Pathetic Customer Service & Misselling of Products

1. Misselling and Miscommunication On the 9th of October 2024, an agent from Vodacom’s call center called offering a change in my data and minutes package on one of my Vodacom contracts whereby I would receive data and minutes aligned to my usage for a lesser instalment and I would get a free speaker for Vodacom’s birthday. This offer seemed appealing therefore I accepted. Before accepting the offer, I clearly advised the agent that I hope this is not an upgrade as I do not want to upgrade this contract which the agent confirmed is not an upgrade, but little did, I know? At the beginning of November 2024, I visited Vodacom Clear Water Mall branch to upgrade this contract in question, only to be told by a consultant Mason at the branch that this contract was already upgraded by the above mentioned offering by the call center agent and when I told him that this was not the case since the agent clearly told me that this was merely a data and minutes change of package, this consultant told me that it is a common practice for their call center agents to do this kind of misselling to their clients and assisted me to log a query on Vodacom’s system to reverse this so called upgrade since the upgrade was the speaker which I needed to return and was more than willing to return and this reversal should take up to 4 working days to process. 2. Failure to Reverse the Upgrade The speaker was collected from my premises on the 13th of November 2024 and I called the consultant, Mason at the branch 4 days later on the 19th of November 2024, only to be told that he has no control of the back office that does the reversals and that I should call the Vodacom number and escalate. Despite assurances from multiple agents, including Vodacom’s staff at the store and call center, the reversal of the upgrade and the return of the speaker have not been processed in the promised time frames. The delay in resolving this issue, especially after several attempts to escalate, reflects poor service and negligence. 3. Lack of Accountability The fact that on Saturday, 23rd of November 2024, upon visiting Vodacom Clear Water Mall store, the branch manager and call center agents have been unable to provide me with meaningful assistance or a clear resolution path is alarming. I was passed from one department to another, with no one taking responsibility to resolve the issue. This is unacceptable, especially after multiple contacts and escalations. One of the call center Managers, Aushen Naidoo attempted to assist by him consulting with the department that processes reversals and informed me that the reversal would be done yesterday, 24th of November around 9am and that I should call him to confirm when I am at the mall which I did. I had to continuously call Aushen only to be told that the manager of the reversal department will do the reversal in an hour and when I called after an hour, I was told that the reversal department is closed on a Sunday and the reversal will happen today however to this minute, no communication has been received that the reversal has been done.

4. Forced to Take Out a New Contract Because of this ongoing issue, I was compelled to take out a new iPhone contract with Vodacom via the iPhone Store at the Mall whilst waiting yesterday which further highlights the severity of the situation. This should be considered as a direct consequence of Vodacom’s mishandling of my case. 5. Demand for Immediate Action I demand that the new contract I was forced to take out be treated as the upgrade of my existing contract with immediate effect and as part of the resolution of my complaint. Since this has been an issue of Vodacom’s making, they should take full responsibility and apply the resolution promptly. Recommended Next Steps: If Vodacom fails to resolve my issue in a timely and satisfactory manner, I will escalate the matter to the FAIS Ombudsman or the National Consumer Commission. Given the severity and length of my ordeal, it’s critical that Vodacom addresses this issue promptly. They should be held accountable for the poor service and the inconvenience caused to me as a loyal customer.