WeeklySA_AdminPEEVED: Joburg mum and telecoms firm argue about exact amount to be refunded after wrongful account deductions…
By Thuli Zungu
MTN is accused of wrongfully deducting ranging between R1 200 and R1 400 its client’s bank account for months since 2018 for a service she did not procure.
The amounts were deducted from the account of Mrs Nombulelo Lekota of Suideroord in Johannesburg, who says the unauthorised debits occurred from 2018 until March this year – and complained that they were higher than the monthly R959 contract she had signed.
Although MTN has now acknowledged wrongful deductions, it was only willing to refund R1 598, adding that Lekota purchased data bundles on their self-service portal since 2018.
But Lekota denied purchasing data from MTN, saying it was the telecommunications firm instead that was using her account to purchase data from their portal. This is despite Lekota telling them to cancel her contract when it expired in November 2020, but the account continued until this March, she says.
Between November 2020 and March this year they deducted R799 amounting to R12 784, but was not aware that her contract was still active.
Lekota says that when her contract expired in 2020, MTN called to inform her that her contract was about to expire and asked if she would renew it, but told them to cancel it.
“They didn’t,” she says. However, their consultant, Zanele (surname unknown), who called me after Weekly SA Mirror’s intervention, confirmed that this has been ongoing since 2018, adding that however MTN will refund only two months wrongful deduction,” says a mother of one.
Lekota says she was going through her bank statements in 2019 when she noticed that MTN was overcharging her. Back then she reported this discrepancy at MTN branch at The Glen Mall and was told that her iPhone was consuming the data, but, though she asked MTN to cap the data, this continued.
“This was bizarre. I use Wi-Fi at work and home and there is no need to buy data bundles” says Lekota. After confirming that the functionality of the Self-Service portal was active on her phone, she was assisted to disable it, she says.
Anyway, she decided to renew the contract this March adding that she wanted to cushion her pain of having to pay for the service she was not getting, but it was for R719 this time.
“I even asked their agent to disable the service before signing it. The March bill was as expected, however, MTN reactivated the service causing my bill to sky-rocket again,” says Lekota.
They debited R1 408, the money she has not budgeted for, she says. Complaining to their Complaints Department in April did not help as they only responded a month later, she says.
“This shows that I’m not a valued client or treated fairly, as they only refer me to the 50 MegaByte data bundles I’m supposed to get. Yet, in my invoice I highlighted all data bundles bought without my concern or knowledge,” she says.
Her May invoice included data bundles from 12 May 2022 to 11 June 2022. “MTN is pre-charging me for the data bundle as a set amount is already included in the June invoice. They refuse to investigate this, she says, as well as to give her complete detail of the time, date and time of when these data bundles were purchased.
“Also, I should have received notification after I allegedly bought that data, and to this date I have not”.
Any self-service portal should allow users to create secure log-in details such as usernames and passwords. Once these are created, an email is sent to the user to confirm that the account is created to allow the customer to transact, adds Lekota.
She says the system is supposed to be secure and only allow its customers to log in with their account details.
“There is a security concern, especially when MTN administrators can log onto the system using the customer’s details without any notification being sent to the respective user,” adds Lekota.
MTN still has to prove to Lekota that the system has not been tampered with by providing her with an audit trail report indicating user log-in details, date, time and year when the customer accessed the system, she says.
The information must also include the administrator’s details who changed the customer’s log-in details as they explain, she says.
She wants MTN to give her username and password as her login details to activate the account. It must include an IP address indicating where the log-in details were created, plus an email sent to her confirming that the account has been created with the username details. Also provide data usage report for data purchased from the self-service options.
Mthokozisi Ndlovu the spokesperson for MTN, said the company had investigated the matter and established that Lekota had purchased the recurring data bundles in 2017, using the self-service option.
He said Lekota did not request the cancellation of these bundles until March 2022 when she was performing an upgrade however our agent did not cancel these as per the request.
“Therefore, MTN has passed credit for the April and May invoices to the customer and will ensure that these recurring bundles are removed on Lekota’s account. We apologise to Lekota for the inconvenience caused.” Ndlovu says. He had – to date – not provided proof that Lekota signed up in their portal. When asked if the customer receives a notification when buying data from this portal he undertook to investigate and respond, but has yet to respond to our emails and whatsapp message.
Published on the 54th Edition. Get E-Copy
