Vodacom, Roaming & I

<p>My woeful experience with Vodacom, of which I have been a customer for more years than I care to remember, started off on 27 June 2016.</p> <p> </p> <p>At the time I was at Johannesburg International Airport, about to depart for Poland. I "activated" ROAMON per the number I have used on various previous occasions (123), only to get a text message in return, stating that I had to make use of 31050. I duly comp****, switched off, trusting that I would be able to make use of the sms-facility (only) on my phone, upon arrival at my destination.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, what the followed was a harrowing experience of no service, my son in Cape Town had to be contacted through alternative means, he in turn had to take time off at work to personally visit a Vodacom centre, documents had to be transferred, etc...just to get the sms-system going. Eventually, and after a lot of agony, I was able to contact my fellow travelers per sms in an otherwise unknown country.</p> <p> </p> <p>On our return on 13 July 2016, I sms-ed ROAMOFF , this time to both 123 and 31050. I received a message a few minutes later, which reads as follow: " The Vodacom SMS Roamer service is not active and cannot be removed".</p> <p> </p> <p>Although I was quite pleased with the sms- service I have had in Poland, things took a change for the worse upon my return, when I realized the exorbitant charges levied for my using the sms service only. I called the Contact Centre (and I stand corrected as to the number of calls, as I may not have kept record of some of my own initial calls) on:</p> <p> </p> <p>24 Aug,</p> <p>30 Aug,</p> <p>09 Sept,</p> <p>11 Sept,</p> <p>22 Sept,</p> <p>23 Sept,</p> <p>14 Oct,</p> <p>18 Oct,</p> <p>27 Oct,</p> <p>02 Nov.</p> <p> </p> <p>I have spoken to various persons at the Call Centre, was transferred from there to</p> <p>the Accounts-department, and at times told to revert back to the Call Centre. I have recorded speaking to (amongst others) Gabriel, Wendy, Velile, Unique, Solly, Vuyelwa, André (manager/ supervisor), Wayne, Maqezonke, Masebatha (whose team leader undertook to forward the issue of a refund to one Sibisiso), Thumi (who indicated that her team leader, Musi, sent the query to one Llewellyn at CIC, and that the team leader would also cc me in as addressee). The latter promise never materialized.</p> <p> </p> <p>I have initially been given a reference number S3-G3C3X-XM9E0, informed that on the very same reference, a credit note (B ********** 63), and to the sum of R952-28 was passed on 30 August, shortly after my initial query. On 23 Sept a new service request reference number was sent to me at 15:48, viz: S3G633K-KYY4P, which links up to the first reference supp****.</p> <p> </p> <p>It stands to reason that I have literally spent hours on the phone to explain my query over and over and over again.</p> <p> </p> <p>To date, I have not had the courtesy of a phone call or an email message regarding this incident. I have had various requests per sms to evaluate the level of service though, but of course one simply cannot evaluate something which does not exist.</p> <p> </p> <p>I would have been quite satisfied if only the refund was made good as promised during August 2016, and even made arrangements for it to be reflected on the “summary invoices statement” of all three accounts I hold (as opposed to the invoice relating to the specific cell number); however, I have never in my wildest dreams foreseen such a poor show from a company of this stature.</p> <p> </p> <p>It is unfortunate that I now have to resort to seeking assistance from a third party, but Vodacom, through its lack of decisive action, leaves me no choice but to go public with an otherwise internal supplier-customer issue.</p> <p> </p> <p>I am hoping for some form of Divine intervention, as I as a mere individual client, can simply not take this situation any further.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>