Ok, enough is enough.
My email to Hester:
-----------------------------------------------------
Hester
In a last, desperate attempt I am resorting to contacting you on a rather urgent matter concerning your company's financial department and, more specifically, subscriber payment system.
On the 11th of January Sentech erroneously subtracted the amount of R1,684.99 from my bank account after having subtracted my usual subscription fee on the 10th. This highly unprofessional and inconsiderate mistake led to me not being able to pay some of my bills this month and having to make alternate arrangements. This is also after your company failed to collect my subscription fees last year which led to a back-log in payment that Sentech would never have known of had I not notified you.
I contacted Sentech in this regard and was given ticket number 1****. It took eight (8) phone calls before one of your people managed to even track down the amount! It was at this time that my suspicion was aroused. Surely this would have been a simple transaction to track? I had provided them with the exact amount, time and my banking details.
I was finally promised a refund last week and I still have not received it. I have also not received a formal apology nor an explanation of why this has happened. I will not put up with this treatment any longer.
It has also come to my attention that the same thing has happened to other Sentech subscribers on the same day, but with differing amounts. This is highly suspicious and, as Sentech has done nothing to help me, I can only suspect ill-intent on their part.
I will be expecting a phone call from you or another senior employee within the next few hours. My telephone number is 082 *** ****. In this conversation I expect to hear an explanation of how and why this problem occurred. Based on this explanation, I will decide whether or not to proceed to the police station and lay a criminal charge of theft against Sentech with SAPS. I'm sure the police will take my charge quite seriously, especially when I draw their attention to these rather arbitrary amounts that have been subtracted from many subscriber's accounts. I will then embark on a media campaign and alert every outlet at my disposal of Sentech's actions. Being a journalist myself this will not be terribly difficult for me to accomplish.
Your company conducts itself disgracefully and I will not allow it to continue. On behalf of the South African consumer, I consider it my social responsibility to see to it that businesses like yours are not allowed to escape with this sort of behaviour.
I look forward to your phone call and, should this have turned out to be a honest mistake, I look forward to rectifying the situation with Sentech.
Regards
***** ******
--------------------------------------------------
So, I'll wait for their call. If the same thing has happened to you, please contact me via Private Message so I can get hold of you before contacting the press.
and ABSA is there today fixing it, so payments should go out tomorrow... in short, this is getting ridiculous.
