Vodacom Red Disadvantage

My Iphone X started giving me problems. After being used for a short while the screen either stops responding or it randomly starts executing commands & apps. I am a Vodacom Red Advantage client. Prior to taking this contract I was assured of priority treatment and a “Like for Like” replacement phone amongst other things.

On Sunday the 3rd Of February I went to my closest Vodacom Store located in the Kolonnade Shopping centre. They did not offer any priority service to Red Clients nor did they have any loan phones available.

On Monday the 4th of February I phoned Vodacom customer care and explained what had happened the previous day. The consultant told me that I should visit the Vodacom Store in Menlyn Shopping Centre.

I went to Vodacom Store in Menlyn Shopping centre on the 5th of February as told. I arrived at the store and was immediately assisted. They had a very old phone available to lend me but was told by their own technician that it was not a suitable replacement. The store had nothing else to offer me that would hold up to the “Like for Like” service that they are still marketing.

I then phoned the RED VIP help line while still in store and spoke to Innocent Moseley. She suggested that I contact the other Vodacom stores to find a “Like for Like” loan phone. I asked her to contact them to make that inquiry.

About 30min later Innocent phoned me back. She spoke to all the Vodacom shops in Pretoria and none of them had a suitable device to loan me while mine gets repaired. Innocent then suggested that I should send an e-mail to ********** as they will give me a solution before the close of business the same day. I sent the requested e-mail at 11:40 the same day.

By the next day. 6 February 2019 I was still not offered a solution by customer care.

I phoned the RED VIP help line again. Innocent Moseley was not available so I spoke to Pracilla Nkosi. I opted to give Pracilla the reference number that Innocent gave me the previous day as this would not require me to explain everything from scratch. Pracilla told me that such a reference number does not exist!

I explained everything to Pracilla again. She told me that she can do nothing for me and that I must simply wait for Vodacom customer care to get back to me.

Please be aware of the misleading marketing around the RED products and the premium or VIP service you will receive after subscribing to the product.

They are lying to you.

You will end up at the same customer service that normal pay as you go subscribers have access to.

You will not receive a “Like for Like” handset to use when your R25 000 handset has problems. They will offer you a phone that cannot run your applications, do not have enough storage space for applications not even to mention your data like e-mails etc.

I am wondering how Vodacom are planning to honour their offer of a “like for like” loan unit if none of their Pretoria outlets have an Iphone X 256GB available as a loan unit?