Durban - Operations at a Durban-based logistics company ground to a halt this week after the cellphones of its chief executive officer, senior managers and sales representatives were cut off because of a six-month dispute over payment of a separate data account.
Eskan Investments CC, which has 100 trucks operating in South Africa and a turnover of about R90 million a year, secured a Durban High Court order on Wednesday compelling MTN to immediately switch back on the seven cellphones.
“The business of the applicant as well as banking and access control is operated through these phones. And it is imperative that our employees are in communication with each other,” company owner Sharon Singh said in an affidavit which came before Judge Anton van Zyl on Wednesday.
MTN did not oppose the order and the matter was adjourned until late November.
Singh said the contract was for one gigabyte of data at a monthly subscription of R79, with a cash “top-up option”.
Until April this year, MTN had sent monthly invoices for R79 but in May the invoice suddenly jumped to more than R28 000.
A manager went to MTN’s offices and was told the complaint would be “escalated to head office”. A reference number was allocated, but there was never any feedback.
The following month an invoice for R78 000 was received. This time Eskan’s accountant took the matter up in an e-mail to MTN.
The response came from a credit controller who said there had been a “high usage alert” recorded. She advised she would log a billing query.
But again there was no follow-up and, at the end of June, the accountant asked for details of senior officials he could contact.
He was advised that MTN was “experiencing challenges due to a strike”, the call centre was closed and he must wait for the outcome of the query already logged.
In July the bill was for more than R8 600. The accountant again made “numerous follow-ups”. He put in writing that he had paid for all the cellphone bills but not the data usage “under query”.
The manager again went to MTN’s offices where he was told the query had been “re-escalated”.
At the end of August and again in September, MTN suspended all the phones but reconnected them after the company complained.
Singh said to date MTN had not provided any response to the query, nor had it given a breakdown of the data usage.
“Surprisingly for the months of August and September, the invoices again correctly reflected the R79. But then last Thursday the phones were again suspended.”
Singh went to her attorney, who sent an urgent letter to MTN threatening court action. The attorney received a “computer-generated response” on Monday advising that the query would be responded to in eight working hours, but by Wednesday there had been no response.
Advocate Megan Konigkramer, who represented Eskan, said the disputed amount of about R115 000 had been paid into a trust account as security so there could be no prejudice to MTN if the company were ultimately found liable to pay for the data usage.
Fusi Mokoena, general manager at MTN SA, said on Wednesday: “MTN acknowledges it has received a court order to reconnect the seven SIM cards. The court order was granted in absentia as the court documents were not served at MTN’s head office. It looks like the court documents were served at an MTN office in Mount Edgecombe, which is not acquainted with handling of court papers. We have reconnected the SIM cards and MTN will present its case in court on November 20.”
The Mercury
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