Complaint to Mr. C.E.O Shameel Joosub

Dear Vodacom,

This letter serves as an informal complaint, and ICASA has a 48hour turnaround time for a response on such matters and am respectively asking for a call on ********** 748. If I’m not available leave your name, designation and direct number I will get back to you.

This is a formal request for Vodacom to send me a recording of all my calls ever made to your support center since May 2016. As well as to. This is in plain view of a formal complaint being the next step should this letter be ignored. I also advise the person at Vodacom in charge of the hellopeter complaints to read this carefully.

This is my first resort to attempting to get a person at Vodacom to hear me out regarding my billing issue as the debtors call center are useless. I am in the telecoms industry as well and honestly the kind of regard that Vodacom has dealt with me is shocking to say the least and my next step is to drive physically to ICASA offices to plead my case and get the ball rolling on how I feel Vodacom ****** me, gave me a bad credit status and still delete my number off the entire system.

I had a cell contract which was R389pm inclusive of data and maybe airtime top up. In 2016 I started a new job and upgraded the package to a a package which was suitable to my pocket and also the agent who upgraded me forgot to mention that it was similar to my TOP UP package, only once the minutes ran out it starts charging you towards your bill every month and my 1st bill on this package came to over R1000 for the calls only. forget the monthly installment. I called them to ask ***? spoke to a lady who advised me that for the 1st 3 months there is no limit I can set and honestly this was where I should have cancelled everything with this company who I feel have no regard for me as a consumer who has certain rights as well. So, if you are reading this and you are a Vodacom customer on contract and feel they overbilling because something wasn’t explained properly by the inexperienced (I can’t even call it a call center because there is never a supervisor available to escalate a pressing issue)

So essentially, this message is to let you Vodacom know that I signed up for a service on your app which came to around R500 extra PM for around 10GB of mobile data, and when you didn’t receive payment you cancelled my services totally, and mind you this means that I now cannot cancel the extra services till the arrears is paid. (WHICH IS UTTER BULL****) Then to my surprise every month I would be charged for this 10GB extra, never used it after the account was suspended because there was no way to even cancel or utilise this R500 data extra on my contract.

I have been watching the invoices and 8/9months later they are still invoicing me for the extra app data on top of that my outstanding balance is R15k in arrears for the 8/9-month nonpayment. So my wife called in and asked how they can charge for the data they said no once I pay I will then get the data back to use again after payment confirmed. I have now been blacklisted, my cell number is non-exiatant and not even pre-paid they just cancelled the number took all that extra data (that I was supposedly going to get back after payment) and sent me to a legal debt collection agency. Every time anyone from Vodacom has called me since this started I explain to the consultant that you cant charge e R500 extra for something I opted in for on the app that they(Vodacom) locked me out of totally not allowing me to cancel this data I am not using. Secondly I feel this is my last option as ICASA or whoever regulates this market will be made aware of this matter and I will request for everyone readng this and relating please comment or say your say to show SA how many people there are going through this. I cannot finance anything at all, because of this and I can promise Vodacom that I will not pay that amount they request and even if it means going to the highest court and newspapers via friends in high places I will do that. Vodacom has not listened to me as a consumer and the upgrade of my line in 2016 that call with myself and the agent is the first call I will request and will be part of a playlist of calls that I will request and you Vodacom cannot deny this from me. So ... I wanna know who is gonna call me and listen to me and provide a solution because I know these big companies feel they can threaten and intimidate us when we dont pay (for whatever humanly reason). Me I will not stand for this and I feel that I know my rights to a certain point, thereafter I will make it my mission to take this matter that I have been slowly watching and recording for the past 8/9 months to make sure that I get at least a fair hearing and if in a court of law I am proven to be wrong for not paying due to them charging me R1100pm EVERY MONTH, when I signed a 24month contract for less than R500pm. This is not my first issue with these people but me being in the ISP space am not going to stand for this and I will rather die than be hustled out of my hard earned money by a system that maybe the majority of people accept becaue they need telephony and connectivity, and by blacklisting me as well after numerous attempts to get a human being not a call center agent whose whole department gets paid what this person does for sitting on his ass and approving this kind of abuse to their customers. I have been with them for long now Vodacom, still love them to bits for the variety of services they offer. However, you mess with my the mouths and bellies of my family, I can assure you I know a few things too and would hate to show you Vodacom that me as the small person can also win by just knowing my rights and I know legally Vodacom might have the money to take anyone on, I have news for you... There is such a thing as free legal services in our courts, there is legal plans which assures I’m not of pocket at a time like this, however for a R15k that you claim I owe you and cannot even explain or justify this, I personally feel the risk is not worth it, however one never knows if they will win a war till it is fought or discussed to resolve. I look forward to a response from Vodacom, I just hope that this person that calls me will be able to listen to me, dont tell me about a contract on a damn app that I opted into, its misleading and I feel its ****************. If no response received please feel free to keep your eyes peeled on this, will start a hashtag too #VODACOMVSJAFTHA.

I also would like to re-iterate that I do not want a call from anybody that is not willing to meet me in person, in order for me to show what I got here and explain it or at least come back, I have this anger due to the fact that I cleared all my debt after 10 long years of suffering, and just to sign up with a company that thinks I don’t want to pay them so they going to just bill me???? I’m sorry, however the other mobile providers I have engaged with and personally they showed me how competent they are when it comes to listening to their clients, social media is all about paying to advertise your bad service at a larger scale and I will do this.

The C.E.O of Vodacom is the reason why this is happening and I intend to lodge this as a formal complaint against him and the company for this grievance is now personal too Mr. C.E.O Shameel Joosub The mere fact that everybody else at Vodacom has given me the same story, and I’m still trying to get an explanation as to each question I have. I am calling out the CEO of Vodacom and asking him to help me, and by showing why he gets paid the big bucks because a CEO just has a title, I feel as the head of the company does he even know what’s going on in the company? I feel it is my consumer right to start here on hellopeter.com to show you as the masses you are not alone, then further because my irate phase is now over, I feel as much as you feel you can do this to me, I have rights and do not underestimate the power of customer service especially now in this digital world we live in. I am losing business day by day because of this issue and this is a cost I am prepared to get the courts to decide who is right in this manner. NB: I do want to pay you Vodacom, however I want answers too. The blacklisting I found out about today and feel that its uncalled for, I was denied providing a roof over my family’s heads while you rob me?

PS: I had a client today who was billed for not cancelling his service with us, he was distraught as I know my client would lay a formal complaint (Nobody would, without good reason) without feeling somewhat dissatisfied with a matter or service. I then listened to him, unlike the other 58 people and I got his credit approved, services unsuspended after 2months of shouting from him. I save my company a customer and believe me he refers so many people to me as well as my company. Service is a problem in this country, being in this industry I know every fiber in my body tells me I am being ******. So before I just pay and let you rob me, I will fight for service and to be heard. I will fight since I was raised to know right from wrong, and what you Vodacom is doing is wrong. I have certain steps I can follow to get this heard with ICASA/court or whatever. But I want to be heard by you as my service provider treating me like a fool. You want me to pay but you can’t even listen to your customers who might I add is the life bone of your company. I can go on writing all day, however I should get back to what I am reading Electronic Communications Act 2014.

I await your response.