******** CHARGES

This is an email which I wrote to the Company Secretary on 17th September 2019 to which I have had no reply:

"Dear Sandi

I am at wits end and have therefore decided to write you a personal email trusting that you will assist me. I would appreciate it if you will hand this email to the CEO Shameel Joosub as there is no other way of getting hold of him.

I renewed my contract with Vodacom in June 2017 when I was due for a new iPhone. This contract expired after two years, but I decided to not upgrade at that stage as my phone was still in perfectly good working order. My account remained high and I therefore went to a Vodacom Shop to find out why this was so. They drew my attention to the fact that Vodacom deducted a monthly amount for Content Services. I did not know what Content Services were so they explained that it was for things like games etc. When I asked them to please remove it from my account I was informed that they were not in a position to do so and that I had to contact Vodacom Customer Care personally to put a stop to this. I contacted Customer Care and was told that I should send a message to number *** saying STOP ALL which I did.

I thereafter received a message from Vodacom on the 20th July 2019 saying : "All future content service subscriptions & purchases have been blocked on ***. Please call 082135 to unblock these services.”

Following that message Vodacom then sent me the following message:

“Dear Tessa de Kock. With reference to ***, your Vlive subscriptions have been cancelled……..As a Valued Customer we will credit you Vodacom account……for R456.75.”

In the meantime I went through all my accounts since June 2017, the month in which I had renewed my contract. No amounts for Contact Services were charged for June, July, August, September or October 2017. However, from November 2017, various amounts for Content Services were charged on a monthly basis. Attached hereto please find a spreadsheet setting out the dates between November 2017 and August 2019, Content Service amounts as well as the relevant invoice numbers. Despite the fact that I was informed on the 20th of July 2019 that all future content service subscriptions have been blocked, Vodacom again deducted an amount R109,62 in August 2019. In total the ******** amounts which have been deducted from my account between November 2017 to August 2019 comes to a whopping R3 812,67!

I would appreciate it if you will kindly inform me as to how Vodacom arrived at the measly amount of R456.75, (which by the way has not been refunded), whereas Vodacom clearly owes me R3 812,67. In this regard I insist that you supply me with proof of the date and the manner in which I agreed to sign up for Contact Services.

I am clearly one of hundreds, or for that matter thousands of people who have been affected by your company’s ******** conduct. In this regard I wish to refresh Mr Joosub's memory to an article that appeared in NOSEWEEK on the 1st April 2018. Without going into detail about the article I do wish to remind Mr Joosub of the following comment which he made during his interview with Noseweek:

“We also ensure that affected customers are fully refunded on first contact with Customer Care; in fact we pass the large majority of credits to customers. Standard practice is to refund the customer first and then investigate the query/allegation later.”

In view of your comments above Mr Joosub and should you not be able to furnish me with proof as to when and how I agreed to sign up for Content Services I demand that Vodacom refunds me the amount of R3 812,67. I feel extremely strongly about this wrongdoing and therefore I will take this matter to the Small Claims Court unless you are prepared to honour your own words namely: “We also ensure that affected customers are fully refunded…..”

I look forward to hearing from you.

Tessa de Kock"