MTN...a law unto themselves

I am writing this as I am frustrated to no end and disappointed beyond belief.

In October 2016 I entered into a contract with MTN (upgraded) to a Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime Gold of colour. While doing all the paperwork I was asked by the consultant whether I wanted insurance on the J7 prime upon which I rep**** "Yes", as I have always taken insurance on my handsets. All the paperwork was done and signed and I was off with my new phone under the impression I am fully covered for any unfortunate event.

Recently I had to register a claim as my handset was damaged. I went to the MTN outlet and completed my claim form on 28/09/2017 and a few hours later I was informed by sms that my claim had been registered and that I should allow 24 hours for a consultant to contact me with further instructions.

On 02/10/2017 I received another sms informing me that my claim had been approved and I must pay a R150 excess for the repairs if I had not done so yet.

On 04/10/2017 I paid the excess as requested and forwarded the proof to them. On 05/201/2017 I received another sms informing me to package my handset in such a way that it would not get damaged while in transit. I did this and on 06/10/2017 the courier collected my device from my home address.

On 09/10/2017 I received another sms informing me that my device had reached the repairer and was being assessed. On 11/10/2017 I received a call from MTN insurance informing me that the device cannot be repaired and that I must pay another R200 excess in order for them to replace my device with a new one.

On 17/10/2017 the extra R200 excess was paid and the proof of payment was sent to them. On 18/10/2017 I received a phone cal from one of the consultants Phumzile, informing me that my new device will be delivered within the next 1 to 5 working days and that it will be exactly the same as what I had....a Gold Samsung J7 Prime. I thank her and we ended the call. 5 minutes after that I received another call from her informing me that I am under insured and that they cannot replace the handset that I had. I informed her that as far as I am concerned I was given insurance on the day I entered into the contract and I have been under the impression ever since that my phone is insured as I have been paying insurance every month, and it is therefore unfair to punish me for someone else's mistake and they need to sort it out.

On 26 October 2017 ; 6 days after the call from Phumzile; I contacted MTN Insurance again to find out what the status is. The consultant, who's name I could not hear properly due to the poor quality of the line we were on, first said to me that they have ordered my handset from logistics and waiting for availability. Then I was told almost immediately after that that I was under insured and that they cannot replace my device with a J7 Prime again and if I wanted the J7 Prime I would have to pay in an amount of R 1 900 or R600 for a J5 Prime. I am not accepting of this stance and they were informed of this by me in very explanatory detail.

On 26 October at 16:00 I received a call back from the same lady informing me that logistics had emailed her back and said that she can order the same device for me as what I had. While we were still talking she asked me to hold on because their system was so slow and that her screen had just gone blank. She informed me that she was going to put me on hold which she did. After about a minute she came back to me and said that she had just had another email from logistics saying that I cannot have the same device anymore and they will come back to her with options of replacement devices. The replacement devices emailed to her from logistics are as follow:

Current Device - Samsung J7 Prime

Option 1 - SAMSUNG J5 Prime R600 betterment

Option 2 - SAMSUNG J7 Prime R1 900betterment

Option 3 - SAMSUNG J ********** model

What happened to the R350 I already paid to them for excess????

Therefore I actually only have one option which is a slap in the face. I took the contract I did because I wanted the phone on offer on that specific contract. A consultant who did my contract made me believe that I was properly insured for the device. MTN Insurance has a different opinion and now the client/consumer gets punished again for incompetency. This is disgusting treatment of clients of 20 years plus. Unacceptable to be treated like this. I have four contracts on my name with MTN for my whole family and I am finding another service provider for all of them.