Shockingly bad phone upgrade experience

Vodacom sent me a mail message in November, inviting me to apply for an upgrade to the iPhone X. My contract is up for renewal and I’ve been waiting for the X to be released, so I followed their link and app**** online. I received a confirmation mail with the assurance that Vodacom will follow up with me from 20 Nov. Three weeks after the 20th, I started following up (not having heard from them at all) - or at least, I tried very hard to follow up. The call centre for contract renewals could not help me - even though I had a reference number. The operator told me to phone Vodacom Online - I tried three times, and held on for an average of almost 20 minutes each time. The first two times the call was dropped - a common experience for Vodacom customers who call while driving. The last time I just lost patience - after cumulatively almost an hour of holding on and listening to an atrocious and poorly rendered jingle. So four support calls in total, and no support. I still have no idea where I stand, and to add insult to injury, Vodacom sent me a snippy SMS, telling me that if I don’t renew my contract before it expires, I won’t continue to qualify for the normal discounts.

I’m sure there is quite a rush for the X, but really: Following up with your customers (even just a standard email message), ensuring that your call centres can deal with incoming calls, and providing some kind of online tracking is just standard practice!

How is it possible for a company with customer service THIS bad to stay in business?