Suspected *******ion?

I received this pathetic reply via e-mail from Vodacom today:

From: ********** **********
Sent: 20 October 2016 01:50 PM
To:
Subject: EC-04CB-2E18HH Hellopeter

Good day

Kindly be advised that your request for credit or refund was regrettably not approved.

Please note, formal complaints can only be submitted directly to Waspa by the customer telephonically or by email.
Email address : ********** /> Contact number : ********** 710 (standard rates apply)

In order to improve customer service Vodacom has launched ?Double opt-in?.

This is a two-step subscription process. When a subscriber opts-in to a subscription service or requests an ad-hoc (once-off billing) WASP service, the subscriber will be requested to confirm their willingness to subscribe to the service before commencement of billing for the service. This means that when a subscriber responds to a marketing message and requests the service (using any of the available bearers: SMS, USSD, WAP, etc) he will not be immediately subscribed for the service. The subscriber will receive a service notification informing him of the service name, price and billing frequency and requesting the subscriber to confirm the subscription request by sending a confirmation.
Only once the customer replies with a ?YES? will the customer be deemed to have subscribed to the service and only then should billing commence. If the customer does not respond to the service notification message the service will not be rendered to the customer. Therefore the technical solution ensures that billing never takes place unless there is a confirmation of the service request from the customer

WASPs (who are the providers of the content) are within their rights to appoint an agent to bill and collect money on their behalf for content sold by them to their customers.

It is not required in law for the agent (in this case Vodacom) to have a specific agreement with, or permission from, the customer, to bill and collect the money on behalf of the WASP.

Notwithstanding the above, the agreement concluded between each WASP and Vodacom provides that every WASP that utilises Vodacom's services to bill and collect monies for the WASPs' products/services, may only instruct Vodacom to bill and collect money for those products/services that have been specifically requested by customers.

Moreover the Wireless Application Service Provider Association (WASPA) has been constituted to regulate all WASPs to ensure, inter alia, that they abide with the aforementioned provision.

Regards

Lesley Abels
Senior Consultant

I now responded to above reply (from Vodacom) as follows:

Dear Lesley

I am absolutely NOT accepting your (Vodacom’s) lame attempt to pass the buck! I certainly did not ever opt in to any of these services (unless by negative option marketing {which I am obviously not aware of} and ******* in terms of the Credit Act). YOU debit my account and pay it over to a third party without verifying the legitimacy with me – can you even provide proof after the fact???

I don’t care about regulatory bodies, etc. etc. They did not ***** my money – YOU did! Give me the names and addresses of the people YOU paid MY money to!!?? I will expose their involvement in this ******* **** as well!

I am telling you now (it’s not a threat; it’s a warning): refund my money now, but if I have to make one more call or write one more e-mail to yourselves, a so-called worthless (probably self-appointed) “regulatory body” or other third party, I will hold you accountable for my time and direct expenses as well and I will not leave any stone unturned until you pay for all of the aforementioned time and expenses. These “regulatory bodies” are appointed by members of that industry and controlled by themselves – it does not mean they have legal muscle or integrity in any way. They are just other third parties which I have no business with – I have a contract with Vodacom only.

You and your ******* partners are transgressing so many different clauses of the National Credit Act, the Consumer Protection Act, etc. that this practice should be investigated and stopped by the numerous real regulatory bodies affected, as well as the Public Protector. I can’t imagine how many ******** people fall prey to your **** every day!

I look forward to a credit to my account within 24 hours!

Regards

M. Cronjé

If I am refunded in full within 24 hours, i.e. by close of business tomorrow, 21 October 2016, I will CONSIDER giving up on this campaign to expose them and their ******* business partners...