS drops out regularly (3/5 attempts) as I go to browse the web, despite having full reception (for both telephone and internet) seconds before.

Also, it will show I have 3GS but pages will not load or will load at glacial pace. They charge me for this, of course.

I'm trying to get out of my contract with them. I'm paying for a service they're not delivering and whenever I ring their 1300 number I A) have to hold for long (+20min) blocks and then B) get the complete runaround from some nonce who doesn't listen to what I'm telling them, regarding having the 3GS drop out RANDOMLY. Of course it shows up on your phone reception map that there's perfect reception in those areas - it says it on my phone, too right up to the point I go to try and use the Internet!!

This is on top of lately getting SMS messages hours/days late, dropping out of phone reception randomly (needing to be reset - although that could be an iphone fault).

I can't wait to ditch this iphone and this dud of a telco!

Been with Vodafone since 2006 and all was peachy up 'til 3 months ago.

Now, 3GS internet reception thingo on my iPhone 3GS drops out regularly (3/5 attempts) as I go to browse the web, despite having full reception (for both telephone and internet) seconds before.

Also, it will show I have 3GS but pages will not load or will load at glacial pace. They charge me for this, of course.

I'm trying to get out of my contract with them. I'm paying for a service they're not delivering and whenever I ring their 1300 number I A) have to hold for long (+20min) blocks and then B) get the complete runaround from some nonce who doesn't listen to what I'm telling them, regarding having the 3GS drop out RANDOMLY. Of course it shows up on your phone reception map that there's perfect reception in those areas - it says it on my phone, too right up to the point I go to try and use the Internet!!

This is on top of lately getting SMS messages hours/days late, dropping out of phone reception randomly (needing to be reset - although that could be an iphone fault).

I can't wait to ditch this iphone and this dud of a telco!

Been with Vodafone since 2006 and all was peachy up 'til 3 months ago.

Now, 3GS internet reception thingo on my iPhone 3GS drops out regularly (3/5 attempts) as I go to browse the web, despite having full reception (for both telephone and internet) seconds before.

Also, it will show I have 3GS but pages will not load or will load at glacial pace. They charge me for this, of course.

I'm trying to get out of my contract with them. I'm paying for a service they're not delivering and whenever I ring their 1300 number I A) have to hold for long (+20min) blocks and then B) get the complete runaround from some nonce who doesn't listen to what I'm telling them, regarding having the 3GS drop out RANDOMLY. Of course it shows up on your phone reception map that there's perfect reception in those areas - it says it on my phone, too right up to the point I go to try and use the Internet!!

This is on top of lately getting SMS messages hours/days late, dropping out of phone reception randomly (needing to be reset - although that could be an iphone fault).

I can't wait to ditch this iphone and this dud of a telco!

They tried to tell me that I now live in a 'low service' area. I haven't moved house for over 3 years. Until 3 months ago I had full reception now I'm lucky if I get one bar of reception.
This now means that at home no one can call me as the call will drop out. Messages are delayed. I have an awesome phone that I barely use.
Also located near to my house is a rather large and newly developed shopping centre which has not 1 BUT 2 Vodafone stores. I get no reception in the shopping centre.
FAIL!

bought a phone that is supposed to browse the web, but i never can as coverage always drops

i have had a business account with Nodafone for over 10 years for my plumbing company. We have had network, service, reception, voicemail and data issues for the last few months and they are just getting worse.
We have different handsets, new/old sims so i know that they are not the problem.
I now have other friends and family who are complaining of the same issues so i knew it wasnt just me.
Now i have seen this and know for sure that they are lying to us.
I have phoned them and complained but just get told that they will put a service request in. Yeah Great!!
We need to be compensated by Vodafone. They cannot expect us to pay the same amount for the last few months when they knew of the problem!!!

I had issues with my phone dropping calls. i went into a Vodafone store and they replaced my sim card... Problem Solved :)

i work for vodafone and yes they are a terrible company with terrible service. go to telstra please...

Once upon a time I had 3 workmates who dropped Optus went to Vodafone and got fantastic access speeds. I bought a Vodafone modem and 12 months prepaid plan, and now we all find we get constant dropouts, rarely do we get 3G access any longer, it drops back to slower speed access. On a good day I get 2 bars! often I get only 1 bar.

My phone, my wife's phone, my sons and daughters phones, all with Vodafone - not for long - as soon as I can get time to find another provider anyone - even evil expensive Telstra you won't see me for dust ...BUT ... how unfair to get pooor reception slow Text messages and dropouts on 4 phones (as well my data modem issues) and what recourse do I have with Vodafone??

I just recieved a $500 phone bill and I spent most of this month trying to reconnect failed calls or return 4 day old voicemails... Mind you I had cut my usage by half from the previous month and that bill was only $130 (Go figure). Turns out I am being charged 75cents per 30sec phone call... Absolutely disgusting. Vodafail have now got a call back service which means you don't lose your place in the queue, they took 3hrs to call me back. When asked if I could be released from my contract which is due to expire in January, they told me I wasn't due to be released until April (my paper work says January). I also got told I needed to make a formal complaint (which I thought I was) turns out I needed to be transferred to another department which had "more than 40min wait time"!! I demanded that someone call me back as I wasn't going to wait anymore. The lady told me that the complaints department do not do call backs....
I am utterly disgusted that I am currently paying good money to be with such a terrible provider, in any other circumstances we would be allowed to stop using a provider but not with Telecommunication providers!

I was gonna order Vodafone on a 12 month plan with HTC Desire HD on their NRMA 3 months free offer. Before that i had Vodafone on month to month plan. I called up their call center(wait of 40 mins so I chose the callback option though the CS didnt sound like doing customer service) told me that the offer is not valid now. I asked them to check their website and they did and came back yeah its valid. Then they said you have to talk to Sales team(I had told them I am a Vodafone customer already) but still they did and I waited for 30 mins and then hung up. After some time I called up again this time I was told this offer is not for 12 months(again I said check the website) they didnt agree(and were rude). I called NRMA and they confirmed that the offer is valid and they connected me directly to a local Vodafone respresentative and he said since I am on Vodafone on a month to month I can get a new contract and move my current number to prepaid and then move back in to the new contract. And yes the NRMA offer was valid for 12 month contracts too. I signed up the contract and got a virgin prepaid and moved my old voda to Virgin and then after a couple of days called Vodafone to move my number(which was on virgin) back to my new contract and I was told Vodafone can only do it at the time of signing up. huh that was enough for me to take. After going all through I was back again explaining the CS at Vodafail of what I was told by one of their friends. And finally they recognized it and said "we will do it as exception" bullshit.

Now the experience of using the new phone. I see the network going off atleast couple of days in a week and in Sydney CBD too. I have never seen the 3G or HSPDA showing on my HTC .. Never!! All this Saturday( afternoon) there was no data network in North Paramatta(I was trying to check Ashes scores). Also under the account I checked out of 2 Gig data a big chunk is GPRS. I hope it doesnt mean that I have to finish that first before I start getting 3G/HSPDA which I never even if I sit 24 hours on my phone and open websites. What a waste of money this contract is I wish I could get out of it.

Is anyone else having reception issues on the Sydney Lower North Shore (Mosman/Cremorne area)? I have had no reception since last night (20 Dec 2010)...

They say problems have been fixed but I couldn't send or receive sms or make/receive phone calls for most of the day yesterday. If a phone call did eventually make it through, it pushed a bunch of sms with it.

I've been with vodafone forever, this is SO disappointing...

no reception to make or receive calls, no reception to send messages. Dont forget the occasional "sim not allowed" message.
I would have thought some part of the contract signed with vodafone said they had to actually provide a service for the money they charge........

Months of horrendous reception and slow networks speeds, dropped calls, unreceived messages (6 in the last 4 days) and useless service.

Was with Vodafone for 5 years but the service performance was getting worse and worse that me and my partner had to leave the network. When I called the customer service line to ask when my contract would be up, they asked why I was thinking of leaving Vodafone, I answered as honestly as I could "Your network is so unreliable I can't make/receive calls and sms..." the rep just answered "oh... okay... is there anything else I can do for you today?" FAIL VODAFONE... FAIL!

just signed up to business infinite plan one week ago, no coverage in Avalon or in Darlinghurst at St Vincent's Hospital. Just shows No Service approx 30% of time. Do not sign up!