Beware Vodacom Premature Cancellation Billing

<p>I successfully ported my cell number from Vodacom to Cell C in March 2016. I had to obtain a premature cancellation quotation in order to pay off my contract. I obtained the quotation on 14 March and settled my account on 18 March, well within the 14 days validity specified on the quotation. Two months later Vodacom debited R2,295 off my account. As I had settled my account in full and never received a Tax invoice from them, I reversed the debit, suspecting it may be *****. I then contacted the Vodacom accounts department. It took over a week for them to send me a Tax invoice and statement, as they said my account had been closed and they could not pull up any billing details. Once I received the invoice and statement, I contacted them to get them to explain why my Premature Cancellation quotation stated an amount of R16,399.76 and the statement showed an amount of R18,695, hence the R2,295 outstanding balance. They could not explain why and said they would investigate and come back to me, which they never did.</p> <p>The next month Vodacom again debited this amount, and I once again I reversed the debit. I then went into the Vodacom Care Centre in Gateway on 09 July. The consultant looked at all my documentation and could not work out why there was a discrepancy. He contacted various departments and nobody could give an explanation. He said it looked like the account had been charged VAT on top of the cancellation quotation figure and that they had been changing over to a new account system and this must have been an error, because the quotation figure had already included VAT. He then escalated the query for which I received a reference no. Nobody ever got back to me on this issue. He also suggested that I call their KZN Liaison Officer, Riaan and ask him to help sort out this issue. I called several times and he never answered. I did however leave several messages with his assistant, on his phone and sent him SMS’s. He never returned one of my phone calls, which I think is disgusting as he is supposed to be the head customer care person for the region. I contacted several departments and consultants over the next few weeks and could still not get any answers. I had now started getting final letters of demand and spoke to several consultants who asked me to send all the documentation through, which I did. None of them came back to me. Finally another consultant escalated my query again on 12 August, for which I received another reference no. Nobody came back to me. I eventually spoke to a consultant in the collections department who suggested I send an email to their legal department as my account had already been handed over to them. I sent the email on 17 August and received an automated response, giving another reference no. and stating that I would be contacted within 5 working days. Over a week went by and still no contact from them. After several more calls to try and sort this issue out, I received a call on Monday, 29 August from a supervisor to say that my account had been handed over to a firm of attorneys. I contacted them the same day and they said that I have now been blacklisted and registered on ITC. They asked me to send through all the documentation again, which I did. I still have had no confirmation from them that they have received this information. I do not see how this can be legal, considering all contact I have had with Vodacom and the effort I have made to try and sort this issue out. I have not tried to run away from any payment obligation, I just needed Vodacom to verify account billing details and explanation as to why I was being charged this additional amount. The Vodacom customer care, accounts, cancellations system is the most frustrating, useless system I have ever dealt with. It seems it doesn’t matter if you don’t know what the invoice is for you just have to pay. Nobody takes any responsibility for anything, every department blames the other and nothing gets sorted. Nobody responds to any queries that are logged on their system or verifies why queries have not been dealt with. It is impossible that Vodacom has not followed or tracked any of those multiple communications I have had with them.</p> <p>How can Vodacom charge again for a cancellation invoice that is supposed to include all outstanding costs because Vodacom has made a mistake with initial calculation?<br />How can Vodacom debit my account without sending a statement breakdown notifying me of the debit when that account is closed and paid up and Vodacom cannot access their own files and old statement details for queries?<br />How is it possible that Vodacom has not tracked or responded to the multiple, recorded telephone calls, emails, reference numbers etc that I have made?<br />How is it possible that none of the consultants and the KZN Liaison Officer have been tracked or reprimanded for not taking any responsibility, not performing their job properly and passing the buck?<br />How is it possible that the Gateway Customer care centre has no floor manager and is under staffed as it is going through a change of franchise and there is no one on site that can solve or fast track your query and the consultants do not have the authority to do anything, they have to call the call centre. You can wait up to 2 hours for assistance depending on your requirements.<br />Why does Vodacom have the right to Blacklist me and put a judgement on ITC as a unreliable non –payer? It is a very serious thing having your credit rating flagged on these data bases it is a complicated process and can take years to get it cleared off the data base with large costs. I find it insulting that Vodacom are such corporate bullies. They don’t have the right to blacklist me as they are in the wrong! They never responded to me with the billing details requested , they never tried to solve the issue due to their own internal problems and took so long that they have blacklisted me for their mistakes.</p>