********** contract upgrades without consent

My wife's phone (071 number), in my name, was due for an upgrade in December. My intention was to keep the existing phone and have the bundle open ended. Having been caught out two years prior when I was **** to over the phone and sold a new contract, I was extremely clear to the lady on the phone that I wanted nothing to change, explained how I had been caught out before, and I wanted them to do absolutely nothing to this contract. At the end of the call she said that I would be getting a new SIM card as MTN were upgrading them. After putting down the phone I was uneasy about the idea of getting a new sim. Shortly after that, my hesitations were confirmed when I got SMS's and emails telling me that my upgrade was successful. I immediately went down to my local MTN store, only to be told that they aren't able to cancel any contracts any more. They phoned head office to get the name of the agency that had sold me the ********** upgrade, but I had to contact that agency directly and ask them to have it undone. Before being able to get through, I received another call from the agency trying to upgrade me on my number (083). In a foul mood having not being able to cancel the 071 contract earlier that day, I made it extremely clear that I did not want an upgrade. I also asked for help to cancel the other one, but she said she couldn't. After a few attempts the next morning I finally manged to get through to someone. The lady said no problem, it would be cancelled. Wanting to have something in writing, I also emailed them. Having not received confirmation within the time frame that they had indicated, I emailed again for confirmation and was told that it was being seen to, however, they couldn't put the 071 number back on the old contract as they didn't offer that package anymore. I was on my way to Kruger for New Years so thought I would deal with this upon my return.

Once I had returned I went onto the MTN website to double check that the upgrade had been cancelled on the 071 number. It had, but to my horror, I found that I had also been given a new contract on my 083 number. I emailed the same contact that had assisted with canceling the 071 upgrade, but haven't been able to get a response out of them.

I subsequently posted on the MTN South Africa Facebook page, wanting someone to help me sort this out. I got a standard reply to the post suggesting that I call the general helpline (they just pass you around with nobody able to help), or I could inbox them my contact details. I did that 6 days ago, still no response.

I think it is absolutely ********** that these contracts are issued. And it's happened multiple times now. MTN themselves "can't" help. I'm getting more and more frustrated as more time passes, making it less likely that I could ever get this reversed. I'm starting to wonder if these upgrades aren't *******ly done all the time, purposefully to get customers off old packages that they don't want to service. They then claim that it isn't possible to reinstate the old package, forcing the customer to upgrade anyway and to lock them in for another 2 years.

I've not consented to any of this and am now in the exact position that I did or want to be in. I feel MTN and Rewards Contact Centres have been dishonest and have openly broken the law. MTN need to step up and not hide behind their agencies. MTN need to put me in the exact position I was before the ********** upgrade.