Selling on False Promise, Terrible Service

17 January: I received a sales call from the call centre offering me a data package.

I explained to the agent that I had intended to shop around for a package and that, since she had me on the line, she could tell me about the offers. After identifying the product that interested me most, I indicated that I would take up the offer provided that it would be delivered to my partner who is currently in Durban, and not directly to me in Johannesburg. This was agreed to without hesitation and she proceeded to get all the necessary details from me in order to secure the sale. Near the end of the call, when she asked for an address, as I tried to give my partner's address, I was suddenly told that I needed to provide my own address. Presumably, being the account holder, this is what needed to be entered into the system, but nevertheless I was told that I would receive an SMS with the details of RAM couriers with whom I could arrange delivery to the desired address. I wasn't entirely thrilled by this, but I agreed and decided to go with it.

18 January: After realising that the promised SMS had not arrived. I called into the after-sales center and explained what I needed. Palesa Molebeleli took down the necessary information and advised that she would send the instruction to RAM.

22 January: I received an SMS from RAM advising on a delivery for that day. The address shown in the message was mine, not my partners.

Upon calling RAM I was told that they had not received any communication about a change of address and that they could only take this instruction from Vodacom, and not me.

I called Vodacom's after-sales department and this time spoke to Londiwe Makhoba. She promised to re-send the instruction to RAM and I asked her to copy me in.

After receiving the email with an instruction on the change of address, I got back on the phone with RAM and was told that this time they had received the instruction and heat she could see that the forwarded email was not sent to the correct address or department by Palesa on the first occasion. I then asked what documentation my partner would need to have with her upon accepting delivery, and it is at this point that I was told by the RAM agent that, given that this would be a third party delivery, they would need authorisation from Vodacom in order to go ahead.

I communicated this message back to Londiwe by email, and after not receiving a response for some time, I called in and asked to speak to her. Somebody else came on the line and introduced himself as her manager. He advised that 3rd party delivery was against Vodacom's rules and that the package would have to be delivered to me directly. Despite me telling him that I had only proceeded with the purchase on the premise that this specific request would be honored, and had not been told anything about such a rule at the time of purchase, he said there was nothing that could be done and I would have to take delivery. I told him how unhappy I was, and that I was stuck between cancelling this order, based on the fact that it was sold to me on a false promise, or taking it and still having to deal with delivering it to Durban once I'd received it. Nevertheless, I caved and told him they should go ahead and deliver to me.

24 January: I received a call from RAM advising that the package would be out for delivery today. Lo and behold, the address that she reads out to me for confirmation is the Durban address of my partner. Upon explaining what documentation would be required of me on delivery, I begrudgingly explained that it was my partner that would be receiving at that address so I would need her to be aware of this and tell me what documents my partner should have on her. Unsurprisingly, she told me that she did not have instruction from Vodacom to do a 3rd party delivery. When I explained to her everything that had happened to get us to this point, she said she would get back to me.

Next came a call from Ahmed from RAM. Again, I had to explain the whole story from scratch. He was quite understanding and expressed that it would be silly for the package to go back to Johannesburg. He said he would see what he could do to get the third party authorisation. My partner received a call from RAM not long afterwards to check suitable times, etc, while they worked on getting the authorisation.

Later in the day I received a call from someone who said he was from the Vodacom deliveries department, who basically told me that I was asking for something that is against Vodacom's rules. I explained, again, how we had gotten to this situation, and I asked him to escalate the matter as at this point I was well and truly going to cancel this order if Vodacom saw sense in sending the package back to Johannesburg. He called back shortly afterwards to tell me that there was nothing that could be done.

By now, I had long since gotten to the point where it felt like everybody I spoke to at RAM was doing their utmost to get this parcel delivered in Durban - to effectively honour the promise made to me at the point of sale by Vodacom. Vodacom agents on the other hand were all, one after the other, not interested in coming to any sensible solution other than to read the "we do not deliver to a 3rd party" script. I find this incredible, to say the least.

I told the Vodacom agent that this was all too silly for me and I would be cancelling. He told me that I would have to call the sales department as he only dealt with deliveries. I called the sales department to tell them that I wished to cancel, and there I was told that I could not cancel yet as the package was still with RAM, and that only once RAM had returned it to Vodacom would I then still have to call in again and ask them to cancel. Again, truly ridiculous, with no regard whatsoever about the back and forth, going around in circles, that I had already been through.

My experience with Vodacom has hardly been that smooth as it is in recent times, but this episode just takes the cake. A lot of the staff that I dealt with on Vodacom's side left a lot to be desired in so many areas (several sounded, for one, like they don't even want to be at work) and this observation is from before I had reached the point of utter dismay and annoyance. I well and truly feel that I was sold something by a salesperson who was more eager to close a sale than to make sure that they were giving the customer what he had asked for.

On the other side of the coin, even though this issue was not resolved for me, I still have to tip my hat to RAM's staff for their understanding, professionalism, and diligent efforts, all of which they did for a mess-up which really wasn't theirs to fix in the first place. I will be sure to leave a compliment for them.