Altech Blacklisting WARNING!

[MvanHeerden]

Hope I'm posting this in the correct forum...

In August this year I noticed that on my cell phones screen it says "Limited Services" I can't make or receive any calls. So I took my phone to Altech Autopage as that's were I bought the phone from. Anyway so they phoned me back saying that they can't fix the phone because it has been blacklisted by Vodacom and I need to speak to them about it.

Okay so I phone Vodacom as I'm on their network to find out why my phone has been blacklisted and they say it's because my account is in arrears so they decided to blacklist me. I told them that's a load of bull and when they looked into my account they saw that I've been paying my account up to date since I got my first contract back in 2004. So they logged a call and said they will get back to me.. I phoned them up again today and now they tell me that they didn't blacklist my phone, Altech Autopage did and they are the only ones that can un-blacklist the phone.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

Autopage are useless, this is the bottom line. I know this because I worked for them for a few years.
Phone through to their jhb office number rather than the helpdesk number and ask to speak to someone in the fraud and risk department.
Is your fathers contract linked to yours in any way? i.e are both phones in one persons name? If they are then you have no legal recourse, if not then you could sue them.
I would also go the avenue of talking to the customer services manager, they have one at all major offices and those guys are really good at getting problems like this sorted out.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

I had months of fights with Autopage due to their billing system and they could never tell me if I was in Debit/Credit with my account. They also wanted to blacklist me and we are talking about an amount of less than R50.

Been Autohell free for 3yrs and loving it

 

[w1z4rd]

Altech Autopage are the pits. I dont know how many times they have suspended my phone due to non-payment when I was fully paid up. You phone the local branch they tell you to phone the head office, you phone the head office and they dont know whats happening.

Due to Autopage I had my phone disconnected. Im totally over them, and FFS, why on earth to they insist on sending me "your outstanding balance is 0.14c" messages at fking 6AM I dont know. People (well me) are sleeping Autopage idiots.

Someone needs to go to that company and slap some commonsense into those people. Needless to say we will not be renewing our contract with them when it expiries in June.

 

[MvanHeerden]

Autopage are useless, this is the bottom line. I know this because I worked for them for a few years.
Phone through to their jhb office number rather than the helpdesk number and ask to speak to someone in the fraud and risk department.
Is your fathers contract linked to yours in any way? i.e are both phones in one persons name? If they are then you have no legal recourse, if not then you could sue them.
I would also go the avenue of talking to the customer services manager, they have one at all major offices and those guys are really good at getting problems like this sorted out.

Hi Rocket-Boy

Thx for the reply. I will see what I can sort oot with the fraud and risk dept.

Nope, the contract is on my name alone. That's why I find it very strange that they got my dads info when I reported my phone as being blacklisted.

Thx to all the other replays also. Glad to see I'm not the only one that thinks Altech is useless.

 

[Venomous]

Altech Autopage are the pits. I dont know how many times they have suspended my phone due to non-payment when I was fully paid up. You phone the local branch they tell you to phone the head office, you phone the head office and they dont know whats happening.

Due to Autopage I had my phone disconnected. Im totally over them, and FFS, why on earth to they insist on sending me "your outstanding balance is 0.14c" messages at fking 6AM I dont know. People (well me) are sleeping Autopage idiots.

Someone needs to go to that company and slap some commonsense into those people. Needless to say we will not be renewing our contract with them when it expiries in June.

remember to give them notice 30 days in advance or they will bill you on a month-to-month basis

 

[Mantis]

I've always thought getting a contract through them (or Nashua Mobile) is not a good idea.

If there's a problem, you can't go to the network or isp, so there's a lot of passing the buck.

 

[MvanHeerden]

I've always thought getting a contract through them (or Nashua Mobile) is not a good idea.

If there's a problem, you can't go to the network or isp, so there's a lot of passing the buck.

Got to agree with you on that. Thing is when I renewed my Vodacom contract a year and a half ago I didn't even know I was doing it through Altech. I'm pretty sure I phoned Vodacom to renew but my phone was then send to me by Altech.

 

[MvanHeerden]

Ahh cr@p just deleted half my post by accident. I must learn never to work a computer under the influence

Anyway, seems that my prob has been sorted. So all good now

 

[ElleArtist]

OMW!!!! How satisfying to read that I am not the only fool to have a contract with Altech that has experienced problems. I ported from MTN thinking Vodacom would be a better choice...Altech had a good deal at the time but their customer (DIS)service is totally non-existant...I will go so far as to say it is like a journey to hell and back....a few times. It took the 1st year of my 24 month contract to sort out billing\blocking issues....now it has taken 7 months to just get some basic stuff sorted....no less 29 emails back and forth, with their absolutely ludicrous, idiotic, automated reply asking which number I refer to?? ABOMINABLE is all I can say....avoid them like the plague...I cannot believe they can still be allowed to operate