MTN Cancellation of Contract Nightmare/Itemised Billing charges for no itemised billing

<p>I have been a loyal MTN subscriber for most of my cellphone life but the recent customer service has really been distasteful. </p> <p> </p> <p>Cancellation of Contract : First and foremost, the call centre for cancellation (808 option 2) is forever busy, you literally have to wait 20 to 30min before even getting ahold of an operator. I have called about 8 times this week and only managing to get an operator thrice. The first time I managed to get an operator to cancel my contract and move on to prepaid on same number (ended in 2015 but was on a month to month since then), she assured me twice that all my remaining airtime and data would be transferred to my prepaid (Ref Num : ********** 86). I would have waited to have used my remaining airtime (around R360) and data (around 150mb) before moving over to prepaid if she did not give me that assurance. But however this was not the case......I was left with a mere R10 airtime and no data when I was migrated to prepaid. Now the call options doesnt let you contact the cancellations dept directly because I am no longer a contract customer thus having to wait for the prepaid call centre before they transfer you to the cancellation department ( about 40min wait). It must be noted that the prepaid call centre operators both times advised me that the airtime is not carried over in contradiction to what the cancellation departments advises (no alignment). The two times I managed to contact the cancellation dept, they put me on hold for around 15min before the calls were dropped on both occasions. </p> <p> </p> <p>Itemised Billing woes : Last year I tried to cancel my itemised billing twice (both times I was assured it was cancelled) but it seems it never was. I moved out of my folks place to which the bills were being posted to so I never really had a chance to check. I recently did pick up my bills only to notice that I was being charged for itemised billing in bills where no itemised billing was attached. The operators (called about 3 times this week) were all giving conflicting statements indicating that the itemised billing was never cancelled by the operators last year (I lost the ref nums) but I was to be refunded on the 13th Feb. This never happened and the next operator says that they are not going to refund me as it was found that I had been receiving itemised billing. How does MTN come up with this conclusions when I have billing proof that only my invoices were sent with no itemised billing.</p> <p> </p> <p>I moved over to MTN many many years ago because of the illusion they were the best network despite their higher call tariffs and poorer packages. When I was considering to upgrade (Luckily I wasnt foolish enough to do so), i had about 4 different people calling me in the space of half a day to help me upgrade. But this is not the case for after sales services. </p> <p> </p> <p>I am still going to fight for my refunds on both cases but my advice to anyone reading this review and considering moving over to MTN.......DONT. Select another service provider, MTN is a total rip-off....and spread the word to others considering joining MTN....I wouldnt want another foolish customer falling in the same trap as me.</p>