Customers Rain on mobile network provider’s parade

Many of internet provider Rain’s customers are unhappy and venting their anger on social media.

Poor service and double or triple debiting

Accusations include poor service and double, sometimes even triple, debiting for subscriptions.

“I have been double-debited,” said customer Hunter Leite, who brought the billing challenge to The Citizen’s attention.

“One charge after the other for the same subscription amount and despite trying to reach out to Rain’s call centre several times, the hold is forever.”

Another client posted her statements on a Facebook group called Rain Issues and Solutions, showing multiple debits on her account for a single service in January, while another upgraded his service and has ended up paying for both the discontinued and the same service since December.

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At a glance, eight Rain clients have posted on social media this week about double-debiting, billing errors and the quality of service.

Not official complaints channel

However, Rain Complaints and Solutions on Facebook, has 60 000 members, yet it is not an official complaints channel.

The company does respond relatively quickly to clients on its own page, but with a form letter which does not indicate whether the problem was solved.

When The Citizen approached Rain, the company’s spokesperson, Jerome Touze, was quick off the mark to make contact and investigate customer complaints.

“I asked the team to run an investigation this morning and can confirm that there are no glitches in our system causing double debits,” said Touze.

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“We understand that some customers may still raise billing queries.

“In many cases, customers reporting multiple debits may have outstanding invoices.

“However, we acknowledge that system glitches can occur, and we would never shy away from our responsibilities in addressing them,” he added.

The complaints page on Facebook has seen happy customers rush to Rain’s defence in the absence of an official presence on the unofficial group.

“I have been with Rain for several years and I rate them 10 out of 10,” said a clearly happy customer.

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On the flipside, the opposing view suggests naming and shaming.

Naming and shaming

As one annoyed client wrote: “Your best bet to get anything sorted out with Rain is to post this whole post you’ve done on [review platform] Hellopeter,” she wrote.

“Promise you, not even an hour and problem solved… I don’t even call customer care, [just] post on Hellopeter give, them zero stars and my problem gets sorted ASAP.”

“We are certainly aware of customer comments on social media, admitted Touze.

“And whilst we always strive for quick and efficient responses, I do recognise that we could do better at personalising those responses in public forums. Over the past 12 months, we have dedicated significant resources to enhance our social media monitoring and engagement efforts.

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“As evidence of our commitment to customer satisfaction, Rain consistently scores the highest among all other telcos in reviews and trust indices.”

Contact Touze personally with complaints

In a further vote of confidence in the company’s ability to leave everyone smiling, Touze invited all unhappy clients with billing challenges to contact him personally via his e-mail address.

“I would like to invite them to get in touch with me directly [jerome@rainco.za] and I give you my personal and professional commitment to ensuring that each one of them is attended to with care and utmost attention.”