Dear visitor,
Since its inception Vodafail.com has made a significant
contribution towards raising awareness of the problems and issues faced
by Vodafone customers.
Vodafone Australia customers have had the opportunity to voice their concerns, their fears and their troubles from every corner of Australia and beyond our borders.
You have gathered the courage to stand up for your rights as consumers and to make your voice heard.
Each and every person who shared their story should have a sense of pride in this achievement and the changes that have occurred since the start of Vodafail.com.
More recently, traffic to Vodafail.com has declined significantly.
Having achieved the goal of raising awareness and promoting concrete action in early 2011, we have now reached the point of closing Vodafail to new complaints.
The site will remain online for as long as possible as a
reminder and an example of what is possible when we share our experiences.
It has been a privilege to run this initiative
and I'm am forever grateful for the help and support I've received. In
particular I would like to thank Melissa, David and Travis for their
continued efforts over the past 15 months. I'm also thankful and humbled by the support of ACCAN, Choice magazine and a wide range of media outlets, blogs and websites.
You can still browse existing stories and find out how to file a complaint if you are experiencing problems.
Until next time,
Adam Brimo
Share Your Pain
| ACT (1140) | Everywhere (19206) | NSW (7557) | NT (170) | QLD (3578) | SA (987) | Somewhere else (224) | TAS (242) | VIC (3573) | WA (1735) |
11119 Someone from QLD thinks vodafone is Disgraceful at 7 Jan 2011 04:13:24 PM
I am (was) a very long term Vodafone Customer who up until approximately 12 months ago was reasonably content with their service. I accepted poor coverage in regional areas and was constantly assured every time I took out another contract that 'the network was undergoing upgrades and would continue to improve'. It has since got progressively worse and is now completely unreliable and for the most part, unusable.
Living near the Brisbane CBD I now suffer continuous dropped calls, 1 bar of 3G (if I'm lucky), sporadic and poor data downloads, late SMS or voicemails, poor battery life due to continual network searching and an Iphone that works wonderfully as an Ipod and media device. It certainly doesn't run up a huge phone bill as it is spectacularly useless as a phone.
I also have a 3G mobile broadband USB device that has failed to work at all in terms of receiving my supposed 3Gig of free data per month. After numerous complaints and the standard 'technical investigations' Vodafone agreed to reduce my account by $10 per month after it admitted I lived in a poor reception area (7 kms from the CBD on a hill????).
So now I have a 3G USB device that serves nicely as a paperweight and an Iphone that I can listen to music on.
I now have to rely on a Telstra prepaid (a common theme from others on your website) to make calls. My constant complaints to Vodafone in relation to my phone reception was constantly met with the advice 'Switch your phone to 2G'.
If I wanted a 2G phone I would have damn well bought one. I paid for a 3G service and I don't have it. However their complaints system is so poor, wait times are so long, and requests are met with vague and generic 'investigations' or 'transfers to another team' that their expertise in bureacracy and spin rivals that of 'Yes Minister'or a team of spin doctors on Red Bull.
I contacted Vodafone last night (3 separate calls with an average 40 minute wait time) and advised I was cancelling my service. I was offered the same...wait for it...'technical investigation' (read stalling tactic)and advised I would have to pay the rest of my 18 months of payments (nearly $1200) to be released.
I am now working in direct support of the Queensland Floods in a senior planning position and my phone is critical to my work. I now have the phone switched off and transferred to another phone in order to ensure I am contactable.
I intend to pay the full amount as I am sick to death of dealing with customer service and their mythical 'technical investigations' (you don't need to be a communications engineer to determine that the network simply can't cope with so many smartphones competing for bandwidth)and leave in absolute disgust. Evidence will suggest that a bad customer experience generally results in advising at least ten of your friends of your experience. I intend to tell as many as I can to steer clear of this network as it continues to offer cheap deals and handsets with minimal or no reception.
I have contacted Australia's largest Telco who are very happy to match Vodafones price and guarantee the quality of their network. They also offered an incentive to transfer (they must be doing a roaring trade) and expressed they are dealing with many Vodafone customers who have given up in sheer frustration.
I am now nearly $1200 out of pocket and disgruntled with exceptionally poor serice and coverage. Quite simply I have had enough and will never go back to Vodafone.
I sincerely hope many others are released from their contracts, I have chosen to give up rather than spend my valuable time battling a huge corporation.
Incidentally I am more than happy for anyone from Vodafone to assess the veracity of my complaints and view for themselves the poor state of reception in and around Brisbane (not forgetting the national highway system, regional areas, inside buildings and in full view of Vodafone towers). I doubt however, that they will and fully expect the customer service offer of a 'callback; in 24 to 48 hrs (again a familiar theme on your website)will fail to eventuate, as will my 3G reception.
Living near the Brisbane CBD I now suffer continuous dropped calls, 1 bar of 3G (if I'm lucky), sporadic and poor data downloads, late SMS or voicemails, poor battery life due to continual network searching and an Iphone that works wonderfully as an Ipod and media device. It certainly doesn't run up a huge phone bill as it is spectacularly useless as a phone.
I also have a 3G mobile broadband USB device that has failed to work at all in terms of receiving my supposed 3Gig of free data per month. After numerous complaints and the standard 'technical investigations' Vodafone agreed to reduce my account by $10 per month after it admitted I lived in a poor reception area (7 kms from the CBD on a hill????).
So now I have a 3G USB device that serves nicely as a paperweight and an Iphone that I can listen to music on.
I now have to rely on a Telstra prepaid (a common theme from others on your website) to make calls. My constant complaints to Vodafone in relation to my phone reception was constantly met with the advice 'Switch your phone to 2G'.
If I wanted a 2G phone I would have damn well bought one. I paid for a 3G service and I don't have it. However their complaints system is so poor, wait times are so long, and requests are met with vague and generic 'investigations' or 'transfers to another team' that their expertise in bureacracy and spin rivals that of 'Yes Minister'or a team of spin doctors on Red Bull.
I contacted Vodafone last night (3 separate calls with an average 40 minute wait time) and advised I was cancelling my service. I was offered the same...wait for it...'technical investigation' (read stalling tactic)and advised I would have to pay the rest of my 18 months of payments (nearly $1200) to be released.
I am now working in direct support of the Queensland Floods in a senior planning position and my phone is critical to my work. I now have the phone switched off and transferred to another phone in order to ensure I am contactable.
I intend to pay the full amount as I am sick to death of dealing with customer service and their mythical 'technical investigations' (you don't need to be a communications engineer to determine that the network simply can't cope with so many smartphones competing for bandwidth)and leave in absolute disgust. Evidence will suggest that a bad customer experience generally results in advising at least ten of your friends of your experience. I intend to tell as many as I can to steer clear of this network as it continues to offer cheap deals and handsets with minimal or no reception.
I have contacted Australia's largest Telco who are very happy to match Vodafones price and guarantee the quality of their network. They also offered an incentive to transfer (they must be doing a roaring trade) and expressed they are dealing with many Vodafone customers who have given up in sheer frustration.
I am now nearly $1200 out of pocket and disgruntled with exceptionally poor serice and coverage. Quite simply I have had enough and will never go back to Vodafone.
I sincerely hope many others are released from their contracts, I have chosen to give up rather than spend my valuable time battling a huge corporation.
Incidentally I am more than happy for anyone from Vodafone to assess the veracity of my complaints and view for themselves the poor state of reception in and around Brisbane (not forgetting the national highway system, regional areas, inside buildings and in full view of Vodafone towers). I doubt however, that they will and fully expect the customer service offer of a 'callback; in 24 to 48 hrs (again a familiar theme on your website)will fail to eventuate, as will my 3G reception.
11 Nov 2011 06:57:27 PM: I had the very same problem and i went to the tio and i ported my number to telstra and i even ported my iPad number from optus to telstra the iPad number was a usb modem number and now i got rid of the optus modem and desposed it into a mobile phone recicabale bin but i would like to see how the vodafone 850 mhz band works and i can get the vodafone 850 mhz in my area but i can't get 2.1 ghz umts 3g on vodafone or optus at leased they are upgrading there towers to 850 mhz and 900 mhz and lte 1.8 ghz and lte is alot more robust then 3g umts 2.1 ghz