Vodacom Fibre unfair billing

When I agreed to take out Fibre with Vodacom, a pocket router, sim card and 100 gigs of data was part of the deal for the first month as I had to wait for the engineers to come out and connect the Fibre lines and set up the WIFI. I received an email with the LTE quote for my approval was sent on 19 July 2020. The sim card was delivered with no pocket router. When I called in to customer service to inform them about the mishap and to have it sorted I was told that the sim card will not work in any other device as its linked to a specific pocket router and that a router will be delivered within the next week. I was then sent emails to track the progress of the ticket the customer service consultant opened for me. No router came and the sim card could not be used in any other device to utilize the 100 gigs of data. I called in another time and was told the same thing, the data went to waste as the month ended and the pocket router never came. I still had to pay that month's instalment as the debit dates were already set up.

The 31st of March fell on a Wednesday this year and my debit order did not go off for March, I didn't contact Vodacom customer service as I received an email the 4th of April which stated the amount I owed and another invoice attached to the same email stating that R1398.88 will be deducted the end of the following month to cover both March and April. The end of April came and again no money was deducted for the WIFI. I was not concerned at the times because the wifi was still on at my house and the 1st of May fell on a Sunday .The 7th of May and my Vodacom statement showed that the amount of R1398.88 was paid and my outstanding amount was only R649 like every other month. Based on that statement I assumed the R1398.88 was deducted without my bank notifying me. On this statement it also showed that the R649 will be deducted via debit order on the 31st May 2021.Still the wifi was on and working at my property. The 31st came and again not money was deducted for the Wi-Fi. On the 7th of June 2021 the Wi-Fi went off at my house and I called Vodacom about it. I was then told that I owe a balance of more than R2696.88 for March, April, May, and now June including penalty a fee of a R100.

On the phone with customer service I was given the option of making an arrangement with Vodacom to pay this amount off in four parts over four months. I had agreed to pay R675 on the 3rd of the next four months to clear the debt. The 3rd of October 2021 should have been my last payment on this arrears, which was confirmed by the consultant. The consultant had advised me that the arrears amount will not increase as the Wi-Fi line has been suspended and that the R675 will be all that I need to pay for the next four months to clear the arrears amount and a day or two after the 3rd of October I would be able to call in and have the Wi-Fi turned back on at my property. This information was confirmed and reconfirmed by the customer service consultant on this phone call, I asked her just to make sure that R675 was all that I had to pay for the next four months and I wanted to ensure that the balance will not increase. The consultant, who was a lady, had reassured me each time telling me that R675 will be all.

In September 2021 I started checking my invoices as I wanted to check what the remaining of my balance is. I noticed that the invoices looked as if I'm not paying the arrears amount at all. I called into customer service to query this, I was told that I am still being invoiced every month R650 for the Wi-Fi even though the line is suspended and I have no Wi-Fi at my property. When I mentioned to the consultant that this information was not given to me on the initial call while I was making arrangements to get rid of this debt I was told that even though the line is suspended I am still liable to pay. I've spoken to about three or four consultants and only one of them escalated this to their manager who also said that I am liable for this amount to be paid and promised to listen to the recording of the specific call where I had made arrangements and to call me back but never did. I have been paying the arrangement every month but my balance has remained the same. Vodacom expects me to pay for a service they are not rendering at all. In October the 3rd fell on a Sunday and again the debit order did not go off, I had to call in and pay them from my cousins banking app as mine was not working. The consultant I spoke to on the 5th of October 2021 opened a ticket about this situation for which I received an email saying the status of my ticket is closed and that I should contact their billing department to make arrangements. I am still being billed even though my balance should be fully paid by now and the Wi-Fi is still off at my property.I wanted to cancel the wifi with Vodacom to prevent the amount from increasing every month I was told that I can’t due to the arrears amount and I was advised to pay this large amount first before I can cancel .

Eventually someone from vodacom contacted me about this. He closed the account but only removed half of the owing amount saying that I need to take some responsibility for this bill. They are now expecting me to pay R3421. 85 to them even though they know and admitted that I did not , and still don't have wifi at my house. Vodacom is now threatening to hand me over if I do not pay this R3421. 85 within 21 days.

Hoping to hear from you, regards

Kesha