Activation of Fibre Optic services in account

Item: Telkom
Rating: 1
Author: Marius S

Dear Mr Maseko ACCOUNT NUMBER: ********** 61513 MARIUS J SWART SERVICE REFERENCE 012 ********** I would like to register my utmost disappointment in Telkom’s customer services and after months of struggling, being sent from pillar to post and getting absolutely nowhere with any of your departments, I do not know where to turn to anymore. I would appreciate a written response on the matter explained below. Please do not just pass it on to the complaints department as we have tried that. I would like a senior Telkom manager to sort this out without having to be inconvenienced by phoning departments myself or going to the Telkom shop directly. I would also like a written response on Telkom’s interpretation of what the problem is and how it will be solved on your side, as I refuse to communicate with anyone on the phone anymore. My problem is that ever since Telkom installed a fibre optic line on or around September/ October 2015, I have had nothing but problems trying to get my account and the lines sorted. The factual information is as follows: I have had an account with Telkom now for almost two years – in fact, the current 24 months contract will expire around May 2017. Initially the services included only an ADSL line soft cap bundle of around R850 per month. On or around September/October 2015 I was contacted by Telkom Sales to offer the installation of fibre which was then made available in our area of Eldoraigne. The Sales pitch over the phone was that the fibre bundle would not cost much more than the current ADSL line – around R900 if I can recall. I agreed to the installation. Our first problem was encountered with the technicians who installed the fibre optic line. At first I was informed that we had to make arrangements with the neighbours for tree feeling etc. in order to get the line installed. I did not have a problem with this, however, the line that the technicians installed runs right over my property to the other end of the house, and was not installed properly through or against the roof as would be the normal expectation. This means that the line is open to all sorts of weather and bird damage risks. I reported this, but eventually gave up as no-one knew what to do with the installation. Although, subsequently, every single technician that has been to the house on other call outs notices this as being wrongly installed and comments on it. Once the fibre line was up and running, we then asked about the account, which still had charges on it for the ADSL line as well. We currently have 2 routers – the ADSL (black) and fibre (white). We do not have a phone at home and don’t use the landline. Technicians that have been out on call-outs cannot figure out why we still have two routers as it’s not needed with the fibre line. We have been querying our account which every month charges us the following costs: Home DSL Elite bundle R375 (same as it has always been since we’ve had ADSL installed) DSL Contract fee R62.19 Telkom evening/weekender plan R189.47 (presumably for the ADSL line) Fibre line rental R603.51 Soft cap R235.96 (presumably for the fibre) Every month we get credited on the account for DO Elite and Fibre 20 Mbs – we cannot get an explanation for why it is credited, but my understanding is it is because the Fibre 20Mbs is not activated and the ADSL should be closed and costs removed – but somehow despite this being on the system and accounts we have had no luck in sorting this out. At some point (I think it was around September 2016) Telkom Sales contacted us again on another offer to increase data from 50GB to 100GB - this 100GB is showing on the account every month since October 2016, also as a credit. Despite numerous attempts and reporting this on 10210, with Sales, and directly at Telkom Shop it seems that none of Telkom’s Departments talk to each other or know what it is that they are doing. I do not have the time to constantly phone Telkom and get no assistance whatsoever, so I just end up giving up as it is too exhausting. We reported faults on the internet connection in December 2016 and again in January 2017, and every time it transpired that there was severe confusion within Departments on the lines we had “on the system” We last reported an internet connection fault in March. The first technician that was sent out had an order to fix an ADSL line and could only work on ADSL lines (despite my telephonic conversation with the technical department where they confirmed they had the fibre line “on the system”) The second technician that came out realised that the fibre line in the house was broken and replaced it and the line was working again. For this I am now charged R1014.91 in service fees on the April account, and would also like this to be explained to me. The technician suggested that we phone Sales to sort out the activation, which we did. Sales then just referred us back to Technical who still couldn’t help us and sounded terribly confused. I was told by the Technical Department that the Fibre Optic line, although active on our side, was not “activated on the system” and that we had to contact Sales again. Sales then gave us a reference number to give to technical to activate it as they could not do it. When we went back to Technical they told us they don’t know what Sales is talking about and can’t activate it - no-one could do this for us and I was told to go directly to a Telkom Shop. I then went to the Sinoville Telkom Shop in March 2017 and thankfully got one person who could see what the problem was on the account activation and escalated the matter. Unfortunately however, this is also where it starts getting worse. Since the line was fixed with the technical call-out we have not had problems and we closed that particular fixing call-out. We do not have a problem with the line, but the account activation! We were expected to be contacted by Accounts or whoever’s role it is to sort out the fibre account activation on the system and charges on the account. However, now I get phone calls and messages from Telkom every few days with ridiculously confusing messages which range from: We (Telkom) are sending a technician to fix your ADSL (It just needs to be closed on the system, not fixed!) We (Telkom) are sending a technician to install a fibre line (We have one thank you but would like you to activate the 20MB on the system!) And most recently as last Friday - We (Telkom) are sending a technician to replace your fibre with a phone line (WHAT? That really is the last straw) I really hope, Sir that you can see my frustration and can appreciate why I have just given up on this. I can honestly not believe that such incompetence exists and do not understand how in one organisation different Departments have absolutely no communication with each other and that helpline services cannot actually help you. I look forward to your favourable response and swift resolution of this matter, without my internet connection being completed cut because of confused instructions, which is what I am most afraid of! Kindly contact me on my email address ********** to confirm the next steps.

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