Not helpful to old people and your own customers

<p>My mom is a 56 year old woman who is an old 'text book' if I may put it that way ( not internet savvy, only uses her phone for making and receiving calls. ). She can hardly send a text message without making an error. She had a prepaid phone and sim and was topping up her airtime with no worries whatsoever. Until she recieved a call from Vodacom about two years ago to sell her a contract sim. She was not properly advised what an open line and a top up line was. At first this wasn't the issue as she shared the news with me ( her new contract sim ). I advised against it but it was too late as her sim was changed into contract. I advised her to be wary of her open line as it may be pricey if she had a joy ride with her phone. Fortunately she took my advise. She has been using her her 'contrac sim' with no worries and her bill has not been alarming for the past two years ( paying between R500 to R800 a month ). She started complaining when she started to receive a bill of R1000 to R1800. She request a detailed bill to be sent but to no luck, she has never recieved it. She called Vodacom to request for this bill About 3 months ago. Still nothing. She has settled all those bills till last month she recieved a shock of her life when she recieved a bill of R5000. She called Vodacom to find out what was happening but she has only gotten through poor staff to speaks to clients in any manner. She has been calling Vodacom to query this bill and she's had no assistance, instead has received another bill this month of R10 000. And I know it's not the internet because when she got the previous R5000 bill I switched off her cellular data. But still recieved an additional R5000 bill. Now she owes Vodacom R10 000 in a space of two months. Today we spent 2 hours on the line, calling Vodacom. Our primary objective was to get an explaination of such a high bill firsttly, secondly was to request a bill to sent or emailed to us and thirdly to make arrangements to pay this account as my moms account can not just be debited R10 000 at once ( if that was the case we wouldn't stress about food on the table etc ). And more importantly how to make this payment in installments and to sort out the issue as it is impossible that my mom makes calls or uses the Internet for R5000 a month. Instead we spent the 2 hours listening to ladies from the call Centre asking my mom why isn't she more careful, or she is in the wrong department , being transferred from one rude call Centre executive to another. If they were not rude, they just dropped the call.The last lady promised to send the bill but we have been waiting 6 hours for it. <br />Vodacom might have the best LTE and 4g network but their customer service and call Centre department is discussing to say the list. They need improvement and need to threat their customers with respect. <br />Shame on Vodacom shame.</p>