Webafrica asking for unnecessary info

I ordered a prepaid ADSL account with them about two weeks ago, and the payment was confirmed and it all worked fine, and I was using it the whole time. Then all of a sudden I get this email from Webafrica:

Good Morning,

Web Africa has noticed that your application is still pending approval. Before your application can be approved we need you to confirm the following details:

- Confirmation of physical address.
- Confirmation of ID number.
- An alternative contact number.

We also require a copy of your ID as well as a copy of the credit card being used. This is for security reasons to ensure that all the details match up so you are more than welcome to blank out all the information on the credit card besides the last 4 digits and the name of the holder. You attach these documents in a reply to this email or fax them to 021 413 1615, marked ATT: Kyla.

Please respond to this email as soon as possible or call us on 021 464 9500.

If you have any further queries, do not hesitate to call our support lines.

Thank you and have a great day!

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This confused me greatly, so I sent them this reply:

I'm confused. I ordered 1gb prepaid ADSL bandwidth and have already been
using it for more than a week without problems. As far as I know the
payment was already processed long ago. I didn't submit any tickets or
apply for anything else. Why do I get this now all of a sudden?

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To which I got this reply:

This request is for moderation purposes. I apologise for the delay in contacting you, we are currently working through a queue that is quite high at the moment.

It is Web Africa's policy to verify each client that signs up with us. We request the credit card documents for security reasons to ensure that we and our clients are protected from credit card fraud.

Your 1GB ADSL account is active and paid for so is available for you to make full use of. However, we do require the documents in order for you to add more services onto your account.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us on 021 464 9500.

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Okay, fine. It's only needed if I want to add more services. Right? I did not add any extra "services" or anything. I don't even know what that means. So I figured I can safely ignore it. Then I got this email the next day:

This is a final reminder that your application is still pending approval. Before your application can be approved we need you to confirm the following details:
- Confirmation of physical address.
- Confirmation of ID number.

If we do not get a response from you by Thursday 04th June 2009, we would assume that you no longer need the services on your account.

Please respond to this email as soon as possible or call me on 021 464 9500 to avoid cancellation.

Thank you.

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What I want to know is this. If I do not absolutely NEED to send them this information, why does it seem that they are trying to scare me into doing it anyway? I know other people who have accounts with Webafrica and they were never asked for any of that kind of information. They just paid and that was that. No hassle. Or is it because I paid by credit card that they are pestering me with all this nonsense?

Has anyone else received weird emails like this?

Look at the WA website, they only need it.

Please be advised that effective 12 February there will be some minor changes to the client signup process.

All new signups will be required to provide one of the following;

1. South African ID Number
2. Passport Number
3. Company Registration Number

This information is required to lower the risk of fraudulent occurrences, and in so doing offer a better service.

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SoulRiser said:

If I do not absolutely NEED to send them this information, why does it seem that they are trying to scare me into doing it anyway?

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If their policy states that you have to supply the info and you have agreed to their policy then yes - you are contractually obliged to give them the info they are requesting.

There is also a new piece of law called RICA which legally requires all communications providers to collect this info from their clients - much in the same way as FICA and the banks. This law is only a few months away from enforcement and WA are obviously being proactive with their new clients. I'm pretty sure that the older clients will get asked for this info in due course.

Your 1GB ADSL account is active and paid for so is available for you to make full use of. However, we do require the documents in order for you to add more services onto your account.

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^^ This is the part that made me think that it isn't required.

If we do not get a response from you by Thursday 04th June 2009, we would assume that you no longer need the services on your account.

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^^ This is the part that makes me wonder just WTF is actually going on here.

And I did provide them with my ID number during signup. I didn't see or read anything anywhere that said they would want me to send them a copy/photo of it. Maybe it was in the legalese somewhere. But who seriously spends the time to read the legalese on every single thing they sign up for? That'd eat up half a lifetime if you actually did it. The whole thing looked like it was a response to something that I requested from them (like a support ticket), and I didn't request anything. All I wanted was 1gb extra data (that conveniently never expires) to use while the other account was capped until the end of May.

If anyone from Webafrica is reading this: Please make this stuff more clear somewhere, and change the wording of those emails so they don't sound threatening.

My account also hasn't been working all day (3rd June, just turned 4th now), not sure if it's related to this or not.

Hi Soulriser

Please PM me your client code, so that I can contact you and see what is happening on your account.

Webafrica the same as every company in South Africa has to abide by certain laws/acts, these laws/acts are put into place to protect both the consumer and the service provider. As you are aware their is a huge problem with fraud in South Africa, that is why we have put together a proper moderation department.

It is not meant to upset any new client, in fact it is a extra security service that we offer. If the new client does not respond to the moderation's department after a while we do suspend the account as it could be a fraudulent account, the moderation procedure is in Webafricas UAP and Service Agreement and it is recommended that all new clients read through it.

Regards
Tyron
Senior Sales Agent
[email protected]

PM sent

I really don't mind the whole sending copy of ID or credit card thing, my problem is proving my address. I move a lot, and I always stay in other people's houses/flats. In fact I'm about to move again on Sunday. And then again a few weeks after that. I don't even know what my new address will be yet. My parents never move, so in theory I could use their house as my official place of residence, except that they live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, with no named streets anywhere nearby, and it was enough of a nightmare just getting the bank to accept where they live. I don't want to go through that again. Especially not for a R70 1GB ADSL account that I'm only going to use occasionally.

my problem is proving my address

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Currently we are not requiring our clients to prove their physical address however we may ask for confirmation of it just to double check against our records