Vodacom upgarde / service nightmare

I tried to upgrade my 2 numbers linked to my account online. The online portal promotes this over going into the store as you 'save' the R150 fee, AND get your phone the next day as long as the order is done by 12pm the previous day. What they don't tell you is that their online system is useless, and will not let you upgrade both numbers at the same time. I successfully upgraded the first number, and then when trying to do the second one (main number) it wouldn't let me complete key factors such as deliver address. I did this on Thursday evening, 16 August 2018. I then called on 17 August 2018, to make sure that there were no errors, to be told that the NEW online system sometimes doesn't handle upgrading both at the same time, and the guy did the second one via telephone. I then had to respond to a SMS to confirm that I gave the order, which I did. Now thinking that my 2 phones are on the way, one to arrive Monday and one to arrive Tuesday, based on the next day delivery advertised on the Vodacom website (Not what I wanted, I wanted both to come together, but you know, at this point I can still live with it). I get to Tuesday 21 August 2018, with no phones, no tracking number from 'RAM' the delivery service provider, nothing, and then decide to call to follow up. To my dismay, the second phone hadn't even been released from the Vodacom warehouse, as it is pending confirmation, which I cannot understand, as I had called and confirmed via the SMS. I am then told that I must still get a call from the confirmations department to re-verify my details. As I was in meetings all day, and it is 4 working days since I wanted to have this order placed and ready to go, I ask to be directed to the department that is going to sort this out, only to be told there is no line and I must wait for them to call me. This is the process. I did not accept this response (as the process is clearly defective), and then wanted to escalate or get someone to port me to this department. I got ported to aftersales, being closest to this department apparently, and of course, I get fed the same story. They cannot help me, I must wait some more. I ask to speak to the 'manager' to escalate. Same story, I must wait, it isn't aftersale's problem that I received poor service or that the system is defective, I can call head office to complain, but they will email the team leader at confirmations and make sure I get a call before 10am. I obviously get the call after 10am, where I need to run out of a meeting to now make this confirmation, AGAIN!! The lady then wants to chat as if I hadn't escalated this, and eventually my phone apparently gets released. Livid, I then try to call Head Office to formally complain, as suggested about this upgrade process, and the lack of accountability, system defect, etc, and I immediately get ported back to upgrades department. Vodacom's systems are so poor, that you cannot even lay a formal complaint, because nobody wants to listen to you, they all have a 'not my problem' attidude and blame the poor systems. The line on the website is 'Vodacom Group is a leading African mobile communications company that operates in over 30 countries'. I would be embarrassed to put this on my website when you don't even have a proper system in place to facilitate seemless upgrades, and then to top it off, when your service centres are equally unhelpful, there is no medium to voice your dissatisfaction with the systems and service received. Needless to say, today is 22 August 2018, and I have neither of the 2 phones in hand. They are apparently coming today, 4 working days after the initial order date, but it's pathetic the amounts of calls and intervention I needed to go through to get to this point. Vodacom should pay me the R150 admin fee that I supposedly saved, for all the waste time and effort and calls. For the first time in life, I actually considered cancelling these contracts, and the sole reason I haven't yet, is due to the fact that it is too much effort to change / port numbers that we use for work purposes. I have had the same number for over 15 years. Very disappointing, seriously. I hope someone at Vodacom sees this, and ups their game.

Candice Snyders