Terrible experience with trying to buy a phone from Vodacom Online

On 20 January I bought a Nokia smartphone online from Vodacom, and R5800 was deducted from my credit card. I have waited over a week and still have no phone. Vodacom had my contact details from the outset, including my cell phone number, and in fact notified me via sms when the parcel was sent to Ram Couriers on Tuesday 22 January.

Nothing arrived and when I began querying the lack of delivery on Wednesday I was told by Ram's national call centre they could not find the delivery address and had no phone number for me to call me for directions. I then gave them contact numbers for my cell phone AND my tablet on Thursday morning. Still no one contacted me and on Track my Parcel on Ram's website I saw further unsuccessful attempts had been made to find the delivery address on Thursday afternoon. Why no one contacted me to ask for directions is something known only to Ram Couriers.

Eventually their delivery man called me on Friday afternoon on my cell phone, but I was unwell and not at my office, which was where the parcel was to be delivered. He then told me it would be delivered on Monday.

Today Monday 28 January I waited the whole day at the office with both my cell phone and tablet switched on, expecting a call, but no one contacted me to discuss directions to the delivery address. When I finally tracked the parcel online I saw they had allegedly made a further unsuccessful attempt to deliver today , could not find the address, and the parcel has now been sent back to Vodacom Online as the delivery address cannot be located.

I phoned their Durban hub and was told they did not have a contact number for me! This despite having given Ram's main call centre TWO numbers last Thursday AND having been called by the delivery man on Friday when I was unfortunately sick and not present at my chosen delivery address.

I now have no new phone, have paid R5800 for nothing, and am relying on an email address at Vodacom to get redress. Vodacom has not proved to be particularly helpful in resolving any of my issues, and phone calls to their various help lines have gone unanswered. Experience of email complaints in general has taught me that emails are an extremely unreliable way to address problems of any kind, and I have absolutely no faith that my problem will be resolved at any time in the near future. In the meanwhile I am seriously out of pocket and worried sick I will never see either my money or my phone.

As for Ram Couriers I would like an explanation why I was only contacted ONCE after giving them two contact numbers, why their Durban hub made the excuse today that they had no contact number for me despite me giving their national call centre two numbers on Thursday last week, one of which was actually used to call me on Friday when unfortunately I was not available, and why, if they could call me on Friday, they failed to call me again today before summarily returning my parcel to Vodacom Online in Gauteng?