Shame on you!

I have several experiences with Vodacom over the years and usually don't have issue, however recent experiences have annoyed me enough to post about it.

So about the beginning of last year a Vodacom representative calls a family member of mine, who is not tech savvy or savvy with much of any contracts of the sort and steam roles her with a contract for a Mobile Wifi Router. The family member explicitly says she is not interested and was promptly cut off or disconnected from the call.

A few days later a parcel is delivered and even though she refused to accept the courier tells her that she has to and can return it via "the correct procedure" She asks me about it and I suggested she return it as is, unopened and as is, as this item/device is of no use or benefit to her.

She proceeds to contact Vodacom several times, with either calls being dropped or no assistance being provided. As she has only 7 days to return the item, according to her understanding, she decided to mail it back to the sender address on the package information. She accepts that as done and doesn't give much further thought to it.

Fast forward to present time, after being notified of an upgrade on her contract, she discovered an number on her account not hers or one she isn't aware of. The Vodacom representative informs her during the conversation that the number is allocated to this device she sent back. She explains it was sent back but found no joy from this person and so after contacting me, I assisted with reaching out to Vodacom to explain the circumstances.

At this point Vodacoms rep, has informed me that she is unsure what can be done and that no credit can be provided since they at Vodacom did not receive the parcel. Even though the client still has the original tracking info, according to Vodacom the item had to be collected by their own courier or it had to be couriered back to them.

So now I ask, how should older or people less "versed" in these kinds of matters address these kinds of situations. When they call the provider several times, go through call centre prompts, get cut off, by a bad system or mismanaged one with what appears to be *********** personnel. Added on top of that, the person didn't want the item, then has to get the item back within a week to the supplier on their own dime i.e. with courier charges that they probably will never be reimbursed for.

The client ends up spending money on a local postal service to return to the sender address the unopened item and yet still was billed need R200/month. The client didn't realise this because it was going off her spouses bank account who also is not savvy with these things and never queried it.

This whole situation would have been avoided if the sales rep simply listened to the client in the first place.

If Vodacom really cares about their customers, they should take more time to assist and protect said customers instead of overwhelming them with deals that are not needed or wanted and ultimately taking advantage of their ignorance and lack of knowledge all while the customer says they not interested.