Disgusted at pathetic customer service and assistance

<p>From 06 October 2016 up to date I've been having the worst experience with regards to non-existent customer service after having to open 3 disputes with 3 different reference numbers on the same issue I have and up to date nothing has been resolved.</p> <p> </p> <p>I received my September statement which was more than double my normal monthly expenditure with Vodacom only to notice that the following two mistakes have been made by Vodacom:</p> <p> </p> <p>1. I have been charged for extra calls. When I upgraded my phone +- 1 year ago I asked for a soft lock of R100 on my phone. The sales person told me they can't do it in store and that I had to phone Vodacom customer care to load the soft lock. I made this call and was informed by the agent that it has been successfully loaded and once the line has been soft locked I would have to wait for the next month before it will unlock. I agreed to these terms. However, in my September statement I noticed that I have been charged more than R200 for extra calls, meaning that the person who "supposedly" loaded the call lock a year ago actually never did, even though she told me it has been activated!!!</p> <p> </p> <p>2. I have been charged for extra data usage. In the last week or two of September I received a message from Vodacom informing me that my data has run out after which I added an extra 100MB of data for the month. A few days later I received another message informing me that my data has run out again and that I could add 1GB of data for 30 days at a rate of R149. I agreed to these terms and received an automated message telling me that 1GB data has been successfully activated and the amount of R149 would be added to my next bill. Knowing I had 1GB of data I obviously spent a lot of time on the internet etc to use up the data before 30 days, only to find out later that this data has indeed never been activated on my account by Vodacom and I was actually spending cash I didn't have.</p> <p> </p> <p>On 06 October 2016 I phoned Vodacom for the first time to dispute these two extra amounts on my account. The person I spoke to took a detailed statement from me explaining everything I told her and she informed me that an SMS with reference number will be sent to me. I never received the said SMS with reference number had to phone Vodacom back on more than one occasion to get the reference number. Eventually I was informed that the first dispute has been closed without any resolution and that I had to re-open the dispute. The second time around the person who assisted me opened two different disputes with two different reference numbers in the hope that it will help the issue to get resolved quicker. I was told to give the one dispute 4 days for feedback and the other 7 to 14 days.</p> <p> </p> <p>While waiting for feedback on the dispute I kept on receiving automated calls (more than 5 a day) from Vodacom informing me to pay the outstanding amount. I did a follow up call on 17 October to find out where the dispute process was at and I was informed that it was still open and waiting for feedback. I complained to the agent that I am getting all these automated calls which is really disturbing in my line of business. She told me that I had to phone accounts directly to ask them to stop these calls until the dispute has been resolved. I did exactly this but was informed that accounts collections cannot add or change anything on disputes and that I had to phone customer service and speak to a supervisor. The last agent I spoke to told me that they would load an urgent note on the dispute for feedback and that someone will definitely phone me back as soon as there is anything resolution. Therefore I decided to stop phoning.</p> <p> </p> <p>About two to three weeks ago I received a threatening SMS from Vodacom telling me that they are going to suspend my number if I do not make payment arrangement immediately. I phoned Vodacom and had a fight with the agent who assisted me and told her that I demand to talk to a manager/supervisor. I asked the supervisor how can Vodacom threaten their customers like that even though there is still a dispute going on. He apologised and told me he would personally deal with my case and get back to me within 24 hours - which he never did! And when I phoned back the next day no-one new who he was or in which department he was... Great customer service huh??</p> <p> </p> <p>Another agent loaded another note on my dispute trying to get a quick response on the dispute on my behalf without any luck. With all this still going on and no-one getting back to me Vodacom has decided to actually suspend my phone last week. As soon as I realised it, I phoned Vodacom immediately screaming at the person helping me and explaining my situation for the 100th time. He also apologised, told me he saw the dispute was still ongoing and unsuspended my phone. He asked me to phone Customer care again to ask them that a manager/supervisor must escalate the dispute. I did phone Customer care the next morning before 8 where I spoke to two agents, the one trying to not transfer me to a supervisor, I told her that I refuse to talk to an agent and she eventually transferred me to Ishmael Ncube he informed me that he was a supervisor and would phone me back within 4 hours with an answer of the decision made by Vodacom. Ironically.... I AM STILL WAITING FOR THAT DAMN CALL!!!!!</p> <p> </p> <p>Today I received yet another call, this time from Shavonne from the consumer collections department. He told me that they will suspend my phone again and hand me over to legals where I will be liable for all fees. Once again I had to fight and explain my situation, he looked into it and confirmed that this dispute is still open (this has been a month now - what ever happened to 7 to 14 working days??). He gave me the direct number of the accounts department and told me to ask for a manager/supervisor there and they would definitely resolve this issue for me. I spoke to a manager by the name of Morena, he even tried phoning the data department - on my behalf - to try and get it resolved but even he couldn't get hold of them... How ridiculous is your internal system?? He told me that he would put yet another urgent note on my dispute to get this resolved and in the meanwhile he will take the suspension of my number off and they will not hand me over to legal while this is still pending.</p> <p> </p> <p>In this past month I have spoken to the following people and none of them has up to date been able to resolve this problem:</p> <p> </p> <p>Motlaletule, Eva, Mxolisi (Cape Town), Sisonke, Portia, Rihaad (Accounts), Sanele (Accounts), Simon (supposed supervisor), Portia (same or different?), Sibu, Tebogo, Ismael Ncube (supposed supervisor), Shavonne, Morena (Manager - Accounts)</p> <p> </p> <p>I have been with Vodacom for more than 6 years and before this matter I have always paid my account in full - actually I always round it off and pay a bit more. How is it right that a customer has to pay so much every month and when they have a problem they have to deal with *********** / unhelpful staff, have to phone every day, get frustrated and irritated, fight, scream and still at the end of the day, almost two months later no-one can resolve the problem??? This is ridiculous and cannot be called Customer Service.</p> <p> </p> <p>I demand that someone in a management position phone me back and get this issue resolved!!!</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>