Barrier to service - ********** sale/upgrade - NO sense of urgency

I am appalled by the customer service at MTN.

My parents have an account under my father's name for more than 15 years with MTN. My father is currently 81 years old but your staff seldomly exhibit any empathy and make it difficult to resolve matters where there are issues. 1. My father apparently upgraded his contract on 09 July to a price plan that cost more and 2 sim cards were sent via post. This was news to my parents when the higher debit order came. we disputed the legitimacy of this change on 13 August. Your branch told them to contact the call centre, who told them to contact the sales partner you have that processed this change. No feedback was received. Last week i called in and we went through a lengthy verification process and thereafter after being told a pin created would make things easier. Lo and behold it wasnt on the next call. firstly why is it that your customer service agents cannot investigate matters relating to an upgrade that a customer is disputing or saying is **********. why must we call other phone numbers because its a partner that is not MTN? which doesn't use your verification process of using pins for data protection questions? Yet you gave those people my parents personal information. Why are you relentless at making customer service such a painful journey.

We called the number you gave us and were promised that the call that was supposed to be listened to the request for that was received on 13 August and it would be escalated and that feedback would be given at close of business. I asked that feedback be given to the cell number on record or to the email address if you were unable to reach my parents. Alas no call. Its Thursday already. Please treat this as an official complaint of ***** and not treating your vulnerable customers with dignity. You can verify this with my father and quite frankly I wouldn't be stepping in if you were of help, now my parents are distressed which makes it my problem. and at their age they have no business going to branches unnecessarily. Get with the times please. The money you are debiting make a world of a difference for these pensioners. We have cancelled the direct debit with yourselves until you sort this matter out. But at this rate of listening to a simple call, i think you are wasting time because my parents would prefer to not default in any payment arrangements with yourselves. Quite frankly, they wouldn't be opposed now to an upgrade that actually involves getting a phone, like they have done over the years. but if you no longer want to business with them with this ***** and ************** then please confirm so that we can take this matter further. This is not how you treat loyal customers. Please treat this with the urgency it deserves. Because if you listen to last week's call to yourselves, i do not see how my father would have agreed to this price change plan, when its his wife that uses the phone, but you keep refusing to speak to. And you should charge any representatives harshly that swindle clients and make **** sales at someone else's expense. Its really disgusting.

Lastly, In this time of Covid, getting 3rd party authority for a customer is so difficult, my parents are married ICOP. My dad has given consent on the phone with many institutions but no, MTN wants him to go to a MTN branch with the original ID. I handle most of their affairs,we are in different provinces. How is that going to work, why are you creating barriers to service? You need to evaluate what is important honestly and be sensitive to your vulnerable clients, whether by language age or any demographic really.