Make a mistake, promise to fix it, then charge the customer to fix your mistake

I honestly cannot believe how badly Vodacom has handled this situation.

I was approached by a Vodacom sales consultant who misrepresented the cost of changing my contract, leaving me under the impression that I would be paying LESS each month. I trusted what I was told by someone representing Vodacom and agreed to the change after having him repeatedly confirm the new amount being billed is as my total monthly bill amount.

Once I realised that my monthly amount had actually increased, I immediately contacted Vodacom and raised a complaint. (Less than 20 days from date of the sales call I received)

Vodacom acknowledged the issue and told me that my contract would be changed back to my original package and I would be credited accordingly.

So I thought the matter was resolved.

Except it wasn't.

1 September arrived — and Vodacom billed me the NEW, higher amount anyway.

I contacted them again to find out why I had been charged the incorrect amount when I had already been told that my original contract would be reinstated.

And this is where Vodacom's customer service reached a whole new level of absurdity.

Instead of honouring what I had already been told and correcting the issue, I was suddenly quoted R1,700 to change my plan back to the contract I originally had.

Yes. You read that correctly.

Vodacom's representative misled me into changing my contract. Vodacom then told me they would reverse the change. Vodacom failed to reverse it and charged me the higher amount. And when I followed up, they now want ME to pay R1,700 to put me back on my original contract.

How is this acceptable?

Why should I pay R1,700 to reverse something that I never knowingly agreed to in the first place, particularly after Vodacom had already confirmed that they would change it back?

At this point, it feels like accountability simply doesn't exist.

The issue isn't just the money. It's the complete lack of ownership, communication and basic customer service. I have had to repeatedly chase Vodacom to fix an issue that their own sales process created, only to be met with another charge.

A company should not be able to mislead a customer, promise to correct the situation, fail to do so, take more money from the customer's account — and then tell the customer they must pay R1,700 to get back to where they started.

That isn't customer service. That's unacceptable.

If you're considering taking out or changing a Vodacom contract, my advice is:

DONT!!

Because in my experience, getting Vodacom to take responsibility for its own mistake has been harder than it ever should have been.

Vodacom — you created this mess. You acknowledged it. You promised to fix it. You failed to do so. And now you want the customer to pay R1,700 for your failure to honour your own resolution.

Absolutely disgraceful.