Cell C :: Out of Bundle Charges

February I purchased data from CellC, I bought a few bundles. First was a 20GB bundle then a 60GB bundle. Thereafter I bought the 1GB bundles since they are much more cost effective, it would simply mean that I need to keep buying bundles if they ran out, which is what I did.

Close to the end of February I get a notification that my account Spend limit has been reached and was sitting at a total of R4000.00. No so far I have only spent R1400,00(plus minus) on data bundles and my Contract is R700.00. By my calculations this does not equate to R4000.00.

I phoned CellC support center multiple times and the advised that I need to increase my Spend Limit. I kept asking why? They kept telling me that it's because I reached my Spend limit... My question was why did my bill reflect this amount?

They advised that they can't tell me due to their billing information not being updated for the next month yet and I would need to create an escalation in the new month. They also advised if I want to keep using my services that I need to increase my Spend Limit as the services will be suspended otherwise. I was forced to do this as my Cellphone is used for daily business.

In March 2020 I created an escalation for my account advising that they need to investigate my "Out of Bundle Usage" and why I never received a notification from CellC when my data usage went from Purchased Data to Out of Bundle Usage. I was never informed to OPT-IN for this service or received an SMS to OPT-OUT of this service if it was enabled.

According to the new laws on data usage set by ICASA. Out-Of-Bundle Billing: When data bundles run out, there will no longer be an automatic switch to out-of-bundle charges; mobile users will have to opt in or out, even if they are on a contract. Should mobile users choose to accept out-of-bundle charges, they will be able to set a limit. Usage Notifications: Service providers will have to send users usage notifications for data, SMS and voice bundles at specific points of depletion, i.e. 20%, 50% and 100%. Data Rol*****: Data will no longer expire. Service providers have to allow data to roll over and be used up before any further data is allocated or charged for. Data Transfers: Mobile users will be allowed to transfer data to other users on the same network.

Now Cell C advised that they sent me Data Usage Notification, which they did and I based my Data Purchasing around that. However they cannot produce me with information on the notification on the OPT-OUT or OPT-IN message for the Out of Bundle notifications or even a message saying that I will be charged OUT OF BUNDLE.

This doesn't make sense, why would I want to pay insane increase data rates if I have been purchasing them when they ran out. Why didn't my data stop when the bundle that I purchased ran out?

CellC if you see this, please look into CASE : ***

In the meantime I am escalating a case to both WASPA and ICASA about this to see if I am able to get assistance from their side too.