MTN Anytime Billing Confusion?

D

Dovi

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I signed up for an MTN Anytime 500 package last month, and because I signed up half way through the month I obviously received a prorata in credit. Anyway, so today I was supposed to receive my full R500. Great so I check my airtime this morning and says I have R438.60 which I worked out to be R500 - VAT (which it doesn't state). Anyway so I gave the MTN call centre a call, and they informed me that MTN automatically deducts VAT when airtime is loaded (wtf?), which suits me fine, but they then told me I will still be charged the full call rate of R1.95 per minute on all calls. Now perhaps I'm wrong, but on their advertising it says on an MTN Anytime 500 package you should get approx. 256 minutes worth of calls. If MTN are now going to only give me R438.60 worth of airtime but still charge me R1.95 per call, I'm only going to get 225 minutes worth of calls - 31 minutes less!

Anyone who can shed some light on the situation :/?
 
Hmm, doesn't make me happy.... the advertising says R200 free value with inclusive calls costs of R2.30 on my Anytime 200... no mention of VAT excl!

In fact, in their terms and conditions!!!

Usage Rates and Inclusive airtime value advertised is VAT inclusive.
Click to expand...

So either it should be R200 less call costs at R2.30 per minute... or R172.00 value with call costs at only R1.98 per minute! By the way how did you get R500 less VAT to equal R438.60? What am I doing wrong? Is VAT 14%?

The problem is on your invoice you cannot see what call cost they are deducting as it just shows 0's until my value is used up and then I am charged!
 
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@ Lancelot - Vate is caculated as follows:
R500x100/114=R438.60. or you can use the vat fraction 14/114 then deduct it from R500.
Thanks for all the info and entertainment in the other threads. You and Piesang are a laugh a minute.
Cheers
 
So the trick is this. When you pay your R500 you get charged R1.95/minute for calls. The VAT is deducted from the initial payment.

Once you go out of bundle then you pay R2.35/minute a portion of that is VAT because you are paying for what you use.

What would be more interesting is workinng out how MTN allocated VAT on data usage on one of these packages. They are charging R2/MB for data both in and out of the anytime bundle (if you don't buy a data bundle). So are you being charged double VAT or are they charging Anytime customers more than anyone else for data just for the sake of consistency and maybe to make a little extra money?

Maybe RPM can give them a call and ask them how they allocate VAT on data usage?
 
Akafreakazoid said:
@ Lancelot - Vate is caculated as follows:
R500x100/114=R438.60. or you can use the vat fraction 14/114 then deduct it from R500.
Thanks for all the info and entertainment in the other threads. You and Piesang are a laugh a minute.
Cheers
Click to expand...

Ha ha yeah we seem to really not be seeing eye to eye old Banana and I!

I was doing it the whole R500*0.86 which was obviously not working.... ;) I blame it on being a Friday and too much dependence on my financial calculator which I am too lazy to fetch! :)
 
pope24 said:
So the trick is this. When you pay your R500 you get charged R1.95/minute for calls. The VAT is deducted from the initial payment.
Click to expand...

But this still does not make sense as they are charging you VAT on your R500 up front and then you are paying R1.95 per minute which according to their terms and conditions also includes VAT....
 
It does seem that when you are in bundle you are being double billed for VAT. Either because MTN are being stupid or greedy or because they haven't written their terms and conditions properly.
 
pope24 said:
It does seem that when you are in bundle you are being double billed for VAT. Either because MTN are being stupid or greedy or because they haven't written their terms and conditions properly.
Click to expand...

I think I'll be saving a copy of those terms and conditions now before they change them... as these are the terms under which I signed the contract!
 
No No No, R500 worth of airtime is R500 worth of airtime
I got the R200 anytime one, and my balance is R200 this morning. I reckon you give them a call and ask for your other R31, they screwed up. I also added a sms bundle, and nothing got deducted from my R200.
Its a mistake! Call them, probably just a bug in the system

Also, your in bundle call rate on anytime 500 is 1.95 = 256 minutes
 
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Making up a plausable explanation so it will pacify you for now, yup making it up as they go.
Thought they could have come up with a better one though :)

Or they've made a mistake on my contract :) no seriously, the contract is very specific, it IS a mistake!
 
dudleygb said:
No No No, R500 worth of airtime is R500 worth of airtime
I got the R200 anytime one, and my balance is R200 this morning. I reckon you give them a call and ask for your other R31, they screwed up. I also added a sms bundle, and nothing got deducted from my R200.
Its a mistake! Call them, probably just a bug in the system

Also, your in bundle call rate on anytime 500 is 1.95 = 256 minutes
Click to expand...

Are you sure Dudley? Mine also shows R175.44 this morning... did you get your balance on active.mtn.co.za?
 
* You link to it via http://www.mtnsp.co.za/
* Then in the menu under "MTN Business" you will see a link for MTN Active
* When the new page opens I enter my cell number and password but you will need to register first.
* Once on there I am able to see my statements, unbilled calls, balances etc


(But in saying this it seems to be hanging for me now too, so perhaps there is a problem)

*162*mypassword# also gives me the balance less VAT
 
dudleygb said:
try going to the MTN Menu on your phone and then MTN Services, Customer Care, Contract Billing Info
Click to expand...

Yeah I am aware of that option but as far as I am aware the call costs money... :)


Out of interest I did phone that and it says R200 but online (see below) and when phoning the call centre on (808) they confirm that the real value is only R175.44.

HTML: 
Remaining Package Bundles

Description 	Allocated 	Used 	Carried Over 	Free
MTN 200 	R 175.44 	R 0.00 	    R 0.00     R 175.44
SMS 25 	           25 	         0 	    0 	        25

Perhaps that is the thing... perhaps online shows less VAT. But then it is important to find out what calls are charged at because if it is the full R2.30 (which is supposed to be inclusive of VAT) then VAT is being charged twice!
 
exactly, somethings definitely wonky, probably working out the bugs still on their new billing engine, these are new packages, and being to hasty to get to market can leave your software with bugs.
 
Check out the wonderful automated response to my email query :

Y’ello!

At MTN Service Provider, we are constantly looking at means to improve our service delivery. With e-mail correspondence on the increase, it is essential to ensure that we increase our performance through this medium.

Due to the recent increase in the demand of utilizing this medium for correspondence, it has become essential for us to implement upgrades on our current infrastructure.

We therefore ask you to please be patient during the implementation phase as we are improving our systems to provide a better service to you, our valued client.

We value you as a customer and will respond to your query within the shortest timeframes possible.

Please do not reply to this email as it is an automated response which is not monitored

Kind Regards,
Customer Services
MTN Service Provider
Click to expand...

So let us see how long it takes to get responded to! :rolleyes: Hoping before my contract is up in two years time!
 
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