Vodacom, please tell us the truth!

I will soon be travelling to France and Italy. I contacted the call center to set-up my international roaming. I was told that they do not have a network in France and Italy and that I needed to purchase a sim card when getting to the country and advise everyone of the new number. If this is the case, why does Vodacom advertise International Roaming? I asked the operator why was I previously able to roam overseas on my own number and now I can't. No she does not no why. It feels as if Vodacom is going backwards instead of forward. How does every South African Businessman/woman travelling to these 1st world countries manage to use there own phone if they are not using the roaming functionality?

Vodacom, please inform us what is what? Is it just because you are trying to save us money/save Vodacom money and telling us to rather use a foreign sim card? If it is, just tell us the truth and not make up stories. We can handle the truth. Don't pull the wool over our eyes, were not as ******** as what you think we are.