Fuming at fraud and 'customer service'

Every now and then I get complaints so exasperating that just reading them exhausts me.

Fortunately, they have the same kind of effect - if not worse - on the company executives I forward them to for solving. And it means the responses are usually swift and firmly in the consumer's favour.

The fact that they happen at all is what enrages most consumers. It certainly upset Ian Jones, 59, a Vodacom customer of 20 years' standing whose four-page document highlights a litany of appalling service failures.

Complaints about Vodacom, MTN and CellC are hardly uncommon. Not a week goes by without my having to deal with one of the networks; in a bad week, all three.

But Jones's torrid tale stands out not just for the abominable service he got, but also because of the extraordinary fraud at its heart.

While he and his wife were on holiday in the UK in August, a message from Vodacom is sent to her phone, saying a "vetting application for a new line" had been registered on his account. Hours later another message warned of "unusually high usage", exceeding R17000. The couple didn't read the messages until later that evening, but Jones immediately called Vodacom and had his two voice lines and data line blocked.

On his return to South Africa on August 27, Jones spent four hours at Vodacom's Midrand office, where he asked for his numbers to be unblocked. He was told by a Vodacom consultant that there'd been fraud on his data line to the value of R50000, charges incurred while he was overseas. Jones was told that someone at Vodacom swopped his sim card in error, but that this had been reversed.

The consultant gave Jones the sim-card number being used to access his account and asked him to check his data sim number at home. The card numbers were different.

Jones also supplied an affidavit that he was overseas when the fraud was committed. His two voice accounts were finally unblocked, only to be blocked again by Vodacom the next day.

Several phone calls later, Jones managed to get the phones re-activated - but they were blocked by Vodacom a day later. Several attempts to get help - each time having to repeat his tale to a different agent - failed, with calls being cut off several times.

Jones eventually got the phones re-opened, only to have them cut off again the next day. When he tried to get the matter resolved for the umpteenth time, he was put on hold, transferred and eventually cut off - again.

The next day, Vodacom temporarily raised his credit limit to R50000 to try to resolve the problem and the phones were reactivated. But two days later, Jones's phones reflected "Not registered on network" messages and could not be used.

He was assured by the network's accounts department that the R50000 bill would be reversed and the phones back online in an hour or so. They were, only to be disconnected a day later. Jones e-mailed me in desperation the same day.

"During this period my mother-in-law passed away," said Jones, a banking operational risks manager.

"My wife had the responsibility of making all the arrangements for the funeral and we had to buy a pre-paid sim card for her and use a friend's computer to access our bank account."

Thankfully, when approached, Vodacom didn't attempt to explain away the blunders.

"I'd like to say up front that what happened to Mr Jones is not acceptable and is being dealt with," said spokesman Richard Boorman.

"There were multiple points of failure which led to a dreadful experience and I apologise for this. We've got some work ahead of us to understand each failure and to make sure that we tackle the root causes."

Boorman said the fraud, for which Jones was not liable, involved criminals making 19 calls to the call centre to reset the credit limit on Jones's account, allowing airtime to be transferred. Airtime transfer is a service which allows customers to recharge friends' or relatives' phones from their own account; the airtime equivalent of a bank transfer.

This new fraud involves transferring thousands of rands' worth of airtime at one go, which is probably then sold on by the fraudster.

Boorman said someone inside the banks could be alerting would-be criminals if customers were out of the country and therefore less likely to notice the activity on their accounts.

But how, I asked, did the criminals successfully authenticate themselves as Jones to Vodacom's call-centre staff?

Authentication includes providing account-holder details like the model of phone used, the last three numbers dialled and the value of the customer's last recharge.

Boorman said it was possible such information could have been gained if the password for the customer's online Vodacom account had been compromised (Jones hasn't used his for years). It could also happen through a phone call from someone pretending to be from Vodacom, logging in from a public computer, or through key-logging software.

"We're still investigating and don't know how the criminal had the authentication information. This particular type of fraud seems to be a new development and we're checking all the possibilities," Boorman said.

Jones asked, as did I, whether he couldn't expect some compensation for a saga that involved at least 20 calls to Vodacom.

"In recognition of the circumstances in this case, we are refunding Mr Jones a month's subscription across all three of his accounts," said Boorman.

It seems the very least Vodacom could do.

Tune in to Power FM 98.7's 'Power Breakfast' at 8.50am tomorrow to hear more from Megan

The Power Report will be back on October 19