Vodacom's poor operations cost me days of my time and thousands of rands - and they just don't care

<p>I would like to register a complaint on the service I have received of late from Vodacom.</p> <p> </p> <p>Firstly I would like to point out that I have been a loyal customer since 1999 when I took out my first contact for a cell phone with Vodacom. You would then think I would be treated as valuable customer, but not so.</p> <p> </p> <p>Here is my gripe with Vodacom:</p> <p>I have a data bundle attached to my cellular contract. In addition I have linked an additional data bundle to this number for my ipad. For most of 2015 I exceeded my allotted bundle limit and was hit with bills in excess of R5000 on a regular basis. I owned the fact that I had exceeded my limit and duly paid up every time.</p> <p> </p> <p>In 2016 as a new year’s resolution I decide to do something about this and started to explore the possibility of upping my limit. This process took me the better part of 3 months and about 15 attempts - be that to Vodacom shops, or call centres to get done (I easily spent 20 hours of my time trying to upgrade my data bundle). I literally had to fight, beg and plead to get a bundle - not because I did not qualify but because there bizarrely seemed no way to get this set up on the system. Finally after 3 months of trying I finally was able to get an upgrade loaded - I sign a contract to upgrade from 2 GIGS to 10 GIGS on the 24 March 2016 and a sum of R255 fee was debited off my account. During this time I also took out a further 2 GIGS. So all in all I should have 12 GIGS as opposed to the 2 GIGS that was the cause of my bill shocks. I was told my contract would be activated within 48 hours. In months that follow Vodacom collected the monthly fee of R499 for the 10 GIG upgrade.</p> <p> </p> <p>A few months go by and still notice that I am getting bills rather large amounts debited against my account ( I estimate that i have been impacted to the tune of R17500!). So in August I resolve to monitor and be super disciplined in my usage. On a regular basis I log onto My Vodacom and check what my available data bundle.</p> <p> </p> <p>The first thing I notice is that I have only been allocated 6 GIG not the 12 GIG that I actually pay for every month. I think that maybe some of this may be due to night time allocation , but no balance is displayed on my account for this so who knows if its separate or just a mistake. Nevertheless despite misrepresenting what my actual limit is (it’s certainly not 6 GIG straight) I notice that throughout August while my account shows that I have data available my amount due continues to mount. As an experiment I continue to use my “available data” to see the impact that this has. As of 29 August My Vodacom account shows that I will owe for my data usage R3851. However I still have 150 MB available in my allotted limit!! If I still have data how can I be charged for out of bundle usage I ask myself.</p> <p> </p> <p>At this point I naively phone the Vodacom looking for answers. After taking the call agent through the above I get told the following:</p> <p>She firsts tells me that my upgrade was only loaded on the system on 28th of July - bearing in mind I signed a contract on the 24 March and paid my upgrade fee on the same day. In 4 months, Vodacom have failed to honour the contract that we signed.<br />She then tells me that instead of owing R3851which is what is reflected on my Vodacom account I actually owe in excess of R5000 and this is due to the fact that I have been using data out of bundle and have thus been charged out of bundle rates. What do I actually owe? One channel says one thing the other channel says another thing.<br />I point out that I am looking at MY Vodacom account balance and it reflects that I still have 150 MB available. I also point out that this 150MB is on a limit of 6 GIG (which I dispute as my actual limit).<br />At this point she says she cannot see what my usage has been as her system won’t work (despite the fact that I can see on My Vodacom what the usage is)<br />She then proposes to escalate this to the back office to investigate and informs that I have to wait 14 working days to get an answer.<br />At which point its pointless hoping that my issue will be resolved any time soon.<br /> </p> <p>So this is how Vodacom services its customers. In summary:</p> <p>Customers who try and give it more business get messed around and shoved from pillar to post for months - I basically had to fight to give them business<br />We sign an agreement where they undertake to allocate me 10 GIGS of data but fail to activate this on their system. Nevertheless they collect the monthly fee while charging me for out of bundle usage on what I assume is my old limit.<br />I call to resolve the matter and their response is to tell me to wait 14 working days for someone to look into it - no answers are provided, no sense of urgency for a client who is out of pocket in excess of R17,500, no urgency for a client who has been a client for nearly 18 years and who you deem to be an a valuable customer (when they want to sell me something).<br />I will wait the 14 working days. I have no choice - I have too much money invested to walk away which is what I really want to do. But I predict that this is another commitment they will fail to honour. I honestly believe that their operations is such a shambles that they actually don’t know what is going on and cannot give me an accurate account of what I have used against what my limit ought to be and accordingly what I should owe.<br />I now escalate to you but harbour no hope that you will be any better in your service.</p> <p>So I urge you when dealing with Vodacom to be vigalant - they will more than likley get it wrong and boy can that end up costing you.</p> <p> </p>