R55 for Nothing: How Melon Mobile's Default AI Chatbot Overcharged Me and Hid Behind Policy

Melon Mobile's WhatsApp Business channel defaults to an AI chatbot, which is what I was dealing with when I tried to change my package. During the conversation, the bot asked me to confirm what I wanted for what I presumed was the next billing month, factoring in the package change I had requested. Based on that, I was billed R55 for 100 minutes without warning, when outgoing calls on my current package are already unlimited. The add-on serves no purpose for me.

At no point did the chatbot flag that this charge would apply immediately, or that it made no sense alongside the package I was moving to. A system handling BILLING DECISIONS on a customer's behalf should be able to recognise when an add-on is redundant given the customer's existing package, and should disclose any charge before applying it. Neither happened here.

To make matters worse, I will only have four days to use these minutes after the billing month resets, before they are lost entirely. This means I will have paid R55 for a benefit I never needed and barely had the opportunity to use.

When I raised this with Melon Mobile's HUMAN support team, they acknowledged the billing had occurred, but insisted I was in the wrong and pointed to policy as the reason the charge could not be reversed. Policies exist to guide decisions, not to override them in every circumstance. A customer being billed for a redundant add-on, without disclosure, as a result of a system fault is exactly the kind of specific instance a policy should be able to accommodate, not hide behind.

R55 is a small amount, but the underlying issue is not. Customers should not be defaulted into an AI-driven support channel and then held fully responsible when that system charges them for something that duplicates a benefit they already have, without disclosing the charge upfront. It raises a fair question about how many other customers have been billed for add-ons that make no sense for their package, without ever realising it.