{"id":520707,"date":"2024-01-04T15:23:08","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T13:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=520707"},"modified":"2024-01-04T15:26:36","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T13:26:36","slug":"dstv-short-changes-customers-billed-for-free-disney-subscriptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/520707-dstv-short-changes-customers-billed-for-free-disney-subscriptions.html","title":{"rendered":"DStv short-changes customers billed for free Disney+ subscriptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

DStv is only partially refunding some customers for Disney+ subscriptions it added to their bills without permission<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the past few days, numerous DStv customers complained about monthly Disney+ subscriptions of R139 appearing on their DStv bills.<\/p>\n

MyBroadband was first alerted about the issue by a reader whose wife got charged for Disney+ without her request.<\/p>\n

Soon after, we found a plethora of customers complaining about the same problem in posts on Twitter\/X.<\/p>\n

MultiChoice told MyBroadband that the subscriptions were added by mistake after a free 3-month trial period where DStv Rewards members were automatically signed up to Disney+.<\/p>\n

Once the trial ran out, customers were supposed to be allowed to opt in to keep their subscription for the regular monthly fee.<\/p>\n

“Some customers were erroneously billed post the free period, and we’ve promptly initiated reversals, crediting their DStv accounts with the amount,” MultiChoice said.<\/p>\n

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused and would like to assure our customers that we are committed to resolving this matter with urgency.”<\/p>\n

Refunds only partial<\/h2>\n

However, the MyBroadband reader who initially alerted us to the problem said the broadcaster “cheekily” deducted R9 from their refund for the three days that had passed since the billing occurred.<\/p>\n

MultiChoice had taken R9 for a service they never wanted.<\/p>\n

As a result, they cancelled their entire DStv Premium package and said they would rather use a family member’s unused stream for watching sports.<\/p>\n

MyBroadband followed up with MultiChoice about the partial refunds, but the broadcaster insisted the full amounts were credited to affected customers’ accounts.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson offered to share their contact details with the reader to sort the issue out.<\/p>\n

However, several other DStv customers on Twitter\/X and the MyBroadband Forum have since reported that the amounts credited to their accounts were not for the entire Disney+ monthly fee either.<\/p>\n

Like the reader, a number only received a R130.30 credit, with R9 charged for the two days passed, while at least two only got back R112.20.<\/p>\n

In addition, several people who double-checked their bills after our initial report discovered they were being charged for involuntary Disney+ subscriptions as far back as October 2023.<\/p>\n

In one customer’s case, he received the full refund for a previous month’s incorrect add-on but only a partial refund for the latest amount.<\/p>\n

We again followed up with MultiChoice and provided a list with links to these complaints for the company’s perusal.<\/p>\n

It had not responded to our latest query by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

While it is unclear how many customers are impacted, DStv’s support channels appear to have been inundated with customers trying to have the Disney+ subscription removed from their accounts.<\/p>\n

Several complained about the online chatbot’s poor responses.<\/p>\n

One MyBroadband forum member who phoned MultiChoice’s call centre to try and resolve the issue said they were placed at #208 in the caller queue.<\/p>\n

\n

Now read: Competition Tribunal orders DStv to keep carrying the E-tv channels it wants to drop<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While MultiChoice said it is giving affected customers full refunds, several subscribers blasted the broadcaster for deducting pro-rata amounts for the days passed since their payments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":496141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[12857,85,35,475,70734,427,62312],"class_list":["post-520707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-disney","tag-dstv","tag-headline","tag-multichoice","tag-satellite-broadcasting","tag-satellite-tv","tag-video-streaming-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520707"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":520729,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520707\/revisions\/520729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}