Shocking service, no service in fact!!!

On 6 Jan 22 I lost my Iphone. At around 9:00 I called 135 to blacklist the phone. Initially the lady couldn’t hear me and proceeded to tell me that there is a problem with the MTN line where they cannot hear clients. We tried to have a conversation but after about 3 minutes she gave me a final warning of “customer, if you don’t respond I will be forced to end the call”, needless to say, the call was ended. I then went to MTN Longbeach Mall to get the phone blacklisted by doing it in person. Enter Surayia (I think that was her name) She tried to blacklist the handset but then some story of she did what she had to do but now it needed to be whitelisted by head office before she can finish the process. She “opened a ticket” and she will email me once done. (email never received) I asked about a sim swop and early upgrade and she suggested I go to Istore in Cavendish Square because they had no Iphone stock and Istore will have, they can also do the sim swop and early upgrade. I got to the Istore only to be told that they have stock, they can do the upgrade BUT they cannot do a sim swop. 30km wasted in tim and fuel! From there I decided to go to MTN Steenberg who has always delivered the best service in my close vicinity (not that it’s ever been great but still better than anywhere else) Enter Siphiwe. He advised that they can help with the sim swop and early upgrade but they’re only getting their Iphone stock after 14:00 that day. I went back to the store at around 14:30 or so, just as the new stock arrived. Siphiwe wasn’t available so Mischka ended up helping me. She started the process of the upgrade and advised that my “penalty” for early upgrade is R 1800.00. After a few minutes spent on the system she advised that she had to call the Retentions department, which she did. They advised that early upgrades cannot be done instore (Mischka claims they didn’t know this) and had to be done telephonically. I ended up speaking to Kgeseko at Retentions who advised that my penalty was R 2159.00.... Realising I will not win tis battle against the "All mighty MTN" and being desperate to get back online, I asked Keseko to proceed with the order and he “ordered” an Iphone 13 for me. Told me the phone will be delivered to my house between Tuesday 11 Jan and Thursday 13 Jan. I was told I can do the sim swop in store because getting back online was of the utmost importance as I run my business from my phone. Mischka did the sim swop, I paid R 150.00 (she was going to email the invoice to me, I’m still waiting) and was told the new sim would be active later that day. “No service” by midnight 6 Jan and no service by early morning 7 Jan. By 18:00 there was still “no service” so I called 135, again. They advised that there is no sim swop reflecting on my account!!!!!!!!! Saturday morning 8 Jan I went to MTN Longbeach to get an update of the blacklisting because I have not heard from anybody. Surayia told me that the “white-listing” was only “finalized” late the night before so they will now do the official blacklisting and supply me with the ITC nr that I need for insurance purposes. Here Courtney at least was helpful and after some time, she gave me a print-out as proof of blacklisting with the necessary ITC nr. I asked them if they can help with the so called sim swop that was never done but they advised that I had to go back to Steenberg. On arrival Mishcka wasn’t there so I dealt with another lady (unfortunately never asked her name because by this time I was DONE with the lack of service and my blood was boiling!!) I explained the situation of being told that there is no sim swop reflecting on my account, she looked into my profile only to advise that the sim swop cannot be finalized and neither can the early upgrade because there is some ***** case open in my name and advised that I need a SAFPS letter before anything can be finalized. I lost my cool at this point. (I know NOTHING about anything ***** related against me!!!!) She gave me the nr to call on Monday 10 Jan to find out the details and to get the letter from then. Then advised that I needed to bring the letter back to them on Monday!!!!!! This will be trip nr 4 to that specific store!! I have to admit that I completely lost my cool at this point and told Michska that I don’t even want to talk to her again!! I can’t help but wonder if this is not cause for my further issues below…. I then ended up buying a pre-paid card just to be able to get on the air so that I can at least have contact with my clients and the outside world. I supp**** her with my ID and copy of rates and taxes account for RICA purposes. I also bought airtime and data to ensure I can be active, online, while not in wifi reception. The phone worked on Saturday afternoon but all of a sudden by 17:00 could only make emergency calls. I called 135 yet again, only to be told the nr has been disconnected from the network. The lady I spoke to said she will reconnect me and that it will take about 2 hours for this process to take effect. By 22:00 the line was finally active. On Sunday morning I did not need to use my phone till 9:22 when I needed to send a whatsapp, it didn’t go through. I tried calling the person only to hear “your service has been RICA-barred, please visit an MTN store”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! REALLY?????????????????????????????????? After I supp**** the documents!! I called 135 yet again at around 13:00 on Sunday 9 Jan, the lady said the line was active, I should remove the sim and battery and try making a call. I did all of this to no avail, still “Your service has been RICA- barred, please visit an MTN store”…. She referred the “case” to her team leader Grace who will “call me shortly”. It is now 17:54 and still no call from Grace, still “Your service has been RICA- barred….blah blah blah”…..

My questions to you are:

How much more should a client of nearly 25 years accept in bad service, actually no service? What does one have to do to get to a POSITIVE end result?? Who will cover my time and petrol expenses of the last 3 days. I have travelled more than 150kms in 3 days and no end result?!?!?!!? I work for myself and my clients have not been able to get hold of me!!! Who will cover my lack of income thanks to YOU???? Why do the staff not know of certain processes ie. The early upgrade only through Retentions department?? They look incompetenet and adds to the frustration of the clients!! Why do the staff have to use the same 135 nr as the public???? This puts them under tremendous pressure, they should have their own dedicated line, with TRAINED staff who only deals with the stores!!!! Why can MTN not tell me what the supposed ***** issue is? I am not aware of anything against me or my ID number!!!!!!!!!!! How is MTN even in business till now with such bad service?????????