Thread title refers to the time when Vodacom changed to the new logo and colours, and when their slogan was "Vodacom is Red!", apparently meaning that they are dynamic, on the ball, and who knows what else.
Well I want to share my experience with them this week. Wanted to do an early upgrade, or as they like to call it, a premature upgrade. I can think of other terms that also start with the word premature, especially the term to describe when a man gets "excited" too quickly, but believe me, there was no excitement in this case.
Anyway, I phone the upgrade department, they check their system and approve the upgrade. Wants me to pay in cash for the phone. I say no, I want to take the option where you finance the phone as well, like everybody does nowadays. In that case, they reply, they need to assess my portfolio and make a decision, this will take 48 hrs, and I will be notified.
I phone again 72 hrs later, because nobody came back to me. Upgrade approved, they send me a quotation. I cannot open the quotation, because it is password encrypted. Nobody can help me with a password. They suggest the problem is om my iPad, and that I should try to open it on a PC, or "install an application called Adobe Reader on the iPad"...
Never mind. Let's try faxing it. Faxing it to my fax2email service doesn't work. When I try to phone them from a Postnet, I cannot even get through to the upgrade department from my own number. Phoning from a different cellphone gets you through immediately. Sorry, they say, cannot send a copy of the quote anymore, because the upgrade has been processed. OK, let's just hope the right phone in the right colour gets delivered to me...
Another issue - my data bundle ran out and I want to top it up. Now listen to this! Using the My Vodacom app on my smartphone, it will cost me R79 for 1Gb. Dialling *111# from my cellphone, it will cost R149! So let's do it through the app! No, the app "says", I am not the master account holder. The master account holder (which is me, by the way), needs to approve it. (My data is on a seperate line, but same account). I phone the call centre, they cannot see anything wrong, and thus unable to help me. I finally managed to top up through their website.
For a company that see themselves as the country's "leading cellular network provider", and use terms like "we are Red!" and "power to you!", they leave a lot to be desired in their processes and customer service.
Sorry Vodacom, you are not Red. It is ME who is red, red in the face, but not from anger...rather exhaustion.
TL;DR Vodacom is useless. :cry: