Untrained staff results in poor customer service and problems with my bill

My debit for the first of January 2018 did not come off due to insufficient funds in my Capitec account. I then went to the store to pay the amount which had the extra R100 due for the bounced debit. I also asked for a form to change the bank to FNB since this was now my main account.

A few days later I went and changed the bank to FNB and the debit date to the 15th of every month if I am not mistaken. I confirmed with the consultant in the store that the debit will only go off in February as I would not have money in my account for the debit until February. He said that it would only go off in February.

The debit then tried to come off on the 15th of January and bounced because I did not have money in my account. I went to the store and spoke to that same consultant who apologised but said there is nothing that he can do and that I need to call ********** . I did that later that afternoon.

My first complaint for the call centre was that I phoned and managed to start speaking to an agent. I did not realise that the call centre closes at 17:00. I phoned just before then. The agent did not mention this to me, and started helping me, put me on hold to check the system she said. A few seconds later an automated voice told me that the call centre is now closed and to phone back during office hours.

I then phoned the next day, the 17th of January and spoke to another agent who told me that I was not in arrears and that I would not be liable for a R100 fee. She said that since this was the case, all I need to do is cancel the debit with the bank which I then did.

I then decided that the better day to take the debit off would be earlier in the month, so I phoned ( ********** ) back that same day (17 Jan) asking to change the date to the 3rd of every month and was informed of the dates that I could pay which I think was the 1st, 7th, 15th, 27th of the month. So I asked to change it to the 7th of every month and was assured that on the 7th of February my debit would come off and that it was all sorted. So I made sure to keep enough money in my account for the money that was due to come off.

Yesterday, I got an SMS from Vodacom stating that I was in arrears. I went to the store once again to find out why this was as the debit was going to come off the next day (today, 7 Feb). They told me once again that they can't do anything, I need to phone ********** . This morning I did, and for the first time someone explained to me that because I changed the debit date that I was now in arrears for the month of January and would have to make a double payment plus the R100 charge for the payment that was not received. Both the agent and call centre management tried to explain to me about the way the payments work.

Once again, I feel like this is not my error as no one explained to me about the consequences of changing my debit date to the date after the initial date. I had done what was my responsibility as a customer to make sure that I had money to pay my account only to find out that this was to no avail because I had once again missed a payment.

1. This reflects badly on my credit score. 2. I am now charged a fee that from my point of view, no one had explained to me how this works, not at the store or at the call centre, is unfair. 3. I am now charged a double amount that is a bit of an issue for me to pay at this time since I was only budgeting for one month's payment.

I would not be so angry and disappointed in Vodacom yet again, (this is not the first issue I have had over the years with Vodacom) if the relevant people just explained the procedure to me. I would have made sure that I had the payment ready at the correct time and not made a change to my debit date.

The only good thing that I have to say is that the agent and manager at the call centre remained calm and treated me with respect even though I was losing my composure throughout the call. If more people like them are there to serve people and explain fully what the procedure meant, things would go a lot more smoothly.