Pathetic, unacceptable, bad faith dealing by Vodacom

To whom it may concern

I am writing to express my deep displeasure and disgust at the putrid and inconceivably bad service and interactions I've had with Vodacom over the last nearly three years. This has resulted in harassment from debt collectors commissioned by Vodacom that I feel is undue and in bad faith.

The issue started at the end of 2020 when Vodacom agents came into our complex and knocked on the tenants' doors to interest us in fibre internet because they were "soon" going to have fibre available through Octotel who were handling the infrastructure installation in the complex Poplar Mews, 31 Thor Circle, Thornton, Cape Town, 7460. At the time, I was using LTE internet through Telkom and the sales agents' pitch (of whom there were three) was that the fibre was a) uncapped, b) fast, and c) came with 100gigs day/night LTE data free from Vodacom until the fibre line was installed. This seemed like a good deal and the price was only R100 more than I was paying for my capped LTE so I took them up on the offer. A few days/weeks later, an LTE router was delivered and the additional LTE was most welcome.

For months and months after, I followed up with Vodacom as to the progress of the fibre installation. I was met with no explanation, timelines, or anything of the sort as to the details of the complex's fibre installation which was in and of itself, a particularly frustrating situation. On 1 February 2021, an amount of R599 was deducted from my account from Vodacom and I had no idea why. Fuming, I tried getting hold of someone at Vodacom to explain why I was billed when my fibre was still not connected. When I eventually managed to get hold of someone, they advised that I was being billed for LTE internet which I was confused about because according to the agent that sold me the fibre, it was free until such time that the fibre was installed. Turns out that I was missold, it was only one months' worth of LTE that was being offered and thereafter I was going to be debited. I then contacted Vodacom to complain and my argument was that I had LTE internet with Telkom, the only reason why I took the additional LTE with Vodacom was because it was offered for free. If I had known I was going to be charged for it even after a month or a few months, I’d have never taken it in the first place. I reversed the debit order of R599 with my bank and tried cancelling the LTE which was as hard as I’d have expected given the substandard service already received from Vodacom.

The fibre infrastructure was eventually installed by Octotel in April 2022 and when I tried to connect the fibre in May, (after having cancelled my Telkom LTE), it turns out that I was STILL billed for Vodacom LTE for the months March and April which meant that my account was a) “in arrears” and b) blocked completely. LTE that I stopped using because for those months I still had Telkom LTE. This meant that I was without internet at home and could not do work because I was a 100% remote employee. I eventually managed to get the additional amounts removed from my account and my fibre was working as advertised and sold since 11 May 2021.

On 18 September 2022 my fibre internet stopped working. I assumed it was just a loadshedding or business-as-usual related outage and enquired around. When I couldn’t find anyone else complaining about an outage in the area, I contacted Vodacom who could not tell me why my internet wasn’t working. I contacted both their call centre and Twitter social media on 18 September but was advised that because it was a Sunday, I’d have to contact them again the Monday 19 September 2022. I eventually got through to someone on the phone who advised me that my services were in fact cut without due to non-payment. I was irate because I had not once received any notice from Vodacom between May 2021 and September 2022 that my account had not been paid. This in itself is already horrible customer service because they did not make contact with me about any issues with the debit order in more than a year and without any warning, simply cancelled my services. No email, sms, phone call, nothing at all. All of my other debit orders had come off across all of my other financial obligations and I then enquired a) as to why they hadn’t contacted me in more than a year and b) why the debit order had run into issues because it worked fine when they erroneneously collected the LTE debit order in February 2021. The response I received was that due to their system, because I reversed the debit order once, they system stops it from working again. I have no control over this because it’s their system issue and is there for their convenience, not mine. They could not give me an answer as to why they hadn’t tried to contact me at all in more than a year to inform me that my services were going to be cut due to “non-payment”. During this time, I could not perform my duties at work because I had no internet at all so was severely inconvenienced due to needing to use internet in public spaces and at the homes of friends and family. Despite my best efforts to resolve the issue telephonically and through email (all of which can be provided as evidence), I did two things. I took out a brand new LTE contract with Telkom so I could at least have internet at home; I then also put in a days’ admin leave from my place of employment in order to go to the Vodacom Head Office in Century City, Cape Town, so I could sort the issue out on 19 October 2022.

After making it clear that I was not going to leave until I can actually speak to someone face-to-face due to the fact that their telephonic services were *********** in inefficient, I managed to speak to someone (their details will be withheld due to privacy but can be provided as necessary) and they assured me that the way in which I was treated was unacceptable, my frustration with the service was fair, and that my suggested resolution that my “arrears” account be written off in order to stay with their network and seek to resolve the debit order issue (on their end) was not unreasonable at all. The same day I provided the employee all of the evidence about my queries, along with the respective service numbers via email. A couple of days and follow-ups later, I was advised by this employee that they can no longer engage with me due to “legalities” and I need to again engage with their generic customer support services. Soon after I received an automated email that my account was handed over for debt collection and I have since been harassed and threatened to be blacklisted by MBD Debt Collectors and Burnard Raaff law firm. The phone calls are currently happening between five and 10 times every single day and each time I answer, the phone is put down. Two weeks ago I received a WhatsApp from an employee of Burnard Raaff with the details of my account, the fact that I am now also being billed for legal fees, to which I responded asking them to call me. This did not happen.

I would like to on record state the following:

At no point was a copy of the contract I signed with the agents at the end of 2020 provided to me At no point between May 2021 and September 2022 did Vodacom attempt to contact me to alert me of the issues with my debit order Despite my best efforts to resolve the issues amicably (call and email records as well as my putting in a full days’ leave to go to their head office), they treated me like a non-paying customer as if I didn’t pay due to negligence or lack of funds, neither of those things are true I have not one time, in my working, tax-paying career of nearly 17 years, missed a single payment on anything including cars, rent, mortgage, credit cards or anything else despite being unemployed for a period as well. If Vodacom had treated me with the least bit of good faith, they would have a) alerted me to the issue with the debit order and made arrangements with me or b) not put their systems and processes ahead of what good customer service is. I think they are in gross contravention of at least two of the nine consumer rights as outlined by the Consumer Protection Act.

I am disgusted by Vodacom and will dissuade anyone from ever doing any form of business with them, ever.