MIGRATION NIGHTMARE

During February I was hounded by a Cell C tele sales person to take advantage of an upgrade which would include a phone a Samsung A11 for very little additional cost which seemed to be a bargain and I was assured nothing else would change. Haha as they say in the classics if it sounds too good to be true dont believe it.

Under the assuption that nothing has changed I needed to contact my personal banker on an 086 number it said the number does not exist which I thought was strange. I then had occasion to phone Discovery Insure with regards to some changes to my vehicles also an 086 number and I received the same response which baffled me. When I had to phone Discovery Med Aid for an authorisation which was also an 086 number and I got the same response I deduced something was wrong. I called Cell C customer care and was advised that 086 numbers were now special numbers and you had to purchase airtime to phone them. This was a concern for me as before I took the upgrade I could phone these numbers and the telesales person never advised me of this or I would never have upgraded. So after blowing off some steam I then asked the operator to load R100 airtime so I could phone these numbers. Haha I tried and it still did not connect so I went to my nearest branch and spoke to an employee there that enlightened me that the problem was that when they migrated some Cell C numbers onto the Vodacom platform customers were experiencing issues of the same nature. They called the Technical department who said they would attend to it . The next day I received an SMS asking me if my problem was solved. I checked and found it was not. I then received a call from the Technical Department telling me they did not know how to fix the problem and they would refund my 100 airtime I was gobsmacked to say the least that a company could make this admission. I never received the 100 rand refund and I still cannot phone 086 numbers . What a debacle no wonder this company had to be bailed out by 2 other service providers