[issybird]

Just throwing this out there; a WAG on my part.

Could the issue be the OP’s location in South Africa? I know some countries don’t (or at least didn’t) sell ad-supported Kindles at all. But if there’s no local supply of international/South Africa-specific Kindles and they’re imported from elsewhere, they might come from the manufacturer with ads. And then perhaps there’s no faculty to remove ads from a Kindle in SA because they’re not supposed to have ads in the first place….

Hence, the “you will not be charged” that ends up doing nothing. That is, a device that fell between the cracks.