VOX Telecom - Compulsive *****

Below is a summary of my ongoing issues with VOX Telecom. If I can give you a word of advice, stay far away from them. They have not given me many reasons to believe that they are anything but utterly ***********:

Fibre was rolled out in Milnerton early 2019. In about Feb 2019 I signed my parents up for a VOX 10MB line. Everything ran fairly smoothly from an installation point of view, but there were on-going performance issues with buffering and not being able to place whatsapp calls. Fibre was then rolled out in my part of Milnerton as well and I started the process of signing up with VOX there as well. Juan van Aswegen was initially my sales representative. I mailed him a question on 20 Feb. I followed up multiple times and then finally received a reply on 26 Feb. I mailed Juan another question on 15 Apr. Again, I followed up numerous times, but received no reply. On 09 May I gave up on Juan and mailed Philip Gerber, as I had received a brochure in my mailbox with his name and number. I followed up with him as well and received no reply. (15 Apr – 13 May). Then at some stage I came into contact with Dean de Castro. He was very helpful and really tried to assist where possible. On 27 May Dean told me about an upcoming price increase from R554 to R589. Then he mailed to say it was actually R599. On 31 May RICA kept failing due to a system error on VOX’s side. Also on 31 May, I received official communication of a price increase to R619. So not R599 or R589… Somewhere round 12 June I spoke to Dean about the timing of activating the new account as I would need to give Telkom 30 days’ notice on my ADSL line before activating the new fibre line. On 25 Jun I received my statement reflecting R619… I mailed Dean the same day to query this. On 26 Jun Dean said it was definitely R589 and he would contact the accounts department. By 01 Jul I had not received an update so I followed up. By 03 Jul I STILL had not received an update, so I followed up again and pointed out that payment had been due 01 Jul. On 01 Jul I also mailed the accounts team to let them know that I had a query open for the incorrect amount. I was assigned ticket no VOX***3. I did not unnecessarily hold back my full payment, even though VOX was not capable of getting back to me even after numerous follow ups. I still paid the amount that Dean had confirmed. i.e. there was a difference of R29 that I had not paid. On 03 Jul Dean rep**** to say that he had logged a ticket for me with accounts. On 04 Jul Dean sent me the ticket no VOX***2 On 08 Jul Dean mailed to say there was still no update and that he was waiting for his manager to deal with accounts. Also on 08 Jul I received a random mail saying that my order was on hold as my area was not yet live and they would be in contact at a later stage. I rep**** that this could not possibly be accurate as I was the one who arranged the Frogfoot installation for our whole block of flats and my neighbour already had a VOX account. I received ticket no VOX***3. I never received a reply to my mail though. Also on 08 Jul I received a mail to say R29 was overdue and this should be paid now as service had been restored. This was sent as a reply to my 01 Jul mail where I said I was querying the new amount of R619 vs R 589. I received ticket no VOX***3. On 12 Jul Marlene van Heerden from the accounts team sent me the identical mail. I rep**** asking her to read the actual e-mail trail as there was no mention of non payment due to interrupted services. On 15 Jul I resent my mail and kept Dean in copy as my mail to Marlene kept bouncing back. That mail also bounced back from Marlene and I asked Dean to follow up as VOX was ready with the router but I was not ready to go ahead with a new account before this billing issue was sorted out. On 16 Jul Dean rep**** and copied Marlene in again and said there was no problem with waiting and once again confirmed the R589 price. On 18 Jul I mailed Dean and Marlene again as I still had not had a reply from Marlene. Marlene rep**** asking what the issue was. Once again I asked her to read the e-mail trail. (Is this woman *********** at reading mails?) On 23 Jul I received a mail from Marlene confirming that the new price was definitely R619!!!!!! I mailed Dean the same day to please clarify. On 24 Jul I received my next statement for a further R619! I mailed Dean and he confirmed AGAIN on 24 Jul that it should be R589. By 14 Aug I had not received any update so I mailed again. On 15 Aug Dean rep**** to say I had been placed on manual arrears and a credit note would be issued. On 10 Aug I received an automated mail saying that my account would be suspended. On 16 Aug I rep**** to everyone who was copied into the automated mail saying that I had had ZERO feedback from Marlene and that Dean had confirmed that my account would NOT be suspended. I received ticket no VOX***8. In the meantime, I now started receiving statements for my 2nd account (***) that was not live yet as I did not have a router installed yet. The reason I was not yet ready to go live, is because VOX had to date not been capable of sorting out my existing issue. I had communicated this clearly and on numerous occasions in writing and via the phone to a number of people. The two that come to mind right now are Dean and Chaan. On 23 Aug I received a mail to say that they were busy working on the correction (for the overcharging on my 1st account). On 24 Aug I received the next statement for acc *** (the one that I was not yet using). Also on 24 Aug, I received my statement for my active account. This now reflected the correct billing for the month, but still showed that I had an overdue amount of 2x R29. i.e. the overcharging had not been credited. On 26 Aug I sent Marlene a mail (with Dean copied in) to inform her that there was still an incorrect amount of 2x R29 reflecting as overdue on my account. This mail also bounced back, so I mailed Dean on 27 Aug so let him know. He rep**** to say that he had sent it to his manager with Marlene in copy. On 04 Sep Dean mailed to say that everything seemed to be sorted on his side. I rep**** to say that I had not yet received a corrected statement. Dean asked me to send him the latest one. He also said that the 2nd account would be active. On 09 Sep I sent Dean the invoice he’d asked for. The credit was still missing. I also said that I would not be paying any amounts on the 2nd account. It was not yet in use and the reason it was not in use is the 2 page summary of events above. I explained that I had spoken to Chaan quite some time ago when she phoned me about the router installation. I explained the whole situation to her and said that I would go ahead once the issues were sorted out. I also reminded Dean that I had a 30 day cancellation notice with Telkom and that months ago when I was in the process of signing up, he had said that was fine. i.e. we could plan the switch accordingly so that I would not end up with a double bill. I received no reply to this mail. On 17 Sep I mailed Dean again to say that I was still waiting to hear from VOX that everything had been sorted out and that I could go ahead with the 30 days’ notice to Telkom. I received no reply to this mail. On 23 Sep I finally received the credit for the incorrect overdue amounts. If Marlene were even half way competent, this issue could have been sorted out in June already when I brought it to the attention of VOX and it would not have given rise to the issue I am now dealing with… On 01 Oct Lialize Putter called me about the router installation. I explained the long sequence of events that I have summarized her and said that I was not ready to go ahead with the installation before VOX had sorted the matter out. She said she would contact the accounts department and would get back to me. She called me back minutes later to say that they had agreed to reverse the charges (i.e. billing would start once the router was installed), but they would only be able to do this AFTER I had actually gone ahead and installed the router. Why they would only be able to do this after router installation is a mystery to me, but at this point I was so over this saga that I agreed to go ahead. I explained my 30 day Telkom notice and we planned the installation for end of Oct. When I came home on the evening of the installation, I had no internet because VOX was experiencing an outage that took hours to resolve. A great start to an already disastrous relationship. When I called VOX to check why I had no internet, the gentleman that I spoke to first wasted my time and airtime by having me reset the router and the ONT box etc… before finally telling me that I was affected by the ongoing outage. On 01 Nov I mailed Dean to say I had now received a notice to suspend my new account. I received no reply to this mail. On 04 Nov I re-sent the mail and copied in everyone who was in the automated suspension notice mail. On 15 Nov I called VOX to check if there was an issue because the planned outage seemed to be ongoing. I explained my long history and said I wanted to verify whether there was a tech issue or whether my account was suspended. The lady that I spoke to in accounts said that my account was most definitely not suspended and she could see that everything was fully paid up. (I had previously made payment on the R100 invoice for the few days in Oct). When I arrived home that evening, I had no internet. I called VOX again and explained my long history to Jevan. He said that there was nothing he could do over the weekend. Lialize happened to call me in Nov to rate the installation service. I explained to her that my account had been suspended and reminded her of what we had discussed on 01 Oct. She said she would send a mail to the accounts department to sort this out. I think she then transferred me to the accounts team as well. On 18 Nov I spoke to Gezelle Jacobsz at 10:27. We figured out that there was a Nov amount that was outstanding. Because I had been invoiced for this before the router was installed when I wasn’t actively using the service, I missed this one. Gezelle and I spoke a few times that day. The summary of those calls was that there would be a credit issued for +/- R1900 (for the time that I was not using the line), but I had to pay Nov. I said that there was absolutely no dispute there. I honestly had not seen the Nov amount. I made payment immediately and sent it through to Gezelle. She said that the credit would take about 7 or 8 days to process, but the account would be unsuspended once proof of payment for Nov was received. I sent it at 12:04 on Monday, 18th November. It is now Friday, 22nd November and my account is still suspended. I have called VOX daily and the only updates I receive are ‘our managers are looking into it’. And when I do receive a more detailed update, it’s to say that there will be no credit (mail from Tiffany Bosch on 20 Nov). This is the exact opposite of what both Lialize (numerous times) and Gezelle have confirmed to me. Gezelle was even able to give me the amount that would be credited. I don’t understand where the confusion is coming in. During the course of this week I have sent mails and made so many calls that I can’t document all the details accurately. I have repeatedly begged the accounts team to talk to Lialize, as she will be able to confirm what I am saying. I called Lialize on 18 Nov and she confirmed that she had sent the mail to accounts explaining the situation on 15 Nov as promised. She also said she would contact them again. Gezelle called up my account and said that she could see no details about any of the long history that I had explained to her though. She said she would chat to Lialize as they sit close to each other. I also spoke to Lerato and Jenna on 18 Nov. I also called Lialize again on 20 Nov and begged her to speak to accounts. She said that the case was no longer hers but that she would e-mail accounts again. On 21 Nov Ivy Lekqwathi called me at 15:16 to say that the managers were still looking into this. I explained (this time in short, as I am so tired of telling the entire story) that I genuinely am not lying about anything that I am saying. I asked her if she could at the very least temporarily unsuspend my account while VOX is sorting themselves out. She said she would check and would get back to me. She called me back at 15:38 to say that the account had been temporarily unsuspended. I asked her if that meant that it was already active. I said that I was not home and would only be able to verify later that evening. She said that it was already active – there was nothing I needed to do. Does it surprise anyone that when I got home last night, my line was still inactive?! I most certainly am not surprised…. Why would I expect that what anyone at VOX tells me is correct and can be re**** upon?! On 22 Nov I called Ivy to query why my line had not been temporarily activated like she had confirmed it was on 21 Nov. She said that after we had spoken, Tiffany said that they should not have activated it. No-one from VOX called me to say that they had had a change of heart though – why would they? I should know by now that they say one thing and do another. She said that Ruth from the complaints department would be calling me back. Let’s see how long I have to wait for that call and what actions she will confirm and then not follow through on… I have repeatedly asked the many VOX representatives that I have spoken to, to please listen to the call recordings if they think that I am lying to them. To date they have ignored this suggestion.