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

You have numerous rights in terms of our services, these include:

1.    The right to equality and non-discrimination; 

2.    The right to choose a service provider and the service that you require; 

3.    The right to accurate information that is accessible and understandable; 

4.    The right to receive information in your preferred official language; 

5.    The right to access your records and information, and ask questions about it; 

6.    The right to have your personal data protected, including the right not to have it sold or shared with a third party without your permission; 

7.    The right to keep your number when you change service providers, subject to certain regulations; and 

8.    The right to complain and to have your complaints heard and addressed.

MTN promises to:

1.    Make sure that all services and products are provided as specified in our licence; 

2.    Comply with all laws and regulations; 

3.    Use plain and understandable language in our contracts; 

4.    Be courteous, fair, reasonable and responsible in all our dealings with you, the customer; 

5.    Not discriminate against you; 

6.    Give you accurate information about our services and pricing, and, on request, advise you according to your needs; 

7.    Protect and keep your personal information confidential; and 

8.    Make a copy of our complaints procedure available to you.
 

This Charter is on our website and a copy will be available at all MTN stores. 

Our call centre number is 135 (from a cell phone).
We will answer your calls within three (3) minutes and these calls are free from any MTN number. We can also assist you in a number of languages. You can also contact us via Facebook, Twitter or email at customercare@mtn.com. 
 

When you sign up for a contract with us, we must provide you with the following information:

1.    The terms and conditions of the contract, including:

•    Deposit;
•    Connection fee;
•    Administrative fees;
•    Insurance costs;
•    In- and out-of-bundle rates;
•    The cost of your device and other hardware; 
•    The possibility that tariffs might change during the contract term; 
•    Rules for terminating a contract before the contract term expires; 
•    Rules to carry voice minutes and data over to the next month;
•    Fair usage policies;
•    The date on which you will be invoiced and the date on which your debit order will be processed.

If any of the above is not applicable to you, we will inform you accordingly. 

2.    Our complaints procedure.
 

If a product is on promotion, or it is a promotional product, we must provide you with the following information:

1.    The terms and conditions of the promotion, including eligibility and fair usage policies; 

2.    The duration of the promotion; 

3.    The obligations of the customer on expiry of the promotion; and 

4.    All applicable fees associated with the promotion.
 

When you activate the roaming service, we will SMS you a welcome message and send you the relevant terms and conditions via SMS or email. You can also access the terms and conditions on our website. 

The following information may be accessed via a USSD string, which we will provide to you:

1.    Call centre contact details; 

2.    Voicemail retrieval number and applicable rates; 

3.    Roaming networks available; 

4.    Charges applicable to incoming and outgoing voice calls, data services and SMSs; and 

5.    Terms and conditions for roaming.

If requested, we will provide a post-paid itemised bill with the following information:

1.    The applicable billing period with clear start and end dates; 

2.    For in-bundle calls (i.e. inclusive voice minutes): date, time, duration, recipient number and cost per call;

3.    For out-of-bundle calls (i.e. calls incurring a charge): date, time, duration, recipient number and cost per call;

4.    For in-bundle SMS messages: date, time, recipient number and cost per SMS; 

5.    For out-of-bundle SMS messages: date, time, recipient number and cost per SMS; 

6.    For in-bundle data: date, time, total data used and cost; 

7.    For out-of-bundle data: date, time, total data used and cost and

8.    Any additional charges that you incur.

You will also be able to access and retrieve this information online. Please enquire at our stores or call centre. We may charge you for retrieving the itemised bill. Please note that itemised billing records are only kept for three (3) months. 

If you request it, we will provide an itemised bill for a prepaid service after validating and confirming that you are the end-user registered to the prepaid SIM card. You can request a prepaid itemised bill by sending an SMS to 30988 with your email address and following the prompts. We will email or mail you the itemised bill within 14 days of your request. Please remember that itemised billing records are only kept for three (3) months. We may charge you for retrieving the itemised bill. 

When using voice and SMS bundles, we will send you notifications when you have depleted 50%, 80% and 100% of your bundle. You may opt out of receiving these notifications on the MTN App or by calling our call centre. 

If you use a post-paid or TopUp service, you may opt out of out-of-bundle charges for voice and SMS services. This means that you will need to load new bundles once your voice or SMS bundle is depleted before you can continue using the service. 
You may continue to use free services such as emergency numbers or the toll-free customer care line, and you will continue to receive calls or SMSs.
 

When using data bundles, we will send you notifications when you have depleted 50%, 80% and 100% of your data bundle. You may opt out of receiving these notifications on the MTN App or by calling our call centre.

We will not charge you out-of-bundle rates unless you specifically agree to pay out-of-bundle rates. If you do not agree to pay out-of-bundle rates, you will be blocked from using data services after depleting your data bundle. This means that you will need to load new data bundles before you can continue using the service. 

We may charge you after depleting your data bundle if you did not choose to opt in or opt out of out-of-bundle. In this case we will charge you an in-bundle rate until the expiry date of your bundle. 
You can change your out-of-bundle settings by calling our call centre or via the MTN App. 
 

You have the option to roll over unused data bundles before the expiry date. This option is available on a variety of products. You can identify the option by checking the carry-over rules in the terms and conditions. Data bundles with the oldest expiry date will always be applied first if you have multiple data bundles. Promotional data bundles may not be carried over. If you are unsure, please call the call centre or visit an MTN store for advice. 

You have the option to transfer your unused data bundles to other MTN customers. This option is available on a variety of products. You can identify the option by checking the data share rules in the terms and conditions. If you are unsure, please call the call centre or visit an MTN store for advice.
 

Interruptions may result from planned service or system upgrades. We will notify affected customers via SMS and on our website and social media channels at least seven (7) days beforehand and again a day before such interruption. You may opt out of receiving the SMS notifications. 

We may conduct educational awareness campaigns to teach you how to use your smartphone, manage your data usage on our products, and about cybersecurity and the protection of personal information.

We may also send you consumer advice and important information if requested by ICASA. 
 

We measure the availability of the network and the quality of service regularly and report to ICASA every six (6) months using the following parameters: 
Availability of electronic communications network service (ECNS) and electronic communications service (ECS) 

 

Time to install and activate services

Fault clearance

Further parameters

You are entitled to a rebate if you have not received contractual services for which you have already paid. This does not include interrupted services due to circumstances beyond our control, such as loadshedding. This will only apply if the availability of MTN’s service was less than 95%, averaged over a period of six (6) months. 

The rebate is limited to the days the service was unavailable and will be subtracted from your monthly subscription proportionally. 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, or circumstances beyond our control. 
 

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

Our Customer Complaints Procedure is available on our website and at any MTN store. 

If you lodge a billing complaint, we will still require you to pay subscription fees and any undisputed contractual charges. If you have paid subscription fees and any undisputed contractual charges, we will not:

1.    Suspend your services; 
2.    Appoint an agency to collect any outstanding amounts from you; or 
3.    Impose penalties or charge interest on the disputed unpaid portion of the bill;
until the dispute is resolved. 

We will confirm receipt of complaints within 48 hours and allocate a reference number. We will inform you of the number telephonically, or via SMS or email. 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 contact details are: 
Fax: 012 568 3444
Website: https://www.icasa.org.za/pages/lodge-a-complaint
Email: 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. 
 

We will confirm receipt of any complaint referred to us by ICASA in writing within 48 hours and resolve it within 14 days of receipt. We will inform ICASA in writing as to how the complaint was resolved. 

Outages due to circumstances beyond our control may result in a disruption of service of more than two (2) hours. We will notify ICASA in writing and issue a public notice to affected customers as soon as we know about such outages. We will also indicate when the service is expected to be restored. 
We will report the details of the event that led to the disruption of services to ICASA. The report will include the cause, steps taken to mitigate the risk in future, and steps taken to inform customers.