Vodafail, or Tafefail?

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Vodafone

• 

  YouLIKEyouLICK on 03/08/2014 - 11:25

  Yeah Vodafone is a pain at times, similar issue when I renewed my contract with them, salesperson on the phone said I will get 2months free and $50 voucher, guess what, I didn't get it! I had to ring up a few times. Best way is to deal with a person from Vodafone in Australia, not a person from overseas working.

  You have 30 days by law to cancel any contract if your not happy.

  • 

    jimbobaus on 03/08/2014 - 15:13

    +1

    There Is no cooling off period on mobile phone contracts in Oz… however Voda give a network guarantee so maybe that's what you think the 30 days is

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 05/08/2014 - 19:11

      -1

      Signed up withoptus and they had a 7 day cooling off period to cancell contract but pay what you used and ontop of the 14 days which was mainly for replacement handsets on the spot orit gets shipped to be assessed.

      so your wrong there buddy.

    • 

      fruit on 05/08/2014 - 23:26

      Hang on, that is misleading. There are no cooling off periods if the consume initiates the contract, door-to-door, telemarketers etc will have cooling off periods.

  • 

    pyro love bird on 06/08/2014 - 01:07

    +1

    Speaking of signing people onto plans and not getting stuff. I was promised a free car charger and guess what, NOPE no car charger… I made the purchase on the 26th of June but apparently they restarted the billing period as the 16th of June. Which is bs.

• 

  yolow on 03/08/2014 - 11:31

  +5

  Experience 1 - I would contact TIO (https://www.tio.com.au/) and explain what had happened and see what they can do to help.

  Experience 2 - I would of got a prepaid local sim regardless what country I am in to be on the safe side and to avoid any mishap like what you're having. Anyways, rom memory, my cousin signed me up to some prepaid plan which gives me unlimited 3G data use and enough call credits for the duration of my trip.

• 

  justcallmeboss on 03/08/2014 - 11:38

  That sounds bad man. Dealing with the billing department of any telco is quite tricky - you get thrown around from operator to operator and have to repeat yourself every time. Not fun. Hope your issue gets solved.

  Pro-tip: As tuannie has mentioned, ALWAYS get a local pre-paid sim at your destination. No matter where you're going, just get a sim. It'll not only save you money, but the hassle of dealing with what has happened to you. Best of luck Tafe! :)

• 

  JordanM on 03/08/2014 - 12:13

  +8

  Regarding 2, it clearly does say 47 countries/view terms. I would say Vodafone are right and it was not misleading you have chosen the $5 day option but that choice was not applicable in this case.

  • 

    heatseeker424 on 03/08/2014 - 12:33

    I agree that he should have checked the relevant countries, but if it says "You're on $5 roaming", then you should be. It's deceiving.

    • 

      JordanM on 03/08/2014 - 15:38

      +8

      He was on $5 roaming (if he was in the applicable countries) that is what that setting refers to.

      • 

        [Deactivated] on 05/08/2014 - 09:49

        +3

        Did the message say "in the applicable countries" because if it didn't and I got a message that said "You're on $5 roaming" I would think that I am on $5 roaming.

      • 

        ProjectZero on 05/08/2014 - 10:37

        +3

        @Michegianni: Well it did say the following in the picture…

        $5 Roaming
        Use your plan's data and included value in 47 countries for just $5 extra a day. Click here for details and exclusions.

        Sorry for being blunt, but I'd say experience 2 is most likely the OP's fault. Whilst it did not tell you if you were in the applicable country, it provides you with a link to check if you were, which the OP did not check I'm assuming.

    • 

      kolorijo on 05/08/2014 - 08:45

      +1

      I will not believe anything that the telcos said until i read the fine print and researched it online.

• 

  airzone on 03/08/2014 - 13:00

  +1

  I don't suppose you also read the fine print in the roaming that limits the $5 days to 60 days worth of roaming (or something like that).

  • 

    Tafe on 03/08/2014 - 13:28

    Hahah no. I didn't read any fine print. Unlike me, but when OS you've got a 1000 things running through your head at once. I was WELL under 60 days so not really applicable anyway.

    • 

      juventino on 03/08/2014 - 14:01

      Fair enough. Though connectivity ( internet, phones etc) should be on your top 5 list out of those 1000 things running through your head.

      Others being accommodation and finance ( cash, card, exchange rate).

    • airzone on 03/08/2014 - 21:03 Comment score below threshold.
• 

  Magpye on 03/08/2014 - 14:51

  +3

  It's a bad experience, but look at it this way - the only way you knew you were over $50 on your bill is because Vodafone alerted you - scroll back a few years, and it would have been a different story. You would have been up for hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

  The first problem would fall under the T&C's - if they state it starts when the service is started, not when activated, then sorry buddy, it's the price (excuse the pun) for not paying attention.
  Otherwise, you can try your luck with the TIO, but be aware they get swamped with call and complaints from users who simply didn't bother to read the contract they were signing, and most cases, the telco has done nothing wrong.

  You're also not understanding what 'pro rata' means - Vodafone charge a month in advance for a service, so the $50 is not for the last month, but the month coming up.

  For your second problem - well, it sucks, but again, looking at the countries covered would have been a smart move especially when they tell you they only cover 47 countries out of 263 in the world. That's something you should do BEFORE going OS, not when you're in country.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 05/08/2014 - 09:57

    I wouldn't care what it says in my T&Cs if I got a message that said I was on $5 roaming I would expect to be on $5 roaming unless the message said something like "Congratulations you're on $5 roaming -> Click Here for more information" and OP did not check that link or something like that.

    If it was a simple "You're on $5 roaming" then it would be a more than fair assumption that OP was on $5 roaming and an unfair assumption that only 47 countries are included and he is not in one of them.

    If the message was worded differently - like "Take advantage of our $5 roaming" that's a different story.

    • 

      ozhunter on 05/08/2014 - 10:08

      +2

      I agree. It should say something like, "Want $5 roaming? Click here to see if you're eligible."

• 

  jimbobaus on 03/08/2014 - 15:17

  -6

  1) The Vodafone terms and conditions regarding the two months free offer clearly state that it is from when order is submitted and not from when it is activated.. otherwise don't you think people would just delay activating their services to extend their "free period"

  2) Vodafone's red roaming countries are listed in pretty much every piece of marketing.. including their website. It sadly is your responsibility to check whether the country you are visiting is covered. Vodafone did change their roaming charges for non $5 countries to $1 per min/$1 per mb/75c per text to keep prices down, and they did alert you so you knew you had gone over.

  On both counts I think you have no grounds to be complaining, but should cop it sweet.

  • 

    spersephone on 04/08/2014 - 07:40

    +15

    Regarding 1), that's an absolutely ridiculous term. You're not receiving a service until it's activated. So it shouldn't say 2 months free if you can't possibly get 2 months free.

    • 

      Tafe on 04/08/2014 - 12:31

      +8

      With regards to 1) Why would people do that deliberately? As far as I see it, I'm still paying for 22 months out of 24, just starting the contract period slightly later. Clarify?

      • 

        ronnknee on 05/08/2014 - 10:15

        -2

        It's more like 23 months out of 24 because you haven't actually started using the service yet in the first month.

      • 

        ronnknee on 08/08/2014 - 08:21

        Why am I getting negged? I'm supporting you Tafe.

        If you joined August 1st 2014 but the service does not start until September 1st 2014, your contract is till August 31st 2016 ie. 24 months. You get "2 months free" (August 1st 2014 - September 30th 2014) but it only covers one serviceable month (September) so you're paying 23 months out of 24.

      • 

        Tafe on 15/08/2014 - 14:51

        @ronnknee: not sure.. I didn't neg you!

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 05/08/2014 - 09:59

    +8

    But if you haven't activated yet - how are you extending the free period?

    I'm sorry but your logic in (1) is just wrong.

    If he activated 10 months later - all he would get is 2 months free and still have 22 months to go how is that extending the free period?

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 05/08/2014 - 19:19

    Voda stop suger coating it, simply say a customer assumed thatthis is how itworked and we failed to explain the pros and cons of the contract…… simples.

  • 

    puremajik on 06/08/2014 - 11:24

    +3

    On both counts it's misleading and deceptive.

    1) It doesn't matter if someone delayed activating their services it wouldn't extend their "free period", it would simply postpone it. If they haven't activated they wouldn't be able to make and receive calls. A reasonable person would assume that two months free means that they can use their service for an additional 2 months on a 24 month contact. Not, that they have to wait for Vodafone's slow provisioning process and have no control over when the "free period" starts.

    2) If you get a text message saying "You are on $5 roaming" and you are not on $5 roaming, this is misleading. It doesn't matter what the marketing material says, you are advising the user of their plan terms during usage. In contrast, Telstra tells you specifically the rate as soon as you turn on the phone.

• 

  Tafe on 03/08/2014 - 17:20

  I am aware that this time I have been an informed consumer. It would be so nice if telco's didn't have to take full advantage of that!

  I may instead of complaining write a nicely worded email asking for leniency…

  • 

    Magpye on 03/08/2014 - 17:58

    +1

    Probably your best chance of success is to ring in, still with the polite words, and talk to an agent.
    You hold the advantage in several ways - they are under pressure to wrap the call up quickly, have a good Grade of Service, a happy customer and reduction of complaints.

    A polite but persistent approach will often yield more than an email - an email is often ignored or given a template answer, does not have the same pressure for resolution and it doesn't really convey the person on the other end.

    Be prepared to be knocked back, but also be prepared to see if someone else can help you, such as their manager.
    If you have a good reason for not activating the service for some time after the purchase, state it to them and ask them what they can do for you - don't tell them what you want them to do (such as give a refund), but leave it to them to provide the solution.
    It's a subtle psychological trick that is quite effective.

    Just don't go making stories up though, especially if you've rung in before, as they will check the notes when you ring in.

    Good luck !

    • 

      Tafe on 03/08/2014 - 22:23

      Thanks! As you can prob gather my last post was supposed to say UNinformed consumer!

• 

  StewBalls on 03/08/2014 - 19:52

  +6

  I signed up online for a Vodafone…

  Instant fail I'm afraid.

• 

  kwaker on 04/08/2014 - 08:44

  Put in a complaint to the telecommunications ombudsman

• 

  ssmith3104 on 04/08/2014 - 13:27

  When I "migrated" from "3" to Vodafone, at the last minute as "3" was closing down, some of the inducements that had previously been offered to me (half-price data for the first 12 months) were suddenly withdrawn, but the fellow from Vodafone said, in good cheer, well at least you will benefit from our new $5 per day overseas roaming. Hmmmm, ok. Well, I am travelling later this month to China and wanted to activate my overseas roaming. Ah-Oh, NO, they won't give it to me! I am being told now that it was only CERTAIN plans that get that entitlement, and that the plan that I have been put onto is not one of those.

  They volunteered to upgrade me to a different plan at triple the minimum monthly cost, which I refused. It looks like I'll be buying an overseas SIM yet again, and the Australian carrier will miss out in entirety, yet again.

  Other "Aussie" SIMS, such as the Woolworths Travel SIM, can have acceptable telephony rates, but have appallingly high data rates. I need data, not telephony. If I need to make a phone call, I'll use Skype.

  • 

    lolmao on 05/08/2014 - 08:39

    +6

    just buy a local sim its always cheaper anyway

    • 

      philart on 05/08/2014 - 18:41

      Yeah and get yourself a VoIP account so you can make any longer calls via the VoIP app over the hotel WiFi. There's so many options that I'm surprised that anyone other than business people with a company account pay for roaming. People rely on their phones too much IMO.

• 

  StewBalls on 04/08/2014 - 16:45

  +1

  The 2 months free is from when you purchase the service - not when the service is activated and as such the the $50 is a pro-rated amount. I say that's BS, but Vodafone say that's perfectly reasonable. What does OZB think?

  Personally, I think this is actually quite unreasonable, regardless of whether or not it is in the T&Cs. I would be very tempted if I were the OP to raise it with the TIO, who I'm sure will be thinking dafuq!!!

  • 

    spersephone on 04/08/2014 - 17:03

    +5

    I had a look at their terms and conditions for some other plans, and where they're offering discounted rates for a period or whatever, it says 2 full billing periods, or similar. That would be taken by anyone reasonable to be from the date the service commences, not from the date it was purchased.

• 

  odyssi on 04/08/2014 - 17:13

  1) Write to the TIO. I would think it should be 2 months from activation within a specified term. (IE activate by xx/xx/xx to be eligible)

  2) Bit of a grey area. Try the ACCC if you think it's deceptive advertising.

• 

  goosegog on 04/08/2014 - 17:22

  What about their lack of coverage? We are in the hills in Perth & have been with Vodaphone (Crapaphone) for apx. 5 years now. Each time the contract is due for renewal we receive heaps of calls from them saying that new towers are going up & coverage will exceed what Telstra can provide. Has not happened - still have to stand in the middle of the road or hang out the kitchen window to get a signal. Vodaphone is full of promises with no follow through. More fool us to keep believing their false promises - it won't happen again.

  • 

    matt_will_fix_it on 05/08/2014 - 13:47

    -8

    There is no telecommunications company in Australia called Vodaphone. They have no coverage as they aren't a company.

    Unless you are talking about Vodafone?

    • 

      StewBalls on 05/08/2014 - 13:51

      +10

      There's a very fine line between pedant & dick, Matt; just FYI…

  • 

    pyro love bird on 06/08/2014 - 01:12

    I'm also located in Perth (suburbs), and I travel to uni and go through the city a lot but heck, my network drops out constantly. They've promised us the same thing and told me that we needed to upgrade our plan to get better coverage/upgrade our phone. Which is utter rubbish, we just got a new phone 3 months beforehand. Where are you thinking of porting over to?

  • 

    cjp on 06/08/2014 - 11:41

    I a'm in sydney suburb and i always had to go out in balcony for clear call quality on voda network,,, waited for a year for them to resolve and moved out to lycamobile now which uses telstra 3g and now i can call clearly from any corner of my home even inside garage.. + its heaps cheap then voda

• 

  shiraj on 05/08/2014 - 07:20

  I was planning on porting to Vodafone with the $70 plan - now I am thinking twice to go somewhere else!

• 

  [Deactivated] on 05/08/2014 - 09:07

  +1

  Seems to me both 1) and 2) could have been avoided if you'd actually read what you were agreeing to, or checked what countries the roaming deal applied to. Writing to the TIO is not warranted, IMO.

  • 

    spersephone on 05/08/2014 - 09:43

    I have my doubts that 1) is legal. If that's what the terms say, I don't believe they can legally put this into a service contract. You cannot be charged or discounted for a service that hasn't commenced. You can enter the agreement, but you can't be held to have started receiving the service until it's actually activated. I haven't seen the original terms, but I doubt very much that they could be held up. Rather, it would be expected that the discount applies as would be assumed, being two months of service.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 05/08/2014 - 10:07

    How do you read what you agreed to when you receive a message that says "You are on $5 roaming" ?

    Vodafone has already made the decision for you and told you it is $5. There has been no agreement.

    This all falls back to every reply of mine in this thread - did the message just say "You are on $5 roaming" or did it say "Click here for more info"

    If it didn't say anything like "For a full list of countries click here" then why should anyone assume they have to check anything?

    OP should clarify or post a photo of the message. I think TIO is warranted if OP was simply told that's what they've done for $5 and no other information was provided.

    • 

      ozhunter on 05/08/2014 - 10:10

      +2

      OP should clarify or post a photo of the message

      He did. http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=o1wzq&s=8#.U-AdZ_nZYRc

      I wouldn't have clicked the link either. I'd just assume I'm in one of the eligible countries.

      • 

        [Deactivated] on 05/08/2014 - 10:20

        -1

        Well there you go - should have checked. Although it's still a bit silly that you can still select the $5 roaming option if you do not fall under the correct country. That's a bit of a worry.

        "Press this button to get X" (offer excludes you but you're more than welcome to press the button anyway)

        That will be OPs only argument and I think it is still reasonably valid.

        He will have to hope that Vodafone are being nice. I also think the TIO would side in OPs favour.

    • 

      philart on 05/08/2014 - 18:45

      +1

      "then why should anyone assume they have to check anything?"

      Because it's a telco!

• 

  [Deactivated] on 05/08/2014 - 13:12

  1 - YES, very sneaky condition in their terms I doubt would hold up.
  2 - NO, very clearly an account option, not a current status.

• 

  matt_will_fix_it on 05/08/2014 - 13:48

  +2

  To the OP - the screenshot in "Experience 2" shows your mobile number.

• 

  bjdchwr on 05/08/2014 - 13:48

  +1

  Vodafail normally charges your monthly fees in advance so $50 is for the 3rd month.

  I was confused when I had my first contract with them.

  For the Q2, give it a go with TIO.

• 

  neonlight on 05/08/2014 - 18:36

  Without reading much, its gonna be Vodafail no doubt

• 

  sleet on 05/08/2014 - 19:39

  +4

  Not to sound mean spirited or anything but don't people read the contract? Whenever I sign up to something long-term or major, I will tend to read the contract. Phones, internet, loans, employment etc the important stuff.

  It saves a lot of heartache.

  • 

    spersephone on 05/08/2014 - 19:47

    I agree, but a contract is not allowed to have unfair terms within it. It also needs to be clear and concise so that people are not misled into thinking they've signed up to something when they've signed up to something else.

    • 

      Ughhh on 05/08/2014 - 20:00

      +1

      "47 countries" and "click here for details and exclusions" is linked there and underlined! Does it need to be in size 100 font, circled in red and have 50 photoshopped cats pointing to it to make one click it and read it? If one chooses to ignore it and assume everything, well… who's to blame. If at anytime you're confused whether you're on that $5 roaming or not (or any kind of service/plan etc), you should always contact the company first to get confirmation to avoid the risk of getting a bill shock.

      • 

        ozhunter on 05/08/2014 - 20:07

        +2

        Yes, you should always read the t&c, but I don't think it's unreasonable to assume you're in a $5 roaming country when it says in bolded font "You're on $5 Roaming".

      • 

        spersephone on 05/08/2014 - 20:30

        I was referring more to the other term, which supposedly begins from the moment you agree to purchase it, even though you may not begin using it straight away.

        However, I also agree with others, that if you have it in writing that you are on $5 roaming, you are most likely to assume that it is correct, and that you're not excluded.

      • 

        YTW on 05/08/2014 - 20:50

        I wouldn't feel confused as to whether I was on $5 roaming or not, if it said as a bolded status "You're on $5 Roaming". So I wouldn't sit fiddling and going through all the fine print on my phone just to double check that I was on $5 roaming.

        There is ABSOLUTELY no reason it couldn't have a message that said "$5 Roaming Not Available" or similar. They are purposely misleading people.

      • 

        lolmao on 05/08/2014 - 21:34

        @YTW: yeah I would just ignore the part that said "in 47 countries, click here for exclusions"

      • 

        Randxyz123 on 06/08/2014 - 10:14

        @YTW: I agree with you but I do think reading the t&c's is always a good idea. I don't want to sound rude OP but the exclusions would've been a list of where and where you can't use the $5 roaming pack which you could've clicked on there and then… It is slightly misleading however and I think if you ring up, ask to speak to a manager or supervisor and explain what happened - 'I know I should've clicked on the exclusions list but I just didn't think it through etc' Explain you are a student and you'd really appreciate it if they could waive the extra charges this time. Being polite and calm can go a long way… As for the 2 months free again call up explain that you were super busy or whatever at the time the phone arrived or were waiting for your other plan to end etc… As for the 2 months free that sounds really like BS to me, I mean it doesn't or shouldn't matter when you activate it you get 2 months free during the 24 months.

• 

  ammark19xx on 06/08/2014 - 02:42

  I haven't read through the numerous comments on top, but here's my 2 cents….

  I worked at a Vodafone Select dealership during the last Christmas season as a CS Rep/ Sales rep and: my store manager hammered it into my head (contrary to our dealership policy) to always tell our customers about the pro-rata charges until their first bill date. This is because of the shit we had to deal with when customers would come back to us complaining about being overcharged in the first month (because they exceeded what would have been covered under the Vodafone pro-rata usage terms). All in all, caveat emptor, it was in the contract T&Cs and while its not 'reasonable' for a real world person to read tons of legalese, legally VHA has their backs covered. To save ourselves the pain later, my manager and I told our customers about the pro-rata policy verbally up front at point of sale. Now, not all salespeople will do this, and especially if you buy the plan online or over the phone from VHA directly you're not likely to get this explained to you.

  If I remember correctly, the $5 roaming is restricted to certain countries (and back then Vietnam was not yet one of them). Beyond that, it's got lots of exclusions and disclaimers. Which is why imo getting roaming from Aus is always a bad deal. They sucker you into paying a lot of money for very little service. Whenever i go overseas, I always get a prepaid sim card, especially in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia. It's way cheaper and better value. I will say that this is because the industry is very competitive, costs have gone up, and all 3 major operators are tying to squeeze out revenue from such Value Added Services. It's not dishonest, because they have their full disclosure of Terms & Conditions. It may seem misleading, but trust me, as someone from North America, I've seen way worse misleading and lying by companies for a little money. VHA, Optus and Virgin are angels! They might try to push services to you, but they don't lie. In my opinion, anything with a contract is a product that's being sold by some eye-gouging lawyer in a tall building! This is the modern-day business environment, sadly.

  For my needs though: I'm on a double data plan with the iPhone 5S as well, and I still think they give the best value on paper compared to Optus and Telstra for a full service provider. What sucks is that mobile phone pricing (handsets as well as service delivery) in Australia has risen across the board in the past 4 years. So you pay more money for the same talk time and data allowance, but you're essentially paying for the service providers' 4G rollout and upgrade costs, and you're also getting fleeced by Apple who has very strict vendor agreements that make iPhones less profitable to sell by VHA, Telstra & Optus as vendors. On an average day, I would spend 2 hours a day on the phone negotiating for existing Vodafone customers to get them a discount on most handsets except for Apple products.

  So, if you're getting double data and it compares well with what other operators are offering, consider yourself lucky. Frankly if you're using an iPhone 5S like me, I doubt you're using 10% of your talk time allowance, but you have that room to go nuts on Data. I spend most of mine streaming music from Pandora when I'm in my car… way better than my partner who had to restrict 4 days internet usage on Optus last month as she was near her limit!

  • 

    ozhunter on 06/08/2014 - 04:04

    I haven't read through the numerous comments on top, but here's my 2 cents….

    Did read what the OP was actually complaining about?

• 

  Oipjo on 06/08/2014 - 10:10

  Off-topic to the initial post; but relevant to the title - I've recently had a bit of a run in with Vodafone myself around an upgrade process after initially having 2 years of terrible service; I was initially conned into my contract on the wrong device, and then promised 4G on that device which never happened, and was refused 30 day network guarantee - ever since then, if I had raised a complaint I was always given consistent scripted responses. Vodafone assures me that the words "sorry" compensate for $1440 and 24 months of failure.

  Any mention of "work being done in your area" I found to be discredited in their network update blogs ("2 weeks +" & "2 weeks -", I was able to prove there was indeed no work being done.

  During the upgrade; arranged a call with Vodafone Support for their "Upgrade Team" as my contract is near end, I was looking to upgrade to their best deal (Dick Smith offering $240 cashback - though Vodafone won't match it because it is third party, despite offering Vodafone Service).

  The 53 minute conversation eventually led to them giving me an amazing great offer where they would give me $65 in the first two months and an additional 1GB data on the $70 RED Plan. After checking the Vodafone website where they offer FREE access for 2 months, and UNLIMITED Data on the first 2 months; the upgrade team had to check with their senior managers and they came to an agreement, as a one off exception for me, having been through so much trouble in the past 2 years and them understanding my situation; they would "MATCH" Vodafone Australia's WEBSITE deal… I wasn't too pleased… Full details here - http://community.vodafone.com.au/t5/Contract/Vodafone-Servic…

  Not sure who to go with now come September… Their upgrade team struggled to match what was on offer on the Vodafone website and were looking to give me a worse-off offer initially; it got pretty heated before they finally decided they could MATCH what I was already looking to have beat on the Vodafone Website - might be better to go the same service with Dick Smith; or change all together.

  • 

    pitiek on 06/08/2014 - 11:36

    +1

    I don't think you are completely telling the truth here.
    If your mobile phone service is unusable from September 2012 to September 2014, how do you survive and getting great deals from OzBargain…??

    I would advise you to port your number to a different carrier instead of trying to get a cheaper/better deal from a service provider who cannot provide a service that you require…

    Does it make sense to you?

    • 

      Oipjo on 06/08/2014 - 12:17

      Accessing OzBargain from work saves on mobile data and also saves on personal time; as getting paid from work to look for great deals on OzBargain is a great deal in itself.

      Phone has been accessible in parts of the Sydney CBD on the 3G Network during work hours; or when out of the house - except when the RAM began to top out around February of this year as part of an OS upgrade.

      Vodafone refused to repair the phone itself because its hardware/software related, Samsung wiped it on 3 occasions, Vodafone took it in on their end as late as last week; reissued a refurbished phone which on first boot was using ~750/831MB RAM and after 3 hours use (disabling Bloatware) was already at 800/831MB RAM in idle, and crashing apps (same problem). So I gave up and just using an old Galaxy Ace.

      Not a heavy mobile user but definitely don't want to be lugging around a Galaxy Ace for next 2 years on a BYO! In the end Vodafone comes out cheapest; but you are certainly getting what you pay for - However, they clearly breached their contract I had initiated in Sept 2012 on multiple fronts.

      I have heard they've improved their services over the past 2-3 years; however, their support is still quite far off being helpful, and their upgrade teams are scandalous and inconsistent with what Vodafone Australia Online is offering to the public; it would seem they are two completely separate companies and it takes a lot of effort to have them "MATCH" the Vodafone Website - people unknowing of the deals out there (non-OzBargainians) would be conned into an overpriced deal; being advised by the Vodafone Upgrades "this is the best deal ever", "you are the special exception" - I was quite shocked this is Vodafone 2014.

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  Tafe on 06/08/2014 - 12:12

  Thanks everyone. I will definitely re-contact Vodafone, politely explain the situation again and let you know how I go.

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  antzz on 06/08/2014 - 15:56

  +3

  Its your mistake choosing vodafail.

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  adpaholic on 07/08/2014 - 14:37

  My friend sign up a plan thru the phone(vodafone) in jan 2014, the customer representative provide wrong info and she take the plan offer.

  Finally found out it different from what they describe. (suppose is 1Gb data but they give 200mb). Call back and vodafone said she need to provide a recording of their call to proof it.

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    spersephone on 07/08/2014 - 16:15

    Shouldn't that be their job? They are the ones with the recording, not the customer.

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  yogiU on 07/08/2014 - 14:46

  vodafone is real disaster… stay away, a lot of very good cheaper options are really better than them, like Amaysim, value for money..
  u waste a lot of ur valuable time running after them and at the end u get nothing in hand..