PATHETIC SERVICE

On the 11th of June I had gone in to take a contract with MTN Chilli Lane. My application was successful and I dealt with the consultant Tshepiso. I decided to take a P40 lite which they did not have stock of at the time and was told that she will call me when its delivered. I received a call that afternoon and was happy to collect my new phone. I collected the product, signed the required documents and she explain I had a 7 day return policy should I experience any technical issues with the phone. I could bring in the phone and it will be replaced.

On the 12th June I played around with it and realized I was not happy with the front camera of the phone. It was hazy during video calls and made my face completely distorted . On the 13th I went into the store early parts of the morning explaining to them that I was not happy with the product and the camera was problematic. A consultant Desmond kept saying the device is fine and its not corresponding with apps such as Whatsapp and that's not their problem. So I said that the camera comes on the phone, I did not install it so therefore it is a technical problem and that I am not happy about that. I also told him that I am within my 7 days to return the device as I saw this as a tehnicial issue. A consultant by the name of Linda called around for assistance and got hold of a lady by the name of Yash who works for Huawei. I spoke to Yash via video call and she said she had the exact phone I have and her phone does not do that. She referred me to Andre and he called me and told me he would go home and test his p40 lite and get back to me . He did not bother to call me back.

So the next day 14th I was back at the store furious that no one is getting back to me. The consultant that helped me take out the contract was there so I spoke to her and told her im unhappy that no one is getting back to me and its frustrating being shoved from pillar to post . Why do I have to deal with Huawei technicians when I took the contract with MTN as a service provider. They are supposed to get back to me. Tshepiso called Yash again and she said that she referred the client to Andre and there is nothing that she can do. During the conversation she said to Tshepiso to lodge an OBF to get a replacement phone. Once again there was no stock in the store. Tshepiso phoned around and she informed me that she placed an order, the phone is going to come from ****arney/Kyalami (not sure which store it was) and that she will call me once the phone is delivered to Chilli Lane. Once again I must go back to the store to collect.

She then asked me if I was going to leave the phone behind, and I responded unfortunately not, as I do not have another device and that she needed to contact me on the same phone, once the replacement phone was at the store. I clarified that this was okay, and she agreed. So now I have to wait for her to call me.

From the the 14th to the 17th no one bothered to call me to advise me of what is happening. On the 17th morning I called the store and spoke to the consultant Desmond, requesting an update and was advised that no OBF was done as I did not leave the phone behind. He was very rude and I said i took it upon myself to keep the phone and that should the 7 days lapse they will not be able to assist. I then told him that I had the converstion with Tshepiso who agreed that I could keep the phone. And that Tshepiso had told me that the OBF was done with Yash's authorisation. I then told him I will be coming into the store, and would like to speak to a manager and he said the manager would be there.

I then went to the store and asked to speak to the manager and guess what DESMOND is the manager. Here we are arguing back and forth about the same thing. He has no manners, no peoples s****s, got of from his desk with a lot of irritation, like I am an inconvenience and went to the back of the store and spoke to someone. This person eventually came out of his office and I got to know that he was the store owner Paulo. In the beginning he was very helpful and told me that faulty phones comes out of his pocket and he has 2 cases amounting to 32 000 and he can already see that this is going to be the 3rd cost that he will have to bear.

After much talking he tested the device via videocall and at first he was in denial and I kept insisting that something is wrong. He then tested another device of his which was an older model and the admitted that there was a problem and he could see the picture quality on his is far better than mine.

I then told him that I am not happy with the service that I am receiving from his staff, taking into consideration that I am driving to his store numerous times. I then told him I wanted to get a new product as I was still within my 7 days. he then told me on the old system you could do that, but on the system that they are currently on, it is not possible. He said he will call someone to assist him to do the change and that he would get back to me by the end of that day.

paulo also said that he will have to book the phone in under OBF and he did agree that I could keep the phone so that he could get hold of me. Paulo called me at around 5 that evening and advised me that he tested around 8-10 phones in the same high end range and it had the same problem. he also said that he spoke to a go-to Huawei technician who he said "Knows his stuff"and told me that the phone was made that way. The problem was the third party apps because the megapixel was so high it blurs out the pictures/videos. I then told him :

Its not fair on the client that has already taken out the contract to be advised at this time that this is how the product is made. I then told him if this product is selling so fast why have you not had any comebacks. As he advised me that I was the first one to complain. Bear in mind Yash who is the Huawei representative has the very same phone and she told me that he phone does not do this.

We had an agreement that i would come back to the store at 9am as he arranged for me to speak to Siya who was going to try to get into the system to terminate my contract and apply for a new handset. Bear in mind that Paulo made it seem that my issue is going to be solved as this was my 7th day. From the day I took out this contract I have been to chilli lane for 5 days.

Both Siya and Desmond tried calling around for help as they could not do it in the store. Siya told me that he had people on standby to assist and that they needed to keep trying on their end. I had not choice but to leave my phone behind, received my sim card and advised me that they will contact me once they received feedback. I advised that I do not have another device and he told me that he would get a loan phone for me of which he asked Paulo and he said I would get a phone that I could use till the issue of the cancellation is done. Siya was very convincing that I would get the loan phone.

No phone the entire day, I get a call from Desmond about 4 that afternoon, he was not successful in cancelling the contract and he did not hear anyting from Siya and Paulo regarding the loan phone. Till today the 21st of June, I have received no communication from the store owner, desmond and Siya.

On the 19th i called the MTN call centre and spoke to Neo. I explained my situation to her, and she was very apologetic, she said that she would check if she could help me. She also did not understand why this contract could not be cancelled as i was within my 7 days. She then called Desmond to get an understanding of what was happening and also to enquire about my loan unit. Desmond said that he was still trying and he could not speed up the process, and was also told that MTN does not do loan units. Neo then said to me that she would enquire further and keep me updated throughout the day. I advised her that I had borrowed my dad's phone for the day and she could contact me on that day as that was the only day that I had a phone.

to date I have not received any calls from Paulo the store owner, Desmond the store manager, Andre Huawei warehouse, Yash huawei rep, Siya, Neo call centre agent.

Is this the way that MTN treats their customers. I have been an MTN client for many years. I never experienced such dispicable service, where your staff do no care how they treat the customers, they have no manners, the inconvenience that you put a person through, my time and petrol. Is MTN going to compensate me for this. Chilli Lane is the worst store that I have been to. You must teach your staff some people s****s and they must not think that they are doing the client a favour. Because if was not for clients like me, they would be without a job.