Sign up with GoogleI have been having a very informative series of discussions with everyone who works for MTN over the last few days.
I called the helpdesk on Thursday with what I thought was a simple request. I wanted to increase my monthly data contract from 2GB to 3GB. Not a big issue - I'm increasing the size of the monthly spend, not decreasing it so it shouldn't take more than five minutes on the phone. Not quite. The helpdesk refuse to help, and tell me to go into a branch. I explain that there is no branch within an hour's drive and that that will not work. Some to-ing and fro-ing occurs and I eventually get a supervisor, who promises to find out what the costs are and get back to me. I think he died just after that, because I have never heard from him again. Condolences to the family.
So I start again. They tell me that I can't increase the data on that account, but I can buy a databundle so I grudgingly agree to do it that way. So they tell me to log onto MTN Active. But they have decided to reset my PIN, and send a verification SMS to my router, which is a long way away, and not accessible. Some more to-ing and fro-ing occurs, including various people trying to transfer me to the MTN Active helpdesk. None of this works. If they try to transfer you, you end up with the dealer helpdesk (who aren't especially helpful despite the word "help" appearing in their name). If you dial 1761 or 083 1761 from a phone, you get a message telling you that the number does not exist. Not very confidence inspiring...
Eventually on Friday evening I scratch out the router, pull out the MTN SIM and try again. 1761 still doesn't work. I then manage to log on but cannot load a data bundle - the service is down. The service continued to be down the whole weekend. I think the cleaning lady has her vacuum cleaner plugged in where the server is meant to go. I spoke to the customer care once more. She warned me that if I try to load a recurring data bundle onto a data contract that I will be billed for it, but will never be allocated the data, and will still incur the morally indefensible OOB rates. Essentially I have to jump through these hoops every month. On a system that does not exist, run by a department of imaginary aliens in offices that do not have phones and cannot be contacted.
Brimming with false confidence, I try again this morning - the weekend cleaning lady must have gone off shift by now and with a little luck, she may have plugged the server back in before she left. Only to be shot in the foot - I can't even log into MTN Active because in their infinite wisdom, they have decided that my PIN will expire every 48 hours and that I will need to receive a verification SMS every time this happens. Of course this SMS is sent to the SIM card which is in a router which is in my roof which is at home. And I am not.
Strangely enough, by verifying myself over the phone I can get them to do anything I could do on MTN Active, and more, but I can't get onto MTN active by verifying myself on the phone, I have to have the SIM in my cell phone to do that. In fact I opened the whole account without ever seeing a single physical MTN employee - they even managed to RICA my SIM without any proof of address from me when I opened the account. But now they have seen the error of their ways and repented. My security is of such importance to them that they lock me out of my own account, and will keep doing so every 48 hours. I can't understand why I'm battling to appreciate the lengths they will go to, all to protect me.
So, after another two and a bit hours of getting jerked around by all sorts of people, being transferred through to the Not MTN Active help desk more time than I can remember, and being kept on hold for more time than I'd care to count, the supervisor I ended up with has undertaken to do what I asked for in the first place. He is going to attempt a world record data contract migration - yes folks, he will be incresing my data contract by an amazing 50%. Or will he? Time will tell, but in the meanwhile, don't touch that dial - updates to follow...
Oh, and one last thing... MTN are a telecommunications company aren't they? Then why the hell can't you hear a word that their helpdesk staff are saying? Why are they patently incapable of providing a satisfactory signal in their own bloody building? The poor buggers don't even have a land line that they can fall back on, so how the hell they know what their wife told them to pick up from Spar on the way home beats me.
I called the helpdesk on Thursday with what I thought was a simple request. I wanted to increase my monthly data contract from 2GB to 3GB. Not a big issue - I'm increasing the size of the monthly spend, not decreasing it so it shouldn't take more than five minutes on the phone. Not quite. The helpdesk refuse to help, and tell me to go into a branch. I explain that there is no branch within an hour's drive and that that will not work. Some to-ing and fro-ing occurs and I eventually get a supervisor, who promises to find out what the costs are and get back to me. I think he died just after that, because I have never heard from him again. Condolences to the family.
So I start again. They tell me that I can't increase the data on that account, but I can buy a databundle so I grudgingly agree to do it that way. So they tell me to log onto MTN Active. But they have decided to reset my PIN, and send a verification SMS to my router, which is a long way away, and not accessible. Some more to-ing and fro-ing occurs, including various people trying to transfer me to the MTN Active helpdesk. None of this works. If they try to transfer you, you end up with the dealer helpdesk (who aren't especially helpful despite the word "help" appearing in their name). If you dial 1761 or 083 1761 from a phone, you get a message telling you that the number does not exist. Not very confidence inspiring...
Eventually on Friday evening I scratch out the router, pull out the MTN SIM and try again. 1761 still doesn't work. I then manage to log on but cannot load a data bundle - the service is down. The service continued to be down the whole weekend. I think the cleaning lady has her vacuum cleaner plugged in where the server is meant to go. I spoke to the customer care once more. She warned me that if I try to load a recurring data bundle onto a data contract that I will be billed for it, but will never be allocated the data, and will still incur the morally indefensible OOB rates. Essentially I have to jump through these hoops every month. On a system that does not exist, run by a department of imaginary aliens in offices that do not have phones and cannot be contacted.
Brimming with false confidence, I try again this morning - the weekend cleaning lady must have gone off shift by now and with a little luck, she may have plugged the server back in before she left. Only to be shot in the foot - I can't even log into MTN Active because in their infinite wisdom, they have decided that my PIN will expire every 48 hours and that I will need to receive a verification SMS every time this happens. Of course this SMS is sent to the SIM card which is in a router which is in my roof which is at home. And I am not.
Strangely enough, by verifying myself over the phone I can get them to do anything I could do on MTN Active, and more, but I can't get onto MTN active by verifying myself on the phone, I have to have the SIM in my cell phone to do that. In fact I opened the whole account without ever seeing a single physical MTN employee - they even managed to RICA my SIM without any proof of address from me when I opened the account. But now they have seen the error of their ways and repented. My security is of such importance to them that they lock me out of my own account, and will keep doing so every 48 hours. I can't understand why I'm battling to appreciate the lengths they will go to, all to protect me.
So, after another two and a bit hours of getting jerked around by all sorts of people, being transferred through to the Not MTN Active help desk more time than I can remember, and being kept on hold for more time than I'd care to count, the supervisor I ended up with has undertaken to do what I asked for in the first place. He is going to attempt a world record data contract migration - yes folks, he will be incresing my data contract by an amazing 50%. Or will he? Time will tell, but in the meanwhile, don't touch that dial - updates to follow...
Oh, and one last thing... MTN are a telecommunications company aren't they? Then why the hell can't you hear a word that their helpdesk staff are saying? Why are they patently incapable of providing a satisfactory signal in their own bloody building? The poor buggers don't even have a land line that they can fall back on, so how the hell they know what their wife told them to pick up from Spar on the way home beats me.
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