DSTV Price Lock - Disgusting Lack of Service and Gross Incompetence

I tried to order the DSTV price lock special offer in February by requesting a call back through the website which seems to be the only way to order. NOTHING HAPPENED. After 2 weeks I did the same again only to be called 3 days later and asked why I had requested a call (in spite of it being very clear what was being requested using DSTV's own online forms) and was then promised that they would call back the same day. NOTHING HAPPENED.

I then tried a 3rd time. I got a call in mid-March also asking why I wanted them to contact me. This time Chedwin did call back (17 March) to go through the tedious process on the phone to place the order. Chedwin then could not tell me who the installer would be but promised that I would get a call from one. (This process is also nonsense as the customer should be allowed to choose which approved installer in their area to use.) Then (yes, you guessed right) NOTHING HAPPENED.

I started calling around and got in contact with a DSTV technical person in Cape Town who was really helpful and even managed to trace the expected installer.

On 22nd March (a public holiday) we received an SMS from DSTV that the installer was on their way that morning to install. We were going out for the day so tried to call the installer. No response - it was a public holiday after all. When I called the installer the next day, they could see that my installation was assigned to them but had not received a decoder!! They informed me that my case was not the only one and that they had many customers who were waiting for decoders to be delivered.

A week or 2 later, I received a call from a DSTV call centre agent asking me about the installation and how it went. I lost it with her and she promised to escalate and that I would receive a call from someone from DSTV to provide more information. NOTHING HAPPENED.

In the intervening period, I received a customer satisfaction survey from DSTV about the installation. Needless to say, I wasn’t “complimentary”. They have still not responded to me as requested.

On Saturday 24th April we received another SMS from DSTV stating that the installer would arrive after 10am on 3rd May! I called the installer today (28th April) to check and they have still not received the decoder. They then investigated further and were informed by DSTV that the job is no longer assigned to them and that the DSTV system shows that my application is older than a month and needs to be returned to DSTV Sales!!! It is only older than a month due to the utter incompetence and non-delivery on the part of DSTV.

Since this saga began DSTV has quite happily increased my monthly debit order on the old contract with my old decoder way beyond what I should be paying. I bet they won’t reverse that.

This is how DSTV treats customers for a new business opportunity. Can you imagine what they will do with complaints? I imagine NOTHING WILL HAPPEN.