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Pathetic response to ‘own call‘ complaint
IN response to the letter by Frank Lagan of Uitenhage (“Money taken from phone prepaid airtime”, The Herald, January 16), I experienced a similar problem on December 28 at 8.36am. The facts:
My cellphone rang.
The identity of the caller was reflected as me.
I stood looking at my cellphone utterly amazed at receiving a call from myself when I had not touched my cellphone.
My cellphone showed a dialled out call made to my own number at 8.36am.
My cellphone showed a received call from my own number at 8.36am.
I engaged the cellphone to accept the call, but did not speak and after a few seconds a man speaking an African language spoke and when I asked to whom he wished to speak he cut the call.
Fortunately for me he dialled my number in error.
Vodacom‘s pathetic excuses/explanations range from their register showing that no such calls occurred to “perhaps” an automatic missed-call-keeper-service called me from my own phone and when all their previous excuses were proved to be incorrect they reverted to requiring that I produce proof. And of course I would have to pay for that call made from my cellphone to my cellphone!
Vodacom have turned my enquiry from wanting an explanation as to how it happened into one of my proving that it indeed happened.
The subscriptions to a company called Buon Giorno is also not a new tactic.
Gloria Woolard, Plettenberg Bay
qq
I AM responding to Lagan‘s letter. My daughter has a similar situation with her Vodacom prepaid account.
She put in R55 and when she tried to send an SMS she had no funds available. She then tried again and again this happened.
After the third time and R75 later we phoned Vodacom only to be told my daughter had made overseas calls and also was using the internet, which was not the case. They could not give us an explanation and after fighting with the call centre we gave up.
This, gladly to say, never happened again. I can only assume someone internally is using clients‘ prepaid funds for their own use.
Marcelle Smit, Humewood, Port Elizabeth
http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/2009/01/16/edlets/edl05_16012009.htm
Money taken from phone prepaid airtime
A WORD of warning to Vodacom subscribers. Recently I have been the victim of two separate incidents of theft of money from prepaid Vodacom vouchers.
The first, a week ago, was when I noticed my prepaid amount was daily being reduced by R10. This I stumbled upon quite accidently by phoning 5151 to check the balance, only to discover 10 minutes later, having accidentally dialled that number again, that the balance now read R10 less.
Phoning Vodacom to get an explanation, I was told I had been subscribing to some benefits from a company called Buon Giorno! No one at Vodacom, naturally, could tell me what these benefits were nor could they help me in any other way.
I suppose I would have left the matter at that had it not been for what happened on Wednesday. I inserted a R55 voucher into the balance of my cellphone account and noted my new balance was R65,72. (I had by then become wise about checking balances!)
Later (the cellphone having never been out of my sight) I picked it up and found that the balance now read R45,72, a reduction of R20.
Phoning Vodacom to query this newly reduced balance, I was informed by the consultant I had now subscribed to a company with a name sounding like Mila, again for some benefits which she could not describe. In both cases Vodacom was very quick to insist they had no control over this situation.
In other words I pay them a sum of money to buy airtime and before I can begin to use it, it has been reduced by R20. The one amusing fact about the matter is that my cellphone is so old that it is incapable of receiving fancy ring tones or any form of video/audio novelty.
The indecent haste with which Vodacom exonerated itself on both these occasions suggests to me that indeed they are very familiar with the dirty deeds, but are unwilling or unable to do anything about it. The very thought of them compensating the loss raises horror in the voice of the consultant. Anyone out there with similar problems ?
Frank Lagan, Uitenhage
---------------------------------------------------------
Anyone else had these issues?
Pathetic response to ‘own call‘ complaint
IN response to the letter by Frank Lagan of Uitenhage (“Money taken from phone prepaid airtime”, The Herald, January 16), I experienced a similar problem on December 28 at 8.36am. The facts:
My cellphone rang.
The identity of the caller was reflected as me.
I stood looking at my cellphone utterly amazed at receiving a call from myself when I had not touched my cellphone.
My cellphone showed a dialled out call made to my own number at 8.36am.
My cellphone showed a received call from my own number at 8.36am.
I engaged the cellphone to accept the call, but did not speak and after a few seconds a man speaking an African language spoke and when I asked to whom he wished to speak he cut the call.
Fortunately for me he dialled my number in error.
Vodacom‘s pathetic excuses/explanations range from their register showing that no such calls occurred to “perhaps” an automatic missed-call-keeper-service called me from my own phone and when all their previous excuses were proved to be incorrect they reverted to requiring that I produce proof. And of course I would have to pay for that call made from my cellphone to my cellphone!
Vodacom have turned my enquiry from wanting an explanation as to how it happened into one of my proving that it indeed happened.
The subscriptions to a company called Buon Giorno is also not a new tactic.
Gloria Woolard, Plettenberg Bay
I AM responding to Lagan‘s letter. My daughter has a similar situation with her Vodacom prepaid account.
She put in R55 and when she tried to send an SMS she had no funds available. She then tried again and again this happened.
After the third time and R75 later we phoned Vodacom only to be told my daughter had made overseas calls and also was using the internet, which was not the case. They could not give us an explanation and after fighting with the call centre we gave up.
This, gladly to say, never happened again. I can only assume someone internally is using clients‘ prepaid funds for their own use.
Marcelle Smit, Humewood, Port Elizabeth
http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/2009/01/16/edlets/edl05_16012009.htm
Money taken from phone prepaid airtime
A WORD of warning to Vodacom subscribers. Recently I have been the victim of two separate incidents of theft of money from prepaid Vodacom vouchers.
The first, a week ago, was when I noticed my prepaid amount was daily being reduced by R10. This I stumbled upon quite accidently by phoning 5151 to check the balance, only to discover 10 minutes later, having accidentally dialled that number again, that the balance now read R10 less.
Phoning Vodacom to get an explanation, I was told I had been subscribing to some benefits from a company called Buon Giorno! No one at Vodacom, naturally, could tell me what these benefits were nor could they help me in any other way.
I suppose I would have left the matter at that had it not been for what happened on Wednesday. I inserted a R55 voucher into the balance of my cellphone account and noted my new balance was R65,72. (I had by then become wise about checking balances!)
Later (the cellphone having never been out of my sight) I picked it up and found that the balance now read R45,72, a reduction of R20.
Phoning Vodacom to query this newly reduced balance, I was informed by the consultant I had now subscribed to a company with a name sounding like Mila, again for some benefits which she could not describe. In both cases Vodacom was very quick to insist they had no control over this situation.
In other words I pay them a sum of money to buy airtime and before I can begin to use it, it has been reduced by R20. The one amusing fact about the matter is that my cellphone is so old that it is incapable of receiving fancy ring tones or any form of video/audio novelty.
The indecent haste with which Vodacom exonerated itself on both these occasions suggests to me that indeed they are very familiar with the dirty deeds, but are unwilling or unable to do anything about it. The very thought of them compensating the loss raises horror in the voice of the consultant. Anyone out there with similar problems ?
Frank Lagan, Uitenhage
---------------------------------------------------------
Anyone else had these issues?
