Content Charge" - Another MTN swindle

<p>My story started with my October MTN account. There was a strange transaction called “Content Charge” for R94.74. I immediately went to a MTN store and queried this charge.</p> <p>The consultant knew all about it and explained how to stop it (ie dial *141*5#). She explained that it had happened to her also, without requesting it! Later, I examined carefully on my Cell the “services” which I allegedly had contracted with MTN. I could not make head or tale of the offered services.</p> <p>Imagine my shock when once again I was billed in my November account for an even larger amount of R239.46. I decided to go to another MTN shop and complain once again! I got a similar response and they lodged a complaint with MTN on my behalf. I also filed a complaint with the MTN ***** department. I received NO response from both. In desperation, I lodged a complaint on the Hellopeter site and got an immediate copy and paste response from Ms van der Merwe which was most unhelpful. Their assistance of “Your unsubscribe has been logged as # ********** ” never occurred and the **** charges continue.</p> <p>The penny finally dropped and the mystery was partially solved when I received the following unsolicited SMS a few days ago: “You are subscribed to Ollando. R7/day…to unsubscribe SMS stop to 4435…”.I duly responded with a “Stop” which was returned as “FAILED” and a “Content Services” account was set up once again! I subsequently discovered that the only way to cancel this SMS and the billing from MTN is to dial *141*5# immediately and cancel the **** service. I now check this number at regular intervals and STILL get offers of ridiculous things like BITBOP which if I don’t decline, MTN will happily bill me for DESPITE the fact that MTN DO NOT obtain my approval to do so!</p> <p> How do I stop this?</p> <p>There are numerous complaints to be found about this **** on the Internet, but MTN merely ignores these complaints and continues to debit subscribers for fictitious and ********** services WITHOUT their agreement and ignoring current legislation which forbids this practise.</p> <p>The email response from Ms Alice van der Merwe via Hellopeter only refers to charging for Mira network and Opera telecoms and NOT Ollando which MTN repeatedly bill me for. She also offers in her reply the following confused advice “You may use the following USSD code to block the content service providers: *141* 5 # select option written content billing” – there is NO such option as “option written content billing” on my menu! So my simple logic says that MTN is party to this ***** and keeps the money!</p>