The PATHETIC nature of Vodacom revealed

Good day,

I have never written a review on a brand before, neither have I experienced a horrific brand experience. Up until now, that is.

I have been a Vodacom client and subscriber for around 15 years. Of recent my business red advantage package was due for an upgrade. I had proceeded with the upgrade directly with Vodacom via the upgrade department on ********** . This was towards the middle of January 2018. I was issued with my preferred handset being the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. After having used the phone for a couple of hours I realized that there was a fault with the screen as the stylist was unable to write on a portion of the screen. I immediately contacted Vodacom to report the fault on the handset and a return was arranged. At this stage all I wanted was an exchange of the handset as I was happy with the terms of the contract. I was informed that the only process available was to cancel my entire contract and start all over again. The contract that I had selected was no longer available from Vodacom as informed from the unhelpful and somewhat robotic call center staff. As I was satisfied with the contract I had previously selected I managed to after several attempts speak to a call center manager who said that she would have the back office reopen the contract for me. Only until then would Vodacom be able to reissue me with another handset. This process took a month to complete and on or about the 20/02/2018 another Samsung Note 8 galaxy was delivered to my residence.

Delivered handsets have a tamper seal on the box, which warns not to accept the handset if the seal is broken. On closer scrutiny of the box I noticed two seals stuck over each other. I peeled off the uppermost seal which was intact to find a broken seal there under which to my understanding was trying to be concealed. This was distasteful in the least and my major concern was that Vodacom had issued me with the same faulty handset that I had returned after repairing it. As per Vodacom's T&C's a new handset needs to be issued. What further worried me was that I had requested to change the colour of the handset from Orchid Grey to Midnight Black on the reissue. After FOUR confirmation calls each confirming orchid grey as the colour from Vodacom I gave up and asked them to dispatch any colour as I just needed a phone. When checking the IMEI numbers on the waybill of the delivery company I confirmed that this handset was different from the first. The seal issue was still deeply concerning and I contacted Vodacom about this.

After explaining my entire situation for the hundredth time an after sales consultant informed me that I had the option of swapping out the handsets. This meant that Vodacom would deliver another handset and at the same time collect the faulty one. This is exactly what I had required in the first return case. Hence a deepening frustration and lack of consistency with Vodacom services.

The third delivery was exactly the same as the second, an intact seal concealing a broken seal. At this point I was beside myself. The Vodacom after sales consultant that I was dealing with was stumped as he apparently had not come across something like this before. At this point I had two Vodacom handsets with me as the courier company refused to collect the second handset when delivering the third. I decided to test the two that I had to see if they were also faulty as I was prepared to accept the broken seal as I had been without a primary phone for about a month and a half. I am based in the digital tech industry and hence you can imagine not having the capabilities of a smartphone on hand. Drumroll....yes as you might have guessed both the handsets had the same fault as the first where the stylist was not writing on a portion of the screen.

On my next conversation with Vodacom I had directed the after sales consultant to call the Vodacom warehouse to check if all the stock of Note 8 galaxies were faulty. And yes the entire pallet of handsets had the flaw and yes I had detected this on behalf of Vodacom. Currently as at 06/03/2018 I am still without a replacement and have been declined by Vodacom to replace or pickup a working handset from one of their franchises in Johannesburg.

Compounding the entire debacle is the fact that I have not received my data allocation from Vodacom for the month of March. Bearing the entire experience in mind, 90% of the staff that I dealt with were poor to say the least and their common trait was to promise to return a call or email and fail to do so miserably.

Please be advised in dealing with Vodacom. At present I am trying to cancel all further business or association with it and that is proving to be a task as well. Life is demanding as is without having the added complexities of a "SERVICE" provider that is everything but that.

Total Vodacom experience = NAUSEATING