Pathetic service for LTE simcard activation

I ordered a Telkom sim card through Afrihost and because of all the holidays received the delivery on Friday 27th December at 8h15. I send a whatsapp at 8h50 and was talking to Thabiso D that told me to place the sim in the router. I asked what is the Profile and APN settings on which he/she answered it's automatic. This is absolute nonsense as I am using my own router and each sim needs to be set up. He/she said it will take 48 hours from delivery to be activated. I was very frustrated as I have had service from other companies that activates the sim within minutes.

I send another whatsapp at 9h29 asking for the settings again - this time I spoke to Rhulani N that stated no - it is MTN that takes 48 hours - not Telkom. He/she send me the settings and told me to Hold when I told him/her the router is still red. I got a phone call and because I didn't get back fast enough - I was dropped by Rhulani and spoke to Ziphozihle B. This person ask AGAIN for my ID and asked when I receved the router... (I would think they have access to my profile - they can see previous correspondence as well as WHAT I ORDERED)... He/She said it takes UP TO 24 HOURS to activate automatically. He/she said it will send a sms to my phone stating the card is activated. Ziphozihle B said and I quote "The SIM takes up to 24 hours to activate and yes this includes weekends. You should make sure you don't switch off the router until it activates."

Friday afternoon at 16h17 I received a sms stating Thank you for choosing Afrihost and fasten your seatbelt and get ready for pure internet joy. I again whatsapp Afrihost and got to Richard D. I told him I got an sms and he said I must give 24 hours for it to provision and activate. He said that both MTN and Afrihost takes UP to 24 hours to activate as it needs to establish a connection with the local cell tower. He said: "We do not activate it our end, sim picks up network and then provision and activates there is no button or process we go through our end for it to activate". He said that sim cards works different to mobile sim's. He told me that Afrihost has NO CONTROL over activation...

So I waited 24 hours and then Saturday morning - I tried to whatsapp, but noted on the website it stated whatsapp is ony available from 10h00, so I send a Call back. I got phoned by a gentleman that stated that the sim was not activated yet and he has just done it. I must give it 20 - 30 minutes and it will be on. NOTHING HAPPENED - NO CONNECTION!

At Saturday 11h36 the Whatsapp still stated - you have reached us after hours, even though their Whatsapp link online shows they are open on Saturdays and Sundays between 10h00 & 14h00.

I phoned Telkom and gave them the ICCID number of the sim card. Telkom told me that they do not activate sims that is sold by resellers. She looked on the system and told me that the sim doesn't even show that it's been sold. She says that resellers activates the sims themselves and do not send "requests to Telkom".

I emailed Afrihost and got an email back from Amanda M stating I should take the sim and put it in my phone and dial *555#. I tried that and it stated "No network connection". It is very clear that someone is not doing something right. I mailed back it doesn't work.

I send another whatsapp this morning and was connected Pitsetsi M. This person said Telkom sim cards activation take 24 - 48 hours for activation and this EXCLUDES Holidays and weekends. He/she said that the card will be activated sometime tomorrow.

Again I got an email from Afrihost @ 10h45 this morning stating: "A request was sent out on Friday the 27th to allocate a number to your sim card. Your sim card will be active today if it's not active today. Please do let me know so I can escalate it further. Greatest apology once again for the delay."

Best of all is this email has no name - it was sent from Afrihost support and YET it states let ME know....

If anything, please know that these people do not know what they are doing and furthermore they need a system that works (like other companies). I am convinced of ONE THING - if this is the service provided by Afrihost- then we should avoid them at all cost!!!!

They expect a person to be calm and "happy"... trust me it is just typical of the service provided by service providers that start out great because they are interested to assist people and then grow too big because of greed. They employ *********** staff and do not update their systems which leaves us as consumers in the dark.