A tale of Mr Price and the nonrecurring data

A tale of Mr Price and the nonrecurring data

Bought a Samsung J1 mini for my mother-in-law so that she could use whatsapp about half way through December 2018. This was to come with "free" 400 MB Vodacom data. The man who sold us the phone sorted out everything and all I did was check the data balance and there was nothing. I queried this and he told me that it would take up to a week for the data to kick in, which is weird as the payment starts immediately, never the less I waited.

End of the month (December) and still nothing. I go back to Mr Price and tell them I’m here to pay an account and query the missing data. After a few minutes one of the cashiers calls me to make payment and I do. Right afterwards I mention the missing data and they tell me that they can’t help me. I would have to go straight to Vodacom, which does make sense. So I go to Vodacom and they log a complaint to customer care which is apparently all they can do, as I am told.

That afternoon the phone received 600MB. Lovely!

The following month (February) and nothing again. I go to Vodacom and they tell me that they think Mr. Price could have given me the wrong sim card. So I go to Mr. Price and check and all they do is tell me it is the right one… without even inspecting it or looking at their machines… damn these are obviously some experts with x-ray vision to examine the sim through my pocket and phone, and some MEW level psychic abilities to read the phone number out of my mind!!!

So I return to Vodacom with their less s****ed staff who have to use their primitive eye ***** and technology to help solve my problem. If only they were on par with Mr. price’s God like staff, ahhh what a shame. But the story doth stop here m8y. They log their complaint and the next day, BAM! 400MB!

And in an unpredictable turn of events, March pulls up, no data… again. I’m tired of Vodacom winning the battles but not the war I go back to the past before I bought the phone. I wish. No, I go back to Mr. Price and I wanted to speak to whoever was in charge of the cellular department (like a double sided shelf). They call for her through the indoor speakers (I’m not sure what it’s called). I wait a while a lady walks up in uniform, not her. I wait, and another walks up, not her. One of the cashiers scream for her and she pops up asking if someone was calling her (FYI this is not a very big store).

I tell her the story … her reply is “sometimes the data works, sometimes it doesn’t” my reply is “Okay. Why are you selling phones with “free” data that we don’t get?” her reply is “I don’t tell people about the free data because I know it doesn’t always work” *I stare with widened eyes* *She just looks at me* I ask “how do I get my data” her reply is “phone customer care” my reply is “Vodacom did, that doesn’t solve anything” *She just looks at me* *a pause* her reply is “I can phone customer care for you” *in my mind “wow!”

It is now April and I did give up and forget about it. But we received a message from Mr. Price reminding us to pay our account for the phone and imaginary data and it just sparked an idea for me to document this amazing journey my wife and I have been on.

We did also receive a call last month from Mr. Price telling us that we need to make payment and that they were watching our account. Marvellous service. At the moment I’m just paying for an overpriced J1 mini.

And folks I know that work is hard to come by. At my current employment they have a no work no pay policy. So I don’t take off days. Every hour I’m waiting in lines to query this is money I am losing.

Yours sincerely A mere human without your magnificent grace and virtue