‘Subscriber’ battles to cancel fraudulant contract

Deon Dickson didn’t get much help from the Cell C call centre after her noticed an unauthorised debit order of R199 for a contract he did not have.
The Plumstead resident said he noticed the debit order being deducted from his account.
“I did the usual stuff, cancelling and reversing the debit order as well as contacting Cell C. I told them I had suspected fraud as I did not have a phone contract with Cell C. I was asked obtain an affidavit from the police station, about the fraudulent activity.
I submitted a copy of my ID and the affidavit to Cell C and hoped they would look at my case and cancel the contract. Later I received an email from the Cell C collections department requesting that I pay the outstanding amount of R2 689.86. I contacted Cell C, rehashing my case. I was told that this would be resolved by their fraud division, but since then there have been no feedback since first logging the issue. I’m afraid I might be saddled with a bigger big and potentially blacklisted for not paying the account.”
Mr Dickson told Cell C he had contacted his banker because he “suspected fraud as I do not own a Cell C contract and asked that the debit order be stopped and reversed”.
“I contacted the Cell C customer service centre to raise the fraud dispute and l was told to send through my ID and the affidavit which I did. I’m very concerned that someone was able to open a cellphone contract in my name, especially with all the legal and compliance gates, ID and RICA, in place to prevent it. From a banking perspective I feel that there should be better security in place when it come to verifying debit orders and this is something I’m addressing with my bank.”
But there was no further correspondence from Cell C.
“I’m hoping you can help me,” Mr Dickson said.
Angela Nale, a spokesperson for Cell C, confirmed that the two contracts were activated in Mr Dickson’s name at the Cell C store at the Promenade Mall in Mitchell’s Plain.
“Mr Dickson contacted the call centre to query the unauthorised debit after submitting an affidavit the matter was escalated to the Cell C Fraud Department who confirmed that the ID that was submitted for the activation of the contracts was fraudulent. The contracts have been written off and a letter of confirmation was sent to Mr Dickson who was happy with the outcome.”      


However, Cell C did not explain what measures were in place to prevent this happening to other people.


“I had a call from Cell C informing me that was issue was has been resolved. They said they would refund me and contact the collection agency. I could not have done this without your help,” Mr Dickson said. 
 
Complaint

Christo Valentyn, acting general manager for marketing at Kia Motors South Africa, has taken issue over the report about the Kia Rio, especially the headline “Kia dismisses customer’s complaints”, January 15/16).

He said the headline does not reflect the contents of the report which clearly states that the car maker went above and beyond to help Robin Knox, who visited “multiple service providers that corroborated our findings.”

Mr Valentyn also claimed that the story had been previously published and was reprinted again to “damage the KIA brand’s reputation by implying that we lied about the car not having a problem, and also creating the impression that we do not care about our customers and their complaints”.

This is not so. It is the first time the story has been published in any Cape Community Newspaper title.

Later, he agreed that it had not appeared before and apologised.