Vodacom Premature Upgrade

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Lanthie

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I currently have a top-up contract with Vodacom for R39 p/m. No device came with the contract. I would like to upgrade or migrate (whichever is the correct term) to another package which inlcudes a device with airtime and data on.

I Went to 2 different stores at the Mall of Africa and found the staff to be very unhelpful and rude. Apparently Vodacom insists I cannot upgrade and are willing to turn away more business. I find this a very strange business practice. Surely you should be encouraging your customers to spend more money?

I even tried to "buy-out" my existing R39p/m contract as I have around 10 months left on it - and apparently even that is not allowed. I have to see out the entire 24 months before I can even consider spending more money with them.

Anyone got any advice or know how to approach Vodacom to reconsider their business practices. I thought of even caling on the whole CPA but aparently it takes 3 months to cancel my existing contract and I will be left not being able to access my number I have had for around 24 years and not being able to use my number for the 3 months of cancellation.

Kind of explains why there is no growth in SA - rules, red tape and legislation just makes it impossible to do anything

PS - I have been a loyal Vodacom customer for 24 years - apparently not a big deal and they are quite happy if I go elsewhere!
 
Lanthie, for 10 months left of a R39/month contract, consider yourself lucky. It's R390 you can write off, or buy a dual-sim device so you can keep using that contract. Then apply for a second contract to suit whatever you want, and relax. R390 is not worth the grey hairs you're giving yourself on this issue.

You really shouldn't be too surprised here: cellphone contracts in South Africa are set in stone. It's always cheaper to just keep paying it off for the remainder of the term than trying to cancel earlier (especially when there is an expensive cellphone's value loaded into the contract).
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Lanthie, for 10 months left of a R39/month contract, consider yourself lucky. It's R390 you can write off, or buy a dual-sim device so you can keep using that contract. Then apply for a second contract to suit whatever you want, and relax. R390 is not worth the grey hairs you're giving yourself on this issue.

You really shouldn't be too surprised here: cellphone contracts in South Africa are set in stone. It's always cheaper to just keep paying it off for the remainder of the term than trying to cancel earlier (especially when there is an expensive cellphone's value loaded into the contract).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. More than happy to pay the R390 and happy to write off the existing contract -definitely not worth the battle. There is no device with the existing contract so no loss to Vodacom. I'm Happy to take out a new contract and keep paying for the old one - whichever / whatever. But I have to be able to use my existing number on the new higher value contract that comes with a device.
 
Thats rather odd as with vodacom i have changed packages before normally they have to generally be to bigger packages but then no phone with it. If you call them they can upgrade your package from now. If you want the phone option then i would recommend you buy a phone off orange store and then tell vodacom to just upgrade your package
 
Thanks for the advice. Yes, they will upgrade but without device. Have cancelled my contract in the interim - gives me time to decide what to do. May make the final jump to another operator.
 
You can prematurely cancel your contract for sure. You will need to wait a bit before opening a new one with that same number however. If I were you I would just get another contract and keep paying this one, the only downside being that you can't use tha same number. You can also upgrade 3 months before your contract ends, so consider waiting maybe? Good luck.
 
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