Now billed for returned Wifi Router & Data Contract they FAILED to activate (3 months later)

<p>PART 1:<br />Bought a data contract including mobile wifi router (26 January 2017) from telephone salesman.<br />Delivered 3 February 2017 a week after taking up the offer.<br />Called them 4 Feb (Sat afternoon) asking about the sim activation & was told to call back before 2pm.<br />Called Mon 6 Feb & was told 72hrs for activation.<br />Called Thurs 9 Feb & was told 10 working days for activation from delivery date.<br />Called Friday 17 Feb (ie. 10 working days) & have been told 14 working days from date of first call. That would make it a month to activate a data contract, if I am not just given a new story on my next call.<br />PS. They also tell me that they have moved from a manual activation system that took 24hrs to an automated system that, per last call, takes 14 working days from date that you call them begging to activate it. Can anyone with business sense explain the logic to me?!<br />My last two Telkom 3G data contracts were activated almost instantly. Regretting not sticking with them for Data.<br />__________________________________________________<br />PART 2:<br />17 days now since delivery and still no activation. Also nothing but the above copy&paste reply saying "a consultant will make contact with you in due course to assist with your query" but haven't heard from Vodacom as yet. <br />__________________________________________________<br />PART 3:<br />19 Days and still waiting for sim data activation.<br />Received a call 2 days ago from someone who was very pleasant but knew nothing about the issues I have reported, saying they will query it.<br />__________________________________________________<br />PART 4:<br />Tried calling the Activations department again today. Was told that their computers are offline and I should try again later :| <br />Still haven't heard back from the two people that called me and were going to 'look into it'. <br />Now getting quite painful testing the device each day hoping for a connection. Thinking its time to bin it.<br />__________________________________________________<br />PART 5:<br />And so today (24 February / 21 days after receiving the device) I speak to Raphilwe at activations and am told that she will send it to 'manual activations'. No record of a request being sent previously. <br />She tells me it takes 48hrs to activate. Bogals the mind.<br />Apparently I will receive a call back today still.<br />__________________________________________________<br />PART 6:<br />3 March 2017...<br />Guess what, still no joy with Voda***. 28 Days from delivery. <br />Called them and was told that their computers are intermittently online today. Very pleasant lady on the line took my details and promised to call me back.<br />__________________________________________________<br />PART 7:<br />7 March 2017...<br />First call attempt to the activations department and I was told "one moment" after verifying all my details and confirming when I received the device. Waited for ages before ending the call after 8min20sec.<br />Second call attempt (hoped the original agent would call me back but they didn't), verification questions answered a second time and am asked to "kindly hold the line for me" and placed on hold for ages again. Eventually the guy comes back to me to tell me they have a backlog of activations and a problem on their side. <br />Confirmed again that 'normal' activations period is 1 to 72hrs. I'm still waiting 32 days after receiving the device and sim card.<br />I stated that was my last call begging for activation. Apparently they will collect the device one day.</p> <p>I've had enough! <br />Will be cancelling my mobile phone contract which I have had with them for over 16yrs now.<br />__________________________________________________<br />PART 8:<br />9 to 14 March 2017(sometime in that period)...<br />Vodacom collect their Wifi router and all should hopefully be a nighmare of the past.<br />__________________________________________________<br />PART 9:<br />21 April 2017...<br />Discovered an extra bill of R355.38 on my Voda*** cellphone account (Connection Fee + two Data Tariff Line Rentals one pro-rata) for some phone number. Am told that I will get a call back before 5pm after they investigate.<br />__________________________________________________<br />PART 10: (3 months since fiasco started)<br />24 April 2017...<br />An hour on the phone to the guys querying why I now have this bill for a device and data contract they failed to activate and later collected prior to activating it. Turns out they activated the sim card on the 15th March and billed me for it. <br />So that would have been 48 days to get the data from date of comitting to it.<br />Now they apparently have to request a cancellation that will take up to 5 working days and then a credit note can be offered.</p> <p>*Blimey, what a poor company*<br />Been with Voda*** for years for cellphone only which has been pleasant, never needing their assistance but now the first time having to experience their utterly poor support and faulty systems.</p>