Vodacom - Porting Out problems

[Dairyfarmer]

If you are trying to port out of Vodacom you may be finding it difficult. The problem is Vodacom migrated numbers from its "old system" to its "new system". The new system is faulty and does not allow numbers to be ported out of Vodacom. Having waited over a month and spent more than 30 hours on the phone to them, I am still unable to port out.

This is the latest word from Porting Department (what they have been told to tell us customers). Numbers will only be migrated on 16th or 17th of every month. Now this was meant to have happened this month, but it fell on a weekend so, no surprise, it wasn't done, so I was told by the Porting Department.

It is illegal for Vodacom to refuse a port out, unless the account is in arrears AND the number has been disconnected (important that second bit). By putting numbers into a system that does not allow porting out, not moving the numbers back, and not doing so in a reasonable time, Vodacom is acting illegally.

So I have laid a formal complaint with ICASA and ask anyone else affected to do the same. It is a simple matter of filling in a Word Document and emailing it off to them. I got a reference number within minutes and a resolution date of 14 days.

Lets see what happens.

 

[CyberDemon]

LOL, good luck with that. I have a Vodacom number which is about 15 years old. Also wanted to Port but couldn't. Spent months on phone calls and escalations with Vodacom. Failing that, went with ICASA. Got a response from ICASA rep stating that Vodacom said "I am free to Port at anytime". Months later it still didn't work. I eventually abandoned that number and got a new one.

 

[TheJman]

Thanks for the advance warning! Was looking to port out - locked in for life baby!

 

[ahoudet]

I ported out at the end of last year

 

[Zenbaas]

If you are trying to port out of Vodacom you may be finding it difficult. The problem is Vodacom migrated numbers from its "old system" to its "new system". The new system is faulty and does not allow numbers to be ported out of Vodacom. Having waited over a month and spent more than 30 hours on the phone to them, I am still unable to port out.

This is the latest word from Porting Department (what they have been told to tell us customers). Numbers will only be migrated on 16th or 17th of every month. Now this was meant to have happened this month, but it fell on a weekend so, no surprise, it wasn't done, so I was told by the Porting Department.

It is illegal for Vodacom to refuse a port out, unless the account is in arrears AND the number has been disconnected (important that second bit). By putting numbers into a system that does not allow porting out, not moving the numbers back, and not doing so in a reasonable time, Vodacom is acting illegally.

So I have laid a formal complaint with ICASA and ask anyone else affected to do the same. It is a simple matter of filling in a Word Document and emailing it off to them. I got a reference number within minutes and a resolution date of 14 days.

Lets see what happens.

Having exactly the same problem since last month. I'm amazed you actually managed to get though to the "porting department". I genuinely though it was a myth because after holding on four an hour each time is just cuts you off.

 

[Dairyfarmer]

Porting department 0821299326 and select option 3. Don't try phone before 9am

I squeezed the number out of them. At one stage it was not allowing calls in. Going through 111 is a mission. It takes 3 minutes just to get past the menu options, none of which are related to porting. One operator actually put me on hold. After 50 minutes my battery ran flat and had to hang up.

Don't bother wasting your time and petrol going to a Customer Centre. They can do nothing other than phone the same department you do.

What really get me is the fact that the system Vodacom uses for support is absolutely useless. You would thing that every time you phoned it would make a record of what was discussed. That is what all other call centre software does. Not Vodacom, you have to explain the whole thing again, every time you call, regardless of the fact that you may have a reference number. So every call takes 10 minutes to get to the point where they finally understand the problem and have explained to you the same thing you have heard 100 times before.

I have never heard of a company where supervisors from one department are unable to interact with supervisors from another department. At Vodacom all they can do is send an email to that department. There is no one checking that the mail was dealt with. There is no one following up either. Its a case of the pay check before the client. The longer they can keep your request going and the more requests they can get, the longer they have a job for. Obviously no one is checking on the percentage of request to resolution rate.

I once went to a call centre in the UK. Operators were measured on the time it took to deal with a request. The department was measured on the percentage reference numbers that were converted to solutions. If an operator could not deal with a request it was passed onto the next department and became part of that department's stats. All this was 16 years ago.

 

[Dairyfarmer]

The more people complain to ICASA regarding Vodacom's porting problem, the more likely it is to filter up and be recognised. Vodacom must be held accountable for its illegal activities. Its been 8 or 10 years now that porting has been allowed. Its not a new thing.

We are not perfect, but there is a solution and Vodacom refuses to apply it.

 

[Dion Disco]

Family member ported from Vodacom prepaid to Telkom Mobile a month ago.
Took 14 days to go through - Telkom put the blame on Vodacom dragging their feet.

 

[Dairyfarmer]

had a call from Vodacom as well as an email (I now have email contact with them). ICASA gave them a kick, but I don't hold out much hope. The person I'm dealing with seems to have been given my case with little background. I don't blame her as Vodacom's system doesn't seem to track the query trail left by many, many phone calls and internal emails.

The beauty now is that I have an email address and can have a herd copy of what is being discussed from now on. I doubt that Vodacom would like this information to be publicised in the national press if they continue to drag their heals. I'm not asking for something that is out of the ordinary, nor something that their system should not be capable of. I have a right to port my number to a network of my choice and I have the right to be able to do this in a reasonable time frame. I have the right to bring it to the attention of Vodacom that there is a problem, and I have the right to demand that the problem be fixed within a reasonable time frame.

 

[Dairyfarmer]

Had to send an email yesterday and today before I got a reply. They say I can now port out. Lets see.

 

[Ockie]

We previously had issues with porting out in the Customer3D system.
Please be advised that this has been rectified and it’s working again.

.

 

[Dairyfarmer]

I can confirm that I managed to port out. Not sure if it is everyone now or just those of us who throw toys out of the cot.

I still cannot understand that it took over 6 weeks AFTER I complained to sort it out. You would think that the system would have been stress tested before implementation. You would think that there would be a fall back for those experiencing problems.

But you know what I really found fascinating? A top tier provider of communications does not allow its customer "care" staff to be able to phone another department. Not even the supervisor can contact the supervisor of another department. Everything is done via email. And there is no follow up of the email. Send and forget.

I just thank goodness that I have left Vodacom. Not that any of the others are much better, just their attitude to customer "service" is so, so poor.

 

[Sayf777]

I used google to find this thread so apologies for bringing up an old thread.

I've got a weird issue, I ported from vodacom to mtn, both sims are active.

If I phone or sms from an MTN number it goes through to the mtn sim, if I sms or phone from any other network or request a phone call or sms from overseas (Google /whatsapp) it goes through the vodacom number.

So vodacom won't have fully ported it out until the 16th or 17th or is there an issue?

If I off the mtn number and dial from an mtn it'll go to voicemail (even if the vodacom sim is on), if I off the vodacom sim and phone from a non mtn sim it'll go to voicemail even (even if the mtn sim is on).