Overcharged no explanation or response. Disconnecting.

On 6th September 2019 I received a cell message saying I must pay R681 or the service would be disconnected. I paid the same day but was nonetheless disconnected. I phoned on a landline and pointed out that I had made payment. The payment had not appeared on the system but they would watch for it and reconnect on the basis of my word that I had paid.

Between 7th and 10th September I made 12 cell calls totalling 2 hours 27 mins, at least R300 on pay-as-you-go airtime which is what I use. I also made calls from neighbour’s landline. The reason for using the cellphone is we have no landline and I had to wait for consultant and fiddle with decoder while they tried to reconnect. One call was 1hr 10mins and the guy told me not to disconnect or all his work would be lost, then I ran out of airtime. On 13th September I phoned from neighbour’s landline and for whatever reason the consultant was able to reconnect the services without difficulty.

During these calls I asked why my debit order of R564 per month had not gone through on 1 September. I was told that the system had been changed and because my debit order came off the LM Louw account (my husband’s account) and the service is in my name – FM Kendall – they had not processed it. I asked why I had not been informed (after 20 years of monthly payments), did not get an answer, and changed the DO account details to my personal account. On 21st September I was asked for another R150.33 which I paid.

On October 1st R2765,96 was debited from my FM Kendall account by M-Choice. I had only prepared for the usual R564 debit so had to pay the bank an honouring fee of R132 plus R1,29 interest. (see attached doc) According to our account payment history for multi-choice R656 was paid on 6 October (see attached doc). I can’t find this payment in any of our accounts.

On my return from overseas I phoned to find out what had happened on Friday 25th October when I activated my holiday decoder. The consultant read out a long list of items from our account. At one point she read R1300 reversed, then the next item it reappeared as unpaid. She was as confused to me and said she would escalate it to the financial dept – which has been said several times before. I was upset and told her I was seriously considering cancelling our services.

Payments to DSTV: 1 MAY R564 DO LM Louw account 1 JUN R564 DO LM Louw account 1 JUL R564 DO LM Louw account 1 AUG R564 DO LM Louw account 6 SEPT R681 made by me in response to text message 21 SEPT R150.33 in response to another text message. 1 OCT R2765,96 DO 6 OCT 656 DO 2 November R1277,25 DO

No explanation or breakdown of these charges has been given. On Monday 5th November I cancelled all services from Multichoice and asked for a breakdown of the amounts I paid over the past few months. The individual I spoke to promised to send a breakdown but did not do so.

Today (12th November) I called again to make sure my account will be cancelled and to ask what happened to the breakdown of expenses. Your recorded message told me I now owe R3104!! The young woman I spoke to looked up my account and said there are amounts of bad debt listed and asked if my account was disconnected for long periods. The answer is no.

I have been with Multichoice for a very long time – possible over 20 years. I have always paid with a debit order (apart from the one month when they changed their system and did not inform me). I have never seen an invoice or breakdown of what I’m paying. Therefore it is not possible that any bad debt could have accrued to me.

I sent the above info to one of the managers at the help line. I asked for an explanation and breakdown of the large amounts that have been debited from my account and that she ensure my DSTV be disconnected at the end of November and I am not charged for further services. I have received n reply.

Sincerely

Frances Kendall