By Magreth Nunuhe
WINDHOEK – Mobile network giant MTC has acknowledged its mistake with the ‘N$2 for 10MB per day promotion’ and it has apologised and refunded some subscribers for “incorrectly” charging them.
In the text messages sent to customers, MTC wrote, “For 1 day on Dec 14, you were incorrectly charged for data although you had free data. The refund of N$2 is added to your balance. Our apologies. MTC.”
MTC was mum on the issue raised this week by the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN), which said MTC acted out of line with the provisions of Section 79 of the Communication Act as the latter was not informed of its promotion as required by law. The Namibia Consumer Trust (NCT) joined in the debate calling on CRAN to fine MTC and imprison its management and board.
MTC spokesperson John Ekongo declined to comment on the issue, saying they would issue a statement next week.
One MTC subscriber who did not want her name revealed that she had called MTC numerous times about the “tricky” promotion, but they never gave her a clear answer.
MTC apparently only told her that if she wanted to unsubscribe she must call 134, and then text #T49MB#, but when she did that a response message would say, “message pending,” while they continued to deduct money.
“I lost N$90 on Netman, but they only refunded me with N$4. Why are they deducting money?” she asked, adding that when she tried to speak to the supervisor, she was always given the run-around.
MTC was again hauled before the communication regulator for violating several regulatory requirements in the promotion of data bundle costs after CRAN conducted an investigation following mounting customer complaints regarding MTC’s decision to charge N$2 for 10 MB data per day.
CRAN conducted a verification of MTC’s billing system in December and noted that MTC made the promotion mandatory rather than optional, whereby MTC subscribers were automatically added as participants in the promotion.
It is not the first time that MTC came under fire as NCT previously also complained to CRAN over MTC’s ‘Aweh-Aweh’ resulting in the mobile telecommunications provider being forced to refund customers and change its advertising messages.