WebAfrica E-Mail Warning

[Abe]

Dear XXXXX,
16 March 2009
Please be aware, according to our records, a 7 day balance of R196 is outstanding on your Web Africa account (XXXXX). Kindly settle the full amount within 3 days to avoid suspension.

If you have already made payment, please disregard this notice.

For your added convenience, pay your account automatically with our secure credit card and debit order facilities to ensure timeous settlement. To obtain a detailed breakdown and/or update your payment method, please see https://www.webafrica.co.za/client/billing.html.

If you wish to discuss your account further, please contact us at 0861 555 222.

Kind Regards,
Web Africa - Billing

Are you sure you want to be sending out such emails to your loyal clients? We have a monthly subscription and added a couple of GB's prepaid this month. Now we get this warning. In the past the debit order has just been updated to include the prepaid data used during the month.

What's worse is that one of our clients has just been sent this same email. As we recommended WA, this is not making us look good.

 

[shadow_man]

Are you sure you want to be sending out such emails to your loyal clients? We have a monthly subscription and added a couple of GB's prepaid this month. Now we get this warning. In the past the debit order has just been updated to include the prepaid data used during the month.

What's worse is that one of our clients has just been sent this same email. As we recommended WA, this is not making us look good.

Happened to me and a few others - I simply changed ISP. Not in the mood for nonsense.

J

 

[arf9999]

Are you sure you want to be sending out such emails to your loyal clients? We have a monthly subscription and added a couple of GB's prepaid this month. Now we get this warning. In the past the debit order has just been updated to include the prepaid data used during the month.

What's worse is that one of our clients has just been sent this same email. As we recommended WA, this is not making us look good.

So you owe the money? i.e. You haven't paid for pre-paid bandwidth although it has been added. But WA is unreasonable to send you a (fairly polite) reminder, with the indication that your access (which you haven't paid for, remember) will be suspended after 3 days... 10 days after payment was due?

Riiiiiiight.

 

[shadow_man]

So you owe the money? i.e. You haven't paid for pre-paid bandwidth although it has been added. But WA is unreasonable to send you a (fairly polite) reminder, with the indication that your access (which you haven't paid for, remember) will be suspended after 3 days... 10 days after it was due?

Riiiiiiight.

Mine was a prepaid account that they kept billing me for but I had not used and then they threatened me with legal action on a R0 amount owed. That took the cake. I now buy my local bandwidth from Openweb.

J

 

[MrG]

So you owe the money? i.e. You haven't paid for pre-paid bandwidth although it has been added. But WA is unreasonable to send you a (fairly polite) reminder, with the indication that your access (which you haven't paid for, remember) will be suspended after 3 days... 10 days after it was due?

Riiiiiiight.

As far as I understand it.

He has a debit order of sorts or as in the past you paid ONCE per month via EFT on a set date. Usually around the 1st till 4th of the month via EFT.

He feels that the prepaid should still accumulate in the month to a predefined or "set" once a month billing time. Not require you to EFT them frequently as you order bandwidth.

... @ OP: Do you have a debit order or credit card payment set or do you pay EFT?

 

[arf9999]

There is a standard monthly contract... fine. But what he is complaining about is prepaid, why should WA bill him in arrears for prepaid bandwidth. The money is owed, don'tmoan if your creditors ask you to pay...

 

[arf9999]

Mine was a prepaid account that they kept billing me for but I had not used and then they threatened me with legal action on a R0 amount owed. That took the cake. I now buy my local bandwidth from Openweb.

J

Not the same thing that the OP is complaining about, so your input isn't relevant.

 

[MrG]

There is a standard monthly contract... fine. But what he is complaining about is prepaid, why should WA bill him in arrears for prepaid bandwidth. The money is owed, don'tmoan if your creditors ask you to pay...

I completely agree, I just see he has a problem with WebAfrica not having a set due date for a collective period of prepaid. If you are someone buying Unshaped, Local and International at different times in a month you may end up paying many times in a month. These days one EFT costs R5.85 + R0.65c via e-mail for proof (with Standard Bank) it all adds up.

 

[Abe]

There is a standard monthly contract... fine. But what he is complaining about is prepaid, why should WA bill him in arrears for prepaid bandwidth. The money is owed, don'tmoan if your creditors ask you to pay...

Because we have had an account for 4 year and a debit order running for the last 2 years. During the last 2 years since the debit order was set up, we have added numerous prepaid bundles without once doing a transfer. In all cases, the prepaid usage has been added to the debit order in the following month.

To date we have spent almost R20000 at WA and our clients have spent another R15000 over the past year and a half.

Now what do we get, a @$@# snotting demanding email. As does one of our biggest clients, who has always had a debit order and never paid by transfer.

If you want to change the rules, then send out a notice. This is exactly the same thing Axxess did a week or so ago.

 

[Abe]

I completely agree, I just see he has a problem with WebAfrica not having a set due date for a collective period of prepaid. If you are someone buying Unshaped, Local and International at different times in a month you may end up paying many times in a month. These days one EFT costs R5.85 + R0.65c via e-mail for proof (with Standard Bank) it all adds up.

Nope, I would not even mind the email if I had been doing EFT's of late but I have not done an EFT to WA for the last 2 years. Why must I do one now?

 

[MrG]

Yeah, exactly Abe. You are 100% correct.

They did send a notice out though. March billing system change.

 

[WAColin]

Hey Abe,
I'd just like to put a basic response here in the meantime;
I have asked the WA billing manager to post a response here, which will be done a bit later tonight, or early tomorrow.

If you have an active debit order on your account, and your last debit order did NOT fail, then the notification that was sent to you, must definitely have been sent to you in error.

If you'd like, you can pm me your client code, and I can get someone to investigate this for you, as well as organize to have one of our billing staff call you back.

Please accept our sincere apologies should this have been sent to you in error.

To jsheed_sa:

Its sad to hear that you simply moved over, after we sent you such a notification. Most problems can be sorted out with one email reply back, or a phone call.
Remember that most of our systems are automated, and therefore our system works strictly to a set of rules, whereas speaking to a live person, can fix an error, or explain the situation better.

Please know that we send these out simply as a notification to those who are actually behind in payments, with regards to their contract, and we in no way mean to offend anyone.

 

[Abe]

Something needs to be done about the billing problems at WA. Over the past 6 months we or some of our clients have had the following billing problems:

* An incorrect interest email was sent
* A cancelled account was still billed (and a debit order drawn for the amount) for the following month
* numerous emails on outstanding amounts for accounts that pay by debit order
* and now this suspension warning

Every time this occurs we have to explain to our clients that it's a mistake but it still upsets the apple cart.

 

[bullfrog]

Lol I wrote a whole big rant on the issue, but decided not to post as it doesn't quite apply to you, but rather to none paying customers. If they have in the past just included it in the monthly debit order, I suggest you contact them and ask them if they can please continue billing it in your debit order.

Just remember that the billing systems in place by a lot of companies are automatic and so send off automatic invoice reminders.

There are a lot of people who simply don't pay accounts on time and it takes a lot of time and resources chasing after these none payers. These are resources that could be spent on providing better service. So it would make most sense to impliment an automatic system. They also need to be strict with none payments, otherwise people end up abusing them, which easily causes cash flow issues. Can't continue to provide excellent service as they always do if they don't get paid. It's really as simple as that.

As for jumping on your horse, have you tried contacting them first?

 

[Abe]

As for jumping on your horse, have you tried contacting them first?

We have contacted them about the stuff in the past but not on this occasion as similar problems keep occuring. It's becoming a real pain as every time we need to contact the customers and calm them down. At some point WA need to take ownership of the problem and resolve it.

 

[bullfrog]

We have contacted them about the stuff in the past but not on this occasion as similar problems keep occuring. It's becoming a real pain as every time we need to contact the customers and calm them down. At some point WA need to take ownership of the problem and resolve it.

Well in that case, I agree. If they've managed to muck up with the same thing repeatedly, then I understand where you're coming from and would probably have done the same thing.

 

[ld13]

Going a bit OT...

Well in that case, I agree. If they've managed to muck up with the same thing repeatedly, then I understand where you're coming from and would probably have done the same thing.

Posts: 1,337

Congrats on your 1337 post!

 

[onlyme]

We recieved the same E-mail today letting us know that we had to pay or our account will be suspended in 3 days.

What gets me is that we opened the account 3 years ago and have for 3 years had a 30 day terms account, now all of a sudden R 40,000 later we get sent "pay now or" letters

What really pissed me off is after I sent a polite message to them asking them to please investigate I was sent a copy-paste response with a F$#$%ing Smiley face at the end

I'll be looking for a new ISP this week, and moving all our sites and customer sites from thier servers unless they deem fit to at least respond properly.

 

[Necuno]

We recieved the same E-mail today letting us know that we had to pay or our account will be suspended in 3 days.

What gets me is that we opened the account 3 years ago and have for 3 years had a 30 day terms account, now all of a sudden R 40,000 later we get sent "pay now or" letters

What really pissed me off is after I sent a polite message to them asking them to please investigate I was sent a copy-paste response with a F$#$%ing Smiley face at the end

I'll be looking for a new ISP this week, and moving all our sites and customer sites from thier servers unless they deem fit to at least respond properly.

 

[Abe]

lol