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I recently changed banks and had my debit order details changed accordingly.

Then on 7 Oct I received an SMS informing me that I can "Avoid long queues & arrange a payment on [my] arrears amount online." I figured this was a mistake since it wouldn't make sense for me to be in arrears.

On 11 Oct I received another SMS saying that my "account is in arrears for R203.50." I then went to investigate and saw that nothing had been deducted from my account. I figured the changing of debit order details must have been incorrectly captured so on 12 Oct I went in to the Eikestad Vodacom shop and settled my account with a consultant. When I then also phoned customer care to re-attempt changing my banking details, I was very surprised to find out that my account details captured on the system were, in fact, the correct new account details. The consultant claimed the debit order was returned due to insufficient funds. After the phone call I checked my account statement and saw that there was definitely more than enough funds available for such a debit order. My private banker then also confirmed that no debit order attempt had been made on my account.

On 16 Oct I received another SMS saying that I had to "Kindly pay R203.50 to avoid disrupting [my] services." So on 17 Oct I sent an email to ********** explaining this whole situation. I have not yet received any non-automated reply to this email.

On 18 Oct when I tried to make an urgent call I realised that my line had been disconnected. I phoned the reactivation number and was informed that my line would be reactivated within one working day. This ended up causing hours of inconvenience that evening, but my line was reactivated the following morning.

Today (24 Oct) I received yet another SMS saying "Dear valued customer, we have not received you payment as promised."

Vodacom is claiming that I have not paid them, they are claiming that they tried to debit my account, and they are claiming that I am a valued customer. The first claim is most definitely a lie, and until they can prove otherwise, I consider the other two claims lies as well!