POOR SERVICE - SIM NOT WORKING

I have two new mtn sim cards. The first sim card came with the phone that i bought on MRP online it did not work because it was not ricad, since Im using mtn myself i went into the mtn app to do the self rica, still it did not work. Then consultant from Mtn said i must rica in store, i did. Just to be safe i bought the mtn sim card at pepcell mabopane sqaure with rica docs. To cut the long story short both sim cards are not working. HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR A SIM CARD TO WORK AFTER YOU HAVE DONE RICA?????