Telkom mobile - incompetence abounds

My mother got a new iPhone on an upgrade of an existing contract in November 2017. They had to do a sim swop, because the iPhone had a nanosim and the existing phone had a larger one. All the documents were present and according to the salesperson the process would be concluded within 48 hours.

A few days later, all the Telkom are phoned numbers to find out what's wrong and get rerouted to 3 different departments, each one saying something else and that they will resolve the problem. Finally, on 21 December, we go to a Telkom store and they say that the original salesperson neglected to conclude their work, that's why there's a hold up. They email and phone this person and promise the issue will be resolved within 48 hours.

On the 2nd of January, after receiving no response or query, nothing has happened, so I email them again and ask what the status is. Apparently, the salesperson now cancelled the simswop and my mother has to go in to the store again and maybe this time the issue will be resolved. And no one at Telkom bothered to inform her that she had to do this. If we didn't ask, we would still be waiting.

This is absolutely pathetic service. I view this as Telkom's mistake - my mother had all her documents with her originally, surely they should have made copies and they can just use them? Why did the salesperson cancel the simswop at all? Now she has to pay travel expenses for a third time to go see someone who should have done their job correctly the first time. Ridiculous.