I feel I really need to share my story with you. If you are a new, old or future Vodacom iPhone user you really need to read this!
I have been a Vodacom customer ever since cellphones came out in South Africa
and have never ever had a problem with them until this last year. A bit of detail on me: I currently have 3 Vodacom contracts, which cost me roughly R2000 per month. I own a small IT/ISP business and have been in the industry for 10 years. I sell more than
R100 000 on average per month of hardware supplied by whom I believe are the best distributors in RSA.
My story begins in Oct 2010 when I received my new iPhone 4 after owning the
iPhone 3G purchased from Digicape which I had used for over two years and which hadn’t given me even a hint of a problem. I was so happy to have the iPhone 4 – what an awesome phone! My
problems started in March 2011 when at 4am my phone started randomly phoning
people and playing music. Even when I turned it off it would turn itself back on
and start phoning people, Crazy! The only way to stop it was turning it on to Airport Mode.
The next day I took it into Cape Town’s Greenpoint-based Vodacom Customer Care. The
phone was shipped to JHB and a week later I got a response saying the phone had ‘water damage’.
Now, I love my iPhone! It has lived in its protective case since the day I bought
it, and I don’t remember at any point where my phone was exposed to water. This was
extremely hard for me to swallow. I expressed my opinion to Vodacom that their report was inaccurate and that it has not been in contact with water. They responded by saying that they have proof. So I decided that maybe, maybe someone that was using my phone might have exposed it to water. But then again I never really let anyone use my phone. So I gave Vodacom the benefit of the doubt and I put the claim into my insurance – R5300 for a brand new phone and paid the excess.
After not having had a phone for a month I went to collect my new “ replacement “ phone
from Vodacom Greenpoint. The phone that I received was not in a sealed Apple box and did not come with manuals or charger. So happy to have my phone back! That first week I
noticed that when I pressed the main iPhone button ( Home Button ), it didn’t respond as well as
my last phone. Every now and again I would have to press it harder than usual. I thought
this may be a software problem but in Oct 2011, after upgrading my software to
iOS5, I noticed that the problem couldn’t be software and after checking my
friends’ phones, their buttons were a lot more responsive.
I really didn’t want to be without my phone for another month but eventually I
found a break in my busy schedule to check it into to Vodacom again hoping that
Vodacom would honour their warranty. After checking in the phone the consultant
told me that I was very close to the end of my warranty period. I told him that
this was a brand new replacement phone from March and that it should have at least a one-year
warranty. He responded by saying that Vodacom replacement phones do not come with
a new warranty. Wow! He informed me that I only had one day left on
the warranty from the previous Oct 2010 phone. I was just glad that it was still
under warranty.
A week later I got a call from Vodacom JHB saying that I had broken my phone (something about a pin) and that I must pay over R4 000 to fix it. The phone was
playing up the week I got it! Every time I said this to them they failed
to acknowledge the comment and deflected me. They kept saying I broke the
phone. I started telling my friends this story and they all say the same thing:
‘Yeah Vodacom, water damage, hahahaha.’ It’s pointless me saying this to Vodacom but
honestly I have not at any stage mistreated my phone! Why do South
African Vodacom users put up with this! As I said in the beginning, I sell a fair amount of
hardware and I have never seen a warranty as bad as this. It is Awful!
What actually does it cover? After kicking up a storm at the call centre, they
then said they would reduce the cost of the repair because I spend a fair amount of money
with them. It’s a warranty – what about the lesser Vodacom users? Must they pay
full amount!?
Anyway this is what i have learnt from this mess: DO NOT BUY A REPLACEMENT
IPHONE FROM VODACOM. If your insurance is paying, rather buy an iPhone from
Digicape with an Apple warranty. I feel Digicape really look after their customers
well. You might even get your broken iPhone back and you can sell it for parts.
It seems like Vodacom is buying bulk iPhones from Apple at a nicely reduced rate
without an Apple warranty and is using South African insurance companies to cover
their warranties. Dodgy!
I hope that you will benefit from this article. It’s not right that South African
consumers bear the pain that Vodacom is causing!
Please forward/retweet #vodacomiphone to your iPhone friends and family.
