MTN's SMS ROAMING DOES NOT WORK, SO BEWARE WHEN TRAVELLING OVERSEAS

I am in the USA at the moment and before leaving South Africa I dialed *35# and set my phone up for SMS roaming which would not allow me to make or receive calls or data due to the exorbitant costs and was supposed to still allow me to receive SMS's and OTP's but I have been here now for 16 days and I am still not receiving SMS's and OTP's even after rebooting my Samsung android phone over and over. I have been in contact with their BUSINESS CUSTOMER CARE several times and all I get back is a new person and another apology which does not help, because i cannot transact, I can't do my banking. There are 4 Mobile network operators here and I cannot connect to any of them even if I select automatically or try individually.