Vodacom took my money, now they really can't be bothered about me.

My wife's contract cellular service was suspended... (Hey, I'm a freelance writer and you guys don't read anymore.) So when the good times rolled in again, I paid R9,000 to clear the account and we emailed the payment notification. Oh, and Vodacom was happy! They must have been because they sure took the money. And then they promised to have service restored within, wait for it, four hours. Of course nobody believed that. Come on! This is Vodacom: quick to promise, slow to perform. So four hours came and we decided to give them 24 hours... which came and went. We're coming up for 100 hours and multiple calls to their "call centre" later. We've run the gamut of excuses, most of which centre on the dreaded spectre of "the system." This dark force, it appears, has all of them in thrall. There is nothing a human being can do to change the mind of this capricious, dark force. Once you are in the system, you may never re-emerge.