Beware of the future of Vodacom!

This is both a review and a warning based on my experience.

We are a rural resort relying on Vodacom for all communications, telephone/cell and data. A tower was vandalized on the 28th Nov 2023. I write this review a month later on the 26th Dec 2023. Myself and other companies which also rely on Vodacom, have been submitting fault reports, trying to speak to senior management and generally trying to resolve the issue.

The worst irony is that they keep closing the tickets, not because they have fixed the fault, but because they cant get hold of us on the very network we are reporting as broken in the first place.

In this extremely frustrating process, some very pertinent information for clients has surfaced, albeit hearsay. 1. Vodacom is reviewing fixing outlying towers in less populated areas prone to vandalism. I think this is important information for new potential clients to know. 2. All maintenance seems to be now contracted out, similar to what happened to Telkom I believe before its demise. These contractors are not reachable and don't seem to have any accountability - another SA story isn't it?

In addition to the above, we have been given any number of reasons including one revolving around being contractually committed to an individual with whom there was some legal issue and the contractor was not allowed to fix the tower and therefor it had to remain in disrepair until some time in January. Although I do not put much faith in any of these excuses, it does tend to show the incompetency in Vodacom.

Again the frustration by the staff having to deal with us the public is evident, so I assume this is happening often and around the country. I personally believe that perhaps Vodacom corporate is following the same slippery path as we have seen with SOE's and as a rural business I would be very careful of doing business with them in the future if you can avoid it.

Vodacom has lead us to believe in their marketing campaigns and their previous exemplary service, that they care about their customer base and would at all times ensure a reliable service. This service not only affects our direct business but also security issues in outlying areas which can be life threatening without solid communications.

The abandonment of these principles borders on immoral.