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Vodafone began the year with major network woes driving customers crazy, then said it planned to spend millions to fix the problems. At the halfway mark for the year, Vodafone says it has built 775 new 850MHz towers and made improvements at an additional 810 sites.
It also says that dropped calls have been reduced by 18%, while data reliability is up 66%. Have you noticed an improvement in Vodafone’s services recently, or are you still impatiently awaiting change? Tell us in the comments.
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My GF is on vodaphone and she still has constant blackspots in the middle of Sydney. No improvements. She lives on the top floor of a 8 story unit block in North Sydney and still rubbish signal. Maybe vodafails site improvements are simply a coat of paint.
As I also said at Giz:
I’m doomed for crap coverage regardless of how much of their new network is rolled out, as my area isn’t on the list for upgrades.
Vodafone support have already told me that there is nothing further they can offer me, other than for me to pay off the remainder of my handset and waive the early exit fee, or receive 50% of my monthly access fee for 6 months.
Piss weak.
Anyone in Tasmania reading this? I used to work for Vodafone at their Kingston call centre, if your hoping that these upgrades will fix slow and poor service in Tassie then think again.
I was told by one of the higher ups who came down for a week that no upgrades will be done in Tasmania because we account for only 3% of Vodafones userbase.
If your sticking around waiting for change, don’t bother.
Trust me, I’m not sticking with them because I hope things will get better; I’m stuck with them to pay the balance owed on my phone. Come September 2012, I’ll be jumping ship to Optus or Telstra quick-smart…
No change whatsoever!
I was in the Vodafone store at Logan Hyperdome a couple of weeks ago and I had no signal. Unbelievable! How can you possibly sell a phone in good conscience knowing that it will not even connect to the network inside the shop that is selling it???!!!
On my last bill I had 34 calls redirect to voicemail because of lack of signal. Only 10 of those left a message. So there is potentially 24 customers I have lost to my competition!
I regularly experience dropouts, every single day.
And…. Vodafone refuses to release me from my contract unless I pay them over $1000!
There are currently 3 mobiles with Vodafone in this household. We will all be going to the TIO very soon.
At work we have a few vodafone reps gunning for our business right now. I explained we’re in telstra because they’re the only ones with coverage of extremely rural areas (the extremes of north, south, and east in WA), and they confidently said their coverage was as good as telstras now.
I’m pretty doubtful, but we’ll see what happens when they lend us some handsets to send off with staff.
voda should stop upgrading their nw…..they should simply use other networks…..like telstra & optus
I second Dave Lord. Same in Adelaide Vodaphone shop in Rundell Mall.
I’d recommended Dave Lord to file a complaint with the Ombudsman, It really helps. Tell them it a straight cheating case with them not providing service that you paid for.
Vodafone still s**t in Melbourne SE suburbs and CBD. I will be moving to Telstra as soon as contact is up 🙁
My phone calls and text messages are good, however when I use data, it is really slow and rarely loads anything.
Here in Canberra Vodafone seems to be the top dog. I have full reception everywhere, and telstra users complain that they never do.
Im not sure if these upgrades to their network helps here, but it doesn’t really need to.
haha. thats probably because most government departments are on telstra. Vodafone probably has a very under utilised network there.
I’m with crazy john’s. Data is always good, doesn’t drop out like it used to, I can’t say the same about my phone calls, sometimes i need to retry sending messages once or twice before it works and I can’t even send picture messages.
Upgrades??? I don’t know what they did but since the scheduled work in newcastle my pocket wifi has been unusable … it was great … but after much waiting and being told it was my equipment and all the usual runaround … the vodafone sim is still useless so i have unlocked it and switched to optus … and it works fine.
Does Vodafone still have customers?
That 850mhz network is a brilliant solution for all those 900/2100 handsets.
They can spruik all they like about improvements… ahead of schedule… won’t make one scrap of difference to the customers like me that they gave the run around to for months on end and who resorted to the Telecommunications Ombudsman to finally get them to actually talk to me… result no longer, and never will be ever again, a Vodafone Customer!
Hi All,
For those of you who are voicing ongoing issues, I’d like to look into those for you, please let us know about them in our community so we can address them with you: http://community.vodafone.com.au/t5/Network/bd-p/network
To those giving feedback- thanks. We are always open to hear how we need to grow and improve. We have been working very hard to improve our network through the year and this will continue to be of the highest priority throughout 2011 and into the future. If you are interested in finding out more info relevant to yourself, check our page here: http://www.vodafone.com.au/network
Thanks
Dave.
Dave, yourself and the guys on the social media team are doing a great job; but to use an obscure analogy – you’re pretty much trying to paint the Titanic as it sinks.
VHA has attracted that much criticism, and been that tardy at trying to fix the issues suffered by so many of their customers – that unless they can radically bring about a service that can complete reliably with Telstra and Optus’ networks, its all in vain.
I’m living about 1.5kms from the middle of Sydney CBD and still have numerous dropouts, calls suddenly cease before I can answer them or when ringing another Vodafone mobile I get “this mobile is unavailable” when a 2nd call immediately after is answered. Even called my own phone from my landline while its in my hand and get that message!
So just as bad as always, or even worse. Thank god I don’t use data lol
Vodafone has the worst service and has been ongoing for months. They have even admitted to the problems but still don’t allow customers to cancel their contracts. Someone contacted me from the complaints area but refused to put me through to a supervisor or anyone else in the team. It’s simple vodafone you don’t provide a service the customer signed up and paid for then they are well within their right to cancel a contract just as you are if the customer doesn’t pay an account. I will be lodging a formal complaint with TIO and will be encouraging everyone else to stay away from vodafone
I’m with VF and have been with them for more than 15 years, my contract ends in Dec, their service is a POS which can’t deliver. I take more voicemail calls then actual calls in a day, as I constantly have no reception in my office in the CBD of Darwin and at Home in the Northern Suburbs of Darwin. I’m so over it that I can’t wait to signup with Telstra in Dec! VF you have failed!!
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