Vodacom Number Blocked after Years of Being RICAed

<p>The number in question was originally registered on my mothers name around late 2007, along with 3 other numbers that she was paying for. (My mother passed away on the 10th of January 2016) Shortly after my mothers passing my dad presented vodacom with her death certificate inorder to put all the contracts on his name, so that he could continue paying for them. A couple of months later our contracts were due for upgrades. We decided that it would be more econamical for us to switch the now payed off handsets to prepaid. My dad and I went to the Tygervalley Vodacom Branch where a chap (with loads of arm bands) by the name of Jason 'Helped us'. We were informed that we could not change anything on the accounts without the consent of our Mother (Deceased). It turns out they never transfered the ownership of the contracts, but only the payment! We had to go through the whole death certificate shlep again. Jason was satified with all paperwork provided and allowed my father to change things on the account (switched 2 Numbers to prepaid and cancelled my mothers number) We repeated everything we needed to have done several times to make sure he understood. He seemed to understand.</p> <p>A couple of weeks later we realised that the data SIM contract that he was not supposed to change at all, was no longer receiving it's monthly data. We logged onto the vodacom site thinking that we may have gone over our monthly limit somehow and realised that the account is in arreers with over R3600!!! (Which is impossible, seeing that my father has a debit order that comes off of his account every month.)</p> <p>We came to the conclusion that they cancelled that contract as well, leaving us to pay the remaining amount of the contract as a lump sum. Frustrating right? But wait theres more:</p> <p>We didn't go back to Vodacom at the time, because we were under the impression that that was the only fault on the account and quite frankly we were sick of dealing with all the incompetence. Here is the fun part... After about 2 months of not hearing anything from Vodacom, my brother gets an SMS telling him he needs to RICA his number or his number will be blocked (His phone was also switch from a paid off contract to prepaid.) He went to Vodacom Chats in Tygervalley and told them about the SMS. He was told not to worry, he is already RICAed and will never have to RICA again (Which is an accurate response if you read up about RICA) He ignored it.</p> <p>A couple of days ago I got the same SMS, stating that I needed to RICA my phone by the 9th of August or they will block my phone on the 10th of August. Luckily I was able to leave work earlier (Since it was a public holiday) I drove to Vodacom Cape Gate with all the needed documents (So that I did not have to deal with Tygervalleys People again) A very helpful friendly lady told me that I need not worry about the SMS. It was aparenrtly an error on the Vodacoms systems side. She had dealt with a similar issue earlier that week. I was told that I only ever have to RICA a phone once. (Correct) Just to be sure I asked her to check on her system what my RICA status is. She did so wih a smile. She told me that the phone had been RICAed. Then she looked at me confused and said, but you do not look like a 'Johanna' (My mothers name). THE PHONE IS STILL REGISTED ON MY MOTHERS NAME!!!</p> <p>But wait, there is even more!</p> <p>It is now the 11th of August (a day after they said they would block my number if I did not RICA my phone) and I have not had any signal this whole day. I checked with a colleague of mine who is also a (unsatified) Vodacom customer to see if he had signal - He had.</p> <p>I have restarted my phone, I have removed the SIM and put it back into place. It doesn't seem to be a fault on my phones side.</p> <p>Vodacom, I am not an unreasonable person, all I want is for MY phone and number and number to be registered on MY name and for everything to work the way YOU said it would. That is all. Is that so much to ask.</p>