Autopage
Reviews and Complaints

I have had a contract with this totally useless company for 2 years and have had exactly 4 months of happy service. When I was overseas I tried for 8 months to sort out a very basic request, with no joy. I sent emails backwards and forwards, no less than 35, lodged uncountable online requests, all of which were never acted upon. During the time I was away I was paying my bill every month in full, despite not being able to use my airtime. Out of desperation I advised them in writing that I would not pay another cent until someone attended to my grievances. Still no joy? Eventually I returned to south africa and went to their head office and sorted things out with karabo. The account outstanding was incorrect - they had billed me for 4 months on a data contract which I had cancelled. We came to an agreed amount owing and I paid this immediately, in full. My account remains in the legal department and I am hamstrung to do anything, such as query balances etc. Every time I phone I am told that I cannot be helped as my account is in legal? On 7 april an agent in the legal department advised that my account would be moved from. I decided that I would port as I cannot bear to have any dealings with these useless ###s for one more day. I patiently waited to 14 may 2011, when my contract expires. I applied to vodacom to port and was advised that they need a statement from altech. I went to the altech shop at vodaworld, only to be told that my account is in legal and they cannot give me a statement and that I would not be able to port because of this? I decided to rather just lose my number than have anything more to do with altech. Today I applied for a new contract with another sp, only to be told that I have been blacklisted by altech? We all know how difficult it is to get your name cleared from itc - and this for a situation that had nothing to do with me being a bad payer, rather altech being an atrocious, incompetent, ###ic service provider. It is beyond my comprehension that a company like this can continue to do business. I have all my communications with them, as well as with vodacom, whom I tried to enlist to help me. I would like to take this to carte blanche, the newspapers, the ombudsman for the cellular industry, whomever I can to have these people taken to task. I have on numerous occasions complained to vodacom customer care and the agent has told me that they get so many complaints regarding bad service from altech... Surely they must be made responsible for the inefficiency? If anyone else is prepared to sign a petition with me, please indicate so on this web site or mail me [protected]@ananzi.Co. Za.

about 2 and half MONTHS ago I gave my Blackberry in because of fone not storing pictures . The consult had assessed the fone while it was onn and searched for pictures which she only found a few . the LCD was clearly in good working order.
two weeks later I received a phone sms stating I must pay R617 for physical damage to my phone.Upon enquiring what was damaged I was told the LCD is bust. when I refused to pay I was told there has been a misunderstanding and the phone will be replaced.I never ever get any correspondence so I phone autopage westville mall the following week and then I receive the same sms again 2weeks later .I have a receipt stating that my phone was in fair condition when handed in .They refuse to replace my phone and I am still paying every month for a phone that I do not have, it so Frustating !

My storie is baie kort. Hou selfoon rekeninge by mtn, rekening nommers z0002807 en a2796262 en by altech autopage rekening nommer [protected]..
Ek het verhuis en aangesien ek my eie besigheid bedryf het ek my blackberry foon onder nommer [protected] by altech autopage as diens verskaffer gebruik op die internet.
Die diens is veronderstel om gratis te wees want ek betaal & lsquo;n ekstra fooi daarvoor per maand.
Gedurende begin van maart 2011 het altech autopage my geskakel en aangedui dat my rekening baie hoog loop a. G. V. Internet verbruik. Die bedrag beloop tans r10, 300 vir internet gebruik waar net 3 gbytes afgelaai is. Skokkend!
My rekening beloop tussen r1, 500 en r2, 000 p. M. Vir oproepe gemaak met geen kostes vir internet nie.
Die stand van my rekening was alreeds meer as r10, 000 net vir aflaai van informasie oor die internet. Die foon was as & rsquo;n modem gebruik, onbewustelik dat ek ekstra daarvoor sou betaal.
Fine as ek verkeerdelik gekoppel het op die internet dan moet mens seker daarvoor betaal. Wat my stom slaan is die tariewe wat hierdie diensverskaffers vra.
Die koste was oor die r10, 000 vir aflaai van net oor die 3 gbytes van informasie. Elke keer as daar ingelog word kos dit r50. Die tariewe wat hulle dus vra is r2, 333 per gbyte.
Net as voorbeeld hiermee tariewe wat ander diens verskaffers vra..
1. Mweb se paket is r269 p. M. Vir onbeperkte gebruik van internet deur middle van & lsquo;n adsl lyn met telkom. Ek het so stelsel vir jare gebruik.
2. Cell c het & lsquo;n modem wat ek twee dae terug gekoop het vir r2, 999 waar hulle 60 gbytes voorsien deur middle van inskakeling by die internet. Die koste beloop dus r50 per gbyte teenoor & lsquo;n & ldquo;wopping” r2, 333 per gbyte by altech / mtn!
3. Blackberry se paket kos r60 p. M. En dit gee jou onbeperkte gebruik.
Wat skokwekkend was is die feit dat altech autopage my gedreig het om my foon af te skakel omdat die rekening so hoog geloop het. Dit na jare wat my rekening elke maand stiptelik betaal is. Na vele gesprekke het hulle ingestem dat ek die rekening oor drie maande kan betaal en dan sal hulle my foon nie afskakel nie. Hulle was eenvoudig & ldquo;adamant” dat daar geen konsessie gemaak kan word nie. Ek bedryf & lsquo;n besigheid vanaf my foon en sonder my foon is ek verlore. So wat staan my te doen. Betaal broer betaal al weet jy hulle & ldquo;rip” jou af!
Die ironie van die saak is dat mtn my r2, 000 laat betaal het vir oproepe wat ek nooit gemaak het nie. Dit het byna & lsquo;n jaar geneem voor hulle my daarvoor te vergoed het. Ek praat nie eers van menige besoeke aan hulle takke om die saak uit te klaar nie. Al hierdie feite is op rekord.
Ek is al verbruiker by mtn vir 15 jaar en by altech oor die vyf jaar. Hulle houding was eenvoudig, jy het die internet gebruik en jy sal daarvoor betaal. Ek het gespekke oor die aangeleentheid gehou met kadesh by telefoon nommer [protected], annemarie snyers, pinkie en meisie by hulle rekeninge department.
Pinkie het toegestem terwyl die gesprek opgeneem is dat ek oor ses maande kan betaal toe bel kadesh my en dui aan dat dit nie toelaatbaar was en dat 3 maande die langste periode sou wees.
Dit is regtig skokwekkend wat hierdie diensverskaffers vra. Hulle druk letterlik geld en is amper 50 keer duurder as die paket by cell c wat ek nou gebruik.
Die diens verskaffers het & lsquo;n & ldquo;royal” tyd in rsa want hulle tariewe is geweldig hoog in vergelyking met eerste wereld lande.

I have been fighting with Altech Autopage Cellular for the past couple of months, since last year regarding an upgrade on my account and a new phone. I went from a Everyday Weekender Package to a Talk 500 which is a substantial jump in order to get a better phone being the Nokia N8. I have returned this phone to them 3 times as it was faulty and not the correct colour that I requested on various occasions. I have not had a NEW phone since December and have been using my old phone. With all of this I am still paying R72.80 insurance per month on this phone that I have not had for the past 4 months. I was then told verbally that i could choose any phone of my choice for the inconvenience. Now I am being told that I need to pay in R980 odd if I want the Apple iPhone 32Gig. I have already spent more than R22500.00 with them and I still do not have a phone and I am being sent from pillar to post. It is absolutely ridiculous and in fact a breach of contract. I have spent hundreds of rands on emails and calls to them and it still is not resolved. PLEASE will you advise as soon as possible what I can do to resolve this as I am paying for some thing that I do not actually have and it is very upsetting to get this type of service from a reputed company. Please will you assist as soon as possible. Kindest Regards, Brad Corbi

For the 7th consecutive month, the pathetic systems or otherwise incompetent personnel of autopage managed to overbill my r 100 + ad hoc subscription to in excess of r 1500, amounting to just over r 10 000.

Every month I have to call them & have the incorrect billing fixed, with high hopes and empty promises.

The only reason I am with them is the 10% vitality partner discount. But it is not at all worth the hassle.

If anyone can advise on legal aspects of dissolving the contract due to breach and poor service delivery, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you very much! Hope this leads to some improvement!?!

Account number [protected]

On the 16th of September 2010 I sent in an Apple I-Phone for repairs at Altech Autopage cellular, shop 34, Hillcrest corner, Hillcrest, KZN – job card no. 5218.
After a month has gone by I went back to the Autopage shop enquiring about the phone. The phone wasn’t ready. This was in October.
I went back again in November. I was told that the technician left the company/got fired? and asked me if they were supposed to repair the phone! (Why the job card then?) They will try to find my phone. I told the staff member at Autopage to get the phone back immediately either repaired or not.
Just before the December holidays I went back. Again they ask me the same question as before! They were still looking for the phone and used the excuse that there are so many cell phones in for repairs and put the blame on the previous technician.
During the second week of January 2011 I went to Autopage again. I was told that they lost my cell phone and that Autopage will replace it with a new one and that I must come back the next week.
I Went back the following Thursday. I was told that the cell phone hasn’t arrived yet and that it will definitely be at the shop the next Wednesday afternoon.
I went back on Thursday, 27th of January 2011. Again I was told that they still don’t have my new cell phone – they will call me...
On each occasion I left my contact number for them to contact me. Never has anyone from this shop ever contacted me to inform of any progress made and I’m still waiting... Therefore this complaint.
I experienced Autopage, Hillcrest as incompetent and their service worst than any government office.
Please help!

M Nel
cell no.: [protected]

I recently opened up a new cell phone contract with autopage. At no point did they mention anything about my contract being suspended if i use more than a certain amount of money. Now i cant make any cellphone calls, send SMSs or use my phone to browse the web. I have tried to get them on the line all morning. Their customer care line rings for a couple of seconds and then goes dead. When i tried to use the other number, i get put on musical hold for 10 minutes and then i get cut off. I submitted an online complaint a few hours ago, but have not heard back from anyone.

I use my phone all the time for work, and i ma desperate to get it working, but i can not reach these people to sort it out at all.

I am running out of ideas, and i cant keep sitting on my work's phone for 20 minutes to an 087 number just to be cut off again.

At first this cellphone business's scams people by phoning them and almost forcing them to take cellphone contracts, my father does not know cellphones and they gave him crap phones the start, and when he cancelled his account they kept taking money from him, so he had to cancel it with the bank every month... Now they sending him bills of R2000 etc thats just crazy!

I was erroneously charged an admin fee on my 3G account.On 15 Feb I called Client Services, spoke to Busi Muasa who confirmed that this was an error and that she would get the Upgrades Dept. to reverse the charge.She confirmed that the credit would reflect on my next statement.Do you think any of Busi’s promises were actually fulfilled?No! I called the call centre again this morning & had to wait for over 15 minutes before anyone picked up the phone.This call centre is worse than the City of Jo’burg or Home Affairs!Needless to say eventually I got through to Tebogo Mashaba.She said she could not help me & she has no feedback for me & I would have to wait till Busi gets in at 2pm to find out. I asked to speak to a manager, she said none are available. What kind of call centre has no managers available on a Mon morning – Please! Then she offered to transfer my call to a Retentions Manager – when I asked the Mgr’s name she couldn’t tell me. How was she going to transfer me to a person she doesn’t know? She couldn't give me any answers. I couldn't speak to anyone who was better informed, nothing has been done with my query in the 2 weeks since I logged it.These people are unbelievable!

In november 2010 I have made the biggest mistake of my life and signed for another 2 year contract with altech autopage. Along with this I have signed for a 2gig data bundle to be included in the deal.In late november I have e-mailed to confirm that the new contract is in place and was advised that it took effect on 15 november.In december I checked my on-line bill and noticed that the data bundle was never loaded and was advised that it was their mistake but it will be activated and back dated. Despite numerous e-mails and requests I was billed incorrectly and over charged by r5400-00 on 1 january 2011. I am currently fighting a battle to recover this money from them...
I am a really disappointed and unhappy customer and will discourage anyone to aproach altech for any form of service. I will never advise anyone to touch anything with the brands altech, autopage or supercall associated with it! In fact I have decided that I will be moving my vehicle tracking to someone else shortly because of the poor service I have received thus far from autopage as a member of the altech group. I want nothing to do with any member of this group ever again because altech does not know the value of customer service and does not take their customers serious! I have been hurt badly by your poor service over the past 2 manths and should never have signed for another 2 years.

I was contacted by a salesperson on my cellphone. She offered me a package deal by Altech Autopage which I accepted. They also offered me insurance on the phone which I thought is a good idea since my phone has been stolen before. After about 6 months I realised that they are deducting double what they told me the insurance would be. I phone autopage to find out why this is and why the deduction of any insurance of any kind isn't on my bill. They had no idea who phonesure was and kept on insisting that I do not have insurance. The more I tell the story and say I must have the more they insist that I do not have insurance (note that the lady started to get cheeky with me, speaking to me as if I am some kind of idiot). After various phone calls, I finally ended up with the lady who sold me the deal. They got Phonesure to contact me. The guy named Chris gave me the email address: [protected]@phonesure.com and said I must send my letter of cancelation and he barely appologised saying that they accidently deducted double since one debit order didn't go through. So instead of deducting double just the next month they just kept on doing this for months.

Now I wonder, if my phone was stolen would it also have been almost impossible to claim the insurance money? I guess I would have been without a phone for months. O and ofcourse he told me I would be paid back the next week... no luck. I am still waiting and it is almost 3 weeks now. And I can't get a hold of them! No one, not even the internet has they contact details. So who the hell is Phonesure and why did Autotech offer their services to me but when there is trouble they have no idea who it is?

This is unbelievable and am this close going to the newspaper or hello peter.

I am writing this complaint as I am unable find a contact other then the call center to assist me with the customer services issue. I did try to contact a Mr Sean Pretorius, who I was told was your customer services manager but he refused to take my call, as I was told that he did not take calls from customers. Which is rather strange for a customer services manager. I have unfortunately suffered a series service issues at the hands of Autopage Cellular over the past month, but what is more frustrating is that there is no channel to which to direct this feedback to.

1. I took out at contract with Autopage at the end of September 2010. I waited more then 24hrs and the sim was not activated. I called the call center, by they didn’t know what was going on, eventually they did manage to figure it out. The store in Vodaworld FORGOT TO PROCESS THE CONTRACT! Wait here is more, they said that someone from the store would call me, but big surprise no one did, I had to call them! I thought that that was appalling customer service, but wait there is more.
2. This was my second contract Autopage, I have had another one for the last 10 years. When I took out the new contract I took my old sim along to RICA, obviously because when you take out a new contract you need to RICA at the same time. It was all under my old account. Then I got an SMS on my old sim a few weeks later requesting me to RICA! They managed to stuff that up as well! So now I have to go back to a store to RICA the old SIM again! I thought that this was unbelievable, but wait there is more.
3. When I took my new contract out I took out the Blackberry BIS, instead of BES. Reason being that I was not sure if my organisation supported BES, therefore I asked the sales agent. I was told you can always change from BIS to BES, no hassles, will take 24hrs. When the time came a few weeks later to change from BIS to BES, then the story changed! Now I was told that I had to complete a migration request form and pay migration fees as well! I was flabbergasted, especially given the previous service issues already encountered, but wait there is more.
4. So I completed the migration form, before the cut off date as requested by Auto page. I had to send it about 3 times because they could not find it, which was not surprising. In any event I received confirmation that the migration would go through on the 1 November 2010. Guess what, it didn’t! At this point I was lost for words, not to mention extremely upset, however not very surprised but wait there is more.
5. On the 2nd Nov 2010 I called the Autopage “Customer Care” services. I spoke to a women, whose name I cannot recall. I explained the problem to her, and gave her my number. She then place me on hold…. FOR THE NEXT 30MINS ! Realising that she was not going to pick, probably gone on her lunch break, I hung up and called back.
6. I then spoke to a women named Angela, I explained the problem to her, and gave her my number. She to put me on hold, but only for a few minutes. She informed me that the service has been activated on the Autopage system as BES but was still reflected as BIS on the Network. Probably some sort of failure node to node between Autopage and VC network provisioning interface. She said that she would log it with VC and this would be fixed in 24hrs. I asked to speak to a supervisor but was told that “all the managers are in meetings”, How convenient. It was however not fixed the next day.
7. I called and spoke to another agent, named Godfrey, he initially insisted that the service was activated correctly, evidently he was not able to distinguish between BIS & BES, but finally caught on after I explained it to him a few times. To which he gave me the same reply as Angela did the previous day, that he was going log it with the network. He went further to tell me that he did not think it will be activated this month! He also said that there was nothing that they (Autopage) could do other then send an e-mail. I asked him to escalate the matter, but he said there was nothing more that could be done. I asked if I could speak to a manager, to which I was asked as to why I wanted to speak to a manager as there is nothing that they can do. After some argument, guess what, he told me “all the managers are in meetings” . . . what an unbelievable coincidence.
8. That was when I called the Head office and asked for the customer services manager, whom I was told was Sean Pretorius. I was transferred, but go through to someone else who told me that he was not available and gave me a phone number and e-mail address, both of which turned out to be false. This was not surprising, by this point this was the kind behaviour that fitted the Autopage culture.
9. Not wanting to give up, I tried to call again, eventually getting through to a women who informed me that Mr Pretorius did not wish to take my call, as he does not take calls from customers. Which I found rather strange and odd, that the customer services manager is not interested in customer services issue. I think that that peace of information actually summed up quiet nicely the organisation that I was dealing with.

On the 25th of october I switched my contract from mtn to cell c. The lady at the centurion lifestyle center branch of autopage informed be that the switch would take between 8 and 48 working hours. My mtn sim card would be switch off and the cell c sim card would be switched on.

On the subsequent thursday (29 oct) , I realized that sms sent to me were getting 'lost'. After switching to my cell c sim all these lost message came through. However, my mtn sim card had not been switched off. This resulted in calls and smss from non-cell c numbers coming through on my mtn sim and smss from cell-c numbers coming through on the cell c sim.

I phoned autopage head office and the consultant I spoke with ensured me that it would be attended to the next day and that I would receive feedback regarding the issue. After receiving no feedback, I phoned again on friday (30 oct). Once again I was assured that the problem has been logged and that I would receive feedback.

To this day I haven't received feedback. I have to swap sim cards every hour to ensure that I don't miss any calls and smss. This is unacceptable as I am relying on being available at all times as part of my work.

I had to do a SIM swop to get a new SIM card because my new phone would not pick up my old one. The guy behind the desk told me that I had to wait 4 - 24 hours for my new SIM card to be activated. That was on the 2nd of October. It's now the 4th of October and I'm still waiting for the SIM card to be activated.

Is this normal? Is there anyone that has had the same problems as I have? How is this possible?!

My account was suspended at the end of September due to non payment, I accept that as that is the terms and conditions. My debit orders go off on the 1st of the month and my debit order came back as unpaid as there were no funds available, I accept the bank charges as this was my fault.

Planning to pay the total balance outstanding at the end of October, however, on 14 AND 15 October, Autopage put thru debit orders for R500 each. These debit orders were returned due to no funds available. I was not told about this and I DID NOT authorise Autopage to take debit orders in the middle of the month. THIS IS ILLEGAL!

When I questioned my credit controller, I was told that I will not be re imbursed for the bank charges of the TWO UNAUTHORISED DEBIT ORDERS! I told JUDY that I want to cancell my debit order as AUTOPAGE IS DOING ILLEGAL debit orders. I was told I can not and they will trace me to what ever bank I go to...

Further to that I was told that if I do not pay by debit order, I have to make payment by the 15th of every month and not the end of the month as arranged.

My boyfriend has used autopage cellular for the last 8 years.Last friday he received a sms saying his account is in arrears, and would be suspended. Yet this account goes off via debit order, which is presented by Autopage! To date a debit order has never been returned to Autopage. Saturday he called on them to upgrade his contract, and was refused because of this 'arears' He called to find out what the problem was. Turns out Autopage had presented the debit order for the incorrect amount. They told him it would be sorted out Monday, and the remaining balance would be debited from the company's account. It was not, and Monday they sent him anther sms. He then called their head office, requested to speak to management, who was meant to call him back. They did not. Tuesday his account was suspended! He is traveling around the easternwestern cape, he needs a working phone. He eventually got the admin lady at his office to once again call Autopage Head office. The service was reinstted late that afternoon, debit order will only be presented on the 21st! Unacceptable, and he still needs his upgrade asap.Shocking service, and it's not his fault the debit order was incorrect.

My dad returned to SA on sat 19 September when he then tried to deactivate his sms roaming. The roaming is still active and i have made many calls to autopage but all they do is say its an MTN things and make another request to get it turned off by then. They don't look at the fact that this has been tried by each service consultant before that and its still not working. We cant go to MTN directly as they say autopage is our provider so we are stuck with a phone that cant makereceive calls. They also tried to blame the problem on the sim card and phone, the sim card is working for smss how can it be broken for calls. The sim had also been tried in other phones and guess what you cant make calls. 5 or more days to turn of a simple feature that normally takes seconds.

My cellphone was stolen on the night of 29 June 2010, and I phoned the Cape Town CBD office of Autopage to report it as such and get directions to their office to do a sim-swop. When arriving at the autopage branch, they said they cannot activate my sim until they have a copy of my green ID, which I emailed through to them at 15h00 that day. They also e-mailed me a blacklisting form that I requested. Upon receiving my account, I saw that in excess of R1000 of calls were made that day to Ethiopia. I phoned Autopage to query this, as these calls continued from 05h41 until 19h00 on 30 June. After two weeks of trying to speak to the correct person and getting "your query has been logged, our technical department will call you" I got a reply from one Sharon Salomon saying that because I called and went into an Autopage branch to report it stolen and I did not call the call center in Midrand, I am held responsible for the calls made that day. The Cape Town branch, when I contacted them, tells me to refer all my queries to the call centre. I have sent them copies of the email send on the 30th, which are CLEARLY evidence of reporting of my stolen cellphone, but they are saying that simply my report at the autopage branch is not sufficient enough to refund the monies deducted off my account for that day. Is there a lawyer out there willing do take them on? I do not care about the money at this stage, so whatever you get from them, you can keep - it is becoming a matter of principle and I despise the fact that this company simply reroutes you or ignores and hope that you will go away.

After paying the extortionate amount of money for a cellphone contract that I honored for the full 2 year term but kept going month for month without my knowledge as I had immigrated, I started receiving threatening emails (IN ALL CAPS) stating that they are handing me over to authorities and that the next correspondence that I should expect would be a summons and a bailiff at my door. (well I hope he's flying Business Class).

After phoning to South Africa about 90 times (the Autopage receptionist picked up the phone on the 89th try). I get to speak to the guy and he says I must have spoken to his supervisor. I ask to speak to the supervisor and he tells me that they are all on leave until the 18th January (nearly a month and 10 days of leave!) and there is NOT A SINGLE PERSON IN CHARGE?! After promising me that he will personally sort this out the moment they step into the office, the 18th comes and goes...

Today, 26 Jan I receive an email and: It's just exactly that first generic threatening message! And today they are not picking up the phone at all...

Please people, STAY AWAY from Autopage!
There is a special circle in hell reserved for South African cellular company employees.
And if you deal with them, you'll be sucked right in there with them!

I had a contract with Altec Autopage which expired in May 2009.Due to poor service i decided to cancell the service they were rendering to me.On cancelling i was told that i will lose the number that i used until my contract expires.I was under the impression that since i had the number for the ful term of the contract then the number will be mine to be transfered to any other service provider i would like to move to?

Can someone help me in retaining my number.

Regards

Sipho