A Pretoria pensioner claims more than R30 000 was debited from her account this past year without her consent - and she’s fuming.
Mercy Chabangu, 65, from Atteridgeville believes she has fallen victim to a scam that started with a phone call in February from someone identifying themselves as working for Hotel Express International, a travel and accommodation company.
She said the consultants offered her a membership package for pensioners and went as far as confirming the first six numbers of her credit card.
Not knowing better, she confirmed the rest of her credit card digits to the consultant.
“It sounded like a great offer because of the prospect of travelling in the future. I told the consultant that I would think about it,” Chabangu said.
Barely 30 minutes after she received the call, she saw that R3 750 had been debited from her account.
“I phoned them immediately and asked them to cancel the debit order as I had not given them permission to debit money from my account.
“I didn’t even sign papers with them,” she said.
In a panic, she cancelled her credit card with her bank, Standard Bank, and asked for the debit order to be reversed. But a month later another amount of R3 500 was debited from her account.
Since that February, monthly deductions have taken place and her attempts to stop the debits with both Standard Bank and Hotel Express International have been fruitless, she said.
“I’ve been passed from one person to another everywhere I go. No one is giving me the answers I need. I can’t even afford car insurance.
“How is it that a pensioner like me would agree to pay R3 750 a month for something that is not tangible?
“They have no regard for people’s money or lives. They have made my life a living nightmare. All I want from them is to stop the debits and pay me back my money,” she said.
Hotel Express International has a bad reputation. Complaints site Hello Peter is full of complaints about non-delivery and bad service by the company.
Hotel Express International, however, has denied it has a debit order on Chabangu’s account, despite her bank statements showing otherwise.
“There is no Hotel Express debit order on the client’s account that we have initiated.
“We have lodged her claim regarding this query with our bankers for clarification and are awaiting their response,” customer service manager Zelma Erasmus initially told the Saturday Star.
Erasmus, however, later changed her tune and said there was an initial debit transaction in favour of Hotel Express International on February 24, but claimed there was a credit reversal four days later.
Erasmus added:
“Mrs Chabangu needs to resolve this query with her bank. We have also requested assistance from her bank, Standard Bank.”
Standard Bank spokesman Erik Larsen said:
“The only recourse Chabangu has is to take up the matter with the merchant or lay a charge with the SA Police Service. It must be remembered that banks are not party to debit-order agreements concluded between customers and their creditors.”
Larsen said the SA Reserve Bank, the Payments Association of South Africa and the banking sector were working toward putting in place additional rules to stop the abuse of debit orders by rogue creditors and debt collectors.
Saturday Star