VODACOM'S POOR STANDARD OF CUSTOMER CARE

I have been a customer of Vodacom for approximately 20 years. I have over these years had numerous accounts with them. At the moment I have 4 accounts. This year I twice had problems with an account which is connected to my vodamail e-mail address. Dealing with the faceless corporate giant has been painfull and frustrating. I found most of the consultants working at their customer care department either unable or unwilling to deal with my issues. Numerous promises were made to phone me but few kept these promises. Often I got cut off by unfriendly consultants who were not even willing to listen to what I had to say. On many occasions I left the most unfavourable rating on their feedback system. Most of the times there was no follow up to establish the reason why I would not recommend their services to any of my friends or family. The few occasions that I did receive a follow up call it resulted in no solution of my problem, which begs the question, why ask to rate your service if you simply ignore negative ratings.

The first issue which I had during or about June 2018 related to my account which is connected to my vodamail e-mail address. On that occasion my account was dectivated in the process of it being converted from contract to prepaid. It took days and many fruitless calls before it got resolved.

On Tuesday 18 December 2018 I was unable to connect to the e-mail server. The consultant who I spoke to said that a "full admin block" was placed on that account at 08h00 on Saterday 15 December 2018. No explanation for this was given. I was told the matter will be resolved within 24 hrs. I asked that somebody phone me to explain what had happened. I use the vodamail e-mail address for business/professional purposes and I am concerned about ********** activities which might have taken place. The next day when I logged on the problem was resolved and I received e-mails sent since Saterday. I was given no explanation and received no call.

On Friday 21 December 2018 I tried to logg on and received an error message that I am not able to connect to the server. I then had to run the gauntlet again. I phoned the customer care department and eventually spoke to a customer care consultant who was unable to tell me why my number had been cancelled. It appeared, reading through the lines, that earlier that day the account may have been allocated to somebody else. I was put through to the solutions department and spoke to Marcus. He said he would esclate the matter and would phone me at 13h30. Needless to say this did not happen. During my conversation with Marcus I twice raised the concern that there might be *****elent activities taking place. I was most concerned that somebody may have gained access to my e-mails which contain sensitive information including bank account details.

At 14h37 I received a call from a women who asked me what the problem was. I was in the process of telling this rather lenghty story when she evidently decided that she had enough of this and hanged up. I suspect she followed up the bad rating which I had given Vodacom earlier.

Realising that Marcus was not a man of his word, I called again at 15h14 and spoke to Mxazo who I believe worked in the solutions department. He said he would speak to the cancellations department or the upgrade department who he said was slow to answer his call. He eventually offered to phone me back at 17h00. At 17h15 he phoned back and said that the problem has not yet been resolved and that he would call me in the morning. True to form he failed to do so.

On Saterday 22 December 2018 I spoke to Sumani at the customer care department. He told me that there was something strange going on, He also said that somebody else's details are now connected to my previous account. He informed me in matters like this where there appear to be ***** involved, the customer receives a sms advising the customer of the investigation and providing the customer with a reference number and a telehone number of someone at the forensics department who deals with the matter. Needless to say I did not receive a sms.

By now I was extremely concerned about what appears to be *****elent access to my account and the consequences of that. Despite my justified concern there appears to be a complete lack of urgency on the part of Vodacom in dealing with the matter. Instead of being able to relax with my family I have to endure anxiety caused by the possible consequences of a serious breach of security on the part of Vodacom.

I eventually was given the number of the forensics department, ********** 877 and a reference number which in theory would enable me to get first hand feedback concerning the investigation. I called that number three times but it remained unanswered. I left a voice message but to no avail.

Eventually out of desperation I phoned the custumer care department yet again and insited on speaking to a supervisor. I spoke to Thomas who confirmed that the matter is being dealt with by Vodacom's "swat" department, who he explained dealt with emergencies. Unfortunately for me and others who may be in a similar position the people who deal with these emergencies only work Monday to Friday during office hours. Wake up Vodacom, ********* don't keep office hours. Your lackadaisical approach needlessly exposes your customers to even greater risk.

My dear Vodacom, the sincere answer to the performance related questions that you ask me can be summarised as follows: I find you service shockingly bad. Based on my experience most of your consultants do not have the ability to deal with customer's issues, alternatively they display in the manner in which they respond an unwillingness to assist. They make false promisses etc. I most certainly would not recommend anybody, including friends, family, bussiness accociates to have any dealings with Vodacom. In fact I shall go out of my way to share my bad experiences with them.

I can't wait for the day that my remaining 3 contracts expire, which I believe will be soon to go and do business with you competitors.