CONTINUED BILLING EVEN AFTER DEATH OF CONTRACT HOLDER

My father passed away on 12 October 2021. He had two contracts with MTN concerning his former number as well as my mother’s current number. When he became terminally ill, in order to ensure a smooth transition, I attempted to transfer the contract with regard to my mother’s number to my name. I submitted a duly signed power of attorney as well as certified supporting documents, however, MTN customer service and several branches failed to assist me. I was in fact, despite submitting a letter confirming that my father was already admitted to hospice, merely repeatedly advised that my father, who could not even walk anymore, was required to make a personal attendance at a branch.

Notwithstanding, after I received my father’s death certificate and notice of death, I made a personal attendance at the Menlyn specially dedicated customer care branch. I submitted all the required documents, original and otherwise, in order to cancel the one contract and transfer the other to my name. It initially appeared that the said actions were effected, but it seems I was overly optimistic to expect that all be sorted even after I did my due diligence.

My main complaint relates to the fact that, despite MTN’s knowledge of my father’s passing, MTN continues to not only send monthly invoices to my late father, but also deemed it suitable to continuously threaten him with further action should a purported outstanding amount not be settled. The issue is exacerbated by the fact that I immediately settled the amount of R433.06 after I received the first notice and customer service advised me to make an electronic payment as the debit order may not have been loaded by that time as yet. MTN seemingly did not allocate the amount correctly and continued to unjustly demand payment.

I was thus compelled to continue with the arduous task of attempting to resolve the matter. I don’t mean to be tedious, but I do wish to re-iterate that at that stage MTN was already in possession of all the required information and documentation. What followed was a back-and-forth process of communicating the same issues umpteen times to customer care and several branches. My efforts were repeatedly met with customer care advising that the issue is to be resolved at a branch, whilst the branch, not surprisingly, just as firmly denied responsibility and demanded that customer care ought to deal with the matter. I was also (my personal favourite) advised on occasion that my father, my deceased father, needs to personally deal with this issue at a branch.

I dared to hope that progress would be made after the Southgate branch directly contacted the billing department via e-mail requesting that the above-mentioned payment I made be allocated correctly, and after I was subsequently verbally informed by the said branch that a contract in my father’s name does not exist anymore. My optimism was unfortunately in vain, as MTN is merely continuing with their threats, even increasing the apparent amount due, whilst still invoicing my father every month.

I wish to state clearly that the above description of events does not begin to capture the frustration, desperation, and dissatisfaction, not to mention the wasted time and money, I have endured during this process. The utter insensitivity and arrogance of MTN to further add to my process of grief, either deliberately or out of sheer incompetence (I’ll allow them to choose), by failing to attend to the matter, is genuinely disappointing.