Customer Support...The Lack Thereof

<p>To whom it may concern</p> <p> </p> <p>I have a light-weight contract of R79 pm that gives me R79 pm worth of airtime, 250MB data and some sms's. This was a special deal I was offered when I wanted to cancel my previous contract.</p> <p> </p> <p>From the beginning of this month I've been checking my balances with the *111* code, but it doesn't reflect any of the aforesaid airtime / data / sms's. Benefit of the the doubt to Vodacom: maybe there was a payment error from my side or I inadvertantly "did something wrong". Things happen, no problem.</p> <p>So I finally decided to call "Customer Care" on 082 11 and follow the prompts to get some assitance. *Five times*, because the call gets dropped either immediately or the automated voice prompts deteriorate in quality until it drops or the line goes silent.</p> <p>Now I try the online chat service from the Vodacom site (http://help.vodacom.co.za/personal/contactus). Twice. Because both times the chat just drops out. </p> <p>I'm on my way to write a review on hellopeter when a very profesional sounding lady from Vodacom calls me. I was actually impressed... up to the point where she tells me she cannot help me with my contract problem, because she's not in the correct department and the contract I'm describing is not showing on her system. This is customer support. I am a customer requiring support, but apparently my contract problems don't qualify under the category of "support". The (still nice and profesional) lady gives me the number for the upgrades department ( ********** ). I admit, I'm impressed with the lady on the phone, because at this time I was clearly not very happy and she kept her cool.</p> <p>I call the number provided. Twice. It drops the first time, then gets past the prompts on the second try, only for the line to go silent. Again. </p> <p> </p> <p>This is the point where I smile, take a deap breath and write this review. *Two stars* for the lady calling me back and staying calm through my frustration. *Minus five stars* for a world-class company apparently having a broken customer support system.</p> <p> </p> <p>Regards</p>