No joy with Teljoy - no easy fix as well....

What has happened to customer service and service providers?

I took out an easy fix contract with Teljoy – upgraded it in July 2019 to include 5 appliances. At that stage all my appliances were 8 year or older, there was no issue with this when speaking to the call centre agent. Now I am aware that it is a minimal cost of R99 per month but to be honest, what I am buying (being a single mum) is supposedly peace of mind that in the event of an issue, I have insurance that offers assurance on repairs being attended to – hopefully at no cost to me. I have used the policy thrice in the last 2 years for my fridge/freezer (purchased in 2010/2011). However, after the first repair, the technicians would always ask if I had gotten someone else to repair the appliance without their knowledge. Like seriously, if I had that type of money to waste – why bother paying for an easy fix contract that takes away the hassle of paying someone else?

On 21 December 2022 my freezer stopped working. I logged a call with Teljoy and received a reference number and was pleasantly surprised to get a call back the same day from the technician. We arranged for him to come through this morning. That is where all pleasantness ended. He arrived on the 22 December 2022 and completely ignored me when I tried to provide details of the fault. He called me a few minutes later to ask who worked on the freezer. I rep**** that it was Teljoy the previous year. Then advised he could not conduct repairs as he was called out to repair a Samsung Freezer and they have no record of a Defy Freezer recorded on my contract. I called Teljoy immediately and explained what had happened only for the lady to say she is trying to contact the technician and his phone is off. I handed the technician my phone. Without the awareness that I could hear her, the Teljoy customer care lady asks the technician if he is okay and sure he is okay. Then proceeds to tell him that she is trying to explain to me that the freezer is older than 8 years and there will be no repairs. At which point he hands back my phone and I advise I do not understand this but she advises that this is in the contract. I request to speak to a manager and get a lady by the name of Ms. Renata, who according to her is the most senior at the office. Told they cannot assist me and no one senior to her is available to speak to me, but nevertheless stated that they would advise the same. As part of her argument that I am in the wrong, she proceeds to inform me if I changed life policy details or forgot too, I could not blame the insurance company.

I was completely baffled by her train of thought (life insurance versus easy fix) but I have not changed any details on my easy fix contract as everything remained the same. Then told that the contract has details missing in terms of the appliances. How would that be my fault as I provided whatever details were required for the contract to be valid. If there were no valid details or contract, surely my bank account should not have been debited? When I mentioned that there is another party to the contract that offered the service, completed the contract and that Teljoy should be monitoring the age of appliances as they faithfully deduct their installment monthly, she promptly went back to cannot assist me and no one senior available to speak to me, and they would advise the same.

I informed her further that they repaired my freezer last year. She advised that the repair was recorded under the fridge and went further to imply I did not know the difference between my fridge and freezer. Then I provided another reference number and she confirmed that was for my fridge, which was correct. I gleaned that my fridge is covered as they apparently recorded repairs against it twice, but this was the first time working on the freezer and hence not covered. I tried explaining that the stand-alone fridge and freezer was purchased at the same time, but Ms. Renata at this point was speaking over me and not listening. Not even the person who recorded my call for assistance was aware of the contract and that they were not able to assist me. I continued asking for details and basically, she advised she could stay on the phone the whole day, advising that I could not speak to anyone senior and she was as far as I could go in the Teljoy chain.

There are a number of ways they could have assisted me (which is defined in the contract Teljoy drew up) but sadly Renata was not bothered with reading the whole contract, rather quoting one point over and over again, without realising that the contract was done and put in place by Teljoy with the appliances being older than 8 years to begin with. Despite this, and as she had confirmed that the appliances cannot be covered, she had no thought that as the contract is invalid, Teljoy should not be deducting any monies from my bank account and owe me a refund from July 2019.

At this stage and realising I was not going to be fobbed off, she provided me with the email address of her financial director – Saul Gur and states he is back in January 2023 but she is unaware of his expected return date in the office. I was horrified by the customer care division in terms of their blatant disrespect and such attitude to customers. I am basically paying monthly for a "no fix - no assistance” contract. R99 per month equates to R1200 per year, and I have been paying this for a little over 3 years. Surely it is their responsibility to have checks in place or properly evaluate customers' appliances, and on that secure a contract over the phone and debit your bank account.

They should be offering a service as per the contract agreed and what is in the contract in offering a service was not followed on this day. There were options available, but no one at Teljoy had read the contract fully to understand that they could have still offered assistance. However, regardless of contract values, every customer should count and a service should be provided. I was appalled even further when I received a SMS stating my call was resolved. So, on the 22 December I have no working freezer. I have nowhere to store my freezer stuff (which has thawed completely already). Double whammy on costs/loss. I have had to repair my freezer at my cost, and found that it was a blockage in the gas line and the freezer needed to be re-gassed (no components or parts needed). I am waiting to see if Teljoy continue debiting my bank account or contact me regarding this as they did advise that they are investigating the matter on 23 December 2022.