Poor Customer Service from Vodacom Trade Route

I went to the vodacom branch at the trade route mall to upgrade a contract that my daughter has been using for the past few years.

I was helped in a most professional manner by the manager Mr. Shaheed Valley. Six days later, my daughter complained to me that the Honor X9B model that we were given was not functioning as advertised. Not only did the battery not last for more than one day and it took close to 2 hours to "fast charge". It also refused to make and answer normal voice calls.

When I returned to the store on 06 February 2024 , I found 4 ladies standing around a single workstation chatting. We, my daughter and I, were not acknowledged until we walked up to the said station (There were no other customers in the store at the time. ) And even then none of the ladies were very enthusiastic about assisting us. I was very disappointed at their lack of professional etiquette, which prompted me to call the manager who informed me that he was on leave and that I should hand my phone to one of the consultants

When I handed the phone to the lady in question, she proceeded to berate the manager telling him that this happens because he as a manager allows their customers to take advantage of him, as a manager. Her words "Because you allow your customers to sit on your head . . . . " this in my presence. As you may imagine, I was decidedly irritated having heard this. I proceeded to call and email the Vodacom customer services but I have not heard back from them in any form to date. This however, is just a very small part of the problem that persists. Having explained to the ladies the problems that we experienced with the brand new handset, they informed me that it would be taken in for inspection and they would update me on progress. I called the same manager to request that he rather cancel this contract so that I could take my business to another service provider since it is abundantly clear that Vodacom does need me as a client.

I called him back the next day and he informed me that he was not at work having taken sick leave. As I did not want to trouble him during his illness I requested him to call me back concerning the progress of either cancelling the contract or at the very least replacing the faulty handset with a new one that is in proper working order. It has been almost 10 days since that call and he has not once called me back to inform me of progress.

I may not be a customer that spends thousands of Rands on a monthly basis, I am however one that has never missed a single payment in more than 10 years on any of my contracts taken with them. As a long standing customer I am quite disappointed at the lack of customer service and common courtesy that I am used to receiving from Vodacom.