Cell C Data Dongle Refund Delays [solved]

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mikdog

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I'll post this here out of frustration. Dec 13th 2010, we bought a dongle from Cell C Sandton City. The girl there, Megan or Meegan, ASSURED us that if there are any problems we could bring it back. We tried it at home. Kept dropping connection so we resorted to old iBurst connection and took back. Much arguing with manager there. Eventually he took it in. Manager has since left.

Cut to now: 7 or 8 weeks later STILL waiting for refund. Multiple complaints on hellopeter.com have resulted in phone calls from people who ultimately can't do anything. Call Centre in Midrand's line's are down. I've emailed LOTS of people, spoken to LOTS of people, they're all just a bunch of useless f*kin monkeys wallowing in their own crap. They may be nice people outside of work but at Cell C, they are ALL AS USELESS AS ME TALKING TO A BROOMSTICK.

Never known such absolute uselessness. Lots of promises, lots of words, but no action.

I have my EMEI number, OBF, MSIDN and job number - none of them have helped me one bit. Who the hell is responsible for refunds at Cell C? Already spent a lot of time and money talking to people on the phone. They're all just passing the buck.

Useless bunch of twerps. They have our money and they have our dongle. They've had it for over 2 months. **** you Cell C. You're absolutely useless.
 
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I had a similar problem trying to BUY the dongle.. When the website advertised it on contract, I went everyday that week to Cell C, and everyday they thought I was stupid. Telling me that the contract offer does not exist! They even told me maybe it is available in another Cell C store!!! I posted on Hellopeter where someone called me, I told them about the contract, and they said the contract option doesn't exist over the phone... She put it through to the technical department, the technical department called me back 3 times to verify that it does exist. When they finally organized it for me to get it on contract I went to the shop, they organized everything, but I forgot one of my million required documents... They said no problem I just need to bring it and collect it... I rushed home, rushed back to the mall. The guy in the store told me to wait an hour while he finalized everything... We waited an hour, went back and he told us they had just sold the last one... We waited another week until we received it.

A week later when we went to receive it (it was a week after it had just been released in JHB), and I overhear the salesperson telling a customer, no it is not available in JHB.. And it is only coming out later in 2011 in JHB.. I'm like "sorry if I can interrupt but it is available in JHB" and I had to teach all the staff a thing or 2...

I did contemplate suicide. But I have it now, and it is working!
 
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@ Mach III > dude, I feel your pain. Cell C is now in depths of my mental imagery and I'm not sure they're able to make it right even if they do make right on the refund now but it'd mean I could at least cross it off my list of things to do. Its daylight robbery and I'm not quite sure who to contact about it.

Stricken > Wireless Broadband Data that WORKS would be a start, and Cell C reps doing what they SAY they're going to do would be a start. They showed us their coverage map and said 'oh yes you're fully covered in this area'. I suppose the connection freezing soon after its started is included in the package? And the 2 months wait for a return? Think I may have been better off selling it on gumtree than dealing with these monkeys who can't tell the difference between their butt and their mouth.

Super peeved.
 
Cell C - useless apes

I have another thread about this :

But thought I'd post here to warn people about getting a data dongle or shopping at Cell C Sandton City for the following warranted reason:

I'm a pretty experienced PC/Mac user. I used to build computers, keep up to date on latest news, I use my two laptops for work and I'm using them everyday, I do a bit of coding and I'd say computers and electronics and software are an interest of mine. This is my disclaimer so that the following experience isn't met with 'dude, you were doing it wrong'.

I went with my mother to get her a data dongle from Cell C, Sandton City, Johannesburg. We talked to a lady called Megan. She assured us that were there any issues, we could return the dongle within 7 days for a full refund. My mother didn't have her driver's license with her so Megan RICA'd the dongle under my name to get the sale. I wasn't too pleased with this somewhat illegal staff behavior as she wasn't supposed to do this, but anyway. Took the dongle home, tried it, installed software, but connection kept freezing. Tried again with a fresh start. No go. Tried on my own laptop. No go. We decided her somewhat troublesome but mostly iBurst connection would suffice for now but the dongle was just causing more headaches.

Which is where our problems started. We took the dongle back to the shop, an Indian Manager there argued with us that everything should be working properly. After much nattering he took it in, my mom cleverly got them to photocopy some forms, and so we wait.

We have been waiting for 2 months now. Inbetween all of this, the manager has left, Cell C Sandton City, Sandhile and Wiseman, say its beyond their control, a lady at another centre says its beyond her control, another lady passed me on to someone else, complaints on HelloPeter.com have resulted in a call from someone who, after much questioning, resignedly said it was beyond his control ... since then I've tracked down my MSIDN, OBF and EMIE number, all somehow required to action a refund, yet nobody seems to be doing it.

As such Cell C have the dongle and our money and they're as dumb as potplants. I've made lots of calls, lots of emails, and I'm not quite sure what to do now. Its fallen through the cracks and nobody at Cell C is helping, but they're experts at passing the buck.

Whilst at Cell C Sandton City I overheard another complaint, dongle related, and the workers there fumbling around, waiting on phone lines ... lots of people waiting whilst the Cell C employees call other people.

I wouldn't go there. If you have any problem whatsoever, Cell C have a totally stuffed up system where it gets sent around to all kinds of places and like me, its just ... vanished. Another faceless company with nobody to talk to.

Also, **** you Trevor Noah, come down here, give me my cash and I'll punch you in the face, THEN I'll believe all the marketing bull****.

Cell C - douchbags extraordinaire. I don't often post things like this, but this time its really necessary.
 
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i'm not at all suprised to hear about their service, you signed the deal already. Hopefully this kind of service will stop with the new consumer act.
hope you get sorted out
 
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Sorry to here bout all the ***, seems Cell C is falling as fast as they climbed with these amazing speed sticks of theirs. Seeing so many complaints lately.
 
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sorry about your ordeal, I'm sure Lars will sort something out for you. How's things at Vodaworld by the way?
 
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Ye we all thought when Cell C started their new campaign that this was 'the' SP to show all other SPs!

What a crock!
 
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Thanks for the support.

PM'd the CEO of Cell C, no response.

I'm doing far more damage than the cost of the modem as each day goes by that no refund if actioned. When I make enough of a racket I'll get a response that somebody will do something but after questioning its never the person who can actually do the refund that I'm speaking to and ends with them admitting that its out of their power. I won't be surprised if Lars can't even put the refund through himself and is just as powerless as all the other talking melons I've dealt with. Lame puppets with false veneers and zero authority.

Lars, get your **** together.

@ cpu > no I didn't have the coffee. If their staff drink it I'd be concerned about turning out as pathetic as them. Which is probably why its free.
 
@ the OP - For the first day I also had issues with my dongle. But it was only on the first day of activation.

Thereafter it got better.

Experimentation, and the recent upgrades is giving me these speeds :

1153657770.png


Much better than my 512k TelkomADSL line...
 
mikdog said:
.... powerless as all the other talking melons I've dealt with. Lame puppets with false veneers and zero authority........
Click to expand...

Enjoyed your choice of words........ sorry to hear about your ordeal, hopefully Lars or Ron actions this ASAP, and perhaps throws in a free Speed-stick to expunge your suffering. If I were in your position I would've done the exact same, and unleashed a barrage of unfriendly expletives too.

P.S Use the new logo rather :D
 
My mother's received the refund minus R200/R250 odd for handling fees (Cell C couriered the dongle across the country before we could get a refund two months later - what else could cost so much?)

While I've crossed this off the list of things to do, I'll leave this thread unaltered.

The refund is finished. Its less than we paid. I went to lengths (numerous phone calls week after week, going into the store multiple times, being passed over to a number of different people, many emails, doing a Cell C employee's work for him/her which is not my job but nobody seemed to be doing it which involved finding out the OBF, CBF and EMIE number of the dongle, phoning around to find out who to speak to next, emailing details through, lots of reminders and status checks that largely went unanswered, getting an MSIDN number and finally public ranting) to get this sorted and now that we have recouped some of the money it does little to restore the time, effort and expenses I've incurred dealing with Cell C employees. At the end of the day we lost a couple hundred bucks, more if I include my time and call costs from the Western Cape to Joburg.

If I sound bitter towards Cell C, its because I am.

What is clear to me from dealing with multiple Cell C reps is that any promise that comes out of a Cell C's employees mouth is worth absolutely nothing, and from reading other Cell C related threads on this forum a Cell C' employee's knowledge about the products and services for the company for whom they are working is all to be taken with 10 tons of salt. With any luck somebody searching for Cell C Sandton City might come across this thread and consider the potential frustration and 'now that we have your money it is no longer our problem' attitude.

@ xeslaro: Lars can take his free dongle and stick it up his ass. I'll gladly take the handling fee back.

To end with, **** you Cell C.
 
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so **** service can only be followed up by petty name calling? doesn't say much of you as a person imho.
 
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mikdog said:
I'll leave this thread unaltered.
Click to expand...
@mikdog
Sorry to hear your experience and your obvious frustration in your matter with CellC, but this forum has rules which do not condone bad language or expletives within images so your posts had to be moderated with the appropriate infraction. Just taken me the better part of 10 minutes of my time.

Calm down, take a deep breath. :-)
 
I apologize for the nasty words. I'm not big on them but in the current situation I thought it necessary to spur on some action on Cell C's side as being as polite as I have been has resulted in no luck whatsoever. It saddens me that only once I've exploded with expletives and foul language does this case get concluded, but I really have tried being polite for a long time with no results.

Its the first time I've been involved with buying anything from Cell C and it will most probably be the last.

Bad, bad experience.

Again, apologies for using up your time with necessary editing, it won't happen again.

Mike
 
Was your issue resolved? I had a similar issue (see my thread here), which was resolved within a couple of hours of my original post. I really did have first-class service in the end - it seems the upper levels of management care a lot about their customer satisfaction, much more so than the individual stores do. Good luck and I hope your issue is resolved as speedily as mine was. :)
 
ok folks, lets keep bumping this thread so that it stays up for as looooooooooong as it needs.

CellC CEO, are you looking at this threads total views? thats right...there goes another R3000 you could of had.


what, someone read this and decided not to go for dodgy cellc ? BAM, another R3000


the funny thing is, in the end you WILL give this mans money back.....but the longer you take, the more damage you are causing to your own company.

(BAM again, another R3000)

You seriously don't know how many eyes view MyBroadband, sir? This site has boosted ISP companies like Afrihost out of nothing to a Massive ISP. it's on the top 10 of SA Sites, mr CEO.

BAM! another R3k down the drain.
 
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