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) |
16797 Someone from WA thinks vodafone is Epic, Epic Fail at 15 Apr 2011 12:03:18 AM
Long story is long.
I only switched to Vodaphone around a month ago. I had started having problems with Three (bad data coverage, late SMS delivery - or no SMS delivery at all, a monthly bill that seemed to be a rip off in comparison to the mobile contracts of my peers etc etc) and after two ranty calls to Three customer care, a nice man from Three called me at seven am on a Saturday, apropos of nothing, to offer me A DEAL.
And because I am a sucker, I took it - despite a chorus of my well informed friends screeching "NO! NO! VODAPHONE IS THE DEVIL!" at me. And despite the fact that I knew, in my heart of hearts, that the problems I was experiencing with three (excluding the rip-off plan I was on) were probably linked to the merge with vodaphone.
They lulled me with their siren song of opting out of my contract, a brand new handset, and zero cancellation fees. And now they have me right where they want me: on a 24 month $45 infinite plan, with $10 handset repayments every bill.
At first it wasn't so bad. I did notice some patchy connectivity, especially with data coverage, but it didn't really cause me any major inconvinience. I am not -terribly- bothered if I can't check into the train station, on foursquare, on my way to work in the morning. Sure, it's a service I am technically paying for - a reliable internet connection of my smartphone - but hey, what's the very occasional outage, right?
Only in the last two weeks, it hasn't been the occasional outage. It's been 'no internet for you!' at least 50% of the time, despite the fact that I live ten minutes from Perth city, work in the CBD, and rarely venture farther afield than the inner suburbs.
And then there are the calls that people apparently made to me, that...I never got. Strangely this seems to mostly happen when other vodaphone customers are trying to call me.
And then yesterday, I experienced exactly the same problem that I was having with three last year. I had arranged to meet a friend for coffee, but a work meeting ran late and I had to text her to cancel (couldn't call as I was in a meeting). I sent her a message and received no reply, but figured maybe she just hadn't seen the need of a response. Around forty minutes later, I got a message from her saying "I'm here...where are you?". I sent her another text reiterating my first message, and adding "...did you not get my first text?".
No reply for awhile, then another twenty minutes later "...um, ok, well I've waited nearly an hour now so I guess we'll catch up another time. Bye."
Vodaphone. This is bad. When I tell my friend, later, "Oh shit I am sorry, I did send you a text! I don't know why you didn't get it!" it is going to sound like a crappy excuse. In fact, it IS a crappy excuse, because I've just wasted forty minutes of my friend's time because of your fucking fail telecommunications. You know the irony? Yup, SHE TOO IS A VODAPHONE CUSTOMER. So, basically, you can't even send text messages between users on your own damn network? Seriously?
Now obviously in this case, no greater tragedy befell either of us due to this telecommunications glitch. She got forty minutes of her time wasted, and I feel like a dickhead because of it. Nobody got hurt. Nobody died. But what if I'd been trying to make a call to emergency services? Or organise something more pressing and important than a coffee with a university colleague?
I'm not naturally a 'complain-y' kind of person, but I called vodaphone customer care today to chase up these issues (my data coverage, and this issue texting this friend of mine). I made it very clear to 'LARA' that I was making a complaint, and was put swiftly through to a customer service rep (points to vodafail for this one - at least I wasn't on hold forever).
The lady I spoke to was a very good listener, but did not offer me anything in the way of empathy or support. There were lengthy pauses after I'd spoken, and at length, the best she could do was offer to put me through to tech support. Now, to be honest, having called vodafail with a legit complaint, and having made it clear that I don't feel this is a problem on 'my end', and that I am very dissatisfied, I kind of expect to be offered some form of compensation. Obviously I am deluded, in that regard, but anyway...
She put me through to tech support, which seemed a bit pointless since I was pretty damn sure none of this was my problem, but I went along with it anyway, thinking perhaps tech support might enlighten me as to what sort of network issues they were experiencing that would mean someone ON THE SAME NETWORK was unable to receive my messages.
I reiterated the same story to the tech guy, who gave me the knee-jerk response of "Have you tried turning it off then on again". To which I replied "Yes" and reiterated (again) that this was a problem I had previously had when I was on three, that I knew other vodaphone customers had had problems with data coverage and messaging, that I was pretty sure it was an issue on their end, and that I was very displeased with it.
He then proceeded to ask "...what do you want me to do about it?"
Yes.
The customer service/tech guy at vodaphone sullenly demanded WHAT I WANTED HIM TO DO about my problem.
I was pretty dumbfounded by this, to be honest. I replied that I had really only called up to register a complaint, that I was fairly certan he, personally, could not 'fix' my issue, but that I was hoping that by registering it as a problem he could tell me a) whether other people had been experiencing the same issue and b) what VODAPHONE were going to do about fixing it and/or compensating me for a service that I was paying for and not getting the full use of.
He proceeded to ask me for the number that I was calling from. I should note that he had already taken this number down when he first answered my call, so quite why he needed it a second time, I don't know. Then he asked me for the number I was having problems texting (this is after me having to explain, repeatedly, that I was able to successfully call and text SOME numbers, just not this particular one - that I knew of). I had to go into my phonebook to get the number, but I managed to read it out to him.
After he had taken it down, he talked to me for a few more minutes, then said "...so what was the number that you were having problems texting?"
Um. Really? The number I gave you a minute and a half ago? The number you JUST WROTE DOWN (presumably?). THAT number?
When I informed him that it was the number I'd just given him, he mumbled something that I didn't quite catch. I then asked "Sorry, what was that, I didn't quite hear you?"
The line was silent.
"...sorry?" I asked again "I didn't quite hear what you said?"
Nothing.
".....hello?"
At this point I checked to see if the call was still connected. It was, but Mr Vodaphone didn't feel like talking anymore, apparently. I was so sick of the whole 25 minute conversation, at this point, that I just hung up.
I should also note that my first bill, which should (I thought) have been $55 (45 infinite + 10 for handset repayment) was $86. When I called about that, they informed me that as it was my first bill I was charged from the moment I began using the service, and for the subsequent billing period, but honestly I am a bit lost here. Does this mean I'm now paid up for a subsequent month? How does this work? Looking at my bill online, I certainly don't see that I've gone over my data or anything, so it shouldn't be additional fees for going over my cap - they've charged me for a month + the one or two weeks I was using the service before the billing period kicked in? I want to see a itemised explanation of this, but I assume I'm not going to get one...
I only switched to Vodaphone around a month ago. I had started having problems with Three (bad data coverage, late SMS delivery - or no SMS delivery at all, a monthly bill that seemed to be a rip off in comparison to the mobile contracts of my peers etc etc) and after two ranty calls to Three customer care, a nice man from Three called me at seven am on a Saturday, apropos of nothing, to offer me A DEAL.
And because I am a sucker, I took it - despite a chorus of my well informed friends screeching "NO! NO! VODAPHONE IS THE DEVIL!" at me. And despite the fact that I knew, in my heart of hearts, that the problems I was experiencing with three (excluding the rip-off plan I was on) were probably linked to the merge with vodaphone.
They lulled me with their siren song of opting out of my contract, a brand new handset, and zero cancellation fees. And now they have me right where they want me: on a 24 month $45 infinite plan, with $10 handset repayments every bill.
At first it wasn't so bad. I did notice some patchy connectivity, especially with data coverage, but it didn't really cause me any major inconvinience. I am not -terribly- bothered if I can't check into the train station, on foursquare, on my way to work in the morning. Sure, it's a service I am technically paying for - a reliable internet connection of my smartphone - but hey, what's the very occasional outage, right?
Only in the last two weeks, it hasn't been the occasional outage. It's been 'no internet for you!' at least 50% of the time, despite the fact that I live ten minutes from Perth city, work in the CBD, and rarely venture farther afield than the inner suburbs.
And then there are the calls that people apparently made to me, that...I never got. Strangely this seems to mostly happen when other vodaphone customers are trying to call me.
And then yesterday, I experienced exactly the same problem that I was having with three last year. I had arranged to meet a friend for coffee, but a work meeting ran late and I had to text her to cancel (couldn't call as I was in a meeting). I sent her a message and received no reply, but figured maybe she just hadn't seen the need of a response. Around forty minutes later, I got a message from her saying "I'm here...where are you?". I sent her another text reiterating my first message, and adding "...did you not get my first text?".
No reply for awhile, then another twenty minutes later "...um, ok, well I've waited nearly an hour now so I guess we'll catch up another time. Bye."
Vodaphone. This is bad. When I tell my friend, later, "Oh shit I am sorry, I did send you a text! I don't know why you didn't get it!" it is going to sound like a crappy excuse. In fact, it IS a crappy excuse, because I've just wasted forty minutes of my friend's time because of your fucking fail telecommunications. You know the irony? Yup, SHE TOO IS A VODAPHONE CUSTOMER. So, basically, you can't even send text messages between users on your own damn network? Seriously?
Now obviously in this case, no greater tragedy befell either of us due to this telecommunications glitch. She got forty minutes of her time wasted, and I feel like a dickhead because of it. Nobody got hurt. Nobody died. But what if I'd been trying to make a call to emergency services? Or organise something more pressing and important than a coffee with a university colleague?
I'm not naturally a 'complain-y' kind of person, but I called vodaphone customer care today to chase up these issues (my data coverage, and this issue texting this friend of mine). I made it very clear to 'LARA' that I was making a complaint, and was put swiftly through to a customer service rep (points to vodafail for this one - at least I wasn't on hold forever).
The lady I spoke to was a very good listener, but did not offer me anything in the way of empathy or support. There were lengthy pauses after I'd spoken, and at length, the best she could do was offer to put me through to tech support. Now, to be honest, having called vodafail with a legit complaint, and having made it clear that I don't feel this is a problem on 'my end', and that I am very dissatisfied, I kind of expect to be offered some form of compensation. Obviously I am deluded, in that regard, but anyway...
She put me through to tech support, which seemed a bit pointless since I was pretty damn sure none of this was my problem, but I went along with it anyway, thinking perhaps tech support might enlighten me as to what sort of network issues they were experiencing that would mean someone ON THE SAME NETWORK was unable to receive my messages.
I reiterated the same story to the tech guy, who gave me the knee-jerk response of "Have you tried turning it off then on again". To which I replied "Yes" and reiterated (again) that this was a problem I had previously had when I was on three, that I knew other vodaphone customers had had problems with data coverage and messaging, that I was pretty sure it was an issue on their end, and that I was very displeased with it.
He then proceeded to ask "...what do you want me to do about it?"
Yes.
The customer service/tech guy at vodaphone sullenly demanded WHAT I WANTED HIM TO DO about my problem.
I was pretty dumbfounded by this, to be honest. I replied that I had really only called up to register a complaint, that I was fairly certan he, personally, could not 'fix' my issue, but that I was hoping that by registering it as a problem he could tell me a) whether other people had been experiencing the same issue and b) what VODAPHONE were going to do about fixing it and/or compensating me for a service that I was paying for and not getting the full use of.
He proceeded to ask me for the number that I was calling from. I should note that he had already taken this number down when he first answered my call, so quite why he needed it a second time, I don't know. Then he asked me for the number I was having problems texting (this is after me having to explain, repeatedly, that I was able to successfully call and text SOME numbers, just not this particular one - that I knew of). I had to go into my phonebook to get the number, but I managed to read it out to him.
After he had taken it down, he talked to me for a few more minutes, then said "...so what was the number that you were having problems texting?"
Um. Really? The number I gave you a minute and a half ago? The number you JUST WROTE DOWN (presumably?). THAT number?
When I informed him that it was the number I'd just given him, he mumbled something that I didn't quite catch. I then asked "Sorry, what was that, I didn't quite hear you?"
The line was silent.
"...sorry?" I asked again "I didn't quite hear what you said?"
Nothing.
".....hello?"
At this point I checked to see if the call was still connected. It was, but Mr Vodaphone didn't feel like talking anymore, apparently. I was so sick of the whole 25 minute conversation, at this point, that I just hung up.
I should also note that my first bill, which should (I thought) have been $55 (45 infinite + 10 for handset repayment) was $86. When I called about that, they informed me that as it was my first bill I was charged from the moment I began using the service, and for the subsequent billing period, but honestly I am a bit lost here. Does this mean I'm now paid up for a subsequent month? How does this work? Looking at my bill online, I certainly don't see that I've gone over my data or anything, so it shouldn't be additional fees for going over my cap - they've charged me for a month + the one or two weeks I was using the service before the billing period kicked in? I want to see a itemised explanation of this, but I assume I'm not going to get one...
it takes 5 minutes, you'll speak to an Australian (and usually a pretty smart one), and they will actually achknowledge your problems AND issue compensation. PLUS there's the added benefit that when you lodge your complaint, Vodafone actually get fined =)