Vodacon diaries - consumer company that hates consumers

I believe consumer focused companies should never be measured by their ability to sell you new products but rather by how they stand by and support you when their services let you down.

Vodacom is one of those consumer companies that is only to happy to take your money for the average service they deliver, but completely abandons you when you most need them when their own service, systems and people fail you.

Vodacom is not a brand to be trusted or re**** on, they will consistently fail you and charge you handsomely for the priviledge.

While I was traveling out the country some random individual did a sim swap and a substantial upgrade on mobile phone account all via a call center. This resulted in a number of other attempts to access other relationships I hold by the parties who conducted the ********** upgrades. Sim swaps and ********** upgrades occur, that I understand does happen. However when you paint your company as a technology company that is nothing without humanity, you then cannot remove humanity from your organisation and leave your customers to fend entirely for themselves.

There is a not a human employee of Vodacom that you can talk to find out why your account is blocked, how a ********** transaction was carried out and when your services will be reconnected as everything channels through Tobi the chatbot who is able to sell you more airtime or upgrade a phone but ***** ... no can do.

All staff in the stores are franchise staff, who face the same challenges as the consumer, so again no easy fix and they are largely helpless unless you need airtime or an upgrade.

Speaking of upgrades, short of providing a DNA swap I get asked for all kinds of supporting documents when upgrading mobile phones in pursuit of RICA, FICA and other regulatory requirements. So my only conclusion is that there is some form of syndicate operating within Vodacom to enable this activity without the same level of due diligence taking place.

My question to Vodacom is why focus so much getting customers into you ecosystem if you have no plans to support them once they are in it. I have been a customer for 20 years (not loyal, just easier not to change to another provider that is as bad as yourselves) and have grown to dislike the company intensely - not because I feel I am overcharged (although I am) or because I constantly drop calls (which I do) but because when I need assistance to resolve issues there is no one to assist adequately or timeously.

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