Now it’s Vodafail, the musical
Vodafone is facing a new blow to its shredded reputation for its mobile service after the upload of a bitter video tribute to the brand by comedy performers TV Live On Stage.
The video is this morning being rapidly shared across social media networks. It features a reworking of the Lady Gaga track Telephone.
At the time of posting it was not possible to tell how many views the video has so far received on YouTube. In the first few hours that a video becomes popular, the YouTube views counter tends to stop at just over 300 before catching up a few hours later.
The merged 3 and Vodafone operation has been forced to apologise to customers after the network became slow and unreliable.
The parody takes aim at lengthy 24 month contracts some unhappy customers have been unable to leave, and suggests alternative methods of making calls including carrier pigeons and using tin cans and string.
TV Live On Stage is the work of Scott Dawkins and Sheona Urquhart.
Dawkins told Mumbrella: “I’m with Vodafone and Sheona’s with 3. We would talk about skits on the phone and the call would always drop out. We thought it was just an in-joke, but then the whole Vodafail movement happened and we realised this was something other people felt strongly about too.”
He said a final straw came when he complained about the service to Vodafone. He said: “All they offered me was 100 free texts. That motivated my finger to hit upload.”
Musical video attacks are becoming an effective tool for disgruntled consumers to share their frustrations with brands.
One of the best known examples in the US was United Breaks Guitars, aimed at the baggage handlers of United Airlines, which has so far had more than 10m views.
Mumbrella has invited Vodafone to comment.
2.10pm update: A Vodafone spokesman told Mumbrella:
“We’re aware of the sketch clip on youTube and, while we’ve never received feedback in this format before, we’re well aware of the sentiment. We have listened to customers and we’re underway with a national network upgrade.
“We know that our customers expect great service, reliability and value for money from Vodafone and 3 and we’re working hard to provide the best possible network and customer service experience. We recognise all customer feedback as an opportunity to improve our service.”
I can relate to that.
I was offered an extra gig of data. “Great,” I says “an extra gig I won’t be able to use”.
Sadly, the alternatives aren’t much better.
Maybe the existence of this clip going viral will help. The 5m of content won’t. They need an editor….
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We all know Vodafone is a joke- but that video is LAME. About 4 minutes too long.
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Awesome!
Les Wood was with Vodafail and changed to Telstra
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I loved it!
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thanks for the laugh, “it’s funny because it’s true.”
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All publicity is good publicity, eh?
Perhaps not.
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Ugh, Honestly couldn’t make it past 50 seconds. Their shitty hammy over-acting is only eclipsed by the horrid aural assault of the “music”.
Vodafone may be a bit shit right now, but at least they’re aware of it and are taking active steps to rectify it… these “TV Live On Stage” hacks are just awful and seem to be unwilling to admit it. Hm.
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I am with vodafone so I know how bad the service is, but this song was unbearably shithouse.
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Australians racist towards Indian, no.
Think they won’t exactly get the five minutes of fame they were after.
Hats off to a racist comedic duo. They can join Michael Richards and Mel Gibson.
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Some clever sight gags in this – but could do with a serious edit…Funny thing is that at 5:08 duration 3/Voda customers would take 10 minutes to download and view it! Irony!
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That video was harder to watch than it is to get hold of any of my mates on Vodafone
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I agree with Mark from the Internet but still Vodafail apologises for poor /rubbish service “We know that our customers expect great service, reliability and value for money from Vodafone and 3 and we’re working hard to provide the best possible network and customer service experience. We recognise all customer feedback as an opportunity to improve our service.” – yet not a sausage about giving us money back/lower plans etc while we wait…
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@Dave: I don’t think that word means what you think it means.
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i am a disgruntled ex-vodafone customer – i thought it was hilarious!
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Absolutely hillarious! Fantastic lyrics depiciting well the extremely flawed telco. Also, now my favourite version of a Lady Gaga song!
Well done!
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Just watched on my iPad via Voda mobile broadband. Downloaded instantly………………wonder how much Telstra are paying these guys?
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This video is quite funny, vodafone and 3 mobile should learn that a phone service is not a toy, it is a tool that we all use when we are in an emergency, doing our daily work or communicating with loved ones, it is definitely not a phone that can only make 5 second calls before it drops out!!!
I have not yet heard of anyone with vodafone and three able to make a 20 second call without a drop out…
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I’m one of the few on here that thought it was actually not that bad a clip. Sure, not the funniest thing EVER, but amusing enough.
Making me even rarer is that I’m a vodafone customer and I actually have no problem with them. Not had many issues with coverage, and I dont use them for wireless internet, coming from a comms background I can tell you that NO current Australian provider does wireless internet properly, so dont bother until the infrastructure is better.
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“We have listened to customers and we’re underway with a national network upgrade.”
Apparently they’ve just purchased that giant ball of string from the Vic tourism ads, and customers will be urged to pick up a new tin can next time they’re at Woolies.
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I thought it was pretty funny.
And the sad thing is you could do the same parody for telstra. I moved over from vodafone and am now having the same issues on telstra.
the whole mobile Network in this country is screwed.
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Sure Vodafone are trying to fix it, but it’s been this way for over 6 months now. I’m stuck in a vodafone contract. Spent two hours on the phone (landline) waiting for someone in customer service to answer. Not good enough vodafone. Maybe this video will help vodafone speed up their efforts.
Great video by the way!
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So true, this was my experience until i cancelled my contract, now im with another better company and my phone actually works
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I loved it – but it speaks to me on a whole different level. Optus 3G coverage is not much better.
Thanks to Apple and the plethora of Android phones Australia’s 3G networks have crumbled. 🙁
Will be crossing over to LTE the second it is available to get at least a few months of uncrowded spectrum before the masses join up.
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Vodafone have been using the “we’re underway with a national network upgrade.” for way too long – it’s BS
@David, Bucks and exVodafail – I was with Vodafone for ages and experienced all of these problems. Then I switched to Telstra and I haven’t had one problem since (and no, I do not work for Telstra)
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@ Anon, I agree that Telstra probably do have the best network, (I was going to say service, but then people may confuse that with ‘customer service’ and they dont have that, but none of the providers do).
The only problem with Telstra is their so damn expensive for what they provide.
But like anything, you get what you pay for I guess.
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DAMN! That should be “They’re” instead of “Their”. I hate when people make that mistake.
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@warlach yes you are right – thank you for pointing that out! My bad!
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I’m with 3 and never have trouble with reception….just the overseas accents. Great video!!!
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Total Rubbish………not remotely amusing and no I have nothing to do with
Vodafone
Vodafone might be under the pump right now ….but they are a proven global telco and will get things right…..I would not be surprised if Optus or Telstra had a hand somewhere.
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I was speaking to a friend who used to work at vodafone and 3 Mobile for a while in a mid management position and he told me that it is common knowledge to everyone at Vodafone and 3 Mobile that they are selling a product which does not work properly, he said that most employees themselves do not have great coverage and when clients ring their mobiles it is embarrasing as the call would drop and they had to lie to clients about being in elevators or tunnels, he said that his wife and kids and friends always had mobiles with telstra or optus as he did not want any of his family or friends to be upset with him due to their mobile service not performing like his own vodafone mobile.
He also mentioned that there is no real will to fix this as it cost a lot of money and Vodafone has a bad reputation for coverage that they are focusing on pre-paid and low income families as they know Vodafone Global in the UK does not want to spend the money due to Australia being a small market with a load of territory to cover, this is why their budget for network improvements is about a 10th of what Telstra and Optus spend reason why the Vodafone and 3 Networks are so crap.
I was lucky I was able to get away from my contract as my friend told me that if I complain to Vodafone first about coverage issues and submit my complaint to the TIO (ombdusman), from here I waited 10 days and rung up vodafone again, they said they could not fix my rpoblem, I rung the TIO right after this to tell them what Vodafone had mentioned and 3 days after I received an email from Vodafone saying I was being relesed from my contract,
Make sure you ask the vodafone staff member to give you an email address to send your complaint as you can cut and paste the same email and place it in the TIO online complaint website to spedd things up.
Good luck to all of you still with Vodafone, hope my comment can help you.
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Waaaaaayyyyyy too long and not nearly as entertaining as they clearly think they are.
And I’ve been with Voda for 5 months now and have NEVER had a dropped call.
Ever.
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HILARIOUS!!! Vodafone has the worst service in the history of the world – I’ve moved over to Optus and it’s 100000000 times better.
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Tippex you must be living 24/7 on the roof of a building in a capital city CBD. Don’t go inside – as soon as you’re within a concrete wall you’ll likely bust your call drop-out cherry.
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Brilliant work, Scott and Sheona. New Aussie comedic talents…. I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of you two!!!!
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