MOBILE TELEPHONE NETWORKS (PROPRIETARY) LIMITED

(Incorporated in South Africa, Registration No. 1993/001436/07)

Physical Address:216 - 14th Avenue Fairland, Roodepoort 2195

Postal Address:Private Bag 9955 Cresta 2118 South Africa

Tel:+27 11 912 3000

Fax:+27 11 912 3131

26°09'02.0"S 27°55'55.7"E

MTN Code of Conduct

1 Purpose

The MTN Code of Conduct sets out your rights as a customer and the conduct that you can expect from us.

Our Code follows regulations (Notice 1740 of 2007) as prescribed by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) in terms of Sections 4 and 69(1) of the Electronic Communications Act 36 of 2005.

2 Availability and language

The Code of Conduct is displayed at our MTN stores and is also available on our website, www.mtn.co.za. You may request a printed or electronic copy in Zulu, South Sotho or Afrikaans as well.

3 Your rights

You have numerous rights in terms of our services, including the right:
 

• to equality and non-discrimination;
• to choose a service provider and the service that you require;
• to accurate information that is accessible and understandable;
• to receive information in your preferred official language;
• to access your records and information, and ask questions about it;
• to have your personal data protected, including the right not to have it sold without your permission;
• to keep your number when you change service providers, subject to certain regulations; and
• to complain and to have your complaints addressed.

4 Our commitment

We promise to:
 

• make sure that all services and products are as specified in our licence;
• comply with all laws and regulations;
• use plain and understandable language in our contracts;
• be courteous, fair, reasonable and responsible in all our dealings with you;
• not discriminate against you;
• give you accurate information about our services and pricing, and, on request, advise you according to your needs;
• protect and keep your personal information confidential (see below); and
• make a copy of our complaints procedure available to you.

5 Confidentiality of your personal information

We respect the confidentiality of your personal information and will use this information only for the purpose permitted or required.

We will only release your personal information, such as credit checks or itemised billing data, to a third party:
 

• when you give us permission to do so or an instruction in writing;
• in terms of any applicable law;
• when directed by a court order;
• to audit our accounts; and
• when collecting debts from you. In this case, we will release your information to an accredited collection agency.

6 Our range of services and tariffs

Details of our range of services and tariffs appear on our website. You can also request this information at any of our stores.

The details of any new service, including price, are submitted to ICASA within 30 (thirty) calendar days of commencing the service. Such details will also be made available to you on our website, at our stores and in marketing material.

We will not offer, present or market a service, or its price, in a manner that is misleading.

7 Your service contract

Your service contract comprises:
 

• Your application form;
• The standard MTN terms and conditions;
• The terms and conditions of the package option and the price plan that you have chosen;
• Your application form for value-added services (VAS);
• The terms and conditions of VAS;
• Your customer pick-up document (CPD);
• Your application form for international roaming and calling (if applicable);
• The migration addendum (if you apply to migrate to another service or plan); and
• MTN’s privacy policy.

The terms and conditions mentioned above are available on our website and at any MTN store.

You will receive a copy of the terms and conditions when you conclude a contract with us. If the contract is concluded telephonically, you will receive a copy within seven (7) business days.

We will notify you of our intention to change terms and conditions at least 20 (twenty) business days before the change comes into effect.

8 Our billing and payment procedures

Our billing and payment procedures appear in the standard MTN terms and conditions and on your bill. Please note that if you have any query about your bill, you must take it up with us within 30 (thirty) calendar days from the date on the bill. See also "Our complaints procedure'' below.

9 Credit checks

All new contract applications are subject to credit checks. Our agents will explain the details at the point of contracting.

10 Our complaints procedure

Our Customer Complaints Procedure and the MTN Service Charter explain how and where you may lodge a complaint. These documents are available on our website and at any MTN store.

For billing complaints, we will apply the following principles:
 

• We will notify you of the results of our investigation and our final decision within 14 (fourteen) calendar days of receiving your complaint.
• Until we have notified you, we will not:

o disconnect your service,

o impose penalties or charge interest on the outstanding disputed amount, or

o appoint an agency to collect the outstanding disputed amount.

• We will still require you to pay the undisputed portion of the bill in terms of our normal payment procedures.

11 Promotions and advertising

All our marketing material complies with the South African Advertising Standards Authority's Code of Conduct and any other applicable Codes that may be developed for the electronic communications sector.

12 Defective products

Your customer pick-up document includes the details of your product warranty and what to do if the product is defective.

13 Non-compliance with this Code of Conduct

If we do not comply with this Code of Conduct, you may lodge a complaint with ICASA.

ICASA’s contact details are:

Tel: 011 566 3000

Fax: 011 444 1919

Email: consumer@icasa.org.za

14 Contact us

You are welcome to contact us on:
 

• 135 (from a cell phone) for prepaid service queries, or
• 808 (from a cell phone) or 083 135 (from a landline) for postpaid service queries.

You may also visit our website, www.mtn.co.za, for more information, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

MTN customer service charter

This customer service charter expresses MTN’s commitment to deliver outstanding service to customers, stakeholders and the community. It outlines the service you can expect and the standards by which you can measure our performance.

Consumer rights

You enjoy numerous rights, including the right:
 

• not to be discriminated against;
• to be provided with your required service;
• to select your own service provider;
• to receive information in your own language;
• to access and question records and information we hold;
• to have your personal data protected;
• not to have your personal data sold without your permission;
• to port your number, subject to certain regulations; and
• to complain and seek redress.

Specific commitments

MTN will:
 

• act fairly, reasonably and responsibly in all our dealings;
• make sure that all services and products are as specified in our licence;
• comply with all laws and regulations;
• not discriminate against anyone on any listed or arbitrary ground;
• be courteous and inform you about our services and pricing;
• guide you regarding your needs, if you ask us to do so; and
• protect and keep your personal information confidential;

Awareness and compliance

This Charter is on our website and will be displayed at service outlets.

Call centre

Our call centre numbers are 808 for post-paid and 135 for pre-paid. We answer your calls within 3 minutes and these calls are free from any MTN number. We can also assist you in a number of languages. If you have a disability, you may use alternative methods to contact us; for example by contacting us via direct message if you are hearing impaired.

Contractual terms

When you sign up for a contract with us we must provide you with the following information, unless it is irrelevant and then we will inform you accordingly: 
 

• Deposit.
• Connection fee.
• Administrative fees.
• Insurance costs.
• In and out-of-bundle rates.
• Hardware costs.
• Possibility of tariff changes during the contract term. You can find this in clause X of your contract.
• Rules for early termination of a contract prior to expiry of the contract term. You can find this in clause X of your contract.
• Rules for the carry-over of voice minutes and data.
• Fair usage policies.
• Date and period of invoicing.

Promotions

We will provide you with the following information:
 

• terms and conditions, including eligibility and fair usage policies;
• duration;
• obligations of the end-user on expiry; and
• all applicable fees associated therewith.

International roaming

When you activate the roaming service we will send you the relevant terms and conditions, which you can also access on our website.

We will also SMS a welcome message to you and the following information may be accessed via a USSD string, which we will provide to you:
 

• call centre contact details;
• voicemail retrieval number and applicable rates;
• roaming networks available;
• charges applicable to incoming and outgoing voice, data services and SMS's; and
• terms and conditions for roaming.

Itemised bill

It so requested we will provide a post-paid itemised bill with the following information:
 

• bundled calls (i.e. inclusive voice minutes of an end-user's tariff plan), specifying for each call, "0 cents" for in-bundle calls, date, time, duration and recipient number;
• calls incurring a charge, specifying for each call, date, time, duration, recipient number and cost;
• bundled SMS' (i.e. inclusive SMS' of end-user's tariff plan), specifying for each SMS, "0" cents for in-bundle SMS' date, time and recipient number;
• SMS' incurring charges, specifying charges applicable, date, time and recipient number;
• in-bundle data (i.e. inclusive data of an end-user's tariff plan), specified for each data session, "0" cents for in-bundle data, date, time and, the total data used;
• out-of-bundle data specifying charges applicable date, time and total data used;
• any additional charges incurred by the end-user shall be listed in the "detailed itemised bill"; and
• applicable billing period with clear start and end dates.

You will also be able to access and retrieve this information online. Please enquire at our stores or call centre. We may recover our costs from you for retrieving itemised billing.

Provision of pre-paid usage report

If so requested we will provide pre-paid itemised billing after validating and confirming that you are the end-user registered to the pre-paid sim-card. Within 14 days we will e-mail, or post if so requested, the itemised bill to you. Please remember itemised billing records are only kept for 3 months. We may recover our costs from you for retrieving itemised billing.

Your prior acceptance and consent is required for out-of-bundle rates. Even if you accept out-of-bundle rates you can opt out at any stage. You may opt in at any stage if you decided not to be billed at out-of-bundle rates. We will also require your acceptance and consent before subscribing to any third party services.

Service upgrades

Interruptions may result from planned service or system upgrades. We will notify affected end-users via SMS and on our website at least 7 days beforehand and again a day before such interruption.

Quality of service

We will measure the availability of the network and quality of service regularly and report to ICASA every 6 months using the following parameters:

Availability of electronic communications network service (ECNS) and electronic communications service (ECS)

Time to active services

Fault clearance

Further parameters

Rebate

You are entitled to a rebate if you have not received contractual services for which you have already paid. This will only apply if MTN falls below the prescribed quality of service measurement for availability of services, which is 95% averaged over a period of 6 months.

The rebate is limited to the days of service lost and will be pro-rated against your monthly subscription. We also offer a reconnect service for dropped calls at no additional cost. You are unlikely to know that your call has been dropped. Please note that if your call is dropped it may be the fault of the other network you are communicating with, or due to circumstances beyond our control.

Complaints and handling process

All complaints must first be lodged with us and not ICASA.

The point of entry and procedure for lodging complaints is available on our website, display boards at all our service outlets, on invoices for post-paid end-users and any alternate platforms available to pre-paid end-users. To the extent that we do not have service outlets, you may contact our call centre.

If you lodge a billing complaint we will still require you to pay subscription fees and any undisputed contractual charges. But until the complaint is resolved we will not: 
 

• suspend your service; nor
• appoint any agency to collect any outstanding amounts from you; nor
• impose penalties or charge interest on the disputed unpaid portion of the bill.

We will confirm receipt of complaints within 48 hours and allocate a reference number. We will inform you of the number telephonically, via text or e-mail. We will do our best to resolve all complaints within 14 days of receipt.

You may only lodge complaints with ICASA if you dispute the outcome of our resolution of the complaint, or if we fail to respond, or do not adequately respond, to the complaint within 14 days. ICASA’s details are: telephone 011 566 3000; telefax: 011 444 1919 or e-mail: consumer@icasa.org.za.

ICASA will consider a complaint closed if you are satisfied with the outcome of our proposed resolution, or after the complaint has been referred to ICASA’s ADR Committee and has been closed by the ADR Chairperson in writing.

Disputed complaints lodged with ICASA

Receipt of any complaint referred to us by ICASA will be confirmed in writing within 48 hours and resolved within 14 days of receipt. We will inform ICASA in writing how the complaint was resolved.

Impossibility of performance

Circumstances beyond our control may result in outages making it impossible to provide you with service for more than 2 hours. We will notify ICASA in writing and issue a public notice to affected end-users as soon as we know about such outages. We will also indicate when the service is expected to be restored.

We will report to ICASA details of the event/s that made it impossible to perform. With regard to the outage the report will include the cause, steps taken to minimise a repeat, if applicable, and steps taken to inform end-users.

click here for MTN Code of Conduct Sesotho

click here for MTN Code of Conduct isiZulu

click here for MTN Gedragskode

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