Afrihost Unresponsive in cancellation request [#RKF-331-99874]

[im_from_earth_]

In November 2021 when my lease ran out at my apartment I suspended the aforementioned service with Purple Forest / Afrihost. To my fault as I have dozens of services with Afrihost and have been a client of theirs for over a decade, I did not check to ensure the service was cancelled, and merely trusted their support team would action my request. Fast forward to February 2023 while reviewing credit card transactions for our financial year-end audit and I see the service was not cancelled...

I immediately trying to contact Afrihost via phone... no luck.
Then Whatsapp... no luck.
Then email... no luck.

Having received nothing but rude stonewalling by their email customer service agents, Nceba and Lee-Anne as well as from their whatsapp support agents, Sizwe N, Sandile S, Portia M, I took to the online portal Hello Peter where I wrote a summary. It appears Afrihost don't reply here based on the reports left by consumers in the last 7 days alone:




Is this typical behaviour from Afrihost? Well based on the above it would appear so.

Given that I am a longstanding customer of theirs with numerous products it was my assumption that a human being would pick up the phone, take 2min to understand the problem and then offer a solution that takes the situation into account and shows some sort of valuation of the business and relationship, but no. So what is my choice?

 

[Afrigirl]

We apologise for the inconvenience you are experiencing. I understand that you submitted the cancellation with Purple Forest directly when the lease ended however, cancellation needs to be submitted directly with the ISP, we will then log it with the Fibre Network provider. If you can provide proof of the cancellation request with the FNO, I can liaise with the Fibre Ops and the Accounts Team to see if they can credit the line.

 

[im_from_earth_]

We apologise for the inconvenience you are experiencing. I understand that you submitted the cancellation with Purple Forest directly when the lease ended however, cancellation needs to be submitted directly with the ISP, we will then log it with the Fibre Network provider. If you can provide proof of the cancellation request with the FNO, I can liaise with the Fibre Ops and the Accounts Team to see if they can credit the line.

Sure, these have been supplied in email and whatsapp. I've sent countless messages in this regard. Check your ticketing system and the transcripts to the above and then get a human being who is informed of the situation to phone me. Or better yet get someone to reply to the emails I've been sending for weeks.

 

[im_from_earth_]

Sure, these have been supplied in email and whatsapp. I've sent countless messages in this regard. Check your ticketing system and the transcripts to the above and then get a human being who is informed of the situation to phone me. Or better yet get someone to reply to the emails I've been sending for weeks.

Alternatively continue to ignore my whatsapp messages and emails and have a new service / support agent respond each time so that I have to constantly explain the situation over and over again while I accumulate countless transcripts of chat messages and emails so that I can build my case to log these charges as unauthorised and fraudulent with FNB before I take matters to the ombud and finally the small claims court.

Your service and attitude stink. The fact that I've had to post here before someone has bothered to pick up the phone and try and resolve the problem says a lot about how you value your clients.

 

[im_from_earth_]

On Wed, 15 Mar 2023 at 15:04, Andre van Aarde <[email protected]> wrote:

Well done and thank you for reaffirming your commitment to taking advantage of your customers and stealing their money to line your pockets.
Follow my link to HelloPeter: https://www.hellopeter.com/afri-hos...refund-14-months-of-incorrect-billing-4347336
I look forward to posting more of these to get the word out to consumers about just how conveniently you forget to cancel services...
Regards,

__
Andre van Aarde

 

[im_from_earth_]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Andre van Aarde
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2023 at 12:10
Subject: Re: [#RKF-331-99874]: A13296134 | 20Mbps+ Purple Forest Pure Fibre (Purple Forest - [email protected])
To: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>


Hi Afrihost

Seeing as you have not responded to my email request of last week, nor any request prior to that, nor have you confirmed the full refund that was requested please see completed credit card dispute form attached which I have copied to my merchant provider and bank along with flagging your company as fraudulently billing users credit cards WITHOUT prior notification of renewal or billing following written cancellation of services.

@FNB Card Disputes - as discussed telephonically please see below correspondence with the customer service support at the company in question. As per the proof and documentation supplied in my previous, at no time was I advised of a renewal charge or automatic renewal for the service. When my lease was terminated at the address the service was cancelled through the customer services whatsapp line for Purple Forest. The line / data services have not been used since this service was "cancelled" by me, however Afrihost have continued to bill my credit card fraudulently and now refuse to assist in refunding any of the charges accrued since the cancellation was requested in November 2021. Should Afrihost not comply with my request above I give you full authority to flag their company as a risk to your clients and fraudulent supplier of services.

@Afrihost Kindly supply proof of refund immediately?

 

[im_from_earth_]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Andre van Aarde
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2023 at 12:25
Subject: Re: [#RKF-331-99874]: A13296134 | 20Mbps+ Purple Forest Pure Fibre (Purple Forest - [email protected])
To: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>


FNB - looks like you might have multiple cases here. A quick search on Hello Peter shows that this is standard behaviour for Afrihost, and it is also clear that their lack of response is common too as none of these complaints have been resolved or responded to:

Below are the complains just within the last 7 days:

 

[Afrigirl]

Sure, these have been supplied in email and whatsapp. I've sent countless messages in this regard. Check your ticketing system and the transcripts to the above and then get a human being who is informed of the situation to phone me. Or better yet get someone to reply to the emails I've been sending for weeks.

Please send me a Pm with proof of the cancellation request with Purple Forest.

 

[im_from_earth_]

Please send me a Pm with proof of the cancellation request with Purple Forest.

Just get someone to phone me so that we can resolve. I'm quite frankly tired of having to message Afrihost through such channels. This is not customer service, and this is not how you resolve disputes.

You have my details. Phone me.

 

[killerbyte]

1. You seem to have more money that you know what to do with since you were getting charged for over a year and didn't notice it. You have a responsibility to check that the service was cancelled... this is called being an adult.

2. You do realise that if you PM the Afrihost representative your details then they can actually find your case and get the issue resolved. Not saying you will get a refund, but at least the service can be cancelled. You don't get charged any more and you swallow the fees you've paid as school fees to the "learn to follow up" school of being an adult.
Amazingly the Afrihost Rep can't do **** with just your name. PM them your details so they can contact you.
In fact I feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with you. You sound like an *******. Remember that the Rep didn't take your money and is just trying to help you.

 

[Afrigirl]

Just get someone to phone me so that we can resolve. I'm quite frankly tired of having to message Afrihost through such channels. This is not customer service, and this is not how you resolve disputes.

You have my details. Phone me.

I understand your frustrations; please submit proof of the cancellation request with Purple forest, and I will be able to build up an escalation with the relevant department and have them call you to resolve the issue in a timely manner.

 

[Afrigirl]

Cancellation of the service has now been logged by an Agent that assisted on the ticket and the cancellation will now be effective end of March. We need to work with the Fibre Ops, Accounts and Billing team if we can pass credit for the Data links that have been allocated for the last few months, because the data links do sure that no data was moved then. But Afrihost has been paying the FNO for Line rental.

 

[im_from_earth_]

1. You seem to have more money that you know what to do with since you were getting charged for over a year and didn't notice it. You have a responsibility to check that the service was cancelled... this is called being an adult.

2. You do realise that if you PM the Afrihost representative your details then they can actually find your case and get the issue resolved. Not saying you will get a refund, but at least the service can be cancelled. You don't get charged any more and you swallow the fees you've paid as school fees to the "learn to follow up" school of being an adult.
Amazingly the Afrihost Rep can't do **** with just your name. PM them your details so they can contact you.
In fact I feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with you. You sound like an *******. Remember that the Rep didn't take your money and is just trying to help you.

@killerbyte, thanks for the reply. You are 100% correct and this is something I did not dispute in my email. I do however have in excess of 20 products with Afrihost. Their billing does not detail these products in a manner that makes it easy to identify what each product is, but this is a topic for another discussion altogether.

In regards to your second point, I have to date phoned, emailed and sent whatsapp messages numerous times. I posted the ticket number to this customer support response in the subject of my email. All of my personal details and particulars as well as contact information would be available to them along with details of the ticket if they were to reference this ticket number, so no, I do not see the point in sending a PM to take the chat offline when they have had every opportunity to resolve it directly.

If sending a cancellation request in November 2021 on a company letterhead to their customer support contacts and assuming it is resolved is not "being and adult" then I have to to take that on the chin, but what does that say about their simple business processes and oversight?

 

[im_from_earth_]

I understand your frustrations; please submit proof of the cancellation request with Purple forest, and I will be able to build up an escalation with the relevant department and have them call you to resolve the issue in a timely manner.

Please check the ticket and email correspondence. This was supplied.

 

[im_from_earth_]

Cancellation of the service has now been logged by an Agent that assisted on the ticket and the cancellation will now be effective end of March. We need to work with the Fibre Ops, Accounts and Billing team if we can pass credit for the Data links that have been allocated for the last few months, because the data links do sure that no data was moved then. But Afrihost has been paying the FNO for Line rental.

Please check the ticket and email correspondence. This was previously confirmed, and is not the request that I have made.

My request is to review the ticket and correspondence and have someone in your customer service department contact me so as to resolve the manner. This has been requested via whatsapp and email over a dozen times in the past two weeks alone.

 

[Afrigirl]

Please check the ticket and email correspondence. This was supplied.

Ticket ID: RKF-331-99874 Nothing is attached regarding the cancellation logged with Purple forest. When you logged the request on their online Portal did you receive any acknowledgement of the request?

 

[MentellusMaximus]

Take a few deep breaths and read a bit.

@Afrigirl is trying to resolve this now but you are so upset you cannot focus.

Also, you have a lot to say about their business processes, but what about yours?
If I had so many services I would certainly make follow-up part of my business processes when I change any service.

The quicker you now work with her the sooner this may be resolved, this includes proof of who you submitted the cancellation with, Purple Forest, Afrihost, or both?

 

[im_from_earth_]

Email dated 1st November requesting the cancellation [I do see there is a typo in the account number] but this should not have impacted the cancellation had anyone actually replied to the email:



In addition to this a support request was logged through their app [whatsapp chat desk].

Subsequent to this, and yes, long overdue as I have admitted above an email was sent earlier in Feb of this year which hasn't received a reply either:




Unfortunately the whatsapp transcript is no longer available, but surely these messages should be on a database for review? This is the whole purpose of a ticketing system.

I understand it's easy to attack a clearly frustrated consumer. But I don't think I am unreasonable in any of my requests. I am not the service provider her. I am a customer with multiple tickets requesting service.

 

[epah]

@Tman* another lawsuit.

 

[im_from_earth_]

Email dated 1st November requesting the cancellation [I do see there is a typo in the account number] but this should not have impacted the cancellation had anyone actually replied to the email:

View attachment 1495563

In addition to this a support request was logged through their app [whatsapp chat desk].

Subsequent to this, and yes, long overdue as I have admitted above an email was sent earlier in Feb of this year which hasn't received a reply either:

View attachment 1495565


Unfortunately the whatsapp transcript is no longer available, but surely these messages should be on a database for review? This is the whole purpose of a ticketing system.

I understand it's easy to attack a clearly frustrated consumer. But I don't think I am unreasonable in any of my requests. I am not the service provider her. I am a customer with multiple tickets requesting service.

Surely a reply like "Shux, sorry Andre we dropped the ball here sorry. We can't process a full refund as there was no follow-up from your side, but I see you have 18 domains and other services registered with us and have been a client since ..... Let's cancel this service immediately, and see if there is anything that we can do in order to offset the costs that you have incurred over the last 14 months." would have been a great way of disarming the situation and installing faith in Afrihost's customer service? Or perhaps a phone call explaining some server error which may have caused the email to be lost? Or just an outright apology? But nope, just the hope that no reply will mean that they can continue to bill for the service for another 14 months. Or perhaps indefinitely? But god forbid the expiry date comes up on my credit card...