Vodacom Upgrade reversal nightmare

Vodashop Fourways Mall - I originally upgraded to the Smart XS plan on Tuesday the 24th of November to include the LG Velvet handset. I then realized on Friday the 27th that there's a Black Friday deal for the LG Velvet on the Smart Data 1GB plan with 75 min at a special price of R429. I went back to the Vodacom shop and asked if they can reverse the original upgrade and upgrade me to the special deal on the Smart Data 1GB contract at R429.

The store manager and consultant reassured me that yes, that this can be done and would be finalized within 1 - 4 hours on Friday the 27th of November. On Monday the 30th of November I checked in with the store to see if the process was finalized. Unfortunately, the consultant that assisted me was not in and the process was delayed until 1 December. When I spoke with the consultant on the 1st of December (3 times) I was again told that they’re awaiting feedback from Vodacom.

Vodacom has subsequently phoned me and emailed me with their explanation. According to Vodacom, they can only wait for the system to complete the future open order. At this stage, we are all waiting for Vodacom's system to resolve the situation, but I would like to demand that human intervention from Vodacom be made to resolve this matter.

It would seem that there's a communication gap between Vodashop and Vodacom. Further to this, I'm left with the impression that the system that Vodacom uses, dictates to the staff what they can and can't do. Instead, the staff could have used initiative and intervene before the situation got to this point.

Lastly, in my experience, you are better off dealing directly with Vodacom through phone or online instead of trying to support Vodacom shops which provides you with zero customer service.

Vodacom reference no: 00284aFV37A0RUEB & 00284aFVV976FACX