Shocked and Appalled

Never thought I will ever have to do this, but I am at my wits end with Vodacom. My initial complaint was ignored and I had to escalate with ICASA whom now in turn told me it falls outside of their jurisdiction and I have to approach NCC which is in progress. Below my complaint and feedback from ICASA:

Good day,

Let me start this e-mail off by saying I have been a loyal supporter of Vodacom for about 16 years, and I've have come to a stage where I am at a loss for words.

The outsourcing needs to be relooked. I am getting calls from all these strange places calling on behalf of Vodacom and some not very professional. A while back one of these agents issued a new internet line after I have explicitly said I am not interested. Luckily I managed to resolve the matter and got refunded, but it's a painful process to get things right the first time.

One problem resolved just made way for another to take its place.

I have 2 accounts with Vodacom. The one mentioned in the subject line is the one I have a problem with. There is also NA000527 (This one dates back to the days of Altech Autopage which is long gone, but I am still here).

On this invoice I am getting billed R599.62 as per my most recent debit order:

And on the abovementioned account number I got billed:

This triggered a call to Vodacom to enquire about this amount. This account is My wife's Line + my daughter's line + Plus a Fibre Line and seemed like I was over charged.

On the call I spoke to a lovely lady called Busi and she tried her best to give the answers. She even called me back after speaking to her leadership, but all that has now stopped and I have not heard from Vodacom whatsoever.

My daughter's birthday in on 4 Dec and every second year on her birthday she gets a new phone, so I normally upgrade this line end Nov or beginning of Dec. My daughter's line *** was upgrade last year to the 2 x Apple Iphone 13 @R9 99 p/m promotion that was running for Black Friday.

Then, earlier this year our neighbourhood got Fibre, and I was informed by the Vodacom Agent that if I were to install Fibre, Vodacom would automatically cancel my home internet and replace it with the Fibre line. Post Installation, I called the Fibre department to activate my Fibre line. Again, just due diligence on my part, I asked the person on the line to confirm the story that Vodacom would replace the two contracts, and it was confirmed. With that being confirmed I had no problem to activate the Fibre line as I would not be double billed.

Fast forward to now, not only has Vodacom been billing me for home internet as well as Fibre, but I also found out that the home internet line was upgraded to the Iphone deal instead of my daughter's line and I basically got told there is nothing we can do now. What's done is done.

Back to the billing issue. I have sent you screenshots from my banking app to confirm the amounts deducted from my account, but nowhere can I find an invoice that matches these amounts, which in itself is mind-boggling.

I am paying Vodacom a lot of my hard-earned money and I am not getting any sort of value for money. I require that a full investigation be done as to what happened, why and how it happened and what measures will be put in place to avoid re-occurrence. I also want the outcome and all evidence to be shared with me via email.

Please, I want this matter resolved urgently. I want the Home Internet cancelled from the date of activation of the Fibre Line (as I was promised) and I want a full refund for all the months I was double debited.

I look forward to hearing from someone.

I do not know what went wrong with Vodacom recently but please get to the bottom of it and fix it. I do not want to use any other network provider. I have been with Vodacom since I got my first cell phone and I would like that to remain, but the service issues need to be fixed and I am really hoping that it could be, sooner rather than later.

Feel free to contact me on my details below.

Kind regards, Dimitri van Niekerk ***

My escalation to ICASA:

Good day,

Please see below complaint sent to Vodacom. To date, I have not received any type of feedback from Vodacom, apart from an automated reply. I would like to escalate my complaint.

Vodacom has again deducted amounts that differ. Please see below:

Please assist me to get this matter resolved. Someone at Vodacom made a blunder and now I am being forced to pay for the mistake, and I get nowhere when I try to resolve this matter with Vodacom. This has been a frustrating and painful time as the consultants I engage with cannot do anything. I feel helpless and unheard by a brand that I have been nothing but loyal to over the years.

I would really appreciate assistance and guidance on how to resolve this matter speedily.

If you need anything from me, I can be contacted via e-mail or telephonically @ ***.

Many thanks.

Kind regards, Dimitri van Niekerk

Feedback from ICASA: Dear Dimitri van Niekerk

We have received the communication regarding a complaint addressed to ICASA for mediation. Your Complaint has been registered and the ICASA Complaint Reference is: GAU000352/25 .

Your complaint is beyond our jurisdiction and you are advised to contact National Consumer Commission and their contact details are as follows:

Telephone : *** / *** Fax : *** E-Mail : https://eservice.thencc.org.za

This matter is regarded as finalised by our office and the case has been closed.

Please visit https://eservice.thencc.org.za for further assistance.

Yours sincerely

Magdeline Mogashoa

Consumer Affairs

I am beyond disappointed and shocked with the disregard. Hopefully someone will now contact me. I really did not even want to give this experience 1 star.