15 years of loyalty destroyed

15 years of loyalty destroyed in 13 days of pure, soul-crushing incompetence. MTN, you didn’t just fail, you humiliated a 75-year-old pensioner trying to keep his business alive.

It is now Tuesday 14 April 2026 and I am still sitting here in disbelief that this nightmare ever happened.

My 75-year-old father has used his number for over 15 years. It is not a “nice-to-have”. It is his business lifeline. Every single day it was down, he lost clients, income, and dignity. What should have been a routine SIM swap turned into the most disgraceful display of corporate laziness, broken promises, and outright lies I have ever witnessed from any company in my life

Here is the timeline of MTN’s spectacular failure:

2 April – First visit to the Cape Gate branch (next to Telkom). Affidavit handed over. Nothing happened.

Later that week – Assisted by Mr Ondela at the same branch. Looked my elderly father in the eye, promised the swap would be done, told him to return Saturday 4 April.

5 April (Sunday) – Father returns as instructed. Same useless lady who failed him the first time looks him in the face and swears it will be done by Monday 6 April. Blatant lie.

Between 5–8 April – We made four separate wasted trips between Cape Gate and Tygervalley branches. Petrol, diesel, time, and my own work all sacrificed. Every consultant we met was clueless, overwhelmed, and apparently trained only in the ancient art of inventing fairy tales to get customers out the door.

By 8 April I had sent a formal final demand, CC’ing every executive address I could find. The response? A parade of scripted, copy-paste apologies from Customer Care:

Mmathabo Simon Carmen Mishack Abdullah

Each one “escalated it to the regional/area manager”, each one promised 24–72 hours, each one delivered exactly zero. They kept trotting out the same pathetic excuse like it was some magical solution while the actual problem festered for nearly two weeks.

The final insult? Thanks to MTN's incompetence and after two weeks of lost business we approached Vodacom out of desperation. And the result? Sim swop completed in 24 hours! This is what MTN’s entire regional management structure, multiple branches, and five different “customer care” agents couldn’t manage in 14 days.

MTN did not just lose a customer. They destroyed 15 years of loyalty through sheer, breathtaking incompetence. They forced a pensioner to run around like a headless chicken while his business bled. They wasted my time, my fuel, and what little patience I had left. And then they had the audacity to send more scripted apologies after we had already left.

This is not “service”. This is customer abuse dressed up in yellow branding and empty “Yello” greetings.

If you value your time, your money, or your sanity, stay the hell away from MTN. They are not a telecoms company – they are a masterclass in how to treat loyal customers like garbage.