The Sweet Service Award goes to Incredible Connection in the V&A Waterfront, for offering a keyboard I bought at a reduced price, given that the price on their system was lower than the price on the box! The computer retailer has a bad reputation for being expensive, in my experience, and I have never had the pleasure of paying less for anything over the years of buying there!
The Sour Service Award goes to Vodacom, for cutting off my phone, for an amount of R200 odd being due. However, I had received an invoice from their Gardens Centre branch at the beginning of May, and had paid the invoice in full at the ABSA branch in the shopping centre. I went to the usually more efficient V&A Waterfront branch of Vodacom on Wednesday, and the statement they printed did not reflect the R200 odd amount. They used my phone to call the Accounts department, and I was given the full amount to pay verbally. I had first gone to the Post Office, to check if the latest Vodacom account had arrived (for the past few months I have only been receiving it every second month), but it had not. I paid the R200 odd amount, and was told that my phone would be unblocked within one hour of the payment. I could not pay the June account, as I did not have wifi to transfer money to my credit card, given that the V&A Waterfront’s AlwaysOn wifi does not work on Vodacom phones! I called the Vodacom call centre when it had still not been unblocked after two hours. I must have spoken to about ten call centre operators on Wednesday, being told that my ID number is incorrect, and that the unblocking period can take up to 24 hours! It was unblocked after three hours. However my joy was shortlived, when my phone was cut off after less than 24 hours. I paid the June account plus an additional R200 again just in case yesterday afternoon, and received an sms at 14h31, thanking me for my payment, and stating that ‘your service will be reinstated today if suspended. A proof of payment or call back to us is not required’. The phone remained blocked for 24 hours, with no communication from Vodacom!
The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog. Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at whalecot[at]iafrica.com. Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog.
Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.whalecottage.com/blog Tel 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@WhaleCottage Facebook: click here Instagram: @Chris_Ulmenstein
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Why complain about Vodacom on your blog? Send them a tweet, and they’ll sort it out for you in minutes, I guarantee. Twitter is the only efficient channel for customer service complaints in SA. It works, every time.
Hi Travis
I shared a link to the Sour Service Award on Twitter three times yesterday, and have not heard a word from them!