At least 100 calls to Vodacom without success...

<p>My recent experience (still ongoing) with Vodacom has been extremely frustrating to say the least - I have received what I consider to be the some of the poorest customer service in all my life. This is a long story...</p> <p><br />My wife submitted an upgrade on the 13th of May (her qualification date was the 12th) for an iPhone SE 16GB Rose Gold. The upgrade was done telephonically (since the online system did not work) via Upgrades Direct. At the time, the phone was out of stock (which I only found out after numerous calls the following week), and Vodacom could not give me an expected delivery date.</p> <p>After about 2 weeks (somewhere around the 26th of May) I phoned to enquire about the upgrade and the stock of the iPhone. For some or other reason, none of the call centre agents were able to open my wife's account - it was apparently migrated to the "new system" (which I later found out is called the "C3D system"). Every time I phoned (which was probably 30 times), the agent either transfers me to another department or they tell me that an agent from the "C3D system" will phone me back - this NEVER happened. I was promised what seemed to be tens of times that I will receive a phone call, but nobody ever phoned me.</p> <p>At long last I was told by an agent that the iPhone stock is due to arrive the second week of June and that I should wait until then - Upgrades Direct will send us the phone as soon as the stock arrives.</p> <p>I phoned Vodacom endlessly during the second week of June, encountering the same "Unfortunately I cannot access your wife's account, but I will get an agent with C3D access to phone you back before the end of the day" for days. In the process I confirmed through at least 3 agents that the iPhone SE 16GB Rose Gold was indeed in stock.</p> <p>I visited a Vodacom branch on the 15th of June to see if I can get the problem sorted out, since it has been more than a month of hassles. No success, since the Vodacom branch told me they cannot help me if the upgrade was done through Upgrades Direct.</p> <p>I phoned Vodacom non-stop between the 15th and the 17th of June (luckily I was on leave), without any form of success. I explained our problem to countless agents, many of who made promises that managers will phone me back.</p> <p>Eventually, on the 17th of June, a manager named Mary phoned me back. She made a real effort to find out what was going on with my wife's upgrade. She then told me that the original upgrade of the 13th of May was not on the system. She also told me that a delivery note (or something like that) was generated for RAM couriers on the morning of the 17th of June to deliver the phone to me early the next week. One of the agents that I spoked to before Mary phoned me back also confirmed that the iPhone SE 16 GB Rose Gold was in stock. I thanked Mary profusely, thinking that my problems (and headaches) were gone.</p> <p>On Wednesday the 22nd of June, which was my birthday, my struggles with Vodacom started again. Still not having received my wife's phone, I phone Vodacom again. Through my 100 or so previous calls, I knew which questions to ask / instructions to give to have the best probability of getting transferred to an agent competent enough to help me. After 4 or 5 calls, I found a nice agent who helped me quickly (or so I thoughy). He gave the waybill number for the RAM courier package.</p> <p>I immediately phoned RAM, which was a good thing. The package had been at RAM for a few days, but was due to be sent back to Vodacom because "someone cancelled the delivery". Honestly, why would anyone do that??? Nobody at RAM can tell me who requested the cancellation of the delivery.</p> <p>I requested that they do not send the package back to Vodacom, but that they rather send it to me. Rashid at RAM Cape Town was very helpful and efficient.</p> <p>Today, the 23rd of June, I was jumping up and down with joy when the RAM delivery person walked into my office around noon. My joy was short-lived. The package only contained a SIM-card and some useless "educational voucher". Only the SIM-card. What on Earth should I do with only the SIM-card???</p> <p>I phoned Vodacom (Upgrades Direct) yet again... I explained my grief to the agent, he checked up on the account and the upgrade, and told me that his manager was going to phone me back before the end of the day. He also told me that he too was going to phone me before the end of the day to check if the manager had phoned me. It is 17:00 now, and I have not received one of the two calls. To be honest, I truly doubt that one of them is going to phone me.</p> <p>I am really frustrated and I badly want this to end. I truly hope that my message will reach someone at Vodacom who cares enough to just pick up their phone, call me, and just tell me the truth about what is going on.</p>