Don't die with a contract at vodacom

My father passed away in November 2019. As he always had the cell phone contracts of my whole family on his name historically, we had to transfer those contracts to our name. We went to do this on the 24th of November 2018. So, I took my mother to the MTN shop, to do hers. No hassles, friendly people in the store (the small shop in Northgate, JHB), who sorted her transfer out in about 30 minutes. We had all the documents with us, and as such, no worries. While we were there, we went to the vodashop (the big one at entrance 8). This was at around 16:30, and they were closing at 17:00. So, the guy helped me (a bit reluctantly due to the closing time), I filled in the contract form, gave him all the required documents, and was told I will receive confirmation SMS’s or emails in the following week. So, SIT REP: all this visit managed to accomplish was moving my mom's data contract to my BILL, and removing my own SMS bundle (which should have been removed a few years ago anyway) from my bill. Oh, and moving the bill payer to my account (remember they need their money) The first of Jan came (having received no confirmation of transfer of contract ownership, or a bill for the month) and would you have it, I receive an SMS, stating my account is in arrears, as the debit order set up in store in November, did not go through! So, I thought, that's just slightly inconvenient, but I did an EFT, because, according to me, it was all good, I could still log onto myvodacom, get my statements, etc and assumed the transfer had been done. Until I dug a bit deeper, and was refused to see something, as I am not the contract holder. So, in other words, the Transfer of ownership WAS NOT DONE. Anyway, I was still on holiday and not bothered. In Jan I did an EFT again, and towards the end of Feb I go onto myvodacom profile, and it states that I am a month overdue, with fines etc. So, I pay this (this was the month we missed after my father passed) and think, cool, no stress. I am due for an upgrade soon, and as such, need to get the contract on my name, and anyway, I have tried doing it, so I look for a simpler way of doing this. I email ********** send them the ID, Death certificate and letter of statement, and ask if there are any other required documents, to which a computer responds. A few days later, a person responds acknowledging that they have received my documents (this was on Wed 27 Feb 2019), and that I should go to the store with my documents. I also receive an SMS stating this. Then my line gets blocked. I phone vodacom to check why, gets sent to the accounts department, and they tell me I need to go to the shop. OK, so I go to vodashop in Eastgate on Monday 4 March. I don't have the correct documents with me (my bad) but I get told to phone accounts again to open my line again. I do phone accounts, and I am told that it is blocked because of it being a deceased account (so a little bit of progress) and they tell me to take my various documents to a vodashop, and they'll sort me out. I go back to the shop in Eastgate on Tuesday 5 March, with all the required documents and more, at about 12:40. I get a ticket, and an employee asks if I have been helped, then directs me to two ladies, having a jol on the internet and looking like they would rather be anywhere other than there to help customers, as he was busy already with another customer. I proceed to the ladies and explain to them I need to do a transfer of ownership of my contract, due to my father passing away. The response is: "No, sorry, we cannot help you, you have to phone accounts". I tell them that I already have, and they sent me to the shop, to which again I am told, they cannot help me. At this point, I am super frustrated, but I don't say anything, and just walk away. On my way to my car, I phone vodacom again. I explain to the gentleman in the customer care centre what I want to do, and he again tells me to go to a shop. I tell him what just happened, to which he heroically requests to talk to the lady who doesn't know what to do. So, I walk back to the vodashop, get a new ticket, and is helped by another lady (the first lady wasn't in the shop anymore). He talks to the new lady, and she starts the process from her side. While she is busy, the gentleman asked me to hold, so that we could talk to the legal department. So, I hold for about 15 minutes, during which we fill in my profile in the shop (including the Banking details again). After holding the gentleman states that the legal department can only be contacted by email. So now I must send them my documents as well. Meanwhile, in store, the lady hits a snag, and asks her boss for assistance, who states that I need to contact Legal now, and they will continue the process. I get back to the office at about 13:45, put some fires out at work, and send ********** my documents, and receiving the automatic confirmation response, stating they " endeavor to resolve all e-mail queries within 3 working days". Now I am a patient man, and never really complain about stuff like this (I mean it has taken 3 months so far), and 7 working days extra won't (hopefully) **** me, so I'm calm, and get on with life. Until Wednesday 6 March 08:07. Vodacom SMS received: "According to our records no transfer of ownership has been done on this line. Please arrange urgently at a Vodacom shop. Queries call ********** " And then finally I get this reply from Legal at 15:25 on March 6, 2019: “Good Day

Please be advised no documents needs to be sent to us, please refer to vodacom store to complete the transfer.

Kind Regards” So, recap. I have been to the store 3 times, phoned and emailed more than I know, and I still can’t do much more than contact vodacom from my phone. EVERY time I go the shop, I am told to call or email someone. And then I am told to go to a shop. The problem here, isn't necessarily the time I have WASTED going up and down. It is not even the Parking Fees I had to pay every time I had to go to the store. It is the process. Clearly NOBODY UNDERSTANDS THIS!!!!! No one knows who is supposed to do it! It’s like I am committing a crime or something, and all I want is to make them more money! It’s not like I am trying to ***** any money? Why make it so complicated to receive money from people? You already had my debit order set up, just change the contract holder. MTN did it in no time at all! All I want to do is transfer my contract from my Dad’s name to my own. Please just get me the right people who can do it.