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MTN Billing Letter – my response

So today I received my itemised MTN statement with a letter crudely inserted with the statement. The letter, which I am sure must have been sent out to all of the MTN subscriber base references under billing errors made by MTN.  These errors, according to the letter are for both call and data charges.  They intend to bill me, once they have completed re-processing the information, for any additional charges, this additional billing took place in December along with my normal bill. 

So at the out set let me say that I am appalled that they could let an error like this occur and I have highlighted some of this frustration below, but read to the end because you will see some humour.

The letter, sent with my personalised statement is addressed as “Dear loyal MTN subscriber”, why is it that it is not addressed to me personally?  This is a major insult and smacks of a lazy attitude.  This is part of a billing run and simple programing would allow for the letter to have carried my name.  – Lazy and unprofessional – Strike 1

The letter does not say over which period the error ocured, but I called and found out that it pertained to September 2009. – Strike 2

The letter does not indicate whether you will be advised what the amount is.  So in the same conversation with the call centre I asked them this question and guess what you, you need to take your September statement and compare it to the December statement to see the extent of the charge – Strike 3. (I did make the guy on the phone do the calculation for me, a lot of 0,02c to be added together)

The letter finishes with the writer, Eddie Moyce, saying that MTN is constantly investing funds to upgrade the network and the systems that are responsible for tracking, reporting and billing to ensure that our subscribers receive quality products and excellent service from us. This is an absolute fob off on note – your signal quality has deteriorated!

So a couple of questions and then the funny side to this story.

Question 1: How do you run a business if you cannot get the billing correct? If you are a shareholder in MTN you should be a little worried.  Their very life blood depends upon getting the billing correct!

Question 2: How much revenue are they chasing through this process?  This is a very important question that a shareholder somewhere needs to ask the board.  If it is significant then my first question becomes more relevant, if it is not then it may have been best to let it slide?

To end of this post….the funny side, my total bill for undercharge or late data reporting for September was R 6,92!

 Had this been mentioned as part of a personalised letter, which they could have done, as it came as part of my December statement, I may have let this slide. I simply cannot. I have endured a 16 month period of the worst service from a mobile provider that I can imagine. The signal quality certainly has not improved and this letter issue is the icing on the cake.

So….Dear (un)valued MTN. I will be voting with my feet this August.  I will be porting from you to Vodacom…enough said