MTN secunda mall. ********* work practices

I would like to share my experience I had with MTN regarding a data contract cancellation. I've had a data contract with MTN, and was looking to have it cancelled as soon as the contract lapses. So I went to the Secunda mall MTN store in June to query about the date that my contract ends, and was told that it ends on the 11th August of this year. I asked the lady at the counter if it is possible that I can put in a cancellation request in advance so that when my contract ends, it does not get renewed. She rep**** to me saying that if she does that, I will be charged an early cancellation fee and advised me to come on the last day of my contract or the day after to cancel it. So I took her advise.

So on the 11th August 2022, I went to Secunda mall MTN store. I have to say the customer service was very *********. There was a long queue and I didn't mind that, but then a lady approached me and asked me "how can I help you?". I explained to her that I wanted to cancel my contract, to which she laughed in my face and said that I must wait in the queue, the consultant will attend to me. I find this very unprofessional. What more was the other lady at the counter (sits in the middle), ignored me being next in line and even called to help the customers behind me. I waited until the lady in front called me to the front and then we went ahead with the cancellation request as I'd discussed with her previously. She sent my cancellation request through to retentions and told me they will contact me to confirm my cancellation. I waited that evening for a call from retentions, and none came through.

The next day my data balance was debited with a new balance, followed by an sms telling me that my contract had expired and the balances would be charged on a month-to-month basis which I was not aware of and did not grant consent to. This confused me as I've cancelled my contract already and didn't expect this. I called the MTN store in Secunda to find out about this and I was told by the same lady to call customer care on 135. I called customer care, and waited almost 30 mins with no response. I went back to the lady at the Secunda mall MTN, and explained to her what happened and she said she doesn't know why that happened, and claimed that they can only send requests, she can't approve anything and that I must contact customer support. I asked her if I can speak to the branch manager about this and she insisted that there is nothing they can do for me and that I had to call customer care on 135. So since it was a weekend, I had to wait for Monday to call the contracts department (again according to her advice).

I called retentions department and explained the situation, and the lady told me that I was supposed to send the request at least 30 days before the end of contract as a cancellation request takes 30 days to process. She told me that the lady at the MTN store gave me the completely wrong advice and was supposed to tell me that I have to do this 30 days in advance. So now I am stuck with a final amount that more than doubles my regular monthly premiums, as well as data I never wanted to have in the first place.

So I have no choice but to pay the huge fees at the end of my contract anyways, for simply trying to follow the advice of an in store consultant that gave me the completely wrong advice. I am truly disappointed with the in store staff at Secunda Mall MTN (specifically the lady at the counter, whose name I still do not know to this day because she refuses to give me her name, but all I know is she sits on the far right as you enter the store...). Being a loyal customer for almost 7 years, it appals me to think that the customer service is gone so bad, that I am considering to change my service provider, due to the bad customer service. I'm willing to give every other MTN store in the country the benefit of the doubt as being highly customer friendly, but my experience with the MTN secunda mall branch has been a complete disaster.

I might not be able to get out of my situation and have to consider this a lesson learned moving forward, but I refuse to be quiet about it, and hopefully others learn from my mistakes and educate themselves better on how these companies operate, so as to avoid these types of situations.