Vodacom - Poor Service and double charging

S

SpiderMonkey

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Just a word of warning to anyone signing up for a Vodacom contract. I signed up a for an iPhone contract in April for my wife through VSP. All fine and well, first charge coming off my account at the end of May seems a little bit high but, I assume that there is obviously some initial charges. Second charge comes off at the end of June and it's the same.

I do a bit of digging on Sunday and notice a couple of things on my account.

1) They have signed me up for 2 identical contracts (only one phone delivered)
2) My billing email address is captured incorrectly so I didn't get the statements.

I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that it was a accident on their side, especially as I originally canceled the request because they were taking too long and then when they delivered it, I decided to take it anyway because the wife was excited.

I called in on Saturday and explained the situation, was told I need to get a stamped bank statement, certified copy of my id and a affidavit because it's fraud. I complained about this because I would now have to spend 3 hours running around to sort out a stuff up on their side. After a while, the lady indicated that it looked like an error at VSP and would call me back the next morning between 9am and 10am. No call back, as usual. Over the course of the week, it seems that the call was escalated, then disappeared, a new call was closed because they indicated they didn't receive a fax (why faxes are required in this day and age when you don't have to send in jack to actually open a contract). Overall, VC is completely useless, I am sitting a week later with no resolution and a lot of wasted time on my side.

The warning is this, if you open a new contract, watch out that they don't open 2 contracts and good luck to you if you have to try and get them to sort out their mess. Also, make sure you always get a reference number from these clowns because if you don't (I know I should have, at least I got the ladies name), requests have a habit of just vanishing. It's almost like they have been taken over by the government.
 
Is this that Vodacom thing where you phone in and get a contract telephonically? They are Mother ****ers. A few years back they sent 2 phones on 2 contracts to a address in Riverlea and decided to take money off my bank account. I reversed all the charges at the bank. And sorted it out with their fraud investigator only for some Bitch to call me and give me attitude about owing them money. The debt collecting skank raised her voice at me and has the gall to tell me not get upset with her. Told her to **** off I am an Attorney and don't take **** from a debt collecting clerk. I put the phone down did a letter, to their fraud department advising I will sue them for defamation if they list me on ITC as she threatened. I had all the previous correspondence in which they admitted the fraud on their employees part. I got a response within an hour. Good Luck they are pigs.
 
Cancelled a VodaCom contract last month. Will be cancelling another 2 at the end of this month.
I think my "Hulle gaan hulle hand oorspeel"-theory is slowly playing out.
 
The thing that irks me lately, is Vodacom's huge "Power of the Internet" campaign.

Then I just think to myself..... 10GB 8ta = R199, 10GB Vodacom = R1449 (yes, I know it looks totally insane, but it's correct).
 
kingrob said:
The thing that irks me lately, is Vodacom's huge "Power of the Internet" campaign.

Then I just think to myself..... 10GB 8ta = R199, 10GB Vodacom = R1449 (yes, I know it looks totally insane, but it's correct).
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:sick: Vodacom are a disgrace with their pricing. I still am in shock over what they charge
 
marine1 said:
:sick: Vodacom are a disgrace with their pricing. I still am in shock over what they charge
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They should have a notice on their web site : "If you're accessing this web site from a poor household, for example township, close this web site now! We only cater for people with a proper salary."
 
I don't like VC and only signed up because my wife was bugging me for an iPhone and they were the only ones that had them at the time. I suppose we all learn from our mistakes. Won't be signing up with them for any more contracts.
 
I have been on hold for a total off about 4 hours since Friday. The longest I have been on hold at one time is an hour and a half. (This would be their sales number 0821950) Nobody answers ever. I filled in the please contact me form on their website. They gave me a missed call. (This would be their sales number 082111). They have lost a new contract subscriber. I went with Cell C. Much cheaper than Vodacom and I already have a delivery date of Wednesday for my device. Way to go Vodacom.

Edit: another missed call from 082111, not even letting it ring once.....
 
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I can relate to that....... i took out a contract with them only to find that the sim card issued with the phn was actually used by someone else and there were exra charges on my billing every month. Billing and changes made to the contract without my authorisation to someone i dont even know. so vodacom is very much an incompetent network with regard to its contracts.
 
An update, if anyone is interested. They eventually cancelled the extra contract and admitted it was a mistake but then proceeded to charge me a cancellation fee. At the moment, they owe me more than R1000 and are getting ready to try and take another R3k off my account for the "cancelled" contract. Lots of promises saying that they will sort it out but still nothing. I would imagine that we have spent over 10 hours on the phone to various people and I even went so far as to put something on hellopeter yesterday but no response to that so far. Not really holding my breath.

Does anyone know if its possible to charge these guys for the time you have spent on the phone to them sorting out their crap?

I would strongly advise anyone thinking of taking out a Vodacom contract to think very seriously about it. Make sure that you want the hassle in your life.
 
I have similar ongoing with Neotel. Paid for 2 phones on debit order. Stopped service after 1 year, giving them 1 months notice. That was in January 2011. They submit debit order to bank month after month. Many emails promising is sorted, but goes on and on. Stopped d/o at bank, had letter from MacRoberts Attorneys asking for money. Sent all letters to MacRobert. D/o bank estoppal only lasts 3 months, so in 4th month debits start again. So far R 22 100,00. 100% useless, staff clueless. have names of all operators, they only take messages, not authorised to cancel d/orders, etc.
 
So the conclusion is that prepaid is much safer and better than a contract?
 
Without the shadow of a doubt.

However, wife has MTN contract and when it became time for renewal, instead of taking a new phone, she gets 30% discount on calls.
 
chrisc4290 said:
100% useless, staff clueless. have names of all operators, they only take messages, not authorised to cancel d/orders, etc.
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I think this is the biggest problem. Nobody is authorised to do anything. They add a note. It's crazy but they can invoice you for anything in under a minute and it gets loaded immediately but if you need a credit loaded, it's close to impossible. That and promising to call you when they have no intention of doing it both drive me nuts. At least mine is only for R4k in total. At R22k I would have walked in there with a shambuk.
 
kingrob said:
So the conclusion is that prepaid is much safer and better than a contract?
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This is what I will be doing from now onwards. I am going to cancel the valid contract with VC and just pay it off (75% + handset fee). Enough of contracts, it's just not worth the aggravation.
 
SpiderMonkey said:
I think this is the biggest problem. Nobody is authorised to do anything. They add a note. It's crazy but they can invoice you for anything in under a minute and it gets loaded immediately but if you need a credit loaded, it's close to impossible. That and promising to call you when they have no intention of doing it both drive me nuts. At least mine is only for R4k in total. At R22k I would have walked in there with a shambuk.
Click to expand...

I walked in with a bicycle chain, but the person I had to see was on lunch...
 
chrisc4290 said:
I walked in with a bicycle chain, but the person I had to see was on lunch...
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My initial draft had shotgun in it but I thought it would be better to tone it down so I think a bicycle chain is quite reasonable under the circumstances.
 
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