Appaling Customer Service and Non-Existent Communication to Customers

<p>About 3 weeks ago a large amount of MTN numbers suddenly stopped working for almost 3 days due to network issues. Unfortunately it took me 2 evenings and numerous calls from work during the day to ascertain that it was indeed a network issue and not my phone. At first I was told it was my handset but then after about my 4th call to MTN "customer care" they admitted it was a network issue. They were quite unapologetic about it and could give no estimate of a resolution time. I find this totally unacceptable. No announcements in the press or radio etc. Just deafening silence. My handset could not make or receive calls and my data did not work at all. Essentially a useless device. I am just fortunate that I do not rely on my phone for business use and that no emergency situation developed where it was vital that I had a phone to use. I find it absolutely unacceptable that this is the kind of service that paying customers receive from MTN. It is a well-known fact that their system is badly maintained but they have just hiked up their prices considerably! Along with this issue is another one that my voicemail message has simply disappeared and they have chosen to install VM Lite on my phone without any notification or explanation. I also have a message displayed when I dial for my balance that tells me that I have X amount of funds reserved for data use. I have no idea what this is and there is no-one that can explain this to me despite repeated calls. When I load airtime this reserved data function deducts money. This is not a feature that I ever asked for or accept as a paying customer. I shall very soon be porting my number to a more efficient competitor and waving MTN goodbye after many years of being their customer. My daughter will also be leaving MTN as she has experienced exactly the same issues as I have had. I find it unacceptable when there is such a huge outage with serious implications, no communication was forthcoming and then to add insult they decide to mess with my voicemail and tariff options without any communication either. Their pricing is also ridiculously high - I feel they are definitely trying to recoup costs from the public for their hefty fines and overspend in general. A VERY UNHAPPY CUSTOMER!</p>