duke.za.net

On Friday evening I got my MTN cellphone bill. When I opened it I got quite a surprise. My bill was R2976.50. At first I wasn’t too worried because this is an obvious mistake on MTN’s side. There were numbers on my itemised bill that I have never seen in my life. I phoned MTN customer service and tried to explain to them what happened and that I’ve received a bill for numbers that I’ve not called. The help desk lady then told me that the numbers on the itemised bill can only be there if the calls was made from my handset. It is impossible that anyone except me have been using my cellphone - especialy during those hours. I realised that I won’t be able to get any help from the help desk people and that I would rather have to go in to the Customer Service Centre. In the meantime I’ve attempted to phone some of the numbers on my bill. The first number I’ve phoned went directly to voice mail and the second was answered by an African man unable to understand Afrikaans or English.

Saturday morning I went to the MTN Customer Service Centre in Century City. I must say it is quite a nice place and the people were very friendly and helpful. They looked on their system and informed me that my bill is already standing on R1700 for the next month and that the calls were made from my dual SIM. My dual SIM!? I haven’t used or even seen that thing in over a years time. How can it be that after all this time it surfaced and in someone else’s phone!

I immediately asked them to cancel the dual SIM and I was told that they will have to send a request via email to cancel the dual SIM. The only way I can stop anyone from using the dual SIM immediately, is to suspend my primary line and then I will have to wait until my request have been processed to cancel the dual SIM. Only then I can reactivate my primary line.

Did I mention that a month and a half ago I upgraded my contract? Well I did or rather downgraded, I took the absolute cheapest phone I could find on the MyCall 100 contract, thinking that I can still use my Nokia 9300i and only pay R39pm instead of R115pm. Anyways, getting back to my story … I’ve also noticed that on my last two statements I was still billed R115. When I asked the assistant about it, he told me that my contract have never been upgraded and that I must sort it out at the MTN shop where I have done the upgrade. Now I was starting to get a bit suspicious. According to my itemised bill the funny phone calls started two days after I’ve done “my upgrade”. The assistant then mentioned something interesting. He said that there is a credit limit on my account for R660 and that it should not have been able to go over that amount, but that if I wanted to query this, I will have to come back during the week when the billing people will be at the office. I now had a bit of hope that MTN will not keep me liable for the full amount of about R4700 but only for R660. I went home that afternoon slightly more worried than I’ve been on Friday evening.

Tuesday morning (since Monday was a public holiday) I went to the MTN shop to get a copy of my application for the upgrade. This was also quite interesting because I walked into the shop with the box that I got with the new cellphone contract. I asked the assistant if I can get a copy of my application form for the upgrade and she said no problem and asked me if that was box from the new phone. I said yes, and without asking any other form of identification she gave me a copy of my application that contains all my personal information - like my ID number, cellphone number, email address and my home address. For all she knew I’ve found the empty cellphone box on a garbage dump.

Anyways, so with the signed and dated application form for my upgrade I went back to the Customer Service Centre. First I asked the assistant about that credit limit that the other assistant mentioned to me on Saturday. The assistant then said he will have to talk to the billing department and disappeared to the back of the shop. After a few minutes he returned with a printed piece of paper saying:

6. Limitation of Liability

Without detracting from any of the other provisions of this Agreement, MTN Service Provider shall not be liable

to the Subscriber for any loss or damage suffered by the Subscriber, and whether same is direct or

consequential, in the event that:-

6.1. MTN Service Provider fails for any reason whatsoever to supply the Service; and/or

6.2. The Network Services are interrupted, suspended or terminated, for whatsoever reason; and/or

6.3. MTN Service Provider fails to suspend the provision of the Network Services to the Subscriber in terms of

an arrangement between MTN Service Provider and the Subscriber or after the Subscriber has specifically

requested MTN Service Provider to do so in order to limit the Usage Charges; and/or

6.4. MTN Service Provider fails to supply the Service or to suspend the provision of the Network Services, or the

Service is interrupted, suspended or terminated, in the event of any modification, alterations, upgrades or

updates to the Service; and/or

6.5. Such loss or damage was caused by any negligent act or omission on the part of MTN Service Provider, its

employees or its agents.

From the bill service limit agreement.

What they are saying is that even if they(MTN), screw up you will still have too pay. (Later I will learn that this document doesn’t have anything to do with me because I did not subscribe to the free Billing Limit service.).

I then gave them the copy of the application form that I got from the MTN shop earlier and they fixed my contract on their system without even saying sorry or that they will refund the +-R200 that I had to pay for the last two months because I was still on the old contract.

This morning I went back to the Customer Service Centre in a final attempt to get out of paying this huge bill. I asked the assistant that helped me this time if she could maybe print me an invoice for when I first got the dual sim in 2006. I was hoping that the SIM number on the SIM I bought back then will be different from the SIM number that the phone calls was made from, but unfortunately I was not that lucky.

When I got back to the office I made this comment on the hellopeter.com website:

2006-11-09 I got a dual SIM from MTN and used it as a dedicated data line linked to my contract. I’ve used it for a month or two before getting Vodacom 3G, since then I’ve lost track of what I did with the MTN dual SIM.

This month (more then a year since I’ve stopped using the dual SIM) all of a sudden I get a bill of R2976.50 . I went to MTN customer service and asked how this can be and they explained to me that the calls has been made from my dual SIM. I asked why the credit limit of R660 did not kick in and they explained that it is not guaranteed that it will stop my calls and that I’m liable for the full amount. My bill for the next month was R1700 already by the time I’ve noticed what was going on, and I now owe MTN +- R4700. Why bother with a credit limit if it does not work when it really counts???

And MTN responded with:

Hello lerouxjo

The credit limit is purely for internal usage to manage company risk. You have an excellent record which did not warrant the system to risk manage.

Only the bill limit is designed as a free service to customers to assist in suspending a line when a certain limit is reached.

Regards,

Andre
MTN Service Provider

There we go, you get a credit limit and a bill limit. If I had the bill limit I would have been fine and would only have been liable for what ever I’ve set the limit to.

Lessons learned:

1. If you are not planning on using a dual SIM ever again, cut it up and cancel it as soon as possible.

2. Keep a pin-code on all your SIM cards.

3. Ask MTN to subscribe you for the free bill limit service.

4. Shit happens.