STAY AWAY FROM VODACOM. THEY ARE SATURATED WITH ******* AND **********

<p>My problem started towards end of March. Whenever I tried to phome my cell phone would tell me that I am not registered on the Vodacom network. I lost a client because<br />they could not get hold of me in a dire situation, as my phone would not receive calls or whatsapps.<br />After 3 visits to 3 different Vodacom outlets, and 3 sim swops, we decided to change phones to see if we can eliminate the problem that way - my phone might be faulty. This did not help either. The problem persisted...not registered on Vodacom network. (At this stage I have now incured extra costs and signed a new contract with Vodacom to try and rectify the situation).</p> <p>On further investigation we discovered that, shortly before our first sim swop, Vodacom allowed a telephonic sim swop. (How is this possible if we have to produce ID and proof of adres every time we did a sim swop?)<br />Over 4000 sms's was send from this number within 2 weeks and the accounts sits at a huge R5000.00+. (Yet we have a contract that only allows 200sms per month - which we hardly ever use)<br />A very kind lady by name of Portia assisted us and said she will put a full admin block on the number and forward the complaint to the ***** department for investigation. Our reference number for the case was 1/ ********** ********** . Someone from the ***** department should be in contact with us within 72 hours. 20 Minutes later the phone was ringing again. The caller was a Logan ( ********** ) who received a sms from this number stating that he won a lot of money in the Lotto / Powerball and he should contact this number. We phoned Vodacom straight away and was informed by a Candice that the block on the number was lifted by someone in Vodacom. She could/would not give us a name. She said they will re instate the block on the number.</p> <p>After a week of not a word from Vodacom we phoned again. This time a Marena answered the phone. Upon enquiring on the ***** investigation, we where told that the investigation was withdrawn within an hour after lodging it and that there is no investigation currently on the number. We asked to speak to a supervisor or manager and was put through to a Sarah. Sarah re-logged the ***** investigation with a new reference number; 1/ ********** ********** .<br />I was concerned about the account payment as it was a huge amount. We were assured that the debit order was stopped and that the amount will not go off our account as it is an ongoing ***** investigation.<br />On the 23rd of May we phoned again. Wululock was the contact and he said there was no news. From here on we need to phone the ***** investigation number as they cannot do anything more for us at customer care.<br />On 29 May we phoned (after trying for 5 days and never getting any answer) and spoke to a Mpewe at ***** investigation. He simply said he cannot help us, "it is not his problem" and we needed to phone another number. ( ********** 530) <br />This number had an answering machine and up till today no one returned our call.</p> <p>On the 1st of June Vodacom debited our account with the ***** investigation amount, being R5 917.46.<br />We spoke to a Zuko, who put us through to a K****tso at solutions. ( ********** ) She assured us that the money will be paid back within 48 hours as they shouldn't have<br />deducted it as it is a ***** case. Ref no 1/ ********** ********** </p> <p>On the 5th of June we spoke to a Garabu in solutions. She said K****tso (who assured us the money will be paid back) doesn't work there. She said not the money of the<br />***** case, neither the contract that we signed for and never had the service of as yet, will not be refunded as they had to generate statements for the contract.<br />From there we asked to speak to a supervisor as this was unacceptable, and was transferred to a Sybiso. She said the money will be paid back within 7 to 10 working days.<br />(She had a really bad attitude and was shouting at us on the phone)</p> <p>Clearly we were not going to get anywhere with Vodacom on this, so we called our personal banker and instructed monies paid to Vodacom to be returned. We also<br />had him put a stop on all future Vodacom debit orders. Vodacom can now email us their account on services that we have actually received and we will do payment via EFT.</p> <p>The number in question is my personal bussiness number. I am not a salary earner but a commission earner and is totally dependent on the phone. This number has been<br />my bread an butter for the last 18 years, and for two months now I have not been able to generate any income. Nobody at Vodacom is, in the least bit, interested in helping me.<br />Phoning the customer care line is a total waste of time as we just hear the same lies over and over again. It actually sounds like they are reading it off a script.</p>