WRONGFUL DEBT COLLECTION

It is frightening to think that a company can ruin your good credit record through their poor records and inability to contain the damage they do. Unfortunately, Cell C is such a company and I am going to publish my ordeal on my social media accounts too and even tweet as I am desperate to get rid of CellC’s debt collectors' continued harassment by choosing multitudes of debt collectors to pester one person and then do not control them. In the first place Cell C should not have debt collecting for 1 account by several debt collectors as this is how the problem starts. While I gave the debt collectors a period to stop and after my second review some stopped by telling me to pay up the money I “owe” Cell C I received another strange sms from CSS Credit Solutions Services (Pty) Limited (https://www.csssolutions.co.za/) THE following number+*** with the last 7 digits changing every time. 11 April: Cell C Accountholder. Your overdue account Ref *** remains unpaid. An urgent minimum payment of R100 is required to avoid additional costs and further actions. Contact us urgently on to make a suitable payment arrangemet. Reply YES for a call back. 13 April: Cell C Payment Reminder – Please reply today with an amount that you can afford to pay by the end of this month, make payment to standard Bank *** Ref *** CSS Other similar with variations on the theme from CSS with snapscan etc on 7, 15, 28 April and on 16, 23,28 March and 4 April. CSS won’t let go and it seems as if Cell C initiated this, even when I emailed them and sent them the letter from Cell C stating that I am paid-up and brought this to the attention of Cell C - they still continue. I cannot spend my time – I am very busy – trying to communicate to debt collectors who won’t listen. It is Cell C’s job to stop this and to clear my name otherwise I will have to appoint attorneys and then charge Cell C. The sad part is that I will never use Cell C’s services again because this is a bitter experience and I’ve been harassed now for money I don’t owe Cell C for a whole year. It is the responsibility of Cell C to stop the harassment because word gets around.

HISTORY OF THIS CASE MY FIRST REVIEW 10 FEBRUARY Cell C's accounts department is probably the cause of their declining business or they are desperately trying to get money or there is a **** in their name. There are two issues: This morning I had a phone call from a spam number ********** claiming that I owe CellC money. I refused to talk to them because I do not understand whether it is Cell C, attorneys or a credit bureau as they claim. FIRST PROBLEM/HARASSMENT I do not have an account with Cell C anymore. I had various calls from VVM (attorneys/credit collectors) that I owe CellC over R550 last year. The SMS’s stopped at one stage. That history is as follows and I have proof of all the deductions from my bank account. My old contract which ended September 2020 and I paid R304.99 per month for 2 years usually deducted on the 6th of each month. I was considering to buy a new phone but in the meantime cancelled my contract and then went on a month to month deduction of R183.99 per month (this was for airtime, data and WA) which was done November, December, January 21 and February 21 and nothing deducted in March. But in April there was a deduction of R367.98 on 14 April which was the amount due for March and April. In May nothing was deducted since I have given notice to Cell C on 2 April 2021 in person at the Clearwater Branch that I want my number migrated from them to MNet as from 1 May 2020 ending my month to month contract at the same time. Someone from Cell C called me and tried to retain me as client but I declined. It is clear from this documented evidence that I owed CellC nothing. On 10 May 2021 I had an SMS from Cell C claiming that "due to some technical difficulties my "selected" debit order will resume from June 2021. However it was a surprise, but Cell C was very erratic with billing and I thought it was their mistake again. However, they did put the debit order through on 7/6/2021 but reversed it again on 20/6/2021 with the inexplicable amount of R368. Then I got demands from CellC through VVN that I owe them money – R550.00 - and I don’t owe them anything! The more I explained the more the harassment continued. I went to see Cell C at Clearwater personally with the evidence and they simply said I did not cancel the contract with them which is illogical because (a) Surely the contract was cancelled when I entered into a month-to-month agreement with them. (b) I migrated to MNet and gave them the required 1 month notice which in effect ended my relationship with them and also cancelled the month to month arrangement. NOW A SECOND ISSUE - NEW HARASSMENT DIFFERENT MATTER However, the harassment still continued and there seems to be a “new” contract. Firstly I get demands from HM Attorneys and now a credit collecter claiming that I owe Cell C more than R10,000 (they say with 20% discount I only need to pay R9450.00). I get SMS’e to say that I must sign a debit order at my bank. This is simply impossible as my contract is with MTN and I pay it every month with a debit order. I do not have any business with Cell C. I asked HM Attorneys to send me proof of the contract and they didn’t. HM Attorneys only contact via SMS’e and I don’t have any idea if this is a **** if there has been identity theft. I sincerely hope that by publishing this in Hello Peter I will get answers from Cell C as they are unfortunately very bad at communication. Dr S M STEINMAN CELL C’S RESPONSE I sent a copy of this letter to *** and received a response from Cell C requesting my ID number and then soon after received a letter from Cell C stating clearly that my account has been paid. They assured me that it takes 2-3weeks to clear it with the debt collectors but it should stop. MY SECOND REVIEW 11 MARCH – ONE MONTH LATER I hate to use this public platform to air grievances and let me make it clear - I don't know whether Cell C or these debt collectors are the culprits. Unfortunately, Helopeter is the only way to get a response as I tried to contact cellc and the debt collectors via email or answering back to their credit providers without any success. On 16 February, after complaining on Helopeter I received a letter from Cell C's *********** as well as a nice follow-up call that I do not owe them anything. They assured me that within 2 weeks the matter will be cleared with the credit bureaus. However, I am still getting demands from HP Attorneys, NDS Credit Management and CSS Credit Solutions all claiming that they have been appointed by Cell C to collect money from me. Even when I send them CellC's letter dated 16 Feb clearly stating I am paid up. I am also confused with a "Lindelani Lidovho" who apparently has the same cell number as me and even after sending an email to *********** explaining that my number ********** belongs to me and not to Lindelani Lidovho, I got another SMS from HP Attorneys claiming I owe Cell C money and will be handed over. I am harassed by these credit providers with endless SMS'e and I now want to ask CELL C and the Credit Bureaus to get their act together and establish what Lindelani Lidovho's number is, remove my number from these listings and contact her and clear the matter with her. Please clear my name and stop the harassment. CELL C’S RESPONSES Hi Susan

Thank you for reaching out. Please forward the paid up letter received to *** so we can follow up. I sent them the paid up letter and details first to the debt-collection email and then to *** with no response. However I had a call from HM Attorneys and sent them the letter from Cell C again and they stopped with the demands.