phone companies

[Jakhama_2_mcmetz]

duno if any1nz having dramas with coverage and service with vodafone atm, but just about every call iv made in the last month has dropped out or had interferance.

A simple call to the complaints compartment got me $115 taken off my bill, i gave them a list of calls that failed and they deleted my bill 4 me.

this time it was a pretty friendly call lol, but i thought it would be a good idea to share interesting experiences anyone has had with phone companys or telemarketers?

[SAV_117]

one night 3 just totally collapsed and all my mates are on 3 that ****ed us up lol no one knew where anyone was lol

[NORTI]

Noone wants to hear this, but as far as network uptime, Telstra leads the way. Optus had a really bad run last year with heaps of downtime, & Voda has never really had a good rap here in Aust, they are great overseas thou.

Obviously my mobiles are with Telstra, but when I had a voda sim abit over 2 years ago, I found the coverage was absolute shit, I had 3, optus & voda all in the same year, & Optus had the best coverage of the 3 carriers. Then I ported from Optus to Telstra because of my discount & now I really notice the coverage differences (not to mention the fast data )

[Scooter79]

I've been having coverage issues with Vodafone for the past year. Hardly any coverage in certain areas and I live about 30 minutes south of wollongong. Hardly a 'remote' or rural area.

[BOGANV8]

Im with Vodaphone service seems ok for me in Armidale NSW on the outskirts it gets a bit patchy but i have noticed over the last few weeks it been getting better...

The only places it sometimes drops out is in the shopping centres which can be a pain in the ass

[Tom_1569]

Wahhh Vodafone gets enough signal to call? Im so jealous.

Im with Vodafone, signal is pathetic, I get spurts of signal at home, enough to send a message and recieve, certainly not enough to call people. I dont get any signal if I go out past longford, where every other carrier doesnt have a problem. Rural areas its pathetic, IF it even gets signal.
In melbourne, my sister lives in Berwick and I have to go outside to get clear reception for a call.
BUT I do get full signal in the strangest of places, coming back from crooked river (near dargo) on one hill where next G didnt get signal, I got full signal, Out in the middle of Port Phillip Bay on the boat full signal. At TAFE I get near full signal upstairs, no signal down stairs, even if im out side.

The only Gaurentee I have with Vodafone is that if my car has broken down I wont have phone signal within a 20km radius of the car lol.

[danja]

Noone wants to hear this, but as far as network uptime, Telstra leads the way. Optus had a really bad run last year with heaps of downtime, & Voda has never really had a good rap here in Aust, they are great overseas thou.

Obviously my mobiles are with Telstra, but when I had a voda sim abit over 2 years ago, I found the coverage was absolute shit, I had 3, optus & voda all in the same year, & Optus had the best coverage of the 3 carriers. Then I ported from Optus to Telstra because of my discount & now I really notice the coverage differences (not to mention the fast data )

Telstra's service provision is pretty solid, it's just the fact that you have to bend over and take it up the arse with a broom handle and no lube when it comes to the bill that puts me off...

[Eliminator]

im inqld and never had a problem with vodafones service, actually my phone gets service in remote areas that my gf's telstra phone cant...

[Trayner]

Vodafone and 3 are merging companies soon , so hopefully taht will fix the reception issues

[Eliminator]

i think 3 is already using other phone companies towers to get better reception after there fallout when they first introduced themselfs, personally i will be going 3 after my 12 month contract is up- better phones and cheaper caps, they have a 49 dollar cap no with 600 bucks worth of calls (dont know call rates yet)

[vy_storm]

i think 3 is already using other phone companies towers to get better reception after there fallout when they first introduced themselfs, personally i will be going 3 after my 12 month contract is up- better phones and cheaper caps, they have a 49 dollar cap no with 600 bucks worth of calls (dont know call rates yet)

3 Roam onto Telstra 2G and in the near future will be roaming onto Telstra NextG. If you can live with the drop outs when you lose 3's 3G signal then you get pretty decent coverage with them.

[Eliminator]

i only use my phone to make calls send txt and use the gps would i be using 3g?

[vy_storm]

i only use my phone to make calls send txt and use the gps would i be using 3g?

Depends who you are with, but yes you would be using it if your phone and plan are compatible. 3G is just the type of network, it doesn't really matter what you do on your phone.

[Eliminator]

i have a n95 on vodafone so im guessing i do use it, cheers for the help i might stay away from 3.

[minux]

Telstra's service provision is pretty solid, it's just the fact that you have to bend over and take it up the arse with a broom handle and no lube when it comes to the bill that puts me off...

That sounds fun....

[Stressball]

I've never been with Telstra myself, but the company phones at work are. I'm yet to find a single person who is satisfied with their service. Constant dropouts and issues all the time.

I've been with Vodafone and Virgin, and now I'm with 3. Vodafone and Virgin were both fine coverage, I never got reception in my house, but that was expected. Unfortunately our house is in the middle of a hill on the opposite side to the towers, so the signal tends to skip across my house and the houses either side.

Since I've been with 3 I've had constant good reception in my house, absolutely no troubles at all. No dropouts, no issues whatsoever. The only thing lacking from 3 is the customer service. The automated online registration of a new sim failed for no apparent reason and rejected my Virgin account number, even after I confirmed with Virgin that I had the right one. The call centre I got put through to with 3 was loud, busy, the person I spoke to was constantly being interrupted and obviously had english as a second language; he struggled to put words together to put across what he meant.

No provider will give you the best of all three worlds; technical use, customer service and affordability. It seems to be a scenario of "pick two".

[minux]

Ive been with telstra for mobiles for around 12 years. Never had a drop out.

[danja]

I used Telstra mobiles (including CDMA), Bigpond internet, their wireless broadband cards, and land-lines, and they have all be very consistent and high quality. Their customer service is average, and they use deceptive and dubious sales tactics (like delivering ADSL modems and billing you for a plan totally unsolicited!).

My biggest gripe is that they are extremely uncompetitive when it comes to pricing, and they don't seem to care (obviously it's working well enough for them). If you have money to burn they will generally be slightly better than the competition, but no where near enough for me to justify using them again.

[minux]

I used Telstra mobiles (including CDMA), Bigpond internet, their wireless broadband cards, and land-lines, and they have all be very consistent and high quality. Their customer service is average, and they use deceptive and dubious sales tactics (like delivering ADSL modems and billing you for a plan totally unsolicited!).

My biggest gripe is that they are extremely uncompetitive when it comes to pricing, and they don't seem to care (obviously it's working well enough for them). If you have money to burn they will generally be slightly better than the competition, but no where near enough for me to justify using them again.

Ask the government why they are uncompetitive...they are not allowed to be competitive.

[hsvpunk]

Im with 3 mobile. It will drop out everynow and then.... more just de to shit reception in my area at times.

I was with vodafon, never hada problem with them, until they wouldnt upgrade my phone, so i said BYE BYE.

And atm with 3, the reception is fine, but my phone is up shit creek, been for service and come back saying its all updated software etc... but stil has the same problem as it did when it went to them.
So im starting to think, should i change or stay.....

[danja]

Ask the government why they are uncompetitive...they are not allowed to be competitive.

Because they've invested their remaining share for pension funds?

[Steery]

Only gripe i have ever had with 3 is that they sold the Nokia 6288 in the first place. Apart from that I get the odd dropout when it swaps from 3G to roaming, but ohwell. Doesn't happen very often.

I'm about to start another 24 month contract with them, no one else can even come close to giving me a Nokia E71 on a $69 cap ($650 calls, sms and $350 free to 3) + bonus 1GB free internet data. Which makes everything on the phone usable, such as GPS, email etc.

If Testra could offer me that though...

[Jakhama_2_mcmetz]

oh and i also complained about my n95 8gb stuffing up countless amount of times, and i refused to send it away because they wanted $100 for a courtesy fone while mine was getting fixed....in the end they sent the samsung omnia for 60% off ........hasnt arrived yet

[tommo82]

My biggest gripe is that they are extremely uncompetitive when it comes to pricing, and they don't seem to care

Code for: You don't want to pay their prices.

Their price is fair. No one offers coverage like they do, so they can charge more (i.e. that is the value they add). The market will bear it (that is why they have the largest market share).

Hardly uncompetitive.

[NORTI]

also remembering they will have the fastest wireless coverage in the world very shortly.

Above statements about getting VF coverage & not NG would be down to the handset used, because if there is no NG, then it will look for 2100 (3G) or GSM(2G) to continue recieving a signal, VF have GSM & 2100, so thats why I fail to see how VF gives coverage where NG/Telstra cant.

as for competitive, they *can* be in some respects (if your eligible for the right plans ) but for businesses & people who cant be without service, the price is worth it, look at the Optus downtime from last year? Hundreds of people were without services for hours at a time over a few ays, & then just a few weeks later they had to go through it all again!!!

High end mobile users are really starting to see competitive value in Telstra thou, with the new utimate plans (love them!) Its just hard to educate some people on what they are really spending on their mobile ~ ZOMG this company gives me $1000.00 for just $20.00, cool, how much is the call rate? erm... how much is the flagfall? erm... is that any network? is it only in non peak times? - yeah so your paying 2 dollar a min, to those on your own network only, and only after 8pm, & the flagfall is 0.50 each call..... yup thats sooooooo much better than paying 0.25 per call untimed MAX or free. People please dont just think caps are the only good plan, a good call rate matched to your spend/use can mean a better saving. Also look at other things like txt & data use....


Any high mobile users, I will throw the ultimate plan up here (since I love it for once) for a lookie...

Ultimate Phone plan
$150 per month
$1500.00 calls/txt to any network, anytime (all premium numbers excluded)
150MB data
0.18 /30secs
0.27 flagfall
ANY NextG phone (includes new Ericson, N96, Blackberys etc)


Or minus the phone the plan is $130 per month