Recharge Voucher that would not accept and call centre said I must try the following 1- 2hours when it was an emergency

I bought a recharge voucher and Pep Stores Newtown Mall Jhb at 16:20:31 hrs of an amount R275 , I needed this amount because I had urgent calls I had to make and connect to the internet , I called the call center and spoke to a consultant at 1820 hrs and advised her that my account wasn't recharged and she confirmed that they had technical system errors who I asked why does Vodacom advise us should systems be down so that we can use alternative network suppliers and did not get any answer , I requested for a ref for my call and again she said calls only genarate references after 24hours , really is this the kind of service 1 , needs when having an emergency, this is not the first time Vodacom is acting up , should they keep dropping standards rather shut business and have other network providers to do it ,