"Uninsured" phone nightmare. HORRIFYING service. Passing the buck.

Today marks the 3rd week since my first visit to MTN to report damage on my phone... I'm still without my phone and have very little hope at this point.

On the 17th of October my phone accidentally fell into water - an accident that can happen to anyone, but thankfully I have insurance with MTN! Or so I thought. Upon calling the MTN insurance centre from the branch, the call centre representative politely informed me that my phone was not insured. In fact, no paperwork had been sent in to transfer the insurance from my old phone to the new upgrade. I asked the MTN sales person what I should do. She told me that in these cases, MTN is usually of no help, and that I should just get a new phone.

I went home, found my original contract proving that I have insurance, and called the insurance - the lady advised that the store needed to prove that they sent the paperwork through. The next day my husband and I visited the store with the contract and asked for the email proving that it was sent through to the insurance, the sales person once again said they can't help me as the original sales person who helped me was not there. She refused to give us the manager or owners numbers.

3 Days later I returned (when the right employee was there) and asked him to show me the email he had said to the insurance. He said that they delete all of their emails after 2 months as MTN does not have the storage capacity to keep emails. I told him that is impossible since he is required to keep them for 5 years.

He gave us the manager and area manager's numbers at least. The following day my personal broker (who was now helping me because I was desperate) called the manager, sent through my contract and explained the situation. I eventually received a claim form for the damaged phone. After a few more days of communication with manager and insurance, my phone was picked up for inspection. By this point I had been without my phone for 2 weeks.

The following Monday I called the insurance again to find out what was going on, and was informed that the insurance carrier had changed!! It seemed like the new carrier had no information on the system, and they could not give me a number to call to find out what was going on.

We then called the AREA MANAGER who seemed to want to help. More emails were sent, phone calls exchanged and my phone was located.

Eventually after some time I was notified that my phone was in for repairs. HOWEVER water damaged phones have a history of breaking after a while due to rust inside the small parts. I asked if the phone could be replaced for this reason, the NEW insurance carrier said no.

Today marks 3 weeks. I am borrowing a friend's temporary phone in the meantime but this story has affected my business in a negative way. I cannot comprehend how MTN cannot do the RIGHT THING and replace my phone - hence putting in the same situation at I was before accident.

I have referred MTN to Anna-Mart Rossouw, an EXPERT sales and customer service trainer and the owner of Sales Advantage: ***. They obviously are desperate for training.