Sim Swap - Useless

Saturday, 25 May My phone was ****** from my pocket while shopping at Mall of Africa.

Sunday, 26 May I visited MTN Nicolway at 9am to do a sim swap. I took with me an LTE sim that MTN had previously delivered to me, which I had not activated. Miles was in the store. I explained the situation of the theft. Miles verified my details & processed the sim swap. He said I should turn on my spare phone with the new sim after 4pm. I turned on the phone after 6:30pm. The number was not activated. The steps were repeated several times thereafter, each time, switching off; re-inserting the card & switching it on. No success. Monday, 27 May Returned to MTN Nicolway. I was advised by Miles that because the issues was raised on a Sunday, that it could take another day to activate. I should try again after 2pm. At this point, I bought a prepaid from Woolworths (not available in store because they don't have stock), but activated it in store & have been using that since. Repeated the exercise again several times after 2pm. still no success. Tuesday, 28 May Returned to MTN Nicolway, they checked and then said that the SIM was redundant. They then made me purchase a new contract sim @ R115 and processed the sim swap again, assuring me that from 12:30pm or up to 24 hours, the sim would be active. Steps repeated several times on Tuesday and the sim was not activated. I called Miles to inform him of this issue in the afternoon. He said he would check & call me back. No call back has been received. I had also asked Miles to log my complaint. The 2 staff in store said that they are only a franchise & for issues, I must deal with the SP - perhaps in Fourways.

Wednesday, 29 May Tested the sim - not yet active. A colleague of mine has since advised me the she called me & that I tried to call her back. I told her that it was not possible because my contract sim is not yet activated. She showed me her call list. Indeed, my contract number is still active. I have since tested it. & whoever has it even called her back. I called the store. Miles is not available. Alternate person (Mbogeni Masereka) picked up the call. The person explained that when they send a message to the number asking: "Did you request a sim swap?", the person in possession of the number may have responded, "NO". Said he will attend to it after he deals with some customers in the store & will call me back within 45 mins. No call back received yet.

DEAR MTN When a client has advised that their phone has been ******, & requesting a sim swap, WHY would you send a message to the number asking if a sim swap was requested? Does that make any sense at all?? Especially considering that I am standing in the store, in person, with my ID.

Sim Swap Benchmark Telkom: My husband's phone was ****** in December over the holidays. He did a sim swap & that was processed within an hour. Well done Telkom! MTN: 3 days & counting..

Interested to find out how this story ends...