VOX - Shameful Customer Service

I have been a Vox customer since approximately 2016, first on ADSL, then fibre when it became available. However, due to a series of poor service incidents as well as unresolved network performance issues over the last two or three years, I decided to cancel my service with Vox in September of this year. I just felt that customer focus was completely lacking and that Vox did not deserve my continued loyalty. I followed the Vox cancellation process to the letter to ensure a clean and efficient termination. My monthly payment to Vox was always done via a scheduled payment, that I enabled on my bank account. Payments was therefore always on time, every month and my account was therefore fully up to date on the 30th of September when my service terminated.

When the end of September arrived, my service was terminated and I joined my new ISP. However, another payment of R1250-00 was made to Vox on the 1st of October, because I had neglected to remove the scheduled payment on my bank account. As this payment was obviously done in error, I naturally logged a request with Vox for a refund. This was logged on the 4th, ticket number VOX***3. On the 6th, I received a SMS from Vox, informing me that my loan router would be collected on the 10th. This arrangement was made without consulting me about my availability. Nevertheless, I was at the collection address that day, but no one arrived to collect the router. By the 17th, almost two weeks had passed and my refund had not yet been made. I followed up.

After many calls to the call centre that day and the excruciating experience of being cut off multiple times, transferred all over the place, left on hold for extended periods etc., I was eventually informed by the agent that my refund request was being blocked by the debtors department, because my loan router had not yet been recovered. In fact, Vox did not even know that it was never collected. I was dumbfounded by this information and then asked to be transferred to the debtors department, where I spoke to a representative. I tried to explain to her, without success, that the payment that was made in error, had no bearing on the loan router that was never recovered by them. She could therefore continue to refund my payment, while at the same time execute the process to recover the router. In fact, Vox never even required a deposit from me when they originally supp**** me with the router. She was apparently unable to grasp this and proceeded to repeatedly state that company policy dictates that any account credit can only be refunded once all hardware had been recovered. This was unacceptable to me, so I asked to speak to her manager. He was unavailable at the time, so I requested that he call me back. She promised that she would make sure he does. When he did not call, I eventually called him later that day, but he was in a meeting with his team at the time. He nevertheless answered the call and promised to call me back. Up until the present, he never did. However, later on the same day, I received an sms from Vox, informing me that the router would be collected on the 19th. Like before, this was arranged without consulting me about my availability. The router was subsequently collected on the 19th and the courier confirmed that it would be delivered to VOX the next day ie. the 20th. So, it is the 25th today, Vox has the router, probably don’t know that they do, lack the processes to figure it out and still have not refunded my payment, which should not have been linked to the recovery of the router in the first place.

I am appalled by the lack of customer focus, incompetence and arrogance displayed by the Vox employees that I've dealt with. Overlooking all this, what is utterly unacceptable, is the fact that they just hold my payment, that was made in error, as ransom for something completely unrelated. The above epitomises the behaviour that contributed to me cancelling my service in the first place. Vox has lost a customer for life. More than that, due to my experience, I will inevitably be a discouraging influence on anyone considering Vox as a potential ISP.

By the way, I am still waiting for my refund...