Vodacom - 2 months, no contract, no signal, nothing solved

<p>I dislike complaining, so the fact that I've reached the point that I feel this is necessary is upsetting.</p> <p>At the end of September my Vodacom contract reached its end and I chose not to upgrade it, as there weren't any deals that suited me and I didn't see the point in continuing the payment of a contract at the same price every month thereafter when the device which was part of the contract was paid off in the 24 months cycle. I then called Vodacom help on the last day and through the necessary steps, reached a gentleman that recommended switching me over to prepaid up until such time that I found a deal that would suffice and then I could switch back over to the contract system.</p> <p>I waited till the middle of December and found a deal that I liked. After spending a week or so trying to find a store that had the device, I went to Vodacom (Vodacom Branded Cellucity in the V&A Waterfront) and said I'd wait for the phone and the accompanying earphones (which were part of the deal) and also app**** for a contract. A few days later I was called to collect the phone (Thanks to John for organising that as quickly as he could).</p> <p>From here on, it all went south. Between the days leading up to Xmas and just before New Year, I spent around 7 hours in that store on various days - mostly because none of their staff are trained well enough to check in with you regularly to let you know what the status of the situation is, and because the on-call help at Vodacom when I switched from contract to prepaid supposedly did something wrong, and not only couldn't they pick me up in their system (a 16 year client of theirs), but I was told I had been lowered to a lower profile and my application could not be run through for that deal. After 2 weeks of waiting for the situation to improve, I eventually called them and said I'd try another store, as their service and support wasn't polished enough to give me any faith that they'd be able to resolve the issue.</p> <p>I then went to Vodacom in Gardens centre (around 12-14 January 2017) where Charmonic assisted me. Now, before I get to the next issue, I need to clarify that Charmonic's service was some of the best I've ever experienced at a Vodacom store. I was frequently kept up to date during the weeks to follow and she expressed a sincere need to improve my overall Vodacom experience.</p> <p>What then followed was me waiting for the device and earphones bundle for a few days, and thereafter another system error. There was a problem when I was switched to prepaid, and so for me to remain on my number, I needed to wait till the 14th of February (almost a month later) for my number to be moved to the contract system. At this point, if it wasn't for the service I received from Charmonic, I would have moved to another service provider there and then.</p> <p>I then waited till last week (Feb 14), checked in with Charmonic and she said she was told that I needed to wait till the end of the week for the number to finally be cleared. I again waited until Friday and after a call from Charmonic went down to finalise everything. It was then that she had further problems with the system and not only could I then not sort the issue out, but I could no longer get the phone(bundle) on the deal that app**** for almost 2 months prior.</p> <p>After being as patient and 'loyal' as I had been - it was around here that I had given up. I told Charmonic I think it would be best that I move to a different service provider rather and left.</p> <p>I have been without signal since last Tuesday. I've missed 2 appointments and a freelance project due to missing those phone calls. So I'll give Vodacom one more opportunity to apologetically resolve this issue caused by them months ago and if they couldn't be bothered, I know that I'm better off being a client at a company that isn't the monopoly and tomorrow i'll apply somewhere else.</p> <p>P.S. Vodacom, If you do bother to make contact, try and do so by mail, as I DON'T HAVE SIGNAL, thanks to you.</p> <p>Nic, Cape Town</p>