Vodacom
reviews and complaints

I took phone in for repairs in April to above mentioned shop. At one stage the phone went missing but was eventually found. To date and in spite of numerous phone calls and while I am still paying a contract of +R400 a month, I have still not received my phone back and in site of promises from the manager of this shop, my phone calls are not even returned.

I have been a Vodacom customer for 16 years. I am at a stage where i want to go to another service provider, because of the service I have been receiving this past month. On 1 June I didn't have enough funds in my account for my debit order, thus came back as unpaid. On 28 June I made my outstanding payment of R422.50. Almost immediately after I've paid via EFT I received and sms thanking me for the payment & that I don't have to send any proof of payment. On 1 July an amount of R945.09 was debited from my account, making it impossible for my medical aid contribution to be debited due to insufficient funds. I spoke to a lady (check your recordings) who explained to me that my payment came through after the bank was notified to deduct the R945.09 but that I would be refunded because she can see the payment I made. Two days after that I phoned again because nothing reflected in my account yet. I spoke to another lady (very rude by the way). She said i must send proof of payment & a bank statement to proof that R945.09 was deducted & that I paid R422.50. i explained that i received an sms from vodacom stating that i don't have to send a proof. She said that if i don't send the documents that it could take I think between 14 & 21 days to be refunded. On 19 July I sent proof of payment & my bank statement to show as proof of R945.09 deduction. Since then I have not heard anything or received any email from Vodacom stating that they received my documents or refund me. Nothing at all. On Tuesday there was a credit limit bar set on my account. I phoned Wednesday morning at 06:12 (check your recordings) I spoke to a gentleman who apologized and said it's a problem on vodacom's side, not my fault. He said he will send it through to the correct department and that it could take anything from 1 to 24 hours to fix. At this stage I didn't have any internet access, data, sms, or able to make any calls what so ever. I phoned again Wednesday afternoon about 5 times because i was repeatedly put through from customer care to accounts. Eventually I got through to Zanele just before 17:00. I was busy explaining my situation when the line was just dead, time was 17:00. I was furious, phoned again and spoke to Roelien in customer care (very nice lady) She explained i need to speak to accounts but they only work until 17:00 (how convenient, my call was dropped at 17:00). Thursday afternoon I phoned again and spoke to Lesley in accounts. He said but mam you are suppose to speak to customer care. He put me though to Hellen (thank goodness for this lady) she said mam its not a problem. I will take it off while you are on the line. she asked me to switch of my device and on again. Eventually it was fixed. i am thankful for that but very unhappy with the service i received so far. If it wasn't for the fact that I upgraded 2 weeks ago I would have gone to another service provider. I want the situation sorted out with my refund.

Date :26-07-2016
Job No :[protected]

Description :
06-07-2016 my new Samsung S7 about month old just switched off & did not want to switch back on. 07-07-2016 i took the phone back to the store i upgraded my contract with (Vodacom Greenacres) & told them about the problem. The phone was booked in & the consultant that helped me told me she had to send it to their repairs department. Of which we did, signed a couple of forms & it was booked (by the way she never even asked if i wanted my info on the phone backed-up so all the info was lost while in for repairs). a week later i received an sms saying my phone was repaired & ready for collection of which i collected. +- 2days later the phone did the exact same thing after it was "supposedly repaired". I then went back to the store 2 weeks later as was out of town to explain that the 1month old s7 +- R 16 000.00 has done the same thing & that I did not want the phone anymore & wanted a new phone instead as I WAS EXPERIENCING THE SAME PROBLEM! I wanted a new phone instead as it is being paid for irrespective of it not being in my possession. The Consultant then told me she could not do that & I should rather book it in for repairs again (IN BETWEEN THE 2 INCIDENTS I HAD TO BUY A NEW PHONE AS I WAS WITHOUT ONE) & she was adamant she could not help me after back & fourth arguments i eventually got so frustrated i just booked the phone in again as i was getting nowhere. Today their repair center calls me saying they cannot fix it & they have to send to Johannesburg of which the person who contacted me was very rude. In a nutshell the phone is 1month old R16000.00 expensive & nobody at the center is willing to help me. I spoke to the Manager & said he was going to put in some special request to somewhere & call me to tell me i can pick a new phone but he did not sound too convincing. I do not want the phone anymore as its the 2nd time it has been in for repairs. I'm willing to to keep the contract but with a different phone preferably an iPhone to the same value. Please could someone assist.

Regards,

Zaaid

I own a Samsung Galaxy S6 which I got on contract with Vodacom and still falls under warranty. I happened to be charging my device and suddenly it began malfunctioning and a message popped up stating "the device was overheating and all apps were being shut down" at the same time the device was suddenly not charging up until it switched off due to the battery being completely drained and suddenly an error triangle appeared when the device was connected to the charger.

At this point I decided to leave the device for a while and return later to charge it but to no avail, I once again received an error triangle when the charger was connected. This led me to the conclusion that it should be an internal error thus the following morning I dashed to Vodaworld to drop off the device and within a few days I was notified to come and collect it.

I was then informed that my phone could not be repaired or replaced as it fell under "BER - Beyond Economic Repair" due to water damage... Imagine my disbelief as I had not nor ever dropped my phone in water prior to bringing in but Vodacom is adamant that is the cause of the fault.

I refused to take the device there and then since it was not a plausible reason for me and I wanted Vodacom to do a more thorough check. I then proceeded to write an email (image of the email attached as he said was not allowed to cc me on the email) with the individual assisting me so that the matter could be escalated. To date I have not received even a courtesy call from Vodacom to shed some light on my reported all that Vodacom is saying is "it's MY problem" I have no guarantee of potential foul play between the time I handed my phone in until I got it back and as such cannot accept the claim Vodacom is making as I know without a doubt that my device has never made contact with any water.

Considering our relationship that is over a decade old and us staying loyal to Vodacom besides the exorbitant data charges on numerous occasions which we pay with no trouble and misallocation of funds in other incidents yet we still remained, you’d expect Vodacom to try go out of their way to keep a loyal customer but no..

This is outright sad, shameful and insulting. It is clear that loyalty at Vodacom is one sided and we are now questioning why we should remain loyal. I am hoping that this may reach those at the top who have the power to assist me beyond blatantly being told it's not their problem and I must just suck it up, it's honestly unfair.

Horrible Service.
I was applaud by the service I received yesterday and today. While I was porting to Vodacom. Now I'm nervous about my move to Vodacom if service will be like this.The customer representative in this branch did the following.
1. Served other clients while he was put my case aside each time the he was attending to other clients. So I waited each time.
2. Took personals call in front of me the client.
3. Did not know the procedure to porting from one service provider to another.
4. When I stated I wanted to complain his response was "good luck"
The next day when I arrived to pick up the SIM card that I had left because the porting process did not go through the first day which I suspect was caused by the incompetent employee. The following took place:
1. Yelled at by another customer rep
2. My brother threatened by the customer rep from the previous day
3. Laughed at and told good luck by the same customer rep again.
4 . Customer rep refused to test the SIM card.

He was unprofessional to me as a returning Vodacom customer.
Thank you

I handed my handset in for repairs on the 12 May 2016.I didn't get any paperwork nor did I receive a difference number. When I called three days after I received the SMS that said the handset left jhb I called the store and they told me I need to contact the repair centre.I asked about the paperwork they just said they forgot to give it.
I called the repair centre they said they will find out and call me back.I called the repair centre again the next next day cause nobody called me back.The lady told me that they cannot help me without a difference number, I said I did not receive one and she said it should be in the SMS and I told her that the sms's I received did not have any reference number.She told me I need to call the store cause she cannot assist me.
I called the store again, spoke to the store manager and explained all of the above and she said the handset is in the store.I wanted to know why I have not received any SMS to say the handset is at the store and they did send SMS, but it never reached me.
Went to fetch the handset on Tuesday and saw it was a different colour and the manager on duty said I had to wait until he asked the manager. I asked them to call me today after they have spoken to the manager. It was about after 12 that I called as I have not heard anything from the store and were told the manger stepped out. I asked for the regional managers number and were told to call customer service.

Manager called me a while after that and said i need to take the handset as she called HB and they said the handset is discontinued.

I told her I have handed in a handset without any scratches and now they want to give me a different color handset and it have scratches on.They sent it back to the repair centre and I had to follow up all the time and only received the handset the 15 July 2016 but had to pay for the time I did not have any use of the handset.

I am staying two hours from cape town and drove Tuesday 19/07/2016 to century city Vodacom shop (tel [protected]) for my upgrade. I upgraded to the Samsung galaxy S7. When I returned home just to find out that 90% of the time I have got no signal / emergency calls only. In town the signal works great but when the signal is just a bit bad like at home I cant make or receive any calls where as my old device had enough signal to make and receive calls and even got 3G. So on Saturday (23/07/2016) I return to the shop again another 2 hours drive to return phone because its still under the 7 day out of box failure. They told me they must send the new phone to a repair centrum to check the signal. So today I must drive again 2 hours to cape town for my phone to pick it up because they cant find any problem with the phone. Why must I pay for a phone that doesn't pick up signal just when the signal is slightly bad and its a new phone that i have tried to use for two hours before I switch to my old phone. All the other phones are working well where we are staying. They refuse to give me another phone even if it was under the timeframe of the 7 days out of box failure. I have spoken to the manager steven titus. I called Vodacom customer care and they told me if they cant find the problem with the phone and its in the 7 days out of box failure or before three months they must give me a new phone. But needless of what Vodacom customer care is saying the store refused of giving me a new phone.

I have recently migrated to the Vodacom unlimited plan as i use my phone frequently for both business and personal calls. I was told that i would be able to call those i needed to call without any issues. Now, i have to call vodacom on a daily basis to unlock my phone. The service i have received from my local Vodacom Chats Store has been remarkable. However, Vodacom customer care is failing terribly. The are aware of the issue, they have no short term solution and a number of clients including myself are paying for a service we are not receiving unless we activate it every day. I guess the definition of VIP differs at Vodacom. This is not an entry level contract, it is one of the top contracts available. Yet absolutely nothing is being done. Pathetic service. They are not able to tell me how long the issue is forseen to continue. And some days it takes numerous calls to get my phone working again.

I had a data SIM card contract which expired December 2014. On 31 May 2016 I picked up on My Vodacom account an invoice for R 69 265.21. I combed the invoice for more details, but could not find any transactional history. I immediately responded by notifying Vodacom of this and provided them with all the details I could get on the matter. I also reported to them that on 18 May 2016 I received an SMS stating a SIM Swop Order Request that I did not make and that almost immediately afterwards this astronomical invoice amount occurred. Notifying Vodacom of this possible fraud on my account started to turn into a nightmare ever since then. First by reporting the Fraud Complaint, I had to jump though hoop after hoop, by continually phoning them, by getting affidavits and by providing proof of being owner of my account. Not a week into having reported this possible fraud case to be investigated, my cell phone account was completely blocked. I was not even able to make emergency calls on my phone. Being in business myself, that created a communication nightmare. I was unable to communicate with customers, impeding me from doing business and earning money. For a week I had to go to Vodacom branches, during my business hours, to plead for reconnecting my cell number, as it has nothing to do with the fraud case against my data SIM. Day after day they were unable to assist me due to slow systems, or moving over to a new system. They were even unable to run the normal USSD code on my phone. The arrogance of the staff and the incompetence I received was mind blowing. I was told that my account was blocked due to the fact that I have reached my credit limit and that needs to be settled first. The Vodacom self imposed credit limit was R 7 500.00, but when I asked them how did my account then reach an amount of R 69 265.00 if there is a credit limit in place? They just looked at me if I am the fool. Needless to say, Vodacom could not or wanted not to reactivate my number again. The reason the Vodacom consultants gave me for no reactivation - you must be out of airtime. I left Vodacom and opened a new contract at another service provider, because my business was taking a turn for the worst due to me not being able to communicate with customers. Now I am responsible for my Vodacom contract which I am unable to use and my new contract at another service provider. I have been a faithful Vodacom supporter for a very long time, but cannot wait for this nightmare to end so that I never have to deal with Vodacom again.

To top it all, after having notified Vodacom on 31 May of the possible fraud, having supplied affidavits and sending e-mails, they went ahead and deducted on the 1st July 2016 the amount of R 69 265.21. Because I obviously do not have that amount of money in my bank account, it wreaked havoc on my debit orders. This happened over a weekend too. The following Monday I had to go to the bank to try and sort out the mess this created. My bank account was "frozen" until a credit manager with the relevant authority was able to reverse all the transactions and put through the rest of my debit orders. That made me explode, as I am very pro-active on keeping a good credit record. I have phoned Vodacom legal, customer service, the Solutions Team and WSSE Forensics more than I can remember and that is not even counting the e-mails sent and the amount of system generated reference numbers that I have accrued. And still until today ( 2 months later), I am hounded by Vodacom collections and legal to pay my arrears amount of R 69 265.21.

I have absolutely no vote of confidence in Vodacom or in the marketing propaganda they sell of having the Power in Your Hands. As a Vodacom customer you cannot feel anything else but powerless and with absolutely no support. This written complaint will not provide a solution to my current Vodacom nightmare, but at least it is an avenue to vent some anger and frustration.

there was a guy that phoned me regarding my account i unfortunately did not get his name, i must say his service was really good and he did phone me back when he said he would.

but i still have a massive problem, i have a wifi thing that i got last year November, which worked for a month and then never again i have logged so many complaints and nothing gets done i am so fed up
why must i pay for something that i am not getting?

you can check on your system i have complained about that thing more than anything else it is ridiculous i will not pay any longer i will reverse my payments until this gets sorted out

you are stealing peoples money

Enough is enough!
After 7 days not action?
My cellphone was stolen on 14 July 2016.
I called the call centre to block the sim card and blacklist the phone - this were only done after the 2nd call.
I went to Vodacom, Randpark Ridge Mall on 15 July to buy a new sim card and request a sim swop. The consultant told me it would be working within 24 hours.
Contact the call centre on 16 July - feedback were given that the request were pending.
Contact the call centre on 18 July - they don't have record of this request. I were informed to return to the store to get it sorted out.
Returned to the store - the put in a new sim card and were informed that I have to wait another 24 hours.
Contact the call centre on 20 July - hold on for how many minutes and then were told that they couldn't assist me as the system were offline.
Contact the call centre today, 21 July - the card number is incorrect and I need to return to the store for assistance.
Poor, pathetic, customer unfriendly, etc, etc, etc, service.
Paying for a contract which I don't have! One week without a cellphone!

I have a claim on one of my contracts with Vodacom. I upgrated the beginning of February and ask for Insurance for the phone. Now the phone got stolen and I want to claim for it they said to me I do not have Insurance only sim swap Insurance. So I asked them to draw the original documents I signed to see what is the situation. By further investigation they see the Insurance was never been submitted by the consultant. I ask them well how are you going to do the claim because I signed for Insurance and I want support? I suggest they keep the consultant responsible for the problem and claim everything from him. So they discussed it with the shop owner and they suggest I pay for the 6 months Insurance that was never been submitted plus R300 excess and R364.90 (10% of the value of the phone). I feel I will pay for the excess and 10% of the value of the phone but the Insurance for 6 months was not my fault and they should keep the consultant responsible. I phoned vodacom to lock a complaint and they just send me from the one department to the other and at the end they refer me back to the shop and said the Manager of Shop owner must sought it out. It is now Thursday and I reported this last Friday 15 July 2016. Up until now they promise me to get a phone for me and let it be delivered on Wednesday (yesterday) to my daughter, but until now nothing happened and it seem to me they don't feel the same way as I do about this whole situation.

What is going on with Vodacom? I went to the Vodacom Limatra outlet in Ermelo on 11 July. The lady told me she cannot assit with the upgrade as she has no access to the new system (my acc was migrated to it). On 12 July I tried to upgrade online. a consultant told me that she cannot assist either due to the migration. A couple of minutes later another person contacted me and we did the upgrade. He promised delivery by no later than 15 July. On 18 July I visited the Vodacom outlet again, showed them what I want, they confirmed availability but they were offline. On Tuesday 19 July I visited again, guess what, they cannot assist as they do not have stock. Promises of maybe the 20th, it's now 21 July and still nothing. I logged onto Vodacom and found that my online order for the 12th is lying there under order number 1-[protected] and the status Future open. Sow what now? How much time and diesel must I waste before I'll be helped - ever?

Short and sweet.

Dear Vodacom

a Few days ago I had a bill of R1300 whic was fine because I'm on a Red Advantage package for R1000 p/m.

But today my bill so far was R 14, 180.93
Total usage for July 2016 ?

Now, I have tried to contact Vodacom regarding this matter which I believe will be resolved ASAP.

I bought a data bundle for R300 or in that price range and get billed R 14, 180.93!

How does Vodacom expect to keep up Customer satisfaction if Customers can't reach them ?

Oh and dare to bill me for trying to contact customer service.

Vodacom, how are you going to rectify this matter ? Any senior's at the top in Vodacom willing to stand for this ?

What a joke

Jul 20, 2016
3 minutes ago
Vodacom 4.0
Other
Enough is enough
by Est-brooks 1
It's been two weeks since I sent in my iPhone 6s for repairs as the screen went black after plugging it into a charger. After 5 working days I was slammed with a bill of R5698.68 for a replacement phone as their reason was 'it's a bent body and that's under physical damage'. Firstly I got the phone in April? It's giving me problems and now I need to pay 5, 5K. I find this ridiculous as the phone is barely 4 months old, and yes let's say the body is bent? That is not my fault, there are over 5000 websites on complaints about iPhone bodies bending and it's a manufacturing fault or product fault yet now I must pay for it?

What at upset me even more is when Altech Auntopage closed down I was moved over to vodacom and since have been double charged for a handset, which operators have explain to me why BUT their system says I have 19 months of my previous contract remaining as well as the one for the new iPhone ? On top of it they apparently have no past documentation from altech to figure this out? But I must happily pay for two handsets which was not told or explained to me when upgrading and now OVER R5000 for a faulty device.

what upsets me even more is there was not one operator willing to pass me on to someone who could help me even more, half the time I was disconnected or just left on hold until I eventually gave up?
Operators would laugh at my situation ? And tell me their hands are tied?

I am disgusted and see no point in actually furthering my business contracts with vodac because what's the point of paying the monthly installments and everything if when you need their so called great and friendly help it entails throwing money into their bank account.

Lastly this is a business contract and this will not be the only forum that I'll be using. I'm so upset with vodacom.

i phoned your cancellation line (111) on Friday 15 July 2016 1:30 spoke to Simpiwe i was on hold for 22 min,
he promised to phone me back in 15min, well guess what i am still waiting both me and my husband are on fixed contracts, how can it go up with R800.00 this month?
i will not pay that i will reverse that payment
you are a bunch of crooks that does not have any service delivery,
i want to move service providers as you guys absolutely SUCK,

i have logged so many complaints and absolutely NO response from any one at your offices!

i would like to cancel all of my contracts with you i will not pay any longer for NOTHING

I have been a loyal Vodacom customer (contract holder) for as long as I can remember; but with the treatment I got from them im not sure if I will stick around.

I have contacted Vodacom on the 11th of June @ 10am to order a phone online. Although I was not sure of the device I wanted, I finally opted for Samsung Galaxy 87. I was then told that I will receive the phone on Monday the 13 June. The name of the person who assisted me with the order was Pertian. The names in this letter might have spelled wrong but im certain that Vodacom will be able to get the details from the system and recordings.

On Monday, I did not receive the phone or any communication from Vodacom; as such I thought maybe its an opportunity to change the order; thus device and plan. I decided to call them on Tuesday the 14th June, I told the lady about my story and that I would like to change the order since no activity happened on the order yet; but the lady told me that Pertian is not around, she will tell him to call me.

Pertian did not call me, but to my surprise, I get a message that my order has been approved. @ 12:12 pm. Really now (the order which has been placed on Sa****ay; what happened to the following working day delivery promise”)

I then immediately got the message that the phone is awaiting to be dispatched to the courier company.

Okay I then called again and spoken to Shait @ 12;52 and explain to him the story. He told me that Pertian is not on his desk, but he advised that they cannot cancel the order because is out already; I should allow the process to happen and not accept the delivery. They will cancel the order and give me the new phone as soon as they receive the phone back. I then trusted him and did as he advised.

Delivery only took place on Wednesday.

I called them on Monday the 20th June @ 8;48 to check the process since no one called me from their side. They told me again that Pertain is not at the desk AGAIN. I talked to Sabiha again who told me that I have to wait for 14 working days to get everything back on track. And she promised that she will tell Pertian to call me immediately. Today is Friday the 24 June 2016, im still waiting for their call.

Today is the 19 July 2016, but no one ever called me to date

I am so sick of you people, I upgraded last week Thursday, my phone was delivered with a new simcard, and on Saturday morning when the new simcard wasn’t on yet I went to the Irene outlet, and the guy wasn’t very helpful he didn’t even listen to what I had to say or explain anything he just said he can’t help me with the simcard if it was ordered online i need to phone this number 082 111 and do a sim swap, ok so i got home spend almost two hours on the phone jumping from one department to the other, with "Guess What" no result, the lady at the call centre assured me that she will do the sim swap and i will receive a sms before end of day on Saturday, So by Yesterday when my new sim card was still not working I phoned again and after 30 min the lady told me that there is a error on their system because my current order for the new phone is still showing " Pending" which to her was weird cause on the system the cancel date for the order was the 16th and guess what yesterday was the 18th already ... She PROMISED me that she will look into the problem and phone me back before 17h00 yesterday afternoon, Well I waited and waited and waited until this morning still no call, so I phoned again, got through to a lady that clearly had a bad night last night cause she was so rude and sounded like she pulled a triple shift, Guess what this lady told me ... I need to go to a Vodacom shop, hahahaha hahahahaha... so now im back where i started on Saturday morning, I dont care that im swearing or rude you people are useless, I had endless problems just to get upgraded in the first place, and after two weeks of complaining i receive my phone which in any case i cant use... you can be so glad i cant post this to a billboard for the world to see !

This morning my contract line was soft locked by Vodacom. I did not understand why it had been soft locked. I called the customer care call centre to find out and was told that the system showed that my line was active and not locked. I was the transferred to the accounts department who then told me that my account was soft locked because I had reached a R 1000 limit. I then asked how this was possible as I buy airtime when my subscription airtime and data bundle has been depleted. I was then given a wishy washy explanation by a young lady who didn't seem to know what she was doing. I then asked for my line to be unlocked and was told that the accounts department is not able to unlock the line and was subsequently transferred back to the customer care line where I was told that they were also not able to unlock my line because the system showed that my line was active. I was then put through to the "team leader" who told me that his system showed that my line was locked but couldn't determine why my line had been locked. I then asked for my line to be unlocked and again I was told by this "team leader" that he was not able to because they could not establish why it had been locked in the first place. FYI this was now the fourth person I was talking to about the SAME problem. Anyway, the "team leader" promised that he would refer my problem to the technical department and get back to me r.e. progress made on rectifying this issue. That was at 10:00 this morning. I did not receive and feedback and called again at 15:30 and was told that his not around. The 5th person I spoke to assured me that she would give the "team leader" my number and ask him to call me back urgently. it is now 17:00, still no call. Nobody has bothered to give me any feedback and my line is still locked. I'm not able to make any calls or access the internet, even though I still have subscription airtime left and I bought a data bundle this morning. Bad service from Vodacom seems to be a recurring feature in my life, only God knows why I still use them as my network provider. They do not take their customers seriously but they very quick to debit money from one's bank account. I'm really tired of fighting with Vodacom all the time. Its soooooo frustrating, talking to 5 people and not a single one is able to provide you with any meaningful assistance, being promised two feedback calls and receiving none !

I cancelled my contract with Vodacom in 2015 and paid the early cancellation fee. Customer account number: I0918674-1. All of a sudden in May 2016 Vodacom started charging me for my phone again. The charge has gone through for 3 months in a row completely unauthorized - on a bank account that should not have been on file at all since the contract was cancelled. I have spoken to numerous customer service agents on the phone and via email and nothing gets done or responded to. I have sent all relevant documents. I am living overseas now and it has already cost me a fortune to do this follow up. I would like to walk into a Vodacom office and sort this out or throttle someone, but I am in the USA. I would like a full refund plus interest.
I wonder if anyone reads these complaints, or am I talking to myself again!