Refund/compensation/???

[stormwalkerza]

The Story - Short/medium'ish Version.

On 1 June I ordered a mymeg250 bundle online. My billing is set for the 7th so i paid for the bundle 7 June. Come 19June I checked on Vodacom4Me for my data usage & found no reference to the bundle. Called Vodie and reported the problem and asked whats been billed sofar. Lo & behold, I was being charged at R2/p.mb !!! - Operator said they would send in investigation request. Got a phone call not long afterwards from some investigator at voda saying they are looking into it. Next day, to my relief, mymeg250 stats showing on vodacom4me with current usage deducted, so i thought problem solved.

Had a week trip to karoo so i checked my balance on the 1st via the self help menu and got R650 in one and R850 in another (cant remem the nums) so called Vodie and got R1050 from the Op. And Full gprs charged at R2/meg aswell!! Unf the department that deals with it is closed sunday so asked the wife to call on mon. After hours & hours of being put on hold, she final got hold of someone on tuesday and was told that i would be billed then refunded on the same account.

So, Now on the 9th, I was billed the full R1050. Called up Vodie and spoke to some dude. Says the whole gprs thing is "STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION"!!.

Firstly, I was charge some R350-R500 overbudget and was wacked R160 by my bank.

Who must i speak to get my refund and bank charge refunded as after 19 odd days, Vodacom still hasn't been able to fix it ??

 

[Deiphos]

It is going to take a long time before you can expect vodacom to fix it
I was billed somewhere near to R900 this month because some idiot at vodacom told me that HSDPA was R499 per month. So somewhere extra costs came in and of course HSDPA was R599 per month. I phoned them last week saturday and they said someone will get back to me within 24 hours.

Here I am, sunday, and not a single phone call, no changes on the bill nothing. And I think I can expect another billing messup this month

 

[diabolus]

Yea it takes at least 2 "billing" cycles for them to fix this sort of problems. I had a similar thing back in December where i was charged for 2 bundles in the same month.

I did not get the impression Vodacom could simply "credit" my account whenever they like, it can only occur during the actual billing cycle. Heck i remember phoning vodacom when i got the statement [i get the statement begin of the month and pay the 25th] and told them it's wrong [this is before i actually paid] . They told me they can't do anything about it, the charge will go through and THEN they will credit me. So charge went through and then i had to get it sorted out again [basically they had to re-investigate it] . It was only fixed when the feb billing run went through in the end .

Vodacom3G helped getting it escalated, i don't know what happens with normal customers who do not get a little "kickstart" from insiders like V3G to help out.

The problem is, you sort it out and everyone agrees what will happen, then billing cycle comes and it does not happen...guess what, then you will have to wait for the NEXT billing cycle.

 

[chiskop]

I have found in dealing with Vodacom, that the one way to guarantee complete silence from them is to ask about how your bill is to be corrected.

I have this mental picture of the call centre operator making static noises into the phone saying, "App schhscscs ing a bridge. Connec scchshchsch broken. sdcshschsh hear what you're saying?" 'cos their actual response is one very small step away from that.

 

[ant101]

Paper is King

I find doing things on the old fashined paper works best. You then have a hard copy and they have a hard copy outlining your situation and request (glaring at the help desk staff until they do something about it!)
Fax number for the data center is: 0860 082082
When logging your complaint/request over the phone, I find that very often your request gets logged incorrectly or gets squeezed into one of the fixed categories available on screen to the help desk staff.

I'm also still waiting on a refund request, but in the 5 weeks that I have waited, I have received 1 sms confirmation acknowledging the fax, and 2 phone calls saying that it is being attended too.
Still waiting to see if anything concrete actually happens though..

 

[chiskop]

Fax number for the data center is: 0860 082082

Thanks for that - another front in the battle to get Vodacom to listen to me.

 

[74466]

This is horrible, fortunately if something like this happens to me, iu dont need to sort it out, BUT it scares pre paid subs into not choosing contract.

 

[stormwalkerza]

Thanks for the info sofar.

For those banking at FNB, you can email [email protected] and hey will reverse any charges for being overdrawn. Obv theres a small investigation but heck, R160 per shot is murder. BTW, fnb has a shadow limit of 10%, if you enter it, you get wacked R160, and you cant have it removed !!! Anyone know the best way to expose this ??

Called Vodie this morn, conversation basically was (hello, please see the notes on my number, (silence for about 30s), "yes sir", Can i please speak to the person investigating it, "please hold"...

App the person was busy on another call and would get back to me.

I think that this number should be put somewhere, else i missed it.

111 <- Prepaid Help Desk
1082 <- Contract Help Desk

If you wait 30mins on 111 and ask an account q, you will be transfered to 1082 for another 30 mins !!

Will post as things get nasty ...

Cheers

 

[kaspaas]

Had a similar experience with VC.

We faxed the order for adding a 2MB data bundle to 2 accounts for our company.

VC actually added 250MB.

We reported the problem a few days later (after noticing it on V4Me).

VC did call to say they are investigating, and a week or 2 later again to say it has been fixed, but no, we will have to pay R2/mb for the month in which they made te error - but will look into it.

And, our account will most probably be a mess, and they will most probably deduct too much this month, but it should be ok next month.

A few years ago we had a similar problem with VC. On legal advice we cancelled the debit order. The advice was that granting a debit order implies that the company requesting the money has the ability to effectivell manage the system without errors. Making errors, and failing to correct them in good time, nixes any contractual demands to have a debit order.

We followed the advise, and only after a year granted VC again access to our account via a debit order.

I guess they are going to loose their debit order again.