Worst Network In South Africa

I am currently very disappointed in the service I have received of late from Vodacom. I entered into a new contract with vodacom and ported my number from prepaid to a contract. This was done at the Vodacom 4 U store, on 9 August 2017.

The contract included a Samsung Galaxy S8 plus and the Samsung Galaxy J5 Prime as a combo deal. In terms of this contract I was to pay R759.00 in monthly installments for 24 months. Shortly after this contract was signed and approved, and I received my free monthly R110.00 Vodacom on my Samsung Galaxy J5 Prime. However, during this time I had still did not received my 200 minutes, 200 sms's or 500mb as promised on my Samsung Galaxy S8 plus.

On 13 August 2017, I went to the store in which my contract was signed to enquire as to why I had not yet received any minutes, sms's or data on the S8 plus as compared to my J5 which I had received the allocated data and airtime. I had contacted the person who handled my contract. He had checked the system and discovered that there was an error on my contract as the cellphone number that was ported is an incorrect number and not my number. He then advised me that my contract should be canceled and a new contract will have to be done in order to resolve this issue. Thereafter he made a record of all my details and informed me that he will personally resolve all these issues by the next day,14 August 2017, as well as personally notify me of the progress made. Upon recieving no response on Monday, 14th of August 2017, I called the store to find out what progress he has made. He then informs me that nothing has been done yet and he will resolve the issue by Tuesday, 15 August 2017. On Tuesday, 15 August 2017, I called the store again to speak to him but I was informed that he was not in for the day, and the only person that would be able to assist me is the manager. However, she was unavailable as she was on a tea break. Due to the lack of assistance, I then proceeded to call the Vodacom call centre to inform them about the situation and the issues I am experiencing. A call was then made to the store and the manager informed the agent that I will need to come to the store before the close of business that day, in order for me to be assisted. I then informed the agent that I am currently at work and will be unable to abandon my work to fix a problem which was caused by Vodacom. The agent advised me to phone the store and speak to manager as she was back from her tea break. I called back and spoke to her and she advised me that I was no longer required to come to the store as she is working on resolving the issue and was simply waiting for feedback from Vodacom.

On Wednesday, 16 August 2017, my contract in respect of the incorrect number ported, was cancelled. A new contract was then opened on the correct cellphone number and I did receive what was due to me.

On Friday, 18 August 2017, at approximately 8:30pm my account was soft locked. I then had to contact the call centre on Saturday,19 August 2017, in which I had spent 2 hours on the phone whilst at work from 08:00 am - 10:00 am. During this time I had been transferred to various departments which failed to help me and I requested to speak to a manager on duty however, he was only reached at 12:30 pm, in which he then called me to find out what was the issue. I was then informed that my credit limit with Vodacom is R8000.00 and that my account was currently at R16 000.00. I then queried how this happened as these amounts do no reflect what I owe Vodacom. I was informed that according to the contract I agreed to, I was to pay for the entire value of the device upfront. I then informed Vodacom that these were not the terms I had agreed to. This information was then acknowledged and as well as the errors discovered on the account on 19 August 2017. All calls were logged and the manager ensured that this call was too due to the incompetency of their staff at Vodacom. After the numerous calls I made, I had not yet received any response. From Saturday, 19 August 2017 till Monday, 21 August 2017, I called vodacom 3 times each day in an attempt to resolve this matter. I had wasted my time as well as money being that I had also made some of these calls during working hours, and was unable to conduct business due to the fact that my phone was softlocked. I needed this issue to be resolved as soon as possible, as a result I had to keep calling the call centre to do so. Due to my numerous calls I am currently restricted from calling the Vodacom call centre till 2 September 2017. However, I had only made a large number of calls due to the errors on my account which was made by Vodacom and I am being billed for these calls that I made to resolve an issue vodacom created.

Apart from the above issues not being dealt with, on Monday, 21 August 2017, I had notice all my data was depleted and during this time I could not reach Vodacom via any of the customer call centres. I then received my airtime on the morning of 22 August 2017 and a few hours later I received 6 gigs of data. During the 23rd and 24th of August 2017 I then lost 4 gigs of data, which I am still yet to receive. I also lost minutes which Vodacome reimbursed me with R29 airtime, however the reason for me losing minutes was due to numbers that were dialed on my phone according to the Vodacom system which I did not dial nor have any of these numbers been saved on my phone or is on my dialed out number history. Furthermore, the calls that were made didn't correspond with any of the times that I dialed out on the day.

Vodacom then proceeded to make debits on my account, not in respect of the terms of the contract that was agreed to. On 15 August 2017, vodacom debited me R229.81 and a further R97.00. Thereafter, on 22 August 2017, Vodacom debited R194.30 and R97.00. On 28 August 2017, R15 920.35 was debited from my account. I then made another call to Vodacom on Tuesday, 29 August 2017 and had spent 1 hour and 45 mins in which no progress was made in resolving the matter. I have been able to reverse most of the debits except the amount of R15 920.35.

Vodacom has caused me a tremendous inconvenience in that I have now lost time and money in respect of business days in which I have not been reimbursed for. I have also signed a contract with Vodacom in which the terms that was agreed to is not being fulfilled. I had agreed to pay R759.00 a month as well as receive data and not have any of the data depleted or be debited any further amounts other than what was agreed to. All these errors by Vodacom that was not rectified amounts to a breach in the contract and has a financial impact as well as a negative one on my credit status and rating.

I am still willing to abide by the terms in the contract as signed, only after I receive an accurate invoice indicating the exact amounts I am owing to Vodacom. However, I want Vodacom to pay for any charges regarding the amounts debited from my account that may bounce due to the errors made by them, as they were notified on 19 August 2017 about this issue. I further request that Vodacom reimburse me for the calls I had to make to the call center due to their errors and the 4 gigs which were lost.

I did send an email informing Vodacom of these issues on the 30th of August 2017. I stated in the email that I will allow Vodacom 48 hours as of receipt of the email to respond in writing and telephonically to me, as well as to my attorney, as she has been made aware of the issues and all feedback is to be sent to her. If Vodacom fails to respond to my email, I will be taking legal action.