I get penalized for paying early

<p>I wanted to pay my cellphone bill early. I check my invoice and the amount due seems too little so I call their call centre. I get the amount due which is on the region of R2400. I ask the consultant if they will still debit my account if I pay now. She confirmed that it wouldn't be debited. I pay immediately. They debit my account anyway about 2 weeks later. Then they charge me a R200 fee for a bounced debit order (this fee is new, they have never done this in the 4 years I've been with them). I lodge a complaint about the fee which instead of getting resolved, gets my account suspended from outgoing calls. Over R200! I just paid them R2400 and they suspend my account over a R200 few that should not have been given in the first place. Since the complaint was ignored I paid them another R250. I wait 72 hours and then call them again to get my account reactivated. The consultant confirmed they received the payment and that my account will be reactivated within 2 hours. I wait another 24 hours and call them again. The consultant tells me I must wait 48 hours and confirms my account is up to date. I wait another 48 hours, still nothing. I call them again and this consultant tells me I now owe a further R1000 odd and my phone won't be reactivated. After going through my bill he sees that this amount due is only for the next bill which is due to be debited in 2 weeks time (on the 15th), bit shows as overdue on their system. 2 months prior I changed my debit order date from the last day of the month to the 15th, this was specifically done so that I can pay them early every month before the debit comes off. Now although my debit order is set for the 15th my account shows overdue by the 1st. Even though I pay them early, they still suspend my account. The consultant now tells me that they are going to debit my account on the 15th and it will be for 2 months (1 month in advance) because of the debit order date that changed. This is after I paid them early and got suspended for no reason, my account now shows as overdue even though it's not. No matter how much I complain and try to resolve it, they do not help, in fact they've taken it further and have now suspended my incoming calls too. Preventing me from running my business, to make money and pay my bills. It's not even the 15th yet, it's only the 9th but I'm suspended for an amount that is due to be debited a week from now which is also more than I'm supposed to pay because they've added on fees and a month in advance. I am powerless against a large company like this. I'm sitting without a phone and I've been a long, paying customer who spends thousands every month with them and always pays my bills. Is this how they treat their loyal customers? Totally unfair.</p>