********** upgrade resulting in blacklisting

This is my story relating to an act of suspected ***** by Vodacoms upgrade department with little to no support from them to correct the mistake. On 12 January 2019 I was invoiced by vodacom for an amount of R1286 which was the first of 15 installments of this amount.

On 20 January 2019 I queried it at the Vodacom store in Promenade mall mitchells plain Cape Town, explaining that this is obviously an error, but was advised by the manager that an iphone hybrid to the value of R25000 was taken out on my name, as part of an upgrade on my Vodacom flexi contract. The manager advised that he cannot assist further with any other information and that I have to contact Vodacom customer care to report a case of *****. ( he surprisingly joked that it is very common)

On the 20 January 2019 I contacted Vodacom and spoke to a representative by the name of Asanda who advised that the upgrade occurred on 10 December 2018 in the Vodacom store in Highveld Mpumalanga for an iphone IS hybrid which needs to be paid in 15 monthly instalments of R1286.

I made it clear to Asanda that I do not reside or have never been anywhere near Mpumalanga and that I do not authorize any debits to occur from my Capitec bank account listed on Vodacoms Database.

Asanda advised she has changed it to a cash payment option to which I again reiterated on the recorded call that I am not liable to pay this amount as it is clearly an act of *****.

Asanda then confirmed that credit management will be ceased and that my account will not be debited while in dispute.

She suggested I get an affidavit from the police department and forward the dispute to ***. I proceeded with her suggestion and sent all requested documents but to this day have not received a reply. I then made contact to customer care for an update and was told to send a follow up email to ***. Again no response from anyone. To my surprise I then received an invoice with a zero balance to which point I assumed the query was resolved. Almost a year on since I first reported the case I received an email from a legal company acting on behalf of Vodacom threatening legal action. My questions to all of this is... Does Vodacom truely have a ***** department or is it just a method used by call centre staff to get rid of an irrate caller? Has anyone ever received assistance from Vodacom in relation to ***** committed by their staff? Is there a human being I can speak to that deals with ***** instead of communicating to a mailbox that never replies? Seems like the only course of action is to use my hard earned money to pay a lawyer. Bitterly dissapointed that my credit record is affected by something I have had no control of. Even more dissapointed that Vodacom allows ******** behaviour from their staff with no protection for their customers. I'm left in a position where I cannot apply for a new job, cannot get vehicle finance or even upgrade my bank account from a savings to cheque account. Thanks Vodacom!