Phoney phone from confidence *********s - and MTN paying along

I was called by someone I thought was from MTN with an incredibly cheap offer on a cell phone and contract. This was the evening before I had to go overseas and I was half distracted and said yes for what I thought would be a backup phone.

Delivery of the phone was a ridiculously drawn-out process because the courier company kept on coming at the wrong time when I was not here. When eventually I got the phone it turned out to be a five-year-old Windows phone, so feeble and cheap that I would not have thought of buying it when it was new.

It was returnable so I phoned MTN and after endless hassles got put through to a different company called Rewardsco that was apparently doing promotions with old MTN stock. I said I wanted to return immediately. They told me to hand in what I received to the nearest MTN shop and get a working order number from them, then phone them again to activate return.

I went to the nearest MTN shop in Plettenberg Bay, gave back all the stuff on Thursday 10 October. They promised to WhatsApp through the number the same day. I went back again when nothing happened and they said a weekend was needed for processing. By Tuesday (today) nothing has happened. I have phoned the MTN branch but the person I dealt with is never available and does not come back.