Appalling service by Telkom consultants

If ever it so happens that a consultant from Telkom phones to renew your contract, ignore their offer and visit your local store. The telephonic consultation service is marked by frustration, incompetence, empty promises and a general inability and lack of desire to offer any decent service to their customer. On the 21st of November I was phoned by a Telkom representative regarding my contract which is to be renewed in December. With black friday approaching, I was thankful for the fact that a very good deal was being offered on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro - a deal which almost seemed too good to be true. However, it should be added that the contract is not on my name, but that of my mother due to the fact that I was not yet 18 in 2014. It was shocking to find out that Telkom did not have any knowledge of this arrangement, nor did they have my mother's cellphone number, despite the fact that she has been paying the account for the last 4 years. Nevertheless, my frustration grew due to the fact that the consultant phoned me on three separate occasions to ask for her number. Naturally, it was necessary to discuss the deal with my mother before a decision could be made, which meant that he had to phone her. The consultant, going by the name of Ruan/Rian, had not the sense to write down the number, nor to add it to the system or database, but phoned me three times to ask for the number again and again. It should furthermore be added that in addressing me, he could not remember my name nor my surname - a term I feel one should at least be fami**** with when addressing a client. The consultant was rather eager to have the phone delivered as soon as possible. Considering the fact that we were headed to the Western Province for holiday, this made matters a little more difficult, since he wanted the phone delivered within 7 working days. When we requested that the phone be delivered to our home address in Witbank after we had returned from holiday, he adamently stated that the courier could not deliver to Witbank, and so the decision was made to provide him with an address to which he could deliver the phone on our holiday. Delivery was promised within 7 working days. So it happened that the days ticked by, and by the sixth working day, no delivery had been made and no word had been received from Telkom regarding its status. After phoning Telkom we were promised that the phone would be delivered Tuesday the 4th of December, which would mark the seventh working day for the delivery. This was quite important since our family was destined to get on a train back home on the 5th of December, and any delivery thereafter could not be received. On the morning of the 4th, Telkom was phoned again, after which the promise was made that the phone would be delivered that very day. By 3 P.M., still no delivery had been made, no phone call received and Telkom was phoned again. To our disappointment, the status of the delivery was "delivery unknown" even though nobody was contacted by the courier regarding the package. Telkom also added that the courier was not willing to go out again the same day. As one can imagine, this presented a severe problem, since we were destined to leave the Western Province early the following day. Bilqishe, the new consultant who provided this disappointing news, then offered to deliver the phone to Witbank by Thursday the 6th of December - this after Ruan/Rian had so adamently denied that this is impossible. This testifies of a lack of communication, as well as the fact that the consultants are not fully up to speed on what is possible and what is not practical. The request was made that the phone be delivered to Witbank Friday the 7th of December to ensure that it was received. Recall that this is now 9 working days since the promise of delivery was made. Unsurprisingly, hours continued to tick by today as well with no delivery being made. At 12 P.M. Telkom was phoned again, with Jasmine being the consultant to tell us that she would phone back in 45 minutes after she had investigated the status of the delivery. It was necessary to talk to Jasmine, since Bilqishe was not available. She too broke her promise, and one hour later we phoned again. She then broke the news that the courier had not yet sent the package out of Cape Town, and delivery should be made by Monday. But taking the last 2 weeks into consideration, I am skeptic on whether Telkom will be able to keep this promise, for if history is any indication, they have been full of empty promises for the last 2 weeks. And so it is that I come to write this review to tell the tale of incompetence, empty promises, disarray in the office and an unwillingness to provide satisfactory service by Telkom to its customers. I conclude once again with the suggestion I made at the very beginning: if a Telkom consultant phones you offering some sweet deal, be sure to decline it immediately and visit your nearest store, so that the manager can be called and held accountable face-to-face. But to wait two weeks for promises which are constantly being broken is unacceptable, and if it was not for the quality of the deal being offered, I would not have hesitated to tell the consultants to drop the deal altogether.