Anyone gone head to head with Sentech in court?

S

SENHELLUSER

Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2004
Messages
10
Reaction score
0
Location
.
Hello all.

I'm not going to list all the problems I have had with Sentech on this post. I'm sure you would not enjoy reading 30 pages worth. I have the 256k service (oops the middle "Broadband" package, or whatever they are calling it these days....).

I started with them a year ago. 3 months of horrible service later, they "tilted" their towers and took me off completely for 3 1/2 months. So nice to get calls from them asking how my speed is when I have not been able to connect for months.

Anyway, service now is ok as long as you don’t want to download anything. Email and browsing is fast enough, but downloads are still pretty bad (60-70k of 256k).

Sentech screwed up my account and did not take any money from me. When they bumped me off I reported my credit card stolen so they could not take any money. They did not figure out all this until last October. I got an email offering to take the balance in payments. I immediately sent them some hate mail and did not hear anything from them again until last month (January).

We have been bickering over the amount due on my account for a month now. They offered to give me 3 months free service. That really sucks because I could not use it for 3 months. That means I am supposed to pay R849 per month for all those months when the service was so bad?

I have had enough of them, their lies, their trickery, and most important their incompetence. These people could not run an ISP to save their soles. Maybe they should place an ad in the paper looking for people with AT LEAST a 2nd grade education. That might help.

I have since ordered a Telkom ADSL line, and have told Sentech to cancel my service as of the end of March (30 days notice).

At this point I would much rather give my attorney the R8,000 to fight them in court versus settling for what they are offering.

Have any of you gone this route with them?

Thank you
 
I cancelled early in January and they confirmed that my service was to be canceled on the 1st feb. (confirmation only by telephone)

No payments went through for feb and I handed back the modem on 1st Feb.

Quite a few people have gone this route and there is no need to get legal representation.
 
Robone, SENHELLUSER is indicating that Sentech wants the money they neglected to debit from his account.

Try cancelling.

A lot of use went the cancelling route and some of us had messed up billing.

I wasn't billed properly for the first 3 months and worked out a split payment over the next 3, after that, they got my billing right.
 
You guys don't understand

I have not paid them one single Rand in a year. Not even the connection fee (which is a joke for how many times I had to fax my application for them to receive it).

They are telling me that I owe them R8,000 including this month. They are offering 3 months for free, but I am not accepting that. The service was completely unusable from 4/2004 to end 10/2004 becase of service problems, and when they tilted towers and kicked me off.

Any of you seen this? Did you get any offers?

They are not going to budge on any other amounts and I am considering taking them to court versus paying the R8,000
 
Go see a lawyer. Get proper legal advice.

R8000 can buy you quite a lot of legal representation and even a quickie court appearance.

These forums will provide you with all the evidence you need to claim dysfunctional service.
 
In my speed reading I missed that point about not having paid at all.

It changes my response. If I was sentech, I would have initiated a claim against you especially if you used the service, for what ever period, and continued to use it, unless you came to some other arrangements. All you can do is negotiate a lower service fee.

I agree go see an attorney
 
I just got another message from them. They say they are willing to accept R5863.29 (3 monts free). I offered R3,896.29 which I worked out from the months that I could not use the service. My current balance is R8,410.29

I think I am going to see an attorney. I refuse to pay for service for months when I did not have any.
 
It costs R300-700 per hour to see a decent attorney. You just need one hour to review the whole case and decide how to proceed.
 
Mine charges R750 + VAT per hour. But he is very good, I use him for problems in my business.

I was really hoping to settle this with them. I offered to come up another R500, if they settle this before I go to see my attorney.

Do you guys think I am being unfair? I am sure all of you understand my frustrations with these people really well.

I have had bad modem, drivers, tilted antennas, bad speeds, and you name it. They sent me to Sandton twice to get a new modem, and when I got there, they would not swap it. They even started laughing at what Sentech had told me over the phone because they hear the lies all the time.
 
bufalobill, I think the amount is too high for a small claims court.

"You can only use the Small Claims Court for certain 'small' civil claims. A 'small' claim is a claim with a value of up to R3 000. If your claim is for more than R3 000, you can give up part of your claim so that it is R3 000 or less. Then you can bring the claim to the Small Claims Court."

But anyway, they will be taking legal action against you, so they will determine how this will proceed.

Why waste your money seeing anyone. Wait until they start taking legal action. But pay them for what you think the amount should be. At the moment you are in the wrong, because you have used a service, even in a small way, and you have not paid for it.

Its like been at a restaurant and getting bad food. Do you complain when you 1st get the food and refuse to eat anymore and tell them to replace or you won't pay, or do you complain and then carry on eating. If you take the last course of action, you have concluded the deal and must pay, no matter how bad the food was.
 
Yep, go with Robone's advice to pay them a reasonable amount based on the service that you have recieved - it will make it much harder for them to argue foul play on your part, and it also puts a figure to what you believe you have received from them (i.e. legally they would have to justify why they need more money out of you than what you believe is fair & have subsequently paid them prior to legal proceedings).
 
Robone said:
bufalobill, I think the amount is too high for a small claims court.

"You can only use the Small Claims Court for certain 'small' civil claims. A 'small' claim is a claim with a value of up to R3 000. If your claim is for more than R3 000, you can give up part of your claim so that it is R3 000 or less. Then you can bring the claim to the Small Claims Court."
Click to expand...
So, the difference between what he's offering and what they're claiming is R3 000. It's worth a look.

But you're right, the litigant would be Sentech, not the other way round. I'm only an amateur lawyer (and a crap one at that).
 
actually the claim amount has been increased, i believe the limit is 20k...
some how our legal system and government believe that this is an average months income hence claimable by small claims court...

any one want to employ me as an in-house geek... asking price only an average income, a pizza daily and coffee on 30min intervals... I’ll even do windozee :D
 
troll-op said:
actually the claim amount has been increased, i believe the limit is 20k...
Click to expand...
small claims court has jurisdiction to hear claims up to a value of R7 000...if your claim is slightly over this you can abandon the amount over and above 7k; only natural people may initiate any action but corporates may be sued
 
From the Law Society of South Africa
Small Claims Court
"The profession helps provide commissioners to these courts (115 throughout S.A), at no cost. These Courts ensure access to justice, to the community whereby claims less then R 10 000.00 are adjudicated. "

I wish people would update their websites.......now someone tell me which is the correct amount.
Is it R3000 ... or R7000....or R10000....or R20000.
Confusing
 
not sure where the lawsoc gets that figure

the amount is occasionally adjusted by notice in the government gazette - the last one i can find on the gov.za site is http://www.info.gov.za/gazette/regulation/2004/26113c.pdf

I, Penuell Mpapa Maduna, Minister for Justice and Constitutional
Development, under sections 15 and 16 of the Small Claims Courts
Act, 1984 (Act No. 61 of 1984), hereby determine R7000,OO to be
the amount for purposes of the said sections with effect from 1 April
2004.
Click to expand...

cannot imagine that it has been adjusted again in less than a year...

and pretty sure that they can hear contractual matters
 
dominic said:
not sure where the lawsoc gets that figure

the amount is occasionally adjusted by notice in the government gazette - the last one i can find on the gov.za site is http://www.info.gov.za/gazette/regulation/2004/26113c.pdf

cannot imagine that it has been adjusted again in less than a year...
and pretty sure that they can hear contractual matters
Click to expand...
Okay, so the amount is at least R7 000 and the issue is whether the SC Court has jurisdiction over this matter and what the claim is. As I said, an hour with the attorney, or at least a phone call, will determine what your rights are ....
 
A similar case went to court when a customer tried to cancel his 3 year Chubb contact. The cased ruled in his favour and he was allowed to cancel with 3 months notice. As our courts on a precedent system, this bodes well for us and the same ruling 'should' be applied. My source of info is good (one of the guys from chubb), so mention this when getting some legal advice.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X