Vodacom bad customer service, *****ulent activity and no refund

I have been a loyal Vodacom contract customer for more than 20 years, without missing a payment on my account once.

On the 9th of September 2023 I received messages that new contracts were being opened on my account. I immediately contacted Vodacom and told them that this seems *****ulent and that I do not want to have these accounts opened. The customer care consultant told me that she has notified the ***** department and that they will be in touch.

Later in the day I received a call from the ***** department stating that they are busy investigating the matter and that they will return my call, which they did later in the afternoon. The gentleman informed that it was indeed ***** and that I needn't worry. I confirmed with him that no additional monies will be debited from my account which he confirmed, he said that I could stop my Vodacom debit order for peace of mind.

I then took the matter as resolved and was quite pleased with the outcome.

When I checked my bank statement on the 6th of October I noticed that an amount of almost R4349.42 had been debited from my account in stead of the normal amount of approximately R525.73.

I once again phoned customer care and spoke with a gentleman by the name of Daniel at 11:40. He informed me that he did pick up the matter on their system and that a refund request needs to be sent to ***, I promptly did this providing all the information as per Daniel's instruction. Daniel advised that I should receive a refund within 5-7 working days.

Once this was done, I received feedback from the refunds department stating that they cannot pick up the ***** claim and that a new one needs to be registered. I had to submit various documents, including a signed copy of my I.D and a police affidavit, which I then hesitantly (as this matter has been taking up alot of my time already) did.

I then received an e-mail on the 25th of October 2023 that ERM***7 had been confirmed as ***** and that I should kindly allow 7-14 working days for the team to process this matter and provide a refund.

I patiently waited the allocated time with no updates from Vodacom also no refund. I followed up with the refunds department twice without any response.

On the 17th of November I contacted Vodacom customer care and enquired regarding this matter, once again they were unable to pick up anything on their system even with the reference numbers provided. A lady by the name of Veronique assisted me and was extremely helpful initially, she returned calls as promised and provided me with updates. The last update received was on the 21st of November 2023. I sent her numerous emails to follow up but they were all ignored, her manager was copied into these emails and also chose to ignore them.

It is now more than 2 months since the *****ulent activity was reported and promises were made and I still haven't received the money incorrectly debited from my account.

I feel that it is absolutely unacceptable for a large technology company like Vodacom to not be able to protect their customers personal and account details. This *****ulent activity wasn't due to any fault of my own and I am now the one having to waste time following up and phoning around to no avail. As stated previously I have been a loyal Vodacom contract customer for more than 20 years. They were unable to protect my personal information and incorrectly debited my account without my consent and somehow I am the one having to run around and waste time to get a refund due to me.