Disappointed with DSTV

To say I am very disappointed is an understatement. On Monday 18th March my dstv channels disappeared saying I had been disconnected due to non-payment. I couldn't query right away as I was at work, but I phoned the dstv call center in the evening when I arrived home. I had paid my subscription for March on the 1st of March totaling R1182, so I was sure this was a mistake.

A lady called Mbali picked my call and after a 10 minute chat, with her telling me that there was a reversal done on the 18th of March which led to the disconnection of services. I did not understand what she was talking about because but i hadn't done any reversal, i couldn't have done a reversal from EFT payment 18 days earlier. She asked me to hang on so i could escalate to her seniors to also check the reasons for the reversal. After hanging on for about 15 minutes she can back to tell me that they would investigate and call me the following day with an update.

The following day came and passed without a call from dstv so i phoned again in the evening and this time a lady called Palesa picked my call. She checked my profile and mentioned that the reversal was from a payment in January, totaling R1178. I was even more surprised by this considering the time passed between January and the reversal (18 March). She asked me if i was on debit order and i explained that i had never done a debit order for a single day, information that they could also verify in their systems, I always do EFT transfers from SB account to pay the subscription. She asked me hold so they could check and i held on for 22 minutes before the call abruptly cut.

I immediately called again and this time a gentleman picked the call. I asked him to speak to Palesa but he said she may be attending to someone because when a call cuts she gets another from the system, this surprised me because i was just talking to her. So now i explained myself for the third time to the gentleman. He also checked and confirmed what Palesa had said that the reversal was stemming from a January payment, but it didn't show on their system the reasons for the reversal. he stated the reversal came from their finance division so he would escalate to them so they can check. He then mentioned this process could take from between 5 and 7 working days and gave me a reference number.

So here i am now unable to watch tv knowing fully well that I paid the subscription, and i have to wait for at least 5 days for dstv to correct their issues. Not only is this a huge inconvenience to me but also to my parents whose decoder is linked to my subscription. They have no other entertainment sources besides dstv. I am extremely disappointed in dstv and wouldn't have imagined that such a big company can have these issues where no one in their call center can explain, and it has to take a whole week to resolve. I am considering alternatives because of this experience.