Cell C - Discriminating against Debt Review Clients

I am due for an early upgrade on my cell phone contract which I have had with Cell C since 2014. Since January 2017, I have been under debt review and during the last 4 I have received 2 upgrades and no questions were asked regarding my debt review status and no request for a credit check was made.

I called on the 28th May and they told me I do qualify for an early upgrade and they sent me through to the retentions department to process my upgrade. Immediately off the bat, the lady tells me they are going to be doing a credit check and I was quite taken aback because this was never a requirement before and I told her that I am under debt review so no point to do a credit check.

I am feeling discriminated against as a Cell C customer because they are only working on credit checks and if they would look at my look at my payment history, they would see that I have not missed a single payment / never defaulted or gone into arrears on my account because this was listed on my monthly expenses at the time of processing the debt review.

In terms of phone and contract I was looking to get something in the same lines of what I currently have which would mean that my new amount would basically be the same amount that I am currently paying. I wasn't looking to extend myself further than what I currently am paying.

I can understand if I was attempting to take out a new contract, however, this is not the case.

I am extremely disappointed in the way that Cell C are handling my upgrade because instead of just doing a credit check to determine this, they should look at the merits of the customer and how they have been conducting their account historically. I am sure there are other customers who are not listed or under debt review that are worse off than I am but are still able to get upgrades and new lines.

In the coming weeks, if Cell C don't allow me an upgrade then I will be getting messages reminding me to upgrade.

Can Cell C please review and consider upgrading me?