Why should cellphone subscribers forfeit their airtime?

22 August 2016 - 10:07 By Wendy Knowler
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MTN South Africa has committed itself to improving relations with staff and unions after a strike last year.
MTN South Africa has committed itself to improving relations with staff and unions after a strike last year.
Image: REUTERS

Why should cellphone subscribers forfeit the airtime they've accumulated - and paid for - during their contract period because they choose to migrate to another contract or to prepaid, on the same network?

That is simply outrageous to any fair-minded person.

I challenged MTN on this when the company did this to long-standing subscriber Gavin Fowler in November. When the contract he was on expired, he decided to commit to a cheaper MTN package, but the network refused to transfer his airtime.

At the time an MTN spokesman said the issue was that Fowler had "opted for a lower package" instead of an upgrade when his contract was up for renewal.

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In other words, because his monthly spend was going to be less, he was being made to forfeit the airtime he'd legitimately accumulated - and paid for - on his previous contract.

But MTN relented in that case and transferred Fowler's R2000 worth of airtime, saying it had "made an exception".

And then the spokesman said: "MTN will be amending its rules to make provision for customers to carry over balances when they upgrade and migrate, and this will even cover migration from prepaid to postpaid."

That was last November.

Four months before, the R970-a-month MTN contract of Stephen Hoy, of Somerset West, ended, at which point he'd accumulated R4,000 worth of airtime.

When he wanted to move to pre-paid, still with MTN, he was told he'd forfeit all that airtime.

"I checked the contract that I signed and nowhere does it say anything about forfeiting airtime," he said. "And I raised the issue with both Cell C and Vodacom - both said they would have no problem transferring the airtime."

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Incensed, Hoy tried to challenge his network through its call centre, and when he "got nowhere" he approached the Consumer Protector, Western Cape - a division of the Western Cape government - which took up his case.

It later told him that MTN had claimed he'd used up all the airtime on his contract but had offered him a R100 airtime voucher as a goodwill gesture.

Hoy refused to accept that so was referred to the National Consumer Commission, which said it didn't take up individual complaints and referred him to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud.

I'm pretty sure most people would have given up at this point, but, happily, not Hoy.

In May - six months after - an MTN spokesman told me: "MTN will be amending its rules to make provision for customers to carry over balances when they upgrade and migrate, and this will even cover migration from prepaid to postpaid", a woman in the network's complaints management team told the Ombud: "Kindly note airtime cannot be carried over when migrating to prepaid.

"Airtime, data and SMSes must be used before the prepaid migration is requested; this is because the prepaid base is on a different platform to that of contract subscribers on the network."

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By early August, MTN had upped its offer to Hoy to R1500 "in the form of airtime or data".

Not good enough, Hoy told the Ombud - he'd accumulated R4000 worth of airtime. But the Ombud agent told him: "As the desired outcome of your complaint you requested that MTN reimburse you your airtime.

"And that is what MTN is willing to do.

"We cannot force the company to reimburse to a particular monetary amount. We therefore will be closing your file."

That struck me as odd, so I took up the case last week with the Ombud himself, Neville Melville, and MTN.

MTN didn't meet my deadline, despite undertaking to do so, but contacted Hoy to say he'd get his R4000 airtime in "Evergreen Wallet" form, meaning it has no expiry date.

Melville, who followed up with MTN, said the network had made it clear that this was a goodwill offer, but "maintaining that its terms and conditions clearly state that, before you migrate to pre-paid, all the airtime must be used because it would be lost once you migrate".

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So at this stage I don't know what became of MTN's on-the-record undertaking to amend its rules on this issue.

As for the Ombud's response to Hoy, Melville said it would appear that "there was an error on our side" and vowed to get to the bottom of it.

What I do know is that it is patently unfair for subscribers to be forced to forfeit airtime or data they have paid for, when they switch between packages within a network.

If Hoy had owed MTN R4000 on his contract, he'd have been handed over, had interest and fees added and been hounded to pay up.

And that pretty much sums up the unfairness of the "airtime grab".

  • If you're about to sign a cellphone contract, take a few minutes to find out what the terms and conditions state about accumulated airtime and data.

CONTACT WENDY:

E-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za

Twitter: @wendyknowler

 

#SHELFIE

SUNK: Well here's a claim that doesn't hold water: it's not a local #shelfie, but too good not to use. It is a typical example of a retailer's lack of attention to detail.

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