Unprofessional/ Unreliable/ Inconsiderate

<p>I have been a loyal customer to vodacom for the past 16 years, I currently have 3 contracts with vodacom. I have never defaulted once with my payments nor did I have any complaints or problems with any of my handsets, laptops or tablets. I did an upgrade about 9 months ago and took a Huawei P8 lite, around 26 December 2016 my handset started giving me a problem, the phone stared slowing down and freezing up. On the 28th of December 2016 I took the hand set to the Vodacom repair center in Old Forte Road Durban, I explained what was happening to the phone and they said that my phone needed a software upgrade which will take 15 minutes, I said ok please do it, they did the software upgrade and handed me the phone, I waited in the store for a few minutes to check if the phone was operating properly, after a few minutes I realised that the phone was still doing the same thing. I then handed the phone back to the lady who was assisting me and she took it back to the technician who said the phone needed to be booked in. I asked how long will it take to be repaired and was told about 7 to 14 working days. I agreed and the phone was booked in. On the 29th of December i recieved an SMS from the Old Forte Road repair center stating "Job number ********** 9 is currently being exchanged and we are awaiting the replacement device." I then called to the store and spoke to Alisha and asked what was the SMS about and she confirmed that i would be getting a new device. on the 30th of December 2016 i recieved another SMS stating "Job number ********** has been sent for a higher level repair to the advanced repair center. I called the store again and spoke to Alisha who told me not to worry about that SMS it is just a system SMS to inform me of progress. I then recieved a few more SMS's over the next couple of days and was concernrd so I called the store and spoke to Alisha again and she said it is only system messages but if i wanted to find out i could call the repair center in JHB, she provided me with a number ********** , i called this number and spoke to many different consultants with no joy, i was then told by one of the consultants that my phone was inspected by one of the technicians and my phone has moister/ liquid damage, i explained to them that my phone has never been in any water or has never been wet in any way, they explained to me that they are only reading a report that was given by the technician and that a quotation was sent to the durban branch. I then called the Durban branch and explained myself to Alisha and she said "if they said they sending a quotation it must be for a new phone and that i must not worry." I asked if she was sure and she said yes. on the 6th January 2017 I recived an SMS which stated 'Hi quotation fo job no: ********** 9 is R1994.20" I then called the store and spoke to Alisha again and she said told me that i will have to pay the quotation fee, i then asked her why because she was telling me all the time not to worry and that i will be getting a new handset, she rep**** "i am not sure because they normally just replace the device and i must take it up with the JHB repair center." I then called the JHB repair center and spoke to a a few consultants who were not helpful at all, when ever i asked to speak to a supervisor/ team leader or manager i was given the same response, either they are busy or in a meeting or they are not allowed to transfer me through to them. Eventually i managed to get a hold of a senior consultant by the name of Divan Cloete, I explained my story to him, he said that he could see on the system that the technicians had found my phone to have moisture/ liquid damage, i explained to him that my phone had never been in any water or ever been wet, he said that the technicians stated that there was no tampering of the device or any physical water damage from the outside, so it must of been condensation. He then told me that he will send the phone back to Durban and it must be rebooked back to the JHB repair center and he will escalate it to the finance executive of the durban repair center and try to and get me a replacement device with no promises . The phone was sent back to durban repair center on the 10/01/17, I called the Durban store and spoke to Veron Singh the store manager, I explained what had transpired and that the phone must be sent back to the JHB repair center with ATT Divan, the phone was dispatched from Durban on the 12/01/17, I was then given another job number ********** 7, I then called Divan and gave him the job number and he as promised escalated the matter to the finance executive of the durban repair cente on 13/01/17. I have spoken to Divan on 16/01/17 and asked if he had any feedback for me and he said no but he will send them another reminder which he did and he sent me confirmation of everything he did via email, I called the Durban repair center and spoke to the store manager Veron Singh on 16/01/17, 1701/17 and today 18/01/17, I even sent him a copy of the mail that was sent to me by Divan. Veron said he tried to get hold of the finance executive but failed because the phone keeps on ringing. If a store manager cannot get a hold of people within the organisation how is a customer supposed to? I have been witout my phone for almost a month now and it is really disrupting my work and social life!!!</p> <p>I feel the service that i am recieving is unexceptable and disgraceful for such a big franchise as Vodacom.</p>