If anyone understands how massive a problem corporate fraud is, it’s Jabulani Mogale.
He’s a fraud investigator with one of South Africa’s biggest companies, which makes his Multichoice experience more than a little ironic.
Mogale bought a second decoder from Makro in early May, in order to benefit from Multichoice’s Xtra View functionality.
All was fine for a month or so, until one day, without warning, both decoders stopped working, and on querying this with Multichoice’s call centre, he was told that his account had been suspended “due to fraud”.
More than that no-one in Multichoice’s call centre would tell him, initially.
“I was then put on to the fraud department, but when no-one was able to help, I drove to their Randburg office and finally spoke to someone in the fraud department, who told me that my decoder had been stolen from a store in Pretoria in April, and its serial number had been flagged on the Multichoice system.
“I produced my receipt from Makro, but my service remained suspended,” Mogale says.
“But why didn’t the fraud department contact me to discuss the issue before suspending my service, not only on the “flagged” decoder, but both of them, leaving me with no DSTV at all?
“And why was there no alert put on my account, so that anyone in the call centre could have helped me with accurate information instead of repeatedly fobbing me off?”
A Multichoice spokesman told In Your Corner that Mogale’s “flagged” decoder was one of 50 decoders stolen from Home of Living Brands, which has opened a case of theft at a Pretoria police station.
So how did he come to buy a stolen decoder from Makro?
Well, he didn’t.
“The serial number on the Makro receipt he presented to us is different from that of the second decoder which was installed in his home,” the Multichoice spokesman said.
“Mr Mogale used an independent installer, not accredited by MultiChoice, to install his new decoder.
“It appears decoders were swapped during the installation.”
That news floored Mogale, who has used that installer’s services for many years.
“His bakkie has Multichoice’s stickers on it,” he said.
But Multichoice says that is no guarantee that an installer is accredited.
The only way to be sure is to check the list of accredited installers on DSTV’s website. (See below)
Naturally, I asked Multichoice what had become of the other 49 stolen decoders.
“We are aware of some of the decoders but at this time we cannot give further details that might compromise the ongoing investigation,” the spokesman said. When the investigation would wrap up, she couldn’t say.
As compensation for the run-around Mogale got when trying to get to the bottom of why his service had been suspended, Multichoice is to reimburse him for the second decoder he bought to replace the stolen one.
“We would like to apologise for the type of service he received.
“This is not the kind of experience we expect our customers to receive. We appreciate his feedback and have taken the necessary steps to ensure that our customers do not experience this type of service again,” the spokesman said.
WHAT TO DO:
ENSURE that you get a Multichoice- accredited installer to do the job.
Why?
Because they have to comply with Multichoice’s high standards of workmanship and code of conduct and if you have a problem, Multichoice steps in to mediate a resolution.
To find one in your area, go to , click on “Service” and then on “Need Installation”.
- As an added precaution, ensure that the decoder you bought is the one being installed, by checking the serial number.
CONTACT:
E-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za Twitter: @wendyknowler
WELL, sadly, as a number of food scandals – think donkey meat – have revealed, not in every case.
So how do we, as consumers, find out if those soya sausages really are GMO-free, or whether the claim that a cheese is made with organic milk stands up to scrutiny?
Enter TOPIC (Testing of Products Initiated by Consumers), the Cape-based product testing organisation. Led and funded by consumers, it aims to protect consumers from false claims and mislabelling, as in the recent case of the La Chocolatier chocolate slabs, where the “no sugar” claim was not borne out by laboratory tests funded by TOPIC.
Apart from sporadic testing by universities for academic purposes, where there is a reluctance or refusal to name the products tested, there is no systematic testing of products by any government body to protect the consumer, says TOPIC spokesman Peter Becker.
Organic and free range products are almost completely unregulated, so TOPIC aims to fill the gap and check the claims.
If you would like TOPIC to test a specific product’s claims, then nominate it on their website at:
www.topic.org.za.
Be switched-on regarding decoder swap fraud trick
He’s a fraud investigator with one of South Africa’s biggest companies, which makes his Multichoice experience more than a little ironic.
Mogale bought a second decoder from Makro in early May, in order to benefit from Multichoice’s Xtra View functionality.
All was fine for a month or so, until one day, without warning, both decoders stopped working, and on querying this with Multichoice’s call centre, he was told that his account had been suspended “due to fraud”.
More than that no-one in Multichoice’s call centre would tell him, initially.
“I was then put on to the fraud department, but when no-one was able to help, I drove to their Randburg office and finally spoke to someone in the fraud department, who told me that my decoder had been stolen from a store in Pretoria in April, and its serial number had been flagged on the Multichoice system.
“I produced my receipt from Makro, but my service remained suspended,” Mogale says.
“But why didn’t the fraud department contact me to discuss the issue before suspending my service, not only on the “flagged” decoder, but both of them, leaving me with no DSTV at all?
“And why was there no alert put on my account, so that anyone in the call centre could have helped me with accurate information instead of repeatedly fobbing me off?”
A Multichoice spokesman told In Your Corner that Mogale’s “flagged” decoder was one of 50 decoders stolen from Home of Living Brands, which has opened a case of theft at a Pretoria police station.
So how did he come to buy a stolen decoder from Makro?
Well, he didn’t.
“The serial number on the Makro receipt he presented to us is different from that of the second decoder which was installed in his home,” the Multichoice spokesman said.
“Mr Mogale used an independent installer, not accredited by MultiChoice, to install his new decoder.
“It appears decoders were swapped during the installation.”
That news floored Mogale, who has used that installer’s services for many years.
“His bakkie has Multichoice’s stickers on it,” he said.
But Multichoice says that is no guarantee that an installer is accredited.
The only way to be sure is to check the list of accredited installers on DSTV’s website. (See below)
Naturally, I asked Multichoice what had become of the other 49 stolen decoders.
“We are aware of some of the decoders but at this time we cannot give further details that might compromise the ongoing investigation,” the spokesman said. When the investigation would wrap up, she couldn’t say.
As compensation for the run-around Mogale got when trying to get to the bottom of why his service had been suspended, Multichoice is to reimburse him for the second decoder he bought to replace the stolen one.
“We would like to apologise for the type of service he received.
“This is not the kind of experience we expect our customers to receive. We appreciate his feedback and have taken the necessary steps to ensure that our customers do not experience this type of service again,” the spokesman said.
WHAT TO DO:
ENSURE that you get a Multichoice- accredited installer to do the job.
Why?
Because they have to comply with Multichoice’s high standards of workmanship and code of conduct and if you have a problem, Multichoice steps in to mediate a resolution.
To find one in your area, go to , click on “Service” and then on “Need Installation”.
CONTACT:
E-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za Twitter: @wendyknowler
WELL, sadly, as a number of food scandals – think donkey meat – have revealed, not in every case.
So how do we, as consumers, find out if those soya sausages really are GMO-free, or whether the claim that a cheese is made with organic milk stands up to scrutiny?
Enter TOPIC (Testing of Products Initiated by Consumers), the Cape-based product testing organisation. Led and funded by consumers, it aims to protect consumers from false claims and mislabelling, as in the recent case of the La Chocolatier chocolate slabs, where the “no sugar” claim was not borne out by laboratory tests funded by TOPIC.
Apart from sporadic testing by universities for academic purposes, where there is a reluctance or refusal to name the products tested, there is no systematic testing of products by any government body to protect the consumer, says TOPIC spokesman Peter Becker.
Organic and free range products are almost completely unregulated, so TOPIC aims to fill the gap and check the claims.
If you would like TOPIC to test a specific product’s claims, then nominate it on their website at:
www.topic.org.za.
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