By Williams Anuku, Abuja
A law firm with head office in Ibadan, Oyo State, Zion Chambers has dragged Multichoice Nigeria to court for refusal to renew its subscription after payment has been made.
The law firm also accused Multichoice of outrageous billing of its customers without proper information to allow them plan for alternative.
It is also demanding that the company should pay damages of N5 million for barring them from accessing any programme after making necessary payment that was required.
In a letter dated 7th of July 2020, sent to the Managing Director of Multichoice, Nigeria by the Law Firm with the title; “Demand for Apology And Compensation For Refusal To Renew subscription after Payment Was Made”, indicates that they paid for DSTV subscription on 30th of June and till date can not access any program.
The petitioner also warned that they would forward the petition to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection (FCCPC) for report of unfair dealings of Multichoice company’s services and eventually to Court of Law for redress if the matter was not treated appropriately within a week.
Part of the petition reads, “I write to inform you that on 30th of June 2020, our Principal in Chambers who is a customer of your Company for over ten years, using decoder No: 411… in our law firm paid for DSTV subscription through his Fidelity Bank APP, as it was his usual practice. On logging in to his bank APP, he went through the make a Bill payment to the category and he chose Cable TV and chose biller as DSTV subscription.
“He checked for the available plans under the DSTV subscription and realized that the plan he paid for a month before ” ACCESS” at the price of N1900 was no longer available. He chose from the displayed plan “XTRAVIEW ACCESS” which was listed for the price of N2,255 and he paid for the subscription.
“Till the time of writing this letter, the office decoder’s subscription remain unrenewed, thereby barring us from accessing any program on our decoder.
“In view of the above, we hereby demand for adequate compensation for your refusal to renew our subscription after we have done our part of making the payment for the available ACCESS as displayed”, the letter reads.
Prior to the letter, the Chambers effort to remedy the situation was rebuffed by DSTV staffs leaving the chambers with no other alternative than to go to court.
