MEDIOCRACY APPARENTLY THE NORM WITH MTN SERVICE

It is with GREAT unhappiness that I write this review; as it seems that in our beautiful country mediocracy and lack of excellence is the norm and as a South African we just take it, pay the premium price and keep quiet.

Up until yesterday I was on a Sky Lite package; a whopping total of R2100 per month that I spend on my phone. I've been due for an upgrade for the last 2 months and it's taken me all this time to conclude and get resolution. Except, after my very unhappy discussion yesterday - no-one from senior management has called me to apologies for the absolutely BAD service I have received to date.

To summarise: I had to go into the MTN store twice, stand in a queue & wait for 45 minutes inside while the help desk tries to retrieve my data (unlimited call usage and monthly data usage); this would have helped me decide whether I should stay on a similar package or down/up grade. Sadly - they could not give me this information due to some technical system error, and even though they said they have escalated it and will email me the average spend once they have it - they NEVER did. I did try call them a few times too.

I then had to try various options via the call centre to try and receive this information; once again - no-one in customer service or in upgrades could assist with this. An email via customer support was sent out to assist me with this average spend; I am STILL to receive this promised mail from MTN with required information.

Once again I endeavored another 80min call exercise - whereafter I did finally (miraculously) received my average spend of free minutes and data per month = which allowed me to conclude what package I should be on. A similar one by the way.

The exercise proceeds as I now need to find a 128GB iPhone 11 in the country. I start by making an appointment at the iStore in Canal Walk (as my current phone cannot connect to Wifi or take photo's and I needed some technical support before upgrading) - sadly they could not upgrade me, because they did not have stock and therefor I could not fix my phone either. I then track 2 iPhone 11's to MTN Cape Gate; where I stand in a queue to upgrade.

Once at the store the experience changes from challenging to super easy as I get great service from Chad Jooste. We decide that I should move over to a business contract. This would mean that on the Monday morning I need to call 135 and cancel my contract, move to pre-paid and go back to Cape Gate to move over to the business contract. Sounds easy enough albeit a bit of a drive from Rondebosch back to Cape Gate.

On the Monday morning while cancelling my contract - I am told that this service will take between 2 - 24 hours. Which would have meant that by Tuesday afternoon I could upgrade to my business contract. This was Monday morning 27 July. 7 days later, my contract was still not cancelled.

Last night (Monday 3 August) - I receive a call from MTN informing me that the cancellation will now take place. As you can imagine I am VERY unhappy with the service. I then get told that the contract was actually cancelled on the 28th (which is was not) .... and I asked what data am I then using seeing that I still cannot connect to the Wifi and still able to make calls; this answer the sales person could not give me. I was put on hold for 10min and came through to customer service where I was told the contract is not cancelled and that the department doing it will only be in the office in the morning. I explained my frustration with MTN and this upgrade dilemma and asked the customer service operator to make BIG BOLD notes on my account. During the early evening - I received info via SMS that my contract is now moved to pre-paid. I made it VERY clear to the customer service operator that I need someone senior from MTN to contact me - because I will NOT drive another meter after my upgrade or make another call. Seeing that this experience has been extremely frustrating and off putting and that I possibly need to move over to another service provider. I also made it VERY clear to the customer service representative that if MTN wants me to own this business contract, that someone should phone me to make arrangements to collect my phone at Cape Gate and personally deliver it with the contract. It is now 12:00pm Tuesday 4 August and no-one has called me. So I have a choice, either keep quiet like we always do, seeing that finally the service that was supposed to take maximum 24 hours were eventually rendered almost 8 days laters - or give a 1 star review on my overall experience as a well paying MTN customer and see how long it will take for someone with authority to contact me to try salvage this relationship.

MTN is in the service industry and I am feeling VERY unsatisfied with their service.