Vodacom - Just another example about how corporations don't care

On Wednesday the 23rd of May I sent a mail to the Vodacom Fibre team regarding some concerns I had around the processes followed for fibre trenching mostly around the utter lack of communication and quality of work done.

Today, nearly a week later I had not received any feedback. My only question was whether Vodacom could confirm whether they were complete in my area and whether I could proceed in restoring the pavement to its previous state. I made it quite clear that I don't want Vodacom to fix it.

Today I sent a follow up mail effectively closing the issue. I want no further action taken based on this review either, apart from yet again illustrating how consumers need to be happy with a "more or less is good enough" approach from service providers.

Below are the mails sent with details removed:

Hi Team,

It's now been nearly a week with no feedback apart from the system generated response, acknowledging receipt of my mail.

I wonder whether this is another indicator about how ineffective your systems are or perhaps just a lack of interest in acknowledging the little guy.

You no longer need to concern yourself with this matter as I have already started the cleanup process and will just take whatever you seem fit to dish out in future, in my stride.

Thanks for your lack of concern.

I will also be posting this on various other platforms, not that that will make any difference to you whatsoever.

Regards,

SR180 ********** 97

On 22 May 2018 at 10:19, ***X wrote: Hi Team,

Is there an established methodology around how the process for fibre trenching is handled and what level of control is exercised to ensure they are followed? I have heard a few versions around other people’s experience and going through it now myself, I have to say it leaves a lot to be desired.

Firstly I received no communication whether verbally or by means of a letter, notification or even a note on my gate to inform me that trenching would be commencing, no explanation around what the process is going to be, time frames etc. I find this to be very unprofessional as you are effectively making changes to people’s property without consulting them.

I already hear you saying “but the sidewalk belongs to the municipality” however, it is the residents time and money that keeps it maintained, installs driveways etc. Not to mention the inconvenience caused.

If memory serves, this process started around the 8th of May.

I recently had my sidewalk excavated, the soil treated, bidim cloth installed and a layer of roughly 100mm of crushed stone installed as a finish. As I have a corner stand this came at some expense.

Yet I come home one afternoon to find all of this simply tossed aside with now consultation whatsoever. At this point I engaged with people in the street who identified themselves as working for Vodacom.

I raised my concerns and also asked for timelines etc. I was told that the work would be completed by the end of the week and that my sidewalk and driveway would be returned to its original state. I confirmed this twice with different individuals.

By Friday, I was still not happy with the state of my pavement and was told that all would be restored over the weekend.

We saw very little of contractors for quite a few days after this and yet again no communication or updates.

As it stands, I cannot say whether they are done or not. I am very disappointed with the state of my pavement. Rocks that were dug out during the trenching have just been left there, there is crushed stone (meant to be on my pavement) littering the street and soil just left on the kerbing as well as the street (not just my property, the entire neighborhood).

Not to mention that half of the fallen leaves that were on the sidewalk have now been mixed with the crushed stone when they closed up. These leaves will now just serve as compost for plant growth which is of course counterproductive to the entire process, meaning this will have to be redone.

I understand that we cannot expect the trenching contractors to be paving and landscaping experts, which is why consultation is so important.

How can I find out whether they are done as I would like to restore my pavement to its original state but don’t wish to do so if they still have to come back.

The suburb in question is ***, some of the streets are ***, *** & *** to narrow it down.

Let me make this clear, I don’t want Vodacom to send someone to come and fix it, I will get the professionals who did it the first time round to come sort it out, I just want confirmation that the trenching and related work is done.

Regards, ***