Vodacom steals your money!

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Cyrus62

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I opened a contract with Vodacom which got activated on 5 September 2014. There is a whole issue of false advertising and the store owing me a LG G Watch, but that story is for a different day.

This morning, 13 October 2014, I got into the office and checked my mail. I received a mail on Saturday 11 October for my first invoice (despite there being a debit order on 10 September already for some bizarre reason). After installing the encryption software to open it, I see this invoice:

invoice.jpg

The only time I ordered any bundles was at the beginning of September through the MyVodacom app on the phone and it clearly said "This amount will be deducted from your airtime. Do you wish to proceed?" and I clicked yes. I was quite surprised when I saw that my airtime remains as is and the data was allocated, so I called Vodacom customer care to make sure that everything is in order and that it will come from my airtime. The bundle also said that it expires on 31 October 2014 (end of the following month).

Time went by and end of September I still haven't used half of it up. October came and my 250mb that is included in the uChoose Flexi account got added and I carried on as per usual.

  1. I never received the second 1 GB data
  2. The bundle should come from my airtime, but it appears to have been billed to me
  3. I never ordered any second bundle

So I contacted Vodacom accounts department and explain the situation. The guy tells me that my account has a recurring MyGig Promotion package and asks me if I want it to be cancelled. I tell him yes and a few minutes later I get a sms saying that it has been cancelled. I then tell him to please refund me for the second bundle and to take the first bundle from my airtime and update my invoice accordingly. He then tells me that the system shows that I have already used some of the data from the bundle. I tell him that I never even received the data and the more I ask him nicely the more he repeats himself that the system indicates that I activated the bundle and used it.

I don't care what the system tells him, I never ordered that bundle and the one I did order needs to come from my airtime as the app (or like they want to call it "the system" ) told me it will come from my airtime and not be billed to me.

So now I am sitting with 100% of october's airtime and 90% of September's airtime in my account (I rarely make phone calls) which will expire in a few days and they charging me for that as well as data that I never even received.

How on earth is this legal? This is not the first time Vodacom has stolen from me and for that reason I will cancel my debit order until they resolve this issue. Those of you reading this and not yet with Vodacom, but thinking of switching to them, DON'T!
 
Pro rata buddy.
Did you take an iPhone? First time iPhone user?
 
I wouldn't cancel that debit order unless you want to get blacklisted. Just saying.

The Out of Bundle saga convinced me never to use Vodacom again.
 
Rusty0 said:
Pro rata buddy.
Did you take an iPhone? First time iPhone user?
Click to expand...


No, its a LG G3. What does Pro Rata have to do with anything? You refering to the debit order for Septbember? That I get, although it means the contract will be 25 months, unless it expires again on 4 September 2016 and they charge me pro rata for that too?

Either way, that is not the issue here
 
Strange how it's always Vodacom stole from me and how it always happens to the same person. I'm certain that if you ask someone who knows what they are talking about and ask that they explain it to you everything will become clear. If not then take the matter further. As Rust0 said... Pro rata buddy
 
When you take out a new contract, the first debit order will run with the pro rata amounts within 24 - 48 working hours. Your subs for Top Up and Flexi will be full rate as you received the full amount in airtime. Data bundles will be charge pro rata and you will received pro rata data. Once off data bundles that you buy will go off your airtime. Monthly recurring data bundles that we add on your account should you request it will be added to the account and go off with the Vodacom account debit order.
 
ShaunR said:
Strange how it's always Vodacom stole from me and how it always happens to the same person. I'm certain that if you ask someone who knows what they are talking about and ask that they explain it to you everything will become clear. If not then take the matter further. As Rust0 said... Pro rata buddy
Click to expand...

What do you mean same person? This is my first post about it.

And I still don't understand why you keep saying ProRata
 
Ockie said:
When you take out a new contract, the first debit order will run with the pro rata amounts within 24 - 48 working hours. Your subs for Top Up and Flexi will be full rate as you received the full amount in airtime. Data bundles will be charge pro rata and you will received pro rata data. Once off data bundles that you buy will go off your airtime. Monthly recurring data bundles that we add on your account should you request it will be added to the account and go off with the Vodacom account debit order.
Click to expand...

That is all fair. The problem here is I ordered a once off bundle, not a recurring one and it clearly stated that it will come from my airtime.
 
The 1Gig data bundle that was activated on your line was a monthly recurring bundle. That is why you see two charges on your account. The first is for the pro rata amount for the month that you activated it in. The second charge is for the next month as subs is charged up to day, unlike usage that is charged in arrears. I have picked up that the bundle has been deactivated and the deactivation will take effect end of this month, giving you a chance to use the 1gig.
 
Ockie said:
The 1Gig data bundle that was activated on your line was a monthly recurring bundle. That is why you see two charges on your account. The first is for the pro rata amount for the month that you activated it in. The second charge is for the next month as subs is charged up to day, unlike usage that is charged in arrears. I have picked up that the bundle has been deactivated and the deactivation will take effect end of this month, giving you a chance to use the 1gig.
Click to expand...

Ockie you and I both know that the billing is 99.9 percent correct. Sometimes the gremlins creep in. The problem is that Cyrus62 was probably never explained how it works or it was explained and he did not fully understand what the consultant was saying. Either way all issues can be resolved.
 
ShaunR this has nothing to do with explaining the situation. The app clearly said it will be debited from my airtime and not billed against my account, and I never chose a recurring one. I specifically chose once off.

This is exactly why I don't like doing contracts as it gives them power and any issues in their system (most likely a bug some developer made), simply becomes my problem. If I was on prepaid, it would have to come from the airtime as there's nothing else to bill.

Either way, after posting on hello peter I was contacted and they are reversing it. At least this guy didn't play dumb like the guy I contacted this morning at accounts department.
 
Cyrus62 said:
ShaunR this has nothing to do with explaining the situation. The app clearly said it will be debited from my airtime and not billed against my account, and I never chose a recurring one. I specifically chose once off.

This is exactly why I don't like doing contracts as it gives them power and any issues in their system (most likely a bug some developer made), simply becomes my problem. If I was on prepaid, it would have to come from the airtime as there's nothing else to bill.

Either way, after posting on hello peter I was contacted and they are reversing it. At least this guy didn't play dumb like the guy I contacted this morning at accounts department.
Click to expand...

If you could only but see the smile on my face. At least its sorted out. If I may ask, at which store did you do the application
 
Sorry to hear about your pain. It can be very frustrating.

One small quibble, though: Is is not far too early to accuse another person of stealing your money (Vodacom is a person). This is a very serious allegation, and should not be bandied about lightly. Especially not if you are to be taken seriously.

My own experience in sorting out these sorts of issues is that 90% of the time the consumer didn't know what they were buying, and 9% of the time the sales clerk made a bolsup. The rest was an admin cockup at the vendor, and in my experience every one of them scrupulously works to correct their mistakes. There is absolutely no intent to shaft the customer, or extract more than the agreement stipulates, let alone steal.

Hope you get great clarity on what happened. Any why. Please keep us posted.
 
Sorry ShaunR but I still don't see how that is relevant. The issue is not with a store but with the fact that I purchased a once off bundle via the android application for Vodacom and the system purchased the wrong bundle and I was billed instead of it being deducted from my airtime as per the interface of the application.
 
Cyrus62 said:
Sorry ShaunR but I still don't see how that is relevant. The issue is not with a store but with the fact that I purchased a once off bundle via the android application for Vodacom and the system purchased the wrong bundle and I was billed instead of it being deducted from my airtime as per the interface of the application.
Click to expand...

My apologies, I totally misread this, multitasking is not one of my strongest points. if you purchased this via their app and it was loaded incorrectly because of a systems malfunction then you are 100% correct in wanting a refund. just glad that they sorted this out for you.
 
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