More Multichoice Hubris

briantw

briantw

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
307
Reaction score
10
Location
Johannesburg, South Africa.
Okay, I have just deactivated my service. I've had enough of these clowns.

This forum gives me a place to vent and also to line up my facts for when I take it up the ladder. Hopefully helps y'all out as well.

So, the deal is, when I bought the decoder in December, I went straight into the Postnet next door to fill out the application form and fax it off to Multichoice. The fax was received on their end, and I received proof of delivery, which was to the correct number stated on the form. Importantly, the form contained debit order information.

Over two months have passed. Guess what? No debit orders have gone through. This provokes me into e-mail action, and more smug issue-avoidance from them. Here's the communication:

March 1:
From: Me
To: Them

Hi

When I signed up for DStv, I faxed the appropriate paperwork back in December. I submitted debit order details on the form in the provided space. You are not debiting my account, however. Please update your records with the bank details I provided on the official form.

Thank you.

---------

From: Them (Deirdre Palm)
To: Me

Thank you for your e-mail.

Attached please find a copy of the debit order form for completion and to be emailed back to us for so we can update our records.

Should you require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

---------

From: Me
To: Them

Hi

I don't appreciate being made to do the same thing twice. I have faxed debit order details on the form that was provided. Please get them from there.

Thank you.

---------
March 2nd:

From: Me
To: Them

Hi

I have not received a response to this. Why was my original application form not processed, and why do you expect me to do this work again?

Thanks

---------

March 3rd:

From: Them (Deirdre Palm)
To: Me

Thank you for your e-mail.

Please note the faxed debit order has not been received, kindly complete the attached form on order for us to provide further assistance.

Should the debit order details not be loaded on the account a cash payment will have to be done to avoid the DStv being disconnected.

Should you require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

---------

From: Me
To: Them

The fax was received. I have printed proof of delivery. But instead of apologising for wasting my time and explaining, you just tell me to do it again and absolve yourselves of all responsibility. Plus you threaten me with disconnection? We are all just sheep to you guys and will perform any task you set out.

I would like you to admit that you lost the form and apologise for wasting my time, and request that I submit a new form. That is how you do customer service. Is it so difficult for you to say "sorry, we messed up, please help us out by resubmitting?" That is all that stands between you and an understanding, satisfied customer. Think about yourselves as customers to other businesses. Is this how you would like to be treated if you had done exactly what was required of you?

I'm tired of your terrible service and acting like you do nothing wrong, and making the customer jump through hoops for your incompetence. If I don't receive a favourable response, I will make this public and cancel my DStv account.

---------

March 4th:

From: Them (Maite Mulaudzi)
To: Me

Thank you for your e-mail.

We confirm that we have not received your banking details to load a debit order on your account.

Please be advised that your account is payable by cash and a balance of R675.03 is payable on 01 April 2011 as your account has an overdue of R518.03.

We advise that in order to load a debit order on your account the below details are required:

Name of account holder:
Bank account type:
Debit order date:
Branch code:
Bank account number.
To use the self help services, please find the attached documents to your perusal.
Should you require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us. [do I look like I'm hesitating?]
---------
From: Me
To: Them

Do you not understand English?

Where is the apology for losing my account details? Do you really want to lose a customer because you are too proud to apologise?

I faxed the correct form to the correct number and it was successfully delivered in DECEMBER. I will not do a stitch more admin work for you until you apologise for your lapse.

If you cannot understand this, pass me higher up, because this treatment is unacceptable.
 
Last edited:
You go dude! I'm also sick and tired of companies treating us like dirt. So glad to see you're standing up to them :D
 
Geee Give me a break. Of course they are idiots. After reading most of your post/communication I came to the conclusion the old saying "it takes 2 to tango" very much applies :D Ok,you have send a fax with your particulars. You know the fax arrived at the Correct destination, but you can not prove that the right people indeed got your fax. Actually,just the opposite is true. The correct people never got your details. You reminde me of the traffic cop who faxed the fine to the suspect's place of work and later wondered why the police failed to arrest the culprit for not paying the fine or appearing in court :D Keep in mind,you want to make use of their services! Not the other way around! You have already used the service. You haven't paid a cent so far. You expect too much. After all this is MultiChoice we are talking about.
 
@BlackBox Au contraire, I do not wish to use their service. I do not do business with companies like this.

Secondly, payment is not an issue. Their inability to retrieve the payment due to their incompetence is more of an issue. The payment is waiting for them.

And it being "Multichoice we are talking about" does not excuse their inability to acknowledge wrongdoing. In terms of "two to tango," just remember, this is not an equal partnership. 1. I am the customer. 2. I performed all of the tasks required of me. i.e. I did my job. I will not excuse them having not done theirs, unless they ask to be excused. Their attitude, however, has been similar to yours. "We can't find it. Do it again." Sorry, not acceptable. Try "sorry, sir, we lost it, please do us a favour and take some of your valuable time to fill out the form again and submit it to us. We do apologise for you having wasted your time and money faxing us a form that we have misplaced."

Too late now, though.
 
So, here I am again. I mailed the Multichoice CEO, and he passed my concerns onto Customer Liaison Manager, Michael Rooi. Michael was extremely polite on the phone yesterday, doing everything possible to make amends and get me back on board as a subscriber. He actually convinced me to come back into the fold, since I had gotten what I wanted: Acknowledgement that I am not making stuff up - I faxed a form, it was delivered, and no one in Customer Care will admit that. I said I'd find the original fax, along with proof of delivery, and we could get this whole debit order thing sorted out.

So, all well and good. I should be a subscriber again already, no? Unfortunately not. Since speaking with him yesterday, other staff members have responded to old emails with the same "we make no mistakes" and "customer is always wrong" attitudes. First yesterday afternoon, and then this morning someone was kind enough to give the dates of several occasions when I was informed that they did not receive my communication. It's actually quite funny just how stubborn they all are.

With the exception of Mr. Rooi, of course. He knows how to handle a customer, and I wish he could pass that attitude on to the rest of the call centre. I wasn't looking for any freebies or to have my rear end polished. All I wanted was acknowledgement that my time and money is also valuable, and that it is a hassle for me to have contingency plans for their ineptitude. But the mantle of P-R-I-D-E flies high at Multichoice Customer Care (I picture a big banner over their cubicles).

I've gotten beyond miffed now. I find the depths of their stubbornness to be quite funny. In a competitive environment, the staff are driving the company into eventual midget market share. Here's a summary of the communication, with a team who clearly understands English only when it suits them:

Me: I sent my bank details to your fax number. It got delivered but you're not debiting me.

DEIDRE PALM: [ignoring the issue] "Attached please find a copy of the debit order form for completion and to be emailed back to us for so we can update our records."

Me: But I already sent it. Got proof of delivery. Don't wanna do the same thing twice.

DEIDRE PALM: "Please note the faxed debit order has not been received."

Me: But shouldn't you apologise for losing it and request nicely of me that I redo it?

MAITE MULAUDZI: "We confirm that we have not received your banking details to load a debit order on your account."

Me: Did you miss my point? Where is the apology?

CINDY MORRIS: "Our records indicate that you received assistance on 4 March 2011."

Me: Never mind, I deactivated my account and let the CEO know.

ABIGAIL MADONSELA: "we have not received a fax with your banking detail" and "we will investigate what occurred to the fax if indeed we received it or not" in one paragraph.

CINDY MORRIS: "According to our records Reference numbers :70710605 01 Mar 2011 15:34,70808235 03 Mar 2011 09:23,7337568604 Mar 2011 12:19,73705422 10 Mar 2011 16:35 we did not receive any documentation from you"
Click to expand...

So here's a shout out to Mr. Rooi for at least trying to carry the weight of an otherwise inept call centre team.
 
Feel your pain but I must admit that I had no problem getting connected, didn't sign any contract or debit order forms: just pay every month online by credit card. I suppose that wouldn't work if you don't have a credit card though.
 
Well, Steven, it's not really how I pay that's the issue. I do have a credit card and can pay that way. Problem for me is the treatment you get when you have done what you're supposed to and they screw it up and will never admit, never apologise.

Edit: Oh, and it's not just this, I had something to chew on first to get me riled up first. See that thread here. We're talking about a service that I don't really need, but they still have that giant monopoly mentality sitting firmly in their heads, and, well, the bigger they are...
 
Last edited:
briantw said:
Well, Steven, it's not really how I pay that's the issue. I do have a credit card and can pay that way. Problem for me is the treatment you get when you have done what you're supposed to and they screw it up and will never admit, never apologise.
Click to expand...

For sure, point taken and I would be just as p**sed off. Unfortunately service is something that many South African companies fail miserably.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X