My never ending battle with trying to find clarity

<p>My husbands contract (in my name) was due for an upgrade at the end of May 2017. We have recently moved and have thus lost our uncapped WIFI so we thought it would be a better idea to upgrade his contract to a router as his phone is still in perfect condition.</p> <p>At the beginning of April, I contacted Vodacom call centre and was put through to the upgrade department. I spoke to lovely lady who informed me that I am able to go ahead and upgrade the contract slightly earlier than the end of May. I stated that I wanted the ZTE MF283+ Wifi router, with a My Gig 10 Top Up Promo at R429 per month (as per Vodacom’s website). The lady explained all the details to me and I accepted the contract under my husband’s current number. The router was to be delivered in the following days. A few days later I phoned to find out exactly when my router would arrive. I once again did the security checks and answered all the necessary questions. I gave the lady my number and she said that they have no stock of the router that I ordered (MF283+), would I be interested in the Huawei R216H router. It was slightly smaller than what I wanted and could not connect as many devices but I thought what the hell, the mgps are still just as quick as the MF283+, let’s get moving so that we can finally have wifi in the house. I then was contacted on my work phone (for some reason my cell number is on the no call list at Vodacom), where a lady read me the terms and conditions for this router and the top up contract and I accepted. (Take note: I was told I would recive a copy of this contract – which I never did. I was also not told that this contract related to a new number).</p> <p>A few days later the R217H Router wad delivered to my offices. I took it home, however didn’t open the box as I wanted to wait for the 10g of data to be activated.</p> <p>The next day Vodacom arrived at my offices with another box, inside was the MF283+ router that I had originally wanted but had been told there was no stock. This is when I started to panic. I thought I must contact Vodacom but will get to it as soon as I have a gap.</p> <p>I then was away for just over 1 week from the long weekend in April (14th) and thus did not have the time to phone Vodacom to query what had happened.</p> <p>On the 25th of April 2017 I was debited with R552.89. My current cellphone contract was billed (R421.29) and then I saw I had been billed R131.60 for a new contract with a number of ********** 937 .</p> <p>On Thursday the 27th of April I contacted Vodacom where I spoke with a lady and explained that Vodacom had delivered two routers mistakenly and had now charged me prorate R131.60 for the R216H (even though I had received no data for this router). She said that they will cancel the contract number ********** and will refund me the R131.60 within 14 days. I explained that the upgrade was done on my husband’s current number and not as a new contract. She also said RAM would come and collect the R216H router from my offices after which the contract will be cancelled.</p> <p>A week Iater I contacted Vodacom as my router had yet to be collected by RAM. I spoke to a gentleman who then directed me through to the after-service department who stated that the contract was never cancelled and they will make sure Ram comes to me urgently and collects the router so that they can cancel the contract. During this phone call I was also accused of signing for the router so this is the reason they have billed me for it. As I explained to them I signed for a second router as it was the router I had originally ordered and once again explained the whole story. The following week (16th-20th) the router was collected by RAM. I then went online to my Vodacom and saw that I was still to be billed (May 25th) for this unknown contract and number (which I still had received no data for). R820 to be exact.</p> <p>I then immediately phoned Vodacom direct on Monday the 22nd. I spoke to a lady who stated that she can see my router has been returned but is not sure why, but the contract has still not been cancelled. She then queried this with the after sales department who said I need to speak to the upgrade department as it is a new contract that needs to be cancelled. I then explained to the lady that I did not open a new contract and that this is the 3rd time I have called to query where this number is coming from? She then told me to hold while she queries it again, I then was just put through to another gentleman without explaining the reasoning. I then had to once again answer security question which I had just done with the previous lady. The gentleman then with quite an attitude I must add explained that he will now cancel the contract and send me an sms with a reference number. “The R820 debit order will run however, and they will then credit me with the R416 overcharge within 14 working days.” I then explained to the gentleman that this is the third time I have cancelled the contract and that Ram had collected my router a week ago. He said there is nothing they can do. When I explained to him that I will request all the voice recordings of the conversations I have had with Vodacom and will take it further if the contract is no cancelled as agreed to, the gentlemen just laughed.</p> <p>I see now on My Vodacom I am in R416 credit, however that money has come off my account at the fault of Vodacom and I have to now sit short for the month of June. Whether or not the credit assists in my next month’s bill and whether or not the contract has indeed been cancelled, I do not know as no one has bothered to contact me!</p> <p>I am at the stage where after this contract is up I will be cancelling it with Vodacom. I also will be cancelling my cellphone contract and will make sure that my family’s 10 contracts with Vodacom are also cancelled. I have never been treated so badly and inefficiently. I feel that there is no one who can give a straight answer and resolve an issue immediately, especially for a client who has been with Vodacom for years. Where is the hierarchy? Who do we go to when we cannot be assisted by customer service employees who can’t give me a clear answer?</p> <p>To make matters worse, we took our MF283+ router into Vodacom chatz at the liberty midlands mall to have our sim card inserted directly by them as they should know how it’s done. The gentlemen then put the sim card in the wrong way and destroyed our router. When phoning the Vodacom call centre to ask what can be done, they said we will have to pay for the repairs and get the money back ourselves from the franchise. Luckily in the case Vodacom just exchanged the router for a new one.</p> <p>Hold thumbs that this time the contract is cancelled.</p>