An abysmal experience with this company. I needed to get a German phone contract for my online work, and mistakenly applied for a 24-month one with Vodafone. I was assured in the shop that (a) I would be able to speak to an English hotline to get help whenever I needed it and (b) I could transfer my contract to a Vodafone branch in another country if I moved. Neither of these turned out to be true. The English hotline is non-existent - the customer service agents refuse to transfer you to an English-speaking employee and tell you to say OPERATOR when you access the German menu, which never, ever works (confirm with other complaints about this online). I completely understand that this is a German company operating in Germany, but I was assured explicitly that I would be able to get help by telephone in English. Furthermore, when I left Germany and tried to transfer my contract to the UK, they refused to do it, saying I had to finish my contract with German vodafone. So two flat-out, shameless lies. Finally, the MeinVodafone app they give you on your smartphone fills your screen with ads for upgrades, and if you accidentally click on one (in hopes of getting rid of it), they can bill you for some new and amazing upgrade you didn't give them permission for. Oh, and of course you can't cancel your contract, even if you're willing to pay a fee. In every country I've lived in before I've been able to cancel contracts, but it appears to be German practice to permit companies to lock you in with no way out until the contract ends: Ah, no, not until your contract ends: you have to keep paying for one year more because if you don't tell them to cancel it three months before, they'll automatically renew it! I've never seen such filth in all my life. But then maybe I'm a non-initiate and this is standard practice in Germany - in which case maybe I should have given them 5 stars.
