A company whose own inefficiency becomes the customer's burden to bear

Dear HelloPeter community, In this review, I aim to share my experience with Blue Label, highlighting the extreme ongoing challenges that I have had to face, as a result of their disorganization and sloppiness, and why none of you should ever consider using their services. On the 13th of August 2025, I paid my Eskom postpaid electricity bill, using the EasyPay option at my local Spar store. The payment was approved, and came off my bank account. A week later, I noticed that my Eskom account balance had not changed, signaling that the recipient had not received my payment. I contacted Eskom, followed by EasyPay, and was notified that due to ‘Blu bill payment’ having processed my payment, I should contact them. Upon contacting Blue Label, I was asked to go back to Spar, as they would need to initiate the process of my claim. I did so, and the Spar employee was so extremely helpful in lodging my claim. Blue Label subsequently responded, and stated that it would take six to twelve weeks for feedback to be provided. I find this turn-around time shocking, and a complete slap in the face to the consumer! I did not do anything wrong, yet I am the one being punished and penalized for an issue with their payment system. I went to Spar, paid my Eskom bill in full, well in advance of when it was due, and their system failed to do what their company claims to provide, and now I am the one that has to deal with the consequences of their failure. I have spent a ton of airtime contacting call centers to be assisted in rectifying this issue. Furthermore, I have had to drive up and down to the said Spar store, which is not in a town that I reside in. I have spent endless hours, out of my working time, to seek assistance (unsuccessfully) for this problem. I have dealt with excessive levels of stress and anxiety, by being passed from one *********** person to the next, with no resolution in sight. And above all else, with every single day that this company takes in the next three months to actually resolve this issue, I will be charged interest by Eskom, for having an account in arrears, unless I pay my August bill for a second time! To date, not a single employee has apologized to me for the problem with Blue Label’s evidently defunct payment system. Instead, I am supposed to be grateful and delighted that they will look into my complaint in six to twelve weeks time! Well, unfortunately for them, they chose the absolute wrong person to try to snooker, as I do not take being h o o d w i n k e d and s c a m m e d lying down. Whilst they twiddle their thumbs supposedly trying to resolve my complaint over the next three months, and search for loopholes to justify taking my money and then not paying the service provider, I will be seeking legal advice, contacting consumer journalist Wendy Knowler and the National Consumer Commission (to report on what is clearly a gross violation of consumer rights), and I will not be silenced from reporting my appalling experience with this company on both social and print media. To others, who have been done dirty by this company, I implore you to follow suit and to expose them. I do not expect anything to come off this review regarding my own claim, as this company clearly displays a blatant disregard for their consumers. The sole reason that I have decided to write this in-depth review is to directly address and to warn people about them, so that you too won’t fall into the trap that I have. To the ordinary South African citizen, I urge you to do yourself a favor by never using Blu bill payment to pay your bills. This company will take your money in an instant, not pay the targeted recipient, and then drag the process of solving their error, without any consideration that your account is overdue and incurring interest due to their negligence and snail-paced resolution process, and with no ounce of empathy for the untold stress (both emotionally and financially) that this would cause you. Put yourself in this situation were suddenly you have to find extra money to repay for a service that you’ve already paid for, just to avoid having that service being cut entirely! To existing and potential retailers and corporate clients of Blue Label, please do not put your customers through the hassles that I am currently enduring by using this company as your digital payment provider. They purport to be about customer centricity, accountability, and convenience, yet they are anything but this! My unfortunate story with them should serve as a cautionary tale to you all.