Refund and Service issues

On December 29th, I eagerly responded to an email offering to reconnect my DSTV Premium streaming service at a discounted rate of R199 per month for six months. Trusting in this offer, I promptly clicked the reconnect button and proceeded to make the payment via credit card. To my dismay, despite completing the payment process, my services remained disconnected. Upon contacting customer service through WhatsApp, I was informed that my payment had not been attributed to the streaming account but instead to the decoder account. I requested a transfer of the payment to the streaming account, which I had initially signed up for. Despite assurances of resolution within 24-48 hours and the provision of a reference number, no action was taken.

Upon subsequent follow-up chat, I was met with the inability to locate my payment and was asked to provide proof of payment. When I explained that credit card transactions do not generate proof of payment from the bank, I was then instructed to provide a credit card statement, which would only be available days later. Few days later when contacted to send proof of payment , my payment was finally acknowledged, yet the services were not reconnected as expected.

Instead, after another round of communication, the agent mistakenly reactivated the decoder service and requested further payment to enable the this service. I immediately brought the mistake to the agents attention. After correcting this error, I was assured that the streaming service had been activated, only to find it disconnected immediately after ending the chat with this agent.

Frustrated and exhausted by the ongoing issues, I initiated yet another conversation with a new agent, recounting the entire history of my ordeal since December 29th. I demanded a full refund of the R199 payment. Despite providing all necessary documentation, including my ID copy and banking details confirmation, and receiving assurances of a swift resolution and a new reference number for the refund, the funds were not returned. Subsequent follow-ups revealed that the previous agent had failed to process the refund correctly, necessitating the resubmission of documents and issuance of yet another reference number.

As of now, 12 days later, the refund has still not been issued. This entire experience has been nothing short of a profound disappointment. Despite the company's attempt to lure customers back with promotional offers, the reality is marred by abysmal customer service and a lack of accountability. While I might have been willing to overlook the R199 payment, the egregious amount of time and energy expended in pursuit of a resolution is unacceptable and therefore not willing to part with my hard earned money to this *******.

This situation feels like nothing short of daylight ******* perpetrated by one of South Africa's largest corporations. As a result, I vow never to patronize DSTV again.