MTN billing system in shambles

I reported MTN on hellopeter before, but the company did not respond. I wrote to their complaints department and received no call back yet therefore I decided to publish my email to them here. I am really annoyed with the service that I receive from MTN regarding my account

I currently have two contracts with MTN. My contract for the ***... number expired in February. I was called by a MTN consultant, and I was offered an upgrade on the expiring contract. The update would have cost me less than the current one that expired. I used to pay R199 for the old contract and was offered a data and call deal for only R79. (The upgrade was done by the same lady that offered me my previous contract). I was quite happy with the upgrade.

The end of march, I was billed the normal amount, but I was aware that the invoices that we receive are for a previous month and I thought nothing of it. The next month, April I suddenly received an invoice for R799-00 Much more than that I was supposed to pay. I only realized this when I checked my bank account in May. At the end of May, I was again billed R749-00. This was after I received an SMS to inform me that I would receive a refund because MTN adjusting its increase. This was again much more than I was supposed to pay. I was supposed to be paying around R300 for the two contracts that I had. I was aware that there was a 5% increase, and I was told that my R79 contract had increased to R85.

I then contacted MTN about the issue. I was told that the person who did the upgrade forgot to cancel the old contract and that it would be rectified and that I would receive credit from MTN. I was told to contact MTN again after 48 hours to see If it was done. I did so but just to find out that nothing had been done. I demanded credit for the two months that I was wrongly billed. I even went as far as to try and cancel my contracts. I was put through to the retention department who convinced me not to cancel and who promised me that I would receive a credit because it was a mistake that was caused by MTN.

During June MTN refunded me with the amount of R790.00. The refund was paid into my bank account by MTN. To my dismay I also then received an SMS from MTN informing me that I am now in arrear and demanding that I must pay MTN the amount of R790 that is in arrear immediately or I would be blocked. How does it happen that MTN refunds you and then demands a payback at the same time? I called MTN many times again and I was in the end referred to the billing department who told me that this was a mistake, and the department that was responsible for this must fix it. They promised to escalate the issue to the team that was responsible so that it could be fixed. I asked to be called back to notify me if the issue has been resolved. My Phone was blocked in the meantime, but the block was lifted because MTN admitted that it was not my fault. I heard no more from MTN, and I was under the impression that the issue was resolved. (Off course they did not call me back).

On Friday 1 July I went to a MTN store to do a sim swap because my daughter lost my grandson’s Simard. After having to wait for half an hour to be served I was told that I could not do a Sim swap because there was an amount of more than a thousand rand outstanding on my account. Nothing was done to rectify the mistake since my last call to MTN. This was also confirmed by the lady at the MTN store. She called the billing department who confirmed that nothing had been done to rectify the issue. No one even tried to fix the issue. This left me with a Cellphone contract that I cannot use because I am not allowed to do a sim swap unless I pay the outstanding amount. I am not going to pay for a mistake that was clearly a MTN mistake. I just wasted about two hours at the MTN store for nothing.

I am really incredibly angry! I have never in my life been treated with such disregard and disrespect before. A big company like MTN does not have any respect for its clients. It goes beyond me how a company like MTN can make a mistake like they have been making and why it cannot be fixed immediately. Why was it that the client service department could not put me through to the relevant department or supervisor to deal with this issue? Why do I have to make call after call to have the issue fixed and why do I not receive feedback about the issue from MTN? This was clearly a mistake at MTN and MTN is responsible for fixing the issue. The only response that I got, every time that I called client services, was that the matter would be escalated to the relevant department. The relevant department obviously did not respond to my complaints.

I demand that the issue be fixed now. MTN owes me money and not the other way round. It is not my fault that when I am being offered an upgrade and I accept the upgrade, the old contract does not get cancelled. It has something to do with the incompetence of the MTN staff. I also have complained on the Hellopeter website, but MTN did not even respond to that. They obviously don’t care.

Please find some of the following reference numbers that I received when I called MTN about the issue. It just shows you how many times I had unsuccessfully called MTN to have the matter resolved. *** *** *** *** ***