Disappointing service from the MTN ‘retentions’ department.

I’ve had a MTN cell phone contract for the past 8 or 9 years roughly and have been due an upgrade for the past year or possibly longer and have been considering cancelling the contract. Having received numerous calls from MTN sales department trying to try upsell me to another contract, a colleague suggested I try the retentions department (as a loyal, longtime customer) as they are tasked to avoid cancellations and might be able to offer a better deal (ie more data or minutes).

Spoke to someone in the retentions department on the 11th Sep, said they would escalate and get back to me, I then followed up on the 17th Sep as hadn’t heard anything and was promised a call back from the person dealing with my request that day – It didn’t happen.

I did however receive a call from their sales department a few days later trying to upsell me again, reminding me that I was due an upgrade. The person in the sales department had no idea of the current request/case with their retentions department. I asked them to once again remind the retentions department to return my call with feedback which again, never happened.

I then followed up AGAIN today (26th Sep) as presumably the deal/request we discussed for the Huawei P30 (which was my choice for the upgrade) expires at the end of the month. Considering that I’ve been due an upgrade for so long already (and subsequently paying a premium rate as the phone was paid off) and that The new contract we discussed is R200 MORE than I’m currently paying I would imagine this is a win for MTN form a revenue perspective too. The request was for more minutes based on my usage pattern over the past few years.

Based on their lack of response up until this point, I insisted on feedback on the 22 minute call, they came back with a pitiful counter offer for the first 3 months of signing another 24 month contract.

Considering I’ve been a loyal client for so long, this is bitterly disappointing and frankly a poor effort to retain my business. I asked the supervisor to call me back today to discuss this further or my cancellation options. Granted it’s only 3pm, but have little faith my call will be returned and/or any different result will be achieved so will be forced to explore other network providers.