Double charges and THEFT!!

I am posting this complaint on behalf of my daughter, who has been living on an island in Greece since 19 December 2018 – and yes, I have full Power of Attorney on her accounts.

Oct 2017, her contract was due for an upgrade and she got the newly launched iPhone 8 -monthly handset charge of R596.49 for 24 months.

Oct 2017 she was billed correctly.

Nov 2017 to Mar 2018, Vodacom started billing her double handset fees i.e. For the expired iPhone 7 contract handset fee of R333.00 and the new iPhone 8 handset fee of R596.49. An over-charge of R1 666.65 over the 5 months.

At our Vodacom store – they confirmed it was a double charge, and manually cancelled the old iPhone and requested a refund be made.

Vodacom H/O erroneously cancelled the new iPhone contract and charged my daughter for the balance of contract of R7 219.93.

Again, we went back and queried both in the store and Vodacom customer care line – as the debit had not been taken out of my daughters account as yet, Vodacom passed an internal credit note of R8 230.72.

As I was going to be in Greece from Feb – Sept 2017, POA was given by my daughter to my assistant Wendy – who relentlessly contacted Vodacom regarding the credit due via phone (14 different people) and was requested to email, which she did to numerous email addresses given during each telecom. She chased unanswered emails i.e. she emailed *** on 12 March 2019 advising that her emails dated 26 Feb and follow updated 5 March 2019 remained unanswered. She never received a reply to this email either. She called in again and was told to rather email details to ***.

29.03.2019 Wendy received an email from Vodacom simply stating “thank you for your support, this is an auto-response, your query ref no *** has been closed.

02.04. 2019 - Wendy again called Vodacom, spoke to Ruth, to query the details of the auto-response email, Ruth advised she could not assist as she could not get into the system and that she would call Wendy back. No call.

04.04.2019 – Wendy again called Vodacom, spoke to Ruth, who this time said she could not help Wendy as she is not the main account holder, even with a POA, Wendy was told to speak to the accounts department.

Wendy called accounts department, spoke with Lorato – who confirmed that according to her system, it shows that the matter (refund) is still under investigation, that she had no record of the auto-generated email reference number on her system and again suggested that Wendy email *** and advise in email that we received an auto-response email but no response received to date to our previous emails dated 25 March 2019. No reply received from Vodacom.

04.04.2019, my daughter received an email from Vodacom quoting an early cancellation of contract cost and that she would be eligible for upgrade in May 2019. Wendy emailed Vodacom on 11 April 2019 to *** advising that my daughter did not want to cancel her contract early but rather that when the 2-year contract period was up, that she would not be renewing her contract.

11.04.2019 – Wendy sent a reminder email to Vodacom legal department requesting a reply and status on the refund. No reply received.

18.04.2019 Vodacom advised via telephone that the Vodacom queries had been closed: *** on 29.03; *** on 08.04; *** on 08.04 and *** on 16.04. Wendy emailed Vodacom asking what queries these reference numbers pertain to and that no query has been closed as no refund had been made and no response received per previous emails.

18.04.2019 – Wendy sent a reminder email to Vodacom legal department requesting a reply and status on the refund. No reply received.

In May 2019, my daughter received an invoice for early contract cancellation and remainder of the handset charge. Again, Wendy had to phone and email Vodacom to re-iterate that we are not cancelling the contract early – but confirmed that we will not be renewing/upgrading the contract at end October 2019. No reply received to email but again an internal Vodacom credit note was passed and my daughter not charged.

In Sept 2019 when I returned to SA, I called Vodacom cancellations department, to confirm that my daughters’ contract would stop on 31 October ref no *** – and was advised that ‘yes’ it ends October 2019.

Nov 2019 my daughters' account was debited R348.99.

I call Vodacom H/O and ask to speak to the CEO or MD – I get through to a helpful lady Vuyo. We were on the phone for 30min, she confirmed the contract ended October and was not sure why the system reflected end December, she said she needed to check with other departments and called me back and we discussed for a further 20 min – she had logged queries with the respective departments, she confirmed that there should have been no further debits made to my daughters account after October 2019 and gave me a reference number of ***.

December 2019 my daughters' account was debited R348.99 again.

Between 6-8 January 2020, I call Vodacom Customer Careline; then Head Office trying to again to discuss the billing debit’s in November and December, and the R1 666.65 credit which was way overdue. To no avail – the story is so long, the phone gets hung up on me mid-sentence 3 times!! Or I get told they cannot help me.

Then a shocker… 8 January 2020 my daughter receives Vodacom invoice for R6 113.97!!! Charges are: Airtime Subscription R2 358.24; Balance of Contract R3 578.94; and a Premature cancellation of contract discount of -R589.56.

The contract was not cancelled prematurely; the contract was paid-up and finished in October 2019 – so why the balance of contract charge and Airtime Subscription?? If Vodacom actually checked the account, they would note the last phone calls made using this contract were on the 19 December 2018 when my daughter left the country.

I call FNB asking to put a stop to this debit order - they cannot, I go back to my Vodacom store asking if they can stop the debit order they made my daughter take out - no they can’t – I then call Vodacom Customer Care - again they cannot help me I need to phone accounts department - which I do, they hung up on me. In desperation I call H/O and Customer Care again – they refuse to give me senior management details - I get transferred to a very bored sounding person - who hangs up on me again! I then go back to my Vodacom store asking if they have the contact details for the head of accounts department, customer care department, the CEO or MD – they then advised me that they had no idea who I could chat with at H/O and said that the only way Vodacom takes any notice of complaints is if I post it on HelloPeter or Facebook. Shocking really.

We have spent 18 months now, chasing for the refund payment of R1 666.65 from both the Vodacom store and Customer Care which to date has not been credited to my daughters' account. Credits are now due for Nov and Dec 2019 incorrect billing. Now we’re dreading a further massive auto-debit, which is completely incorrect and which we may potentially never get refunded for based on the challenges to get the original credit due refunded. This is tantamount to theft Vodacom!!

My daughter, my assistant Wendy and myself have spent an inordinate amount of time chasing Vodacom, begging for credits due to us, the emails and time, having to prepare POA’s with lawyers so we can try to sort out Vodacom – to date in hard billable time, Vodacom has cost me personally R18,400!! I am serious, where do I sent my invoice to Vodacom?

Last word – if I do not receive resolution and refunds by Thursday 23 January 2020, in time to stop this R6 113.67 debit order – I have no option but to take this up with my attorney and lay a claim of theft against Vodacom with all losses and costs being for Vodacom’s account. I trust, finally, I am making myself clear.