The depths of MTN stupidity knows no bounds

When you're running a SuperVillain campaign - or at least trying to, you need equipment that works properly. Like a successful utility belt that cinches in the waist & has kickass little gadgets that can assist you with those daily tasks like scaling a wall or stealing ice cream from unsuspecting brats.
Needless to say; stuff must work - like your cellphone! No SuperVillain can survive these days without one. After all, your minions are available at a touch of a few buttons & you can order pizza to your SuperEvilVillainousLair in a jiffy. Convinience, I name the Mobile SuperVillain Phone!
So I have been a MTN customer for years now & one thing I have learned is that they are incredibly similar to car companies out there; they'll smile widely & give you a great deal in order to get you to purchase their car, but when something goes wrong - you can forget about any backup/support service.
I recently upgraded my phone to the HTC Hero (which I'm loving btw) & somehow in the process, my 500mb data bundle (that I'd had for 2 years) got canceled.
So I've wasted TONS of "voice" time on data, loaded extra airtime on my Top-Up contract account, wasted that money too, phoned MTN, gotten them to reload the data bundle, bought more airtime, wasted it again, found out that there's no freakin data bundle on my account!
I've jumped up & down, contacted supervisors & managers, driven to the shop where I upgraded, jumped up & down some more, waited 2 weeks, driven back, lost it, calmed down, vented, steamed & held myself back from strangling a LOT of people.
Now I have to wait until they bill me before they can see the screw-up they've made, because apparently, it's impossible for them to see their mistake before the invoice is issued.
I think I've met fungi with more coherent thoughts than the individuals at MTN that I've dealt with.

Take a number & wait in the queue

So we have Google SA, our very own local branch of the giant corporation; which currently consists of less than 10 people sitting in a little office in Dimen$ion Data's sprawl in Bryanston.
They've been around for a little while now, promising a lot in the local media & going through staff like paper cups at the water dispenser.
According to the 'Country Manager' Stephen Newton (appointed last year), South Africans are in for an exciting Google-filled year.
Once again, there's a lot of promises being thrown out there, but if you're an HTC owner - you'll have to wait a little longer.
The HTC Hero was locally released in the 4th quarter of last year, running that nifty little OS that's set to take over the world: Google's Android.
Of course, the phone was shipped with version 1.5 and there's been a few updates & versions since then. There's also a few bugs/problems with the phone, that the latest version fixes rather nicely.
The annoying news is that there's no definite solution for Hero owners locally.
HTC's official response is:

Google Global has not given Google SA the authority to release ROM 2.0 or higher. And we cannot confirm if the software will be released or not. We need to wait for the Google SA updates.

The unofficial verdict from the local distributors of HTC products is that Google want to do the update as a network download available to local owners - over 100mb for people to download over their 'reliable' network...
Of course, they're trying to convince Google to allow walk-in upgrades (whether this is at one of their support centers, or the service provider's stores, is unclear). The issue should apparently be resolved by the end of February.
Great.
So I buy an Android-enabled device, with the hope that my life will be blessed by the simplicity & genius of the software, only to get bugged down by the politics of 3rd world technology issues.
Long live Google SA & their promises of "a better, more innovative web".
-cough cough-
Just wait for the new Motorola Droid people - you can upgrade to the latest version through the device.