Atrocious Customer Care/Support/Assistance (or lack thereof)

Typically I am quite pleased with Telkom, and for upwards of a decade I have been a loyal customer to them. However, in this last month, I have found their service and customer care absolutely atrocious.

We notified Telkom on the 26th of May, 2020, (after a whole week of fruitlessly trying to get through to their customer care line, waiting on the line three hours at a time only for the call to get dropped completely, and emails being sent and ignored on their end - we received a reply via email three weeks after sending our initial request) that we would be moving to a new residence and required assistance relocating our line. We were on a Fibre package with a speed of 10Mbps, and with a telephone line.

When we did get through to a consultant/agent/phone operator, she informed us that the fibre in the complex (our new place of residence) is not done by Telkom BUT it is through Vumatel. The Telkom consultant said she placed the order with Vumatel for us, with a 20Mbps uncapped fibre package with a VoIP telephone line (as Vumatel doesn't have standalone landlines).

I told the lady to keep the package within the same price range. It's a 20gb line uncapped with a Voip telephone line because Vumatel doesn't have stand alone landlines. The total came to R877.62, and I gave my bank account details for a debit order. I was told by the Telkom consultant that my reference number is ***. Additionally, my old fibre package with the telephone line was cancelled (effective May 29th, 2020).

Now is where the frustration kicks in. I received an email from Telkom responding to my initial request which was sent early May, long before I spoke to the Telkom consultant over the phone. They asked me to provide my telephone number (which is NOW CANCELLED), my ID number, and my new address (WHICH I ALREADY PROVIDED). I gave them all this information (again), and stated very clearly that this request should have already been processed as I spoke with a Telkom consultant and received a reference number.

A few days later, I get another email from a totally new Telkom consultant, this time someone named Muzi Hlabe (so imagine the miscommunication and inconsistency as apparently one person can't deal with one case and we start from scratch every single time), who tells me there is no fibre coverage in my area and hence I'll need to place an order for an ADSL line. I re-iterated that I've already spoken with a Telkom consultant who placed an order for me through Vumatel as they do the fibre for the complex, but received no acknowledgment of this. I'm now told that my application to have my line relocated will take about 21 days to be processed or longer as there is "no pending order on our" ****erally, this is what the mail says, the sentence isn't even complete) I'm assuming it was meant to say there's no pending order on Telkom's side/system, even though my initial request for this exact thing was supposedly dealt with when I spoke to the Telkom consultant OVER THE PHONE.

The email then goes on to say this: "With regards to the fibre coverage and confusion. I have done a coverage check based on the information you have supp****." [New physical address] "On our end it does not indicate that there is fibre there. Based on the information at my disposal, that is why I suggested that you swop over to ADSL. We value your support."

If you truly value my support as you claim to, won't you please assist me with this issue and get all of your information in order? I am tired of repeating the same information again and again only for it to be flat out ignored and get told over and over that there's no fibre coverage in this area and that my request is being logged from the very beginning.

If I have to go through one more week with this same nonsense, as if my whole exchange with the Telkom consultant that took place via phone on May 26th 2020, in which she stated she placed my order with Vumatel for me with the reference number *** at the price of RR877.62 monthly, and CANCELLED my previous Telkom fibre package with the landline (number was ***), is irrelevant, then quite honestly Telkom can remove me from their system completely and I will find an alternative ISP that legitimately values their customers and provides helpful, consistent support.

If Telkom wants to act like they do not need my service and support, I shall take it elsewhere.