Vodacom deceipt and lack of accountability

On 31 December 2019 we contacted Vodacom to cancel my husband's cell phone contract as he has been paying riduculous prices for years and another service provider offered much better rates. When wanting to cancel, the Vodacom consultant convinced us to remain with Vodacom as they kept on making better offers. We have five or six contracts on that account, and the consultant and I spent about two hours going through each of them in detail, making changes. Every now and again I decided to rather cancel some of the secondary numbers on that account as they did not beat the prices of the alternative service provider, and each time the consultant improved the offer and reduced it to even lower rates. The total "savings" after the amendments, which were supposed to be effective from end January 2020, would amount to just below R2000 per month and, needless to say, I thanked the consultant very appreciatively and gave him a 10 out of 10 rating.

End January 2020 came the bill - however, instead of the expected savings, it was even higher than before. We ascribed it to the fact that we travelled overseas in December 2019 and thought that the higher amount related to arrear charges for the travel abroad. End February 2019 came the bill, again higher than before we made the changes. So we contacted Vodacom, only to be told that the previous, more expensive contracts were not cancelled but the new, lower contracts were loaded to the account over and above (on top of!) the existing accounts (that were supposed to have been cancelled). Then came the excuses, about not seeing what the consultant quoted me on the account, and that which he had promised to do not being valid/executable in Vodacom (e.g. "you cannot do this when it is a migration, only when it is an upgrade"). When making the changes to the contracts at end December 2019, I made it very clear that we could not enter into any new 24 month contracts and the consultant assured me that all changes he made, he could make without locking us into new 24 months contracts but remaining on month to month contracts (as it was migration and not upgrade). He further stated that it was possible to make the changes with no penalties being app**** as we ran out of the contract time already and there were no penalties for migrating to a lower package once you were out of the contract period.

When I questioned the higher prices being charged on 29 February 2020, we were told that they could not have migrated to the lower rates and packages and gave long stories between upgrade and migration and whichever department was responsible for whatever. Suddenly some of the agreements made between myself and the consultant, were not recorded on the quote or were invalid agreements - the consultant "made errors when he quoted you this...". I referred them to the recording of the end December 2019 conversation as I know exactly what was promised and agreed and have noted it down during our conversation. During this conversation it was made clear that (1) we did not wish to enter into any new 24 month contract, (2) the rates quoted and the nature of the quote e.g. whether airtime, minutes, data and type of contract (month to month) were confirmed time and again and (3) the confirmation (and in fact, boasting) by the consultant of how much money he saved me. They then promised to listen to the recording and to phone me on the Monday (end Feb's call was the Friday). It is today 3 April 2020, one month later, and still no phone call until today.

Today I called Vodacom once again, to request the changes to the account as we keep on being charged even higher prices than before (because of the new quotes now having been added over and above the contracts that we wished to cancel); this time the consultant kept on trying to convince me to lock myself into new 24 month contracts, which I refused and we ended up cancelling our kids' contracts altogether. Suddenly now one could not migrate to a lower package once you are out of the contract period (in December, it was doable because one was out of contract period already??).

I questioned the monthly charge on my husband's cell number as it was higher than quoted on 31 December 2020, and the consultant said it was the charge as agreed (R799) with an additional R250 (once off fee) charged for the fact that my husband's account was migrated. I mentioned that I did not recall the consultant mentioning any migration fee in December 2019, and I also had no record of it on the notes I took down. He however confirmed the monthtly subscription fee to be R799 and the R250 fee being a once off fee and not to be charged in the following month. I then accepted that.

We then had to call customer services (a separate department) to cancel an (unauthorised) subscription fee as well, and then I asked about the monthly subscription fee on the invoice for April - only to be informed that the monthly subscription on my husband's account is in fact R1049 and not R799 and that a R799 monthly fee for that contract does not exist. Twenty minutes earlier the (other) consultant confirmed the fee to be R799 and the reason for him having been charged R1049 is because of the once off migration fee; suddenly the consultant at the customer services sees no record of any R799 subscription on the quote and states that such a fee does not even exist for that package but the standard fee is R1049 per month.

By this time, we just had it. We wanted to cancel our Vodacom contracts already in December 2019, but were deceived into staying with Vodacom (which we have been with for YEARS) by having been quoted lower rates and better deals than the alternative service provider. Vodacom deceived us, charged different rates than quoted, did not cancel as promised but added over and above (where it was made clear during my conversation with the consultant in December 2019 that the reason for my call was to SAVE costs), did not call me back to acknowledge having listened to the recorded conversation, AND **** about the subscription fee for my husband's number. And worst is, NO ONE is willing to even offer an apology and take accountability for them having charged costs that we have not agreed to. The right thing to do would be to reverse those charges for the subscriptions that were agreed to be cancelled from end December 2019, but the only thing everyone says is "what I can do for you going forward is ..".

When we called the cancellations department to also cancel my husband's contract when we simply had enough, the consultant could not get rid of me over the phone fast enough - she could not wait to end the call. When the customer services consultant was asked WHO IS GOING TO TAKE ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE MONTHS IN WHICH THEY CHARGED US MORE THAN WE AGREED TO, she simply said "so do you wish to cancel the contract?" and put me through to the cancellations department.

DO NOT EVER TRUST VODACOM WHEN ANY CONSULTANT TAKES YOUR CALL AND DEALS WITH YOUR QUERY. They take NO ACCOUNTABILITY for incorrect information given, charging you differently than what was verbally agreed (and recorded) and the one consultant does not know what the next says/does/promises.

In effect, Vodacom has ****** approximately R6000 from my husband since January 2020, as they did not keep their end of the promise - and we are merely expected to pay. Another R2000 will be wasted in April 2020 as that invoice had already been generated. They wasted my time (each conversation took at least an hour and some of them two), our money (we could have saved those thousands of Rands if we simply cancelled end December 2019 and moved to the alternative service provider) and my breath (what was the use of all the conversations I had with them? It all came to nothing and we are worse off than before ... and the all just shrug their shoulders and state "well we do not have that ..." etc.)

If I had any way of recouping my money from Vodacom, I would - but who does one call? Who at Vodacom would ensure that fairness prevails? Not one consultant referred me to someone with authority to address the wrong doing and wrong information having been given from their side.

I know the loss of our contracts is just a drop in the ocean for Vodacom, but the money they had taken from us through deceipt and incompetence, could have paid very important bills in our household.

My only hope is that at least someone who reads this, will know to stay clear from Vodacom to avoid from being **** to and suffering financial loss.

Do not fall prey to a business that simply does not care.