Blatant theft by Vodacom - Incorrect and unauthorised debit from my bank account - Vodacom ignores me and refuses to refund me - Unacceptable

I requested premature cancellation of my Vodacom mobile phone contract on 16 October 2017. Upon receipt of the cancellation quotation, I promptly made payment of the full quoted amount, completed and submitted all necessary documentation and proof of payment to Vodacom Retentions same day 16 October 2017.

On 1 January 2018, an unauthorised amount was incorrectly and *******ly debited by Vodacom from my bank account. Despite numerous phone calls, being pushed from department to department, emails, more phone calls and a number of unfulfilled promises by Vodacom staff, I have not been refunded the debited amount.

The above problem has arisen due to the fact that the person at Vodacom Cancellations failed to cancel the contract on the Vodacom system upon receipt of the cancellation documentation on 16 October 2017, despite my request to confirm cancellation by responding email accordingly, for which I have proof of this correspondence.

Due to the fact that Vodacom Cancellations failed to cancel the contract correctly on their system in October 2017, I received a further invoice to my account in December 2017, some 2 months after I had made payment of the full quoted premature cancellation amount and submitted all required documentation to Vodacom Cancellations accordingly.

I contacted Vodacom Cancellations immediately after receiving the additional invoice in December 2017 to query this issue. The representative at Vodacom Cancellations admitted during this conversation that they had failed in performing their job in the correct cancellation upon receipt of the attached documentation on 16 October 2017.

Despite me contacting Vodacom Cancellations regarding the incorrect invoice, the unauthorised was debited incorrectly and *******ly by Vodacom on 1 January 2018.

I immediately raised a dispute with Vodacom and was subsequently pushed from department to department, first Customer Services, then Cancellations, then Accounts, then back to Customer Services. Some 10 phone calls later (from the UK where I am currently residing), the matter is yet to be resolved and I am yet to be paid back the funds *******ly debited from my account.

I was again promised full reimbur*****t by 17 January 2018 during phone call to Vodacom Retentions on 13 January 2018. During this phone call, the Vodacom consultant promised that the above amount would be paid back into my account by no later Wednesday 17 January 2018. Please check your voice records to confirm this phone call on 13 January 2018 in which the above promise was made.

Over the course of this year, I have made numerous follow up calls and emails to Bongani Mbatha at Vodacom Retentions, as he had promised me he would personally resolve this matter. To date no payment has been made.

This is simply unacceptable. This is an error on the part of Vodacom and NOT the customer.

Following my first post to Hello Peter, I was assured by Vodacom that this matter would be resolved. This is what happended....

I was contacted by Candy Mnisi from Vodacom Retentions on 16 April 2018. Her response ... "Please note that both your lines are cancelled and credits were done due to late cancellation to balance the account. Your account is up to date and you do not owe Vodacom anything ."

I responded same day to explain to why the above statement is incorrect.

I sent through to Candy Mnisi all relating documentation including the two incorrect November and December 2017 invoices. No response. No acknowledgement of receipt. Nothing.

I have followed up with 3 subsequent emails requesting a response or at least an acknowledgement that my email has been received. Radio silence... No reply at all from Vodacom. Nothing.

It's absolutely pathetic. This is clearly an intentional tactic used by Vodacom to ***** money from good South Africans. Here I am over 4 months since the incorrect debit and still no refund. It's blatant theft.