Nearly lost my job because of an unattended fibre fault

Experiencing bad customer service hits differently when you’ve worked in the field for a while. You understand firsthand the effort and care it takes to manage customer needs, making it even more frustrating when it falls short. I know what it's like to be on the front lines, balancing the company’s interests with the customer’s needs, so when a business misses that mark, it feels like they’re not trying hard enough to deliver something so fundamental—basic respect and attentiveness.

I've been a Vumatel Client for over 2 and a half years now and I must say this is the worst customer experience I have ever come across in my life. This is worse than being served cold food at a restaurant.

In September 2024 I requested a service relocation as I was moving to a different address. I was advised to cancel my current service and apply for a new one using the new address I was moving to. Upon installation, the technician found that the fiber line outside the property I was about to move into was damaged and he could not complete the installation. He filed a ticket and had Vumatel notified so they could have the line fixed prior to the installation being done. I work from home, via a live customer interaction system that works only on fibre by ethernet connection on the router. The line has never been fixed to date. Upon multiple escalations and follow-ups, no one had contacted me with feedback nor had the line been fixed.

Upon my last follow-up, I was advised that Vuma is not sending technicians out to uMlazi for repairs yet I've seen new fiber line extensions being done in uMlazi for places that did not have coverage. I feel exploited and not catered to even after being a client for so long and paying for the new installation which I haven't been serviced with. I currently work from a friend's house mainly because if I continued waiting for Vumatel to attend to my issue, I would have lost my job by now.

This is certainly something an ombudsman should have a look into because a company of such revenue should be doing better than having a -68 nps score and such much bad ratings.

I really do wish we could have more fiber companies branching into uMlazi and supplying the service because Vumatel chooses to exploit us like this because they do not have competition in uMlazi.