Finally Got My SIM Card Unlocked - My Experience.

The last 3 weeks have been very stressful for me. I was tempted to make a post here complaining about our number service provider here in Ghana, MTN but decided against it when other told me Vodafone’s customer service was quite worse.

I unfortunately got my mtn mobile money pin locked about 3 weeks after 3 failed attempts. The way mtn momo (mobile money money) works, your pin is automatically locked and requires resetting with the help of your service provider after 3 failed attempts. This is all done to improve and ensure security which is quite a good thing.

Why do I say the process was stressful?

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I school in UDS- Navrongo as some of you are aware and the town is not very developed. However, there’s an MTN office here where users of the network can have their problems addressed.

At the very beginning of my problem, it was approaching the then deadline for re-registering and linking our national identification cards (Ghana Cards) to our sim. If you’re fortunate and all your details hold, your pin can be reset when you call MTN’s helpline and get connected to an agent.

The agent walks you through the process and helps reduce the stress of going to queue. Unfortunately for me, the name I registered the SIM card with wasn’t the same as the one I use for my Mobile money. Or so they say.🤧 🤷🏻‍♂️

The only difference is my middle name which I didn’t include to my Mobile money name I think. When I called, they directed me to the office and so I went there for the first time in my almost 3 years stay in Navrongo.

On the first day, the queue was very long and divided into 2 sections. One for those re-registering their SIM cards with the national ids, and the other for those who wanted customer service for issues like unlocking locked SIM card, resetting pins, buying and replacing cards, among others.

My first time at the MTN office, I couldn’t even get a seat..

Unfortunately, those of us that needed customer service weren’t able to have service that day due to “poor network” or “no network” at all. I wasted the all day there without achieving my goal.

The second day, it was even worse. There was still 2 queues but this time even this re registering couldn’t register because there was no network. I went there at around 12pm and returned at around 5pm still in able to unlock my SIM card.

During the same week on Saturday, I went back to the MTN office and still faced the same issues. I decided against staying there the whole day and so left after asking when they think there’ll be network. Wasn’t given a definite answer and so I went back to campus and decided to not return there.

It was just yesterday I decided to go back after 2 weeks to see if that issue was solved. Fortunately for me, I met a small queue and there was network.

In the first queue outside the office.

I joined the queue and after about 10-15 minutes it was my turn to enter the office and to form another queue inside.

My turn to enter.

Inside the office alone, there was more or less like 2 queues. I must say I’ve been to other offices but this was by far the worst. Out of 3 agents, only 1 was seeing customers for about 10 minutes while the others could not be found. I don’t know their reasons although it did look like one was attending to her daughter.

First queue in the office.

In the second queue.

She returned and the queue moved faster. It got to my turn and I told her but my problem was which she was able to solve.

Overall, the process of the sim unlocking didn’t take long but the process to get to the agent was very stressful.

After 3 weeks of having my mobile money pin locked, I have finally been able to get it unlocked.

Please leave your reactions and your experience with the telecom providers in the comments.

Thank you.