Cell C
Reviews and Complaints

An upgrade was processed on my contract on 26 October 2015 in error. This was reported to the company and they gave us assurance that they would listen to telephonic conversations, rectify the error and reinstate my old contract. I am not in possession of any new handset or any other benefits which the upgrade proposed and nor am I receiving any benefits from my old contract. Nearly a month on, after approximately 10-15 calls to their head office, complaints lodged on social platforms such as Hellopeter and even the watchdog ICASA, the error has not been rectified, yet I am still been charged for the benefits of my old contract. They have social media consultants, who have no knowledge of customer accounts, responding to queries whilst managers and supervisors sit on their haunches. Its frightening to think how many of these cases get 'swept under the carpet' as not everyone has access to social media platforms. This unethical business practice is shocking and there is a serious lack of accountability and communication between their departments. I am most disgusted with their service and will never consider any future business with them or recommend their services to any potential mobile user. Is there someone that can assist?

Good day I upgraded my cellphone approx 2 months ago, this was done telephonically, I received my first bill which was R1630.28, I queried this as my bill in all the years I have been with cell has never been more than R350, I was informed that a recording would have been made of the conversation with me and the consultant when I did my upgrade, I queried for the first time on the 19 October 2015 concerning this matter and have queried it everyday ever since (proof can be provided). I was told that they are urgently working on my problem and would get back to me before the debit order date the 25 October, this did not happen and I paid R450 of the bill. I also ask that the new bill for November would have the same problem as October and was also told this would be sorted. Today I received my November Bill which is R1760 plus the R1188 that I am according to Cell c in arrears of the previous month. I have asked on many occasions to hear the recording where cell c says the consultant told me that my limit will be R15000 and asked me if I would like to limit my limit. as I do not recall this part of the conversation. Every time they have new excuses that it was either an external company or they simply can't find the recording. My next debit order date in the 25 November 2015, and I would like confirmation that this will be sorted by then. I have still not received help, and am still waiting for the call recording. Because of this I now have to go and change all my banking details as The debit amount will be R3000 on the 25 November 2015, please understand that this is a great problem for me. I received a call on the 10 November 2015 Ref [protected], the lady promised she would get back to me regarding the call recording, then again on the 17 November Ref [protected] (mandla) also said he would get back to me that afternoon, I am still waiting. No one at Cell C is willing to help with this, and cannot produce my recording

I upgraded my Cell C contract in August 2015. I received the Samsung S6. Approximately 2 weeks after the device was received it started going faulty. Whenever it was charged it would go very hot and the device would just switch off. This was intermittent as it sometimes worked for a week without it happening. On 14th October I lodged a complaint with Cell C. The device was collected from me on the 21st October. I received an sms on 2 November ( ref: CLC1236349) stating that the quote for the repair to the devcie was R4101.74. I contacted the call centre to query what the fault was and was told that the main pc board and another one had corroded. I queried what this was caused from and the agent stated that he did not know. I explained that i had never misused or damaged the phone. I asked whether he was stating that it was water damage and he said no. I requested for the supervisor to contact me as i did not agree to this and it was a brand new damaged phone. The supervisor contacted me and stated, contrary to what the agent had advised, that it was water damage. I totally disagree as this device has never in any way been damaged by water or any other liquid. I also find it strange that the fault occurred almost immediately after receiving it. I wish the device to be replaced with a new one and my account to be credited as I have not had the phone for a 3 week period now.

This is my third request I`m sending through to Cell C customer service and obviously I am not getting any response or feedback from anyone, tried calling in and I`m still holding for more than 40 minutes no one attending my call. I`m getting impatient and annoyed with the courier service company(ram) that you are utilising to deliver my package, I`ve been receiving text messages from Wednesday the 14th of Octoober 2015 advising that they coming to deliver but no one pitched till today. I clearly advised and communicated that I`m starting at 04:00 and knocking off at 14:00 so they have to deliver before then but they still come after time, yesterday I decided to stay behind after receiving an sms that they`ll be delivering and still no one showed up, one their customer service agent called me to tell that their Driver/courier was here at 14:30 which is totally lies because I was still here waiting for them, he then put me through to the driver who honestly told me that he didn’t come(that was at around 14:30), he kept me waiting and promised that he will be with me by 17:00 but that never happened. Remember I had to leave by 14:00 and I ended up leaving at 17:30 waiting for their courier who lied to me as well as their customer service agent, this is a very disappointing and pathetic service I received from them which I`ll never recommend anyone to utilise them. I`m going to take my complaint to “Hello peter” and other social media for their poor service. Looking forward to hear from you.

I walked into Cell C yesterday and enquired about a contract that Telkom had and what Cell C was offering. I was informed of the range but that the contract was not offering the same. Whilst the consultant performed a credit approval, I indicated that I want to check at Telkom to see the deal that was being offered. I was unsure of the contract and told the consultant that I am certain I could cancel if I realised that the package did not offer me a better deal. He indicated not and I was surprised that this was not available. I signed up with uncertainties as I did tell the consultant I want to check and he said "don't go next door". I came home and realised that Telkom offered 24 GB free data whereas Cell C did not. I called the customer call centre and they have informed me that I could go into the store and return the product and cancel if not used. I had been waiting for 8 months to get to a store to renew my contract. I called the store at Musgrave to indicate my intentions and my communication with the Customer call centre and the lady I spoke to, told me I couldn't cancel or return unless I paid up the balance of the contract. The contract does not indicate any cancellation clauses. I asked for the ombudsman's number when I was told that I did not have 7 days to return a product at the store when the customer service call centre indicated that I did. The lady said that she was not allowed to give out the ombudsman's number. I indicated that that was not appropriate for any business to deny the contact details to the customer. When I indicated that I would complain about both the lack of a allowing a cancellation of a contract just entered into and the denial for the ombudsman's number she then indicated that I should call the call centre to give out the number. I called in so that when I go to the store it would make the return easier as I stay 46 km away from the store and I did not want to go all that way and wait longer. No help and no indication to help has been offered.

Kindly note that I am VERY disappointed in your service at the Cell C branch in Gallaria. I took out a contract with you on the 20/09/2015 which was the Huawei Router E5330 for R199.00 per month. I used is for a day and a half and then the router did not wanted to connect at all. I took it back to the store and was told that it needed to be sent away. Bear in mind that the connection fee of R195.00 was paid and debited from my account. I was furious, why pay for something that I don’t have ! I then submitted a complaint via Hello Peter. Maropeng contacted me and explained the situation to him. He contacted Sandesh Ganpat your so called manager from the Gallaria store and Maropeng advised me that everything is sorted and that they will give me a router that I can use in the meantime… Sandesh will contact me that same day….. Well I did not received any phone call from Sandesh at all. I got a message on the 06-10-2015 that I must go pick up the router. My Fiancé wanted to pick it up and then it was an issue as well. I was inconvenienced in the first place which was not my fault. I contacted Sandesh and confronted him as to why he did not had the decency to contact me ? I was told by him that he don’t have my contact number? Now you tell me, how do I take out a contract with Cell C and you don’t have my number ? Lies once again! To make things worse I got the router back on the 09-10-2015 and gone back to the store for assistance as the Data are getting used by the second. I have contacted the call centre and they assisted me how to stop all the updates etc.. Still had no joy… Nobody in your store could assist me. They just said they don’t know ! The Huawei technician( Phumlani) and the Samsung technician ( Nakeel) could not assist. Now you can understand my frustration by this time. VERY unprofessional no care attitudes, very disappointing. I left the router in the store as I don’t want it. I suggest that you cancel my contract with immediate effect as the debit order must be debited on the 15th October 2015. I also requested that the connection fees of R195.00 to be refunded as I could not make any use of the router. Note that I will take this case further if not resolved. Charmaine [protected]

Josef malema at cell c cradlestone is refusing to assist with a phone that was sold under false pretense. I was advised that the phone I selected is lte compatible. Now that the lte service is available I cannot access it due to the phone not supporting the service.

I was currently with Cell C, and due to Autopage buying Cell C customers, when it came to upgrading my contract in the beginning of this year, I had to move to over to Autopage. I took out a contract with was a really good deal, but a friend warned me about there shocking billing habits. I took precautionary methods and set a limit on my phone. I bought an extra 500mb, totalling in 750mb for each month with a R50 limit which, once reached, they would soft bar my phone. A few months have gone by and i have every now and then increased my limit when needed. Last month my limit was set at R700, still with 750mb data limit. I received a bill for R3038, 08 for the month of August! I phoned customer care to enquire about this, as iI had specifically set limits on my phone to prevent this from happening! The operator said that the limits we set are never accurate and amounts could run past the amount of the limit set.

Firstly R100/R200 excess is understandable but the fact that my account has run over by that huge amount is UNACCEPTABLE. Just because YOUR service of limits is not reliable, DOES NOT mean i have to be liable for that account.

In a rage I phoned accounts and set my limit back down to R100 on Friday the 4th September. True as nuts, Autopage soft bars my phone as I have reached my limit.

Now you tell me, how is this service consistent! One month, you are happy to run my account into the thousands, and the next month, I can't even reached 4th of the month and you soft bar my phone!

I refuse to pay this account and demand a response. I will make your lives a living hell until my complaint is resolved to MY satisfaction!

For the past month I have tried in absolute vein to resolve a seemingly simple issue. I lost network on my phone and upon phoning was told that my I needed to re-register on the network-which I tried to do; this only after I phoned back 3 times in order to obtain this information. After a week of endeavoring to re-register but to no avail I was told that, it was, in fact, my sim card that was faulty and I would need to do a Sim swap. I advised the agent at the time that considering the sim card was faulty- through no fault of my own- I was not prepared to pay for it, to which they stated I would need to go to a Cell C store and they would resolve the issue without question. I went to the store. And was told unequivocally by a very incompetent individual, that if my sim card were faulty on a 'weekly basis' I would be responsible for the replacement thereof, as Cell C have no liability in this regard. I therefore did not pay for the Sim swap and left. I have subsequently spoken with countless individuals over the course of the last three weeks in an effort to try and gain a resolution-may i just add at this point-THAT IN SPITE OF ASSURANCES AND PROMISES TO PHONE/EMAIL/MESSAGE ME BACK- I have yet to received a call from Cell AT ALL. I have had to initiate every bit of communication at my own expense and time-having to reexplain the reason for my call every time in spite of providing my reference numbers for all previous calls/emails.I was then advised by a team leader (who of all individuals has actually been the most helpful) that given the circumstances he would agree to a free sim swap if I was prepared to get a sim card at the cost of R1. I have since done that. I phoned at 8 this morning to try and get it resolved. I was told it would be an hour and I would receive a call to have it resolved. 3 Hours later at 11:47 I phoned again and was told this time, that given the situation, they would escalate this immediately and it would be an hour and I would receive a call and this would be resolved. I now sit here typing this 4 hours afterward and another 20 minutes of my life I'll never get back sitting on a phone listening to another person (incidentally the same person who told me to buy the sim card) tell me that realistically I should have this resolved by tomorrow-which I appreciate because he is setting a time frame he can realistically foresee. Neither here nor there I HAVE NOW SAT FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH WITHOUT A PHONE, UNABLE TO DO INTERNET BANKING; RECEIVE CALLS OR SMS'; MAKE CALLS OR SMS' BECAUSE OF THE SHEER COMPLACENCY AND COMPLETE DISREGARD FOR THEIR CUSTOMERS AND I FEEL IT IS ENTIRELY ATROCIOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE. I AM NOTHING SHORT OF APPALLED AND THE SERVICE IS DISGUSTING TO SAY THE VERY LEAST. I have had a contract with Cell C for 10 years and opened a second with them last year, with never a murmur of a complaint-in fact I have always praised Cell C;s good service and encouraged friends and family members to move across to Cell C-I NOW WANT TO CANCEL BOTH OF THEM!

They have recently had an advertisement banned insinuating that consumers are getting screwed by everyone except by Cell C BUT I HAVE NEVER FELT AS THOUGH I HAVE BEEN MORE SCREWED BY A 'SERVICE PROVIDER' IN MY LIFE!
DISGRACEFUL!

it is truly the worst service you can get, i called Cell C on the 29 june 15 and reported the cell phone has only and emergency facility and was told that all fine on their side how ever i will need to do a sim swoop, i refused has this would be my 3 sim swoop in the past year, the most recent being in Feb 15.
numerous attempt to resolve this and all i get is they will get the tech to call me back, can there be only one tech in the whole of CellC?

Please assist as a matter of urgency, with the Cell C accounts for Mr Q E Kilian - ID number [protected].

I have received a SMS from a lawyer yesterday informing me that I owe money on a CELL C contract, but they would not give me any further information relating to the contract.

I have paid up all my Cell C accounts and have also closed these accounts, the only number I can remember having with Cell C was [protected].

Is it possible for you to please give me a breakdown of this number and to also look at my ID number if there is any outstanding amounts owed to Cell C. No one is assisting me and it is really frustrating.
Kind regards
Mr Q E Kilian
Tel: [protected]

I was offered a Samsung S5 Galaxy cell phone, but instead a wrong one was delivered by a courier. I phoned Cell C and told them that I am not accepting the cell phone and should therefor collect it. It was collected but instead I kept on receiving smses notifying me about outstanding account, hence the cell phone was collected. Eventually the account was refered to NDS Credit for collection.

To the repairer of my tablet ….. Please read this and don’t ignore!

The following is still wrong with my tablet that is 2 months old and was in repairs for 2 weeks

Tablet was bought : 24/01/2015

Store where tablet was bought : cell c bayside centurion mall

Tablet taken in for repair : 29/03/2015 (1st time)

Comments:
Two months after i’ve bought the tablet and struggled with it until I just couldn’t take it anymore. It is a new tablet and it act like a tablet that is 10 years old.

Tablet received back from repair : 20/04/2015

Comments:
* whole tablet was wiped, understand that and acceptable if there was any difference
But there is no difference, still having the same charging problem
* tablet was set in all funny and different settings, understand that and acceptable if there was any difference
But there is no difference, still having the same charging problem
* installed much faster and no restarting every 2 - 5 minutes
At least one of 3 problems was sorted out
* charging still problem
There is no difference, still having the same charging problem

What is the problem with my tablet and what is experienced ……. Charging problem ….. Sort out please!
When you charge the tablet with the charger that i’ve received with the tablet, it shows it is charging. It takes a whole day and a half to get to 100% without being able to use the tablet, the whole time on charge.
If I don’t do this, I cannot use the tablet at all!

Suddently there is a notification sound and the charging status bar show 100% and a message saying unplug to save energy.
This is not even being on charge for 30 minutes or so!

As soon as you start using the tablet after showing 100% charged, it shows you the battery is low and anything between 3 - 30%. I then press the side button to restart the tablet and then it shows anything from 3 - 30%. Don’t understand where the 100% then is if I didn’t even use the tablet for a minute or so.

Then you plug in the tablet again and it shows charging and the status bar goes up and so you keep on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on unable to use the tablet at all.

I even treid to charge the tablet being totally off, the status bar show it is charging and then suddenly it goes up in increments of 1% until 100% and it display a message saying unplug to save energy.

When you plug out the charger it shows again anyting between 3 - 30% charged without the ability to use the tablet as within a few minutes it say your battery is below 30% and need to be charged.
The whole process all over again and again and again and again!

I even tried to use the tablet with the 30% battery life left and let it completely shut down by it self and then charge it, the same story over and over and over and over and over and over again until you feel you want to through the damn tablet against the wall!

Please sort out the initial problem …………………………. T a b l e t n o t c h a r g I n g for once and for all, clearly the batter is either unserviceable or something wrong with the tablet’s ability to charge!

I bought a cellphone nokia lumina 730 from the same cell c store and the device is charging and working 100% as from 1/4/2015 ……. But this lg crap was giving me problems the 3rd week I had it and I was promised it is a good product …… not so sure!
The best of the whole 14 days that I was without a tablet is that I don’t even get a report back on what was actually wrong with my tablet …….. But I was given a document to sign with a lot of writing, really do I have time to read through it all ……… until now I don’t know what was wrong with the tablet, what have been repaired and what not ….. If I review the whole situation …… nothing was done because the customer can just take off from work, bring in the device, being without a device and use of the device, pay the bill without using any of the data and keep on going for 24 months until the contract expire and off course she will choose us again for an upgrade!

And of course after my complaint on hello peter and get closure I was promised by danielle abrahams that I will get a month free subscription because I could not use my data and she will give it in writing ……. I wonder where she is now and why she don’t answer her emails when push comes to show! Just as I thought empty promises from cell c …….. We promise the customer something, then we just don’t answer our emails and them the customer will stop emailing or contacting us for 24 months and she will just be quite for another 24 months and off course she will choose us again for an upgrade!

Please contact me if you want to assist me and spare yourself another banner on the highway and lots of attorney costs

I want my tablet that is 3 months old repaired so that I can actually use the tablet and not restart every 5 minutes and charging every 5 minutes. I am giving back 1. 5 gig of data because I cannot use the data as the tablet is more on charge and more on 1% battery life than working

Thersia krugel
[protected]

Status active - waiting for supplier acknowledgement
Date submitted [protected]:42
Date and time of complaint march 23, 2015 9:15 am
Name of the supplier cell c
Customer name letasia rabie
Customer cell phone number [protected]
"I am very, very upset with cell c at the moment! I took a contract with you for the sole purpose of giving it to my son for his birthday. he is 9 years old! firstly when we put the sim in people started phoning and sms'ing day and night. when I activated whatsapp there were 80 messages for some guy with the most vulgar wording and pictures, close to porn! how the hell! aren't you suppose to clear or disconnect or at least wait a few years before releasing the number again! I am livid and will take this further." I put this on cellc's page on 21/3, saturday and received the following response: "that is not good news. inbox the affected number + an alternative contact number. we will investigate and provide feedback. regards cellc." so I sent them my details and 23/3 morning a lady from the call centre phoned me and told me that she heard I have an inquiry, but they can't help me I should phone head office on [protected], unfortunately I didn't get her name. phoned there, sibongile ubisi told me that she can't help me if I don't have a reference number from call centre, I should phone them back. pertunia lalemo from the call centre said the number is not cellc I must phone 084 985. sarah lubhemdo says no it's not their number I should phone [protected]! nolo sivivla tells me yes, i'm with them, but they can't help me. when I asked to speak to her manager he/she was conveniently in a meeting. I refuse to accept this absolute poor service from cellc and will not pay them a dime ever again until this is resolved. I will take this further, as I see cellc's absolute no care attitude that left my son violated for live! give me another number, that has been properly "recycled" as nolo was calling it. if that is not an option I want to cancel my contract with cellc/jabba /who the hell ever. they can come fetch their phone.

I was phoned by a cell phone campony regarding a cellphone contract from Cell-C. At first i did not want to as alot of friends and family warned me of Cell-C bad service and "scams". The consultant told me that the contract provided to me is a R99.00 p/m that includes 1 gig of data and 23min talk time, almost like a top up i asked her if there is any hidden costs and T&C's but she said that all was explained that according to me was as mentioned above. So for the first month the amount was higher due to activation fee's that i understood and was discussed, during the usage of the contract my benefits depleted and i wanted to recharge my account but couldnt do so, i phone Cell-C and was adivesed to dail a *147# number as ive got a R450.00 "pocket" when my benefits is depleted i can recharge/load out of that facility, i did not use the complete R450.but i was billed R930.00 and when i phoned to query the bill i was told its a "open line" as i never asked for a "open line " account, i spoke to several consultants at Cell-C customer care department but no effort is done to resolve the issue, the last call i recieved the consultant wanted to help me change my contract package to a "top up" suddenly? She then told me my monthly premium is R129 but i was told from day one its R99. As i was furious and beyond upset, i told the consultant to get their facts straight and call me back, iam still waiting, to also found that ive NEVER recieved any statements, and this months bill was just over R300 and my benefits wasnt depleted! I trust that you will solve this as iam beyond calm and understanding, phoning them and getting a diffrent story every time is a waste of my time, i should never have leave Vodacom as they are THE BEST NETWORK PROVIDER. Kind regards Hilton A W Horn

On the 15/02/2015 my installment for cell c normally an amount of R197.00, but instead of this amount they deduct R207.00 said there was a increase that they notify all clients via sms. Because my daughter is using that phone I didn't get that notification even my statements I do receive it via email. The payment was unsuccessful due to insufficient funds I only make previous for that amount. Again on the 15/03/2015 they charge me R90 deduction also unsuccessful cause this time they try to deduct R277.00 . I went to they neast branch to do an inquiry an even that consultant could t tell me why the increase on installment cause I have a contact only for two years that I was under the impression that I will be responsible paying R197.00 for two years and it will only change once there a ungrade. Despite the charges the charge me Im still responsible paying R90 on returns at my bank. February I made payment on the 17/02/2015 because it was send back. This will get way to expensive for me it will be R207+R70+R70+R90+R90 this means I must pay R527.00 this is a ripoff.

My name is joseph stuurman rengane, id no [protected] and my cell number is [protected] i am complaining about the cell phone i buy from this company, when they call me i thought they will give me a better phone unfortunately they delivered the cheapest nokia asha 306 and they want me to pay r275. 00 for 24 months, they also promised me r150 airtime but now they give me r114 airtime, i lost that phone and they told me that when the phone is lost they will replace it but even now im still waiting, they never replace that cheap phone. So now i decided to cancel this contract.

My wife received this incredible SMS with its bad spelling: "Hallo, from 1 Feb 2015 Cell C will be introducing price changes to its Product Suite. For more information visit /www.cellc.co.za/productchanges Cell C"

Surely, the price of a contract cannot be changed whenever they want to. Isn't that what a contract is supposed to AVOID?

I was approved for a cellphone contract and while waiting for the device delivery which I was told I would receive it 3-5 working days I waited about seven days then I called Cellc call center to enquire about the device then they told me that it was delined I then asked them the reason for the device been declined to which I was told that I have not paid a account the lady told me to enquire that from credit union I then got a credit report which they show no unpaid account.. So I just hereby request help about this matter

I am very disappointed with the level of service I keep on receiving from Cell C. I applied for a top up phone and I clearly specified to the consultant that I need 512 MB per month and we agreed. We had hustles in between but at the end I collected the contract and he assured me that it's a top up. I tried to recharge several times and failed so I called you trying to get closure of the problem and I was told I am on open line.I did not agree on any open line however to prove my point, the following will have to be looked at, all my conversation recordings from day one of port hustles needs to be pulled, it will confirm that the consultant made a mistake from the beginning when he submitted the port, your camera at the branch which will prove to you the kind of request I had and investigate the whole process and provide feedback however I believe if the consultant made a mistake from porting, he might continue making mistakes for the contract type and the fact that I signed the contract which had a lot of jargon and I believed that everything is in order as I specified it earlier. I have all the recordings of the stores conversation should you need them. I dispute to pay R640