Broadcasting19.09.2022

DStv adding Disney+ to subscriber bills without permission

Several DStv customers have complained that the pay-TV service has added Disney+ subscriptions to their accounts without permission.

DStv parent company MultiChoice partnered with Disney+ at its launch in South Africa in May 2022, offering Premium subscribers three months of the streaming service at no charge.

Customers can also bundle a Disney+ subscription with their DStv package and add it to their bill.

That provides a R49 discount on the overall monthly fee for Premium, Compact Plus, and Compact customers.

In addition, Disney+ has launched an app on the DStv Explora Ultra decoder.

The subscription is supposed to be completely optional and requires customers to opt-in by manually adding their cellphone numbers to link their DStv account and Disney+ sub.

However, in the past few weeks, several DStv customers complained on the MyBroadband Forum and Twitter of subscriptions being added to their bill without any input or consent from them.

The complaints surged on Monday, 19 September 2022, with MyBroadband receiving several emails from irritated customers by noon.

Below is a screenshot of the email and SMS notifications DStv sent to the affected customers, informing them of a Disney+ subscription being added to their accounts.

A quick search for “DStv Disney+” on Twitter showed myriad users complaining about the same issue.

“DStv, why are you adding products to my billing without my permission? I did not activate this but woke up to email and SMS notifications that I added Disney+ to my billing. What the hell is this?” one user said

“Just had Disney+ added to my account with no authority to do so. Email actually says I added it! What a nerve!” another said

“What is happening here? Why am I getting messages thanking me for subscribing to Disney+ when I did not do such a thing? If this appears on my bill there is going to be a problem,” a third stated

One user had tried to remove the incorrectly-added subscription from their account, but a DStv agent told them they could only unlink their subscription, and the customer had to cancel it directly with Disney+.

After querying it with Disney+ South Africa’s online support team, they were told that DStv had to action the cancellation.

Another customer said their attempts to remove the subscription from their bill through DStv’s customer centre had been unsuccessful, even after Disney confirmed they had cancelled it.

Several impacted customers said they took up the special Disney+ early registration offer that gave users a significant discount on an annual subscription.

That was offered directly through Disney+ and not as an add-on to the DStv subscription.

No response from MultiChoice

MyBroadband asked MultiChoice and Walt Disney Africa for comment on the apparent incorrect add-ons, but neither were able to provide feedback by the time of publication.

DStv’s support teams on Twitter asked the complaining customers to send them their personal details to follow up on the issue.

DStv is no stranger to billing problems, with the company’s Hellopeter page filled with claims of incorrect charges on customer accounts almost daily.

A MyBroadband employee recently got first-hand experience of this when his old EasyView package, cancelled three years ago, was reactivated and money deducted from his bank account.

In that instance, the company blamed the issue on a “defect” in its system.

Several former DStv customers have since come forward and related similar experiences in response to MyBroadband’s article.

Update: MultiChoice has explained that it automatically gave DStv Rewards members three free months of Disney+. It assured subscribers would not be billed after the free period ends.


Now read: DStv Premium and Compact bleeds subscribers as MultiChoice hikes prices every year

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