So, living in Parramatta (only 3o mins from the Sydney CBD) i would have thought that reception and service would go hand in hand and that both would be exceptional, being that i live in the biggest city in Australia, oh how wrong ive been! Since commencing with Vodafone (after Optus screwed me over) i was assured that Vodafone was the company that could provide me with a great plan with generous limit ($139 unlimited cap) and outstanding service and reception. How wrong i have been! I signed a 24month contract (standard for the Telco industry) and have rued the day i contacted Vodafone. Since day 1, April 2010, i have never been able to use voicemail, even though i have been assured that it has been activated on my phone, which was great when i was in a dead end job and looking for another one! No voicemail, meant i had to continually call back numbers i didnt know! On top of this, my actual reception has been nothing short of sub standard. When i have 3G, i still may only have 2 or 3 bars of reception! I have contacted Vodafone on numerous occassions and have been assured that there was a "know issue in Sydney and it will be fixed shortly". So this must be a massive issue if its still persisting! As an avid iPhone user i have a large number of apps, which i use most daily, and yet being that reception is low or non-existent they take forever to load. Again i have contacted Vodafone and was told "theres no issues in your area, it must be you. There is no problem with out network". Well thanks for that India, but im sure that constantly resetting my phone and wanting to launch it off my sixth floor balcony means that there is an issue, but thanks anyway. So, this was after waiting on hold for 45mins! Then i was transferred from the technical team to the sales department. This time the young girl i got was actually able to speak english and actually understood what my problem was. Halelujah i thought, but when i asked if i could upgrade i was told that this was not possible as i was in a contract! So yeh, fun! Again i was told there was nothing wrong with the network or my phone, but if i felt the need i could purchase another handset! Yeh right!!! So, all care and no responsibility! I pay for a service that im really not getting. How is it Vodafone can afford to sponser the cricket (and the Australian teams performance is just as dismal as the Vodafone network) but can't fix the network that their millions of customers are forced to pay for. Service....i dont think they know what that word means!!! So, after many calls to Vodafone and nil result and still the poor service and reception im glad that finally the consumer has a way of being able to vent about what we are being forced to pay for! Im sure if i didnt pay by bill on time, Vodafone would be pretty quick to take action and disconnect my service!