Inconvenient service offering

Every time I make or receive a call on the network, my data drops from 5G down to 3G and I cannot use the data for various applications while on a call. I cannot even send or receive a WhatsApp message generally.

I chatted to support about this issue on the 16th January 2024 and they advised they are working on implementing VoLTE to remedy this issue. Obviously this is a major inconvenience. Today, 10 months later, I checked with support via their WhatsApp chat if there is any feedback regarding this issue and I was advised that they are working on implementing it in the future but do not have an ETA as yet.

Further to the above, Melon Mobile subscribers are required to request their minutes to be reloaded on the unlimited packages after a certain ‘soft cap’ is reached (I believe it’s around 500/750 minutes) - however, you cannot go into the app to check the balance. You are required to go into the chat and request your balance every single time you need to know that your next call won’t be cut off because you’ve reached the limit of your ‘soft cap’. Once again, a major inconvenience.

There were 5 instances over the past few months where I was either not able to make/receive calls or use data (16 April; 2 May; 3 July; 30 August; 4 September). All of these instances were reported to Melon Mobile via their WhatsApp support channel. After these occurrences, I requested feedback as to what the cause was to ascertain if this is going to be a continuous issue. Up until today, I still do not have any feedback after requesting same many times. I do not think that it is fair to have gone through the difficulties that those network outages caused, without being given any feedback regarding the cause - and more importantly, no assurance that the issue won’t arise again.

I would like to mention that I was with MTN for more than 3 years before I switched to Melon Mobile, and certainly did not experience any of these issues or inconveniences. I was genuinely under the impression that since Melon Mobile is operating on the MTN network, the service levels would be the same or better. Clearly I was wrong