Total BS story to sign me up for a new contract without resolving my actual problem

I started experiencing problems with my phone a short while ago when I tried to make calls. It was giving me the following message "mobile network not available" or "not registered on network" which meant I couldn't call anybody from the phone rather than through WhatsApp calls. The same was happening, with the following error message "waiting to connect. Check options" when I tried to send smses.

When I went into the New Market Vodacom Store on Monday 8 December 2025 and explained the problem to a lady consultant, a gentleman came to stand by us and listened to the story. He went into the back of the store with my phone and came back a few minutes later and said that the Sim card reader was defective and it was not worth it to repair the phone as it would cost more than getting a new phone. He then took me aside to his work station and said that they are still running with Black Friday deals and he could give me a Samsung A36 with minutes and data for R430.00 per month and guaranteed me that I wouldn't pay a cent more than that. So reluctantly, i went ahead with the deal because now I'm thinking oh well, if the Sim card reader isn't working, I don't have a choice. They did the whole data transfer etc and I ended up having to pay R798.00, money which I don't have but because i needed a phone so badly, I had no choice but to pay. They did whatever they did on the phone and showed me it was fixed. I had no sooner left the store to go home, now again bearing in mind I live in Modderfontein but I went to the Alberton store as i had previously found the service at the greenstone store very bad and the attitude of the staff even worse so for obvious reasons, I didn't want to go back there. On my way home, I was again stuck in very bad traffic and tried to call my friend to say I was running late to fetch my dogs and whoops there you go......!!! the exact same problem was appearing but now on the NEW phone.

So off I went back to Alberton the following day on Tuesday 9 December to get this sorted and they again showed me the problem was resolved. So again it was travel from home in Modderfontein to Alberton and then back home to Modderfontein.

Yesterday, Wednesday 10 December 2025, i experienced the exact same problem again so off I went back to Alberton to have this sorted which they showed me was done and fixed and then came all the way back home to Modderfontein. By this time, with all the backwards and forwards, I had driven out half a tank of petrol because I was stuck in heavy traffic and had to use the aircon because it was so hot in the car.

Today I go to the specialist at the Linksfield Hospital and while waiting for the Dr, I just wanted to let my friend know that I was there safely and I'm sure you can guess what happened....... yup the same problem, AGAIN!!!!!! This has now happened 3 times since receiving a new phone so it clearly was NOT the Sim card reader in the old phone at all and I was duped into taking out a new contract which I DIDN'T want to do.

Now I have to go back to Alberton AGAIN!!!!! to get this sorted which I really don't want to do because it's using my months fuel and I simply cannot afford to refuel my car again this month and I'd also affecting my ability to sort out a lot of admin at home.

Oh, and with all of this, when people try call me, they say it goes straight to voicemail which also causes a problem for me as I am expecting an important call from my bank which i can't receive at this stage.

With not being able to make it to Alberton again, I have tried using TOBI, your Bot who is simply just absolutely useless because he just goes round and round in circles without actually being able to the bottom of what it is i need help with. Whoever thought having a Bot to perform such an important job was a good idea, was really mistaken negates when something like this happens, one just wants to speak to a person to get to the bottom of the problem.

I then managed to find your WhatsApp number on your business page and made contact with someone, a real pertain perhaps, and told them I want to speak to a HUMAN. Someone did call me and put me on hold while trying to access my information and the call was cut off at some point. So I'm back to square 1 again........grrrr.... not funny at this stage but hugely frustrating!!

I urgently need someone to call me to resolve this issue and also tell me how we can deal with this whole new contract which i didn't want in the first place and now I'm tied into another conract for 3 years. This needs to be canceled as clearly this was NOT a sim card reader fault as was told to me by your agent in Alberton and as a result I was mislead by said agent. Furthermore I would like to be reimbursed for the fuel I've used running back and forth from Modderfontein to Alberton and back all the time and then lastly, Id like this problem rectified AS SOON AS POSSIBLE please!!!! ..... the error messages I keep getting.

So this is my story and I hope it gets the attention it deserves as I've been a vodacom client for MANY MANY years