Vodacom red tape nightmare means I can't stop data *****

<p>I have been a Vodacom customer, with the same number, since 1998.</p> <p> </p> <p>I signed a Smart L contact to upgrade my iPhone in December 2014 at the Vodashop in the V&A. I forget the details, but for some reason I had to swap the phone for another the day after I got it. The Vodashop made me sign a new contract and promised that I would not pay for both.</p> <p> </p> <p>On Tuesday 26 July 2016 I noticed that I had been double-billed each month for the "Handset Instalment" (R300 & R399), for the past two years. I drove to the Canal Walk Vodashop to resolve it but they told me I had to got to the store where I signed the contract. I called the V&A Vodashop who said they would look into it and gave me the reference number 1- ********** 7812. I have not heard back from Vodacom yet on this issue.</p> <p> </p> <p>On Friday 5 August I received a message that this month's 5gb of recurring data bundlesI have on my account had been used up. This seemed like an impossibly high amount of data for me to use in 5 days - it usually lasts the month. I called 111 and they said they would look into it and gave me the reference number 1- ********** 4536. I asked them to top up my data with a bolt-on bundle which I bought over the phone.</p> <p> </p> <p>On Saturday 6 August my data was depleted again so I went to the V&A Vodashop to follow up on these issues and took my 3G modem and my iPad, each of which has a data sim that shares the data on my phone.</p> <p> </p> <p>The assistant at the shop analysed the sim card from my iPad and said it was actually someone else's blocked, pre-paid sim. I realised that this sim had been inserted into my iPad, and my actual data sim card had been ****** the week before when I took the iPad to iFix Cape Town to have the screen repaired.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Vodashop assistant sold me a new sim card and tried to do a sim swap. He said this would stop the ***** from using my account because the ****** sim card would stop working.</p> <p> </p> <p>He then discovered that my account was “in arrears”, despite the fact that my FNB debit order has gone off my account on 25 July. He could confirm that Vodacom had received the payment, but somehow, in trying to resolve the double-handset-instalment issues, Vodacom had changed my paid-up account status to “in arrears”. He called the call centre and asked them to remove this status which they said would take a few hours. He said I should try the sim swap again after this was done.</p> <p> </p> <p>When I tried to call 111 that evening to do the sim swap they said the accounts department would only open again the next day.</p> <p> </p> <p>On Sunday 7 August I called 111 and asked to do a sim swap to the new sim. They said they would initiate it and it would take 7 hours.</p> <p> </p> <p>On Monday 8 August I woke up and the new sim was not active yet. I ended an important meeting early and drove to V&A Vodashop. The assistant said the sim swap had only been initiated that morning and it would take several hours more. He said they would call me with an update within 45 mins.</p> <p> </p> <p>They never called and when I called Vodashop V&A back this afternoon (8 August) to follow up on the sim swap I was told that the sim swap wasn’t happening because I had an "open order" on my account and I needed to call 111 to ask them to remove the open order. When I did this the call centre agent told me there was an error and they couldn’t remove the open order and they had to escalate it to the technical department where it would take 24-48 hours to resolve. I explained that my data sim had been ****** and that someone was using my data so I urgently needed to block the number, or do the sim swap, or something, but I was told it was impossible to make any changes on my account while I had this “open order”. The agent said she would sms me a reference number.</p> <p> </p> <p>When I called Vodashop V&A again to give them this news they said they could try to speed up the technical department if I sent them the reference number, but the reference number has not yet arrived. They said they can do nothing else until this “open order” is removed.</p> <p> </p> <p>The real problem is that, from the morning of Sunday 7 August until now (Monday evening, 8 August), I have been unable to top-up my account with data. Presumably this is either because my account is “in arrears” or has an “open order”. When I try to top up on the website it says "Unfortunately the number you have entered is a valid number but no bundle options are currently available to buy for that number.” When I try to top up using the USSD menu the data never appears on my account. This means the ***** has been using my data at out-of-bundle rates for several days. My data bill is currently R4438 - about double what I normally pay for all of my services in a full month.</p> <p> </p> <p>I am planning to make my third trip to the V&A Vodashop tomorrow morning (on a public holiday) because I can’t just sit back and watch my data bill mount up and do absolutely nothing about it.</p> <p> </p> <p>I will be taking up the theft of the sim card with iFix (and probably laying a charge), but the issue here is that I have spent hours on the phone and in the Vodashop over the past few days to try to stop the ***** using my data but I have been unable to do this because of red tape issues within Vodacom.</p> <p> </p> <p>I would appreciate it if someone high enough up at Vodacom can step in to resolve this and end this ***** on my account (and pay me back for two years of double handset charges)</p> <p> </p> <p>Thanks</p>