Vindictiveness or just stupidity?

Due to 20 years of complex trauma caused by a combination of general incompetence, network issues and terrible service, I bid Vodacom adieu in September 2020 and migrated my number to a different cellular network provider. on 11/1/2021 my cellphone suddenly stopped picking up any network (Vodacom or otherwise) mid-Whatsapp. I assumed it was a sim reader issue and a week of running around trying to sort the problem out ensued. On 17/1/2021 I was advised to go to Vodacom by a savvy technician, which I did. Lo and behold, I was informed that the phone had been blacklisted by Vodacom in Aug 2020. Many questions fought for supremacy in my brain. If it had been blacklisted in Aug 2020 why had it been functioning perfectly well for 4 months? Who had blacklisted the phone and why? Was it a cellular network imp or a sausage-fingered Vodacom employee with a JZ-like approach to numbers? Was it a final act of vengeance by an angry ex-mobile-network-provider wife? Was it a glitch in the Matrix? Was anything, in fact, real?

The answers to these questions are largely unknown. Dark forces are afoot.

I concluded the day by completing an unblacklist request form and emailed it to Vodacom.

Episode 2 to follow shortly.