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
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19085 Someone from NSW thinks vodafone is MASSIVE FAIL at 6 Aug 2011 08:29:54 PM
I was overseas (In the USA) in late June and July and a week before I left, I went into a vodafail shop to get them to check that it was on international roaming and it would all be fine overseas. They assured me it was after checking my account and fixing it all up. I am a prepaid customer, and because I was going for a month I purchased $49 flexi credit hoping it would last the trip (note this has a 30 day expiry)
I get over to South Korea (stopover) and I noticed it didn't pick up signal to any network but because I was only there one day I didn't worry, thinking it would be okay once I reached New York.
New York - Day 1 no sms from Voda saying I'd joined an american network.
I tried manually selecting networks, it didn't work.
New York - Day 2 still no connection so I used hotel phone with a prepaid card to call up the vodafail overseas customer care number.
I get put on hold for ages, and I get transferred to different people each time having to explain to each person what was going on - no one saved details on file or told the next person. I explained that I was not able to receive/make INCOMING or OUTGOING calls and yet each different person would say to me "It's okay we'll give you a call back on your mobile once it's sorted" I had to practically yell at some of the customer service reps what I had said quite a few times "I CAN NOT RECEIVE CALLS"
Unfortunately the call cut out (I'm not sure if it was on their end or my end...) and I had to recall and start the process all over again.
The second call, I got trasnferred to SEVEN different reps. Finally through to the IT department (mind you I had to explain the situation again and again to all SEVEN reps grr!)
IT Department checked my account and notified me that it should be working and that my settings were all correct. Therefore not their problem. I explained that I had been in to the shop and they'd fixed it but my HTC Legend wasn't working and no they couldn't call me back cause my phone DID NOT RECIEVE INCOMING CALLS!
They put me on hold (about 20 times throughout my two hour conversation with the IT department) and said that they could try some trouble shooting with me over the phone.
They requested that I manually try selecting the network (which I did - even though I had tried this myself about 100 times since I'd arrived in NYC) that didn't work. Next they got me to dial all these codes (don't remember what they were called tho.. ) that didn't work. Then they told me the only option was to factory reset my phone and hope that worked. Because I was overseas, I didn't have my cables to back up my phone (this is a brand new phone too!) and so I'd loose all my photos which I'd just taken, all my numbers etc.
I did do what they suggested and factory restarted my phone. It didn't work either. I was starting to get quite annoyed by this stage - I really needed a phone while OS and didn't want to keep using the hotel phoen because it would charge me evry time I used a call card as well.
After TWO HOURS on the phone - the call dropped out and I lost them again.
I tried calling back, but couldn't get to the IT department and they told me to call back later (apparantly something happened in Mumbai and half the office was gone).
When I tried manually selecting network a couple of days later- it said "UNABLE TO SELECT NETWORK SIM/NETWORK ERROR CONTACT YOUR SERVICE PROVIDER"
I couldn't waste another two hours on the phone so I had to leave it till I returned to Australia.
When I got back on the first day back - I went in to a Vodafail shop and they told me that because I was prepaid they couldn't help me out and If I wanted to have my phone looked at it would take 4 weeks and they don't supply back up / replacement phones for prepaid customers.
I called the call centre once again and they said they didn't understand why my phone still wasn't working (even in Australia!) and that I must have damaged the phone.
My credit expired - even though I hadn't used it. I have since been forced to buy a new phone
(am now with Optus and have a brilliant iPhone 4) but I was so angry that I spent all that time and worry about a phone and money on credit when I hadn't used any of it and it expired.
I get over to South Korea (stopover) and I noticed it didn't pick up signal to any network but because I was only there one day I didn't worry, thinking it would be okay once I reached New York.
New York - Day 1 no sms from Voda saying I'd joined an american network.
I tried manually selecting networks, it didn't work.
New York - Day 2 still no connection so I used hotel phone with a prepaid card to call up the vodafail overseas customer care number.
I get put on hold for ages, and I get transferred to different people each time having to explain to each person what was going on - no one saved details on file or told the next person. I explained that I was not able to receive/make INCOMING or OUTGOING calls and yet each different person would say to me "It's okay we'll give you a call back on your mobile once it's sorted" I had to practically yell at some of the customer service reps what I had said quite a few times "I CAN NOT RECEIVE CALLS"
Unfortunately the call cut out (I'm not sure if it was on their end or my end...) and I had to recall and start the process all over again.
The second call, I got trasnferred to SEVEN different reps. Finally through to the IT department (mind you I had to explain the situation again and again to all SEVEN reps grr!)
IT Department checked my account and notified me that it should be working and that my settings were all correct. Therefore not their problem. I explained that I had been in to the shop and they'd fixed it but my HTC Legend wasn't working and no they couldn't call me back cause my phone DID NOT RECIEVE INCOMING CALLS!
They put me on hold (about 20 times throughout my two hour conversation with the IT department) and said that they could try some trouble shooting with me over the phone.
They requested that I manually try selecting the network (which I did - even though I had tried this myself about 100 times since I'd arrived in NYC) that didn't work. Next they got me to dial all these codes (don't remember what they were called tho.. ) that didn't work. Then they told me the only option was to factory reset my phone and hope that worked. Because I was overseas, I didn't have my cables to back up my phone (this is a brand new phone too!) and so I'd loose all my photos which I'd just taken, all my numbers etc.
I did do what they suggested and factory restarted my phone. It didn't work either. I was starting to get quite annoyed by this stage - I really needed a phone while OS and didn't want to keep using the hotel phoen because it would charge me evry time I used a call card as well.
After TWO HOURS on the phone - the call dropped out and I lost them again.
I tried calling back, but couldn't get to the IT department and they told me to call back later (apparantly something happened in Mumbai and half the office was gone).
When I tried manually selecting network a couple of days later- it said "UNABLE TO SELECT NETWORK SIM/NETWORK ERROR CONTACT YOUR SERVICE PROVIDER"
I couldn't waste another two hours on the phone so I had to leave it till I returned to Australia.
When I got back on the first day back - I went in to a Vodafail shop and they told me that because I was prepaid they couldn't help me out and If I wanted to have my phone looked at it would take 4 weeks and they don't supply back up / replacement phones for prepaid customers.
I called the call centre once again and they said they didn't understand why my phone still wasn't working (even in Australia!) and that I must have damaged the phone.
My credit expired - even though I hadn't used it. I have since been forced to buy a new phone
(am now with Optus and have a brilliant iPhone 4) but I was so angry that I spent all that time and worry about a phone and money on credit when I hadn't used any of it and it expired.
Vodafail.com Moderation Team