Mtn Does Suck
I am posting this on behalf of my daughter - for reasons that will become clear! This is her story:
On ±14th February 2007, I went to upgrade my cell contract with MTN. I upgraded with from the MyCall 100 to the Procall 120, as I was moving out to the country (Napier – 2 hours out of Cape Town) and needed to have a phone that could do ‘everything’ (i.e. make calls and connect me to the internet through a laptop), because I have no land line out here.
I was told that the phone to get in the Nokia N80, so I got it. I was very excited about the fact that the phone could get me connected to the internet (a novel experience for me!), as I am a consultant and need to spend a lot of time emailing and downloading big files. I moved out to Napier a couple of days later and immediately tested the phone. I managed to get connected and download / send emails for a few days, although the connection was intermittent and I was often thrown off. After a few days, however, the connection got worse and worse, till eventually I could not connect to the internet at all. In addition to this, I started to lose reception while talking on the phone. I assumed this was because the area I am in has inconsistent reception, but, when I went to Cape Town on the 26th Feb, I experienced the same problem there. I therefore was convinced there was something wrong with the phone and it was not bad reception that I would not get it to work! I then went to the MTN Service Centre at Century City in Cape Town and spent 2 ½ hours (!!) with the guys trying to fix the problem (I was only in C.T. for that day and had to spend a large proportion of it in the MTN service centre). The consultant there then insulted my intelligence by trying to convince me that the sim card I had was old and needed replacing (!) and showed me that the phone had full reception (full bars) and there were no problems. I kept insisting it was the phone. Eventually, after several tests, I proved to them it was the phone that was faulty – they finally agreed that there was a problem with the phone. They said as a last resort they would download some ‘new’ software onto the phone and said I should see how it goes with that. I took it home and tried it, but of course, it did not work. I then had to wait until a friend who was going to Cape Town could take the phone back to the centre and have it sent to JHB for ‘repair or replacement.’
We were told it would be a maximum of three weeks before I would either get my phone back repaired, or I would be given a replacement phone. I asked if I could have a courtesy phone and they said it was highly unlikely that they would have one available and even if they did, they would not have one that could connect me to the internet. More than I month later, after making several calls to MTN to find out what was happening, I got a call from MTN in JHB from someone saying that the phone could not be repaired and I would be sent a replacement phone (really, does it take a month to figure that out… obviously if a brand new, top-of-the-range Nokia does not work, there is something seriously wrong with the thing!). Anyway, that was more than 6 weeks ago… I am still waiting for my replacement phone.
Last week, I eventually spoke to the floor manager of the Century City Repair Centre (after calling the head-office in JHB to lay a formal complaint, I was transferred back to Cape Town!). He was, or so I believed, extremely apologetic, genuine and somebody who would actually take action. That was a week ago – I have heard nothing since, despite being promised I would be contacted by Monday (7th May).
Yesterday my father went into Cape Town (he lives in Robertson, 160 Kilometers away) to try and sort the matter out. He was informed that the “floor manager” was in the centre (Century City) and would return in 15 minutes. Twenty minutes later my father was informed that the manager would be a further 20 minutes, upon which my father decided not to wait because it was 20 to 5.00 pm and he had to drive back to Robertson. He left his number with instructions for the manager to call him. Twenty-four hours later – no response.
Besides them selling me a phone that I have paid for for 3 months now and never been able to use, they also failed to warn me that if I did not request them to back-up all my phone numbers, I would lose them. Nobody told me that when the phone was delivered to them. When I asked if they could give my numbers back to me (either on a sim card, or a memory card), they said “No. Sorry, the problem is yours and you should have requested a back-up!”
This is shocking.
They sell you a phone, ask you to bring it in to them, lose all the information on the machine and then blame it on you! Their attitude towards this has been unbelievable! I had numbers on that phone that go years back. Yes, I should have had them written down somewhere else, but that is not the point. The point is it is all about poor service, through terrible communication with their customers and a real ‘tough s#*t’ attitude. Why should we tolerate this?
This is the worst service I have ever experienced in my life. MTN has been a total disappointment – their service has been disgusting. Not only will I make sure that every individual I speak to knows about this, but I will also do my best to publicize this as much as possible. This probably means nothing to huge company like MTN… they know they ‘have us by the balls’, for want of a better expression, and this gives them freedom to make a lot of money out of a lot of people, no matter how inferior, unprofessional and rude their service might be. We have all (stupidly) become dependent on our cell phones, particularly those of us who run businesses on them, in the absence of a landline). I know that I am just one of hundreds or even thousands of people who have experienced such terrible service, but few of us (myself included) have the time to take up these issues properly, so that we actually see results.
I was told ‘I am sure this must have been an inconvenience for you’ – what an understatement.
I live 15km from the nearest decent internet café. I work most days in the field (I am a biologist) and am often out at the crack of dawn and back in the late afternoon, therefore I cannot always get to the café. Each visit to the café (which I need to do at least every couple of days) costs me R10-R30, as well as the diesel to drive there and back! I am paying for a phone that should provide this service, but I am not getting the service. Basically, I have not had a working phone since about five days after I purchased the thing (on the 14th Feb). This means I have not had the use of the internet for three months. Being a consultant, I rely heavily on communication through email and this has been seriously compromised for the last three months, making me look highly unprofessional. I had previously rationalized that because I would be renting a house without a landline, the best and most affordable way to get internet (as there is no broadband here yet!) would be to get it through the cell phone, rather than having a landline installed. I rely entirely on this and I have not been able to use it at all. It would have been more effective to go to Telkom!
I have had to make so many phone calls (often to land lines, where I am held in a queue, while listening to an annoying tune) while I pay for the cost of these very costly calls. The fact that I have to spend the time to write this letter, when I should be working, is also sickening. Not having this phone, and therefore the use of the internet, has seriously hindered my work. MTN has totally undermined (i.e. ignored) my comments about this and has essentially just ignored the issue (although I am always promised ‘we are working on it ma’m, I personally will take care of this’). Their arrogant and superior way of telling us ‘don’t worry ma’m, we will take care of you’, while they forget about our calls the minute the phone is put down is also sickening.
I plan on leaving MTN and going to Vodacom, or another opposition. I know that there are always problems will all these service providers, but the point is that for the last 3 months, MTN has provided ZERO service – hardly living up to the good name they pretend to have (‘Everywhere you go’ my ass!).
I hope that this will encourage other people to raise their complaints, as if we keep quiet and let these big companies get away with service as poor as this, we are setting a precedent for inferior service. Surely, this is not what we pay thousands of Rands a year for.
I expect, in the very least, a full refund for the service I have paid for and not received (i.e. the use of the Nokia N80), as well as my numbers to be returned to me in some way, shape or form, with my replacement phone. If this does not happen immediately, I will cancel my debit order for MTN and thus, my contract (and just let them try to challenge this – why should I stick to a two-year contract if they haven’t kept their side of the bargain at all!). I would rather go elsewhere (and get a Telkom line!). I am ready to do this anyway, as it seems that MTN does not respond to pleading, begging, patience, or even threat. They simply do not respond to anything.
Shame on you MTN, you have been such a let-down.
