How Cell C just brushes off my complaints and downtime

On 23 January 2016 at around 8pm, I got a notification on my phone that I had 3 missed calls from a number. I called the number back, and noted it was someone from Cell C who had tried to contact me. I immediately sent an email and text message to the number, as I had a feeling it was for the competition. I stated in the email that I only got the missed calls that time, as I was at hospital with my daughter, and I had no network coverage. At this stage the network was also giving issues. Network issues occur here on a regular basis. We reported this to ICASA a while back, and Cell C just told them there were no issues in our area, and left it there. For this reason I have been making screen shots every time the network went off, to show them that there is indeed a problem here.

On 24 January 2016, I received an email back from Nicola Nell at Cell C, telling me that because they could not reach me, I didn't make the "shortlist" for the prize. This was inaccurate, because the terms and conditions said nothing about any shortlist. It said if you are a winner Cell C will contact you. Basically, she forwarded my complaint about not being able to be reached by Cell C, because Cell C was down, to the auditors who handled the competition, as well as their legal department, who rep**** that irrespective of why they could not reach me, the fact remains they could not reach me and I am therefore disqualified.

This I find highly unprofessional and unfair. The reason they could not reach me, is because their network was down. In fact, it was so bad that I only received the missed calls the next day.

Now forward to October 2017, and the network issues STILL PERSIST! They send emails to say their technicians have fixed the problem, and not even a week later, the signal is down AGAIN. Email the person who said it was fixed, NO RESPONSE.

I have had over 1400 hours of downtime since August 2015, and have been documenting the downtime. Cell C even called last year some time to tell me that there are issues at this tower, they will sort the issues out. When I asked them about the downtime on the competition day? Oh it was not down that day. But it was down all the hundreds of other days? Convenient don't you think?

I have been asked to email copies of the data I buy through so that the guys in customer care can present them to some or other commission to show I am a good client and they need to fix the issue. In my opinion, whether I spend R5 or R5000 a month on data / airtime, I am a client, and don't need to give evidence of how much I spend for them to fix the issue.

I lost out on a R100 000.00 prize, from Cell C, because Cell C was down. I have supp**** evidence of the downtime, I have complained to Cell C, I have complained to ICASA, but NO ONE CARES! Complaints are just swept under the rug, and in a few weeks or months the process just starts again. Like it is in an infinite loop.