Phone Soft Lock Every Evening For No Good Reason - Still Locked!

<p>Dear Vodacom</p> <p> </p> <p>I have been very patient up to now, but as you know very well there is a limit to everything. Oh wait, speaking of limit, you have not kept your end of the contract so I would like my contract to be cancelled. Surprised? I guess not, but here is the long of it:</p> <p> </p> <p>Since last week, every evening I receive a text from you saying, in short, subscribers softlocked (yes your grammar on the text is pretty poor). My phone is then locked shortly thereafter and I receive another text saying saying that my Credit Limit Bar has been reached. The routine is then that I spend a wasteful 20 – 30 minutes speaking to one of your agents on 111 to try to unlock it. Since I have been calling every night, I have had the pleasure of speaking to your call centre agents who rush because its late and I guess want to go home, those who are just doing a job and don’t care about your problem and others who proceed as though you are really stupid and continue with a script rather than hear the problem.</p> <p> </p> <p>I was however lucky to get two gems this week, who took the time to explain what the issue was (I will get back to you about this later on) and they were kind enough to unlock my phone because they could see that the phone was not meant to be locked, it was a system error.</p> <p> </p> <p>So since my squandered 150 minutes listening to your tedious voice prompts, ********** hold music and speaking to your company representatives, I gathered the following:</p> <p> </p> <p>1. My phone is getting locked every day because the agents cannot see what is wrong with my account and Vodacom have been having this particular issue with many subscribers due to an error on your side. I have called this morning, I am still awaiting my phone to be unlocked as promised by the agent. It is STILL LOCKED!</p> <p> </p> <p>2. My credit limit has been reached. I haven’t set one, so I am assuming that this was one preset. In any event, I have been your customer for close to 16 years now and I have been in good standing with my account since the beginning. But never mind that, here’s the explanation that I got:</p> <p>My bill which is due to be paid on my next debit order date is roughly R 1,500. This will be on the 1st of October 2016. I am on Smart S and the basis of my monthly contract roughly starts off at R 450. So frankly speaking, when it hit to the new month I was already in arrears on your system because I started off R250 over the R 1,700 credit limit. So I have been penalised and put on lock firstly for a bill that is due next month and secondly on a new amount that I haven’t even touched yet.</p> <p>3. So I find this ridiculousness out on Thursday, and ask the agent, can I pay directly into your account so that my phone can be unblocked. She casually says no! Okay, so here I am starting a month no soft-lock, I’ve paid my bill religiously when it was due and even asked for Credit Limit on Monday so as to prevent this from happening (separate issue, next point) and now I can’t pay you to make the situation better? Do I just stay without a phone all month until the next debit date? Clever Vodacom – no business for you! So whilst still on this topic, I phoned 111 again this morning and I am told that I can do a payment on the app – very clever Vodacom! I do not have data or access to the internet but I can pay on your phone app. Ponder on that one!</p> <p>4. So as I said, I requested an increase on my credit limit earlier this week. I was told it will be in effect within 24 to 48 hours. I call again on Wednesday, it was still opened on the system. The call centre who thought that I was 5 years old yesterday proceeded to tell me that it takes 24 to 48 hours to process. So I pointed out that to be generous, let’s say the 72 hours had passed. She didn’t have an answer for me but stuck to her guns that it was my fault and I need to pay. This really frustrates me dear Vodacom, I challenge you to please check your records and tell me if I’ve ever not paid you.</p> <p> </p> <p>5. Additional charge/subscription. I am being charged R 1.75 per day for a service that I have NOT subscribed to. It is VLive AirG Gold and no one at your organisation can help me. The best thing, I do not have an application on my phone for this. I have not requested this, please remove this hidden subscription. I should be asking for my money back, but I am not. Just stop it.</p> <p> </p> <p>6. Prior to this email, I found that there is an online banking option. So I get onto FNB to pay an amount in hope of clearing my account, which I have been penalised for, for doing absolutely nothing wrong. The payment WILL be debited on the 1st and I will NOT be over my monthly limit. And surprise, there are issues with your listing and it will not take my account number. So hey Vodacom, I can’t even pay you via online banking!</p> <p> </p> <p>7. Omg dear Vodacom there is so much that happened this week. Need I mention that I asked the agent to send me through to your cancellations department and I held on for 5 minutes and was then asked to rate my call. Yes, as the prompt gasped, I did put a zero – in fact two on your service.</p> <p> </p> <p>8. Lastly, oh Vodacom. I have purchased a data bundle – I have about 2GB of data available to me and about 120 free minutes on my phone. Why or why will you dare lock and block me from access to MY free minutes and data if you are concerned about payment. To be really common in my statement – that is pretty retarded. That is my G** given right to have free access to my free minutes but alas, you have taken that away from me? Lock paying outgoing calls and data, not my free bundles if you really have to. It just makes sense, don’t you think so?</p> <p>Now here’s the human touch dear Vodacom. Picture this, your family, someone close to you far away from home. No family or friends in the area. No internet connectivity or access to emails. Living in a new area, strange town in South Africa which could potentially be a crime zone. It’s late at night, the house alarm goes off and there isn’t a response team. You need to call your neighbour to look over their window if all is okay. You need to call the local police and not just the Vodacom emergency number. You need to call the tactical response team. But alas, your phone has just been locked that evening and a snotty agent has promised that your call with we escalated within 72 hours…</p> <p> </p> <p>Yes Vodacom that is me. Thank you for potentially ****ing me in a dangerous situation because I am sitting with a phone whereby it’s only use will be to hit the potential stranger with, if I am aim correctly.</p> <p> </p>