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Barry S

1 reviews | Active since Oct 2017

24 Oct 2017, 12:46

Vodacom Data Prices Are Disgusting - Charging R2000.00 per GB Out Of Bundle

This is according to South Africa's richest woman, billionaire Wendy Applebaum, who has slammed Vodacom for its "********" data pricing.

According to the article in Business Tech "In April 2017, Applebaum instituted legal proceedings against Vodacom over its high out-of-bundle charges." You can read the full article here:

https://businesstech.co.za/news/mobile/190164/vodacoms-data-prices-are-disgusting-south-africas-richest-woman/

This brings me to my case. I had a 2GB contract with Vodacom for 24 months, once this expired it continued on a month to month basis for R118.49 per month.

In December 2016 and January 2017 the debit order deducted was R17,000.00 and R4,778.15 respectively. I requested my banker to reverse the two debit orders, and attempted to contact Vodacom to query this.

Their call center is designed to frustrate, and to reach what they term the "Solutions Team" involves being put through 5 levels of automated instructions until you finally reach Level 6 where you get to speak to a human for the first time. This is not yet the ever elusive "Solutions Team", who reside in Level 7 - virtually unreachable.

Unfortunately the human at Level 6 has no authority to make a decision so I was informed that they would take it to the Solutions Team and get back to me.

This never happened, and after six attempts at going through the whole process from Level 1 to Level 6 I finally got to speak to someone in Level 7 after some rather "strong words" were exchanged.

Level 7 said they would look into it, and when I heard no further I thought this had been resolved.

Until I received a call from their collections department again a few months later. This time for only R4,778.15 that they claim was outstanding. It would appear that for some or other reason unexplained to me they had passed a credit of R17,000 for the December 2016 billing but not for January 2017 billing. The reasons were not explained to me, and when I requested this be escalated yet again to the Solutions Team, I was yet again stone-walled.

In the interim, my account has now been handed over to MBD debt collectors where I will now be harassed on a daily basis by their aggressive debit collectors.

Out of bundle amounts to R2000 per gigabyte, which in my mind is "******** and **********". Vodacom have all the technology at their disposal to send an sms to inform / warn of out of bundle rates being levied, yet fail to do so, thus enriching themselves.

Vodacom Account # I ********** -8 Original Reference # Solutions Team: 1-882 **********

0
Replies (4)
Vodacom
Vodacom's reply24 Oct 2017, 12:55
Official

Dear Customer,

Thank you for making us aware of your complaint.

Kindly be advised that a consultant will make contact with you in due course to assist with your query.

***Please note*** Beware of phishing ****s.

Vodacom will not contact you via Whatsapp to request your personal details

Regards,
Vodacom Consumer Website Team

Vodacom
Vodacom's reply25 Oct 2017, 11:51
Official

Good day,

Feedback has been provided.

Regards,
RM

BS
Barry S's update25 Oct 2017, 12:39
Reviewer Update
In the interest of transparency I will post below the feedback provided as stated by RM in the Official Business Reply: Good day, Our records reflect that our Advanced Data Support team attempted contacting you on numerous occasions with no success. - 1st attempt on 2017-02-16 at 13:03:42 ( ********** 787 and ********** 770 not available) - 2nd attempt on 2017-02-18 at 14:17:39 ( ********** 787 and ********** 770 not available) - 3rd attempt on 2017-02-18 at 15:36:10 ( ********** 787 and ********** 770 not available) An sms was also sent to you on 2017-02-18 at 15:53:33 : Good Day Barry Stofberg, We were unable to reach you telephonically to assist with your enquiry on The data usage on the mobile number ********** 787 has been reviewed and we confirm all charges are correct. We have however assisted you with a credit of R17 865.65 as a gesture from Vodacom. We also recommend that you download the My Vodacom App and a data manager app to keep track of your data usage and purchase more data before depleting your bundle.For Android devices you can go to Settings then Data Usage. Select the date range above the graph and set the Cycle Date to the 1st of the month, then go back to choose the applicable period e.g. June 1 - 30 or July 1 - 31. Regards, Vodacom Customer Care The credit of R17 865.65 given to you by Vodacom was done as a gesture. The case was then closed and you were left to pay the balance of the account. Vodacom have not received payment from you since February 2017, hence your account being handed over to the Legal Department. Please contact our Legal team on ********** as they are best equipped to assist. Regards, R. Maart
BS
Barry S's update25 Oct 2017, 12:39
Reviewer Update
My further reply to Vodacom is as follows: Good day, Your reply is noted. I regret that I was unable to be contacted as it has always been my intention to resolve this as seen by my previous attempts at contacting your resolution department. It is strange to me that your company is prepared to pass a credit of R17 865.65 as a "gesture from Vodacom", while the amount for R4778.18 is not credited. By what merit is the R4778.18 out-of-bundle billing justified where it does not apply to the first overcharge? Where is it justified that an out of bundle charge of R1000 per gigabyte is acceptable? Why does Vodacom not have a messaging system warning users they are about to incur out of usage data costs? Surely as one of the market leaders in cellular in South Africa this is within your technological capability to have this in place. Is it not rather expedient for Vodacom to turn a "blind eye" to this and enrich themselves in this way with exorbitant out of bundle charges? It is far too easy to suggest the onus is upon your users to regulate your own system with a third party app. I follow with interest the case brought against Vodacom by South Africa's richest woman Wendy Applebaum who instituted legal proceedings against Vodacom over its high out-of-bundle charges. She is quoted as saying “When cellphone companies do not warn subscribers they are about to go out of bundle, and then force them to make stop-order payments for invoices they have not agreed to, it amounts to *****.” Your solution is untenable, I request that you escalate this matter to a more satisfactory solution.