Continued problems with poor service have now forced Louis Trichardt resident Mr WAS Nel to draw up a petition against cell phone giant Vodacom.

Nel and his wife, Barendine, run a guest house and several other businesses from their farm just outside of Louis Trichardt. He purchased a two-year MyMeg 500 data contract at a cost of R258-50 per month from Vodacom as he relies on e-mails and the Internet for his businesses. Up to August this year, he had no problems with the Vodacom signal to his farm, but since September had little if any signal.

Numerous attempts by him to resolve the problem went unanswered, with Vodacom giving little if any explanations as to the cause of the sudden loss in signal.

On October 9, the Zoutpansberger ran an article about the Nels’ complaint and spoke to Ms Nicolene Visser, Vodacom spokesperson and executive head of corporate communication, who informed the newspaper that Vodacom was busy looking into Mr Nel’s problem. She also said that a team of Vodacom technicians was in the area at that stage to investigate the problem and that they would keep in touch with Mr Nel. Since then, Nel has received almost no feedback. He did, however, receive a visit from another Vodacom technician at the end of November. The technician could neither gain access to the Internet via Mr Nel’s computer, nor with his [the technician’s] own computer. The technician then told Nel to take the Vodacom modem to a local Vodacom agency in Louis Trichardt to check if the instrument was defective. It came back with a “no fault” verdict.

Almost three months on, Nel says the problem still persists, with Vodacom continuing to charge him his full monthly subscription without his getting any service.

On November 30, the Zoutpansberger sent an e-mail to Ms Dot Field, chief communications officer of corporate communications at the Vodacom Group. The e-mail outlined Nel’s frustration and asked her to comment as to the possible nature of the problem and what Vodacom could do to assist the Nels in, amongst others, either cancelling the contract or being refunded.

The newspaper got no response from Field’s office and on December 2, the Zoutpansberger sent the same e-mail again, this time to Vodacom’s customer care centre. An automated response to confirm receipt of the e-mail was received.

“A contact centre consultant will respond to your query within 12 - 24 hours. Please do not reply to this email,” read the e-mail.

Sure enough, on December 4, the newspaper got a reply from a Ms Fatima Taliep, stating that the newspaper’s media enquiry had been forwarded to their executive liaison officer who would contact the newspaper.

Once again, no response was received and on December 10, the Zoutpansberger sent another e-mail to Taliep, asking for a reply. On December 12, another e-mail was received from Vodacom’s customer care centre, this time from a Naasir Galant. Galant apologized for not responding within 12 hours (12 days after our sending the first media enquiry) and said they were currently experiencing high email volumes and would make contact with us as soon as possible.

By December 16, the Zoutpansberger had yet to receive a response from Vodacom. Nel says he now has no option but to continue with his petition. He did, however, say that shortly after the newspaper sent the first media enquiry on November 30, he received a phone call from a Vodacom consultant, offering him one month’s refund on the contract, but without offering to cancel the contract.

Nel’s petition reads, amongst others, that “… we the undersigned complain about the poor service we are receiving from Vodacom and the fact that Vodacom does not react to improve the services rendered i.e. (a) We do not get onto the Internet due to weak signal; (b) Vodacom officials who have visited us to establish what the problems are could also not get into the Internet with their own laptop computers and admitted that the signals are not strong enough; and (c) Although the officials admitted that the problem lies with Vo-dacom, nothing has been done to improve the services.”

Nel asked fellow aggrieved Vodacom customers to phone him if they wish to support his campaign. He can be contacted on 072 647 8446.