Vodacom - new contract activation not happening and all "support" are CLUELESS!!!

<p>I am at the end of my rope with CLUELESS vodacom support! Sorry for the long explanation, but that is where I am at in my frustration process by now...</p> <p>My wife's phone got ****** recently, and wasn't insured.... As I was 4 months away from an upgrade, I thought I'd explore the possibility of paying up my remaining 4 months, giving her my current phone and just take out a new one with my same number. It worked out a LOT cheaper for me to do that than to buy a new phone and so I proceeded.... Now here comes the fun part...</p> <p>They ended my contract, and I payed the outstanding amount and sent through proof of payment. They confirmed that they received the payment and will put my number on prepaid. After the confirmation SMS that I got from them, I went in to the Vodacom store here in Bloem and took out a new contract. All went well, got my new phone, and the consultant told me that it would take 2 - 24 hours for the new contract to kick in. 2 days later, nothing.... Phoned customer care, spoke to a couple of consultants and eventually one of them said that they will do a "network refresh". Got an sms saying that it was refreshed, still nothing... Went in to the branch the next day, where the consultant told me that the person that did the "refresh", cancelled the new contract request somehow, and she will have to re-submit and that it will be active by 12PM that evening. 2 days later, still nothing. Went back in, and they said that they escalated it to a higher technical department. Fine, day later... still nothing. Went in to the branch again... Consultant told me that the APN or something needed to be reactivated, and that can only be done in India, as that part can only be done there?? Big international company with no-one local to do that... OK.... As it was a public holiday on Monday and Tuesday there, I waited until Wednesday, they said it was done successfully, I should be able to make calls now... still nothing. Spoke to consultant AGAIN, who said that they did something again, it should be fine now.... still nothing!! Since day 1, I could receive calls and, when on wifi, use my whatsapps and other apps as normal, but I am unable to load credit or data or anything on my number. When doing a balance enquiry, it shows all my balances at 0, even after recharging. Is there no-one in the whole company that can just fix the issue. Issue gets escalated from person to person without ANY results?? I can't even take my number and port it to another service provider, as they are unable to activate my number even on prepaid?? Calling the customer care is of no use and I only get to speak to one person after the other, explaining my whole story but still they are of NO use at all. What is going on????</p> <p> </p>