*****s

am a customer of Cell C who is my cellphone network provider. Due to financial difficulty I missed a payment for the month of June 2023. The amount which they attempted to bill from my account at the time was R1,659.47, this was however unsucceful. I contacted their cancellations department who advised me that I cannot cancel the contract due to the outstanding amount. They advised that I was required to settle the outstanding balance and may then cancel. Bear in mind that i have two contracts with CellC. one for a number of *** for the amount of R 377.39 which is a 24 month contract including a handset and one for *** at R 334.19 which is a month to month data contract. Both lines were disconnected at the end of July 2023 for non payment. At inception of the contract for *** I was already not in a financial position to be able to afford this but was promised it was a month to month contract which I may cancel at any time. Come September 2023, the contract is no longer an affordable R 334.19 bit now skyrockets to R 868.70 per month without prior consent or communication. Attached statement for July 2023 which states exactly this. When my financial in October 2023 CellC proceded to debit me an amount of R4144.23, which when I queries this was advised it was for the outstanding months. I requested a refund from Cellc for the period which I was not able to use the issued sim card *** which was disconneted. I was then advised by The call centre that CellC does not do refunds, and that it is my own fault that I was not able to use the line since it was cut due to non payment. They are of the opinion that I took out a contract with them and as such I am liable to pay this contract even when they cut the line and I am not able to use it. The refund which I requested from Cellc is not for the full debited amount. but merely for the amount thet they are billing me where they have disconnected my services. I would understand the billing of the device since this was in my possesion and I continued to use it. But what sort of recourse does Cellc have available to their customers if falling into financial difficulty means even further indebtness. I attempted to stop them from continuing the billing but I was unsucesful due to an outstanding balance and because I could not afford services for 1 month I was not able to cancel and now need to pay for an additonal 3 months where I was given data but cut off from using it. I am pleading with the regulator to please stop this provider from *****ing from already poor people. Please assist me in obtaining my money back for payment for something which I could not use and allow people the option to cancel while they are only one month outstanding instead of incurring further ******* debt.I would like to recieve a refund for the period which I was billed and not able to use the service. ***for July R334.19 + August 2023 R334.19 +September 2023 R 458.91 + October 2023 R 868.70. I thus request a refund of R 1995.99 into my bank acount as held by Cellc.