Vodacom *****ing Money From a Customer

About 2 months ago, I became due for a contract upgrade. I elected to do this online in order to save the upgrade admin fee. Having completed the online application process, I received an email informing me that a consultant would contact me to finalise the order, and that if I did not hear from a consultant within 24 hours, I should call them. After +- 48 hours(!), no one had contacted me, so I called the number provided. The consultant I spoke to advised that they had no record of my online order, nor any knowledge of the reference number I had received with the email. She said I could just do the upgrade process with her on the phone. I stated to her that I did not want to do this telephonically as I wanted to save the admin fee by doing it online. She assured me that as I had attempted to do it on online, there would be no admin fee charged.

On 27th September this year I reviewed my latest invoice, only to discover that an admin upgrade fee had been included in my billing. On 28th September, I called Vodacom Customer Care (sic, oxy*****). The first consultant I spoke to, confirmed emphatically that there was a note on the system on their side that confirmed that my upgrade should have been treated as an online order, and that therefore the admin fee charge was an error on their part.

She told me that she would elevate the credit request to a "solution expert" (sic) for action, but that it could take between 7 and 14 working days to resolve.

The call was ended. On reflection I was certainly not satisfied as my debit order was due to come off within the next 2 days, meaning Vodacom would take money from my bank account which was not theirs, and without my consent, and then only refund me much later.

So I made another call to customer care, this time insisting to the consultant that they make the required adjustment to the debit order prior to processing it. He assured me that he would elevate the issue immediately, and that action would be taken on time, and that he would could call me back later in the day to confirm that this had in fact been done.

However, I did not hear back from him, and on the evening of the 28th September I received an sms notification from my bank of the debit order which included the erroneous admin fee charge.

I called customer care again on the morning of September the 29th. The consultant informed me that no corrective action could be taken before Monday as that department did not work weekends. She also told me that debit order info is uploaded 3 days before due date, and "THE SYSTEM" cannot be be adjusted or corrected after that date.

Bottom line is the following:

1. Vodacom made a serious error by charging me an admin upgrade fee even though my order was effectively placed online. 2. All 3 consultants I spoke to over the 2 days admitted that there had always been a note on my account to this effect, and that it was therefore Vodacom's error. 3. In addition, even though they were made aware of the error before the debit order execution date, nothing was done in time to correct this. 4. Vodacom knowingly took money from me that they knew was not theirs. I think this is commonly called theft or *****,.If they were an individual, the law would facilitate my laying ******** charges against them. 5. I should be refunded immediately and not have to wait. Systems can be adjusted. This nonsense that it cannot be done because of the system is a convenient way of **********ly earning interest on the funds of others.

I am seriously contemplating changing my service provider, and voiding my contract with Vodacom and hence all related liabilities by stopping my debit order per CPA on the basis that they are in breach of contract and have **********ly taken money from me.

I have been a Vodacom customer for over 15 years, and this is the very worst of customer service, More like a disservice.