VODACOM – DOING ITS BEST TO KEEP ITS CLIENTS ALIENATED AND DISCONNECTED!

VODACOM – DOING ITS BEST TO KEEP ITS CLIENTS ALIENATED AND DISCONNECTED!

Recently, Vodacom randomly and without rhyme, reason or warning, removed my cell phone from their cell phone network!

At this point it’s worth noting that I have been a faithful client of Vodacom’s for around 25 years. My instrument is a legally purchased cellphone with no hacks or modifications since year one. I operate on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ option and therefore owe Vodacom nor have ever owed them, a cent. I have never before had any issues whatsoever with Vodacom nor have I ever indulged in any questionable or ******** activity on my phone.

So why, in a competitive market like communication, would Vodacom ‘eliminate’, discard’ or deliberately ‘lose’ a client???

The story began about three months ago when I discovered that I could not make any calls from my cell phone. Upon examination I discovered that my SIMcard had been disconnected / removed from the network.

This was frustratingly inconvenient as it was two weeks before I could manage to make my way to the local Vodacom franchise outlet to enquire as to why this had happened and to demand to be re-connected.

At the store, things were anything but clear. After investigating the issue, a so-called customer service technician announced that he could not supply a reason for the disconnection, nor could he do anything about it!

He insisted that only Vodacom Head Office could rectify the matter and re-connect me.

I then had to ask for before I was reluctantly given a 082-152 number to call. (Customer care clearly doesn’t carry a commission)

Since then I have endured weeks of frustration trying to commence the process to re-establish my channel of communication, but without success.

The customer service contact number I was given doesn’t work. Landline calls are repeatedly engaged or not answered. Repeated emails elicit a similar result - acknowledgement of receipt but are not responded to. (Kind of ironic for a major ‘blue-chip’ company that claims to provide telephonic communications, not so?)

So, without any input from Vodacom, a deliberately elusive major national service provider, I raise the following complaint(s) / accusations;

1. Vodacom, you have deprived of my constitutional right of access as well as human right to communicate a legal telephonic device by removing me without permission, notice nor any other valid reason from your network.

2. You have cut me off and made me unreachable by friends, family, neighbours, service providers and business associates.

3. In an emergency I am now deprived of a personal or convenient device in an emergency. I cannot summon help, call a doctor, ambulance nor in the event of a crime, alert police or law-enforcement officials.

4. It is my understanding that as part of your licencing agreement with government, you have undertaken to provide clients with easy channels and access to sufficient competent and well-trained staff in order to resolve any enquiries, complaints or customer service issues a client might wish to address.

(Is this true? Because if so, Vodacom is blatantly and deliberately in breach of at least one of the conditions under which it operates. Further, when a client is forced to correct out an issue that is not of the client's making and is given the run-around, he/she has very good reason to feel dissatisfied).

5. Finally, to add a further embellishment to Vodacom’s poor client care practices, like a ***** in the night you have even quietly ******/confiscated/absorbed the purchased airtime in my account!

So, there you have my outrage, my complaint!

Vodacom, it’s over to you!

(Should there be a valid and ICASA-approved reason for this outrageous and high-handed action an explanation from Vodacom, it would be appreciated as none of the other network representatives that i have consulted are aware of it).

PS: Please be sure not to try and contact me on my cell phone, as it has been disconnected and will not work!!!