jF
johan F

1 reviews | Active since Mar 2009

01 Aug 2019, 12:54

MTN Billing Fault

A few years back I had a contract whereby R200 was allocated monthly for airtime. I used to roam in Namibia using the phone frequently and then the roaming charges were deducted from the airtime available on the account. In the event of depletion no outgoing calls were allowed any further. I also came to realize after my almost R400 worth of airtime disappeared that when the incoming call go over to voicemail I was still billed against the available airtime. Recently with a similar contract which had over R300 worth of airtime available on the account and made calls in Namibia under the impression it will again be deducted from the available airtime but this time I received a separate bill close to R700 for calls made. I was told by MTN that calls were always billed separately when roaming which was not the case previously. I have personal experience and logged a complaint previously on this platform with regards to that dated 31 August 2015. They rep**** on the 15th of September 2015 and stated that the roaming caused the airtime to be depleted and this proves my statement that things used to be different and changed in the meantime.

0
Replies (2)
MTN South Africa
MTN South Africa's reply22 Aug 2019, 11:06
Official
 Good day Johan 

Thank you for taking time to raise your concerns with MTN, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused as result of the breakdown in the service delivery in one of our touch points. 

The terms and conditions of the International Roaming agreement went through a vast number of changes, you will no longer be charged from your inclusive minutes/airtime while roaming. 

Below is a link to our updated roaming terms and conditions:  https://www.mtn.co.za/Pages/termsandconditions.aspx?pageId=413 

1.1 International roaming voice, SMS and Data usage shall be charged at the applicable roaming rate based on the country and its cellular network operator being roamed on. See https://www.mtn.co.za/Pages/InternationalRoaming.aspxfor International Roaming Rates 1.2 Inclusive airtime value (Rand value based) can be used for voice, SMS and Data usage while roaming for prepaid and hybrid customers provided there is prepaid roaming agreement in place in the visited country. Customers may validate on MTN website athttps://www.mtn.co.za/Pages/InternationalRoaming.aspx 1.3 International roaming voice calls shall not deplete from the inclusive Rand value for contract customers. 

1.4 All international roaming voice calls shall be charged on a non-real time basis. 

1.5 Customers may experience a delay of up to 3 (three) months in receiving their international roaming voice, SMS and Data usage bills. 

1.6 International roaming voice calls shall be charged at per minute rate regardless of the network the customer is roaming on. 

1.7 SMSs sent whilst roaming shall incur the rate charged for SMSs as per the price plan (local leg – from the Republic of South Africa to destination), plus an additional charge based on the rate chargeable depending on the Roaming Country and the cellular network operator being used (roaming leg – from the Roaming cellular network operator to the Republic of South Africa). 

1.8 All international roaming Data usage shall be charged on a real time basis. 

1.9 All free, loyalty, bonus, inclusive, bundle units (voice minutes, Internet credits, SMS units) cannot be used whilst roaming. 

1.10 All free, loyalty, bonus, inclusive, bundle SMS units can be used for the local leg of SMS sent whilst roaming if the destination qualifies to deplete the free, loyalty, bonus, inclusive or bundle SMS. 

We trust that the above mentioned is beneficial to you. Please feel free to contact us on 135 should you require additional information. 

Warm regards Roanne 
Complaints Management Team 

Best regards,

jF
johan F's update22 Aug 2019, 12:02
Reviewer Update
Thanks for the reply.

My concern is the following. Years back one had to apply for roaming services but in recent years one's phone will automatically switch over to the network of the country you are in. This have now caused a situation where we thought the same rules still apply but in fact it changed sometime in the past without our knowledge. This has resulted in a unexpected high phone bill. From a consumer point of view you should not allow this to happen. Free roaming should not take place at all.