Cell C finally shows some good customer care

A FEW weeks ago, I wrote about Thoko Mampane’s shocking treatment at the hands of Cell C.

A few months before her 24-month contract in 2013, her smartphone malfunctioned so she took it in for repair and has never seen the phone again, despite her protests.

In retaliation she failed to pay the last few subscriptions, but clearly the network still owed her a lot more – the value of the missing phone – than she owed them. And she was “blacklisted”.

All went quiet for years until recently when the network began debiting her bank account.

I took up the case with Cell C, which responded with: “We have sent an instruction to all the bureaus and asked them to update the client’s details.

“The client will also be getting a letter from our legal department confirming that she has been cleared.”

Mampane was thrilled it’s over but underwhelmed by the response. “No apology, despite having taken my phone and never giving it back,” she said. “All this time they’ve made it about my non-payment – of only a few months. And I was forced to close the bank account I’d had for 40 years.”

This week Mampane e-mailed me to say that Mario Davis, a consultant with Cell C’s escalation department, had contacted her to apologise for what happened to her and then he delivered a new smartphone to her home.

“I would like to thank Mario for his customer care,” she said. “Cell C should thank him for saving their name – at least from me.”