MTN Contract Data Bundle Warning!

[ginggs]

Just a warning to everyone using contract data bundles...

I've been struggling to reconcile the MB used with the amount charged for my father's data card contract. Even after making a 'brilliant suggestion' in February 2007 that the total MB be shown on the invoice, unfortunately the system developers apparently didn't think the idea was so brilliant.

After numerous calls to 1555 and 808, I was forced to resort to Hello Peter as sometimes this is the only way to get any action out of MTN.

I received a call and after 27 minutes of being told that I can take the SIM out of the data card, insert it into a phone and dial 16202 to check the MB total and the agent trying to calculate the MB from the amount charged (which I could have done myself, but that doesn't actually reconcile the figures) it became clear to me that MTN can't easily get the MB total, and it became clear to the agent that this is what I wanted, so he offered to get the figures and get call me back.

He did call back as promised and then came two shockers:
Firstly, although my father has had a 100MB bundle loaded on his account (and has been charged for it) for more than ten months, he has been charged out-of-bundle rates the entire time.
Secondly, MTN are only prepared to pass credit for the past 6 months.

So, if you have an MTN contract data bundle check and double check your MB used against the amount you are being charged.

 

[Bikerza]

Recently moved to MTN HSDPA. Bought a mychoice 75 package (cheapest solution) as oppose to the 2 GB with 24 month contract.
Loaded a 1 GB package and low & behold, for the first portion of the month I paid for the 1GB PLUS all the data usage at out-of-bundle rate.

Made a call to them, logged the ref number to get it sorted. Month 2, same problem still.
Now... the way I see it, it is a breach of the contract.

 

[Voldemort]

So this is what came about of your qeury Ginggs, im sorry to hear that

 

[ginggs]

So this is what came about of your qeury Ginggs, im sorry to hear that

Thanks dude, and according to the person I spoke to on 808 today the 100MB bundle is still not fixed, and I am still unable to get the monthly MB totals. Will post more details after I say "Hello Peter" tomorrow.

 

[ginggs]

Hello Peter:
Unable to query data usage #2

See:
http://www.hellopeter.co.za/the_comment.asp?recid=106617

I am trying to reconcile the MB used on my father's data card with the Rand value he is being charged.

*** details of several calls to 1555 and 808 skipped ***
I call 808, don't get asked for the reference number, but get told they can't look up data usage I must call 1555. After explaining I already have, I get told that they have to send a query through to the billing department and I need to call 808 on Tuesday to find out the result of the query. I asked for a reference number but was told that there wasn't one.

I call 808 on Tuesday as arranged, but am unable to query anything without a reference number, not sure how they ever expected me to get the results of the query. On Wednesday I visit my father and we call 808 and get a reference number that allows me to make queries, but agent still unable to provide us with MB totals.

All we want is the MB totals for each invoice from 2007/01/26 to present, why is this so difficult? If you are billing according to MB used, why can't you produce this number? I find this very disturbing. Please don't calculate the MB from the Rands, we could just do that ourselves.

Refund for 'incorrectly loaded' data bundle

In my attempts to reconcile the MB used on my father's data card with the Rand value he is being charged, see:
http://www.hellopeter.co.za/the_comment.asp?recid=108021
an agent who called me Monday, received a system error when attempting to query the balance of my father's 100MB data bundle. After investigating it was discovered that although my father had (and was charged for) a 100MB data bundle since 2007/01/01, he was being charged out-of-bundle rates the entire time. MTN decided to credit his account for the last six months for the amount of R1181.91.

I understand your policy of not normally handling queries going back further than six months, but surely there are exceptions? Because you are unable to provide us with the total MB used in a month, it makes it impossible for us to have discovered this on our own. In light of this, I request you credit him for the full ten months, a total of R1500 including VAT.

On Wednesday I spoke to an agent on 808, and still got the system error, I am concerned that the 'incorrectly loaded' bundle is still not fixed. Could it be arranged for a 350MB data bundle to be correctly loaded on my father's data card please?

 

[Skeptik]

Regarding reference numbers:
I've made in excess of 10 calls to enquire about loss of my credit and NOT ONCE did I get a reference number.

 

[FireTelkom]

The amount that MTN overcharged is still less than R5000, so take them to the small claims court where they cannot use lawyers to delay the process.

Get judgement against MTN and sell the MD's desk to recover your cost. This will give him the wake up call, if the network works......

 

[Skeptik]

R7000 is the small claims top limit.

I would do it if I had to.

 

[ginggs]

Regarding reference numbers:
I've made in excess of 10 calls to enquire about loss of my credit and NOT ONCE did I get a reference number.

I suspect that if you don't get a reference number it means your query was not put in to the system, which means nothing is being done about it.

I'm not saying that having a reference is a guarantee that something is being done either, see here.

 

[ginggs]

MTN have still not come to the party and supplied us with the MB totals, it's been six days since they last promised to call me back and still no call. I've also just discovered that the amount they have credited is only R928.85 and not the R1181.91 they originally told me, and certainly not the R1500 I think they owe my father.

I've decided to fire off another complaint via Hello Peter:
Refund for 'incorrectly loaded' data bundle:

In my attempts to reconcile the MB used on my father's data card with the Rand value he is being charged, see:
http://www.hellopeter.co.za/the_comment.asp?recid=108021
An agent who called me on Monday (8th) received a system error when attempting to query the balance of my father's 100MB data bundle. After investigating it was discovered that although my father had a 100MB data bundle since 2007/01/01, he was being charged out-of-bundle rates the entire time. His account has been credited for the past 6 months with the amount of R928.85.

I understand your policy of not normally handling queries going back further than six months, but surely there are exceptions? Because you are unable to provide us with the total MB used in a month, it makes it impossible for us to have discovered this on our own. In light of this, I request you credit him for the full ten months, a total of R1500 including VAT.

On Wednesday (10th) I spoke to an agent on 808, and still got the system error, I am concerned that the 'incorrectly loaded' bundle is still not fixed. Could it be arranged for a 350MB data bundle to be correctly loaded on my father's data card please?

I still haven't received MB totals!

 

[Bikerza]

Yet another abuse

Logged the below on hellopeter.com:

Bought modem and mychoice 75 package. loaded 1Gb bundle. First month, got charged full out of bundle rates + the portion of the 1Gb bundle.
Second month statement also reflects over a R100 out of bundle amount, even though only used half the 1Gb bundle.
Reference 31789949 - no response
went to MTN shop in boskruin - no feedback yet
did query on website for billing - no response
Did another query today and I quote:
"Your query has been queued for creation
Any submissions or changes made will be attended to within 48 hours of the request depending on network and system availability.

Thank you for using MTN Active."
48 hours? THIS IS A FARCE! even 48 days will be a miracle.

I think I'm going to cancel my subscription as legally I'm well within my right to do so.

 

[Voldemort]

Hi there

Im sorry to hear about your experience

I went and checked on your latest invoice and i see what the problem was- what happened was that on your latest invoice that closed yesterday you were charged for data used on 26/09/2007, there was a failure in activation on the live network resulting in the service only being fixed on 28/09/2007, hence the data charges- i have logged another query for this to be credited so this extra charges will have been fixed before your next debit order for sure, plus i see that you do have you data allocation so this shouldnt happen again- reference number for what im advising is 32766108

Regards

 

[ginggs]

Second month statement also reflects over a R100 out of bundle amount, even though only used half the 1Gb bundle.

Seems to be a common problem. Sadly, so are 'no feedback yet' and 'no response'.

 

[Skeptik]

This seems to be a new trend in SA. A company stuffs up, we know it, they know it. We complain and they just ignore the complaint. So sad to see service levels plummit further.

 

[xrapidx]

they don't ignore it... They just say "Tough, live with it"

 

[Bikerza]

Snakepit,

I'm quite pleased now since my complaint on hellopeter.com. Finally I did get a response and I'm a happy camper again ;-)
Just a pity I had to resort to these measures, hopefully this will be the end of it.

Thx for your help too.

 

[ginggs]

I've decided to fire off another complaint via Hello Peter:
Refund for 'incorrectly loaded' data bundle:

In my attempts to reconcile the MB used on my father's data card with the Rand value he is being charged, see:
http://www.hellopeter.co.za/the_comment.asp??recid=108021
An agent who called me on Monday (8th) received a system error when attempting to query the balance of my father's 100MB data bundle. After investigating it was discovered that although my father had a 100MB data bundle since 2007/01/01, he was being charged out-of-bundle rates the entire time. His account has been credited for the past 6 months with the amount of R928.85.

I understand your policy of not normally handling queries going back further than six months, but surely there are exceptions? Because you are unable to provide us with the total MB used in a month, it makes it impossible for us to have discovered this on our own. In light of this, I request you credit him for the full ten months, a total of R1500 including VAT.

On Wednesday (10th) I spoke to an agent on 808, and still got the system error, I am concerned that the 'incorrectly loaded' bundle is still not fixed. Could it be arranged for a 350MB data bundle to be correctly loaded on my father's data card please?

I still haven't received MB totals!

In case anyone is following this story, here's what has since transpired:
2007/10/11 received credit of R928.85
2007/10/22 received credit of R454.78
2007/10/29 100MB data bundle cancelled / 350MB data bundle loaded
(Unfortunately MTN were unable to load this before the invoice date of 2007/10/26 due to "system challenges")
2007/11/26 invoiced for packet switched data calls R356.92

Snakepit has kindly taken over and I believe as of 2008/01/14 there's a further credit of R331.52.

To date nobody has been able to provide us with the MB totals for the months in question, so we just have to accept whatever credits come our way.

 

[pkid]

Thanks for the heads up guys. Was just going to sign up for a data contract with MTN and after reading this thinking of going with Vodacom...

 

[xrapidx]

Thanks for the heads up guys. Was just going to sign up for a data contract with MTN and after reading this thinking of going with Vodacom...

Good decision, and they're going 3.6Mbps for a bit extra