Glocell billing issues, bad service, broken promise

I NEED some advice about a data contract that I wish to cancel with Glocell. I took it out in May 2016.

It was a telephonic deal for data only for 24 months, which included a cruise. This was a 5GB per month deal at R99. The deal included a mobile wi-fi device.

It was a pain to get the deal in the first place and after commencing on the first day, I sent e-mails asking for data to be capped at 5GB as I had heard that if you don’t implicitly ask for it, they will charge you exorbitant rates thereafter.

I had tried calling but as per usual, it takes about 30 minutes per call and eventually the call gets cut.

I did receive acknowledgement of my requests and have reference numbers and follow-up e-mails (four of them). I never received confirmation of this being done.

In June 2016, according to Glocell, the data usage shot up and they charged me R1 832.90. I then stopped using the device.

After many painful calls and back and forth with Glocell, I eventually contacted Icasa.

After lots of time-wasting with Icasa and Glocell, even after Icasa promised that it would work out and I could end the contract, Icasa closed the enquiry.

I was then advised by Icasa to contact the National Consumer Commission. The whole process started again.

To add to this, service has been the worst I’ve ever experienced including aspects like technical support, customer interaction, billing and communication.

The first bill was incorrect so I reversed it and asked them to correct it, which has not happened to date. Subsequent incorrect bills were sent through each month which I reversed, including the exorbitant bill of R1 832.90.

I was recently contacted by someone in their billing department asking to extend my contract term (meaning reinstate my contract as if it were July 2016 and continue from there, since I hadn’t used the device or the data from July 2016).

They also told me they credited me – in 2017 – for the value they charged me in 2016. My trust and patience with Glocell has run out and I do not wish to have anything to do with them.

I do not believe they can be trusted to do anything and I’m not even sure of the credit.

I am willing to pay for the two months’ usage and return the almost unused device back to them, should they correct the billing for May and June 2016. Thereafter, I want nothing else to do with them and want to end the contract.

In addition to this, during my communication with Icasa, Glocell referred to their terms and conditions around data capping, in which they state that they cannot be held accountable if a data cap does not work.

The data costs must be picked up by the consumer. Again, this is utter nonsense.

Many other colleagues had similar problems and none of us got the promised cruise.

Please can you help me to get rid of them once and for all.

Georgie: Glocell promised to contact the reader to resolve the matter. At the time of going to print, this hadn’t yet been achieved.