Suspected Sim Card *****

<p>On Wednesday (30 Nov) I tried to make a call from my mobile to find that call forwarding had been activated. I dialed *111# to check my bundle balances only to find I had 0 airtime and data available. I logged into ABSA to recharge to find that the transaction was cancelled with a message saying a sim swap had been performed on my phone. Called customer care and after much frustration a service request (1- ********** 20429) was logged with the solutions centre and I was told to purchase a voucher from a store and recharge which I did. I was able to recharge and when I checked my balances, previous airtime/data was accounted for as well as the new airtime i had just loaded. An additional note is that the call centre confirmed the last sim swap done on my number was in May 2016 which is correct. On Thursday (1 Dec) I received a sms from Vodacom stating that my service request had been escalated. When I called for an update all I was told is that someone would contact me in 24 business hours. Now keep in mind I cannot make calls or perform any data related functions on my phone, the express recharge/account balance function shows I have 0 airtime and data available yet calling 082 111 and checking my balances confirms I have data and airtime available. All the while I am being told is that I have to wait 24 business hours for someone to even contact me, with business hours for the solution centre being Mon-Fri, 8am-5pm. I called customer care on Friday (2 Dec) for an update on my service request only to find out that my initial service request had been logged for the express recharge function that was not working on my phone. There was no mention of not being able to make calls or send/receive mail so a new service request was logged (1- ********** 43396).<br />My issue is that the turn around time of 24 hours for a call centre that only operates during business hours is unacceptable in a situation of possible sim card ***** and it is virtually impossible to get any kind of help or service. My samsung smart phone is now a glorified paper weight. I was originally on contract and moved to pre-paid due to lack of service it seems being on pre-paid is even worse. At the end of the day a client is a client and Vodacom is still taking our money so up your game !</p>