Victim of ********* business practice

I hope this gets to the high level of Vodacom Management. I have had nothing but unpleasant experience as a Vodacom customer. I am extremely devastated, disappointed and have lost trust in Vodacom. I have been nothing but a loyal customer to Vodacom but all I’m getting in return is a creepy service, dropped calls, incompetence and dishonesty from the accounts department consultants and it’s team leaders I’ve dealt with thus far. Every time I have a query that I want to have escalated to a team leader I am told that they are in a meeting and a call back will be arranged but they never call back.

I had a contract with Vodacom that has just reached its term and have just recently discovered that my account was handed over to the attorneys during the Lockdown without my knowledge or any sort of notification as no communication was sent through to me. I am not aware of any reason behind my account being handed over as it was not in arrears previously. The only payment outstanding was the last payment which could not be paid due to the Lockdown as all the Vodacom stores were closed and therefore no manual payments could be processed. Currently I don’t owe Vodacom anything as I have paid on 01/05/2020 as soon as they started operating again and had the contract cancelled.

I only found out that my credit profile has been compromised when I went to apply for a personal loan at Nedbank and I must say I have never felt such humiliation as I was told that I do not meet the minimum criteria and this was a surprise to me as I was previously offered loans worth of huge amounts previously by different financial institutions but never really accepted the offers as I was not in need of them at the time. I then app**** at Sanlam and Direct Axis and all the other institutions and was rejected and that’s when I realized and convinced that something was wrong. I mmedialtey checked my credit profile online and discovered that Vodacom has handed my account over to the attorneys.

On 05/05/2020 I called the accounts department and spoke to Willona Makhubo regarding the status of my account and she confirmed that my account was on a write off status and when I asked why it showed such a status no clear answers were provided and I then further enquired why my account was handed over still no answers were provided. She then promised to send an escalation to the Telemain back office but I have not heard anything from them till today. I was also advised that everything will be sorted out within 24 hours but nothing has changed from the Bureau side.

I also requested that a team leader callbacks On the following day which was 06:05/2020 at 10:00am and I sat at home and waited but nobody called. The name of the team leader whom I was advised that will callback is Morena Raeto and until today he has not called.

Sadly, I am not surprised that he never called back because he never does and I really am concerned with his lack of leadership s****s and his work ethic. This would not have been the first time I would have had to deal with him unfortunately. He is very arrogant and self centered and knows nothing about servicing a customer. This Morena guy showed his true character when I first called in to enquire about the same account in February 2020 which was said to be handed over. I first received a letter of demand and later in the same day received an sms notification that my account was handed over and I still didn’t even owe Vodacom a cent. I was sent back and forth and told different stories until I spoke to Morena Raeto on 20.02.2020

When I spoke to Morena on 20.02.2020 he told me that my account was never handed over and that I’ve been given inaccurate information by the previous consultants that I spoke to and that there was a system glitch. So I asked him how is it that Vodacom demands that I make an immediate payment when I don’t owe them nothing and send sms notifications and he couldn’t answer that question but kept on telling me about a system Glitch. I was left confused not knowing who to trust between him and the consultants because it was not possible that consultants from different Vodacom branches as well as the call centre told me the same thing that my account was on Pre legal and the Letter of demand and Sms notification and him on the other side telling me that there was a system glitch and that my account was not handed over. I even went to the Vodacom Store in Cape Town In Golden Acre where I was unfairly treated by the store manager Leann de Kock who had no time to listen to my story.

There no apology or any sort of a follow up from Vodacom for toying with me. I really was not happy with how Morena handled my query on 20.02.2020 and I really would like his superior or anyone from the top management to listen to that call and get back to me. Instead of trying to put the matter at ease he rather got into an argument with me and created an impression that I shouldnt even be making an enquiry forgetting that I am the customer after all and that it was within my consumer rights to make such enquiries. He proved himself to be unprofessional and highly *********.

Going back to the issue at hand, I am still awaiting a callback from the same Morena Raeto that I had requested on the 05/05/2020 already. Whilst waiting for the callback from Morena Raeto, I even took it upon myself to call the accounts department again on 12/05/2020 and I spoke to Karabo Seemela.

Karabo was also of no assistance at all, his service was extremely poor and did not have ticme to listen to what I had to say and when I tried to his attention and expressed how I felt about the whole situation and how it had adversely affected me he told me to go seek legal advise or even go to hellopeter if I felt like my rights were infringed. U told him how I didn’t appreciate his tone and he then said that he knows that what he is telling me is correct and that I should wait until my details are updated.

It is clear from the chain of events that I’ve been dealing with unprofessional, insensitive, unsympathetic and ********* Vodacom represenatives who do not care about the customers or how their actions affect us as customers when dealing with queries and they are forgetting that without customers to service there is no business and without a business there is no job.

I’ve been sent back and forth. I’ve been treated unfairly and unreasonable. I’ve been a victim of Vodacom’s ********* business practices. My credit profile is now *****ed and I am no longer credit worthy. I’ve suffered sleepless nights nd I even had to visit my doctor because of the high level of stress I have suffered.

I’ve turned into an emotional wreck. My emotional as well as my mental well being took quite a knock. This whole situation has caused me so much pain and has affecteded me adversely. I am an LLB graduate who currently works in a call centre due to jobs being scarce and I have been sending out applications for articles and with my credit profile being *****ed as a result of Vodacom’s doings securing articles or any job for that matter could be jeopardized because being credit clear is unfortunately a minimum requirement that must be met.

I would therefore like to know how is Vodacom going to rectify this error and clear my name? How are they even going to ensure that I regain the score that I have lost and make sure that I am not subjected to paying high interest rates? I would also like to know what is Vodacom doing about its unprofessional employees in the call centres as they have made it very difficult to contact the call centre knowing very well that you will be handled by rude consultants? I would also like to know what is the plan with regards to my Consumer Rights they have been infringed? How lOng is it gonna take for Vodacom to clear my name? I had so many plans and I have already lost out on 3 houses already that were a bargain as they were sold cash because I cannot secure a loan and how is Vodacom gonna fix that either?

I current stay in a 1bedroom flat with 2 kids who find it very difficult to be indoors the whole day because there is not enough space for them to play inside and they end up playing outside and that even poses a risk of them being exposed to the Covid 19 as we all know that Western Cape is the Epicenter of the Covid Virus hence I now see it it fit to buy a house but I don’t see that happening anytime soon and all thnx to Vodacom. The house we’re currently staying in is not in a good condition and unfortunately I happen to have a chronic child.

Vodacom put me through all this suffering and I therefore demand accountability for the mess they have created as I cannot wait any longer. As I was advised that the mess will be fixed within 24hours and it still isn’t. I therefore demand answers from the management regarding the issues listed above. This was the first time I used Vodacom as my network provider and certainly the last time. Vodacom is not to be trusted, they’re nothing but dishonest bunch of ****** who robs its customers.