MTN. Terrible, Everywhere You Go.

Buying a phone for your mother and grandmother is something that should be fairly simple. I wanted to buy a phone for my mother and grandmother as a Christmas present. So I went to MTN on Black Friday at Westgate Shopping Center. Here is where the issues started...

No.1 I couldn't buy a phone because their servers were down, forcing me to go to Clearwater whose servers were experiencing the same issue. So the following day, (Saturday) I went to Westgate again and there servers were still down, then I went to Clearwater and after 2 hours of waiting, they came online. So I bought 2 phones on a contract. A Samsung J7 Pro and a Samsung Grand Prime.

No.2 MTN did not have stock of my phones resulting in the product delay by a week which makes it an issue when you advertise a contract special for a specific weekend and then do not have stock of the products when the special begins.

No.3 When the phones eventually arrived, one of the mobile devices came in the incorrect color, not because they didn't have stock, but rather just because they made that mistake. How difficult is it to distinguish between Black and Silver?

No.4 The MTN contract I took out stipulated that I would receive 1GB per month for the next 24 months on both phones and an additional 10GB per month for the next 3 months on each phone, resulting in an overall of 11GB per month for the first 3 months and then 1GB per month thereafter for both phones along with additional SMS bundles and Airtime. I received my 2 mobile devices on the 29th of November 2017, one device had 11GB along with SMS bundles and Airtime as stipulated in the contract while the other device was kept away for Christmas. The device that was being used had it's full package for only 15 days, as per MTN's ridiculous calendar,"1 full month" before it renewed to the next 11GB with SMS bundles and airtime. It renewed on the 14th of December 2017.

No.5 After realizing that my data had renewed in the span of just 15 days instead of 30, I went to MTN in Clearwater Shopping Center to query why my data had renewed in such a short period of time, as surely this was a mistake. While speaking to separate staff members, 1 claimed that MTN has no control over when the data renews, another claimed that it was only promotional data and that the 3 months that was advertise only started on the 14th of December 2017, and finally the last told me to simply get over it and accept that the data is gone. After a couple of hours of arguing with MTN Staff, one of the staff members came to the conclusion that my contract's Bill Run Date is the 11th of each month, meaning that my data, SMS Bundles and airtime must renew on the 11th of each month (which still didn't happen because it renewed on the 14th, a matter they could not explain.) Nevertheless I was given the assurance that since it renewed on the 14th of December 2017, the next time it will renew is the 11th of January 2018 and then again on the 11th of February 2018 therefore ending the 10GB promotion on the 11th of March 2018. And yet again the data was renewed, but this time on the 29th of December 2017 and no SMS bundles or Airtime came with it. In summary my contract renewed twice in 1 month, of which, none renewed on the 11th as MTN assured it would. Roughly 16GB was lost from a 30GB contract and nobody at MTN can give me a good reason as to why or where it has gone to.

No.6 When my Grandmother opened her phone on the 25th of December 2017, the device had 30GB loaded onto it, instead of 10GB along with SMS Bundles and Airtime. The contract "renewed" 4 days later on the 29th of December, and 29GB was lost. What made maters worse was that the device received nothing on the day it renewed, there was no SMS Bundles, Airtime or Data that came through at all. Currently it is the 9th of January 2018 and the phone has no Airtime, SMS Bundles or Data.

All in all, over the past 41 days of being a customer at MTN I was promised 60GB over 3 months and lost 45GB in 4 weeks and who knows how much I am still yet to lose when the next random renewal date comes along. As a new customer of MTN I believe this is the worst service I've experienced in my life and wouldn't recommend MTN to anyone.