Horrific Vodacom Experience!

To the public out there:

This is to express my anger with the worst ever service and dishonesty from any company i've ever dealt with in South Africa *** VODACOM !!!*** My husband recently passed away, and while going through this very sad time, wanted to cancel his cellphone contract as soon possible to avoid further fees.

My son assisted me and we decided that it would probably be the cheapest to just go on prepaid.

After weeks of no response and struggling for someone to take over case, we lodged an complaint on HelloPeter.

We were immediately contact by an agent from Vodacom that said he will escalate the request with Vodacom Law, as no one has taken over the case.

I explained to him that we just want to cancel the contract and go over to prepaid. (Still thinking it would be the cheapest and easiest option).

A day after that we received the following response from the Law Department.

Good day, > > > > We send our condolences for the passing of .... > > > > Thank you for the deceased documents received. > > > > An amount of R17790.79 is due within 7 days for your Vodacom contract to > > prepaid conversion. > > > > Please effect payment & fax receipt to ********** 427 or call ********** . > > > > > > Regards, > > > > Legal Collections Department | **********

After that I requested a break down of amount quoted, as this was absolutely ridiculous.

No one responded. My biggest mistake ever was to pay the amount, as it was stated to pay withing 7 days!!!

After doing thus only realised how dishonest Vodacom actually are!!!!

They basically charged almost all the remaining amount of months outstanding on the contract, device fee and Red Select + monthly subscription, without even using or getting anything back, and just throwing hard earned money in the water!

I complained on facebook after this, and a lady contacted me, saying that yes they charged you 70 percent or remaining contract, and think its to late to do a change of ownership as we already requested to go on prepaid. She apologised and said she will forward complaint to legal.

The next day Legal contacted us. This was the first time someone from legal contacted us during this whole unpleasant experience and tried to explain the reason for outrageous account fee!!! The agents name was Lindile and nothing she said or explained made sense to me, got very upset and afterwards Lindile mentioned that apparently there were a credit of R12000 payable back to us, even if she activates the number to prepaid immediately.

This brought peace over me and for the first time a sense of relieve. She said we must forward our bank details and proof of payment of R17800 already paid and expect the credit of round about R12000 within 7 days, also assured us that the number is now put over to prepaid. I thanked her for the assistance and was grateful to finally get in contact with Vodacom's Law department and reaching an agreement. I asked her to put onto email and got this response:

Good day, > > Thank you for taking my call ........ > > Please note that we have migrated the line to pay as you go, as per our > agreement. > > Furthermore, please send me the following documents for us to refund the > credit amount: > > Bank statement (Mrs ...........) > Proof of payment for the R17k paid > ID copy (Mrs ..............) > > We await your response in this regard. > > > Regards, > > Legal Collections Department | **********

I really thought this was the end, until I received this reply from Legal today!

Good day Mrs ...........,

We note the below response.

Please note that the credit balance has been used to buy-out the contract and change the number to pay as you go.

There will be no refund paid out as the account is no longer in credit after the number has been changed to pay as you go.

Regards,

Legal Collections Department | **********

Im furious all over again feel cheated and **** to!!!! This is absolutely unacceptable and refuse to let Vodacom away with this. My next step will be taking this to the media as well as National Consumer Commission. Everyone should be aware of Vodacom and how they treat and lie to there customers.

What we would have liked from the beginning was and immediate response after emailing necessary documents and calling call centre advising of late husbands passing. The law department carefully explaining the different options we have and each options costs involve. No one ever did! I'm really gutted through this terrible ordeal and lost faith in humanity !! Vodacom shows no compassion to their customers what so ever!

Public should listen to this Radio interview about your rights in similar situation. https://omny.fm/shows/the-kieno-kammies-show/what-happens-to-your-mobile-contract-when-you-die