[Resolved] - Cool Ideas billing screw-up - Back charging me

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touch7

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Here is a message I got in my email from Cool Ideas:

Please see attached invoice for R2,420. We have had to back-date your billing from 30/12/2017, for the difference between the 100/100 package and the 20/2.

From what we see, you had intended on downgrading the package to the 20/2 around December last year. However, since the downgrade was done on our Coolzone portal, the actual speeds were not downgraded. Only the billing for your product was downgraded.

We have therefore been billing you R799 per month since, for the 100/100mbps line. Please let me know if you have any queries regarding the above.

Since this was only discovered months down the line, we are happy to arrange for payment of the outstanding amount in instalments. Please let me know what would best suit your budget.

We apologise for the inconvenience.

Kind regards,
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So now I'm wondering how I'm responsible for paying this. In mid-December I send them an email and then downgraded from a 100/100 to a 20/2 (from January) as I use the internet alone and I wanted to see if this 100/100 was making any difference. When January came to now, I didn't see a difference.

The problem I have here is that since January, their portal and the statements they send me say I'm on a 20/2 and now they want to back charge me for 6 months cause only their portal had downgrade me but not their entire system. There was no way of me know that I'm on a 100/100 since the portal and statements said I'm on 20/2. This worries me because they might charge me something else again later down the line.

The service is great but this is bull****. I shouldn't have to pay because they didn't integrate their system properly. It's like you buy a car and pay for 2 years, then they send you and email and say you need to pay them 50k because they accidentally gave you a car with a bigger engine than they thought.

If they had not sent this email, as far I as I'm concerned I'd be on a 20/2. I could of taken advantage if I knew I was on a 100/100, now I'm supposed to pay? It makes no sense, they made the mistake so they should just suck it up and test all their systems properly.

Any advice on what to do about this? I did not budget for their error and fear there might be more errors down the line.

Edit:
What's worrying is that they know that I intentionally downgraded but they decide to pass the bill to me cause of a buggy system. I didn't take advantage of them in anyway.
 
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touch7 said:
Here is a message I got in my email from Cool Ideas:



So now I'm wondering how I'm responsible for paying this. In mid-December I send them an email and then downgraded from a 100/100 to a 20/2 (from January) as I use the internet alone and I wanted to see if this 100/100 was making any difference. When January came to now, I didn't see a difference.

The problem I have here is that since January, their portal and the statements they send me say I'm on a 20/2 and now they want to back charge me for 6 months cause only their portal had downgrade me but not their entire system. There was no way of me know that I'm on a 100/100 since the portal and statements said I'm on 20/2. This worries me because they might charge me something else again later down the line.

The service is great but this is bull****. I shouldn't have to pay because they didn't integrate their system properly. It's like you buy a car and pay for 2 years, then they send you and email and say you need to pay them 50k because they accidentally gave you a car with a bigger engine than they thought.

If they had not sent this email, as far I as I'm concerned I'd be on a 20/2. I could of taken advantage if I knew I was on a 100/100, now I'm supposed to pay? It makes no sense, they made the mistake so they should just suck it up and test all their systems properly.

Any advice on what to do about this? I did not budget for their error and fear there might be more errors down the line.

Edit:
What's worrying is that they know that I intentionally downgraded but they decide to pass the bill to me cause of a buggy system. I didn't take advantage of them in anyway.
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Hell no, that's dodgy as fark.

That's just plain messed up, you paid for the slower product and they "claim" to have given you the faster product, end of the day you paid they supplied what saw fit to supply for that money, end of discussion.

If they think doing this is all above board then it must go both ways, when the supplied product doesn't match the paid for speeds then, they must retroactively rebate your account to ensure you get the full value of what you paid for, see what they say about that.
 
I can see why you might be a little miffed. I definitely would be too.
I can't totally blame them though because the package should have been changed on the Vuma portal. Why they didn't tell you this, is a bit of a mystery as they told me when I downgraded.

[MENTION=394133]PBCool[/MENTION] maybe you can give some guidance?
 
Totally unacceptable. Completely unethical. Never mind not even legal. Sounds like total amateur hour over there. Must be running some kind of Mickey Mouse operation if they even dare to dream for one moment that is going to fly.
 
Simple. Your agreement is for 20/2 and that's all they can bill you for. It's not your fault they decided to keep you on 100/100.

It'd write the CEO a nice letter explaining the facts. No need for massive detail. Be matter-of-fact and friendly.

Also no need to accuse them of bad intent, dishonesty, or anything ugly. It's clearly a mistake. Not all Support people know the elements of contract so one can presume they're acting in good faith. That's why I'd start at the top.

Good luck.
 
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The problem is that you carried on using the service and hoping you would get away with it, something extra for free, Just like that over-payment from that university of a couple of million, you should have informed them that they have not down graded the service, you simply have to pay up now.
 
xodosman123 said:
The problem is that you carried on using the service and hoping you would get away with it, something extra for free, Just like that over-payment from that university of a couple of million, you should have informed them that they have not down graded the service, you simply have to pay up now.
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Wrong. He asked to be downgraded to 20/2. He was being billed for 20/2 and therefore that’s the package he chose. He has proof. The fact that CISP screwed up is not his problem. He simply doesn’t have to pay jack squat!
 
xodosman123 said:
The problem is that you carried on using the service and hoping you would get away with it, something extra for free, Just like that over-payment from that university of a couple of million, you should have informed them that they have not down graded the service, you simply have to pay up now.
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Do not agree.
 
Geez. Anybody can make a mistake and like Arthur said they might be acting in good faith here. The email is clearly proof of that.
Just write them or better PM [MENTION=394133]PBCool[/MENTION]
 
sucked said:
Geez. Anybody can make a mistake and like Arthur said they might be acting in good faith here. The email is clearly proof of that.
Just write them or better PM [MENTION=394133]PBCool[/MENTION]
Click to expand...

That's possibly the best advice IMO. I can't see how the company's mistake should be passed on to the customer, if they followed the correct process to downgrade.
 
touch7 said:
Here is a message I got in my email from Cool Ideas:



So now I'm wondering how I'm responsible for paying this. In mid-December I send them an email and then downgraded from a 100/100 to a 20/2 (from January) as I use the internet alone and I wanted to see if this 100/100 was making any difference. When January came to now, I didn't see a difference.

The problem I have here is that since January, their portal and the statements they send me say I'm on a 20/2 and now they want to back charge me for 6 months cause only their portal had downgrade me but not their entire system. There was no way of me know that I'm on a 100/100 since the portal and statements said I'm on 20/2. This worries me because they might charge me something else again later down the line.

The service is great but this is bull****. I shouldn't have to pay because they didn't integrate their system properly. It's like you buy a car and pay for 2 years, then they send you and email and say you need to pay them 50k because they accidentally gave you a car with a bigger engine than they thought.

If they had not sent this email, as far I as I'm concerned I'd be on a 20/2. I could of taken advantage if I knew I was on a 100/100, now I'm supposed to pay? It makes no sense, they made the mistake so they should just suck it up and test all their systems properly.

Any advice on what to do about this? I did not budget for their error and fear there might be more errors down the line.

Edit:
What's worrying is that they know that I intentionally downgraded but they decide to pass the bill to me cause of a buggy system. I didn't take advantage of them in anyway.
Click to expand...

As you had no way of knowing you were on the higher package, it is their fault.

Same concept as a restaurant, if I ordered a chicken pizza and they brought out a chicken pizza with extra chicken, I have no idea what's the normal portion therefore ate it, I will not pay for their mistake.
 
No way of knowing? Of course he had ways of knowing. Any Steam download, torrent, Youtube video, Twitch stream or any download in general would have immediately shown the speed.

I simply don't believe that in 6 months he never saw any indication of what speed he was getting. Especially since he requested a downgrade and one would usually check that said downgrade was done by checking the speeds in the month following the request.

That aside however, their system should actually inform all users that the downgrade should be done on VUMA's portal as well. That lies squarely on CISP.
 
Orihalcon said:
No way of knowing? Of course he had ways of knowing. Any Steam download, torrent, Youtube video, Twitch stream or any download in general would have immediately shown the speed.

I simply don't believe that in 6 months he never saw any indication of what speed he was getting. Especially since he requested a downgrade and one would usually check that said downgrade was done by checking the speeds in the month following the request.

That aside however, their system should actually inform all users that the downgrade should be done on VUMA's portal as well. That lies squarely on CISP.
Click to expand...

Where does one see that on Youtube without going specifically looking for it?

The only time I go look at networks speed of my steam or anything is if things are slow, otherwise I do not even pay it any mind to see if I am really getting 40mbps.
 
Orihalcon said:
No way of knowing? Of course he had ways of knowing. Any Steam download, torrent, Youtube video, Twitch stream or any download in general would have immediately shown the speed.

I simply don't believe that in 6 months he never saw any indication of what speed he was getting. Especially since he requested a downgrade and one would usually check that said downgrade was done by checking the speeds in the month following the request.

That aside however, their system should actually inform all users that the downgrade should be done on VUMA's portal as well. That lies squarely on CISP.
Click to expand...

I use my phone for downloads and YouTube and would not be able to tell you what's my normal or expected speed. We also have to admit that less that 50% of the population would know how to test or check that they are on the correct package.

Only OP knows what he knew, I think if he knew he was getting the higher service then he should pay
 
supersunbird said:
Where does one see that on Youtube without going specifically looking for it?

The only time I go look at networks speed of my steam or anything is if things are slow, otherwise I do not even pay it any mind to see if I am really getting 40mbps.
Click to expand...

Buffer bar on the bottom. Immediate difference in how fast the 30 second buffer gets filled depending on line speed and video quality.

OP of course could have been oblivious to this however.

EDIT: On the steam comment. The difference of 8MB/s download speed is pretty damn noticeable. You don't even have to go to the download's page as the speed is shown next to the game name in the sidebar being downloaded. Take a 40GB download. on 100Mb's package that takes...what...just under an hour in a perfect scenario. On a 20Mb/s line that is quintupled!
 
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Dee96 said:
I use my phone for downloads and YouTube and would not be able to tell you what's my normal or expected speed. We also have to admit that less that 50% of the population would know how to test or check that they are on the correct package.

Only OP knows what he knew, I think if he knew he was getting the higher service then he should pay
Click to expand...

That is true. Cannot deny that as a user you would expect that if you request a downgrade and you receive a bill for such, then it was carried out accordingly.
 
Please drop me a PM with your account details so I can investigate. I am always around for escalations and mistakes happen.
 
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