Pontius to Pilatus, no one wants to help to reinstated wrongfully cancelled MTN contract

I do not even know where to start at the ********** customer service experience with MTN. In short, my girlfriend, who is deaf (she has a cochlear implant, but it is nearly impossible for her to have a conversation over the phone), had two MTN numbers. She wanted to cancel the one completely and cancel the contract on the other which naturally ran out and switch to pay as you go. After initializing the cancellation process, she changed her mind and saw a black Friday online special for a Honor 400 lite on a 50min + 1 GB contract. She took out the contract online. If was on the number she wanted to keep and switch to pay as you go.

Whoever at MTN who handled the cancellation, then cancelled the NEW contract in stead of the OLD contract. The new contract did not exists at time the cancellation was requested, so how it is even possible to in effect "future date" such a cancellation request, is beyond comprehension.

To write about the numerous phone calls which was always assisted by a hearing person and unmentioned number of whatsapp messages and emails. The same happens. The buck is passed from one MTN department from one to another. Nobody wants to reactivate the incorrectly cancelled NEW contract.

We went to MTN Paarl Maal, where Lyle helped us. Thumb up to him. He tried his very best and phone. It was quite amusing how MTN back office send him from department to department, eventually back to where he started. He wrote emails as an attempt to assist. Everything without any success. MTN says only the agent who handled the online contract can reactivate it. At this stage swear want to spew out of my mouth. Your geniuses can for sure located the audit trail on your systems and get request for reactivation to the correct agent. But you as MTN ask who handled the online purchase. How on earth should we know that?!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the mesage Lyle send MTN retensions (if I understand correctly):

The agent under SR1-**********7 explains what happen : "Customer requested for the 2 numbers *** *** **** and *** *** **** to be cancelled when I made contact with customer for assisting her with her upgrades. When she requested for a cancelation and I action it on the system as she didn't wanted to upgrade at that moment , on 1st December she changes her mind and done the upgrade through online while the line was in process to be cancelled , The online person who helped her with this request should have checked under History if no Service de-activation was logged. Now what happened is that the contract cancelled and device was billed. The solution here will be that the online consultant who done the activation for customer re-activate the line for the customer on the number *** *** **** as we are unable to do so from our side as the stock is from online and not done via our store . And then waive the device fee that's billed on her account asap. Hope this make sense to you . But welcome to contact me if any is unclear."

Needless to say, to no avail.

The reply:

"Kindly be advised that we cannot assist as the cancellation was not done in our department. ... The order number ********** was done by the customer online on their own and not activated by an agent and because it is cancelled the order cannot be reactivated. The cancellation fee will need to be paid. If there is a call recording please pull it and listen to the call to try and figure out how to assist the customer. We look forward to being of service to you."

What service? You helped zero thank you very much!

Stop passing the buck and blocking the correction of your error. Why isn't communication passed to the correct department. You always end in a dead end. We gone through this process numerous times with deffirent department and different communication channels. Zero Help. NOTHING!!!!!!!

In short pay up and shut up. I recommend nobody to go to MTN.

Some true help would really be appreciated! Can someone at MTN please contact us and set the process

I need to end with this. I can only say its a nightmare for a deaf person to interact with the call centre. There is apparently no fixed policy on how to handle a call where a hearing person try to assist a deaf MTN client. I understand in the deaf community there are numerous people that call as if they are the deaf person as a direct result of struggling to get the deaf person to do verification, for example a dad that call on a deaf son's behalf. You call numerous times to get an agent that is willing for you as hearing person to communicate with the deaf person and answer verification questions after which you are able to talk on such a deaf's person behalf. Take into consideration that many deaf people didn't learn to speak correctly. If you do not know a deaf person, you have no idea how extremely difficult it is to try to fit into a hearing world. You have technology. It is totally possible to allow cancellations to be handled though the MTN app. If you can take out a contract, you can cancel it. The only explanation I can think of why this is so, is for customer retention purposes.