MW
Mark W
1 reviews | Active since Nov 2018
24 Dec 2021, 18:46
DSTV disgusting support service
I have always found it very difficult to work with DSTV & have had scuffles with them before mainly regarding the holiday view system & overcharging my account. My latest experience is trying to activate my new explora ultra decoder that was delivered & installed today 24 December 2021. I called the *** call centre at 16:55 to activate the new package & after a long message about covid & how dstv had scaled down their service to protect their staff (not customers) i waited 42 minutes & 42 seconds with no answer before i cancelled the call & tried the *** call centre at 17:39. The lady answered quite promptly after all the normal messages about covid etc but i struggled to hear her. It was as if she was too close to the microphone or phone mouth piece & her voice was very loud & distorted. I asked her to repeat the questions a few times so that we could proceed with the call but after a while the line went dead & there was no response. I cancelled the call once again after 8 minutes & 34 seconds. At 17:52 I dialed the 011 289 222 again & after the normal standard messages the call was answered quite promptly & i provided the information the lady required. I asked her if this call was being recorded. She rep**** yes & i suggested that her management listened to it & my complaints. I proceeded to tell her about the difficulties i had been having trying to get my new decoder activated & how disgusted i was with dstv's systems & service. The lady put the phone down on me after 3 minutes & 31 seconds. I have tried to call back since then & each time the call was ended as if my number was blocked. i tried a few times to dial in & the call was ended. While on the 42 minute call I had also tried to contact dstv through the Whatsapp number without any success - its not easy talking to a computer & trying to explain my need to activate my new decoder. All this makes it very difficult to support a local business that is for all intents & purposes is a monopoly & is able to deal with their clients as they wish. I doubt very much that my decoder will be activated over the Christmas season if at all. If that's the way they want it then dstv must come & fetch their decoder. It is so hard to get good efficient service out of dstv, & this will unfortunately have a detrimental affect on my guest houses that are advertised as supplying dstv, but i will put up notices expaining the position. There is unfortunately no alternative to this monopolistic business.
Helpful (0)
Replies (2)0
Replies (2)
DStv (MultiChoice)'s replyOfficial
24 Dec 2021, 19:01Hi mark,
We acknowledge receiving your complaint and we are attending to it. Feedback will be communicated as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
DStv: Hello Peter Team
We acknowledge receiving your complaint and we are attending to it. Feedback will be communicated as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
DStv: Hello Peter Team
Best regards,
DStv (MultiChoice)'s reply24 Dec 2021, 19:01
Official
Hi mark,
We acknowledge receiving your complaint and we are attending to it. Feedback will be communicated as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
DStv: Hello Peter Team
We acknowledge receiving your complaint and we are attending to it. Feedback will be communicated as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
DStv: Hello Peter Team
Best regards,
MW
Mark W's updateReviewer Update
27 Dec 2021, 17:10 And the saga continues:
On Christmas day 25 December 2021 I received a call from a very helpful gentleman who tried to assist me in response to my complaint on 24 December 2021. To cut the story short, he could not activate my new Explora Ultra decoder because it turns out the wrong decoder had been installed. The dstv man said it was the installers fault so I gave him their number to contact so that they could rectify. I did not think that they would be available on Christmas day & the nothing would happen until Monday or Tuesday to get any reply from the installers. So on Sunday 26 December 2021 at 9:51 I called the dstv call centre *** to ask if they could activate the old decoder. After a lot of explaining that, as I understood it, the old package & decoders had been deactivated & the new package was activated, although it was the wrong decoder. The lady was able to activate the old single decoder. On Monday morning 27 December 2021 when I turned on dstv & I could not move the channel off 100 which indicates that the service has been suspended. There was no error message on the screen. At 14:28 I called the 011 289 222 I call centre & spoke to a gentleman & explained that I wanted the decoder switched on. He asked to put me on hold & I listened to the dstv on hold tune until a loud static like noise replaced it. I listened for a while & cancelled the call after 6 minutes 59 seconds. I called back at 14:35 & got through to a lady who asked for all my details again. By now I was really impatient & told her what I was asking her to do. She had a look at my account & said i owed money & asked when last I paid. I told her that l pay every month at the beginning of the month (on a set recurring payment) & I thought I had paid R924. When I downloaded my statement I saw I had paid R879.81 & I saw that as at 4 December 2021 I was in credit of R1,654.62 which I cannot explain except that the December subscriptions don’t reflect on the statement & the November payment may have been credited twice. Only then did I see an sms from dstv sent at 10:11 saying they have had to stop my viewing because no payment has been made. When I first went onto the website it said that I owed R145.19. My problem with the monopolistic no service dstv is that
1. There is never anyone who I can talk to to resolve the problems. Even my complaining to Hello Peter does not improve the service, but this is the only time I get any sensible response. I have now gone through the best time of the year for relaxing & watching cricket & other things without dstv & no one can help. 2. It was not my fault that the decoder was not installed & connected on 14 December 2021 as was supposed to happen 3. What would have happened had the new decoders been connected correctly ? In terms of the 24 month contract which I agreed to price lock the explora ultra decoder monthly subscription to R849 including extra view, Netflix etc was that there had to be a debit order on my account, so the first payment would have come off my account on about 5th of January 2021 – all sorted. 4. Instead it has ended up in disputes between us which is not good for customer relations. In fact I dislike having to call dstv with a problem or complaint – I just waste time & it changes my day. The issues never improve & neither does my dislike of trying to resolve issues with dstv. DSTV NEEDS SOME COMPETITION, NOT PROTECTION.
On Christmas day 25 December 2021 I received a call from a very helpful gentleman who tried to assist me in response to my complaint on 24 December 2021. To cut the story short, he could not activate my new Explora Ultra decoder because it turns out the wrong decoder had been installed. The dstv man said it was the installers fault so I gave him their number to contact so that they could rectify. I did not think that they would be available on Christmas day & the nothing would happen until Monday or Tuesday to get any reply from the installers. So on Sunday 26 December 2021 at 9:51 I called the dstv call centre *** to ask if they could activate the old decoder. After a lot of explaining that, as I understood it, the old package & decoders had been deactivated & the new package was activated, although it was the wrong decoder. The lady was able to activate the old single decoder. On Monday morning 27 December 2021 when I turned on dstv & I could not move the channel off 100 which indicates that the service has been suspended. There was no error message on the screen. At 14:28 I called the 011 289 222 I call centre & spoke to a gentleman & explained that I wanted the decoder switched on. He asked to put me on hold & I listened to the dstv on hold tune until a loud static like noise replaced it. I listened for a while & cancelled the call after 6 minutes 59 seconds. I called back at 14:35 & got through to a lady who asked for all my details again. By now I was really impatient & told her what I was asking her to do. She had a look at my account & said i owed money & asked when last I paid. I told her that l pay every month at the beginning of the month (on a set recurring payment) & I thought I had paid R924. When I downloaded my statement I saw I had paid R879.81 & I saw that as at 4 December 2021 I was in credit of R1,654.62 which I cannot explain except that the December subscriptions don’t reflect on the statement & the November payment may have been credited twice. Only then did I see an sms from dstv sent at 10:11 saying they have had to stop my viewing because no payment has been made. When I first went onto the website it said that I owed R145.19. My problem with the monopolistic no service dstv is that
1. There is never anyone who I can talk to to resolve the problems. Even my complaining to Hello Peter does not improve the service, but this is the only time I get any sensible response. I have now gone through the best time of the year for relaxing & watching cricket & other things without dstv & no one can help. 2. It was not my fault that the decoder was not installed & connected on 14 December 2021 as was supposed to happen 3. What would have happened had the new decoders been connected correctly ? In terms of the 24 month contract which I agreed to price lock the explora ultra decoder monthly subscription to R849 including extra view, Netflix etc was that there had to be a debit order on my account, so the first payment would have come off my account on about 5th of January 2021 – all sorted. 4. Instead it has ended up in disputes between us which is not good for customer relations. In fact I dislike having to call dstv with a problem or complaint – I just waste time & it changes my day. The issues never improve & neither does my dislike of trying to resolve issues with dstv. DSTV NEEDS SOME COMPETITION, NOT PROTECTION.
MW
Mark W's update27 Dec 2021, 17:10
Reviewer Update
And the saga continues:
On Christmas day 25 December 2021 I received a call from a very helpful gentleman who tried to assist me in response to my complaint on 24 December 2021. To cut the story short, he could not activate my new Explora Ultra decoder because it turns out the wrong decoder had been installed. The dstv man said it was the installers fault so I gave him their number to contact so that they could rectify. I did not think that they would be available on Christmas day & the nothing would happen until Monday or Tuesday to get any reply from the installers. So on Sunday 26 December 2021 at 9:51 I called the dstv call centre *** to ask if they could activate the old decoder. After a lot of explaining that, as I understood it, the old package & decoders had been deactivated & the new package was activated, although it was the wrong decoder. The lady was able to activate the old single decoder. On Monday morning 27 December 2021 when I turned on dstv & I could not move the channel off 100 which indicates that the service has been suspended. There was no error message on the screen. At 14:28 I called the 011 289 222 I call centre & spoke to a gentleman & explained that I wanted the decoder switched on. He asked to put me on hold & I listened to the dstv on hold tune until a loud static like noise replaced it. I listened for a while & cancelled the call after 6 minutes 59 seconds. I called back at 14:35 & got through to a lady who asked for all my details again. By now I was really impatient & told her what I was asking her to do. She had a look at my account & said i owed money & asked when last I paid. I told her that l pay every month at the beginning of the month (on a set recurring payment) & I thought I had paid R924. When I downloaded my statement I saw I had paid R879.81 & I saw that as at 4 December 2021 I was in credit of R1,654.62 which I cannot explain except that the December subscriptions don’t reflect on the statement & the November payment may have been credited twice. Only then did I see an sms from dstv sent at 10:11 saying they have had to stop my viewing because no payment has been made. When I first went onto the website it said that I owed R145.19. My problem with the monopolistic no service dstv is that
1. There is never anyone who I can talk to to resolve the problems. Even my complaining to Hello Peter does not improve the service, but this is the only time I get any sensible response. I have now gone through the best time of the year for relaxing & watching cricket & other things without dstv & no one can help. 2. It was not my fault that the decoder was not installed & connected on 14 December 2021 as was supposed to happen 3. What would have happened had the new decoders been connected correctly ? In terms of the 24 month contract which I agreed to price lock the explora ultra decoder monthly subscription to R849 including extra view, Netflix etc was that there had to be a debit order on my account, so the first payment would have come off my account on about 5th of January 2021 – all sorted. 4. Instead it has ended up in disputes between us which is not good for customer relations. In fact I dislike having to call dstv with a problem or complaint – I just waste time & it changes my day. The issues never improve & neither does my dislike of trying to resolve issues with dstv. DSTV NEEDS SOME COMPETITION, NOT PROTECTION.
On Christmas day 25 December 2021 I received a call from a very helpful gentleman who tried to assist me in response to my complaint on 24 December 2021. To cut the story short, he could not activate my new Explora Ultra decoder because it turns out the wrong decoder had been installed. The dstv man said it was the installers fault so I gave him their number to contact so that they could rectify. I did not think that they would be available on Christmas day & the nothing would happen until Monday or Tuesday to get any reply from the installers. So on Sunday 26 December 2021 at 9:51 I called the dstv call centre *** to ask if they could activate the old decoder. After a lot of explaining that, as I understood it, the old package & decoders had been deactivated & the new package was activated, although it was the wrong decoder. The lady was able to activate the old single decoder. On Monday morning 27 December 2021 when I turned on dstv & I could not move the channel off 100 which indicates that the service has been suspended. There was no error message on the screen. At 14:28 I called the 011 289 222 I call centre & spoke to a gentleman & explained that I wanted the decoder switched on. He asked to put me on hold & I listened to the dstv on hold tune until a loud static like noise replaced it. I listened for a while & cancelled the call after 6 minutes 59 seconds. I called back at 14:35 & got through to a lady who asked for all my details again. By now I was really impatient & told her what I was asking her to do. She had a look at my account & said i owed money & asked when last I paid. I told her that l pay every month at the beginning of the month (on a set recurring payment) & I thought I had paid R924. When I downloaded my statement I saw I had paid R879.81 & I saw that as at 4 December 2021 I was in credit of R1,654.62 which I cannot explain except that the December subscriptions don’t reflect on the statement & the November payment may have been credited twice. Only then did I see an sms from dstv sent at 10:11 saying they have had to stop my viewing because no payment has been made. When I first went onto the website it said that I owed R145.19. My problem with the monopolistic no service dstv is that
1. There is never anyone who I can talk to to resolve the problems. Even my complaining to Hello Peter does not improve the service, but this is the only time I get any sensible response. I have now gone through the best time of the year for relaxing & watching cricket & other things without dstv & no one can help. 2. It was not my fault that the decoder was not installed & connected on 14 December 2021 as was supposed to happen 3. What would have happened had the new decoders been connected correctly ? In terms of the 24 month contract which I agreed to price lock the explora ultra decoder monthly subscription to R849 including extra view, Netflix etc was that there had to be a debit order on my account, so the first payment would have come off my account on about 5th of January 2021 – all sorted. 4. Instead it has ended up in disputes between us which is not good for customer relations. In fact I dislike having to call dstv with a problem or complaint – I just waste time & it changes my day. The issues never improve & neither does my dislike of trying to resolve issues with dstv. DSTV NEEDS SOME COMPETITION, NOT PROTECTION.