I returned to South Africa after 13 years living and working in Mozambique. As a result of being away so long, I have no credit record as I did not have any contracts or payments in South Africa. To access a Vodacom contract I had to apply through my parents and the contract was registered in my mom's name. From the moment we opened this contract it was a nightmare. One disaster after the next ensued. Firstly, they registered the contract with the wrong number, which delayed the operation of the line for more than 2 weeks. Then hidden costs started going off my airtime which Vodacom blamed on subscriptions I had made, which was bull, as I didn't subscribe to anything or visit any sites which they suggested I had visited. General customer service was horrendous as well. Please note I had upgrade my prepaid number to the 24-month contract (Top Up) with device. After a while, after having contacted customer service regularly, all of a sudden they refused to deal with my complaints as I wasn't the contract owner. My parents stay in another province and my mother is elderly and my dad with terminal cancer. I didn't want to have to burden them with dealing with all (and they were frequent) complaints, especially with some of them happening at inconvenient hours for elderly people. Vodacom point blank refused to handle my complaints directly even though the admin staff acknowledged that I was the user of the contract. I felt totally powerless and voiceless when I couldn't make use of the customer service 'help line' anymore and suffered all their **** in silence until....my phone was stolen. We had specifically asked for insurance to be added to the contract, but when I submitted all the supporting documents for the claim to replace the handset, we found that they had not added the insurance, AND they had actually registered the contract again with the wrong details! So now I would be liable for all the payments without a phone that I was paying for and had asked to be insured for. Yes, we did not check the monthly statements as a debit order had been instituted as it was a simple top up plan. All statements were being forwarded to my parents and I just sent the money to them on a monthly basis. On throwing almighty tantrums from my side and threatening to terminate the contract, Vodacom offered to replace the handset due to the incompetence of the branch staff who had blundered twice in the registration of the contract and the adding of the insurance, their admitting their guilt. They offered to upgrade the headset and extra airtime, data and replace the SD card that had come with the phone. (This was from the regional head office) I wasn't interested as for the duration of the 5 months of the contract it has been a constant uphill struggle with anything and everything to do with it, and just wanted out. They begged me not to terminate continuously, but I am adamant. They kept on then referring it between the branch and the regional office and no-one could come to consensus. Getting exasperated, I decided I would take them up on their offer for a free upgrade and the extras they offered, only to be then told they were not on offer anymore. We have decided to go ahead with the termination, but I am now concerned about the fees and balance payments. I believe that Vodacom is in breach of contract for not registering the contract correctly twice and therefore we should not be liable for further payments. In Mozambique, when one terminates their contract with Vodacom, one has to return the handset. Not sure if this applies here, but seeing they offered to replace the phone since it should have been insured, that should cancel that out. I REALLY do not want to carry on with these crooks, and would rather buy a new handset cash, and go prepaid on several networks so I can have the power to choose my own usage. Here also lies the rub with vodacom. They refuse to provide dual sim handsets, and I think this is also a very valid element to include in #datamustfall campaign. Networks are blocking users from the freedom of making their own decisions re usage. These networks are bigger crooks than the government and that's saying a lot, seeing as we have one of the worst globally. We as the users/customers who should be treated with respect and for the individuals that we all are, but it seems, that we will have to unite in numbers to get justice. Any legal advice re termination would be very much appreciated.
