Don’t waste your time, money and sanity with Vodacom Fibre

Firstly, I’d like to state that Vodacom Fibre is the worst fibre provider yet - Even worse than “hellkom” back when they still used copper lines. I strongly recommend against signing up with them.

The biggest issue by far is downtime. At least 2-3 times a week I receive an SMS as below:

Hi, Please be advised that we are currently experiencing Fibre downtime in (my suburb) MNI. This interruption may be caused by load shedding or an outage on parts of our third-party network infrastructure. Our technicians are working on resolving this issue to ensure that your services are restored as a matter of urgency. Vodacom

I have never experienced a service that one pays for that is as inconsistent and unfulfilled EVER. I am surprised that Vodacom is still in business. With service like this they should not be.

Every person within my complex/sub area that I know share the same sentiment.

Secondly, the customer support line is a hit or miss (mainly miss) IF you can even get a hold of them. Today I have called 3 times and have waited 5 to 10 minutes waiting to speak to a consultant just for the line to hang up. This isn’t a matter of losing signal or problematic call centre design, it it honestly feels like the consultants just hang up the line to save themselves the effort of fulfilling their duties.

I, as well as others in my area, are so frustrated with the lack of service (internet and customer support) to the point where we hate Vodacom. Imagine paying for a service (at a premium mind you) that has unparalleled downtime, that has the worst customer support that you may have ever experienced, and then refuse to even make right by offering refunds for the weeks a year of said downtime. This is not ethical, Vodacom. Hell, this even feels ******* (even if it is not).

With the current rash of loadshedding they seem to just climb on board and blame loadshedding for any and everything. If so (which it ain’t) then why must the buck end with the client? Why should we pay for a service when you don’t have the infrastructure to deliver it? How is any of this OK? The simple answer is that they have a monopoly in terms of fibre infrastructure in my area. Yup, there is NO ALTERNATIVE fibre providers in my area and it feels like Vodacom is taking advantage of this at the expense of their clients.

I will never sign up with Vodacom fibre again. In fact I won’t be signing up with Vodacom for anything again and I currently am in the process of migrating my cellular contract to another provider. I feel like a fool when dealing with Vodacom because the experience and service in all ways that I have explored is an absolute joke.

Again, I strongly recommend against anyone using Vodacom (unless there is absolutely nothing else). Really, any other ISP that I have dealt with (Mweb, Telkom, Vuma, even Afrihost back in the day) is better by a significant amount. I urge anyone reading this to use one of the above or anything besides Vodacom (if it is an option) until they get their act together and start respecting their duties for customers. I highly doubt that they will as I have been having issues with them from Day One (3 years).

As soon as I can use another ISP you best believe I will.

I would insert a reference number but I can’t even get a hold of you people.