Cell C
Reviews and Complaints

My phone was stolen, I reported it to cell c, gave them a case number and sent this to them on Monday I called in for feedback the next day and they informed me they could not read the form, . I re-sent the same form to them they can now read it but I still do not have any feedback from them, no call, no reply to my mail-nothing!.

I called in today yet again as I have done all week, I spoke to a katlego Kagiso who asked me for my banking details-I asked why he needed my banking details to verify me he hung up on me. I then spoke to Nwabisa Skepu I told her my whole story above and she said that because I sent my form yesterday I have to wait another 24-48 hours, when I told her I had sent the same form on Monday and that cell c was late she rudely replied 'If you say so'.

I hate dealing with cell c now, because none of their staff are properly trained, they are unprofessional and incompetent I have now been without a phone for 2weeks one of those weeks spent chasing my network provider for service-I pay my premium every month and yet cell c staff always treat me with nothing but disrespect-I want my claim resolved now with some sense of urgency and then I'm cancelling.

I had a SIM card registration failed error on my phone last week Wednesday (23rd September). On Thursday I went to the Cell C Shop and did a SIM swap (they said that the SIM card was 'broken' and it cost me R150), the Friday morning Lucky called me and said that the SIM card would be activated during that morning. Friday afternoon I called customer care again saying that the problem still persists, they then cancelled my contract and re-activated it again to see if it does not work. It is now Monday morning and the problem still persists. I went to the Cell C shop again and they called Customer Care. Apparently it is now a network error and I must wait between 24 and 48 hours. I got a reference number: 3636323 and the person's name is Luzanne. Please help me, I need my phone to be working.

I contracted with a Cell C direct store for 2 contracts(casual chat)subject to a free offer of a 32 inch Telefunken LCD TV. The phones are 2 entry level Nokia phones at a monthly subscription of R145 each. The long & the short of it is, the next day after connecting the TV, I noticed the screen was defective. I immediately informed the store of this defect & returned it the next day. Both the store manager & owner informed me that the TV was to be returned to their supplier who was to replace the TV with a new unit. They couldnt say how long this will take & after a week had gone by I was told that the supplier does not have stock. They undertook to inform me as soon as they had word. Almost a month has passed & Im still possession of the TV for which I'm expected to pay for. No attempts were made by the store of sourcing another set from another store & when I suggested this as an option the owner said it would place his store second to others. I dont see how thats my problem?I lodged with customer services, to date haven't had any response. I contracted for these contracts purely with the intention of having the use of the TV offered. I want this contract cancelled at no cost!

I had two contracts with Cell C, but ported one of them to Vodacom around 6 weeks ago. My most recent invoice from Cell C still shows the ported number, with zero call charges, but an R18.86 itemised billing charge. The call centre can't even find the contract on their system, because it no longer exists.

I was transferred to the billing accounts department but was on hold for ages. I certainly am not going to pay for the call while I am on hold so that you can fix your mistake. Please get somebody to phone me to sort this out, I require a new invoice please.

I am using the AG Bomshell phone that was supplied by Bayport in JHB. I can not access internet and cannot send mms and it says i have to subscribe for GPRS and no body can help me. It is not the good phone at all. I have phoned bayport and people spoken to do not know their products. For that matter i have stopped paying for this phone and now i am having a bad record cos i am not paying anymore. Other person told me that he will send people to collect it so it can be fixed, but that was never done. I have also gone to cellphone shops, but cell c and vodacom do not have the settings of this phone. It is a bad phone and Bayport cellular do not care about their customers.

After Cell C offered a contract and I accepted, I recieved my delivery. I gave all the documents that was requested and signed all I was asked to. Now after almost 3 weeks I still do not have a registered sim. I registered online and was told it would be activated in 24 hours, 2 days laters I phoned in and was again told 24 hours. I have now spoken to at least 12 different people and been into a Cell C branch, I still have an unregistered sim. I have been told that the contract is with Cell C Connect but when I phone Cell C Connect I am told I do not have a contract with them. When speaking to a supervisor I am told to phone some one else. After phoning the following numbers I still have had no responce nor has my issue been dealt with or rectified; [protected] 084145 [protected] [protected] 140. As far as I am concerned Cell C are not only totaly incompetent but do not care for customers once they have our money.

Cell C cancelled my contract and they collect the phone and sim from me because of retrenchment. On the 28th of August, they took a double debit order of R688.28 from my account. First I want to know why a double debit order and secondly how can they take it, if the contract is cancelled?!

I do not have a income and my husband paid some money into my bank account to buy food for the house. As I needed the money, it was all gone, because Cell C took everything. I am not happy about this and I want my R1376.56 back!

I could not buy food for the house and it was our last money! Really I am satisfy about this and because of Cell C, I can not feed my family this month!

I have cancelled this contract in around 2006 due to poor service and Cell C that did not met their part of the contract due to poor service and over billing. Beginning of this year 2010 I received a call from VVM Attotneys to pay an account of R23000. I have requested a full break down of this account. Because the amount I am charged with is ridiculous R23000.00 for cancelling of this contract. In the first place on cancelling of this contract I was not told that I am going to pay this amount. My Legal team has also tried calling VVM Attorneys and emailed them to sort this matter out but with no luck. Their contact numbers don’t work at all they don’t reply back on their emails or faxes. But you get screwed up to pay.This is going on for 6 months.

I advised Cell C on the 11.08.09 that my banking details were changing and received a email response from Gerald S Mathebula on the 18.09.09 as confirmation that the details had in fact been changed. The account was changed from a savings to a chq account. I also called Cust Serv twice after that just to confirm as I have had quite a few occations where instructions were given and not followed through.

Surprise, surprise, I receive 3 sms's from Cell C this morning @ 05:30 saying that my account is in arrears and my services will be suspended in 2 days! This is unacceptable - not only is my bank going to charge me for the insufficient funds in my savings acc (R66.00) but this could also affect my future credit rating with my bank (Nedbank). By the way, there is more than enough monies in the CHQ account that I had asked them to debit. I want this matter rectified IMMEDIATELY and a letter from Cell C stating that they were in the wrong by debitting the incorrect acc. Also, I want to have them arrange to take the instalment from the CORRECT acc today.

I will definately not be renewing my contract with Cell C when it expires in Dec.

I logged a complaint on 02july and again on 09july and up to today, no help, assistance or even a phone call update on my complaint. Does it really take this long to get a call recording, my word is clearly not good enough, the system log is clearly not good enough but the call cannot be traced, so i just have to continue to pay for a contract that i dont have. I cant cancel our three contracts without paying a fee, but i am not gonna renew our contracts when they reach their 24mths. Mine is up for renewal real soon.

For the past 3 years I have been paying my cell phone account r100.00 per month, in this last year my phone has been barred 23 times - the reason is they are using a new system and my payment must now be made on the 20th of every month at the bank -

First of all I have no time to go to the bank
Second of all, why the change, I have been making payments for the last 3 years through an eft

I got an email from the tell the trevor service centre - saying that it has now changed to the 25th of every month and still to datye my phone has not been switch on -

All my airtime has been forfeited

I am really not impressed at all

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.

bad management at cell c highveld mall Witbank (highveld Mall). cell c employed a young lady (20) as a manager to run the cell c store in witbank! but she is not fit for the position she is in! she is never at work when a client needs to see her, nor she is at home or it is her day off! she is going to be the down fall for that store! i think it is it is unfair to leave her staff members alone in store to do her job for her and run the shop! as manager she must be in store by all time to help when help is needed and to be there to suport her staff members but insted she is never in when we need her and the times she is in store she desides to go home early! emails was send to cell c head office and the so called manager is stil not doing her job so i think you sould give her the boot and get a REAL manager that is willing to do the job! in fed up with the bad management of cell c in witbank

I renewed my 125 control contract in Desember. They made a mistake and put me on casual chat. The phone is for my mom who never really uses it as she can make free calls from work. An amount of R389 was deducted and i contacted them in Jan. Since then i have struggled to get the correct contract and now i receive sms that R255 will also be deducted on the 15th, so that brings the total to R650 in two weeks. I will never take out any contract with them again and will spread the word about there poor service and taking money from people as they can not rectify the problem. I also have a contract with Vodacom now for 10 years and not once i had a problem. Cell C is pathetic

Guys please do something or i am out of Cell C. Why your call charges this much? I can't tolarate to make a single minute call for R8.00. This airtime issue started since you cancelled your free calls on weekend or are you trying to replace theu money! please do something cause at the moment i 'am using two networks and experiencing a huge airtime problem with you. I started using two networks after this airtime problem and i dont recharge Cell C cause it will be a call, afterwards a message, ( YOU DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH AIRTIME TO MAKE THIS CALL) ooh Please!

In december 2009, I took my daughter to the cell c branch at the liberty mall in pietermaritzburg as her upgrade was due. When we enquired about it they advised us that the upgrade had already been done by a t. Mashifane on the 31/10/2009. When we asked how this is possible they said that cell c direct must have phoned our 13 year old daughter to ask her if she would like the upgrade done and if she had answered yes then they would have posted the actual phone to our physical address and that anyone can sign receipt thereof. Is it legal to get permission from a minor to upgrade her phone when it is not even in her name? We proceeded to ask for proof of this call to my daughter as all their calls are apparently recorded and for proof of the delivery of the phone and to see a signature of who signed for it. They lodged the query for us and asked us to come back on the 10th of january 2010 which we proceeded to do. Upon returning they told us that it still had not been resolved so they lodged another query and issued us with reference number 3970652 and proceeded to advise us that it would take a further 48 to 72 hours. As it still had not been resolved by the 26th of january 2010, I reqested them to relodge the query and they issued me with reference number [protected] and again instructed me to wait a further 48 to 72 hours. On the 29th of jauary I again weht in and as no response was still forth coming I asked them to call cell c direct while I waited. Carol naidoo took the call and proceeded to inform me that I would have to wait a further 48 hours. When I enquired what the delay was she informed me that she would have to track down the waybill for the proof of the delivery and the signature. When I asked her why this information had not been obtained when the original query was lodged in december 2009 she could only state that she had not dealt with the query previously so could not answer this. I think this is purely an avoidance tactic as they know that this is a case of fraud and this is why I cannot get a single honest answer from one person but am put through to a different person every time! This is the final straw and I am now demanding that as this upgrade was not signed for by myself, martin naude', this contract is nul and void and must be cancelled immediately.

Good day

I am very upset with the way that Cell C are treating there clients. I was robberd from all my belongings on my way to work. I then phoned in to get my phone block so that who ever took cannot make use of it. I was asked to fill in a blacklisting form and to fax it which i did immediatly. I found it very strange that they cant pick up my phone on there system because I bought it on Cell C and I used the same sim the whole time. I have been waiting a whole week for them to give my an ITC number because my job requires that I have a phone or els I wont be able to do work (which I need because I am a single mom and I need my job). I am so angry with them I have phoned everyday and are just told that they are still investigating. I want to know what there is to investigate cause it's my phone which I am paying and was stolen I want to blacklist.

Your assitance will be apreciated. I feel like telling everyone what a terrible cellphone network service Cell C is .

Regards
Edwina Kiewiets

It is pathetic that my sister, also using cellc has no problem what so ever with her service but me sitting next to her has a huge problem. My phone is dead I cant to anything on it and my sister gets calls and everthing. So can you please explain that to me I would really appreciate it alot really. It is really irretating cause I have to pay every month but nothing on this service works and if you walk into a cellc shop the people are so damn rude they let you feel as if you're an idiot and I am actually the one paying their salary. I am actually sitting not more than 600 meters from a netwoek server and I dont even have one bar of signal and my sister also using cellc sitting next to me has full signal, how does that work?

i cannot believe how bad the network is with the cell c group. One will think that cell c is a good network seeing that vodacom is their support but i guess its the worst network one could be on. I just contacted the customer service dept of cell see and they advised that the will be almost no newtwok coverage till january next year, how darn inconvenient is that. you guys better do something and fast because no way am i going to keep up with this

Wow, where do I even start? When I upgraded, I got a phone that i had to pay in for, as I wanted a good one. I negotiated with Cell C and paid in a small amount and they were happy and I was happy. I knew that I had C cover on my phone with the contract I had. I did however as them if I needed to take out extra cover, (they have a recording of this)... to which they responded no... you have cover on your package. I was happy. My phone was stolen a few months ago. I had a HUGE dispute with cellC about the fact that they wanted me to pay in over R3000, 00 for a replacement. They said they were willing to halve the pay-in amount... I was not happy as I was told when I asked that I did not need any more cover then I already had. WELL, I eventually got my phone replaced and Cell C said I was good and there was no charge other than the R350, 00 excess. THEN... on the 1st of July, a debit order for CellC went off my bank account for over R3000, 00. I was LIVID. I phoned and after much debating, they said they would organise that I get credited. It would take 3-7 working days. It has now been over 3 weeks, it is the 23rd of July... I still do not have my money back. I have phoned and phoned and phoned. I keep getting told that 'so-and-so' will call you, or 'my system says you have been credited' ... and a bunch of empty promises. My bank account has been overdrawn because of this and I am sitting with between R500, 00 and R600, 00's charges because of other returned debit orders etc. I can't believe the incompetence. I am disgusted, totally and utterly flabberghasted that they can't just fix a mistake... they have had 3 whole weeks... SHOCKING. I am so tired and don't know what to do anymore. I was told this morning again that someone else would call me... nothing yet.