EASIER TO GET HOLD OF THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND THAN A MANAGER AT MTN!!!

My Samsung Galaxy was ****** off our table at a streetside cafe whilst on holiday in Athens on the 12th of August. I straight away went to a facility to go onto the MTN website, and completed the Contact Form on their website, requesting that they block my phone as it had been ******.

When I returned to South Africa from Greece I went into an MTN store to get an ITC number for insurance purposes and asked them to check that my service had been blocked. They confirmed it had been blocked, but not blacklisted. They then blacklisted it and gave me the ITC code.

I received an sms on Monday 8 October advising that my debit order for R31534.01 did not go through!!! I immediately contacted the MTN Call Centre and they escalated my query. They came back to me the next day and advised that I needed to provide proof that I sent the Contact Form whilst in Greece or they would not entertain my case. (The proof being an sms which was obviously sent to my cell phone which was ******?!)

I did however manage to get a screenshot from a contact at an MTN store and my service was in fact blocked on the 12th of August, the day of the theft - however a couple of hours after the time I had completed the Contact Form on their website.

I received an sms and an emailed statement on the 11th of October advising that the outstanding balance due on my account was now R2383,01 so I assumed they had the proof needed and all was resolved.

On Monday the 15th of October I received and sms to say that my service had been suspended and that I need to pay the R31534,01 on my MTN account. I called the Call Centre again, sent the proof of blocking the service on the 12th August again, and received another reference number for the call! I then received an sms noting that I had "agreed to pay R33917,02 in two weeks to clear the overdue MTN account"!!!!!! I agreed to nothing of the sort.

I then called back 4 times during the course of the afternoon to try and speak to someone in Management, I sent a message via the MTN app requesting the same, and I completed the Contact Form on their website (although I should now know that it does not wor****!!) and have still not received a call from a Manager.

This morning I receive an sms saying that they have not received payment as per my "payment arrangement" (which I never made!) and that I need to pay R5087,55.

The amounts differ in every communication and trying to get hold of anyone to get to the bottom of this and resolve the matter is absolutely impossible.

I find it unacceptable. Firstly, MTN must have records on their website to check on the contact forms; secondly, when I went to the MTN store they said my phone was blocked and I have the screenshot as proof that it was blocked, so they must have received my contact form; thirdly, I never requested 'roaming' on my phone; furthermore, there is a credit limit of R2858,98 on my account!

Quite frankly, the customer service at MTN is non-existent!!!!

I have been with MTN for about 20 years now and have had 4 or 5 cellphone and data lines with them at one time. Time to change!