Vodacom specials not available in whole province and **** to by salespeople - vodacom gateway

Dear Hellopeter,

I wish you had a zero star rating to express my disgust with my treatment by vodacom gateway.

My first encounter was three weeks ago Saturday, when my wife and I went to the branch to get a new Lenovo miix 320 as on special in their current catalogue for R249 and on special only till 6 December. As a bit of background, my wife and I live in Hermannsburg, which is in the middle of nowhere in the natal midlands, and have to drive to urban centers (about 200km) in order to do things like upgrade our contracts, which we intended to do on this trip.

We were told by the sales person that they did not keep stock of this unit, but he would order one from the warehouse for us and it should take a week. He took a copy of my wife's ID (her contract) and both our contact numbers and promised to call us when the device arrived.

Two week's later, we still had not received a call, drove down to Durban and visited the same store, only to find the device was still not there and now the warehouse did not have stock. I met with the store manager and another two sales people and explained to them that I live a long way away, that I was promised my device would be there in a week, that no-one had bothered to call me to say it wasn't available and that I now wanted my device and some service. It was late in the evening, so I asked the store to call around the other stores the next day (a Sunday) to see if any others would have one. The store said they would and would call me back if they found one, otherwise would call me on Monday. One sales person remarked to me that it's also irresponsible of me to travel to Durban every time I want an answer, to whom I had to explain that I had worked sales for most of my life and that it is Always the sales person's role to communicate with the customer, not the customer's job to commnicate with the sales person.

Another week passed without any communication. Another trip down to Durban. Another visit to vodacom Gateway. This time, I find the original sale person I dealt with. He then tells me the device isn't there again (despite the fact that is still appears in vodacom's summer specials catalogue that is still valid till December 6). Only then does he start calling around other stores to see if they have stock (a grand total of 3 phone calls... I counted) unlike I requested he do a week ago.

To no surprise, not a single store has stock of a device (in the whole of Durban, apparently, which I hardly believe after only 3 telephone calls) that vodacom is advertising in their current specials catalogue, warehouse still has no stock and from the sounds of conversations with other stores no-one has had stock for a while. Now the guy wants to call me again on Monday in a desperate effort to now get a VERY annoyed customer out of his store.

Vodacom... First rule of sales... If you put something on special, expect people to want to buy it and HAVE STOCK available. Second rule of sales... Don't make a promise to a customer that you cannot or do not intend to keep and if external circumstances mean that you can't keep a promise, at least communicate with the customer. Third rule of sales, Don't let your salespeople criticize or shirk responsibility off on your customers for their stuff ups!

I have a total of three contracts with you (between my wife and myself) and while I may not be the biggest spender, I have been loyal to you since 1999, when I bought my first Phillips Savvy. I deserve a little better. At the very least a phone call to let me know about delays and availability.