Obliged to swop a decoder which was working and to pay R600 for a refurbished one

I live in Waterkloof Ridge since December 2018.

On the 4th February 2019, I hired DSTV services for one year. The installation was made by a technician and the service was hired in Waterkloof Glenn DSTV Center.

On the 3th February 2020, I hired DSTV services for another year.

In both cases, I have paid for one suscription and one supplement, because I have two televisions.

The decoders are mine. I have paid for them. It was the technician who got them for me, although he has not given me any invoice or documentary proof.

Last Monday, one of the decoders stopped recording, because the hard drive was *******. It might have been because the disk was full and I was not able to delete the content. I called the technician, who told me that he should take the decoder to the shop. In fact, he took both decoders because both of them should be formated as they were linked.

Before the technician took the decoders to the shop, I wrote an U (for upstairs) and a D (for downstairs) on the decoders, to know which one was which. The faulty one was upstairs and the right one was downstairs. The technician can confirm this because he tested both decoders in front of me, before taking them to the shope.

Last Wednesday, the technician returned to my house with the decoder that was upstairs already repaired. On the contrary, the decoder which was downstairs and worked perfectly, now did not work. He said that it was because when the decoder was being formated, the power went off due to the load shedding.

This morning, the technician went back to DSTV Waterkloof Glenn Center and he came to my house with the decoder repaired plus a refurbished decoder, for which I had to pay R600.

I told him that I prefered to buy a new decoder for R900 and to keep the old one. He went back to the DSTV Waterkloof Glenn Center. When he was there, somebody (who did not tell me his name) called me from Multichoice (telephone number ***) about 10.30 today. He told me that I was confused and that I did not know what I was saying nor did I know which of my decoders were which.

However, that is not true, because as I have already mentioned, I marked both decoders and the technician tested them in front of me before he took them to the shop, so he knows, as well as I do, that only the decoder that was upstairs had a problem and that the decoder that was not working now, was perfect.

The person from DSTV Waterkloof Glenn Center insisted that the DSTV decoder swopped was the faulty one, which is not true. He added that I could not buy a new decoder for R900 (keeping the old one), because the new decoder needed a new cable installation, which is not true either. He continued saying that I had no more option than swopping the decoder for R600.

Please take into account that:

- Nobody has asked me to pay for the repair of the faulty decoder; -The decoder swopped was working perfectly; - It is up to me (as the owner) to decide if I want to buy a new decoder (keeping the old one) or to swop it; - I am not obliged to swop the decoder at Multichoice. It is up to me to decide which shop I want to get the decoder from; - I should not be treated as if I were crazy; - It is not true that I cannot buy a new decoder because it needs a new cable installation.

At the end of the day, I have been OBLIGED to SWOP a decoder which was working perfectly, paying R600 for a refurbished one.

The decoder was mine, so it is me and not a Multichoice employee who must decide what to do with it.

I feel foolished and ****med.

I would much appreciate if you could please find out who is the DSTV employee who has kept my decoder and obliged me to pay for a refurbished one, when I did not need to do so.

The swopped decoder was working perfectly. If it was damaged when it was being formated because of the load shedding it is not my fault. You should provide your centers with electric generators. In any case, you know, as I do, that load shedding is programmed, so DSTV centers know when they will not have power supply.