How Vodacom ****med and stole from me!

If you are thinking about opening a contract with Vodacom, please think again. My nightmare with them began in 2024 and is still continuing today.

In September 2024, I called Vodacom to enquire about a contract. I was told to open a ticket online and that an agent would assist me. After doing so, I was told that I was provisionally approved but needed to pay a portion of the product upfront (R20,988) for the device I wanted (an iPhone 13). I did not see the point in doing this because the whole reason I wanted the contract was to pay smaller monthly instalments. After going back and forth with agents on the phone and being told that it was not possible for me to obtain the device otherwise, I decided to leave the matter.

A few weeks later, I started receiving calls from agents trying to offer me different products, which I politely declined. The following month, I received a phone from another service provider and decided to cut all ties with Vodacom, even though I had been an existing prepaid customer.

After making the switch, I was happy and satisfied with my new service provider. I decided to discard my Vodacom number and not do a SIM swap in order to keep the number. I essentially wanted a completely fresh start. I still had my old iPhone, which I had bought with cash many years ago, and decided to keep it as a spare phone in case anything happened to my new one, as I had not yet insured it.

On 3 December 2024, I received an email stating that a new contract had been submitted. I was very shocked because I had not initiated this request. I immediately called Vodacom Customer Care for assistance. I was told that the ticket had been closed and that the email was most likely due to the previous ticket being closed incorrectly.

On 22 February 2025, I received another email stating that a new contract had been submitted again. Out of frustration, I called customer care once more and was told the same thing. I clearly explained that I was now using another service provider and asked them to stop opening contracts on my behalf, as that is identity theft and *****. This meant that someone had access to the information on the profile they had created for me.

On 16 July 2025, I received yet another email stating that a new contract had been submitted. At this point, I was tired of calling Vodacom and decided to ignore it. That was a big mistake. The very next day, on 17 July, I received an activation quotation showing the product and delivery fee. All my personal information was displayed correctly, which shocked me because, according to my understanding, my profile should have been deactivated.

On 12 December 2025, I received another email about price increases for the following year and still decided to ignore it. I ignored these emails because I was not paying close attention to my bank statements. It was only on 1 January 2026, while working on my New Year’s resolutions (mainly paying more attention to my finances), that I noticed that Vodacom had been debiting my account for months.

On 1 January, I received an SMS notification of an EFT to Vodacom. That is what made me realise something was seriously wrong, because I thought I was completely done dealing with them. From that point, I began going through my statements carefully to find out when the debit orders had started, as I had not noticed them before.

After gathering all my information, I called customer care in the early hours of 7 January 2026. I spoke to an agent named Noluthando Tshabalala. She was very helpful and assisted me by checking my profile and explaining the next steps. She was able to tell me that an agent had been opening new contracts on my behalf and had even approved the contract that I was being charged for. She also confirmed that there had been a “failure of delivery” for the product to my residence, which meant that I had never used the product and would therefore be eligible for a refund.

She then sent me the necessary documents and steps to follow in order to contact the ***** Disputes Department. She even called me a few days later to check on the progress and whether the department had responded. She also advised me not to go in-store, as they would not be able to assist me in person. If it were not for Noluthando, I would still be completely lost. I truly appreciate her assistance. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about some of her colleagues.

On 14 January 2026, I emailed the ***** Disputes Department and received a response on 18 January 2026. The email simply confirmed that they had received my request and gave me a reference number. It was clearly an automated email because I was asked to resend documents that I had already attached in my previous email.

On 20 January, a consultant named Sibongile Mabaso emailed me, saying that she would be assisting me with my query. Unfortunately, she did not. She told me that she had escalated my query to their online department, and after that there was complete silence from her side.

I spent days calling and trying to find out what was happening, as I was receiving no updates. I eventually spoke to another agent named Amukelani. After explaining everything again, he sincerely apologised and promised to escalate the matter with his team leader. He also promised to call and check in with me every day to update me on the progress. This never happened. He did not call me even once after that conversation.

On 28 January, I decided to email Sibongile again to ask about the progress of my dispute, as I still had no updates. On 29 January, she rep**** and informed me that the contract had been cancelled and would take effect on 30 January. I saw this as small progress because at least it meant that money would stop leaving my account without my consent.

Days passed with no further updates regarding when the money would be refunded, so I emailed her again on 21 February 2026. A few hours later, she rep**** with the same response as before, saying that she had escalated the matter to the online department.

After still receiving no communication from either Sibongile or anyone from the online department, I sent another email on 3 March 2026, this time making sure that my frustration was clear. I even threatened to post about the situation on social media unless I received a call.

Shortly after that, a consultant from the online department named Chanel called me to try to update me. However, she was clearly not fully informed about my case, which made me feel that my dispute was not being taken seriously at all. It felt as if I only received the call because Vodacom did not want me sharing my story publicly. She told me that the query would take 7 business days to process and that I would then receive my refund.

On the same day, Sibongile also called me to confirm whether I had received a call, which made it seem as though her hands were tied and that she had done everything she could by escalating the matter. She also advised me to save the number Chanel had called from so that I would know who was calling me in future. I did exactly that and waited 8 business days just to be sure, but still there was no communication, no refund, nothing.

I eventually tried calling the number Chanel had used, but it rang once and then went silent. Every time I tried again, the same thing happened. From that point on, I have not heard from her or anyone else at Vodacom.

I finally decided that enough was enough and went into a store to try to get help. Unfortunately, I was told the same thing again: that there was nothing they could do and that I had to wait for the online department to finish their investigation. The agent I spoke to even told me about a similar situation another customer had experienced and said that cases like this were always out of their hands.

I decided to write this review before taking the matter to social media, in the hope that my situation can still be resolved quickly before I am forced to take more serious action.