"Highway *******”, plain *****...?

<p>I received the March-2017 account from Vodacom which shows I used out of bundle data and was billed for over R11,500-00.</p> <p>Yesterday (18-Apr-2017) I went to Vodaworld and was shown at customer care that vodacom had sent me many sms's to advise me of it.</p> <p>I DID NOT RECEIVE ANY OF THEM!</p> <p> </p> <p>I showed my phone to the customer care lady and asked her to check and confirm that the sms's were not received ( which she did).</p> <p>She wrote 2 queries, one to check why I did not get the messages (S4-OIUAJ-JDA2) and the other asking for credit (S4-OIU3Q-Q9ZKA).</p> <p>She told me it will take a few days to get a reply.</p> <p> </p> <p>This morning (18-April) I got a reply from Vodacom "The attached is proof that you were notified of your data usage and you do not qualify for refund." with a list of sms's sent (for April account only?).</p> <p> </p> <p>Furthermore, it states that Vodacom does not guarantee SMS notifications getting delivered timeously or at all and I should download "My Data Manager" to monitor usage.</p> <p> </p> <p>If Vodacom usually sends sms's to warn customers of data usage, then I think customers have the right to expect that service unless otherwise notified.</p> <p>(It sounds like a good plan to ******* customers who are technically challenged or not aware of how data is spent and charge them a fortune as a penalty)</p> <p> </p> <p>BTW, I did not say Vodacom didn't send sms's - What I am saying is - I did not receive any of them!!!</p> <p> </p> <p>Does Vodacom have the technology to check if the messages were received and read? Vodacom should surely check if their system is operating efficiently having read in the media that I am not alone when it comes to complaints of excessive out of bundle data charges.</p> <p> </p> <p>I always use wi-fi where possible and manage to be approximately within the parameters of my contract.</p> <p> </p> <p>I don't know how it happened that I used so much data but be that as it may, I would have bought an additional data bundle had I been notified.</p> <p> </p> <p>It does not make any logical sense that I would knowingly allow a charge of thousands of rands when I can buy 3GB of data for R300.</p> <p> </p> <p>It is totally unacceptable that Vodacom takes advantage of people who usually receive notifications they have exceeded their data usage, when they don't have the knowledge of data usage or the know how to check it and charge them obscene amounts as penalty...</p> <p>one would like to think that Vodacom should charge a small premium (10, 20 or even 30%) for not getting a larger bundle in advance (I get that, the smaller the bundle the more you pay per GB) but a charge of thousands % more is absolutely “highway *******”! ... or is it just plain *****...?</p>