Pathetic Service at Vodacom Chatsworth

On 25 May 2022 i did an upgrade on an existing contract, made an upfront cash payment in the Vodacom store at Chatsworth Centre in Durban, the clerk did not inform me that I will be debited R 153 within the next two days, instead i was told that the first debit would be on 25 June 2022.

After receiving an SMS from Vodacom a few days later, I went back to the shop to enquire as to why I was now in arreas an amount of R 253. The clerk told me not to worry about it as I paid cash in the store and that I should produce a bank statement as proof of the debit order.

Upon checking my statement i found that the debit order was deducted from my credit card account instead of from my savings account (which was the account details that I provided to the store).

I then called the Vodacom Call centre and Spoke to Gloria Mtoborwa, who was very helpful and attentive and asked me to email all the relevant documents to resolve the issue, which i did immediately. Gloria then advised that as the contract was taken in store, I would then have to go back to the store to rectify the issue.

So I went back to the store, the consultant ( Prabashni) that assisted me was off on that day, so I spoke to another consultant who said that he was aware of the enquiry that was sent to head office. That was the only information that was offered so i left the store.

On 3rd June 2022 I realised that i had not been topped up with the airtime that is supposed to be due by the 1st of June 2022 on the secondary phone from that contract. So I went back to the store to enquire about that and to also check on the progress of the debit order enquiry, Prabashni was on duty, she sent another request to head office regarding the airtime issue.

Two days later the airtime was loaded onto the existing contract number, which was incorrect so I transferred the airtime to the secondary phone number.

Marvin Timm, REF *** called me on 5 June 2022 and I asked him to please top up the airtime onto the secondary number going forward, he said that it will be done , there was no issue with that, we even confirmed the secondary number.

I spoke with Gloria again on 19/06/2022 regarding the debit order in May 2022 who said that she will call me by 12pm on 20/06/2022, she informed me that my account with Vodacom was in arreas for R253. So i went to the store again, Prabashni was off , I spoke to her colleague, who could not assist me at first, I then asked to speak to her superior who never came out of the office so the consultant eventually explained to me that a debit order never usually goes out within 2 days of signing a contract and that they were not aware of it.

My bank, Capitec informed me that this account in arreas, now affected my credit score and credit profile and called to offer me a loan.

1 July 2022 i did not receive the airtime again, so I called the call centre again on 4 July 2022 to inform them that i did not receive the airtime, I waited 20 mins for my call to be answered, it was never answered . So i called again at around 10pm that night, I spoke to another consultant who informed me that the airtime was already allocated, when I told her that it was supposed to be on the number that i was calling from, 064.... but she told me that from what she could see, this number was a prepaid number and the airtime was allocated to a contract number which was a 084 number, I was extremely upset, she then transferred me to her team leader, he said that what the consultant said was correct and that my sim card was probably still in the store, he could see that the airtime was not being used on that sim card.

He said that the in store consultant had given me the incorrect sim card and that I should go query with them.

I asked him what could be done as the 064 number was being used for work purposes and it would be very inconvienient to change my number at this stage.

He advised on a sim swap and keep the 064 number , he also said that he will lay a complaint against the Chatsworth store because the negligence of the in store consultant (prabashni) cost me alot of time and running around.

At the store, Prabashni said that she was not aware of it and when she checked the sim card in the phone, it was a prepaid sim as advised by the call centre, she went to the office and brought me the correct simcard, I then asked about the number swap, she said it can be done at a fee at my expense .I told her that the call centre advised that i wont have to pay for it, she kept saying that the sim swap can be done but the number swap will cost me. So I asked to speak with her manager.

The manager did not allow me to speak, he told me that Prabashni already informed him of everything, he can do the sim swap and the number swap will be done at Prabashni's expense ,she will give me the cash to deposit into my account for the debit, seeing that it was an error on her part. She advised to insert the sim card after 4 hours and it will be active, I was still receiving calls on the prepaid sim card. on 8 July 2022 received a message from Shalan from Vodacom Chatsworth, stating that he spoke to the transfer dept. they were still trying to transfer my number and that he will contact me once it is done.

13 July 2022 Prabashni (Priya) sent me an sms stating that number can not be swapped and that Customer care gave me the wrong information.

Its now 15 July 2022, I still havent received any joy from Vodacom regarding any of the above mentioned issues, which were all at fault on their part and not of my own, they have cost me money on return debit orders, travelling costs and time off from work and have also affected my credit score. I am a working mother of a young child and I have spent far too much of time chasing Vodacom to rectify the problems that they created!!!