hi, I am a vodafone staff member.
Before you all get angry at me, remember that I am just someone who needs to work to make a living. When working I often get customers who come in asking to be released from their contract, or threatening to go to the TIO, or yelling about "those F**ing indians" or the "delhi ditzes", or asking for a credit just because they want one. Whilst sometimes (albeit rarely) these customers have serious issues, the only resolution for which is cancellation of their contract, a lot of the time its because they just don't realise what a contract means, and they want to be able to do whatever they want.

For starters, A contract is a legal document binding you to pay a minimum amount over a set period. it also binds Vodafone to provide you a service. What gets a lot of people is the idea that if the coverage is not always there, every moment, no matter where they are, then they should be released from their contract. That is not the case, and no carrier needs to release someone from a contract because they cant get service everywhere. Vodafone doesn't have as strong a network as telstra, and maybe not as strong as optus, but it is also on the whole cheaper. What vodafone promises to do when you sign a contract is to provide you a sim card and access to their network, and to charge you at the rates agreed to in your contract. if they charge you at rates different to that agreed, or stop you from accessing the network (unless its a bar because of billing issues etc) then that could be seen as repudiation (the legal term for not fulfilling your half of a contract such that the contract can be considered cancelled) and that is grounds for cancelling a contract. But before any customer is signed up they are shown the coverage checker, and it is freely available on the website.

Complaining that the network isn't as good as telstra, is like buying cheap crap and complaining when it breaks. think back five or ten years. Then the best telco wouldn't be as good as the worst one today, we as a society (and as evidenced here) have become impatient, demanding everything all the time. if you want the best, then pay for it, but don't take the cheapest option, and then complain that it isn't as good as the best.

As a Staff member, I see a lot of people come in with genuine problems, system errors, or problems with their handsets that we in store really try to fix, and i know that the people on the customer care line genuinely want to help (most of the time). but coming in and shouting about cancelling a contract, or trying to get the TIO involved when something is delayed (an iphone or a migration are recent examples) is not helpful to anyone. and I understand that sometimes people get frustrated and i have gotten frustrated too, both with Vodafone and with Telstra, because sometimes they don't understand what your problem is. but if you go looking to get your contract cancelled, you are more likely to frustrate everyone and waste everyones time, rather than just going in looking for a resolution.