******ion by any other name, still the same
<p>I have been on the MTN phone network for years. Used to be service by Nashua mobile, they were not great but never bad enough to warrant any complaint. If things went wrong it did not take too long to get to the bottom of it and sort it out, not once did they suspend my service.</p> <p>That all changed when Nashua sold my contract to MTN, I think maybe two years ago could be three. In all that time I have made repeated requests for statements of account to no avail and their self-service options never seem to be available to me. A common enough complaint their Facebook page is pepper with them.</p> <p>On 27 January 2017 (that is a Friday) at about 5 in the afternoon a get a phone call, the lady on the other side claims to be from MTN and says that I owe them R 2117 and could I please make a deposit into such and such a bank account.</p> <p>I ask for proof a. that she is from MTN (because this is Africa and it pays to be safe) and b. that this money is indeed owed because I explain I never get a statement. Heated argument(because the customer is always an idiot right?) and in the end she agrees to have her supervisor (who I will not name as it is not her fault she works for Mephistopheles incarnate) call me on Monday. Naturally, she does not call, and MTN suspended my service instead, with no warning, no polite note ... nada.</p> <p>I spent the first hour of the morning on hold for their customer care call center, (during which time I wrote a superb email to ********** it was returned undeliverable!) finally get through to a human who claims she cannot assiste but my credit controller can, and she will phone me shortly.</p> <p>This time I do get a phone call, I explain that it is basically ******* to demand payment without providing some statement of account which would include the what, whens and hows. She agrees and shortly there after I get a statement, of course I paid across the R2117 and patiently waited for my phone to be reconnected.</p> <p>Instead almost a week later I got an SMS from MTN which says: "Yello, kindly pay R505.30 immediately to avoid legal action", marvelous!!</p> <p>I am now asking; would Mephistopheles' Torture and Necromancy not prefer my first born child?</p>