No Compassion To Assist Loyal Customer

Good Day, I have been a contract customer with MTN for more than 12 years now and have never had issues with my account every month until September 2021. My regular debit was R821,79 per month and when I took out the upgrade for the Note 20 in June 2021, I informed the Contact Centre agent that assisted me that financially I would struggle to have both the phone and the data contract for an extended period and the agent on the phone informed me not to worry because the contract for the data / router would be ending soon and thereafter it would run month to month and I would be able to cancel at any time. Please listen to the call because I specifically asked what would happen if I don’t cancel the data contract when the contract period ends and the agent informed me that it would simply continue to run month to month and I could cancel at any time.

The agent did NOT inform me that the contract would revert to the non-special billing of R1800,89. Do you think if he told me that , I would still take out a new contract? The sales person at the store ( when I took out the data contract / router ) also did not inform me of this. I used to pay R821,79 prior to the taking the Note 20 and with the Note 20 the instalment increased and I had R1202,59 debited at the end of August 2021. At the end of September 2021 , I made sure that there was R1300 left in my account for my debit order from MTN but I did not know that it had increased again to R1507,17 and the debit was rejected ( insufficient funds). I unfortunately did not check and did not get an SMS notification. On 2nd November 2021, There was a debit on my account of R3235,85 and I had no choice at that stage but to reverse it as I would not have any money for us to survive for the month. I am a single parent. I then made enquires in store and was informed that if my account is in arrears, I need to call the office but I cannot cancel a contract ( data / router) if there is an amount outstanding on it. I could not afford to pay the R3235,85 and felt trapped and did not know what to do. I made payment of R2000 on the 02/12/2021 and when I contacted the MTN Contact Centre again to make payment arrangements and stop the data contract from accruing, they informed me that I have to pay the FULL balance until they can assist me to cancel / stop the data account. I offered telephonically to make the payment of R1800 and requested for them stop the data contract from accruing (change it to prepaid) as I cannot afford to pay more than that and I was told they would still not be able to assist me with an outstanding balance. I was then informed that the data contract had reverted to R1800,89 pm. I cannot afford that contract and am requesting you to please stop the billing on the data contract. I appeal to you as a loyal customer prior to this issue to please credit me the billing of R1800 , 89 pm data contract / router as I was not aware of it as the sales person and telephonic agent did not inform me that the billing would revert. At this rate, I will never be able clear the outstanding balance of my account if the account keeps accruing and I cannot stop it before I cannot afford to pay the full outstanding balance. I have been emailing your division weekly for an assistance – no response

I have been calling your company weekly for assistance – I either get transferred and cut off once someone can no longer help me or I get told to send an email. I was in tears on several of the calls begging for help and even the agents say they felt and understood my frustration but MTN Management won't assist me with my request.

The agent I spoke to yesterday said that because of the accrual that the account is now on R9887,75 and she wanted me make payment arrangements to pay that amount off but I am disputing that I was not informed of the change in the billing contract to R1800,89 and request to be credited for the data contract as a result.