# Regulatory Compliance Category > Consumer Protection Act Forum >  Continued being Charged After Finishing Contract with MTN

## Tichman

Hie,
I'm new here and this is my first post . I had a contract with MTN which I renewed in )ctober 2013. it was for two years and October 2015 I completed my last payment . The thing is MTN billed me for that month (November 2015)of which ther were no funds in my account . I phoned them to cancell the contract and they said they would get back to me. After a while the money rose from R1.000 to  R8,000 and now I have been given 10days to respond to their attorneys .

Any ideas , Am I protected by (CPA) , the fact that I phoned and asked for cancellation does that count . I saw somewhere in the CPA that I cannot be charged extra after requesting a cancellation.

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## Justloadit

Usually cancellations must be done in writing, 30 days before the contract expires or 30 days notice, or they continue to deduct, as the contract renews itself every month.

They make you sign this large form with tiny writing with all the terms and conditions which most of us do not read.

I am sure one of our resident members will shed more light on this.

What pees me off with these corporates is that when you don't pay a they suspend your account, but it does not stop them attempting to clean you out.

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## Tichman

Thanks a lot for shading some light , on this matter . So does this means I have to pay the amount of money that has been accumulating,

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## Justloadit

> Thanks a lot for shading some light , on this matter . So does this means I have to pay the amount of money that has been accumulating,


You will have to get a copy of the original document to see the Terms and Conditions.

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## Dave A

The age old adage is "he with the biggest pile of paperwork wins".
So let's see what you've got.




> I phoned them to cancell the contract and they said they would get back to me.


Do you have the date, time, who you spoke to, and a reference number for that call?




> After a while the money rose from R1.000 to  R8,000 and now I have been given 10days to respond to their attorneys .


Did it just jump in one go, or were there regular statements?
What is the additional R7000.00 for?
What have you done between when you first called to cancell and now to follow up?




> Any ideas , Am I protected by (CPA) , the fact that I phoned and asked for cancellation does that count .


It certainly would if you can show you completed the cancellation process, and it's an administrative error on their part, and you acted timeously when you discovered their administrative error...




> I saw somewhere in the CPA that I cannot be charged extra after requesting a cancellation.


It's quite a long Act. Could you be more specific by at least giving the section number, please.

Hopefully that gives you an idea of how prepared you are to fight this.

My advice - speak to their attorneys.

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## EAB

Problem is they lose their paperwork somewhere between the branches and headoffice, different cell service provider. 

I changed my bank details on their paperwork as per their regulations. I left just enough in the old account for some of the debit orders that I didn't manage to change. They where the first to take the money from the account resulting in the other debit orders being returned, costing be fees, late payment penalties etc just because they didn't change the banking details.

I then went to the branch and gave them the time and date when it was done, because I wanted to recover some of the charges from them. Their response was that they saw it was faxed to head office and that they are requesting the paperwork. I waited an hour and they said head office can't find the paperwork and there is nothing they can do. So they confirmed the date and time where they faxed it, but can't trace the paperwork afterwords and then I had to just leave the issue. 

If you sign a document, get copies of i no matter what, might save you time and money in the end.

In your case I don't think you have any choice but to pay. You most likely had to cancel the contract in writing with a month or two notice. Highly doubt it that they will cancel it with a phone call. My opinion is that the call center agent just said it to get you off the line. As they say, call centers are only useful if you know the answer of your question before you call them.

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## Blurock

to retentions, customercare 24/05/2021
Dear MTN,
Reference Number 3956038
From the emails hereby attached and subsequent phone calls, it is clear that I have wanted this contract cancelled as from the expiry date. Instead, you have made it impossible for me to cancel the contract, which started at R55 pm, but have since been unilaterally increased to R145 and then from 31/12/2020 to R290 pm. Please note that I have not entered into any new contract with MTN and that your debit order against my account is therefore illegal.
This is an undesirable business practice and will be reported to the authorities as such, unless I receive immediate confirmation that the contract had been cancelled and receive a full refund of all amounts deducted from my account after 31/10/2020. I also expect an apology for the poor customer service and illegal conduct by MTN.
Regards,
Date: 12/28/2020 11:30 PM
To: Retentions@mtn.com
Cc: Customercare@mtn.com
Subject: Fwd: Contact us Query Complaint [#3953291]
Dear MTN,
Expired Contract  073 *******
I have been trying to cancel a contract that has expired without success.
MTN is making me jump through hoops to cancel a contract on a tablet that is no longer required.
Not only have you increased fees by 50% without my permission, you are now making it extremely difficult to cancel.
You are providing me with SHOCKING service, you are now losing a customer for life.

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## ians

They all the same ... I have frineds who are still being debited 12 months after trying to cancel Telkom contracts.

I am fighting with Standard bank ... they debit an account every month and the debit is returned every month ... there are emails dating back since 2014 ... throw in covid and it seems it gave companies free range to milk customers ... now I have stopped paying them completely until they sort out the debit order ... the problem is now my phone rings off the hook with debit collectors all day and night including weekends.

Get a prepaid sim and an old phone and  use it as your contact number when dealing with any company or registration for anything on line etc ... even whatsapp groups.

YOu gotta love whatsapp groups ... the easiest and fastest way to collect numbers to sell to call centres ... and people wonder where all the spam came from  :Wink:

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## Blurock

> They all the same ... I have frineds who are still being debited 12 months after trying to cancel Telkom contracts.
> 
> I am fighting with Standard bank ... they debit an account every month and the debit is returned every month ... there are emails dating back since 2014 ...


Why do people tolerate shitty service? Is it because we are getting used to shitty government? People are burning and vandalising everything but do not get to the real culprits. I will not accept this total disrespect of a customers rights. :Chair:

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