Useless!!!!!!

Where do I Begin??? To be honest this is a last resort and I have been so reluctant to complain on this platform as these issues have been ongoing throughout 2017 and its a looooooooooooong complaint.

In the beginning half of 2017, I upgraded my contract from a Red VIP to a Red VIP plus, Once I had received notification from Vodacom that my upgrade was successful, I proceeded to use data quite freely as I was now under the impression that I had 20gigs to use on a monthly basis. Around the 10th of the month I received notification that my data bundle was almost depleted. I then proceeded to phone Vodacom call centre and asked the consultant to speak to one of her managers. I was informed that no manager was available, once I proceeded to "throw my toys", I was put on hold and within 2 mins a manager was on the phone. She proceeded to load my phone with a further 15 gigs, apologizing profusely and assured me that all issues had now been ironed out.

I received a promotion at my company and one of my perks was that I would no longer receive a cell phone allowance and that the company would be handling my cell phone account all together. I then phoned into the call centre and I was instructed to go to a store in order to get this process going, moving the account from personal to business.

My wife(as the account is open under my wifes name) and I went to the Vodacom Shop in East Rand mall, to which the consultant told us we had to go to Vodaworld, he proceeded to tell us how the call centre hasn't got a clue and elaborated further on the ignorance of Vodacom call centre consultants, he explained that if we wanted this move from personal to business to go through with minimal headaches that our best bet was to go through to Vodaworld. This process started in June

As My wife and I put in a days leave and went through to Vodaworld and spent the duration of the morning at the walk in call centre, gave all relevant documentation in and were informed that the process would take approximately 10 days, at the end of July my debit order went off, so I contacted Vodacom call centre and was advised that I would have to go back to Vodaworld to see what went wrong. The consultant I was dealing with informed me that the previous consultant was misinformed and that the process actually takes a month. Surely this comes down to ill trained staff as everyone at Vodacom seems to be misinformed.

Another month had gone by and once again another debit order attempts to go off my account and by this time I am extremely irate. Once again I drive through to Vodaworld and demand to speak to a manager, a gentleman by the name of Siyabonga and a lady by the name of Malene Richards, then comes out and once again I explain the whole story again from start to finnish. They proceeded to tell me how the consultants I am dealing with again have been misinformed. Now once again, it is not my fault that Vodacom consultants are constantly misinformed to be honest that issue should be rectified by top management in the training process of there consultants. I am assured that my problem has been rectified and I am given Siyabonga's personal phone number and that there will be no more hiccups from Vodacoms side. End of the month I receive a phone call from Siyabonga assuring me that everything is on track.

Another month and still the transfer from personal to business has not been done and the debit order bounces from my account again, once again i am making manual payments to make sure that I am able to call, as my job in sales demands that I am able to make calls and phone customers, suppliers etc. Also now in a new position the pressure is on for me to bring in numbers so I cannot afford any downtime. I phone through to Siyabonga and ask him whats going on? He is still in bed and has taken the day off but I mustn't stress because my company will pay me back, but says he will get back to me tomorrow. NO RETURNED PHONE CALL!!!

This process continues to go on, I am assured all is on track and my debit order bounces, I make a manual payment, wait to be invoiced, then send off to my company to claim and then wait for the money to be put back in my account.

By November I have had enough and for the 4th time and during my companies busy period I drive through to Vodaworld..........again. By this time and after months of frustration I absolutely loose my cool. I demand to speak to Siyabonga the manager, to which one of the consultants informs me that he is not a manager. By this time my temper is flaring and a gentleman by the name of Thato takes me to the coffee shop, informs me that he is the manager and calls over Malene. I thought her eyes were going to pop out her head when she saw me, she even said she remembers me and she is actually scared to see me again as she knows how many, calls, trips and meetings I have had with Vodacom.

Once again I am assured by Thato that everything has been sorted out.

Due to financial difficulties at home my wife and I sit down and do our budget for December and on the 28th of November 2017, I phone Thato with no answer. I receive an sms shortly afterwards telling me that he is sick in bed. I reply to his msg and explain to him that I cannot afford for the debit order to bounce again and that I need to know if everything is on track. He confirms and tells me that all is on track and I will be receiving a phone call from his admin lady to confirm all has been sorted. No phone call from admin lady!!!!

On the 1st of December 2017 my wife phones into Vodacom to double check and the tele-sales consultant informs her that the number has now been moved to a business account but the amount being debited from her account includes the bill for my number. I phone through to Thato with no answer, so I phone Malene. She tells me she will investigate and give me feedback, not even so much as an sms from her, until I receive the phone call on Saturday 2nd December 2017 morning. According to her she has done her job and she has no idea whats going on. My wife takes the phone from me and insists on speaking to malene and Thato's manager. Malene informs us that there is no manager and she doesnt know who to refer us to and if we want to speak to a manager, that we must come through to Vodaworld again. It seems that everytime there is an issue at Vodacom, the managers seem to disappear or they don't exist until one starts shouting and screaming. I am starting to think that Vodacom is run purely by consultants pretending to be managers in order to give irate customers peace of mind that they are speaking to someone with authority who can get the ball moving.

Today I receive an sms from Thato telling me that he is now going into hospital, so once again i need to start this whole process over with a new "manager" and im basically back at square 1.

7 months later, 4 trips to Vodaworld, 2 trips to there stores, countless telephonic conversations, 7 bounced debit orders(which I am charged for) and my issue has still not been sorted out or at least only half of the issue sorted out.

I want Vodacom to re-imburse me for the last debit order in full as well as every debit order that has bounced due to the misleading of Vodacom consultants and Vodacom "Management". Vodacom must cover at least 1 month of my monthly payments due to the 7 months of frustration with this issue, the time I have taken off to put my work aside and come through to argue with Vodaworld consultants. I dont know if Vodacom thinks that all there customers do is sit around waiting to go through to Vodacom and that we dont work for a living.

If you are going to be contacting me from Vodacom and you are not in a SENIOR position of authority, please do not waste anymore of my time or my patience. Should you not be able to rectify my issue with immediate affect DO NOT BOTHER WASTING EITHER OF OUR TIMES.