Insurance / store / upgrade / customer service complaint

After being the trusted and preferred service to me and my family for 20+ years I am really starting to doubt that Vodacom have anything but their own pockets interest at heart.

My mom, the account holder, had damaged her phone. She is a pensioner and hates dealing with any technology related matters and has to wait until I get the time off work to assist. Now the website advises that the phone would need to be assessed at a repair centre, of which there aren't many, before they can come to a decision if whether or not they authorize the claim. So I take her to the one closest to us, being Canal Walk. Now it does not mention that the phone must be booked in during the insurance operating times, I was off on Sunday 11/08/2019 and took her to get everything started. We were halted as we walked in, asked what sort of assistance we required, advised a damage claim, and told very confidently by the gentleman that the insurance team closes at 1pm on a Sunday and therefore they would not be able to assist us. Understandable, we acxepted this. I asked specifically how long it would take should I be able to bring her again, but during the week and he says we would get everything sorted within 10min. We left, not very happy as my mom needs to have a phone at all times and has been using ny daughters 10in tablet as a temporary one, but still confident as we have never been disappointed by vodacom before.

I take off from work later that week, take another trip to canal walk, back to vodacom. We get asked this time if the phone has been assessed yet, this was not asked on sunday. We get shown to the repair guys and are told that they will book the phone for assessment, send the details to insurance and be contacted within two days to say if successful or not. This obviously upset us as we had been there the sunday, and the phone could have been booked by the repair team then. I also asked how long everything would take and we were told 10 min. We book the device in none-the-less and wait patiently to be contacted. This must've been on tuesday, 13/09/2019.

We had heard nothing for days. My mom then had a chat on the repair centres whatsapp line on 19/08/2019 to query the status and was then only advised that her claim was approved for a replacement phone of value up to R12000. Finally some good news.

My mom then had to wait until I was available again to take her back to canal walk to get her replacement phone. That was this past weekend, Sunday 01/09/2019. This time we were sure to be there by 11am as we were previously told they only assist with claims before 1pm on a Sunday.

Of course this was misinformation. We were assisted by Shadlee who politely called the insurance line, placed them on loudspeaker so that we could listen, and heard for ourselves that they were unable to assist out of operating hours. Again unhappy my mom asked to speak to a manager and were told the manager was currently busy with a customer. Cool.

Now we also were interested in upgrading my moms data sim she keeps in a mobile router to something with more data. Now maybe we can be considered suckers for punishment, I see my mom as a loyal vodacom customer who should not be forced to have to change her preferred provider due to a few employees conduct. So we happily continued chatting to Shadlee regarding upgrading the line to the 80GB data @ R299 offer. Now atleast my mom could use the tablet without having to restrict herself as it used more data. We also discussed possible options for my mom when she came to complete the claim.

We returned to the repair centre on 4/09/2019. This time the repair people referred us to someone known as Abdul, but who we later confirmed had recently had his name changed, he was previously Enver. Confusing, since his tag says Abdul but he gave his name as Enver to insurance. Anyhow, Abdul appeared very eager to assist us as we already had the request approved. Having discussed devices with Shadlee, we already knew that we wanted the samsung a30 , and had estimated ourselves what the excess should be, going according to information available online and with the phone costing about r4000 I was confident that we would not be charged more than R500.

Abdul called the insurance line, but unlike his colleague, did not put the call on loudspeaker and so was the only person who was able to hear who he was speaking to and the information s/he were giving him. He confirmed we wanted the A30, and then while on the call, goes back to check the colour we want is available, comes back takes the phone from his ear, covers the mouthpiece and advises that the excess quoted for the phone is R810. My mom looks alarmed but does not say anything. I then ask how they came to that amount for a phone which cost about R4000. He says the phone costs a couple hundred more than R4000 but says he will check with the advisor in the phone, but again walks away when doing so. In the mean time I calculate my estimate of 15% of R4000 and come to R600. He comes back again never talking into the phone when "relaying" to us and explains that it was calculated at 20% of the cost of the phone we were choosing.

Besides this not calculating correctly, 20% is not mentioned anywhere on the term and conditions i had read. He says he thinks its of the value the phone is insured for and I then asked to speak to the insurance myself, he should please place them on loudspeaker. Hesitant he does this and I then question the insurance advisor as to the terms and conditions and what it stipulates. After being told them that the cover is only for R5000 and that this was our first claim hence it being more, i requested to speak to her manager. She came back asking if she could send me the documents and we could read it together, but i was so upset i refused to speak another word to her and her manager then came to the line. He then explained that the insurers had changed since my moms policy had started hence certain changes. I had advised that they cant change the terms my mom agreed to without making her aware. He confirmed and then said that on the policy she pays 10% of the replacements costs which is R403!!!! This quote I accepted immediately, but was fuming at this point. This Abdul/Enver person had just tried to pull a fast one on my mother! I asked to speak to the manager, but get told he is the manager in store. I could not believe it. He must surely have been able to do exactly the same to other unknowing customers and probably got away with it as well. I made sure he finished processing the claim so that we could leave as i would have caused such a scene.

I had been waiting fir an opportunity to call to make a formal complaint but then this evening notice that we have run out of data on the mobile router. I then setup my moms vodacom app to check the balance to find that we were not yet migrated to the new tariff. I ask my mother to check her emails received when the upgrade was processed. It states that the contract start date is 1 September 2019 on the email itself. The attachment which has her signature on it, quite clearly has no acknowledgement of the terms and conditions in the space provided, proving further that we had every right to leave the store with the new tariff active later that day.

Upon calling customer service, my mother gets hung up on after the advisor hearing thefull query and that she wants to make a complaint. The next advisor says she can only add data at a cost to my mom. My mom says more than once that she cannot afford the costs of purchasing a data topup. But that she is also not prepared to pay as she was never advised that the upgrade takes effect with the next bill cycle. If this was mentioned she would never call to complain. She asks to speak to a manager as someone must be able to understand that as a customer for so many years, having upgraded so many times, she knows that she should be told when the new tariff kicks in. It is understandable that often small things may be overlooked, but for someone to acknowledge that she should not have to take responsibility for that. She read the email she received when upgrading but even the manager would not assist. Only referring to how upgrades work, not how she has been affected my this. She asked to make a formal complaint, was first told it would not be escalated then told it was referred to the technical team. She specified wanting it handled by the complaints team. Was told she needs to email the complaint, that they have no way to transfer a call to them. They only deal with emails.

This has to have been the worst experience with Vodacom. After being with them for as long as she has my mom has been utterly disappointed. But still is not comfortable in changing her network.

I am specifically concerned with the ********** activities taking place in the canal walk repair centre and feel that people should be made aware of it.