Pathetic service from Vodacom Customer-WE OBVIOUSLY DON'T-care

<p>Pathetic service from Vodacom Customer DON’Tcare</p> <p>Absolute disgrace that a service provider purporting to be the “best”, largest and most efficient in South Africa can have such disappointing (for the want of a better word) service.</p> <p>Subsequent to receiving an sms late yesterday afternoon (1st Dec. 2016) of a successful and approved “contract upgrade” for which she DID NOT APPLY FOR, my daughter called the Vodacom Customer Care number to request for assistance on the suspected ********** transaction. After holding on for over 2 hours to the customer care line, she FINALLY got to speak to a customer consultant. After her explaining the whole predicament to the consultant, she was told that she (my daughter) cannot be helped and that she needs to call back during office hours. Not being happy with this response, she requested a number (***** line) that could be called immediately as this was of a concerning matter. She was referred to the cancellations line (***). Well needless to say that when calling this number we got a “voice message” saying that the lines were closed and that we should call again this morning. Now we all know that at least 70% (if not more) of SA citizens make use of their cell phones for cellphone and internet banking (my daughter being one of them). Being told to wait until this morning’s office hours is totally unacceptable, I mean come on … do you really think that ********** only work office hours? Having access to anything on my daughters cell phone (including her banking details and more) could cause major damage and loss (and who would then be held accountable). None-the-less, still not happy with the response we received from the customer services consultant (and not being able to contact any of the other Vodacom numbers including the number above), my daughter again called the customer services line at which the same time I (in hopeful anticipation that one of us would reach somebody without waiting another 2 hours) called the Vodacom Customer services line from my landline (AND AT WHICH I PAID A COST FOR THE CALL from my Telkom line I would like to add). Having waited another 30 minutes my daughter hung up the call and I still continued to hold. My daughter then called the Vaal Mall shopping centre Vodacom Shop requesting assistance. One of the employees there could confirm that an “alleged request” for a contract upgrade AND migration had been done at the Three Rivers RiversSquare shopping centre earlier that afternoon (1st December 2016), but this was about all information she could give and also suggested my daughter call Vodacom during office hours (what a frustration). I had in the interim continued to hold onto my now ever increasing telephone call to 082 111 (from my landline!!). After almost 40 minutes I finally got to speak to a consultant myself. By now, we were in total panic as we were unsure of what was already happening on the account (and more importantly with her personal information). I spoke with a consultant by the name of Tshidi explaining the whole situation to her (confirming that my daughter was with me should she want to speak with her (although she was unable to speak with her at that very moment) and stated that I was not wanting any personal information (although that seems easily available these days) but was merely requesting an urgent after hours number for the Vodacom ***** department (I do believe that Vodacom surely DOES have a ***** department / ***** line for issues like this, or don’t you?). I was given a “011” number by Tshidi which according to her was the ***** line where we would be assisted. I requested Tshidi to call me back in 10-15 minutes (giving her both my landline number and a cell number) to confirm that we had been assisted with (to which she confirmed me that she would) – I had probably anticipated that we would need to make another call to Vodacom Customer Service and wait another hour or two to be attended to. Well, surprise, surprise … the “011” number that Thsidi gave me (which she had confirmed to be your ***** line) gave a “voice message” saying “the number you have dialed does not exist”. HAHA, why does that not surprise me … Vodacom, do you train your customer services / call centre staff and when you do, do you give them important numbers that should (or can) be communicated with your subscribers / customers or are the staff trained to give incorrect numbers intentionally and waste valuable time (especially in a situation like this) – I’m just wondering. In addition to this, and just for the record, Tshidi didn’t have the decency to even call me back as she had promised to check whether we had even been attended to (by the number that did not exist) … rotten customer service yet AGAIN.</p> <p>So, not wanting to spend another hour (if not more) waiting for somebody to pick up the phone at the Vodacom Customer Services line, we decided against calling Vodacom again and my daughter then called her bank to request assistance from them. Immediately attended to and assisted by a professional consultant (obviously nothing to do with her Vodacom contract or account) my daughter spoke with the banks ***** line. Thank you to FNB ***** department – Vodacom can learn from your staff.</p> <p>This did however not solve her Vodacom predicament (although by now we basically knew it wouldn’t be solved as we had repeatedly been told by more than one Vodacom call centre operator that nothing could be done until office hours today). Really !!</p> <p>The plot on our dissatisfaction with Vodacom thickens, as this morning my daughter drew a bank statement to check any ********** activity on her banking account only to realize that in addition to her “normal” monthly invoice balance for Vodacom being deducted, an additional amount had been deducted by Vodacom last night.</p> <p>So, off to Three Rivers RiverSquare shopping mall (where, according to the response received by one of the many Vodacom employees we spoke with last night, the request for the upgrade and migration had been made) my daughter goes this morning (2nd December 2016) in anticipation of obtaining a copy of the “contract request paperwork”. There she was told by one of the in-shop consultants that according to the in-store system, no paperwork had been submitted to that store and as such no “request or proof” of such a request could be given from the store (so where does the Vodacom sms and the subsequent telephonic “confirmation” of the request come from in the first place?). According to the person she spoke with, the system could however indeed show that an upgrade “quotation” had been requested yesterday and was present on the system against her name (how does this compare to the sms she received “confirming her” supposed request for an upgrade – there is a difference right). So now one questions this, as how on earth is it possible that any movement (if even a quotation) could show up against her name / contract if she did not make such a request (neither telephonically nor in person). How is it that just anybody can walk into any Vodacom Store, give a cellphone number and request for information (including things like upgrade / migration information) without even showing any form of positive identification? Is it not so that customers are protected by the “POPI” act (protection of personal information) – Vodacom please explain this to me. How also did she receive an sms from Vodacom late yesterday afternoon stating that “her” request for an upgrade had been received and processed (which also amazingly showed on the system last night but not today).</p> <p>To add injury to insult, when my daughter queried the additional monies that had been deducted off her account, she was informed that in addition to the R149 deducted for her monthly 1Gb data bundle (which she had previously activated on her contract without any problems in previous months) – two additional months fees had been deducted (R149 x 2 additional). No surprise that it was confirmed that she had only RECEIVED ONE MONTH’S DATA BUNDLE OF 1Gb and NOT 3Gb even though she had paid for 3Gb). Now we do understand that Vodacom has been experiencing problems with data bundle allocations, but when my daughter requested that the monies be refunded to her, she was abruptly told that it was not possible and that her account would be credited with the R298 in the following bill month – next month (this remains to be seen). Amazing that money can so quickly be deducted from ones account but not so easily refunded. Another huge disappointment Vodacom.</p> <p>When my daughter indicated that she would be requesting legal advice from her legal team on the past 12 hours activities (with no help received from Vodacom), the in-shop consultant told her to “go ahead” and see her lawyer and to sue Vodacom if she wanted to … WOW, was that meant to be a threat or is that just inappropriate and a totally unacceptable response from a Vodacom employee (oh by the way they don’t wear name badges so we couldn’t see her name). Pathetic service received there too.</p> <p>So in closing, after the huge disappointment of the activities and our dealings with Vodacom over the past couple of hours, don’t be too surprised when you see a couple of contracts being cancelled when they come due for such (my daughter has 4 contracts of her own, her husband has 2 and I personally have 4 contracts of my own) as it is most unfortunate that we are in any way associated with an inept service provider who is supposedly “South Africa’s Best Network” but is yet unable (or is it maybe unwilling) to assist a customer in a serious time of need, as was the case. I still DO NOT BELIEVE that Vodacom does not have “emergency after hour assistance lines” and staff.</p> <p>Not only has this entire event cost time, inconvenience and money, we have also taken time off work to get to the bank for reactivations and notifications to be reinstated (and all of this due to inept staff AND service provider). Thank you for nothing Vodacom, continued service like this will surely have many of your subscribers opting for other service providers. I hope this review helps any other Vodacom subscribers who may find themselves in such (or similar situation) of what not to do (ie. Don’t phone 082 111 / 111 after hours, for not only do you “hang” for ages, when you finally get to speak to somebody they don’t assist you anyway).</p> <p>Should there by any chance be a Vodacom response that prefers to deal with my daughter on this issue directly, please feel free to do so on ***.<br /> </p>