MultiChoice Africa / DSTV
Reviews and Complaints

Multichoice needs to seriously look into their programming content as there's nothing but reruns continously on. Paying 780rand a month for the full package and having to watch the same shows over and over again is rather disappointing and theres packages that cost more so subscribers are simply paying for reruns.
There should be no excuse like they do not control the channels programming and simply air whats provided because multichoice as a service provider that gets paid for service needs to start taking interest in programming and customer satisfaction. Deals like price lock and upgrading is waste of time because although you may get a few extra benefits youl still be recorded or watching the same thing they airing over and over. Fair enough box office is a good idea but for me to fork out extra besides the exhorbant amount I pay now makes no sense.

Why does dstv automatically bleep certain programmes of which the language they deem inappropriate? I am tired of living like a child in my own home while I am a bachelor who pays for the premium service like any other customer. If parents want to prevent their children from hearing or seeing inappropriate content, they should access the parental blocking and not allow dstv to decide for us which programmes they want to bleep.

Even thought this might seem a supersport specific complaint the fact that multichoice allows supersport to have a monopoly on sports channels on DSTV is dissapointing. First they get rid of ESPN then allow supersport to get rid of the American sports such as NBA which we want. I feel like the voice of the people isn't listened to its so frustrating to the extent that I'm thinking of finding ways to get a new entertainment vessel other than DSTV so at least people can watch what they like...

How can multi choice just plain hand me over to Vericred, this after they never contacted me to let me know my account is in arrears?!

I have suspended my account early this year already. And NEVER received ANY! Type of communication about any amount outstanding and now all of a sudden (without my consent), handing me over to Vericred and making my credit record bad. Who the heck do they think they are?!

Utter Disregard for Customers

y DSTV Explorer kept on rebooting from Sunday morning 9th October 2016 and when I tried to call Multichoice, their lines were busy. Went through their 'Self' service to put in my information and query, however no call back received. All I got from their site was that if it is a signal issue, I should contact an accredited DSTV Installer which I did. The installer arrived on Monday 10th October at 16h30 in the afternoon since I was at work. He tried to sort this rebooting out and eventually realised that it has now damaged my LNB from all the rebooting of every after 3 to 4 minutes. He then replaced the LNB and my DSTV worked. This LNB that had to be re-placed is only five months old and based on the rebooting issue, it gave in. I had to pay the DSTV Accredited installer a call out fee of R350 and R510 for replacing the LNB. In total I paid R860 only to receive an email from Multichoice on Tuesday evening at 22h34 advising me that they are are of the problem and they are very sorry. My point is the fact that according to them, only sending an email after two full days i.e. on the 3rd day of this issue to be precise, I had to go on without watching TV? Had they replied to my self-service request on Sunday, I wouldn't have called the installer and paid so much. All I want to know from them is if they think it is fair or not and I want to be compensated for the money I have to pay due to their systems' problem.

I've been with dstv since inception (Acc 4929934). I pay diligently eft. End of sept'16 a debit order was collected without my consent a day after I payment at the n1 city offices. All calls ended yielded no results. A legitimate debit was not able to go thru.
Refund me immediately as well as the unpaid debit fees as this was not my ding at all.

So a couple of months ago I contacted DSTV to instate a debit order for my convenience however little did i know will turn out to be a nightmare... on the month where the debit order was to go off, no debit order was put through. I then called DSTV to follow up to which I was advised that they require a letter of consent from my wife as I provided her bank details. NO LETTER WAS EVER SENT TO DSTV, however at the end of September the account was DOUBLE DEBITED yet no payments were outstanding. On calling to follow up regarding the debit order I was advised it was a system error and I would be refunded in 48 hours which was never done. This week I called to follow up on the refund to which I was advised nothing was processed... I then advised not to refund me as this seems like I'm milking a dry cow and therefore advised that the advance cover the end of this month. I then requested the debit order be cancelled as firstly the incorrect amount was debited and secondly as no consent letter was sent for the debit order to be instated to which the consultant Pumelelo advised me she will have to escalate the matter as I have a DPP Package and has to be on debit order to which I advised thats not a problem and I will wait for someone to call me in 2 to 3 hours which was not done. I then called again now and spoke to Ipeleng and she advised she will get her supervisor to call me back which still has not been done... now the question is, how can you guys debit an account where no permission was granted by the third party and why is it now an issue to cancel the debit order if this was never finalized?! In closing I'd like to let you know, " your organization is a bunch of useless beings and I regret ever taking this package"

I am waiting to receive recon statement which Multichoice reply [#8231971 of 24 Sep 16 advised would only be available after 2 Oct 16

B. I followed Multichoice reply [#8269620] of 6 Oct 16 is which in effect is a poor excuse for incompetent service & instruction “do it yourself” and found
1. 6 statements available none with any indication for which year–see attached DsTV Statement for Sep 2016 not available 6 Oct 16
2. none of 6 statements are recon statement requested
3. none of 6 statements are for Sep 2016

How come now that connection to the Internet is possible, Dstv multichoice tries to force us to do it by cutting nearly all top shows from catchup? Nearly half of "shows" on catchup is a 1 min info to tell me I can see it by getting connected to internet. The shows that have episodes available on catchup are the b-rated or local shows. Thats not what was advertised and most certainly NOT what we signed up for.

I paid my DSTV account on the 1 October 2016 which is the date you supposed to pay it by and this morning of 3 October 2016, I get a message on the TV to say my services have been suspended. When I phone the call centre, the consultant tells me that I have to now a reconnection fee of R50 for this month and also a reconnection fee for last month because my payment was done on 3 September.

I am extremely disappointed and irritated with DSTV customer service because it is school holidays and now my services have been suspended.

I cannot understand why I have to pay a reconnection fee for the month of September because even though my payment was only made on 3 September, my services were not disconnected at all after the 1 September so why do I still have to pay a reconnection fee! It does not make sense!

And if I already made a payment on the 1 October and then my services get suspended on 3 October after the payment was made, why am I still liable to pay the reconnection fee?

I am a dstv account holder no [protected]. I have been told by them I am in arrears ans have been cut off 5 times. I am a annual subscriber my payment is only due in october however they have been cutting me off since august when I call the call centre they assure me that its a fault on their side and they will rectify however 2 days later I am cut off again (5 times) this is costing me in wasted airtime. I have left messages for a supervisor to call me (Miss pebello). Never bqothers to call. I attach three different statements I received from them on the same day to show the level of incompetence as all three amounts differ.

Good day.A few mnts back we bought a explorer on spesial through on air.Installation were done and every thing were honky donky.Then after election day we went camping and like usual i switch off my explorer and activate my decoder i always used for camping.The lady that assist me said that the decoder for holiday has to be on a holiday account.I said ok and she so called did that.
After 6 days we return and phone multichoice to switch off holiday decoder and put on my explorer.They manage to switch on explorer, but could not put the vr funktions on and also couldnt put off the holiday decoder.
It took them abou two week after r400 phone calls to get pvr funktionality and holiday decoder off.They inform me that there are more than one account on our adress because of the lady thet work on account and they will can cel it and fix it.Monts later my account been switched ff, many time problem with bpvr funktions because accounts still not fixed.Today alone two people told me they will fix it, you wait 20 to 30 min on phone till money is ued up, but still no progress.Supervisers tried, account dept tried, i ask them to day to cancel my whole account and switch off, im gat vol.They could not even do that.Pls check on system hw many times we called in to complain.Forsure your people are not competent trained.
Some people could not even identifi the problem.We are very much fustrated .We accasionaly because of this have e16 signals so much as 3 times a day.Payments also not allocated to right account.Pls sort out this nonsens or cancel the complete account and take this explorer.If dstv cannot deliver on their policy they are not worth doing buissniss with.

Client details" mrs amp maritz(now rautenbach)id [protected]
14 peridot witbank
the explore is on contract under mrs amp rautenbach.
Pls contact me on [protected]

I want to find out what I am paying for when I purchase the r699 dstv decoder with dish in store when I only leave with the decoder only? This is not what I pay for, even if installation is included. Please explain? You are simply forcing your accredited installers on us (Even if you do not recommend self install), we do not have that choice because we do not get what you pay for i. E. Decoder & dish with the r699 price. I know people who wait for moths, yes, months for your accredited installer to install their dstv. They cannot do anything about it because your installer has got what they paid for, the dish. How fair is that? You pay for it and they keep it and come at their own time? What am I paying for?

How can you broadcast a program like this and think nothing is wrong with it, thinking satan is a friend do you think he is there for your entertainment or hell is a place where you can escape from? You have no idee what doors are being opened I urge ever Christian to stand up for God, if the program is not cancelled I would like to request DSTV subscribers to cancel their DSTV subscription and rater get live streaming that would also be cheaper. THIS IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT YOU ARE INVITING SATAN INTO YOUR HOUSE. I bind this program on Matthew 18:18 in the Name Of Jesus Christ.

2 months ago i applied for price lock of R949.00 per month, it was approved and installed they debited me the standard R149.00. The fisrt debit order did not come off my account i called in and they said it would be rectified, The following month same story . I called again and was assured it was rectified i explained that im not going to accept a double debit they need to extend the contract. next month same old story but this tiem the person i was talking to had so much other crap he was selling me he did not even listen to my problem then put me on hold for over 5 minutes while he sorted out whatever he was doing i could not even understand him. I am not getting debited for the last few months in one debit i will continue as normal as it was part of the package that a debit order be put in place. after numerous calls i see a debit has now been coming of my account for my ols mutichoice account, whats happening DSTV are you going backwards. i doubt if anyone there is able to sort this out

Client Number: [protected]
I have the DSTV Extra package. This cost R459.00 per month. End of July I requested a statement from January 2016 to July 2016, which I received and made a payment of R608.16 to bring my account up to date.
On the 27th of August I received a sms stating: Your account is overdue, please pay R1, 350.00 today to stay connected. This was a shock for me as this is almost triple my monthly instalment. I immediately phoned them, the lady couldn't help me and said she needs to escalate it to the accounts department, they will phone me back. On the 29th of August I once again received the same sms. I phoned them again, this time the lady gave me an escalation ref number (8166804). The lady told me to only pay my monthly instalment, as we need to sort out this issue, which i did. 1 week later, i received a sms stating: Your account is overdue, please pay R889.20 today to stay connected. I phoned them ONCE AGAIN on the 5th of September, the lady said she can't help me and escalate my query once again.
My problem is still not sorted out and I know they will disconnect my DSTV soon. And then I have to carry the cost of that as well? – I DO NOT THINK SO
I just think it is ridiculous to charge a customer without any explanation. I have done my part - I will not pay the outstanding amount. As a full package is not even this much. My account is always paid in full. No-one gets back to you, they quick to take your money, but when a problem arises they just seem to avoid you.
The call centre was really trying to help, but your accounts department is lacking something. I WILL NOT PAY THIS AMOUNT. My account was paid in full end of July, it is simply impossible for my DSTV account to triple in 1 month.

on the 20 August 2016 I installed a dstv explora via multi choice
for an of R949.00
I spoken to a guy who help me nicely
who told me that I just need to pay R949.00
only to find out on the Monday the 29 August 2016
that my debit order is R1155.3...
I was calling whole week
call back next week
this morning I call again to confirm about the debit order
the lady told me I need to pay R1398.64
not sure where the extra amounts is coming from
you are ripping the people off
we paying a lot of money for poor service
every second day the same movies is playing over and over
if I knew this would have been a problem I never would have taken this up
from R949.00 to R1398.64 not even in a months time
is very bad bad service

Last week the 28th August, I decided to rejoin as a subscriber after a long period of abandoning the service. I requested a cheaper package so as to continuously afford and was asked to pay +- R120 to activate the service, so they could activate the signal. since such activation to date I couldn't watch or use the service as every time I try to connect, message pop on screen advising that there is a problem with lnb cable connection or the network setting to date. Subsequently I was advised in an sums message that I should pay R88, 00 on the 1st, which is today. I understand very well the pro- rata calculation formulae, but this is definitely too short period for another payment, especially that i was not benefited in any service. It may sound a little amount to complain about, but is not worth a fair pro-rata calculation in such formulae. i wish i could be credited, since no service was rendered since. I even had to request a suspension and am deciding if i should apply for dstv explora. I feel cheated!

Account number : [protected] Multichoice confirmed on 1 August that my debit order was deducted on the 1st and all is in order for which I have a voice recording stating this. 1st Sept the debit order never came off and when I called they again confirmed that the debit order has been taken off however for double because last months debit order was reversed on the 6th of August. I did not reverse the debit order and there was no such activity on my account to reflect that the money was reversed into my account. The debit order that supposedly went off double this morning does not reflect in my account. Call centre agent said she cant help me. If shows it went off.

We as a family watch certain channels. In order for us to view these channels we have to take the full package. The full package consists of 143 channels. We watch about 36 of them. I don't feel that it is worth it when there are smaller packages for other viewers. It looks like the black sector of the market
have there packages and the whites must just pay. Dstv fire people who have any racist remarks to make, it looks like there policy is only for one race. I feel they are being racist to the whites. I phoned in a week ago to switch my decoder off as we have done in the past. Now they have a new policy that they will only turn it off on the day your payment is due. We have decided to cancel Dstv until they look into this and correct there policy.
One more point is the religious channels. They have left my faith out which is Catholic but will view other religions channels. We have had to install another decoder just to watch Ewtn.

Yours truly
W Robinson.