Disgust at poor service from Vodacom

I write this review to express my extreme disappointment with Vodacom. At the beginning of the year I logged onto their online site and was informed that I qualify for an upgrade. I work for an NGO and our funding has been cut, which also means that salaries have been cut, severely. So, I found a package that I thought was a more affordable option, clicked on it and completed the necessary questions. I was very impressed when my new device was delivered within 2-3 days on 1 March 2024. BUT immediately after taking delivery of my new phone, I received a SMS message notifying me that my new line will be activated shortly. That is not what I wanted: I don't want a line or a new contract on top of my existing contract, I wanted to replace/upgrade my existing contract, because that is what I understood the online site said.

So on 2 March 2024, I took the phone and everything else to my nearest Vodacom shop and explained to them the problem. The staff there were very friendly, but told me that there is nothing they can do to assist, I have to phone *** to cancel the contract - they even write the number down for me in case I forgot it. Still on 2 March 2024, I phoned *** and explained to the lady to answered my call the problem and she informed me that she was cancelling the contract and that someone from a courier company would contact me to come and collect the new phone, which is still in the original packaging, plastic covered, etc. She could not give me a reference number, but said that I would be provided with one in due course.

On 13 March 2024, after I still haven't heard anything from Vodacom or a courier company, I phoned *** again and spoke to a new lady, who had no knowledge of the first call on 2 March 2024, but once again assured me that she repeated the whole cancellation and that a courier company would contact me.

By 27 March 2024, I still haven't heard anything from Vodacom or courier company and I am now starting to experience some deja vu. However this time, the lady who answered the phone, Ronel, rudely told me that I am at the wrong Vodacom number and that she does not deal with cancellations. I was a bit surprised, because her two predecessors did not say anything about the wrong number even though they clearly only pretended to assist me to cancel the contract. Ronel put me through to a new department, where I spoke to another person, who this time also swore high and low that SHE is the one to speak to and to action this cancellation, guaranteeing me that it will be done and that I should wait for, guess what, the courier company to phone me to collect the device, whereupon they will cancel the contract.

Needless to say, nothing happened and the phone remains untouched in my desk drawer waiting for Vodacom's courier company to come and collect it so that the contract can be cancelled. So on 26 April 2024, I once again phoned ***, because I do not know what number Ronel had put me through to, as my terrible luck would have it, Ronel answered again and once again informed me that she's not the person to cancel my contract. This time she told me to phone ***, she couldn't be bothered to put me through. BY now, I am livid because this is the 5th person that I have now spoken to and still have not been assisted.

When I phoned ***, on 26 April 2024, a very patient lady told me that she deals with customer care matters and that (you've guessed again) is NOT the person to assist me to cancel the contract. She did however put me though to a young gentleman this time.

After I explained the whole story AGAIN to the young gentleman along with the fact that he is now the 7th person at Vodacom that I am speaking to and that at least 3 people before him swore that they have cancelled the contract, he proceeded to guarantee me that HE is the one who is now cancelling the contract. He saw the record of my call on 2 March 2024, and subsequent ones, but none of them actually cancelled the contract. In an attempt to be helpful, in a call that lasted about 33mins, with me having to hold for how long while he was apparently escallating to management, he advised that everything will NOW be sorted out and this time, event SMS'd me a "ticket reference number" 211790. The gentleman and the SMS both stated that I will receive a response within 48 to 72 hours. Knowing that there were weekends and public holidays ahead, I asked him whether this time frame included weekends and public holidays, but he advised that it was excluded.

That evening, the lady who took my call at customer care, phoned me twice to advise me to continue to follow up on the cancellation - just in case...... She probably knows her own employer and their poor service better than I do.

Well guess what? 72 hours have lapsed, having provided for weekends and public holidays and not a single peep from Vodacom OR their courier. To add insult to injury, Vodacom now want to charge me for the 2 months of the contract, that I have been trying to cancel for 2 months. I am going to do my utmost to stop that debit order.

I have been a Vodacom customer, with the same cell phone number, since the first time that I got a cell phone which is probably close to 2 decades now. It is however experiences like this that makes me wonder if I should not simply move completely to another cell phone company because clearly, the staff at the shops are not capacitated to assist the customers and the staff at the call centres unfortunately appear to be either ********* and ************* (because they do not do what they say they are/were doing) or the company and its management simply do not care about their customers any more, even if matters are "escalated" to them. It is all just about the money it seems.