Tag Archives: service

MTN Insurance – get your iPhone fixed

Posted by on January 22, 2012 No comments

I have never been a true fan of MTN (Most Terrible Network) and over the years experienced many unpleasant customer service issues. It came with great frustration that my 15 month old iPhone 4 started having issues with the power button. One day, the iPhone’s power button just stopped working and after doing some research, I found that this has been a frequent issue across some batches of iPhones, where the socket for the power-button started to disintegrate, resulting of a stuck button.

Most unpleasant, as I now lost the ability to quickly lock the phone or silence calls. While such issues would have been quickly resolved at an iStore overseas, the South African iStores as well as Core (the official and only Apple distributor) are not getting involved with repair and warranty issues.

MTN

In a discussion with executives at Core, it was explained that Core does not get involved in the repair and warranty process as this has resulted in the past resulted in many issues with the customer being “ping-ponged” between their cellular service providers and the distributor.

I consider myself lucky, as I had insurance cover through MTN Insurance on my phone and after lodging a claim last week Saturday, a courier arrived at my offices on Monday to swop out my defunct iPhone with an iPhone loan-phone until the phone is being assessed / repaired.

I honestly did not expect that the repair of a power button would cost R2800 and was relieved to hear that due to my insurance, I would only have to pay R150 for the repairs to go underway. The insurance process was telephonic and/or via email and took no more than a few minutes.

 



VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Postnet Broadacres: Bad example of customer service

Posted by on August 29, 2010 1 comment

In short, over the last 12 months using Postnet Broadacres I had 5000 Euros stolen as 3 separate registered letters with cheque-card, PIN and internet banking codes disappeared as well as lost 11 parcels to theft within the postal system. I would think it is a reasonable expectation, that having experienced such issues, that my first port of call would be the local Postnet branch, only to be faced by no willingness to assist and put all blame on the Postoffice.

The branch could never really explain why we rarely get any parcel notifications and if we do get them, those are either 2nd or final notifications. I guess today I was again frustrated, as I found a 2nd parcel notification in my mailbox and requested comment from head-office as well as the local branch and also wanted to follow up on my previous complaint in May (for which I still await an answer from head-office).

Needless to say, 40 minutes after this email to the Postnet branch:

Incidently, and following up on all the parcels going missing, I noticed today a 2nd parcel notification (dated 18/08). I have not received a first notification and would really like to understand how PostNet tracks parcels and if anything has changed since May. Back then the Broadacres branch did not carry manifests/lists of what parcel notifications they received when and when those where placed in the post boxes.

In today’s case it makes me wonder where the 1st parcel notification has disappeared – this is pretty much in line with all the other theft – either no parcel notification or notifications received so late that the items had been returned.

We will try and pick this parcel up at Bryanston Postoffice, but if it has “disappeared” will now open another case at the Police Station – unfortunately your absolute silence and disregard for any of those complaints is almost a silent admission of guilt.

I get the following response from the Postnet Broadacres branch-manager:

Dear Mr Naschenweng

In terms of our rental agreement with Ms Tascha Els we hereby give notice that we will be invoking clause 2.15 with effect the annual renewal date of 31st January 2011. The box will be locked from that date and post forwarded for a period of 30 days (upon receipt of a new postal address by us forwarded by the boxholder).

Upon return of both keys, the boxholder will be refunded the R50 deposit paid. We recommend that the boxholder begin the process of changing her address in the interim, as, after 28th February 2011, all mail will be returned to sender.

What does this tell you? Although I am still waiting for a formal response from Postnet Headoffice, it certainly appears that their franchises can not cope with customer complaints and stick their heads in the sand by canceling people’s rental agreements. I get the feeling there will certainly be a follow-up post in this regard. Department of Trade and National Consumer Forum here we come….

VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

South African Post Office: We steal

Posted by on April 2, 2010 1 comment

I finally managed to understand the South African Post Office’s mission statement: “We will enable the nation to efficiently connect with the world by distributing information, goods, financial and government services; leveraging our broad reach and embracing change, technology and innovation“. Till now I was always of the impression, that the distribution of goods was intended for the recipient of such parcel or postal item.

Our national postal service is not like that. Their workers steal wherever an opportunity presents itself and every person with a postal address in this country will have experienced missing mail or parcels.

Many international eCommerce shops have subsequently stopped delivering via the South African Postal system and I prove a case in point: On 21st February 2010 I ordered 10 items (all PS3 games) from the UK. All items had been dispatched within a couple of days. Out of the 10 items I have only received 4 (all arrived within 2 weeks). The remaining 6 (or 60%) have disappeared. All items have been sent via registered mail and can be tracked to be delivered to South Africa and thereafter disappears.

In another case my overseas bank sent a new ATM card via registered mail in November 2009 and the item is untraceable once it passed South African borders.

There are common rules and etiquette when it comes to privacy of correspondence and documents cannot be read or opened by anyone other than the receiver; for instance, in the United States it is a violation of federal law for anyone other than the receiver to open mail and mail-theft is a federal crime.

VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

MTN: Fuck you – AGAIN!

Posted by on August 28, 2009 No comments

The Most Terrible Network manages to really piss off customers – like me! This morning I realised that my service is suspended! Waiting for the call-centre (a good 30 minutes until someone picks up the phone) I get told that the service is suspended because I reached my credit limit. Received no notification about a lock and call-centre is not able to give me any info as the system is down.

Line will be “probably” restored in the next day or two, but certainly by Monday. Time to port (which I can not do, because MTN’s RICA service is also down).

VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Land Rover: Oil in fuel injector and questionable ethics?

Posted by on July 17, 2009 10 comments

In one of my previous posts I raised my latest issue on my Land Rover and was hoping that either Land Rover South Africa or the dealership in question (Waterford Land Rover, Fourways) would address my concerns. (I also reported this on HelloPeter.com, MyADSL and PS3ZA. The power of Web2.0: Twitter, Facebook, Technorati and others link to this article)

When I made my purchase decision for a Land Rover Defender in 2002, I thought that a rugged car, which is associated with expeditions (it featured in the Camel Trophy for decades) and is variously used in agriculture, industry and military, would be a vehicle without problems.

While the Land Rover has no unibody design and is largely handcrafted (gave me a wrong sense of quality in the first place), this type of manufacturing is highly expensive and unreliable. It makes you think, that due to safety regulations (lack of airbags for both front seat passengers as well as side door impact requirements), Land Rover was forced to retire the sale of it’s Defender range in the United States in 1997.

But back to my story: After an extremely (R 11,000.00) major service in May, I recently suffered the typical “oil in the injector harness”-problem which seems to plague many Land Rovers (not just Defenders, but also other models). While I still believe that my recent service at Waterford Land Rover contributed to my problem, I also believe that the vehicle’s build is inferior and would have resulted in the United States into a class-action-law-suit against Land Rover in the first place.

While I still believe that R 14,000 repairs carried out by Waterford Land Rover was unnecessary (not to mention that I almost got scammed in replacing a camshaft gasket which I had newly replaced just 6 weeks before at the same dealership), as a mechanical novice, you place your trust with a dealership and believe that they will put a customer’s interest first and try to save you money where possible.

For completeness – I was charged (amounting to R 14658.75 incl VAT):

  • R 7535.74 for Wire Assembly (part YSB000872),
  • R 930.16 for Harness Fuel Injector (part AMR6103),
  • R 503.48 for Gasket Camshaft (part LVP000020 – I questioned this, as the dealer supposedly replaced this part as my 22/05 major service – makes you think?),
  • R 979.17 for Sensor Cranks (part NSC100790) and
  • R 2910.00 for labour

The vehicle sales must really affect all car manufacturers, hence resulting in questionable tactics to extort money from unwary customers.

Across South Africa, there is a fair amount of “ripping off” going on with regard to the perennial TD5 issue of diesel/oil in the injector harness / ECU. My recent research has shown, that a lot of people report this issue and pay in excess of R 15,000 to have the problem fixed.

However, repairing the problem is no big deal and will not cost you a fortune. The symptoms are misfire (not a backfire), jerking and loss of power while accelerating – the exact same issues I faced a mere 7 days ago. This is caused by diesel entering the ECU via the plug:

There does not seem to be a solution to the problem, and even late model TD5′s can suffer from it. It is caused by engine oil contamination to the injector plugs inside the rocker cover, which are soaked with engine oil all the time the engine is running and oil being forced into the wires at an injector (Waterford Land Rover denies that their work carried out on injectors and replacement of an O-ring on the 22nd May contributed to the problem) and traveling between the copper wire and the insulation all the way down to the ECU.

Fixing the problem consists of cleaning the ECU (flush out with a solvent and dry) and replacing the injector harness. Note that this harness is a very simple item with 5×2 plastic insulated wires, terminating in a plug at the front of the tappet cover. While the injector harness should not cost more than R 100,00 to produce, Land Rover Waterford charged me R 930.00 (ex VAT).

Replacing this is simply a matter of removing the tappet cover, unplugging 5 injector feed plugs and one connector plug to the wiring loom at the front of the tappet cover and then fitting a new harness (the same procedure in reverse). In discussion with Land Rover mechanics this will take about 30 minutes to 1 hour (Land Rover Waterford charged me R 2,910.00 ex VAT for labour).

I call the above workshop/dealership survival in tough times and an easy way to make quick cash. As a layman it is impossible to establish if the type of work needs to be carried out and FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) instilled by your “reliable” dealership will convince you that this work is necessary. After all, you need a car to get to work in order to put food on the table and support your family.

For those who do not wish to pay close to R 1,000.00 for an injector harness, there is an alternative free fix: As can be imagined, to force diesel down a meter or more of insulated wire takes a lot of pressure (remember the injectors generate 22,000 PSI). All we have to do is make provision for the diesel to find an easier route out. This can be done by piercing each wire with a needle – so allowing the diesel an easier exit. Or cut and resolder each of the 10 wires, thus breaking the insulator route.

PUBLIC WARNING: While one should think that an authorized dealer will have a customer’s interest at heart, try and get a 2nd opinion. This might prove difficult most of times, but in my case I would have been cheaper off renting a car while the Defender is fixed by workshops who don’t try to rip you off. LandyOnline.co.za is a good source for alternative repair options.

Instructions and pictures are courtesy of Les Henson – visit lr4x4.com for a detailed guide with more pictures.

VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

Landrover: How to get shafted!

Posted by on July 9, 2009 No comments

I ain’t no wrench-jockey or grease-monkey and my knowledge of cars does not exceed the recognition that E stands for empty on the fuel-tank. The closest mechanical expertise I have is changing a tyre, but over the last 8 years I have this skill-set outsourced to the friendly helpers from the Automobile Association.

I think the idiom “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” does not apply to Landrover and their inferior quality built cars. Owning a Landrover Defender (not by choice) has it perks when I have to compete with taxis at intersections or when I cart around passengers I don’t want to speak to (thanks to engine- and wind-noise, the car creates an impenetrable white-noise wall). Perks aside, driving in the rain (water leaking in from doors and windows) or driving in the cold (draft from the doors) or just parking (when the doors don’t close in cold weather) gives me the true suburbia outdoor experience.

Over the last 18 months I have spent more money at my local dealership than any other sane person would do on a luxury holiday overseas.

NOTICE: This post contained detailed information about Land Rover’s service capabilities (or lack thereof) and the service experience I suffered (including the excessive costs of maintenance/servicing). Land Rover has responded and are investigating now. In all fairness, I will suspend my post and will post an update once Land Rover has come back (with hopefully better news than this morning’s quote)

VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Latest petrol price hike increases DSTV pricing

Posted by on June 16, 2009 No comments

… at least this would be a good enough reason for Multichoice to justify their price increase for PVR/dualview to R 524,00/per month from 1st April. It is amazing that with new competition entering the market towards the end of the year, Multichoice still manages to increase their fees annualy without improving service.

While the rest of the world enjoys high-definition television and subscribers receive free PVRs/Tivo’s as part of the subscription fee, this is obviously not the case with Multichoice. A PVR decoder still costs R 1999,00 and the latest high-def model to be launched will be in excess of R4500.

What’s wrong with the following picture:
SKYTv in UK: for 21 pounds(R328): 300 entertainment channels

SkyTV in UK (£45 ~ R 500): 300 entertainment channels, free UK evening and weekend calls, free broadband (up to 8Mb download speed)

vs. DSTV’s: 75 channels for R469

I use my decoder as a relatively good clock. The red light is just slightly irritating :)

VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

MTN under fire

Posted by on May 8, 2009 2 comments

The Most Terrible Network has not been my favorite company as of late due to their lack of service and shoddy customer service.

They have no “improved” their image, by adding extortion to their product-portfolio:

If you subscribe to the above, you will enter a 14 week long “skills-based” competition where subscribers have to answer questions to score points. The customers with the highest points will win a Toyota Fortuner per week and at the final draw a R 1m homeloan.

Vodacom has gotten into serious trouble with their “100 cars in 100 days competition” but according to MTN their “competition” is nothing like that. I peg to differ – at R 7,50 per SMS MTN is ripping people off in desperate times.

Consumers are “protected” by getting an SMS notification every 100 SMS’s and they are not allowed to send more than 500 SMS’s per day (this is R 3750 per day !!!!!!!!!). I wonder what the NCA says about this and how MTN intends to ensure that customers don’t spend beyond their means since MTN’s terms and conditions state “MTN is not responsible for entrants overspending by sending too many SMS entries.”

MTN, shame on you!

VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

MTN = Most Traumatic Network

Posted by on April 9, 2009 No comments

Thanks to MTN’s utter incompetence I am still the proud owner of a girly phone.

According to the most clueless service manager and his team at Northgate’s MTN service-centre, I should have received my replacement phone by today. Well, not quite, as MTN’s insurance division has put the claim on hold, pending the technical assessment and MTN’s technical department has no idea when the get around to look at the phone.

I also discovered that I have another MTN phone which is still under Nokia’s 2-year-warranty and will torture my friends at the same service-centre over the weekend with another warranty claim. Once all the non-sense has been sorted out (just in case MTN refuses to help if I now terminate my agreement), I will gladly port out and hope to never run into that fugly yellow company again.

Sofar the history:
2009-04-07 09:00: Handed in the phone at MTN Northgate. Was told that I will get a replacement phone in 2 days. Store had no adequate loan-phone (my wife’s 6111 was better than what they offered).
2009-04-07 12:00: Logged complaint at HelloPeter.
2009-04-07 15:00: Phoned MTN insurance. Was told that nothing has been processed.
2009-04-08 09:30: Phoned MTN insurance. Was told that technical assessor looking at phone. Might take between 3 days to a couple of weeks.
2009-04-08 15:30: Phoned MTN insurance. Was told that claim has been pended. No idea when response will be received.
2009-04-09 08:20: Phoned MTN insurance. Still waiting for technical department. Probably will only get a replacement next week.
2009-04-09 08:30: Logged another complaint at HelloPeter.
2009-04-09 10:00: Wanted to find out about if my 2nd N73 is under warranty – no one has a clue.
2009-04-09 11:15: Phoned 808 to log complaint. Got complaint-number: 011 848 4300 – no-one answering the phone and got cut off. No-one willing to help. Got transferred from one person to the next without anyone taking the complaint.

VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

MTN: I am now a true road-warrior – WTF?

Posted by on April 7, 2009 No comments

Thanks to MTN’s pathetic service (they manage to set the bar quite low in the first place) and their incompetence to properly handle an insurance claim for a damaged phone, I am now using a true road-warrior phone:

 

Till yesterday I had a N95 8GB with which I was able to sync my contacts, read my mail and plan my day and tasks ahead. My trusty N95 died a sudden death, and seeing that I have been paying MTN R 800,00 annually on insurance alone, I thought getting a replacement phone or an adequate loan-phone would have been a walk in the park.

While other mobile service providers will give you an adequate replacement phone, MTN didn’t even have a loan-phone in store (this was at 9am in the morning). The 6111 depicted above is my wife’s old phone, as MTN eventually dug up some model that was not even able to synchronize contacts or my calendar items. (This should give you an impression on how crap MTN’s attempt to help a customer was)

The Northgate Service Centre manager was completely uninterested in assisting and felt that providing me with a crap loan-phone was the best effort he can make. I was also guaranteed that the N95 will be fixed/replaced soon — I heard this two years ago, where soon turned into 4 weeks.

MTN, YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE IS FUCKING SHOCKING – AND THIS IS WHY I AM GOING TO MOVE ON:

  • I have been a contract subscriber with you for 14 years.
  • My average spend is about R 700 – 800 p.m.
  • While I consulted overseas for 3 years, my monthly call-charges exceeded R 8,000 (every month)
  • You could not be bothered to show some goodwill and replace an anyway defunct phone with a replacement (and in the process will lose out on further revenue)
  • You refused to repair my phone in 2007 since you claimed you don’t cover accidental damage (although your policy does). After waiting for 4 weeks, I bought the N95 for 7K cash as I could not wait any longer to receive daily excuses.
  • When I transferred ownership of my phone/SIM from my business account into my personal capacity in January 2009, you decided to ignore all the previous hundreds of thousands of Rand you got and gave me a really cool credit-rating resulting in my phone being barred within 10 days.
  • During the last 12 months my phone “magically” lost it’s voice-mail settings 4 times.
  • You decided to remove my international roaming (which I used to have for 13 years) and provided me with great embarrassment, since I had absolutely no service in a foreign country.
  • Since December 2008 I have not ever received a single paper tax-invoice and statement. Your call-centre acknowledged that there is an invoice problem, but it will be sorted soon.
  • In the past your customer service centre used to proactively call customers to renew their contracts. I was due for a premature upgrade since November and for a regular upgrade since January — you have missed the chance to bind me with another contract.

The above list can go on forever, and while my monthly revenue-stream to you, MTN, is not really much, I am hoping that with the current transition in the cellular market in South Africa, you will really feel the heat and improve your customer service.

A company which is incapable of holding on to existing customers will very soon feel how economy is turning on you and how this will affect your bottom-line.

In case you still have not figured out how to have handled the above situation (but obviously lateral thinking does not feature in your company culture):

  • Replace the phone and keep a customer happy or at least make the effort to arrange for an alternative phone. Yes, you will argue, that you are not obliged to provide a loan-phone, but this would have been just one benefit why I would have stayed with you MTN!
  • You would have noticed that I was due for an upgrade since November and could have offered an upgrade instead while the N95 is in repairs.

If you follow HelloPeter (which has 4500 complaints listed against you) or other consumer forums, you will notice, that MTN has lost the plot with customer service and is too busy focusing on their expansion plans. MTN, remember what they thought your managers in business school (provided they actually passed): Customer loyalty and retention is key. It will cost you less to up- and cross-sell than it will to acquire new customers. And judging from your over-enthusiastic employees, the company motto seems to have changed to “Ignorance is bliss”

VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)