Usage Limit & Data Billing

<p>In December last year I took out a contract with MTN for R159. I have had no issues with the contract up until March when I activate R30 usage limit on it. Within 3 days the usage limit changed automatically from R30 to R727. I then phoned the Call Centre to find out how is this possible that the usage limit can change automatically without me requesting it to be changed or changing it myself. I was told the system cannot change the usage limit just like that, we must have changed it on our side. I then explain when I changed it for the very first time I received and sms, but never received one thereafter notifying me that it was change. I only saw this when I logged in online. I then changed it to 0 and received an sms that it was set to 0. In June I phoned(ref: ********** 15) again, because I noticed that it was changed several times and no sms's was send notifying any change in limit. I phoned again and was told this cannot change automatically without someone not interacting the change. I was stuck didn’t know what to do because I was being told that we are at fault, someone must have changed it. I then went to the MTN store in Southgate and was told the same thing. I thought to myself that I’m stuck with this issue as I will not receive any help from MTN.</p> <p> </p> <p>Then in July on the 17/07/2016 my line got suspended. I logged in online on mycontract.mtn.co.za where I could view my usage and contract details. It showed that on the 16/07/2016 a 5GB, 50MB, 50MB & 500MB got activated on the contract, but there was still data left and free minutes. I also notice that the usage limit got change several times on this day. I immediately went to the MTN store at Maponya Mall and spoke to Garnet Matsoso the sales person who assisted me when I took out the contract. He mentioned that the same thing happened to another client. He then logged a request that the services must be removed and advised that we must wait on feedback from MTN. Ref: ********** was logged and ref: ********** 93 was for reactivation of line. I waited for some time and no feedback was received. I phoned the Call Centre again ref: ********** 13 and spoke to Dudu who could cancel the data charges of 2 x 50mb and the 500mb. She mentioned that she could not remove that 5gb for some reason. I follow up again with Garnet and he told me that they said the charges was valid. I could not understand how can this be valid if it was not activated on our side. He said that it would be better to go to MTN on 14th Avenue.</p> <p> </p> <p>On the 12/08/2016 my husband went to MTN on 14th Avenue and spoke to a lady from the billing department. She could not assist, because the statement was not out yet and said she will make a note and query it when the statement comes out. She will then log it and will be able to see what numbers was pressed on the phone that activated this services. She then canceled the debit order as we did not want this amount R848 to go off from the account. I kept on paying my monthly installment of R159 waiting on MTN to get back to me, no feedback came. In this period my husband monitor the data usages and we only used the promotional data that we got free. The 5GB was not used in this period as we waited on feedback from MTN and didn’t want to be held liable for using the data. In September the line got suspended again. I then went to the MTN store again and spoke to Garnet who send an email directly to someone at MTN this was on the 8/09/2016 ref: ********** . I then logged another call on the 29/09/2016 ref: ********** 36. I did not receive any feedback.</p> <p> </p> <p>On the 01/11/2016 I went to MTN on 14th Avenue again. I was told there that my account was handed over to the legal department which came at surprise to me, because I was not notified that my account was handed over. My husband and I spoke to a lady from the legal department Emma Mathanjana who then went and called Rambelani from the billing department. He stated that they can view and pull up anything that was used on the contract number. He proceeded to show us the usages for the past few months. When it came to month of August he told me that 1.8gb was used and that, that was part of the usage of the 5gb. We repeatedly try to tell him that this was the promotional data that got used, because before the 5GB expired there was more than 5GB still left. We even logged in online and it still showed that it was not used. I also informed him that I did not use it as I was waiting on MTN to come back to me. He said that MTN will never give you more than 100mb free (What I don’t understand I have made a print screen that shows that we have a total of 1.83GB remaining from the promotional that was attached on ref: ********** ). I then told him we received every month 165mb free. When I asked him to give me an exact break down of what we get every month on the contract, he told me “IT WAS A WAST OF TIME”. He then told me that we will not reach an agreement and that we have to take it up with the Ombudsmen.</p> <p> </p> <p>My husband and I is very DISAPPOINTED in the services that we received. We are basically just being told that this is our faulty and we have to pay even though we have raise this problem immediately when it started.</p>