Vodacom disappointing service

Good day My name is Thembekile Mthembu. I’m writing this review with a heavy heart due to the lack of service and feedback from Vodacom Mobile. On the 07th July 2021 I took out a 36 month Router contract at Alberton City as I now work from home and need internet connection to perform my daily work duties and from the very start that I got the contract I have been having problems with the network service. I have called in and complained that the Router does not reach the speed limit of 10mbps as promised when buying into the contract but only ends up on 1 or 2mbps and the service agent advised that there was a network issue reported in my area and they would get back to me once the problem has been sorted, and that’s just where all the problems started.

Whenever I would call into Vodacom there would never be any feedback whatsoever, they give out reference numbers and you have to call in every time to do a follow-up just to end up with the same answer from all their agents “the enquiry is still in progress, we waiting on IT to call and confirm what the issue is”. To a point where I’m starting to believe that there is no IT department at Vodacom cause it seems like there is just no way to be able to get ahold of them even though they say IT is aware of the issue, and there is no contact details for their IT department they can only be reached using email which they don’t seem to get back to.

Fast forward to the 01 Sep 2021, we moved to a new apartment still around Alberton and the router was still giving the same issue of not reaching the 10mbps speed that was advertised on the router package to a point that it was disturbing me so badly at work due to network connection that I decided to take it in the store where I bought it so they can check as to why it wasn’t reaching its full network speed. I was then advised by the sales consultant Matthew who I initially bought the router from to go to their Repairs store at New Market and that’s where all went downhill. The Router was taken in and 3-4 days later I was called in to come and collect the new Router, as soon as I got home and inserted the sim card into the new Router , nothing worked the Router was Red in color indicating that there is no network, I then called into Vodacom and told them that I had my Router replaced at the new Market Mall and when I insert the sim card it just stays red and there is no connection. The agent on the phone then sent me back to New Market to inform them that the Router/sim card isn’t working.

At new Market I was then assisted by a lady by the name of Charlie and said we needed to do a sim swap, leave the simcard off for 4 hours then put it back in the router and all should be fine. To cut the long story short, after 3-4 sim swaps and Router being taken in, no one can be able to tell me as to what the problem with the simcard is. The consultant by the name of Matthew from Alberton City has been kind enough to try and resolve this matter for me as he says he also experienced something like this, but even with his assistance and me calling in every now and then and taking both the simcard and Router into the Vodacom store, no one can be able to give me a simple answer as to why there is no connection from my device. So now I’m sitting with a big problem of having a Router contract that is not working for almost half the time I have had it (I have had the Router for 3 months, and for a month and a half all of the services have been blocked/not working). I don't see how it can be tired to a 36 month contract that semi worked only for a month and a half since I have had it.

On the 18th Oct 2021 I went back into the Vodacom store in Alberton City to try and see what kind of feedback Matthew has received from his side and to my disappointment I got the same answer of “enquiry is still in progress and that his waiting on IT to confirm what the issue is”, but according to the sales consultant when he calls different departments they all say that the error is not on their side and all systems seem to be active and fine, cause they say the Router, network and cell number is fine, even though we still don’t have any data or network services.

So I am now at a point where I want to cancel this contract as it was faulty from the beginning and I am being told that for me to cancel I will be penalized with the remaining months on the contract and service fees, though the problem is not on my side and I have done everything that has been asked from me to do in order to facilitate the efficient and effective resolution of this issue, to no help at all including taking in both the SIM card and router multiple times. I am incurring extreme data expenses as I have to buy data daily from my own pocket then hotspot my PC at home so I can work, which as resulted in additional costs out of pocket that were not budgeted for. The whole reason for signing up to a Router contract was to be able to save but this has turned out to be more of an expense than anything else.

Please can you assist in addressing this with Vodacom, as I no longer want to make use of their services and I do not want to pay any penalty fees of cancellation as well since the fault was with the service provider. It has been more than a month and a half of not having any connection and I want out of the contract with Vodacom.

Vodacom Router details:

Number : ***

Monthly fee : r399

Monthly package : 100gb day, 100gb night

Term 36 months : only semi worked for a month and half