Afrihost walking circles around questions
So on the 9th of February 2018 I ordered an uncapped premium fiber package from Afrihost. I was told that the installation can take 2 to 4 weeks. No problem.
On the 12th of February 2018, I received an email from Afrihost, congratulating me on my fiber line activation. Informing me to just enter the provided credentials into my router and to enjoy my internet connectivity.
I immediately contacted Afrihost and asked them what this was about, giving them the object number I was provided in a previous support email I sent them to ask about the status of my installation. I was told that the object number I gave them, which in turn they gave me, does not exist. According to them, I have already used my credentials to authenticate against my line, therefore the line has been activated.
I informed them that I do not have a fiber line as nobody from OpenServe has installed my line yet and neither contacted me to arrange an installation yet. I was told that they will investigate the matter and get back to me asap. Never heard from them again.
On Thursday, the 15th of February, I got a call from OpenServe. They made an appointment to come and install my line on the Friday, 16th of February. Of course, they never showed up. I mean it's Telkom. I didn't expect them to show up until 4 weeks after the appointed date.
The day after, on the 16th of February 2018, I received another email from Afrihost. The invoice. On this invoice they are charging me R453.75 that is payable immediately since my line has been activated. So this amount is for my internet service from the 15th until the 28th that I need to pay for.
Once again I contacted Afrihost via live chat, and inquired about this invoice. Since I don't have a fiber line installed and I don't have access to the internet in any way and I never activated my line, I told them that I am not liable to pay for that invoice because it was their mistake and not mine. I was informed that they cannot help me with the invoice until they have found out what happened to my line installation order. I was told not to worry about the invoice and that we can resolve that matter once the line is installed. Great right?
On Saturday, the 17th of February, a debit order went off on my account for the amount of R453.75. Of which the funds were not available since it's in the MIDDLE of the month. The debit order failed and now I am sitting with a fine as well. I contacted Afrihost multiple times about this and received no response. I tried their "Call Me Back" all weekend after 10 am as stated on their website, and yet it's always been offline.
So here I am, unable to contact Afrihost and having my emails ignored. I am sitting with a fine that I must pay due to Afrihost's incompetence and I am pretty sure they won't reimburse me for it since it was their incompetence that's costing me this money now.