Location: Shop #6 at The Palms Shopping Mall, BIS Way, Lekki – Lagos.
Store Phone #: 08032038276
Hours: 9am-8pm
I previously had an MTN SIM, but I lost it, and assumed I’d get a replacement when I returned to Nigeria for Christmas. Sounds like a simple enough plan. Easy. My family and friends had advised AGAINST getting an MTN SIM and recommended I go with Etisalat instead. Their main reason being the MTN network is so congested and doesn’t function as well. I decided I’d get both and see which I prefer.
I went to the MTN store at the Palms Mall. The queue was rather long. Unwilling to wait, I inquired and was told by the security guard that I had to get a number and wait till I was called. I got a number and stepped out to the Etisalat store. Unfortunately, upon my return, my number had been called and I was told I needed a new number. By the time I was done yellingspeaking with him he decided to let me go after 2 other customers who had been there for a while. Finally, it came to my turn and I dealt with a customer rep called Bukky. She wasn’t the friendliest of all and she played with her Blackberry (BB) while attending to me (I think she was chatting with her friends). She also couldn’t articulate how the hotspot service worked when I asked the difference between the 1k5 and 3k BB plans. Anyway, she said she was done with my registration** and that my SIM should be active within 2 hours. The SIM and registration cost #150. I also wanted to buy credit so I could activate the BB plan but they were wasting too much time so I left. I bought 2k credit on my way home.
24 hours later I still couldn’t use my phone because the SIM was not registered. In my attempt to resolve the issue, I looked through the SIM packs they had given me and realized I got a “dynamic SIM”. At this point, I was confused and wondered if I had registered the wrong SIM. Some form of direction from the MTN rep would have been helpful! Begrudgingly, I went back to the store and had to wait for 15mins before someone else attended to me. She was nicer and recommended I re-register my SIM, which we did. She promised it’d work this time. I also asked about the dynamic SIM and apparently, it’s supposed to be a thing where if you give someone you’d talk to a lot the other SIM, the call rates are waaay cheaper. I would have been more excited about this, had Bukky told me in the first place instead of chatting. It would have saved me unnecessary stress.
6 hours later, my SIM was registered and I could finally load my credit. Loaded the credit and sent the code to activate BBM. Got a message saying it was successful. The End?
I wish!! I STILL couldn’t use the service. I called the MTN customer service number - 180 (which is free by the way) on 6 different occasions and spoke with 6 different courteous reps before the issue was resolved. They all walked me through different troubleshooting steps, which led me to believe that they didn’t receive the same training. Eventually, my issue was resolved after 3 days! 3 days to get a SIM card up and running. #onlyinNigeria
** Simcards in Nigeria now have to be registered before they can be used. Registration involves providing personal information (e.g. name, address, state of origin, local govt., etc). If you are a foreigner you’ll need to provide your passport information.