“I have wasted an entire week trying to refer a friend to Vodafone. Vodafone advertise a £25 or £50 voucher for this referral. After hours of wasted time trying to complete this cycle of action, unable to even make a complaint on their website for incompetence, not to mention their AI bot which is worthless a Vodafone customer agent has finally advised me today that Vodafone do not offer this rewards scheme. Do yourself a favour and find a more competent company to provide your broadband.”
“Goodbye Vodafone, a company I've been loyal to for 15 years. I won’t be back.
I never write online reviews. Truly. But after the experience I’ve just had with Vodafone, I felt compelled to make an exception.
Let’s start from the beginning. My phone was stolen in London — an unfortunately common occurrence.As part of the usual security protocol, I cancelled all cards that were active on Apple Pay. I went into a Vodafone store the very next day, reported it stolen, and was issued a new SIM card. So far, so good.
Then I headed to Apple to sort out a new device. Problem solved? You'd think so, hey.
Not a matter of a week later, I began noticing App Store charges coming through on my Vodafone bill — not my Apple account. Confused? So was I. How on earth were App Store payments appearing on my Vodafone bill, especially after I had cancelled the linked cards and replaced the SIM?
Turns out Vodafone had, without my consent or knowledge, authorised a remote payment sync between my Apple account and Vodafone billing. Something I never agreed to — and something that, according to some Vodafone reps, should have been deactivated the moment I reported the phone stolen.
I spent a total of six hours on the phone with Vodafone. If I ever hear their hold music again, I might lose my mind. I spoke to countless customer service reps, each with conflicting explanations. Some admitted that the charges should never have gone through. Others tried to shift the blame onto me. All this, despite the fact the charges appeared after I had reported the phone stolen and the SIM replaced.
I was told I owed £380. Absolutely not. I refused to pay for a mistake that was clearly theirs. I’ve been a customer for 15 years — paying a premium for an overpriced and frankly sub-par service — and now I’m down £2,000 on a new phone and being asked to cover Vodafone’s screw-up?
Eventually, after what felt like hostage negotiations (first they’d cover 20%, then 50%, then 75%), they finally agreed to remove 100% of the charges. Sounds generous? It wasn’t. It was damage control — for their own mistake. And it took an enormous amount of pressure on my end to get them to do the right thing.
This was back in October. So why am I writing this review now?
Because it got worse.
After clearing the charges, I asked Vodafone to move my account to Pay As You Go, as I’d recently relocated to the U.S. for 18 months. All seemed fine. Then, during a routine credit check, I discovered a late payment flag from Vodafone had hit my credit score.
Baffled, I logged into my account — nothing there. I'm on PAYG, so no bills, no charges, no notifications. I call Vodafone again. Guess what? That mysterious late charge? It was from the original bill before they agreed to remove the Apple charges.
So despite agreeing to waive the fees — again, their error — they reported me as having defaulted on a payment. That one flag has now trashed my credit score. For no reason.
So here we are. Months of stress, hours of phone calls, gaslighting customer service reps, and a financial headache that’s still causing ripples.
Vodafone: you failed on every front. You mishandled a stolen phone report, tried to make me pay for unauthorised charges, strung me along with inconsistent support, and ultimately damaged my credit over your own mistake.
What happened to customer service? What happened to accountability?
I’m done. 15 years of loyalty — flushed.
Goodbye Vodafone. I won’t be back.”
“Absolutely dreadful - the last 18 months have been hell with Vodafone and customer service is terrible, there is no continuity, you are never believed , awful awful, the amount of stress that has been caused by a terrible connection and at one point nothing for 2 months, we were never believed until a technical support team a line manager 2 months down the line in DECember 2023 informed us major issue , things have never been right. Absolutly awful experience - the hours we have spent and you never get anywhere as you hae to explasin everything from the start and wait ages for them to read your notes and then come back with a less than satisfactory reply that shows they don't know what is going on at all with the case. AVOID AT ALL COSTS”
“Too technical just send me a new router and my problem will go away!!! But no, hours wasted on the phone instead. I want to be paid for those lost hours that filled me with dread. Grr...”
“This is the worst mobile phone shop I have ever been served by .. I purchased a new plan and gave them my PAC number for the migration of my number from EE to them They said it will take 48 Unlimited Max Red Plan, 4 days later not happening ..called customer service they said I have to wait 9 days over the bank holiday period with no number whatsoever till they fix the mistake the store has done . AVOID!!”
“Could not be worse. Signed up to Vodafail speed upgrade and NBN fibre to the home. Prompt service from NBN. Vodafail has been a disaster. 10 days later and 4 phone calls no speed upgrade. They give undertakings that never eventuate. The offer call backs that don't occur. Each person you talk to has a different story. It just can't be worse. Steer well clear of this useless bunch.”
“With Vodafone I been over 20 years loyal customer, never miss any payments and have 3 contracts with them.
Today I did tried to upgrade one of my contracts and been offered from Vodafone exactly the same price the same price to pay as a new customer. The advisor told me the new customer it's exactly the same customer like customer which been with us over 20 years.
No even little discount been offered to me.
Guys please respect your self and don't waist your time with this dishonest company. Very disappointed customer Mr Saulius Puklevicius.”
“Daylight robbery, they never get back to u, they give u numbers to ring that aren’t even connected, they tell u u have 14 days to decide, I tried to cancel from day 1 and was told I couldn’t, now I’m being charged termination fee, absolute disgusting service”
“Tried to speak to someone about getting broadband but couldn’t get to speak to anyone by phone. Typing messages is not good enough. Will go elsewhere”
“Leaving Vodafone after being with them for over 20 years. Spent hours on the phone over a few calls getting an upgrade and the wrong delivery came. The customer service call I made afterwards was awful, they made no attempt to rectify the situation so now leaving. People warned me not to renew with Vodafone .... PLEASE DO NOTE USE VODAFONE, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !”
“I tried to cancel my son's phone contract after the two years was up. Been passed to debt collection, without any communication after we thought it was cancelled 4 months earlier.”
“Utterly useless Twitter 'help'. Go round in canned response circles with ever-changing staff who totally understand your concerns of course, but won't or can't do anything meaningful about them. Then want to know how well they did. And a ridiculous number of 'security' hurdles - it's not a bank account - just to get try to them to stop harassing me with communications about a broadband upgrade I didn't need, want, or even request. Madness.”
“They are making me experience a surreal situation after 6 years of contract and 3 phones can't find any solution to their problem other than canceling my contract! Today I should have received a phone call from them and obviously no one spoke! I want to see if they would disappear like this in case of non-payment on my part! Ridiculous!”
“Vodafone customer service is so bad that it's usually more trouble than its worth. If you have a significant grievance with Vodafone your easiest option is simply to leave them without saying anything.”
“Useless very difficult to cancel and I’ve had to pay another month now cause and they still keep harassing you with phone calls I just wanted to leave how difficult is it your too expensive and I’m not happy with the service”
“Been waiting since 18th December 2024, still no WiFi! They don't care during a stressful time I struggled to work from home while my wife is reaching the end stages of her pregnancy”
