Apalling, dishonest, frustrating service that drives customers elsewhere.

<p>I am a great fan of Telkom products and sing praises of them. However, for the greater part, I dread having to call the Telkom Mobile contact centre or even get assistance from their agents in the branches. I wish there was a way of getting the products without having to deal with the customer service agents from Telkom. There seems to be a callous attitude toward the concerns of customers coupled with ignorance of procedure and internal systems, and in some cases outright lies to customers as a way of avoiding responsibility.</p> <p> </p> <p>I have recently been battling with a few issues, which I would think are simple to resolve, but as has been proved to me by Telkom agents, I am asking too much of them:</p> <p> </p> <p>1. I had a laptop deal that came a 500MB data. The deal's 24 month-duration expired around December 2014, and after that it was moved to being a month-to-month data only contract. In November 2016, I went into the Telkom Mobile outlet at the Fourways Mall and asked that they cancel the contract as it was not being used anymore. They told me that this would be done within 21 days after I have received a call from Telkom Mobile confirming my request. The call never came, the line was not cancelled, and I continued to be billed for it. In December 2016, I went back to the same outlet to query this, and was told that there was no record of the cancellation request. The agent told me that he would put in a request and we left it at that after I completed a cancellationform. In January 2017, I went to Telkom Direct store at Fourways Crossing to apply for a new deal that was on offer. While there, I checked on the progress of the cancellation, and again was told that there was no record of the cancellation request. I was made to complete another cancellation form, and we left it at that. Meanwhile, Telkom Mobile continued billing me for this account which was not being used and was supposed to have been cancelled. On 5 March this year, I returned to the Telkom Mobile Fourways Mall outlet to query the cancellation and was told that it had not been cancelled because the line had been suspended. While at the branch, we called the Telkom Mobile contact centre, and I was assisted by a lady agent at the Durban contact centre (whose name I choose not to reveal on this public platform). After spending over 30 minutes on the line with her, she could not explain where from and how the cancellation came in, but she said that such suspensions are normally due to outstanding payments, and she pointed out that there was an amount owing on one of my other contracts. The suspension date was given as November 2016, yet the amount owing was from the January 2017 statement, so that didn't make sense. Neither did it make sense that a line would be suspended so that I do not get its services, yet I continue to be billed for it. So she promised me that a Team Manager (whose name I choose not to reveal on this public platform) would call me back the next day. Up until today, 4 April 2017, I am still waiting for that call. In the meantime, I am still being billed for that suspended line which I am not getting services for and which I have requested to be cancelled. Can anyone from Telkom Mobile explain this to me please. Further, Telkom has to stop charging for this line. This is ******ion on the part of Telkom. And they must refund what they have been ******ing from me.</p> <p> </p> <p>2. When my first two contracts were up for renewal in August 2013, my passport was close to expiring, so when I went to the Telkom Mobile Fourways branch, I was told that the passport has to be renewed first before I can get new contracts. So I duly went and app**** for a new passport, which came with a new passport number. I took that new passport back to the Telkom Mobile Fourways Mall outlet to get two new contracts in 2013, a laptop deal in 2014, an LTE deal in 2015, a renewal of the same cell phone contracts again in 2015, and a new 'Free Me' cellphone contract which I got from the Telkom Direct shop at Fourways Crossing in early 2017. Everytime that I opened a new contract or renewed an existing one, I took my new passport and the agents made copies for their records. What boggles my mind is that, since 2013 when i updated my passport number with Telkom, everytime I call the Call Centre, they tell me that my new passport number is not on record, and that they only have the old passport number. Everytime I query that, the Call Centre agents tell me that I have to go into any Telkom branch with copies of my new passport for them to update my records as the Call Centre agents cannot update them for me. I have done this specifically in response to the Call Centre agents' direction, never mind the times when I have presented the original passport and left copies when applying for new services. I find this very frustrating because every time I call Telkom Mobile, the first 5 - 10 minutes are spent fighting over the passport number issue as that is one of Telkom Mobile Call Centre's 'security questions'. What makes it even worse is the fact that when I go to the branch, the consultants there tell me, and have even shown me on their computers, my new passport number on their system. The last consultant I raised this issue with at the Fourways Mall Telkom Mobile outlet explained to me that Telkom apparently has two different systems, one used at the branches and one used by head office, which may explain why the Call Centre do not have my updated details. I am being sent from pillar to post and back to pillar again with no one taking responsibility. I am tired of the Call Centre agents telling me to go to the branch with copies of my new passport, and at the branch, being told that my details are up to date. May someone PLEASE TAKE SOME RESPONSIBILITY and just update my details. That is all I am asking, and surely it has to be the simplest of things that Telkom can do. </p> <p> </p> <p>3.Yesterday (Monday 3 April 2017) around 12:00 midday, I called the Telkom Mobile Call Centre wanting to query something on my active line as well as follow up on the cancellation of the above-mentioned contract. The lady agent (whose name again I choose not to reveal on this public platform though I took note of it) refused to assist me because I had 'failed the security question by giving two passport numbers'. She said because I had initially given the new passport which Telkom Mobile doesn't have on record, and then later gave her the old expired passport number which they have on record, she therefore 'cannot click on 'next' '. This, I have to say, was the height of the whole passport number issue. She actually placed me on hold for about 5 - 8 minutes to check with her team leader (again whose name I choose not to reveal on this public platform though I took note of it), who then told her that she should not assist me. When I asked to speak to this team leader, she said I will have to 'hold on until he becomes available'. I re-explained my whole long story about how this passport number has not been updated on their side for 4 years now even though I have gone multiple times into several Telkom branches with the original and copies of the new one. I even gave her the name of the last Telkom Mobile Contact Centre agent whom I had spoken to on the 9th of February around 12:00 mid-day (whose name again I choose not to reveal on this public platform though I took note of it) , and who had promised that she would update it on Telkom's system but obviously hadn't done it up until now. Yesterday's consultant told me that 'we don't have access to previous records of interaction'. This, among other things that she told me about what she can and cannot do as an agent, to me sounded UNTRUE because I would like to think that, not only are calls recorded, but agents note down queries of clients when they call and the resolutions taken. Guess what her direction to me was so that the passport number issue is resolved? YOU NEED TO GO TO A BRANCH WITH COPIES OF YOUR NEW PASSPORT. I told her that I have already done that several times over the last 4 years. Her response? YOU NEED TO GO TO A BRANCH WITH COPIES OF YOUR NEW PASSPORT. Our 37-minute call degenrated into an argument with telling me to go to the branch. I asked her if we can move on to the things I had called for, but she told me that she can't 'click on next on her system because I had failed the security question'.</p> <p> </p> <p>Can anyone please explain how this works? Call centre agent cannot assist me or even listen to my query because Telkom Mobile head-office's system does not have my new passport number on record. My details can only be updated at the branch. Branch tells me that my details are already updated. Telkom Mobile Agent tells me that they are not updated and I must go to the branch. Who then is responsible? What more can I do to update my details? Meanwhile, Telkom Mobile keeps billing me for a suspended service. If I don't pay, my credit record is in jeopardy. In my case, I really feel that Telkom Mobile has effectively created a system to block me out so that I do not get service as a customer, yet in the background they are messing up my account and ******ing money.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is what I refer to as being the apalling, dishonest, frustrating service that drives customers elsewhere.</p>