Faulty Phone sold at upgrade

On 15/12/2017 I did an upgrade on my cell phone contract at the Vodacom4U store in the Kollonade. The phone selected by me was a Sony Xperia XA1. I spend the evening charging my new phone and then updating the apps. I started using the phone the next day as my new sim card was activated then. From the beginning I had problems with applications shutting down while I’m in a message or on a call or using one of the apps. Message: ‘com.android.phone has stopped working’. With the option to close the app. Each and every time I had to restart the phone. On the 16th of December 2017 I took the phone back to the store. The consultant did a reset on my phone and said it was software I had to do an update and re-install. Which I did. After this whole exercise the phone still had the same problem. I went back to the store. I was told that no technicians were available and to try the other Vodacom store in the Kolonnade. The other Vodacom store told me that I had to pay R180.00 to have them look at my phone. No this is just ridiculous. I had the phone for less than a week and it did not even work for one day. I went back to the Vodacom4U store and was told that if they took in my phone they could only send it in to the repair centre on 03/01/2018 as this is when the store would be open again. I decided against it to leave the phone there. On 29/12/2017 I went back to the Vodacom4U store as the phone was now totally unusable. I was told to take the store to the Menlyn branch. I drove all the way to Menlyn and was assisted by Max that told met the software was faulty and that he would load new software and it would take an hour. I booked my phone in and the software was reloaded. After an hour I got my phone back. I got home and had to reload all my apps again. The first time I used my apps the phone gave the message ‘com.android.phone has stopped working’. I went back to Vodacom4U where to my biggest frustration nobody wanted to assist. I explained my problem but the only response was that they did not know what to do. On 10/01/2018 I got it right to get the Vodacom4U store to book in my phone. I was assisted by Thapelo. I was told that it would take approximately 2 weeks but seeing as I had so much issues and that the phone was already in for repair I would most possibly be issues a new phone. After 3 weeks I phoned the Vodacom4U store in the Kolonnade to enquire about my phone. I was told that the technician working with the phones was not available but he would phone me back later. I left a message and my details. No phone call I phoned the next day again and was told that the phone had arrived. I asked if it was fixed. He said he needed to check and would phone me back later. Again no call returned from the store. Out of desperation I now contacted Vodacom4U on facebook. I received a message back stating that Meagan would contact me. I was so relieved when Meagan Phoned me and immediately started following up. This was on 05/02/2018. On 07/02/2018 Meagan send me a whatsapp message asking to return the charges, booklet and all accessories of the phone to the store. She said she has spoken to Vodacom and Sony and that everything would be sorted out. She asked me to give the parcel to either Joyce or Kenny. As requested I took the accessories back to the store and gave it to Grace. I then rep**** to Meagan’s message and told her that I handed everything to Grace. She rep**** with a thank you On 12/02/2018 I send a whatsapp message to Meagan to find out what was happening. She rep**** that she will follow up quickly. I received no messages back. On 13/02/2018 I send a message again asking for feedback. No response On 14/02/2018 I send a message again. As response came back just saying that Meagan is no longer with the company and that I must send a mail to ********** I thanked whomever sending the message as no name was added I now send a mail to Nadia, mail came back – address does not exist I whatsapped the person again who then gave me the correct email address: ********** I also contacted Vodacom4U again on facebook. I got a response to say “ Hi Marlize, Nadia the Regional manager informed us that she spoke to you last night and that she is handling it” My response to this: “nobody spoke to me. I was told on whats app to send a mail to Nadia's e-mail. I've got no ides what information she has or not. Again complete silence from Vodacom4U I then got a reply on my mail from Nadia: Hi Marlize, Thank you for your mail, I have found your handset it is at Menlyn Repairs, I need to find out what is going on. Please bear with me I am at conference today but will get to the bottom of this Thank you for your patience and I do apologise for the inconvenience caused. Warm Regards Nadia

My response to Nadia: Hi Nadia,

I'm really so close to loosing my temper completely with Vodacom and the service I've been getting since December. I've already had to take my Phone to Vodacom in December. I do not want that phone because it is going to keep on giving me the same issues and when it is out of warranty it will be my problem and I will be stuck with a broken phone. I was sold a broken phone with my upgrade on 15/12/2017. Today is 15/02/82018, this is 2 months later. I either want a different phone make and model delivered to me today or I want my contracts cancelled with Vodacom so I can make use of a different service provider.

If this is not resolved by the time I go home today I will be left with no other choice as to take further steps

Regards

Response from Nadia Hi, I am currently out of the office with limited access to my email, please expect a delay in my response, thank you This whole issue has now been going on since 15/12/2017. Today is 15/02/2018. I’m paying for a phone that I do not have. I’ve been battling with Vodacom4U staff, call centre operators and seem like regional managers for 2 months. I cannot believe how bad the service is. I was sold a faulty phone and instead of replacing it you are giving me the run around for 2 months. You took the phone, accessories and everything back but I’m stuck with paying a contract I’ve had enough of this