Cancellation of data contract woes

Cancellation of data contract.

My issue with vodacom is regarding my ederly fater and the cancellation of his data contract. He upgraded about 2 years ago and asked for the data contract to be cancelled. I acompanied him as he has difficulty with these type of matters. I witnessed him asking for the contract to be cancelled. On his next invoice we noticed that he was still billed for the old contract. I went to the vodshop in Courtney str George to find out what was going on. The consultant told me that they are not allowed to cancel contracts in store and gave me a number to phone. I might ad that was the same consultant who assisted us less than a month ago.

I phoned the number but was told that my father had to do this himself. Needless to say he tried but he got so frustrated with the process so he abanodned it. The other option was to write a letter on a letterhead cancelling the contract. At that stage my father lived in a rural area far from any Vodashop.

I do understand that we didnt exactly exhaust all the options to try and cancel, but why is it so difficult? What is more likely, that some unauthorised person want to cancel your contract (that has run its course i might ad) or that the service provider wants to make it such an unpleasant experience to the customer that they rather not go through the effort and Vodacom can get their monthly fix.

I get calls from many cell service providers telling me exactly what my usage is and how I can save money by upgrading. So how can they not see that a data contract is lying dormant and is not getting used? How about a courtesy call asking why this contract is not being used and discussed other options or help?

About 3 months ago my father needed a phone as his old phone was damaged. We decided to give this one last try and thought that we could upgrade the data contract and possibly get a much needed phone.

"Sorry Sir you do not qualify for a contract with a phone included", said the Vodacom consultant. Thank you very much Vodacom, this is how you repay a loyal customer since 1994 that has not missed a single payment in 25 years. Its shocking to say the least, and being a loyal Vodacom customer since 1997 I am very disappointed.

I would like to see some action from Vodacom to resolve this matter as soon and painlessly as possible. At least I would exspect some gesture of goodwill regarding the lost data over 2 years.

Regards, Marius Louw