MTN LIES ABOUT HIDDEN COSTS IN THEIR CONTRACTS. DO NOT TRUST.

MTN LIES ABOUT HIDDEN COSTS IN THEIR CONTRACTS

On 19/09/2022 I went to Blue Route Mall MTN, Cape Town and took out the contract 'My MTN Choice 80 GB - 24 months YT50GRITBL SIM only' It is a contract advertised in their September deals pamphlet.

The contract consisted of 50gb anytime data, 30gb night express data and 50gb of Youtube streaming bundle (Total 130gb) for the listed price of R299 per month for 24 months.

The sales consultant who helped me was Cheris Fourie.

The contract reference is ***

Prior to taking out this contract, I was on a contract for R367.88 per month (previously before annual increase R349 per month) with 2 months still remaining. I explained this to the sales consultant and she informed me that I was not due for an upgrade and would be charged an early upgrade fee of R368.77 (Inc VAT) if I were to upgrade now

Since my previous contract costed R367.88 pm and the new proposed contract R299, she informed me that I would be saving money in the long run if I were to upgrade now as the current September deal might fall away in the next month.

I elected to upgrade early to the new contract. Before signing the contract, I made sure to ask about the total cost of the contract per month and if there are any hidden costs and that my out of bundle limit would be zero. She assured me that the contract would just cost R299 per month for 24 months.

She did not inform me about the 1) Annual increase in contracts not advertised 2) VAT was not included in the per month cost 3) Itemised billing cost

She assured me that I would only be paying R299 per month for 24 months.

If I had known that the other costs were included, I would have not elected to take an early upgrade, cancelling my previous contract and paying an early upgrade fee of R368.77. With my October invoice, I first found out about the incorrect billing of R390.23 instead of R299. I called the MTN customer care service on 083 135. I waited 30min on hold and was attended to. The customer care could not tell me why there was an increase in the cost of my contract and advised me to go back in store and find out.

I returned back to the Blue Route Mall MTN on 01/11/22 where a billing dispute ref *** query was logged. The sales consultant explained that VAT, annual increase and itemised billing charges were the reasons why i was paying R390.23 and not R299 per month. She also explained that I was charged R368.77 as an early upgrade fee.

The following day 2/11/22 I received a SMS stating that my *** query has been closed. I was not given an update on if it was resolved or not. I then messaged their MTN Instagram account who informed me via direct message that:

"As per the feedback received from our support team regarding your billing dispute on ref ***, the deal ID sold to you was not on the September promo list and you would need to revert to the point of sale for further assistance. ~TAV"

The above was the response even though the September Promo List Brochure highlighting the deal was scanned and sent along with my query.

I then returned to the store on the same day 02/11/22 where I spoke with another consultant, Rashida, and she informed me that they will log another billing dispute with added information and that the dispute should be resolved where I would receive a refund of any amount paid above the R299 fee I was promised per month. I will also have the remainder of the contract for R299 per month over the 24 months. The R299 per month should reflect on my next invoice for November 2022.

On 01/12/22 I received a November invoice still stating that my bill is R390.23 and not R299. I returned back to the store on 05/12/22 where I spoke to consultant Rashida again and she informed that the service response was that "VAT has not been included on the R299 listing" The response completely ignored the content of the queries that were previously made.

She further advised me that the best thing to do would be to email MTN customer service to resolve this as well as the CGS ombudsman. She explained that logging a billing dispute again from their side would take long and not solve anything.

AS OF 01/02/23 I have yet to receive any response. The matter is now with the CGS ombud.

DO NOT TRUST MTN, THEY LIE. RATHER GO WITH ANOTHER NETWORK PROVIDER. POOR CUSYOMER SERVICE.