5 months of agony.

HI

I will start off by providing some context and try to put events into perspective.( The worst part of which is towards the end)

Bare with me as it is long :)

And believe me i work in retail and understand that customer service can be challenging at times, so always try my best to be friendly courteous and accommodating to other retail staff.

Contract 1 End of January this year I get notification from MTN that one of my contracts are eligible for upgrade and I could either upgrade through the app or go into the nearest store. So I wait for the new month of February and see if there are any new deals that fall within criteria I require. I go to the Plettenberg bay store and get helped by Samantha Jansen. As is normal I show her the contract which I would like answer a few questions she makes a note in a book and she tells me that the new phone should, if all goes well be in store by the following Thursday, Friday at the latest. Thursday arrives and I walk to the store just enquire what is happening, a very short and blunt answer by a confused looking Samantha is the phone is not here but she knows about it. I say ok and walk back to work. And so the wait begins... Not a call, not a hello, sorry the phone delivery is delayed, just radio silence.

Three weeks later I walk over to the store again and try and enquire as to what has happened and if possible as the phone/contract was not received it would be able to upgrade to another phone and package. This time a very rude Samantha gets off her chair looks into a cabinet behind the point of sale and takes out an entry level phone, smacks it on the counter and tells me this is the only phone available and that is how it is. I say ok fine and tell her no thanks and that I would prefer the other contract and phone that I would now like.

Long Story short- by the end of March beginning of April I decide that is that and so the process of trying to cancel the contract begins...Walk to the store- Sorry we can't help and you must phone 135. Ok Great fine no worries. I eventually get the contract cancelled through 135 and the third party who handles MTN contract services beginning April. And all seems well.

Contract two in the meanwhile also comes up eligible for upgrade and in March and i go to the same MTN store to upgrade/change it...All good except I receive no paperwork to sign, But by the end of April the correct agreed amount gets debited some how and I feel good about what has happened and that finally all is in order and sorted...

By end March I receive a phone call from the call center with a request from them that I am eligible for upgrade and i can do it telephonically... I advise the call center agent Pravani Cuppusamy(hope I spelled that correctly) that I have been to the store and have done an upgrade already, so no thank you I am not interested. By May the 6th I have found that a reversal of my contract was performed at the branch and this again without consulting me or letting me know what is going on. In the mean time another call center agent calls me to offer me an upgrade- and still to my knowledge I have done my upgrade at the branch so I inform him once again that no thank you I have already upgraded at branch level so would not like to do so again. I believe his name is Tsepho Baloi(spelling?) I receive a third call from a Fiona Sa****? to advise me once more of an upgrade due on my contract and inform her once more that i have done an upgrade already...I later found out that on the 6th of June there was a cancellation done to an upgrade?

By end June at date of debit i get Debited R632.87 , yet to my knowledge i should only be debited R79 because of the total downgrade i made to both my contract and closure of the other.

I try to find answers to what happened and get helped very patiently by A mr Thabang at MTN customer services.

In the Meantime I request the very friendly and always helpful gentleman Mr Reges Neels at the Knysna branch if he can help get hold of a senior leader of the area or store, and ask him to get into contact with me.

Thabang call back and informs me that a Mr Jacques Du Preez will give me a call the following day. He advises me that he will be in store and would like to personally see me to discuss the matter. I oblige and we set up the meeting.

I Get to the store on the agreed time and Mr Du Preez starts explaining what has happened. He follows this up with a voice note Via WhatsApp the following day informing me that both contracts were upgraded and the reversed by the call center agents and after that was done one was re-activated and that i am now paying a standard rate...none of what he tell me was ever discussed or explained to me. The "upgrade" was merely cancelled and done by the call center. By the end of it, despite me telling him numerous times that I was not made aware of any other changes other than the "upgrade" I made at the store level and that I told each of the call center agents that I do not wish to upgrade. I leave the store having been made to feel that I am responsible for the problem and that to avoid the same thing happening I need to return to the store and do an upgrade again. On the 7th of July I inform Mr DU Preez that I have gone to the store and have requested and signed the upgrade once more and I would like him to try and get answers as to how we are going to get the money incorrectly debited from my account back to me.( I don't mention that Chesnita the store leader is sarcastic in her responses when I went back) He answers back via WhatsApp on the 8th of July once more saying they are making work of it...

Yesterday morning Sunday the 17th of July I receive a message that my account has been loaded with a large amount of data and to my knowledge it appears that the contract that the call center has upgraded without my knowledge is still active and it appears that nothing has been done to rectify the situation...I send him a screenshot of the message and also decide to walk to the store.

Get to the store and as is custom get looked up and down, Chesnita gets informed there is a customer waiting and comes out of the back office a short while later and mumbles, all be it a little to loudly to her colleague that "she is not in the mood for this customer today" which I obviously heard.

And to clarify what follows- There is a difference in being firm but fair and being blatantly rude to a consultant using foul language and such.

I inform Chesnita that I am tired of being treated rudely when I try my best to be friendly to them. I ask Chesnita firmly what is being done and while doing so she tries to speak over me. again she refers me to Mr Du Preez, to which I respond that it is obvious that I can get nothing done by myself and that they need to get it sorted, Im tired of this nonsense. And walk out.

Now the other consultant on duty's husband, a mr Nathaniel Windvogel was in the store seemingly waiting for his wife to finish up with her client at the time. He decides to come storming after me, starts calling me names like P*!s and Na*!$r tries to physically assault me and to top it off makes death threats- I inform him that this has nothing to do with him and continue on my way. He gets taken away by security and his wife and continues calling me obscene names.

Great,I call Mr Du Preez, No answer, I leave another voice note informing him that if Chesnita has not already advised him to call me that he should do so and then i wait again. Message gets read and still I await a call at least...Nothing.

Now in my line of business, when a customer comes to you with a problem no matter how big or small we try our utmost to stay in touch, communicate and get the problem resolved as soon as possible and as helpfully as possible.

The above events are a build up over 5 months of terrible service and yet still I await factual feedback about how and when the problem will be resolved and even after receiving death threats from a store staff member's husband i would like to know when the incorrect debit will be reversed back into my account if ever? Not even a phone call from senior staff apologizing and trying to rectify the situation. nothing.

I unfortunately refuse to speak to any one of the involved parties from this MTN branch anymore as they have proven themselves to be unprofessional unhelpful and generally unwilling to go the extra mile . And it seems everyone I speak to sings the same song---and that is, that the staff at MTN Plettenberg bay are very rude and unhelpful.

So please MTN can someone get in contact with me to rectify and remedy this highly unprofessional and deceiving situation?

I ask this as as nicely as I possibly can at this stage.