MTN Madness in the asylum
<p> </p> <p>A personal tale of how unbelievably bad their so called customer care is.</p> <p> </p> <p>Your reference: ********** 3</p> <p>"Last year I entered into a new contract with MTN when I was upgrading my cell phone. Regrettably, although I did not request insurance it was charged.</p> <p>Logically MTN should be able to resolve a simple problem of this nature by checking the contract; note it does not include insurance; amend the customer's invoice; send apologies to the customer for the unacceptable error; credit the account with the amount incorrectly charged, hopefully, with interest (which would never be onerous, if the customer care systems are in place, as the lead time would be short). And, if MTN was a reasonably customer centred company make some offer to the customer in attempt to restore the lost trust.</p> <p>After numerous queries to MTN and lots of reference numbers, with little or no positive response, it took months for MTN to even acknowledge that the difference between the stated monthly price given at the time of the new contract and what I was being charged was for insurance. I was referred!</p> <p>I was informed that I had to deal with a company that I have no contractual relationship with, namely Pinnacle Marketing who apparently MTN have subcontracted insurance out to.</p> <p>Despite, questioning why MTN could not sort out what was their error, MTN insisted I contact Pinnacle Marketing.</p> <p>Now rationally Pinnacle Marketing would be informed if there was any changes, as should any interested party of the contractual requirements at the time of an upgrade. This would also rationally mean they would have some form of documentation and an audit trail of all customers and their insurance needs. Otherwise how would Pinnacle know if there was any changes at any upgrade in terms of their charges to MTN relating to any individual account and their total charges to MTN? (you really can't make this up)</p> <p>Pinnacle Marketing initially informed me that they did not have information on any insurance requirements at the upgrade. Which clearly begs the question how they know that I did not want insurance at the time of the upgrade? (it does not get better, believe me it does not)</p> <p>I asked Pinnacle, which at the time seemed reasonable (silly me), to obtain the information from MTN, as they should have provided it in the first place. (Can you see how I was being slowly sucked into the madness of it all?)</p> <p>MTN then tell Pinnacle that MTN needs my permission to provide the information which MTN should have already have provided to Pinnacle. I therefore, begrudgingly gave Pinnacle written permission to request from MTN the information.</p> <p>Now Pinnacle tell me that they have received correspondence from your goodself informing them, to inform me, that I now have to formally request MTN to provide the information to Pinnacle. (Just so we do not lose the plot at this stage, we need to remember MTN defined the charges incorrectly in the first place and included insurance charges when invoicing after the upgrade.)</p> <p>Therefore, Adrian, although we both know this is complete madness. Please accept this correspondence as a formal request for the information that MTN has and which rationally, Pinnacle should already have, to be sent to Pinnacle. The person to send it to is copied on this correspondence.</p> <p>It appears that if Pinnacle receive this information, MTN who initiated the monthly charges in the first place, will be able to adjust the charges to the agreed amount at the time of the upgrade, amend my invoice; send apologies to me for the unacceptable error; credit the account with the amount incorrectly charged, hopefully with interest and if I am really lucky make some reasonable offer to me in an attempt to restore any lost trust and the perception that MTN is from an alien planet dedicated to destroy what is left of the "Age of Enlightenment".</p> <p>However, Adrian, although I know you work in a complete madhouse, it is not too late.</p> <p>I have a real belief in your ability to withstand this madness; that you can do what no MTN employee has managed to do in over seven months and resolve this issue; an issue that almost any other company would have resolved in less than a working day.</p> <p>Thank you in anticipation of your positive and welcome response. <br /> <br />Keith</p> <p>Keith Pea****</p> <p>PS. Please do not ask me to jump through the hoops of the MTN security check (AKA avoidance of finding a solution), just search for all my E-Mail's from this address on your system and you will see I have jumped through that hoop far too many times already</p> <p>PPS. I've got two more problems associated with my accounts with MTN, would you like those as well?</p> <p>PPPS I've heard they need good script writers for a new "men in black" film. If you forward this to your head of customer care and his/her senior management team, the production company might want to recruit them". </p>
Dear Alice
Many thanks for the prompt response. It is sad that this simple complaint had to go public to get a well thought out response.
While we are communicating, I have two other problems which MTN have been unable to respond to and hopefully you can.
Number one - I overpaid on ********** last year the sum of R 2370 on the 1 July 2016 against ********** 108. For the last year we have been trying to get a refund/credit to the account. Although your accounts will have this proof of payment, I resent it yesterday to ********** at 23h04. Background: This is from the person who was dealing with the problem a year ago. You will remember that MTN had just taken over Autopage. I'm not going to go into all of the frustrating communications about this simple problem by MTN. But I was advised to communicate with Autopage, although I was now a client of MTN.
From: Najma Moosa ********** ********** Sent: Wed, 13 Jul 2016 11:12:36 +0200 (SAST) Subject: RE: Fwd: Payment Notification. Good day, Thank you for the email, The proof of payment has been received and forwarded to our finance team. to confirm payment on our bank statement, once they give me go ahead I will process refund accordingly. I will provide feedback once complete and will try my best to expedite the request. Kind regards Najma Moosa
From: Najma Moosa ********** ********** Sent: Mon, 01 Aug 2016 15:50:31 +0200 (SAST) Subject: RE: RE: Fwd: Payment Notification Good day, Please note that the refund has been processed accordingly and sent for approval. Unfortunately there is no staff at Autopage any longer, there is just 2 of us assisting with requests that come through from customers. Its myself and Kabo Mojanaga, I sincerely apologise for the delay and we are trying our best to make sure the process is expedited. Regards Najma Moosa
And then back to MTN in October 2016. keith ********** om> 26/10/2016
to customercare, Dear Palesa Thank you very much for your response. You are now the service provider, therefore, legally we are required to deal with you, as Autopage no longer exists. This is a straight forward challenge that MTN needs to sort out. The phone number has not changed and the details of the account credit/debits will be in your records. The onus must never be placed on the customer, that's not best international practice.
And again in February 2017 ********** Date: 2017/02/01 7:38:52 PM ********** ********** Subject: Re: Fwd: MTN Documents - A ********** [# ********** 4] FOR THE URGENT ATTENTION OF Mikail Barmania Dear Makail Thank you for your response. While I have an actual person who is dealing with my challenges, can you kindly also take responsibility for the failure of MTN to transfer a significant credit to the account for ***which was not transferred over when MTN took over Autopage cellular. Another long (longer) outstanding matter. The only difference is that payment for this cell phone is made on receipt of an sms and the paying bank is Nedbank, Teaching Screens. I look forward to closure of these matters and thank you very much for your help. If I wasn't almost bald, I'd be pulling my hair out. Best Regards Keith Pea****.
Fast forward to July 2017 lots of correspondence and reference numbers but still no action.
The second problem. I'm not going to bore you with all of the correspondence and reference numbers over the year. A sample of my correspondence may assist you in resolving this simple problem. although, to this day I've not got a clue what it is about. "Then there is the mystery R 67.00 separate charge, (MTNSP A ********** ********** 985) after numerous requests for clarification and reversal, the response has been zero, except MTN continue to take the amount monthly. Again, all it needs is to escalate to someone of a sufficient authorisation level to stop changing the amount charged and credit the incorrect charges to my account since the upgrade. An explaination would help in my understanding".
Well Alice, for the time being that's all. Many thanks and I'm sorry you have to pick up all of the problems that if the customer care systems and approriate training was in place would never arise.
Regards
Keith
Dear Alice
Many thanks for the prompt response. It is sad that this simple complaint had to go public to get a well thought out response.
While we are communicating, I have two other problems which MTN have been unable to respond to and hopefully you can.
Number one - I overpaid on ********** last year the sum of R 2370 on the 1 July 2016 against ********** 108. For the last year we have been trying to get a refund/credit to the account. Although your accounts will have this proof of payment, I resent it yesterday to ********** at 23h04. Background: This is from the person who was dealing with the problem a year ago. You will remember that MTN had just taken over Autopage. I'm not going to go into all of the frustrating communications about this simple problem by MTN. But I was advised to communicate with Autopage, although I was now a client of MTN.
From: Najma Moosa ********** ********** Sent: Wed, 13 Jul 2016 11:12:36 +0200 (SAST) Subject: RE: Fwd: Payment Notification. Good day, Thank you for the email, The proof of payment has been received and forwarded to our finance team. to confirm payment on our bank statement, once they give me go ahead I will process refund accordingly. I will provide feedback once complete and will try my best to expedite the request. Kind regards Najma Moosa
From: Najma Moosa ********** ********** Sent: Mon, 01 Aug 2016 15:50:31 +0200 (SAST) Subject: RE: RE: Fwd: Payment Notification Good day, Please note that the refund has been processed accordingly and sent for approval. Unfortunately there is no staff at Autopage any longer, there is just 2 of us assisting with requests that come through from customers. Its myself and Kabo Mojanaga, I sincerely apologise for the delay and we are trying our best to make sure the process is expedited. Regards Najma Moosa
And then back to MTN in October 2016. keith ********** om> 26/10/2016
to customercare, Dear Palesa Thank you very much for your response. You are now the service provider, therefore, legally we are required to deal with you, as Autopage no longer exists. This is a straight forward challenge that MTN needs to sort out. The phone number has not changed and the details of the account credit/debits will be in your records. The onus must never be placed on the customer, that's not best international practice.
And again in February 2017 ********** Date: 2017/02/01 7:38:52 PM ********** ********** Subject: Re: Fwd: MTN Documents - A ********** [# ********** 4] FOR THE URGENT ATTENTION OF Mikail Barmania Dear Makail Thank you for your response. While I have an actual person who is dealing with my challenges, can you kindly also take responsibility for the failure of MTN to transfer a significant credit to the account for ***which was not transferred over when MTN took over Autopage cellular. Another long (longer) outstanding matter. The only difference is that payment for this cell phone is made on receipt of an sms and the paying bank is Nedbank, Teaching Screens. I look forward to closure of these matters and thank you very much for your help. If I wasn't almost bald, I'd be pulling my hair out. Best Regards Keith Pea****.
Fast forward to July 2017 lots of correspondence and reference numbers but still no action.
The second problem. I'm not going to bore you with all of the correspondence and reference numbers over the year. A sample of my correspondence may assist you in resolving this simple problem. although, to this day I've not got a clue what it is about. "Then there is the mystery R 67.00 separate charge, (MTNSP A ********** ********** 985) after numerous requests for clarification and reversal, the response has been zero, except MTN continue to take the amount monthly. Again, all it needs is to escalate to someone of a sufficient authorisation level to stop changing the amount charged and credit the incorrect charges to my account since the upgrade. An explaination would help in my understanding".
Well Alice, for the time being that's all. Many thanks and I'm sorry you have to pick up all of the problems that if the customer care systems and approriate training was in place would never arise.
Regards
Keith