MTN Head Office and Gateway Store Incompetence

I have an existing contract with MTN since 2013. In August 2020, I had my contract upgraded via their Pavillion store. In September 2020, my first bill after the upgrade showed a device fee that was double charged to my account. I went into the Gateway branch and was assisted by a Consultant named Zain who could not explain the amount and promised to revert to me. The normal installment amount was paid. However my line was cut the following week and Zain did not revert to me. Out of frustration, I went into the Pavillion branch and the line was temporarily opened. This happened 3 times from September until November. I thereafter went into the Pavillion branch and spoke to a lady by the name of Farida who claimed to be from Head Office and assured us that she would have this sorted within the week. She had also sent out an email to Zain and Melanie, the store Manager from Gateway as the complaint was originally lodged with the Gateway branch. After 2 weeks there was still no feedback from any of the aforementioned employees and my line was cut again despite my account being up to date. In the first week of December I proceeded to Gateway where I spoke directly to Melanie, the store manager. After Melanie had looked into the account she had informed me that the initial device fee that was being carried forward was actually an amount that was due to me and had occurred during the upgrade period. I was contacted by Melanie within the week where she had assured me that an amount of R 1 300 was owed to me by MTN and that I should not pay the next few installments, January and February 2021. As proof of this, no bills were received for the January and February period. However, in March I was served for a bill for double installments. I had contacted Melanie regarding same and she had assured me that she would revert to me. On consultation with Melanie, we did not pay the bill for the March installment as we did not know the correct amount to be paid. After 2 weeks of no response, I contacted Melanie again and she responded with "a death in her family" so she could not attend to the matter at hand. She re-assured me that she would attend to with immediate effect. At the end of March/beginning April billing period we received another bill reflecting 4 times the amount outstanding. We then went into the Gateway store on the 28th of March 2021 and spoke to a Consultant by the name of Andile as Melanie was the weekend off. He could not advise us of a way forward and promised to have Melanie revert to us. We then proceeded to pay the liable amount and not the 4 month billed amount. To date, no one has contacted us.

In my opinion, MTN has the most *********** staff, store management and head office management as no one can give me an answer nor sort out the recurring problem. MTN Gateway store is a joke with their level of service and accountability with Melanie being at the helm of their non performance. As a Manager Melanie should have been accountable for seeing this query through and not blatantly ignoring the problem at hand.

Based on this, my credit rating has now been affected as it shows a 2 month outstanding balance for an account that is up to date.

After 9 years of dealing with MTN and their recurring incompetence, I am at my wits end and have intent on suing them for: 1. Falsely billing me an amount that is not due. 2. Negatively affecting my credit score due to their staff incompetence. 3. Gross negligence when billing their clients. 4. My time and effort for running around for a bill that is up to date. 5. Loss of Business due to this line being constantly cut as it is my Business line.

I am at my wits end!!!!!!