MultiChoice says the issues were caused by the migration and have been addressed.
Former Showmax subscribers have taken to X to complain about October bills far higher than the R99 they signed up for. Picture: iStock
Former Showmax subscribers who signed up for DStv’s R99-a-month, 12-month offer for DStv Stream say they have been left staring at bills several times higher than the price they were promised, with the problem surfacing when they tried to settle their accounts for October.
Over the past week, a stream of customers have taken to social media (mostly X) to say the promotional price has vanished from their accounts, replaced by amounts ranging from just under R400 to well over R1 000.
Same offer, wildly different bills
Duduzile (@ngubeni82) said on 3 October that she took up the R99 price lock offer for DStv Stream, but when she tried to pay, the system asked for R389. “That’s not what I signed up for and the 1 year is not up,” she wrote.
She is far from alone. Ntsakisi Malele (@NtsakisiMalele) asked DStv on 2 October to explain how she had subscribed to the R99 promotion for a year after the Showmax takeover, only to receive a bill of R389.32 that included a Stream Sport subscription she says she knows nothing about.
Another user, Palesa (@heiresspc), said she woke up to a R369 bill, adding that consultants told her the promotion had been discontinued. On 1 October, a user going by @khanyiekhanyo said the R99.99 Compact OTT promotion had been promised for 12 months, yet prices had suddenly changed to R399.99.
Others report even steeper amounts. Tonderai Majuru (@MajuruTonderai) said her billing system showed she owed R1 148, claiming DStv “unilaterally cancelled” her Compact subscription, put her on a Sports subscription, and hiked her account. A user posting as @_Pully said she was being billed R800 despite signing up for Compact for 12 months at R99 as a former Showmax account holder.
A user known as J A Y (@Boyizenz) said he was on the R100 promotion for DStv Compact when a name change came through, and he was suddenly on Sports, with his promotional subscription gone. “When I call the call centre, nobody can assist,” he wrote.
Back and forth with customer care
Several customers describe a frustrating loop of calls and online chat messages to customer care. Some say they eventually got the issue resolved. Others, including myself, have had no such luck.
MultiChoice offered former Showmax customers the R99-per-month deal for DStv Stream as a retention and transition strategy following the decision to shut down the streaming platform.
I signed up for the promotion ahead of the official Showmax shutdown on 30 April, and when I opened the email prompt to settle my account this month, I received a bill of R1 032. I queried this online with others experiencing the same issue and was directed to contact DStv Chat.
There, I was instructed to pay the R99 on the spot to keep the deal active, which I did, and was later informed that my deal could no longer be honoured because I did not pay the amount on the first of the month. Despite paying the amount customer care instructed me to, I am still not receiving the service I paid for, and my request for a refund has not been processed at the time of writing. The matter has been escalated.
MultiChoice responds
In a statement shared with The Citizen, MultiChoice said the R99 offer for eligible former Showmax customers is still in place, with customers being moved to the new DStv Sports package at the same price and on the same terms.
“Some customers experienced issues during the migration, which have since been addressed,” the company said. “If any customers are still experiencing issues with the offer, we encourage them to contact DStv Customer Care for assistance.”
However, no verified contact details for DStv Customer Care have been shared.
