Horrible Service and Unauthorised invoices and deductions

I ordered a device from Vodacom, which I received on the 13th of February 2023. It turned out, the device I received was not what I was looking for and the agent that initially sold it to me, did not understand or care about what it was that I needed. I informed Vodacom about it and requested a return. Product was collected and received by Vodacom on the 17th of February 2023 (SMS confirmation was received).

I assumed the contract was cancelled or in fact would not even start as I no longer had the device in my possession. During the month of October 2023 I reviewed my invoice received from Vodacom and noticed that I have been billed for the contract device I returned. I contacted the call center and was told it would be escalated and cancelled. Nothing happened.

A second call was made in January 2024 explaining the same story and once again I was told it would be cancelled and amounts deducted from my account would be refunded. Once again, nothing happened.

A third call was made today (7th of February 2024) for the same situation and I was told the following: Vodacom confirms that the device was received by them and that a cancellation would be done. Nothing was mentioned of the money to be refunded which they took for no reason. When I asked the agent about the refund, she said I will have to request it when the cancellation is done which I do not agree with. This money should never have been invoiced to my account in the first place and the refund and cancellation should happen simultaneously. Phone call ended rather abruptly, either because the agent decided to cut me off or due to the flaky terrible cellphone reception of Vodacom itself.

Vodacom truly does not care about their customers and the service provided by their agents is nothing short of atrocious.