***** Disputes

I thought I’d share my troubling Vodacom story and hope it doesn’t happen to you.

So my Vodacom contract is nearing its end, specifically 21st April 2018. I have however been able to upgrade since 1 January 2018. I have not been able to get to a store in which to do so. I’ve been getting courtesy calls from Vodacom consultants informing me that I am able to upgrade. At the same time, to make it easier for Vodacom customers, they tell you that they can do the upgrade telephonically for you so that you don’t have to leave the comfort of your home/work/anywhere really. Being the picky person that I am, each time one of the Vodacom consultants called (which was almost every week) I said I would rather come into the store as I am unsure of which phone I would be upgrading too.

Yesterday morning (19th March 2018), a Vodacom consultant called to once again inform me of the availability to upgrade. As I am once again explaining why I don’t want to upgrade via the phone, the consultant (sounds like she was checking her system) tells me “oh Miss Davids I see you have already upgraded” and apologises for the call. I tell her that I have not upgraded and she goes on and says “oh okay perhaps it’s an error”. We end the call.

Now this is bugging me because I did not order an upgrade, so this time I called Vodacom…long story short I spoke to about 4 or 5 different Vodacom consultants (because they have a number for each department) in which it was confirmed that a “Warda Davids” had ordered an upgrade via Vodacom’s online services. Now I’m completely freaked out, so I leave work and go to the Vodacom in Tygervalley. There was really nothing they could do other than once again confirm that a “Warda Davids” ordered an upgrade. The consultant was however, able to advise when the order was placed (which was on the 8th March via the online system). The pretend “Warda Davids” took delivery of the device (yes, in addition to ordering an upgrade the pretender also ordered a device). The consultant advised me to call Vodacom direct and provided me with the number. I called the number while in store and spoke to one of the consultants who then explained the ***** procedure to me.

I left Vodacom and went to the police station to get an affidavit as advised by the Vodacom direct consultant. I then emailed a copy of the affidavit and my ID document to ********** I received an automatic response with a reference number advising me that they look forward to communicating with me. That’s it, no time frame of how long this will take, so now my mind is working overtime. What other charges is this pretender raking up on my account, not to mention the device essentially ****** using my name and account to do so. I had a few more questions so I called a Vodacom direct consultant again, but before they help you, you have to go through a series of security questions, so I’m thinking all of this information I provide is supposed to be confidential and who would have easy access to this info is the Vodacom consultants themselves. I’m not saying that it was an inside job, but I won’t lie and say that the thought didn’t cross my mind. I admit it could very well also be an honest admin error. Nevertheless a very nice lady assisted me with my questions. I asked when and where was delivery taken and what courier services was used. The consultant could tell me that delivery was taken on the 9th March 2018 (a day after it was ordered), by a “Warda Davids” at about 2:15pm and delivered by Ram hand to hand courier services to an address in Gauteng. I actually reside in the Western Cape, Cape Town! It’s crazy to think that Ram hand to hand courier services could deliver the package without (I am assuming, cause how else could this have been done) checking the documents.

Anyway that was that, I was informed at the moment I can’t do anything other than to wait for feedback from the Vodacom ***** consultants.