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Johannesburg - A disgruntled customer has put up banners in Fochville, Gauteng that criticise mobile network Vodacom’s services in the area.
Fochville is a farming and mining town outside Johannesburg, and an unnamed customer has printed banners that allege that Vodacom has poor signal in the area.
“Vodacom can not (sic) give signal/coverage to this part of Fochville,” reads one banner.
That banner then goes on to say “those ads about coverage are probably bull”.
Further reports indicate that there are other banners present in the small town, one of which claims that Vodacom chief executive Shameel Joosub has not responded to the complainant’s letters about the matter.
Meanwhile, Vodacom has responded to the banners in a statement emailed to Fin24.
“To explain the background, there are two base stations in Fochville which provide coverage for the area. This customer’s property in particular sits in the radio shadow of a hill, and it doesn’t have a great signal. This affects a very small portion of the town outskirts,” said Vodacom’s executive head of corporate communications Richard Boorman.
“The customer alerted us that in mid-April, his signal deteriorated further. Our engineers have confirmed that there were no changes to the network in the area on or around that date. We had offered to put a booster at the customer’s house which at the time was not an acceptable solution.
“We can understand the customer’s frustration, but at this stage there isn’t another short-term solution.
"We’ve got a team heading out to his property today (Friday) to see if we can determine the cause of the signal loss and to again discuss the short-term solution of a booster. First prize is to find a workable medium-term solution at the same time. If we cannot provide a signal then we will look at cancelling the contract with no cost to the customer,” said Boorman.
One of the banners that hits out at the Vodacom CEO. (Photo courtesy of @PypF1 on Twitter)
Cell C slam banner
The Vodacom banners are reminiscent of a Cell C slam banner put up by businessman George Prokas along Johannesburg’s busy Beyers Naude drive in November last year.
That banner stemmed from a phone contract dispute in which Prokas was listed as a bad payer.
READ: Cell C customer spent R61k on slam banner
Cell C took Prokas to court. But the company lost an urgent interdict to take down the banner after a judge in the South Gauteng High Court dismissed the application. Cell C was also ordered to pay Prokas' legal costs.
After the court battle, Prokas and Cell C came to an agreement whereby Prokas was removed off a bad payers list.
