10 failed months to deliver a contract + avoidance to deal with

In December 2016 I signed a 24 month contract with Telkom for uncapped LTE internet with Nico Hartle (CSR) of the Adderly Branch in Cape Town CBD.

From that first month I made sure to let Nico know that my data ran out of my UNLIMITED package within the first week of usage. Nico had me come into the store to get a new sim. This did not work and seemed to have opened up a second account that I am being billed for. I kept going back to Nico for the next 2 months because he assured me we would get this sorted out. In the mean time he would throw some "free" 5 gigs so I could continue working for a few more days before I would have to beg him for more data for my UNLIMITED internet...but not without a whoooole lot of hard work! I calculated that 20% of my monthly Vodacom calls were to Nico for my free 5 gigs...but no results in getting what I am paying for.

I eventually saw that Telkom were charging me for two accounts and even a land line even though there is absolutely no land line where I use the internet and LTE internet was selected because a land line is not necessary.

Obviously I kept asking for these issues to be escalated but his colleagues have told me he is as high as you get in the branch but that could be their way of avoiding to be accountable!

I began giving Nico an ultimatum to solve this issue or cancel my account and this is when I began to monitor the pattern. He would rotate from the following 3 avoidance excuses:

Avoidance Technique 1: "our systems have been down" - this excuse is used to excuse weeks of avoiding emails and phone calls -ironically the company that (****s) provides me internet is unable to provide themselves internet and phone service at least 2 weeks a month!!!!

Avoidance Technique 2: "short staffed and I will get back to you soonest" - soonest means a week or two and only after many phone calls and emails. For a company that charges full price for minimal to no service they still cant afford the full amount of staff to be competant

Avoidance Technique 3: "I was sick/holiday/personal emergency" - in the 10 months I have been compelled to have an undesirable relationship with Nico I have come to realize that this guys health is in a terrible state for a man in his 20's/30's the poor soul. Also he gets allllot of holidays and lots of terrible stuff happens to those around him

A combination of these techniques would have me without internet for most of the month on my UNLIMITED package I am still being billed for.

After 6 months of having faith that Nico will be able to make magic and deliver what he signed me up for I finally gave up. Nico promised me a full refund on all of my charges and we would end this nightmare. We are now 4 months since this turning point and the new battle is having Nico commit to fulfilling our decision. As you should imagine I am back on the 3 point Avoidance technique cycle which has gone on for 4 months while in the mean time I have Telkoms accounts departments and their endless cheap dept collecting hustlers calling me 3 times a day at ungodly hours wanting me to pay in full for all the months I did not get my UNLIMITED LTE package + phone line (where the BLEEP did that come from?!) and some other contact which must be the second sim Nico provided me with.

Now I have Telkom even threatening to Black List me and once we finallly have a result where I don't pay for the service they did not give me I know that it is an expensive exercise to get un-black listed.....because I was black listed by Telkom 10 years ago after they did not cancel my phone line when I left the country even though they sent me a confirmation email which I kept providing their accounts department

I am taking time out of my Friday evening to write this loooong review because (A) even though Telkom was hijacked by ****** marxists and has been turned into a dog show I would like to urge you to explore alternatives because there are smaller operations that allow you to avoid HellKom and if you are not a ****** don't support companies built on ****** laws discriminating minorities and (B) I saw in a blog that a Telkom employee was held accountable. In that blog I was provided with Kalib of Telkom in Pretoria email as he was able to do the right thing and held a Telkom employee accountable **********

Best of luck with this disaster of a ****** company. Avoid the 3 Avoidance Techniques and you deserve better then Telkom who ever you are...anyone does