Vodacom - Eighteen days of hell

17 Jan 2021

So there I was, A previously loyal client of Vodacom. I paid my monthly contract fee via the Vodacom App in December, the money is banked by Vodacom (confirmed by my Bank) but most unfortunately (for me) the payment was not associated to my account... To my absolute horror, I am now in arrears...I had to prove that I had made the payment by providing a bank statement, cart before the horse perchance? I did so last week, I produced my bank statement as instructed, and I have heard nothing from Vodacom since that dreadful day, not even an acknowledgement of the issue in the form of e.g. an incident no. I have been pushed around from pillar to post, phone this number, phone that number.. The lack of ownership of my issue is quite simply astounding. I have been to the Northgate branch six times, and they refer me back to the aforementioned call centres. The phrase endless loop springs to mind? I appear on the Vodacom system as a non- payer, even though I have paid.. This is the curse of contracts when the service supplier treats you with abject disdain. The level of communication is non-existent. Great Marketing, but terrible service when there is a simple issues to resolve. Hang your head in shame Vodacom, and enjoy the last few months of my enforced relationship with you, because it will be our last interaction! Once you finally do the recon, I will pay the contract out to termination with one payment if it is easier for you (hopefully), I mean your client is there to make life easier for you right?

24 Jan 2021

Here we are a week later, and the only communication I have received from Vodacom is a request to send information pertinent to the transaction from the original Consultant in response to my follow-up via email(sent for the fourth time) on Tuesday last. A similar request from Vodacom to do the same on Wednesday last in response to my HelloPeter observations (sent for the fifth time). I received a notification that a Consultant would be in touch 'in due course', which took four days. My account has not been credited with the payment I made using the Vodacom app, despite several emails from myself requesting feedback, deaf ears was the only response.

In terms of the concept treating a customer fairly, I am sure you can draw your own conclusions. When I deal with a client query in my personal capacity, I own the issue to resolution. What I have experienced with Vodacom is that they pass the problem from one dept. to another, and I as a client have to constantly follow up and subsequently get ignored when requesting a progress report. I consider myself to be a solution-driven individual, but I am at a complete loss as to what to do next in order to assist Vodacom with their internal payment administration, which I have spent many hours conducting, at my own time and expense. How difficult could this unit of work possibly be, if the client sends you a statement with all pertinent transaction details five times?

I have kept a detailed account of all interactions with Vodacom as a matter of personal governance, can anyone suggest what I do next in order to get this issue resolved? I have irrefutable evidence from my bank that Vodacom have banked the monies. From my standpoint, I now feel that dealing with Vodacom is defined as: 'repeating behaviours over and over again and expecting a different result'.....