Dishonest and Poor Customer Services

Good day To Whom This May Concern, My name is Tarikha Moodley, and I have been a customer of Vodacom for +- 10 years. Over these years I have had multiple contracts and endless issues with very poor customer services. My recent unpleasant experience has made me write this complaint, as the services is unacceptable and dishonest. Early in July 2024 I received a call from a Vodacom sales consultant to offer a Wi-Fi/Fiber contract. My first question to the consultant was "Is this uncapped, and what is the catch?" The consultant advised it was uncapped for R346 a month. I asked the consultant to please call my husband on his cell and confirm the finer details of the contract, my husband then confirmed with me that all seems fine based on what was said to him by the Vodacom consultant. The consultant then called me back that afternoon and because everything seemed to be good, we proceeded with the telephonic application approval/form. As soon as we were done with completing the application form for the new Home uncapped WIFI, as the young gentleman was putting the phone down, in the background I heard a loud noise of a team clapping for him for making this sale. Are we a sales pitch for Vodacom? The very same day when I called the cancellation department to cancel my current Fiber contract that I took out in 2020 which I am currently paying R769 for, the consultant who took my call asked me why am I cancelling and I advised because I just signed up for a cheaper contract with Vodacom. The consultant did her verification on her side and asked a few further questions, she then advised me that there is no such contract they have for uncapped Wi-Fi at the price of R346, and this contract that was just sold to me is actually capped (Dishonesty by the sales consultant)

Once I spoke to 4 different Vodacom consultants in July trying to cancel the new contract sold to me, I have had no luck with receiving confirmation this cancellation has been done, nor have I had any feedback from a Team Leader, Supervisor or Manager yet I have requested this be escalated in July already as I made it clear to everyone I spoke with, I do not want this contract activated and I do not want to be debited. The last consultant I spoke to in July from Vodacom, assured me that for as long as I have called and logged a cancellation for this contract – ***, my query will be logged and investigated and feedback will be provided to me, he also assured me that while the investigation is taking place the new contract number will not be activated, and for as long as it is not activated I will not be debited. I have since been debited in August 2024, in September 2024 I was debited for a very large amount which I was not made aware of, October 2024 another debit was taken for the contract which should have not been activated.

Unfortunately, and one of the most disappointing experiences for the above experience is that whenever I call to follow up, there is no record or references I can trace back to. There are no notes on system, and every consultant I speak to, I need to repeat myself over and over, even if I speak with 6 consultants in a day, yet every call made to Vodacom needs verification to be done with a valid id number or cell number, every consultant I speak with needs to confirm my id number/date of birth, bank account type, debit order date and confirmation of how I receive my statements along with the email address. YET NO RECORD ON MY QUERIES LOGGED, CANCELLATIONS REQUEST, COMPLAINTS LOGGED AND REQUESTS FOR A TEAM LEADER, SUPERVISOR OR MANAGER TO CALL ME BACK. Absolute putrid services for such a large service provider. After I was incorrectly debited again in October 2024, On the 05 November 2024 I called the Fire department, and they could only confirm the Fiber contract that was taken out in 2020 and also confirmed that an upgrade/renewal was done on 13 August 2024 which I was not aware off. This resulted in the increase of my premium for the 2020 contract to R768.29 (with a three-month discount of R220). This renewal resulted in a Pro rata fee of R409.85/R202.66 being added to my current Fiber line, again I never gave consent/approval. On the 05 November 2024, below notes is what I experienced, who I spoke to and finally received reference numbers. • Mlondi from the fiber department call was made at 9:59am, she provided me with an order number #*** 2020 contract R769 • I then spoke with Ramapelo at 10:05am, the consultant confirmed the contract number which I was querying taken out/Activated in August 2024 – *** for the amount of R346, Ramapelo then transferred me to Pilani who I could not hear, and did not speak clear • I them spoke to Mbali at 10:48am who gave me reference number #*** for my cancellation and advised she has now logged this, I will receive an email (which I did receive – Reference in my email is SR*** marked as critical) and will hear back from Vodacom within 24 hours to confirm collection of the home internet router device from my residential address, once the device has been collected, they will proceed to cancel the contract *** and refund my debits that were wrongfully taken • I then also spoke with Mamuchabu who gave me a detailed breakdown of my profile with Vodacom (all cell number contract, not Fiber) – she provided me with a ref number #MamuchabuMolapu*** at 15:08pm. This consultant was helpful like Mbali, who also confirmed I will hear from Vodacom regarding the collection of the device and will then proceed to cancel my contract and Refund

In conclusion to my complaint, after speaking to 5 different consultants at Vodacom on the 05 November and receiving a reference number on email, to date, a whole week later I have not heard anything back from Vodacom to collect the device and refund my money. I have made it clear on my calls, I want a refund and not a credit for the incorrect amounts debited from my account, this experience with Vodacom has once again caused a huge inconvenience to me and has financially set me back to other personal commitments I have.

IF THIS NOT RESOLVED AND I DON’T HEAR BACK FROM VODACOM TODAY, I WILL BE TAKING THIS MATTER TO THE CONSUMER GOODS AND SERVICIES OMBUDSAM. I AM WELL AWARE OF MY RIGHTS AS A CONSUMER AND THIS IS MOST CERTAINLY NOT TCF.