How we got trapped into a 5G contract we can’t even use

On the 13th of March, we celebrated my partner’s birthday. The next day, on the 14th of March, she received a call from someone claiming to be an MTN Group sales consultant.

The consultant said she was checking whether we were still happy with our current 4G router. She told us that MTN now offers new 5G routers and that our current plan had dropped to around R200, while we were still paying over R500 per month.

She then gave us two options:

Downgrade to the cheaper R200 package, or

Upgrade to a 5G router with better speed — for the same price we were already paying.

We asked a very clear question: “Will we need to pay anything for this upgrade?”

Her response was clear and confident: “No, don’t worry — everything is free. You won’t pay anything.”

She then asked us which colour router we wanted. We chose black. She even joked that black is ugly and looks like a DSTV decoder, but we insisted on black.

A few days later, the router was delivered — and that’s where the problems started.

Red flag #1: The router delivered was white, not black as agreed. Red flag #2: The password printed on the router didn’t work.

I had to reset the router and set it up myself. We left it on, waiting for the 1st of April for the new data cycle to begin.

But even after that, the router kept showing: “No internet connection.”

We contacted MTN support — no help.

My partner then went to an MTN store. That’s when things got worse.

We were told the router is registered under a Durban (DBN) address, even though we have never lived there and MTN has our correct address.

They checked coverage and confirmed: There is NO 5G coverage in our area.

We called MTN customer care again, and they confirmed the same thing — this product should never have been sold to us in the first place.

Then came another shock: The system showed an address listed as “Berea.”

At this point, it was clear something was seriously wrong.

We returned the router to MTN, expecting them to fix their mistake.

Instead, they told us we must pay R5000 cancellation fees.

Let that sink in:

We were misled into accepting a product

Sold a 5G router where there is no 5G coverage

Given incorrect account details and address

And now expected to pay thousands to cancel something we never should have been sold

We’ve asked for the call recordings where the consultant promised everything was free — and they are refusing to provide them.

This is unacceptable.