Vodacom = NO POWER NO SERVICE but I still have to honour my part of the contract!

I have struggled with connectivity and service with my cell phone (iPhone 6S), which is my primary source of income, since February 2019. People tried to phone me and then it goes straight to voicemail, leaving me with a text message stating that I've had a missed call. When people did not, therefore, phone me twice, they did not get hold of me, and I lose clients aka I lose money. It also starts to cost my clients extra cash because of the voice mail situation.

I phoned the Vodacom customer care line, and they did some technical thing on their side and asked me to double check if the problem remains after an hour. (This was in February sometime. I thought it's still part of the December and January rush in Stilbaai - because the problem actually started in December 2018.)

I waited an hour as the lady said, and after an hour, the problem remained, and I phoned the customer care line again. The lady suggested I go to a Vodacom store and put the sim card in a different phone to test whether the problem is with my phone or with my sim card.

I arrived at the Vodacom Still Bay store, and we tested the sim card in another phone, and the phone call came through flawlessly.

Because the phone rang when the sim card was in a different phone, I concluded then that it must be my iPhone 6S. I took the phone into Vodacom George, in the Garden Route, and they confirmed the problem is with my cell phone. See the results attached.

I bought a BRAND new iPhone 6 from the Stilbaai Vodacom Store on the 8th of March 2019. The new phone did the same thing; When people phone me the phone goes straight to voice mail, and I experience dropped calls as soon as I move from 4G to 3G, not just in Stillbaai, in the Free State and in Gauteng. I did training with staff in the Free State and Gauteng between 8 and 19 March 2019.

I then decided to do a sim swap, which I did on the 19th of March 2019 at the Vodacom Stilbaai Store. Vodacom sent me a survey to assess the service I received from them, and I rated them as a 10 for their service. (Based on the Stilbaai Store's service!)

The problem remained.

I phoned Vodacom Customer Care again on the 4th of April 2019 and received a ticket (Ref A2-F***-11KX5) that was logged for support. It seemed like the problem was fixed but started - or remained after an hour passed. I received a text message at 16:46 that said the problem is resolved, and the call is closed. (See attached photo)

I phoned Vodacom Customer Care again on the 5th of April 2019 and received yet another ticket ( Ref A2 - F*** - 148X6) at 07:59. On the 8th of April 2019, the ticket was assigned to a support specialist for assistance 07:48. Then a lovely lady from Vodacom phoned back and took more details about the problems I am experiencing. On Monday the 8th of April 10:41, I received a text message that A2 -F*** - 148X6 was closed. A new service ticket A2 - FFCJ - AV11HG was logged to a support team at 11:19. 13:10 This ticket was assigned to support specialist for assistance. I did not hear anything back and was quite hopeful that everything is resolved. At 16:17 (Still Monday the 8th of April) I received a text message that this ticket has been closed. It seemed like the problem was resolved but just started again after a few hours.

I cannot remember the EXACT sequence of events any more, but I did receive this message from Grant Calvin Schoeman on the 8th of April at 10:41 stating that I should insert the sim card into a different handset to establish the problem. I was furious at this point, seeing that I paid for a sim swap, which I feel was Vodacom's problem in the first place. And I do not have a different handset to put the sim card into in any way.

Each time I phoned the Vodacom Customer Care line, I waited an amount of time, which is normal when calling a customer care line - BUT the problem with this situation is they cannot fix my problem, but I have to keep on paying my contract. When I asked them if I could move over to a different network, they said: "You can, but you will still have to pay your contract until it's finished." OKAY... So basically, I have to pay my service fee and not receive the service I am actually paying for.

I'm losing clients, money and business because I'm not appropriately connected. How is this legal? How is this ethical and how is this valid business s****s?

My problem was directed to Vodacom once again via the Stilbaai Vodacom Store and I again received a Ticket on the 30th of May 2019 EC - 1R42-21EM4J.

They told me to keep in touch with Stilbaai Vodacom in regards to my connectivity because they fixed it on their side. BIG SURPRISE - STILL THE PROBLEM REMAINS!!!

I know the slogan Vodacom uses is Power to you - well, I'm sorry to say, but it is 8 June 2019, and I still struggle with the same issue I logged with them since February after buying a new phone and doing a sim swap - 4 months!

So, no Vodacom; You are NOT POWER TO ME or my business.