WvdM
Willem van der Merwe

1 reviews | Active since Dec 2017

13 Dec 2017, 02:43

contract stopped before 2-year period was over without notice, data plan changed without consent, extra billing for Vodacom's errors!

Firstly, I took a BB in 2015 which included 2 years of BIS and BBM. The contract was supposed to end 2 June 2017 according to vodacom, but from 1 April 2017 the bbm & bis stopped. The call centre told me they could not see a problem on their side and that I had to go to a vodashop, only to be told that blackberry retracted their services and there was nothing that could be done. There was no notification of this and I went from having a fully capable phone to only being able to SMS and call. The phones browser would not even use airtime to browse the internet but everything was working up until 31 March 2017. Up until now, it still can't browse the internet. Secondly, I had taken a "****le" on mymeg500 in 2015 as well. It was R55pm for 500mb of data. At the end of April I contacted the call centre to notify them that I would like the ****le to continue on that plan and to find out if the costs were still going to be the same. The call centre agent informed me that a qualified for a gig extra on that plan for free, thus giving me 1,5gigs of data for R55pm. I accepted and was told that it would come into effect on 1 May 2017. However, since then the ****le stopped working. I contacted the centre numerous times, often being told I had to go in to a vodashop, only to be referred back to the call centre by the store. I was finally told by yet another call centre agent that someone had changed the ****le to a business plan that had no data and that the fee I was paying was just to keep the line open. I explained what had happened and was told the problem would be rectified. When the problem continued I contacted the centre again and was first told that the ****le showed it wasn't even active the previous two years (even though I was using it almost daily) and then I was told that it had been changed to an open uncapped data plan, none of which I authorised. Once again I was reassured by the call centre agent that it would be rectified and that I would be contacted. I was never contacted. Upon testing the ****le for only a few minutes to see if it was finally working again (it had until this point not been working, October if I'm not mistaken) it actually worked and I assumed that the problem was solved and that I was back on the mymeg500 plan which the agent told me it would be changed back to. I did not use it for very long that night and have also not used it since. However, when my debit order for R356 was supposed to go off at the beginning of November, I received a notification that my debit order (for R452 all of a sudden) could not be deducted due to insufficient funds. I always leave enough for my debit order in my account, with extra for banking fees and because the amount was suddenly higher, it could not go through. When querying why the amount was so high, I was told the extra was for data usage outside of my plan. How could I be outside of 500mb for not even an hour's usage?! And how could I be outside of my data plan if I was reassured it would be changed back to the mymeg500? The call centre agent informed me that the problem would be investigated (I explained the whole story to him) and that I would be contacted and informed not only of the outcome, but the total amount for the debit order that didn't go through and that it would be deducted at beginning December along with December's amount - the total coming to about R556 (this was the rough estimate before the investigation was supposed to happen and they were supposed to determine whether or not I was in fact liable for the data costs added to November's amount which was supposed to be part of my data plan!). Today I received a call that my debit order for December could once again not go through due to insufficient funds, which I didn't understand as there was more than enough for both November & December's bills, only for me to find out that the amount I owed was suddenly R820.56. for the umpteenth time I contacted the call centre, only to hear that I was being charged penalties for the debit orders not going through. So I am paying for a mistake on Vodacom's part! Not to mention how bad this looks on my credit record. I am sick and tired of this whole mess! I have been a vodacom customer since I got my first cellphone as a teenager and never had problems till now. And the lack of proper service is pathetic. How can you be referred back & forth between a call centre and a vodashop and not ONE be able to solve the issue?! And how do you charge for something that cannot be used and then make another error and call it the customer's responsibility to pay for something that wasn't done right? This has wasted my time, money and patience and clearly vodacom does not value their customers as they never fulfill their promises of getting back to a person. I will never take out another contract with vodacom. I have been struggling with them since April and I am done!

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Replies (2)
Vodacom
Vodacom's reply13 Dec 2017, 07:12
Official

Dear Customer,

Thank you for making us aware of your complaint.

Kindly be advised that a consultant will make contact with you in due course to assist with your query.

***Please note*** Beware of phishing ****s.

Vodacom will not contact you via Whatsapp to request your personal details.

Regards,
Vodacom Consumer Website Team

WvdM
Willem van der Merwe's update14 Dec 2017, 02:44
Reviewer Update
Today I received a message from vodacom stating that their investigation is done and that they have found my billing to be completely correct and accurate, but will credit my account with R87 (excl vat) as a gesture of goodwill. This to me is absolutely ridiculous. If they had checked their recorded calls logged by me, they would know that the problem was on their side and that my billing was in fact NOT completely correct and accurate! Good will would be them actually going through recorded calls to get proof of what the customer has been saying for 8 months and then rectifying THEIR mistake