Changes in Contract

I was eligible for an upgrade in Feb 2015. I decided to wait until my full 24 months runs out because I wanted to downgrade on my contract as I never use all my Airtime, so I wanted to change from a 350 Contract to a 200. I asked the sales consultant whether or not I will loose my accumulated R 6000.00 worth or airtime if I downgrade my contract. The consultant in store told me no, but because it is so much airtime I could transfer some of it to my wife. I changed my contract and then a few days ago I received a message saying my airtime will expire on 9 July 2015. I tried to transfer airtime to my wife, but her number is un-able to accept airtime. I then decided to buy a pay as you go sim card, BUT now I can only transfer R200.00 per day onto that with a R 1000.00 limit per month. Transferring airtime to DATA is ridiculous because it is only valid for 30 days. So this means I will end up losing R4000.00 of airtime on 9 July 2015 which I paid for. I tested the theory that the MTN staff in store is not well trained by going to two different MTN stores in George, in the same mall and getting conflicting information about whether or not I can exchange airtime for DATA.