Multichoice client account mismanagement & passing the buck

What a mess the last 6 months have been & continue to be signing up for Price Lock.

I have lost all hope with the management of DSTV accounts & client handling from depts at Multichoice.

My current issue concerns my new Price Lock deal. Installation process was a mess for 2 months from Sept to end Oct 2019 and is a story on its own.

This current issue concerns Dec 2019, when there was a debit returned of R5500 by DSTV on my account. Numerous calls from me to understand what has happened and to resolve followed. Before a resolution from Multichoice, I received a sms that I’d be debited nearly R10 000 on 25 Jan 2020.

It was then, on 22/23 Jan 2020, confirmed that these were cancellation fees – a cancellation which I did not request, and would not request 3-4 months into a 24-month price lock agreement.

On 3 March 2020 my services were suspended & disconnected due to failure to pay. I called to resolve and understand why this is, as I’m a debit order customer. It was confirmed that I am no longer a debit order customer and have been switched to CASH client without my consent or being informed. I, therefore, defaulted on a payment.

I now do not have enough money to pay the (R1800) missed subscription and will not resume reconnection until settled. I cannot understand what is happening behind the scenes at DSTV but my account has been dragged through the mud & mishandled and I am the one to pay for it

Most people have around 20 debit order & other transactions going on in our busy lives and the debit order arrangement is supposed to be more convenient. But this accounts dept has messed with mine & changed the terms of the original agreement with false cancellations, changing my payment method without my consent or knowledge and now for days we have been without DSTV as no one is calling me to make an affordable arrangement so that my services may be resumed.

I now cannot pay the R1800 and need to make an arrangement. I have sent two emails to pmtarrangement on Tuesday & Wednesday, and visited N1 City branch Thursday morning for further assistance but nothing has come of the “escalation” and I’ve still not received a call from anyone for an arrangement to reconnect.

I today, Friday 6 March 2020, received the following response: "Thank you for contacting Billing and Collection Please be advised that all incorrect charges were reversed, account was rectified, but we haven't received payments for Dec 2019, Jan 2020 and March 2020."

To wait 3 days for that response from Billings, stating lies, and no intention to actually help me.

No accountability for mistakes made in Dec & Jan and how that affected my account going into default later. Billings dept response highlights 3 months missed when in fact it was 2 before I made payment on Feb 4, and this was only because there was no resolution for the enormous amounts billings was trying to deduct wrongfully. Now I’ve been disconnected and March has been added to this list to make it seem worse than it is. My point is proven more so by the fact that the outstanding fees is R1800… if it actually was 3 months, as per claims by billings dept, it would’ve been more than R3000. So this is an outright, blatant lie.

The Billings dept hasn’t made contact in an attempt to assist me with regard to making a payment arrangement so that services may be resumed, as per my initial request. It instead attempts to pass the buck on to me.

Multichoice is going out of its way to make my family's viewing experience a living nightmare. Me & my family just want to watch our programmes but it has now become my fault that this account has been mismanaged by the billings dept.