Bad experience with Telkom

I had the worst experience with Telkom today. I lost my phone end of November and couldn't immediately do a sim swap as it is only done in the branch which is 240km away from where i stay. Yesterday 19th Dec i go to their East London branch to do a sim swap and it was succesful that i even loaded my sim with airtime, only to wake up this morning with no network whatsoever. I call Telkom helpland they advise me to ho back to the branch as they won't be able to assist me over the phone! Bare in mind i just spent R320 the previous day going to East London from Mqanduli, plus I'm working so i can't just go to EL in any day. I'm so full with this network shame.... after recommending it to soo many people who ported because of how highly i spoke of them ??