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Thread: how not to market your business

  1. #1
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    how not to market your business

    lets start with standard bank...i called standard bank internet banking on friday last week at about nine in the morning... i was trying to pay wages and had a problem...they responded to my call today at about 9 being tuesday... apparently only because i called customer services on friday at about 10.

    then virgin mobile...firstly i had the problem with porting of number from mtn (biggest mistake i have made in 16 years of bussiness) which ended up on wendys show on east coast radio which only got sorted out weeks after complaint after complaint...and bad signal it has been months now and still not sorted out...a couple of months ago they stopped sending me invoices and they no longer debit my account...then i get a call from them telling me i owe them over R1000 and must pay up...no problem just send me an invoice...and so i sit 4 months now still waiting...i get an email from someone with banking details i must pay the money into an account she has given me no invoice just pay...says she is from virgin mobile.
    yeah right i am gona pay into this account...no invoice no payment.

    then mweb...i have been with mweb for years now i ask them if there is not a cheaper option because i only use their email service as i use mtn bundles for internet access...they say no problem 6 months go by i am still being charged R145 a month so i call and complain so what do you think they do...stop the debit order now they havent debited my account this month .

    as i suggested to these companies maybe they should stop wasting money on expensive advertisings and big fancy buildings and rather keep their exsisting customers happy...as there is no better advertising than word of mouth...i do understand that we have a BEE issue which is causing a lot of frustration... when you call... you have to spell your name 10 times before they get it right... but that is no excuse...if the people cant do the job.. get someone who can...dont make it my problem.

  2. #2
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    My son ported to Virgin from MTN - It was a pay as you go deal and within a couple of weeks he wandered off to Vodacom and took out a contract on a new number. I think it had more to do with fees for internet access than anything else, but it was clearly easier to go for a new number and leave a divert message on the old one than try to port again.

    Mweb is kinda interesting. I had to close an old partnership account with the final FICA push and had to move quite a few debit orders. This was done with a standard letter to all the companies that were running debit orders on the account. Mweb (and Chubb) didn't act on the message.

    Chubb ended up calling me some months later enquiring if there was a problem and everything is all sorted now, but Mweb went a different route. A few months later I got a letter from a collection agency. I asked for a statement and an account to pay into and whilst they were about it, to terminate the "contract." I have yet to receive the statement, details of where to pay whatever is owing, or confirmation that my termination has been carried out 6 or more weeks later.

    In my case it's an old Netactive account, and I've got a sneaking suspicion that the fine print after the initial period is one of those "as long as I pay and Netactive receive" deals, which means that cessation of payment terminated the contract anyway.

    I await further developments on that front.

  3. #3
    Platinum Member Chatmaster's Avatar
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    I had a similar problem with MWeb. Had an account there since 1998 which was an entry level account at R75 p.m After getting accounts exceeding R800 (last one was R1700) I tried to change my subscription because they charged me for the time I spent online without me knowing. Ended up talking to top management after some heavy battles. They seem to have sorted out the account now after about 8 months.
    Roelof Vermeulen (Entrepreneurship in large organizations)
    Roelof Vermeulen| Rock flaps south africa

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