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) |
11791 Someone from SA thinks vodafone is Deader than Dodo... at 10 Jan 2011 04:36:37 PM
Hi,
I was a Microwave satellite communications technician and an Austel licenced telecommunications technician.
When I assisted Vodafone to put their mobile networks together around 15 years ago, they were the place to be.
Telstra had reliable coverage, but at great expense. They never seemed to be there when you really needed the coverage or the customer service.
Optus had lousy coverage with excellent customer service. But in direct competition with LIFELINE, they could counsel the customer to the point of curing mental illness...(if the line didn't drop out first...)
The end result of all this was that about half of all mobile calls were connected, completed and subsequently charged exorbitantly by Telstra.
At least when the other half of calls dropped out, you had someone who you could whinge to at Optus who would say "Yes" quite a lot.
Out of this came the shining beacon that was Vodafone. With their reasonable call rates, customer service and coverage!!! Once the news was out, all the technicians switched to vodafone in a flash.
Yes coverage! Vodafone had their own equipment! Without even resorting to network rental arrangements like all the other carriers had to do - 3, boost, dodo etc.
Because of this I used Vodafone for mobile telephone service for over 10 years, still do unfortunately.
Not for much longer!
Then I bought a prepaid broadband USB modem through Vodafone. After going to numerous Vodafone stores to wait AN HOUR to be served, only to find that the USB unit had "sold out" or was "out of stock". I then arrived at 2 separate Vodafone shop locations actively listed on the Vodafone website that were out of business.
I could have had the USB modem delivered by carrier pigeon by then, or made one myself with a broken digimon and a stick. As a tech I have installed (or failed) 4 of these units now, no two are alike. PC compatibility issues are rife.
The $49 USB modem does not even work in most netbooks, effectively making them underpowered miniature desktops.
Reception is appalling. I can see the tower from my house, it is 30 metres away. Line of sight!
As for the install - It would have taken less time to write the prepaid broadband USB software myself than to install it.
Registering, connecting and doing the initial install was the single most slow, painful and emotionally harrowing process I have had to endure in 20 years of software installation. It must be illegal under some convention somewhere...
Vodafone must have their website powered by underfed anorexic dyslexic hamsters.
These Hamsters are multitasking as the overworked software engineers...
The dead Hamsters in the bottom of the cage used to work customer service...
Mobile Broadband reception still drops out in the slightest breeze like UHF used to. I have tried USB extension cords (with some minor increase in signal strength) and modified broadband antennas. I am now blasting myself with enough RF to create my own personal cancer cluster or reheat a meat pie in three minutes...
At least it keeps my coffee warm while I sit through the install program - AGAIN!!!
Short of putting my PC in a Faraday cage and raising my own antenna mast or installing a parabolic dish on my head I cannot see Vodafone providing anyone with a usable mobile broadband connection.
Let's face it Vodafone, these towers were never designed to carry this amount of data traffic at this bandwidth.
The equipment is 15 years old, outdated, superseded and needs to be able to provide a continuous, consistent, reliable and strong signal. Roaming from tower to tower, 3G to GPRS and back again is painful, costly and disruptive.
Retailers should install "Vodafone" recycling bins at the front of retail premises. The junior work experience kid's arse has been turned into a thrashed USB port by the sheer number of returns this Christmas.
It's only 30 metres from my place to the tower. Hmmm... Maybe if I get a long piece of coax and climb up there and hard wire the bastard myself....
Oh sorry! That's called ADSL - YOU MORONS!!!!
I was a Microwave satellite communications technician and an Austel licenced telecommunications technician.
When I assisted Vodafone to put their mobile networks together around 15 years ago, they were the place to be.
Telstra had reliable coverage, but at great expense. They never seemed to be there when you really needed the coverage or the customer service.
Optus had lousy coverage with excellent customer service. But in direct competition with LIFELINE, they could counsel the customer to the point of curing mental illness...(if the line didn't drop out first...)
The end result of all this was that about half of all mobile calls were connected, completed and subsequently charged exorbitantly by Telstra.
At least when the other half of calls dropped out, you had someone who you could whinge to at Optus who would say "Yes" quite a lot.
Out of this came the shining beacon that was Vodafone. With their reasonable call rates, customer service and coverage!!! Once the news was out, all the technicians switched to vodafone in a flash.
Yes coverage! Vodafone had their own equipment! Without even resorting to network rental arrangements like all the other carriers had to do - 3, boost, dodo etc.
Because of this I used Vodafone for mobile telephone service for over 10 years, still do unfortunately.
Not for much longer!
Then I bought a prepaid broadband USB modem through Vodafone. After going to numerous Vodafone stores to wait AN HOUR to be served, only to find that the USB unit had "sold out" or was "out of stock". I then arrived at 2 separate Vodafone shop locations actively listed on the Vodafone website that were out of business.
I could have had the USB modem delivered by carrier pigeon by then, or made one myself with a broken digimon and a stick. As a tech I have installed (or failed) 4 of these units now, no two are alike. PC compatibility issues are rife.
The $49 USB modem does not even work in most netbooks, effectively making them underpowered miniature desktops.
Reception is appalling. I can see the tower from my house, it is 30 metres away. Line of sight!
As for the install - It would have taken less time to write the prepaid broadband USB software myself than to install it.
Registering, connecting and doing the initial install was the single most slow, painful and emotionally harrowing process I have had to endure in 20 years of software installation. It must be illegal under some convention somewhere...
Vodafone must have their website powered by underfed anorexic dyslexic hamsters.
These Hamsters are multitasking as the overworked software engineers...
The dead Hamsters in the bottom of the cage used to work customer service...
Mobile Broadband reception still drops out in the slightest breeze like UHF used to. I have tried USB extension cords (with some minor increase in signal strength) and modified broadband antennas. I am now blasting myself with enough RF to create my own personal cancer cluster or reheat a meat pie in three minutes...
At least it keeps my coffee warm while I sit through the install program - AGAIN!!!
Short of putting my PC in a Faraday cage and raising my own antenna mast or installing a parabolic dish on my head I cannot see Vodafone providing anyone with a usable mobile broadband connection.
Let's face it Vodafone, these towers were never designed to carry this amount of data traffic at this bandwidth.
The equipment is 15 years old, outdated, superseded and needs to be able to provide a continuous, consistent, reliable and strong signal. Roaming from tower to tower, 3G to GPRS and back again is painful, costly and disruptive.
Retailers should install "Vodafone" recycling bins at the front of retail premises. The junior work experience kid's arse has been turned into a thrashed USB port by the sheer number of returns this Christmas.
It's only 30 metres from my place to the tower. Hmmm... Maybe if I get a long piece of coax and climb up there and hard wire the bastard myself....
Oh sorry! That's called ADSL - YOU MORONS!!!!
10 Jan 2011 04:42:03 PM: I raise my glass to you sir/ma'am. That is beautiful! If that doesnt get a firecracker up their clacker then nothing will
10 Jan 2011 05:02:05 PM: I had the problem and where i live it above my unit and still had shit reciption good luck 30 mtrs away.
10 Jan 2011 05:06:27 PM: Golden post!
10 Jan 2011 05:47:29 PM: Eloquent and precise. Once my USB finally connected it didnt drop out, however, that could of been due to the sudden sluggishness of my laptop after an arduous installation that seems to have swapped all the memory space for programs wanting daily Vodafone updates. Surprisingly my phone connection is the reason I am on this site. Good luck with your plight, something tells me you'll be needing it.
10 Jan 2011 07:14:24 PM: A very articulate, informative and humorous post!!!! Thanks for sharing!!!!
11 Jan 2011 08:57:31 AM: Did you try taking the sim card out and then putting it back in?
11 Jan 2011 08:06:48 PM: I love the history walk. I too have been long standing customer and sang the praises of Vodafone in its early days. All too sad now that the last few years have been so disappointing. At least this year my Christmas and New Years messages to friends arrived on time. Not like the previous 3 years where my messages took up to 3 days to go through. Looks like many people have left Vodafone to allow my messages to get through!
13 Jan 2011 08:14:13 PM: Yeah mostly comedy gold until you call them Morons. Seriously though the only trouble shooting that really needs doing with all the ones I've been helping people set up is to start a new user on the computer. The sticks don't like sharing assets that are already being used. Alternatively the powered up pocket wifi soap on a ropes are brilliant for increased pick up. Like how you plug in a antenna into the ac adapter and sturf for to increase teh receptron on your TEEvee. Sorry my inner moron came out...