Refuse to deal with my query

To whom it may concern

I would like to inform you of the very unfortunate series of events that lead to me write this email.

Starting in December of last year round about the 20th (though I’m sure you can follow the time line on my account) I tried to activate Showmax based on a email sent to me by Vodacom and was unsuccessful several times online. So I the logged a query for the first time with two issues I wanted resolved

1. Why can’t I activate Showmax 2. Why am I not a platinum client

Neither of which was resolved despite several calls and several queries logged and twice I received a sms reposnse saying query resolved check details on app, needless to say if that were true I would not be typing the email to you.

In January I called in and spoke to a team leader in customer care dept by the name of Katlego I explained my frustration to him and he deescalated my frustration very professionally and explained

1. Showmax was not activating because of a block which he would resolve and he did

2. He said he would follow up on the platinum query, which he the did and returned my my call and in clear and understandable way explained why I did not qualify for platinum membership I was disappointed but understood and was satisfied with his answer.

By this time I had tried successfully to do a premature upgrade on one of my lines ********** 048 with a lady from Retentions apparently also a team leader by the name of Mandisa who at the time was about to leave work for the day (it was a late call) and also about to go on leave. She gave me a deal that included the following

iPhone 6 32g 5 gig data for 7 days 5 gig data for 24 months And free call line identity Resulting in a total of R249 p/m for 24 months

Plus handset instalment from previous contract till August of R149 (I think)

I checked with Katlego saying that I had done this upgrade but no one had confirmed it as I was told they would, he said he would check and comeback which he did and said I should receive a call within 48hrs from the relevant department which did not happen

Here is now where the wheels come off properly.

I called back in and spoke to a consultant who said said my delivery was allocated for the next day, I was surprised as I had had no phone call so I asked for the details of the upgrade and I was told that it was as follows:-

iPhone 6 32g 5 gig data for 7 days And free call line identity Resulting in a total of R529p/m for 24 months

Which was not what I expected I asked for clarification and explained what I had been offered and was told “no” that’s the deal so I said if that’s the case please cancel it as it was not what I discussed, to which I was told to hold and waited for what felt like forever and was then told - ok I’ve cancelled it if they phone or deliver please send it back- which I did.

Not satisfied with the service I received I phoned and spoke to Katlego again and expressed my displeasure and asked to have the discussion recordings reviewed and a response to be given me regarding the miscommunication and the abrupt and seeming don’t care attitude of the consultant who cancelled the contract.

After several days of not hearing from Katlego, I phoned several times to speak to him to which the first line consultants said he would come back to me by the end of the day on three separate days which did not happen.

Somewhere I between all this Mandisa called me when she got back from leave to confirm if I got my phone (despite my irritation I thought this was good service) and I told her I had cancelled the upgrade and why, this left her confused and she insisted the deal was valid, but I said I might be interested in upgrading my other line ********** 637 to a MacBook contract and she said she would come back to me before the end of the day, she did not.

Then this weekend 26th Jan I decided to get my son a MacBook Air 13 “ 256gig as he has surgery at least once a month after being badly burned in December 2017 and needed a laptop to keep current with his schooling in hospital.

I called into upgrades and asked for the deal advertised online but wanted the 128gig price and was told I would get a call in 45 min

I thought let me call and see if the stores have stock (you can check my call records I called keywest vodashop, Cresta Vodashop and Westgate vodashop) Only Westgate had stock but only the 128gig in rose-gold (not the best colour for a boy but the deal was good) he said he could do do it for R479 or R499 Depending on modem on a 1 gig contract, I said great I’ll take it do the paperwork I will be in shortly to collect and I was told he could only do paperwork when I got there and needed to check something with the modem. So I said asked for his name (Lorenzo) and said ok and started out that way.

I arrived at the store and waited for almost 2hrs with 3 staff member trying to assist me all the while not informing me of what the problem was,Which after enquiring more than one as to what the hold up was I eventually found out I had been quoted the wrong deal over the phone and on top of that the stock item they had was listed as a 30” mackbook air and they could not find a deal on the deal sheet for it, after repeatedly explaining that there is no such product I call the upgrades line back and explained the situation to the consultant and they then asked to speak to the store salesperson and eventually came up with the price of R629.

I was not happy but I needed a laptop so I said fine they eventually processed the quote but said I would have to pay a additional handset instalment of R100 till August at which point I had had enough of the chopping and changing I had gone from R479 to R729 if I was told that on the phone I would have not wasted my time going out. In between all this I had had a call from upgrades saying the would give it to me for R720 and I turned it down as I said the store was giving me a better deal. Again please check all the phone call recordings.

I then went home throughly frustrated and called your retentions dept and expressed my displeasure at the service I had received and asked to speak to a team leader and I was told they don’t know where they are please call again on Monday again I expressed my frustration to which I got the response well Mr Hibberd what do you actually want like I was trying to get a freebee. At this point I was not impressed

I then called customer care to voice my displeasure and spoke to one of katlego’s colleges who said, oh was just about to call you Katlego asked me to follow up with you as he was away from work.

With both those departments I requested a call back and never received one

Today Tuesday 29th I called in to retentions and complained that I had not yet received a call from them and would like to find out when my six contracts expired after about 15 mins of waiting I was given all the dates the last being 31st December this year I proceeded to ask for a quote to cancel all of them and was told I must phone back after the 4th I then asked to speak to a team leader after waiting almost 15min again Mandisa eventually came on and after a long frustrating rant I said I want to cancel my contracts and again I said I want a quote to cancel my contracts I was a again told to phone back after the 3rd to which I responded I was going to escalate this further to which she responded “please keep my name out of this”

I then phoned and again related all my experiences and frustrations to Katlego again and for the first time since the previous time I spoke to him someone actually showed concern for my bad experience and tried to deescalate the situation and try retain me as a client. And asked me to write this mail, so he can escalate it before I cancel any contracts.

In his words Vodacom is not in the business of losing client and everyone should strive to give the client the best service and experience possible.

Now I will fully admit I am not a easy client but I am a reasonable one and have been in customer service related position for the past 30 years, from sales person to Project manager and I know the customer is not always right but this was a comedy of small oversights that resulted in a much larger service issue.

This is not a full accounting of what happened but for the sake of brevity (don’t laugh) I have omitted some of the issues as what I have highlighted I think has portrayed my frustration sufficiently. Also my timeline might be slightly out but again check it out on the recordings this did after all start more than 2 months ago

If you need further info my cell is (072) **********

Kind regards

Mark Hibberd