Dishonest and shockingly poor service

Ok, so you've read my complaint and I'm assuming it's going to be more of the same and it's just going to be ignored in the hope that it goes away.

Let me give you my parting shots and I will be done with this.

I own two IT companies and up until now I have happily been getting all my cellular contracts from MTN directly with no issues at all. Then I spotted your iCare plus offer which included an extra year warrant and a 'free' screen repair. This grabbed me instantly because these devices are getting ridiculously expensive, and I have already had to fork out for a few screen repairs.

So, I head off to iStore to take out my first contract. I confirm multiple times with your employee that it comes with a free screen repair, and I am told YES. No mention of any fees at all. I grab myself a contract for the very most expensive phone that the iStore has to offer and I am off. Service was ok but not great. Employee walking around, chatting with other staff and taking personal phone calls while I am sitting there in my appointment slot that I had pre-booked. It took one whole hour but it's fine.

A few weeks later I need another contract for one of my employees, so I decide to head back to iStore. Tried calling to book a time slot but got through to a contact centre and not the store. Then tried emailing the employee that had helped me previously and didn't get much help at all. Asked for an available time slot and 3 hours later was asked when I wanted to come in. Was irritated so decided to leave it for the day. Next morning at 08:30AM I email again and ask if I could come through at around 12. No response. So, I decide to just rock up and when I got there your employee was busy so I had to wait. Something which I was trying to avoid by pre-booking an appointment.

While signing up I confirm with same employee that it still comes with a free screen repair. Am told yes it does but that there will be a service fee of between R1200 to R2000. I then tell employee that this was not what I was told the last time. Employee was well aware that I was shocked and unhappy about this 'new' service fee that I had not been told about previously

This is from your website. You clear as day advertise a free screen repair and then hidden somewhere in the terms and conditions is a service fee that you have to pay to get your 'free' screen repair. To me this is false advertising and I have written a letter to the ARB to investigate this.

Anyway, I am then told that I cannot take out a new contract because my old contract is less than 90 days old. An absolutely ridiculous thing to tell a business owner. You have my company CK documents, and my bank statements and you should have been able to vet my business if you had wanted to. I tell employee that I will not be back if she doesn't find a way to help me and she is not bothered at all.

I walk over to MTN and ask to speak to a manager. I ask what the 90 day block is about and am assured that this is NOT at MTN policy and that she can sign me up for a contract there and then. I inform iStore employee that the 90 day block is not from MTN and she doubles down saying that nothing can be done.

I then go back to my previous MTN business consultant who signs me up over the phone in 5 minutes with my phone being delivered to my house two days later.

I complain to the store manager about the dishonest and shockingly bad service and she decides to shirk all responsibility offering me only poor excuses.

In summary ...

I was conned into signing up for a contract with the promise of a free screen repair only to find out this was untrue. I was offered very poor service even as a repeat customer. I was 'blocked' by a company that was to lazy to do proper vetting with the excuse that it was to prevent *****. And then I was offered only poor excuses by the store manager to explain the whole situation away.

All I wanted was the same service that I got from the very same cellular company that I took the contract out with. It makes no sense that the service level is so different but it's the same cellular company with only a middleman in-between.

I own a software development company that designs mobile apps for the transport industry, and we purchase an obscene amount of devices each year. It wouldn't have taken much to retain me as a customer.

There will be new apple distributors in SA very soon and I will be one of their first customers.

I will never step foot in an iStore again.