BREAKING. TopTV call centre crisis: TopTV in shell shock after customer care line completely crashes under thousands of calls: ''We didn't think that this would happen.''

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I can exclusively reveal that TopTV's instant success has immediately translated into a massive crisis for South Africa's new satellite pay TV operator: TopTV's totally understaffed call centre is completely buckling under thousands of calls, a massive number of missed calls and growing fears that TopTV will no longer be able to keep to its promise of 48 hours turn-around time on new satellite TV installations.

I can tell you that TopTV's call centre number at 08600 86788 completely crashed under an avalanche of phone calls in the region of more than 1 000 per hour, with a massive amount of dropped calls, unanswered calls, a myriad of callers left ringing for minutes at end and email that TopTV simply can't attend to right now. Callers who refuse to give up, eventually leave voicemail messages piling up.

Yesterday I was first RIGHT HERE with the news that all 50 000 TopTV decoders have been sold out in one day. Now I can tell you that TopTV is experiencing severe shell shock and stress and is moving into total crisis mode. TopTV is getting ready to move into what it calls ''Phase 3'': implementing a massively beefed up call centre and getting in more call centre operators as swiftly as possible.  ''TopTV is doing their absolute best,'' a spokesperson tells me. ''We didn't think that this would happen.''

I HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION ON THIS DEVELOPING STORY - click on READ MORE below for exactly what TopTV insider sources tell me, TopTV's official response, and exactly what is happening and that you need to know if you're a TopTV subscriber or considering this pay TV option.

TopTV's call centre at 08600 86788 that handles all TopTV customer care calls were immediately swamped, then jammed as soon as TopTV set top boxes (STB's) went on sale yesterday. TopTV insiders tell me that a sudden avalanche of calls started flooding in to TopTV from the moment TopTV decoders went on sale. Insiders say its obvious that new subscribers who wanted to take up TopTV's service didn't want to wait - they started calling while they were still in shops after having purchased decoders.

Several decoders were already installed yesterday and activated, despite the Saturday being a public holiday (Workers' Day). Now fears are growing however - as new customers are getting irate - that TopTV's massive success will cause TopTV to no longer be able to fulfill its promise of a 48 hour turn-around time on getting installations done after a subscriber has purchased a decoder.

TopTV's call centre is staffed by only 30 people insiders tell me, handling more than a thousand calls per hour. ''They simply cannot cope with the sheer number of calls flooding in,'' a source tells me. The 50 000 TopTV decoders that went on sale yesterday and is now all gone, were supposed to last the whole of May. On Digital Media (ODM) who operates TopTV, originally planned an additional 75 000 TopTV decoders for June, and after than 10 000 monthly. These figures now seems completely inadequate and ODM will have to try and source decoders much quicker from suppliers who will now also come under unexpected pressure.

TopTV confirmed the incoming call crisis. ''At the moment there is a backlog with calls,'' Melinda Connor TopTV spokesperson tells me. ''We have 30 people manning the phones and email.'' She confirmed that TopTV is getting about a 1 000 calls per hour. ''They're not keeping up with the backlog. Calls are dropped. people are holding for 10 minutes and give up. There's too much email to respond to immediately. We're bringing more people on board as soon as possible to handle emails and subscriber calls.''

Melinda Connor tells me TopTV is somewhat flabbergasted by what happened when all 50 000 TopTV decoders sold out within hours. ''I don't think anybody expected this kind of response. TopTV honestly thought 30 people in our call centre handling our customer care line would manage signing up subscribers quite easily.''

''I know it's difficult for people to understand,'' says Melinda Connor, ''but I want to tell our new subscribers, and people interested in TopTV, that the response has been absolutely enormous. We really, really thank everyone for their support and interest. Unfortunately 1 000 calls every hour is quite a lot for anyone to handle. TopTV is doing our absolutely best. We are and will be doing our absolute best to sort every single enquiry, every single complaint and every single call and email out and do every single subscriber activation to the best of our ability. We will do everything we can to ensure that every single subscriber is happy with their new TopTV packages and that it gets installed.''

Melinda Connor says TopTV's nationwide network of installers know exactly what they're doing. ''There shouldn't be any problems. All the installers have been brought onto the TopTV property. They're all super capable at what they're doing. They've had weeks of training and some have also been DStv installers for years.''