Cell C call centre SUCKS!

Call centres are notoriously bad, but the Olympic Class gold medal winner for uselessness must surely be Cell C. In a landscape littered with patheticness, it must be difficult to rise above the masses, but Cell C manages this with aplomb.

I need to buy Airtime because this is the only way we can communicate with the ghastly 086 (special numbers, they call them) is with Airtime. And I challenge you to find out what they charge - Sharecall, Maxicall, etc is how they disguise this hidden charge.

So you phone 135 (Cell C's Dept of Most Useless Employees) and navigate your way through endless menus where they first try and convince you to use the Cell C app which has to be the slowest, user-unfriendly experience one can buy. But the reason you are calling is that the app doesn't work.

Eventually, you get someone who speaks faster than a racing commentator, who can do nothing without 'verifying' you. I have just spent 18 minutes on the phone with someone I could not understand (I think they ate the microphone on their headset and were actually communicating via their stomach) who could not understand that I had just bought Airtime via the App, been debited by my bank, and no Airtime was showing on my phone. Her solution: "phone your bank and ask them where the Airtime is!"

Luckily she gave up on me and put the phone down. After 18 minutes! This was after I asked if I had any other options than phoning my bank. It's a bit like posting a letter to someone, and when it doesn't arrive, blame the recipient for not receiving it.

So now I need to phone an 086 number, but can't get Airtime. And apparently the solution is to phone the Call Centre... Eish.