Vodacom Incompetency

I didn't even want to give a star, but there isn't a option of none!! Writing this in the hope that a MD, or one of the Directors(a actual person that can make decisions) that we apparently not allowed to talk too, will pick up a phone and help resolve the issue. So we moved into a new home in November 2019, and since then we had no Vodacom signal when at home. My company phone got changed to MNT so I have no issues, but my wife that works from home is still on a vodacom contract. She has been battling because customers can't get hold of her and recently lost a project due to this as a customer was tired of not being able to reach her, and only work thru messages(which comes thru now and again). Finally at the beginning of this year she asked me to assist as she doesn't get any resolve when she goes to speak to vodacom. When she goes into the shop they just sit there and call her and says but it rings, yes it does because the issue is at our home!!!

So I went in, thru my toys and then for once we had a employee(a lady) that assisted. She gave us change to get home and tried to call and could get thur, eventually she send a message noting this, and said she will arrange a technician to assess the problem. Another employee who actually did his job came and eventually notified my wife that Vodacom has no tower in our area and hence as in his words, our Complex has a dead spot!!

Great, so when will a tower be up? Unknown is the answer!! So we then contact Vodacom, tell them about the issue and that we cannot keep paying R3800(contract and for phone my wife needs for her work, as photo's is a big need and the camera on the phone she has is important) for a service we are not receiving. So we need to end the contract because Vodacom doesn't have signal in this area, and need to move to a different service provider, so canceling the contract is not due to us.

So we get told, ok we will end the contract without any penalties for stopping the contract early, but we either need to hand in the phone or pay R9000 to keep it!!This is where everything started going wrong. The call center tries to phone my wife but obviously cannot get hold of her(when she is at home where she is most of the time) and eventually phones me. The lady I spoke to said the same as above, to which I said NO! Cancel the contract without handing in the phone or paying for it, or any penalties and we all walk away from this and we move to a service provider that does have signal in the area. She said no we have to either pay for the phone or hand it in. I said to her, well then pay me back the monthly installments for the service I do not have since Novemebr 2019( so R1889 for just the service excluding the handset, at 17 months form Nov 19 to March 22 = R32113) and I will then pay you the R9000 for the phone. She said that is not how it works because they have to pay for the phone, I said I understand but does she understand that I have been paying for a service I do not have, so I am actually just asking lets all just walk away from this without me wanting to pursue extra cost. She still did not understand or just didn't care to listen and said NO. I said to her that screaming at her won't work because I understand that she is just following the book, so if I can speak to one of her directors or even the MD if that is what it takes it would be great, to which she just rep**** that I cannot speak to them and this is how it is.

So being in a big corporate firm, I asked one of our contacts to assist, but that this is a private matter as it is my phone and do not want to involve the company I work for, I just want to speak to someone who can make decisions. He tired and kept asking if anyone called us to what the answer was NO. Or maybe it is the level of incompetency from Vodacom still not understanding the issue, and not reading the mails I send to him and he forwarded, because if they are trying to phone my wife, THEY WILL NOT GET HOLD OF HER BECAUSE THERE IS NO SIGNAL AT OUR HOUSE WHERE SHE WORKS FROM!!!!

I have been sending follow up mails, and the last I send last week, all of a sudden my wife just gets a message stating the ''ticket has been closed''!!!! Wait WHAT????

So this month another plus minus R3500(handset and rest included) is going to go off. I cannot stop the debit order and not pay, because then guess what we will be blacklisted, because the companies can do what they want, but you MR. Citizen better not step out of line. On top of this my wife lost a R80 000 contract due to this issue as mentioned before. I have become her PA to get people in at the gate as she cannot be reached, so my own work gets interrupted.

But NO, you cannot talk to anyone at VODACOM that can actually use their head and make decisions.

So hopefully someone will for once read this, understand that a customer of more that 20years is now over this, and as far as I go I will not have anything good to say about vodacom. And if this happens I someone actually calls, call me and not my wife for obvious reasons that might not be that obvious to anyone working at Vodacom.

Will be to late for this month, but after this I will stop the debit order, and we will have to deal with the issues coming later. But I will not hand in a phone and take out a new contract with a service provider, just to pay for a phone all over again. But I already lost R31000 roughly for service I haven't received.

Cannot believe that a firm like Vodacom has this level of incompetency.

Regards Unhappy Customer