ocity

I’m on a prepaid vodafone phone. Week before last, when I tried to make a call, my phone told me I had 2 days before my credit period expired, so I’d better hurry up and recharge if I wanted to keep all my credits, V2V free minutes and text credits. So, I recharged as soon as I made that call I needed to. I got my receipt smsed to me. Two days later, I tried to make another call, and my phone said I had 0 days left before my credit period expired. WTF? So I did an account balance request so it would sms me the details. Good thing I did that. Because later on that day, ALL of my credits, V2V minutes and my text credits were GONE. Zip, zilch, zero. Everything. ARGH! So I called “customer care”…
CC: I’m sorry, ma’am, our systems are down…
me: oh really? and how long have they been down for and when do you think they’ll be back?
CC: if you call back later today, we can give you all the information you need
me: how long have your systems been down for, and when do you think they’ll be back?
CC: call back later today… (and so it goes on)

I eventually find out that their systems have been down for the same amount of time that my account has been at zero.

So, I also eventually find out that to get any info on my account, I need to give them my 4 digit PIN… that I would have set up at least 5 years ago… as if I’d remember it.
CC: give me your name
me: (I give them my name)
CC: give me your date of birth
me: (I give them my date of birth)
CC: I’m sorry ma’am, that information is incorrect. I cannot give you any further information
me: WTF?
CC: you will have to go into a local vodafone store and show them photo ID and they can then give you the information you need.

Turns out the CC was a total dick and could have just asked for my driver’s licence number. my details werent incorrect, just abbreviated. moron.

Then, I went to the vodafone store. the staff there were brilliant. not as much could be said for customer care. yes, the vodafone store staff call the same number as I call… so stupid.

So, the vodafone staff member managed to get the CC person to get them to restore the credit recharge that didnt seem to go onto my account. $20. But where’s the rest of the credit from before? Oh, let’s call CC again. Oh, CC can’t see it, but the vodafone store staff can. A bit of to-ing and fro-ing goes on, and the vodafone staff member gets cut off. I show the vodafone staffer the account balance sms to make sure she knows what I want restored to my account. “yep yep, I’ve got that info here. no problems. go shopping and I’ll keep trying CC and get it sorted out”

Not long afterwards, the vodafone staffer calls me. “It’s all fixed. the credit’s back, turn your phone off and on and everything should be there.” Of course, it’s not. the credit is, but not the V2V minutes, or the text credits. I take my phone back to the vodafone store to show the staffer.

“Oh, I didnt know about that – that’s not on my systems.”

ARGH.

So, she calls CC again and gets them to see if they can restore the other credits. “Sure, they’ll look into it and call you in an hour.” That’s great…

2 minutes later, a CC operative calls me to let me know that he’ll put the other credits that should have come with the $20 recharge and then find out about the rest and call me in an hour.
I accept…

3 hours later. no call. I call the vodafone store. staffer calls me back saying that apparently the CC operative wants ME to call HIM. ARGH.

So I call.
CC: oh, that guy is probably very busy with other calls.
me: but he was meant to call me 3 hours ago.
CC: he’s in billing, and he’s probably very busy
me: get him to call me urgently!
CC: I’ve sent him an email
me: ….

Another 4 hours later, still no call from the billing guy. So, instead of calling CC, I call billing.

B: he’s busy, but maybe I can help you?
me: (explain the situation.)
B: I cannot restore those credits because they’re not on any of our systems.
me: of course they must be somewhere – your system sent me the sms
B: I dont have any information
me: you’re gonna fix this. if you can’t fix this, then you’ll put me onto your team leader and they’ll fix this. if they cannot fix this, then I will go to your complaints department. if -they- cannot fix this, then I will go to the TIO. So, put me through to your team leader.
B: please hold.

The team leader tries to give me the same bullshit. I tell her about the account balance sms again. Her solution – go to a store and show the sms to a vodafone staffer and get them to call billing and she can fix it.

OMG. how PATHETIC can these systems be?

What I cannot believe, aside from the stupid crazy arse procedures, is that the credits were lost the first place. The credit recharge history clearly showed I had done the recharge before the expiry period, yet it still wiped my account. And the CC operatives even agreed that I had recharged in time, yet they could not explain why my account had been cleared of all credits. If I was the software manager, there’d be some butts kicked. Really hard.