Vodacom refuses to refund ********** "Content Services" charges

<p>On the 7th of May 2017 I received my monthly Vodacom statement. Looking over this statement on the 8th of May, I noticed daily charges for "Vodafone Live Games" at R4.99. These charges started on the 13th of April 2017. Seeing this and knowing that I had not subscribed to any subscription services, I contacted the Vodacom call centre on the night of the 8th May 2017.</p> <p>During this call, I explained the situation to the consultant assisting me and specified to her that these charges were ********** and needed to be stopped on my account. I also told her that I expected these fees to be removed from my account, since I had requested any such services. Her response to this complaint was to log a service call. At the time, I was told that this call would take up to 14 working days to resolve and if I was billed during that time, any refund due would be processed on a future invoice. I accepted this resolution and proceeded to await feedback from Vodacom.</p> <p><br />On the evening of the 22nd of May, I phoned Vodacom to request an update on the service request, since I had not received any feedback. I was also still being billed the R4.99 per day. During this call, I was informed by the consultant that the original call had been closed and I would receive no refund because "I had signed up for the service". I then proceeded to question her as to how I could not receive a refund as I had reported the matter as **********. She also indicated that the only manner in which she could assist me was to log a new service request to stop further charges from being levied. She informed me that this deactivation would take between 1 and 3 hours to take effect.</p> <p><br />Once this service request was logged, I then proceeded to continue asking how exactly I could get my money back, since I had not signed up for any services and that the fees were *****. I was repeatedly told by the consultant that I must have signed up, maybe even by mistake. At this point, I requested to speak to a supervisor for further assistance. The consultant's reply to this request was to say "OK, but he will tell you exactly what I did".</p> <p><br />When the supervisor came on the line, I asked if he was aware of the context of my request to speak to him and he said "yes, you subscribed to a service and now want to stop it and get a refund". The consultant had excluded all mention of ***** and previous service requests being logged. I then explained to him that I had not subscribed, that it was ***** and that I wanted Vodacom to refund me the associated fees.</p> <p>In answer to this explanation, the supervisor said to me that Vodacom cannot refund the fees for the content services, because they (Vodacom) did not subscribe me to the service. He reiterated the opinion that I had subscribed and when I stated to him that this had been done without my knowledge and it was in fact ***** being committed, he told me that it could not be because only I could subscribe to these services.</p> <p>No matter how many times I told him that it was ********** activity and that I had not subscribed, he refused to offer any assistance other than telling me that a service call to stop future fees would be loaded and that I would be liable for the already charged fees.</p> <p>I then asked for Vodacom to provide me proof that I had indeed subscribed to this service. His response was that the proof was the fact that I was being charged. When I again told him that the charges were being sent without my consent, he reverted to the statement that I must have subscribed, otherwise I would not be charged.</p> <p>My next point of conversation was to point out to him that I had been charged these fees, even after logging the first request for cancellation of the fees. It was my opinion that regardless of the fees from April, any fees levied against my account after the 8th of May were Vodacom's responsibility since they have a record of the initial request to stop the charges. The response from the supervisor to this was that the matter would be raised with the original consultant, but sorry I have to pay it all, because I subscribed. The fact that I had requested cancellation on the 8th, which was not processed by Vodacom, was irrelevant.</p> <p><br />I also raised the point that Vodacom provides no notifications to their clients about services such as these being loaded to their accounts and as such do not allow their customers the opportunity to avoid having unexpected charges on their accounts at the end of the month, which will then "not be refunded".</p> <p><br />My final request was for the details of the third party sending the charges, so that I could attempt to contact them and get a refund. The answer to my request was that "Vodafone" was the third party and I could contact them through the Vodacom call centre. I then reiterated my request for a refund since I was already speaking to the call centre. I was again told that no refunds would be given.</p> <p>These charges are sent to me on a Vodacom branded invoice, with their company details and my contract number with Vodacom. Vodacom are unable to provide me with proof that I signed up for the services and that I accepted these charges, yet they refuse to refund me when I have informed them of the ********** nature of these fees.</p> <p><br />So in summary:</p> <p>1. I was **********ly registered for a Vodafone Live content service (13 April 2017)</p> <p>2. I had no knowledge of this until I received my monthly statement (three weeks after the registration) (8 May 2017)</p> <p>3. The initial complaint lodged with Vodacom (8 May 2017) and subsequent service request had no effect and my account continued to be charged for a further two weeks</p> <p>4. No feedback on the original service request was ever provided to me</p> <p>5. On requesting a status update, the Vodacom call centre's only assistance was to log the service call to deactivate the charging and to inform me that I would be receiving no refund, because it was my fault. (22 May 2017)</p> <p>6. The call centre consultant and supervisor were both completely unwilling to assist and completely unable to understand the point that Vodacom had billed my account without my permission, even after I informed them of the *****. They also both ignored my statements that I had not subscribed to any services and chose instead to tell me I did it "by mistake".</p> <p>7. The third party billing me in this instance is Vodafone, which the supervisor admitted to me is Vodacom itself in South Africa. However they insist that Vodacom is entirely blame free and cannot possibly be held responsible.</p> <p><br />I expect someone senior from Vodacom to contact me to address this situation. It is completely unacceptable that a company like yourselves feels that they can treat people in this manner. If you want to pass fees to customers on your branded invoices, you need to take responsibility to ensure that your customer is protected, not a third party who is abusing those same customers.</p>