Terrible Systems for Sim Swap

Dear MTN,

Yesterday (08/01/2026), at around 5:30pm, I went to the MTN Menlyn Branch to be assisted with a Sim Swap, as my Sim Card was not working on any other device. I needed to do this because the device on which it was working - my phone - fell and broke, so I needed the Sim Swap as part of the process to procure another phone.

A gentleman at the store tried to assist me, however, he realised that my physical Sim Card did not match the serial number they had on the system. He advised me to do a Sim Swap, and attempted to do an eSim Swap due to my Apple Watch eSim. That attempt failed for some reason, and we then decided to do a physical Sim Swap. Due to the open ticket for the eSim Swap, your systems did not allow me to do the physical Sim Swap.The gentleman advised that I come back the next day, hopefully the ticket would have been closed by then, after his escalation. I came back the next day around 9:15am, and the ticket was still unresolved. Another gentleman assisted me at this point, and he escalated the matter (REQ***), and said I should maybe try coming back later - hopefully the ticket would be closed and we can start afresh and do a physical Sim Swap.

I left and came back 3 hours later - still no progress. I then requested that he calls Customer Care and speaks to someone about this. The lady at Customer Care said she has now escalated the matter to a technician, this was around 12:40pm (I don't have proof of this as the technician's details were sent to the gentleman assisting me at the store). The gentleman then advised that I wait a bit, in hopes that all would be resolved. I waited 2 hours in the store, there was nothing I could do without a sim card. When the 2 hours passed, myself and the gentleman checked the system, and nothing had been done. At this point I was getting frustrated and agitated at this process because my life was on hold.

I requested to speak to Customer Care myself at this point, this was around 3pm. The lady assisting told me there was nothing she could do, something I had been hearing since I started this process at 5:30pm the previous day. She also escalated the matter (MTN Ref. No: BO***), and a Service Request Number was opened, and closed 2 minutes after (Service Request Number: ***) It is now 24 hours later and I was forced to get a new physical sim card, then go to the bank before they closed at 4pm to sort out my banking apps, then go buy a new phone that I can use while my original phone is getting replaced through insurance. This whole process has been ridiculous to say the least. It has derailed my life - I am starting a new job on Monday and my colleagues have been trying to reach me on my old number, but could not. I had to communicate via emails on my laptop, I couldn't use any other device for my emails due to two-factor authentication which required my old number.

I will try again tomorrow (10/01/2026) to see if this matter has been attended to because I desperately need my old number back.