Telkom / Cell Direct - ****ty Service

I was phoned Last week by a Telkom marketing agent as I was apparently illegible for an upgrade. She introduced herself as phoning me from Telkom and nothing about Cell Direct which is company that apparently is out-sourced by Telkom . I told her that I would only be interested in upgrading next year as my 24 month contract only expires beginning of next year (Free me unlimited with device). She told me that they are running a promotion that if I upgrade now I will receive my new device now and that I can start using my new device now, and my new contract will only kick in at the end of my insisting contract's term (1st of march) . I agreed and decided to do the upgrade over the phone with her. We agreed on a new device (Samsung Galaxy Note 9) and the package would be a "free me 1 gig". She asked me if I would like to keep my number and I said yes. She agreed and told me that she would have to send me a new sim card with the device as the new sim card is the new contract. She advise me that i should only put the new sim card in the new device from the 1st of march as that's when the new Package(Free Me 1 gig) will be activated. i agreed . she told me that at the end of February my current plan(Free Me Unlimited) would expire. I agreed.

They then sent me the device. Once I received it I opened and saw a pamphlet on the inside of the box saying "Cell Direct". It turns out the device comes from cell Direct and not Telkom Directly? I then opened the Device and was content with the device itself. the New sim card(Free me 1 Gig) was also in the box

Later that evening I switched my old device off and took the sim card (Free Me Unlimited) out and put it in the new Device(Galaxy Note 9). The phone said sim card not supported. I gave it time to connect.

The next day I contacted Telkom customer care at around 12:45. The first lady that assisted me asked me to take the old sim card out the new device and read her the number on the back of the sim card. She told me that the sim card had been deactivated. She asked me for my number and told me that the number which I gave her is registered to another sim card and the plan on that other sim is a free me 1 gig. Turns out that Telkom had deactivated my sim card and activated the new sim card prematurely and now my old plan(Free Me Unlimited) has fallen away. After much negotiating she told me that she could no longer assist me and that I have to phone another number which she gave me. - this was a start to my nightmare ... I was on the phone to this number for THREE HOURS .. EVERY department That I got through to, let me explain my story to them only for them to tell me at the end of my story that they cant assist me. and that i should please hold for the next person ... which I did. I went from agent to agent to agent to agent, repeating my story to every single one of them only to get the same answer (sorry I cant help you, I need to transfer you to the correct department ) over and over again... three hours and no one could assist me. I was told by one of the ladies that i am in the wrong department and that i should phone customer care again and ask to speak to the manager, which I did but no agent wanted to hand me over to their manager.

All this time I was on the phone I was phoning from a work phone as I did not have a connection to call from on my own phone BECAUSE THEY DEACTIVATED MY SIM CARD!! PLEASE NOTE that I had to pay to call customer care for three hours as i was phoning from a non Telkom Phone.

After three hours of continuous frustration and pleading for some assistance, I gave up and decided to phone cell direct.

I phoned cell direct and got through to a gentleman who herd my story and told me that he has lodged the complaint and that I will get a call first thing the next morning to sort this out. I gave my work number as no one can get hold of me because THEY DEACTIVATED MY SIM CARD!!!

I am yet to hear anything from neither TELKOM nor CELL DIRECT....

So in short my current sim card(free Me Unlimited) has been deactivated prematurely. I would like this rectified ASAP as I am PAYING FOR A SERVICE I DO NOT HAVE CURRENTLY!!!