MTN billing nightmare

I upgraded my MTN contract in March of 2018, and signed up for an MTN Made for Me M package at R229 per month, including minutes, SMSs and 1GB of data. The data was the main attraction for me, and I figured that at that price, I didn't care much about the phone.

My first bill was over R300, which I guessed was due to upgrade fees etc, so I didn't pay much attention. Then, every month thereafter, I received another bill of +-R350. I went to a local MTN store in May or June, I can't remember, to query the bill. I was told that I was being billed extra for my data bundle, and it had not been zeroed on the system as part of my package. I was still optimistic at this stage, and asked for it to be removed, paid the full bill, and was told that I needn't worry; the consultant will sort it out. Next month, same story. This time, I called customer service, and was told that the bundle will be removed and that I will be credited the amount that I had overpaid. I paid the full amount again, and waited. By August, still being billed +-R350, I started to get just a little annoyed. I again called in, quoted my reference number, and was told that the accounts department needed to investigate, but that it would be sorted in 3-5 days. Again, I paid the full bill. September rolled in, and my bill was still unchanged. Now I was starting to get quite upset. Again I called in, and this time, was told that the bundle had been removed and that the accounts department would process the credit on my account. In the meantime, I was told that I need only pay the R229 that I should be paying to keep my line open. I did this, and my line was opened. I then received a message from MTN stating that I need to pay R93 to avoid full service suspension and legal action, but I also received an SMS stating that my query had been resolved, so I ignored the R93, as, in my mind, MTN owed me in the region of R700, which had accumulated since March. Lo and behold, my line was suspended this morning. I can't even get through to customer service to try and resolve the issue.

I am extremely annoyed at the service received from MTN. Why should my line be suspended when MTN admits that they need to credit me for every month all the way back to March? Why should I keep forking out money to keep my line open, and threatened with legal action, when MTN didn't keep to their end of the subscriber agreement? I've been an advocate for MTN since opening my contract in 2012, and have been happy with the service received until now. What am I supposed to do MTN? I can't even make calls to your own helpdesk to try and sort this out, and your stores can't help me because the account is "in collection". I'm not even sure if MTN will be able to contact me, since my line is fully suspended.