I logged a complaint on hellopeter more than a month and a half ago and to date, two cell c consultants contacted me to say that they are looking into the matter but nothing has been done. I took my cell phone in for repairs and the guy who attended to me, did not remove my memory card nor did he inform me that i had to do it. The phone came back without my memory card and i was told at the cell C store at Clearwater that it would be my problem. I refuse to accept that. Cell C Clearwater too did not ONCE make contact with me. Can a company like cell c not afford to replace a customer's memory card seeing as one of their staff members proved incompetent? I am still waiting for a response. No call to update me or to let me know what's happening and please stop telling me my query is being dealt with or that you are liaising with the management of the repair centre because i dont think it takes that long.

A 3 or 4 months ago my husband upgraded his contract and got a new phone. 6 weeks ago this phone stopped charging and we took it back to Cape Gate Centre (where it was purchased) for them to repair it. They informed us it would take 4-6 weeks to repair which we patiently waited for. After 5 weeks we were informed the phone was fixed and ready to be collected. We collected the phone and were assured it was repaired. We took it home and put it on charge as the battery was flat. Once again the phone was still NOT charging!!! We took it back to Cell C Cape Gate and they said they have to send it away again and will take 4-6 weeks!!! If the phone just came back from repair after 5 weeks how can it still be broken? No one could answer us as they say they dont know what the repair dep fixes on the phone!!! This is redicilous... Why are we paying the contract fee every month if we dont even have the phone. PLUS they couldnt even give us a loan phone!!!

My Sony Ericson C902 keypad came loose – a factory fault. It’s impossible to use the phone like this. I took the phone to a Cell C dealer in Centurion Mall at my earliest convenience on 30-06-2010. My phone is insured. We phoned Cell C after a while enquiring my phone’s repair. According to the consultant on the phone, the fault was not on their system. We went back to our Centurion branch to enquire. After that several consultants phoned, telling us we don't have the phone insured for it does not show on the system; however it’s very clear in our contract and on all monthly bills. Finally after a few more weeks another consulted phoned stating they have updated their side to include our insurance and that my phone will be repaired and I’ll soon receive a message stating the date of repair. After that another consultant named Natasha Gopi contacted us asking to complete an incident form. We completed it &sent it. After this we never heard of any of the consultants again. We have been phoning regularly and sending emails to her, unfortunately no formal response. I regret taking out a Cell C contract, where I've had bad service, bad response and you pay for what you don't get.
Mobile no: 0842221016
Account no: 01093251

Dear all,

I have a query with Cell C ongoing from the 30 June 2010. The feedback / response is so dramatic it is shocking...

Despite reminders that I've been sending daily there is almost no response and this type of service is the worst I've ever experienced.

See email below...
Good day,
I Mr. E. Ramiah was owing Cell C R135.41. My contract ended March / April 2010 and I discontinued this contract.
I have made a cash payment for the outstanding amount yesterday 29/06. (proof of payment attached)
I am disgusted that Cell C had me listed with ITC without advising me this was going to happen... I feel this was very unprofessional and uncalled for!!!
If Cell C had made me aware this was going to happen I would have made payment sooner.
I need to you confirm that funds have been received and send a letter to ITC to have my name de-listed.
Confirm when this is going to take place.
I hope your response time is just a quick as getting me listed..

Dear Goons, Ventriloquist dummies and anything else that calls itself a customer service agent at CELL C,

I am writing this complaint not in the hope that anything will actually be done, but so that I have some detail to base next week’s complaint letter on and also to have an email to send around the internet to Friends and Family who may be wondering why I am no longer contactable. Maybe this note finds its way into the right hands at places like 702 and ICASA.

So here is my sorry story.

Sometime last Month, I was called by a sales agent, offering me an upgrade. We discussed what packages were available to me. I stated that one of my requirements was a GPS. We settled on a Samsung STAR. I also requested 2 more things from the agent: I must be given 24 hours notice of delivery and I would confirm a delivery address and also I needed a new SIM card to be included in the package.
All fine so far.

So a few days later, I get a call from home that my CELL PHONE is being delivered and they need my ID number. This was not expected but I could live with it.
I opened the package when I got home. NO SIM CARD was not included – second instruction not followed.

I then phoned Cell C to notify them that I still needed a SIM card. It arrived 2 days later.

I installed the SIM card and it did not connect. I phoned Cell C to get it activated. I waited the required time and when I turned on the phone- No connection.

I phoned Cell C and after holding on for a while, all the time being reminded how valuable my time was, not to mention how much I was paying to Vodacom for the privilege of waiting for CELL C to respond, was told I would now get a new number and a SIM swop had to be done by a very unhelpful agent and I should now call 140 to get this done.
I called 140 but now required my new 10 digit phone number, and because I was getting a new number, could not respond the their mindless requests to enter a number I did not have before I could talk to another faceless and helpless Cell C goon.

I called 145 later and was told they could do a SIM swap and it would take 5 more hours. I tried in 5 hours time – No connection. I thought maybe my phone was damaged, so I put in a VODACOM SIM card – Connected, no problem. I tried the following morning with the Cell C SIM card – no connection!

I then Called Cell C – by now it is Saturday Morning. By now I am more the grumpy: I have had to answer the same THREE security questions - one more time, hang-on for many minutes, explain my problem to a different goon. The only exciting thing is the suspense - waiting for a different story or being given a different task to perform or being told to dial another Cell C number.
THIS TIME, I was told that the wrong SIM card had been delivered for this model of phone and I would have to call back on Monday morning to order a new one. It was the weekend and they can’t help! How insane of me to even consider they could do anything about this.

By this point, I had spoken to at least 6 agents in the week and was no closer to getting a CONNECTION on the Cell C network. And I should call CELL C one more time! I have nothing better to do than find out from their IVR how valuable my time is.

On the Saturday Morning Call, I took a chance and mentioned to the Agent that the phone that was delivered did not have a GPS! What was I thinking …
I was told by the agent that I should not have opened the box. Yeah Right! Maybe at Cell C they train them to use a device without opening the box! They are definitely not trained for anything customer facing.
How could I be so stupid to open the box … to get the phone? Maybe? … and maybe I was looking for the missing SIM card.

I then decided on a new approach – Write an email. That way, there can be no confusion and no need to explain to another of the Ventriloquist dummies the issues –there were still TWO and nearly 2 weeks have passed.

On 26 May, I got a new SIM card. To my extreme surprise, the SIM card worked – for 2 hours. And has not worked since. It is 17 June. It is still showing unregistered SIM.

In the meantime: I started making some progress(?) on the phone model without a GPS: Sipho, a CELL C customer agent, called me and I explained the issue again regarding the GPS functionality that was promised to me. He said he would investigate and get back to me. I had to send another email a few days later to remind someone I was waiting for a response.
I did get a call eventually saying the listened to the recording and my story around the GPS phone is correct. They were telling the wrong person! I knew that…

I have been called a couple of time, asked to read out some insanely long number on the SIM card so they can check something. Each day, in hope, I switch on the phone to see if the poor dumb device can find someone to talk to, but tomorrow is another day in the Telco industry, and I have only been a customer for 3 years – minus the last month of course!

So this is the 5th email is have sent. I have no answers to the two issues.

This is how it will end.
In a week’s time, I will get a bill from CELL C for a month’s contract charge. Possible a charge for 2 SIM cards, neither of which work and then they will say the phone they supplied is NOW old and they cannot take it back. I have carried this phone to work every day for a month hoping that some alien will call and tell me to perform some task and the device will miraculously attach to the network and I can make a call.

That’s some fairy tale!

Is there anybody out there?
Let me explain in 1 simple sentence because I doubt whether there is anyone at CELL C customer service that has an attention span that could read this whole note remember what this issue is about: I NEED A PHONE WITH A GPS THAT CAN CONNECT TO THE CELL C NETWORK> that’s all.


Keith.