Vodacom Rewards Ripoff

[pezulu]

My mother has a VC contract that expired late last year.
She does not want to upgrade her contract at this stage, as she feels her current handset is still in good condition, and she prefers to be on a month-to-month contract.

She received a call from someone at Vodacom Rewards on 086 123 6666, that told her she needs to upgrade her contract or risk losing it. They persuaded her to upgrade the contract, and informed her that they would be sending her a new Nokia C3, and that her contract would be renewed, with an expiry date of 23/05/2015.
She would also be receiving "more" airtime and "more" talktime than she currently has.

My mother told me that at first she was not interested in renewing or upgrading her contract as she is perfectly happy with her current Nokia C5, but that the person that phoned her was insistent that her contract was going to expire, and she would lose the number that she has used for about 16 years now.

Checking the specifications of the Nokia C3 I noticed that it looks like a Blackberry, with a small Qwerty keyboard, and the numerical symbols almost hidden. This phone is worthless for an old lady (79 years old) as her eyesight is not the best, and the small keypad is going to be useless. The phone is also not 3G capable, has a 2MP camera, compared to the 5MP she is currently using to MMS pics to her kids and grandkids.

I have informed her that she is not to accept the new phone when they deliver it, and that she should have it sent back, as she is not interested in upgrading her contract, and that she was coerced into doing the upgrade telephonically, without seeing the phone she is being offered, without knowing which package her contract is being moved to, and not understanding that she has a choice when it comes to upgrading.

This is not the first incident I have heard of where an old person is persuaded to upgrade or renew a contract by Vodacom Rewards.
Who gives them the right to contact people and coerce them into signing up for something that they don't want?
Where do they get the numbers to call?

 

[Dr Who]

Hi

As someone who comes from the call centre industry I suggest that when the package arrives you send it back with the courier. This will nullify the contract. These returns are termed RTS in the industry ( return to sender ).

Are you sure that it was from vodacom rewards as a number of call centres use many ways to make a sale?

Where they get her number from, well most call centres have access to large amounts of data with contact details on them. They also get these numbers checked by the Cell company to confirm that they pass the credit checks.

Regards

 

[HippoMe]

My father-in-law of 81 was coerced into upgrading to a Samsung S3. He now spends an awful lot of time playing with a phone that makes very little sense to him, and every once in a while some friendly and helpful younger soul has to sort out the many screens that he has created full of duplicate and triplicate icons, so that he can do simple stuff like making calls and smsing.

Oh, but this was MTN ... my bad

Vodacom Online took the phone back that I ordered, but that did not work well for me, within 6 days from the delivery date, but it has taken a month and a half AND a report on HelloPeter for me to get the money back which they deducted, not once, but twice from my bank account, and this AFTER I had cancelled the contract.

I am sticking to prepaid from now on too, far easier to manage than either the TopUp or Smart packages.

 

[pezulu]

The number that was used to call my mother was 086 123 6666, which was identified as belonging to Vodacom Rewards.
On HelloPeter there are dozens of complaints regarding the same type of issues.