Upgrades & Call Centre Bad Communication

* My present contract expires in mid- January so was due for an upgrade from mid-October. On checking my bank statement end November I noted that my Vodacom debit order had been increased by R31 which was the monthly discount I had received as part of my deal for my 2 year contract. I have my own phone so only take a contract for my SIM card. I want to know why my statement was increased by this discounted amount BEFORE my expiry date in January? The only answer I can get is "that's the way it works"! My 2 year signed contract does not specify that the discount will become null and void before the contract expires. *To add insult to injury, on 30 October I did in fact decide to upgrade and increase my contract to more talk time, data and SMS's. I found a deal on their site which appealed to me and on attempting to purchase I encountered some problems and for some reason it wouldn't let me complete the upgrade. The next day I received a call from a call centre agent who went through the whole process of signing me up. I was initially duly impressed by their follow up. Although I did not need to purchase the SIM card per se as my own SIM would be upgraded I had to listen to the whole business of how it would be delivered etc, etc, even though I explained that nothing was going to be delivered as I was retaining my own SIM. He agreed with that but still went through everything which I guess he had been told he had to do so I let him do so. He informed me that upgrades take place on the 1st of the month so mine should come through the next day 1 November, but if it was too late for that then it would become effective from 1 December. As it did not kick in on 1 November I waited with much anticipation for 1 December, especially as I wanted (and would be paying for) the increased amount of air time, data, and SMS's in time for the festive season. Imagine my chagrin when the 1st arrived and there was no upgrade. It is impossible to contact Vodacom on line - they give no email addresses for the various departments which is terribly frustrating, so I ended up having to phone to query the matter. What a joke!!!! I literally held on for just over an hour, and when I did get through I was told I was through to the wrong department (even though I had pressed the correct "number" for upgrades) and was told she'd transfer me to the correct department. Thank goodness the wait was not quite so long - about 10 minutes - but lo and behold I was again told they had put me through to the wrong department and I was transferred again! Long story short I eventually got through to someone who appeared able to assist. They managed to find a record of my purchase but said that my upgrade hadn't become effective on 1 December as I still had to receive my "Top Dog Educational Package" by courier! I had no knowledge of this and as a pensioner don't even want it, but was told I had to receive it. He then proceeded to tell me that the package was still with the courier service and hadn't even been sent out yet - more than a month later!!!!! What sort of service is this? He said until I had signed for the Top Dog and put some or other code into my phone to acknowledge I had it, my upgrade would not be effective. And on top of that, it would only become effective on the 1st of the following month. This had definitely not been told to me when I initially took out the upgrade. On checking my latest statement I see there is an invoice attached for "Top Dog Educational, Order Qu 1, Despatch 1" and below that "NEXT DAY Delivery Service, Order Qu 1, Despatch 1". Next day delivery servie my eye. It seems as if the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing at the call centre, and it's impossible to get hold of anyone with any clout. I have been a Vodacom customer since I got my first cell phone nearly 20 years ago, and have NEVER had such disgusting service from them. I wonder what is happening in the upper echelons to cause this? And last but not least - although on hellopeter it is claimed they do respond to reviews, I note that the response is automated and not personal. I guess I don't expect much joy from them but it was good to get this off my chest - thanks for reading/listening if you have got this far.