Vodacom - Vodafone Live and Content Services *******

I have had a contract with Vodacom for over 20 years - and I confess I don't study my cell phone bill on a monthly basis. I have however noticed the bill growing bigger and bigger each month so this month I looked at it more closely. Turns out - I have been paying R228 a month for "content services" as well as R193 a month for "Vodafone live" - neither of which I recall subscribing to - and for which I pay way more than I spend on actual calls and data.

The most helpful consultant at the Oakfields Benoni Vodacom store managed to stop the "content services" and tells me that without realising it I must have clicked on a link in an app or article that signed my up for something that has been taking money off my account every day. No one - not even Vodacom - who have happily been paying my money over to someone can tell me exactly what services I have mistakenly procured. I have been through this before and managed to cancel previous "Content services" by sending the message "STOP ALL WC" to 30333. But according to the Vodacom consultant I really should be doing this on a monthly - if not weekly! - basis to prevent sky high phone bills! (Well for starters who can remember to do this weekly; why should one have to; and if this is what their own people are telling customers - clearly this is a very common ploy to drive up cell phone bills.)

As for "Vodaphone live" - well no one - not even Vodacom people - can give me a straight answer as to how I managed to sign up for this - nor can they tell me how long I have been paying for a service I didn't want, haven't used - but have been paying for.

I would love to see Vodacom using some of their relentless advertising to tell people how to stop content services and if they made it a lot more obvious that you are in the process of signing up for something that is going to cost you money. I also think that the email that comes with one's cell phone bill should say something like "please be aware that this month you have been charged R*** for XYZ - if you did not order these services, please contact us so that we can stop them and reverse the payments.

As for Vodaphone Live - I think it is a sneaky way of Vodacom charging their contract customers for a service they are largely unaware that they have procured - and if an occasional customer spots it on their bill and manages to cancel it (which let me tell you was not easy and involved a 10 minute hold on the phone to customer services!) they have still managed to catch who knows how many unwitting suckers.

I am now in the process of cancelling my Vodacom contract and am moving my business to Cell C. Yes - the paper work is a hassle - but I can get 6 times the data for the same cost - and am being sure to take a package that makes it impossible to have added extras simply added to my bill.