Southern Phone Avis 

I've been a Southern Phone customer for internet, landline and mobile since they started in 2002. I've stayed loyal because they stayed Australian and they offered a good service. At least they did until AGL bought them, and since then it's been a steady downhill slide. Most of the time we have little or no mobile coverage, despite them saying they cover our area and coverage is good. It's not. Today there is no coverage at all and I've now discovered that Telstra are doing maintenance work on the local tower and that we'll be without any mobile coverage for at least another week. Southern Phone didn't tell us that or warn us in anyway, and when we rang to ask why there was no coverage, they told us the service was fine and they were unaware of any maintenance. So not only do they not warn their customers about planned outages, they don't even know what is going on with their own network. Internet coverage is equally sketchy and there's never a reason or an apology let alone an improvement in the service. If there are tech issues, you're talking to someone in India, reading from a script in an impenetrable accent. Ask a question and you will be met with silence followed by them picking up the script and starting again. So there is no tech support at all; just people in a foreign call centre wasting time and money. We run 2 businesses and every time there is an outage we're unable to function. We lose money on a monthly basis because of Southern Phone. Even Telstra offers a better standard of service. So after 22 years, we've finally decided to take our business elsewhere.

I don't know what possessed me to use this company. I got a new phone, and deleted the old e-sim from my previous phone. I requested a new e-sim, as I now have no mobile number at all, so far, 2 days later, no reissued e-sim, and multiple online chats telling me that the sim has been sent to me. Requested for my matter to be escalated, and I've been waiting in the online chat for 30 mins now, with no sign of life on the other side. Honestly, how does this level of incompetence exist in 2024, with the amount of competition in this space.

We have been with Southenphone for many years they used to be great service the original add said you will always talk to a Aussie not anymore then you changed plan costs without consultation 😡.

Seems like Southern Phone no longer caters for the older population, who just want to make phone calls and who don't use any data. My 86 year old mum's plan went from $9 a month (which included 1GB of data that she never used for years) to $15, which now includes 10GB of data, again, that she will never use!
So I called, and it sounds like their cheapest plan has to cater for people who want the 10GB of data. Is this yet another company who expects the elderly to pay for others getting more value for their money? :-(

Worst Company and its running under AGL. RIP OFF people

Stay way clear of this company.
I can not understand how a company in Australia get's away with this behavior.
I tried to change over my satellite internet to Southern Phone. We never got to the contract stage.
I was asked to provide a copy of my pensioners card and my drivers license to a one off email address.
I should have never done this.
Got billed two month right away after that and the bill just got higher by the month. Never got connected, Never had access to an account.
The issue is being resolved through TIO now.
No other way to stop them Most awful company and service I experienced in my whole life.
Contact was only possible by complaints. No service at all.

Buying a $2 sim, they added a house phone then tried to bill me, they had an email that wasn't correct, ended up sending mail nearly a year later with bill due in 2 days. All this time, the only item i should of had on account was a mobile number, they didn't text it about anything, the account number on the bill and the valid / invalid email has no account on site yet they want me to pay a bill that HAS NO ACCOUNT? talking to support they say i have an account but instead of mobile i have a home phone? something i haven't had in any house in over 10 years?

It's a joke, everything sounds like a scam and between india call centers and them asking you to send ID verification via mail with a bill due in 2 days? what drugs are these people on? they even ask you to send ID to "their email" which isn't even the main domain you get support on, .net.au instead of the .com.au site you contact them through? it just makes you think it's a scam, and it really feels like it.

I've received numerous phishing and fraudulant emails from 'official email addresses' spoofed to redirect to trevor @ southernphone.com.au

Southernphone needs to ensure they take care of this.

I am happy with them. The price is reasonable and value for money is really good. Customer service people on the phone are excellent.

I’m leaving this review for our Internet service. Although we had NBN dropout problems it seems to have been the network issue and not southern phone. Southern phone customer service has been quite helpful through the process and thoroughly troubleshooting with us and checked back in to see how everything was going, so we’ve decided to just upgrade our modem and stick with them.

I believe the 5G service is a scam. They advertise a 4G/5G Optus connection for just $19 for the first 6 months and $24 for the remaining 6 months. However, you only see 5G on the day of activation. After that, it's just 4G no matter where you are.

my work phone which is also on Optus gets 5G everywhere, but my Southern Phone can't even get 5G in the middle of the CBD. not can’t the company intentionally limit your service to 4G after few hrs from activation! Total scam!

Southern phones are hopeless. My elderly parents with health concerns are with southern phones and so far it has been 6 days and still don’t have the home phone on which is ther lifeline. They say it is the nbn but no one else has that issue. It’s disgusting and it keeps going down on a regular basis. My father has been in and out of hospital this week and doctors have been trying to ring them but the home phone is down. It is disgustingly and not good enough!

I had exceptional technical support with an employee named Steve. He was excellent, very easy to understand the tech stuff, was patient and I didn't feel like an idiot. That is the kind of service I have always received from Southern Phones since we joined years ago. I always want to support Australian & local. I have to admit the customer service I received Wednesday, was destressing. After being told the new modem would take 7 to 10 days to arrive, I had to go into damage control for the business...Then the new modem arrived yesterday, which was amazing. I need help to connect the final stage of the modem so called back this morning, but a person hung up on me this morning after waiting 17 minutes to connect...so I called back and selected the sales option and got an instant response. I was very well looked after by Mandy (please thank her for me) and then I was connected to Steve. Please support these 2 kinds of employees look after them well. They are honestly the reason I have not changed providers over the years. We are easy going people who have been forced into this technical reliance, so if that is the case then easy access to quality service must be provided. I am very appreciative of the support I received in the end, and I cross my fingers and toes that management supports these awesome customer service people, because there just isn't the care and work ethic generally today. These people have retained a loyal customer.

Lost internet for 3 days including weekend last week. Used their 'chat' function to try to sort out, was originally told there was nothing on their end, so must be me..... 3 hours later, I 'chatted' again, this time I was told it was an NBN issue, but only with Southern Phone (I'm not technically savvy, but this sounds like BS to me) Lost a day of work, bought a pre paid modem, and used most of my data allowance. 'Chatted" again today to request a credit to be applied, was informed that I would be entitled to $7!!!!!. Been a loyal customer for 10-15 years, always paid on time etc, but since AGL took over, they're absolute RUBBISH...... do not go with them, you'll be less than impressed. I'm now looking for another AUSTRALIAN based company, and I'm leaving them. To say I'm angry and annoyed is a massive understatement

Unbelievably awful. Don't use their router as it will be network locked so you can't use it with any other ISP network when you inevitably leave them because their service is awful.

Multiple connection drops a day resulting in a need to reset the router numerous times.

worse customer service and support i have ever had .

Even Telstra is better and that is saying something .

Keep well away including NBN

Southern Phone is a joke. Last week they cut my phone off while I was incapacitated in hospital. Its not that I didn't try to pay my bill, but after a total of 18 hours over 4 days on Hold, I had reached my limit. And forget that I paid in ADVANCE for almost 5 years. Then there's the "13 numbers are a local call cost" that I made, that they charged me over $120 for ($1 a minute rate). Not to mention they blocked transfer of my number, so the money I paid for the Telstra Prepaid kit was also down the drain. After being with Southern for a few years, I am SO over them - impossible to contact, impossible to get the truth from, impossible to get any action at all on anything.

They would have to get an award as the most difficult company to deal with. Inefficient, robotic answers to queries, wanting emailed id to talk to you, putting overdue charges on bills when you haven't received a bill, no respect, non business like.

They are just awful. Agl goes thru them for our nbn. Has never been right since first time fixed wireless install in November 2023 last year. 6 bookings for tech, last 4 they cancel don't even tell you and tech no shows and equipment still not fixed. Got ombudsman involved, and manager calls, gaslights and bullies me saying they don't have to do anything. If disruptions arr intermittent I have to call back next time no nbn. To trouble shoot! Already done this many many times. The customer service is a worry. Extremely rude obnoxious gaslighting behaviour is not acceptable. Thankfully the ombudsman is dealing with them now. Still paying full price on our monthly bill despite them not providing thr service promised and cancelling tech 4 x in a row without even informing us. They are stealing our money, and wasting our time. They try to say it's just scheduled maintenance, but it is not. Neighbours on same cell not cut off every 3 days 12 plus hours at a time. Never experienced such terrible service. Do not recommend!!! Would give a 0 score if I could.

Absolutely useless.
Mum went w these jerks, phone wouldn’t work-they still demanded payment…while no phone worked!
And now mum left these a-holes they wouldn’t release her old phone number. Beware.