Changing billing periods on MTN contracts

[rudirautenbach]

Dear all,

Tonight I need some help, hopefully someone from MTN out there could point me in the right direction.

Towards the middle of last month I took out three new contracts, two call packages and a 2 Gb data packages. When I filled out the application forms I explicitly requested MTN to bill me on the 1st of each month. When the contracts were activated a few days later with the help of MTNDD, the lady told me that I would be billed pro-rata for the remainder of the month, and then the billing system would then continue between the first of each month.

To my surprise I noticed today that neither of the three contracts were topped up with any "free" minutes or data. When I called the MTN SP customer care line, a Mr Shane van der Walt told me that my billing period runs between the 13th of each month, and that it cannot be changed. After informing him that I requested specifically for the billing and top-up to take place on the 1st of each month, he put me on hold to speak to his supervisor, Mr Adrian Rosier. Mr Rosier then informed me via Shane that it can be done, but involves the complete cancellation of the existing contracts followed by a reactivation, all at great cost to myself. I ended the call thanking him for the helpful information.

Now how on earth can this be true? Firstly, MTN made the mistake by not reading the entire contents of the application form. Secondly, MTN now expects the customer to pay to have MTN's mistake rectified.

Is this just two guys in a call centre that were either suffering from a lack of training not knowing how to rectify the mistake, were they too lazy to help or is this another way of MTN creating revenue streams at the expense of a new customer?

Am I am wrong and MTN's actions justified or do I have a point here?

I am looking forward to your replies.

Regards, Rudi

 

[diabolus]

To my surprise I noticed today that neither of the three contracts were topped up with any "free" minutes or data. When I called the MTN SP customer care line, a Mr Shane van der Walt told me that my billing period runs between the 13th of each month, and that it cannot be changed.

Just a very important note [which i think alot of people found out the hard way].

There is a difference between
a) BILLING DATE
b) INVOICE DATE

Billing Date = the date MTN actually make you pay [debit order , transferring money etc ]. THIS date you can adjust to be 1st,15th,30th and this is the date you fill in your application form.

Invoice Date = the date where MTN "refresh" or "top up" all your services for the month and give you a invoice. This is the date where you would normally get your new bundle and new free minutes etc. THIS date is restricted to 13th OR 26th and not changeable [not as far as i know] .


There is also NO WAY you can adjust both these date to be one the same day [resulting in all kinds of billing confusion] . There's a few threads regarding MTN's billing system, so a few tips:

1. Find out your credit limit
2. Make sure this limit can carry you for TWO months
3. Raise it if you ever think of loading data bundles on a voice contract
4. Try to move your BILLING date as close to the INVOICE date [i.e. 15th] , to minimize the amount of time between a new invoice [increasing your unbilled amount] and MTN actually putting through a debit order [decreasing your unbilled amount].


EDIT : To put this in perspective, Vodacom have the same setup but

a) Top up/Refresh/Invoice Date = 1st of every month [you can NOT change this either]
b) Billing Date = wherever you want [1st,15th,30th etc].

 

[bekdik]

Just a very important note [which i think alot of people found out the hard way].

There is a difference between
a) BILLING DATE
b) INVOICE DATE

Billing Date = the date MTN actually make you pay [debit order , transferring money etc ]. THIS date you can adjust to be 1st,15th,30th and this is the date you fill in your application form.

Invoice Date = the date where MTN "refresh" or "top up" all your services for the month and give you a invoice. This is the date where you would normally get your new bundle and new free minutes etc. THIS date is restricted to 13th OR 26th and not changeable [not as far as i know] .


There is also NO WAY you can adjust both these date to be one the same day [resulting in all kinds of billing confusion] . There's a few threads regarding MTN's billing system, so a few tips:

1. Find out your credit limit
2. Make sure this limit can carry you for TWO months
3. Raise it if you ever think of loading data bundles on a voice contract
4. Try to move your BILLING date as close to the INVOICE date [i.e. 15th] , to minimize the amount of time between a new invoice [increasing your unbilled amount] and MTN actually putting through a debit order [decreasing your unbilled amount].

Or move to a supplier who can provide your requirements

 

[rudirautenbach]

Diabolus, thanks for the information. Now that makes a whole lot more sense than what was told to me. However, I simply do not understand why MTN would choose the 13th as the invoice date if my billing date is the first. I would have thought that they would choose the 26th as the invoice date as that makes it closer to the billing date, which is currently the 1st.

Now can I change it from the 13th to the 26th without incurring costs?

Many thanks, Rudi

 

[diabolus]

Or move to a supplier who can provide your requirements

To summarise it all:

Vodacom have their "billing period" running from 1st - 1st
MTN have theirs from 13th - 13th . [and 26th - 26th]

This is a "company wide" setting/policy and not changeable .

Now can I change it from the 13th to the 26th without incurring costs?

That i'm not sure, this is where they might have to do some heavy admin. I have changed my "billing date" many times without issues though, but of course that's not really as difficult for MTN.

MTN probably chose 13th-13th to avoid all the traffic on 1st [i.e. people getting salaries, bank transactions and entire world basically coming to a grinding halt between 30th-2nd each month]

 

[Voldemort]

Diabolus, thanks for the information. Now that makes a whole lot more sense than what was told to me. However, I simply do not understand why MTN would choose the 13th as the invoice date if my billing date is the first. I would have thought that they would choose the 26th as the invoice date as that makes it closer to the billing date, which is currently the 1st.

Now can I change it from the 13th to the 26th without incurring costs?

Many thanks, Rudi

The invoice dates are allocated in accordance with how many people are in each billing cycle.this is a random thing so billing dates will not be changed. the only thing one can change in this regard is the day that your debit order comes off.
for instance, our mag tapes get submitted to the bank on 18th of every month. if your invoice date is before the 18th the debit order will go off on the same month, but if your invoice date is 26th we dont have the 18th to submit the mag tape so your account would only be debited at the end of the next month.

hope this helps...

 

[rudirautenbach]

Snakepit,

Thanks for the info, it certainly helps in explaining how the MTN billing system works. I just wish that these things will be told to new customers when they sign up with MTN, rather than same customers having to resort to public forums to find out how things work. When I signed up, I specifically asked for a billing date of the 1st of every month on the application form, so automatically assumed that the cutoff date (read invoice date in MTN terms) would be a few days before the 1st, in other words the 26th would have made perfect sense.

I was however contacted by Shane van der Walt of MTN and assured that MTN is looking into my query and will respond by Wednesday. Not sure if he too reads this forum...

In all kudos to MTN for at least trying to resolve issues. I just wish someone would look into increasing the speeds on the HSDPA network next...

Thanks again for the reply and keep up the good work. Much appreciated.

Rudi